Reborn, I Let Them Take the Cursed Graduation Photo Chapter 08

Reborn, I Let Them Take the Cursed Graduation Photo Chapter 08

One hour.

I immediately pulled up the floor plan for Meridian Memorial Hospital.

The hospital was filled with sealed rooms. CT suites. MRI rooms. Operating theaters.

Each one had airtight doors and an independent ventilation system. Not even a fly could get inside.

I grabbed my emergency pack, loaded it with food and bottled water, and moved into one of the

operating rooms.

Right on schedule, the Bug Catastrophe began.

A living black tide poured across the horizon.

Millions of beetles.

They devoured everything in their path. Livestock disappeared beneath the swarm in seconds,

stripped clean before the insects moved on.

Then I saw people sprinting toward the hospital.

Leading the pack were Ethan and Isabella.

They were wearing makeshift protective suits that covered them from head to toe, but the swarm

was closing in fast.

Then it happened.

Without warning, Isabella spun around and shoved the girl running behind her.

Hard.

The girl never saw it coming.

She crashed onto the pavement.

Those few lost seconds were all it took.

The swarm caught her.

Black beetles flooded over her body like a wave.

She struggled to get up, but hundreds of razor-sharp mandibles clamped onto her arms, legs, face,

everywhere. She couldn’t even scream.

A moment later, she stopped moving.

I stood by the operating room window, tears blurring my vision.

In a world like this, your conscience was the first thing to die.

At last, Ethan and the others burst through the hospital entrance.

“Shut the doors! Hurry!”

The entrance slammed closed.

It didn’t matter.

The gaps around the doors were too wide.

The beetles squeezed through every crack they could find.

Panic exploded inside the hospital.

People scattered in every direction.

Some barricaded themselves inside the ER.

Others dove into supply closets and hid inside storage cabinets.

Isabella grabbed Ethan’s hand and sprinted into one of the research labs.

Then everything clicked.

Ethan hadn’t called because he wanted to rescue me.

He had wanted my safe spot.

The supermarket inside the mall had supplies, but it wasn’t airtight.

The hospital was.

Eventually, the screams stopped.

Only the constant scratching of countless insects crawling across the building remained.

I stopped looking through the windows.

They were completely covered by a writhing layer of beetles anyway. There was nothing left to see

outside.

Seven more days passed.

Little by little, the swarm finally dispersed.

Then new crimson words appeared across the sky.

[Insect Swarm Cleared.]

[Casualties: 30]

[Survivors Remaining: 20]

[Next Stage: Extreme Heat]

[Begins in 1 Hour.]

I stepped out of the operating room.

Survivors were sprawled across the hallway, exhausted and barely alive.

Everyone looked relieved.

They had survived another nightmare.

But that relief would only last one hour.

Ethan and Isabella were both still alive, although each of them was covered with cuts and bite wounds.

The moment Isabella saw me standing there unharmed, her eyes reddened.

“Katherine!”

She rushed over and grabbed my hand.

“Oh my God… you’re okay! I was so worried about you!”

I calmly pulled my hand free and stepped back.

“We’re not friends. You don’t need to pretend.”

Her hand froze awkwardly in midair.

She looked like she was about to cry.

Ethan immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders and glared at me.

“Katherine, what the hell is wrong with you? We only made it here because Isabella kept everyone alive.”

“Everyone?” I glanced around the hallway.

“Thirty people are dead. Is that what you call keeping everyone alive?”

Ethan opened his mouth.

No words came out.

Isabella lowered her head, her voice trembling.

“What else was I supposed to do?”

Tears shimmered in her eyes.

“If you’re so capable… why didn’t you save everyone?”

Ethan gently patted her shoulder.

“Forget her. She’s not worth arguing with.”

He turned back to me.

“Isabella knows about an underwater emergency shelter nearby. It’ll protect us from the heat wave.

We were actually planning to let you come with us, but since you’re this ungrateful…”

“Go.”

I cut him off.

“But here’s one piece of advice.”

“Don’t follow her.”

“If you do, you’re signing your own death warrant.”

There was no way Isabella was normal.

She knew this area far too well.

She somehow knew exactly where I was.

She even had my phone number.

None of that made sense.

But nobody else saw it that way.

Especially Ethan.

His fists clenched.

For a second, I thought he was going to hit me.

Instead, he forced himself to turn away.

“Fine.”

“Stay here and die.”

“And don’t expect anyone to bury what’s left of you.”

They all left.

Soon, I was the only person remaining in the hospital.