Into The Rain
1690 Words
Episode 4 — Ten Minutes
By the fourth day, people had stopped asking when the rain would end.
They had started asking how long we could survive it.
The government had sent supplies that morning, including bottled water, medical kits, batteries and something that looked like it belonged in a science-fiction movie rather than an emergency shelter. They called it a protective shield: a lightweight, transparent material that could be worn over the body during an emergency and repel direct contact with the rain for approximately ten minutes.
Ten minutes.
That was all we were supposed to get.
Ten minutes to cross a dangerous area, reach shelter, rescue someone or get back inside before the protection failed.
Mr. Collins had made everyone listen carefully when the supplies arrived.
“You do not treat this as permission to go outside,” he’d said. “It is an emergency measure. If the shield fails while you’re exposed, you’re no safer than anyone else.”
Nobody argued.
The statue in the courtyard was still there.
We could see it through the windows whenever the weather cleared, and no one had found a way to move it without risking themselves. It had become part of the school now, a horrible reminder of what happened to the first person who thought the rain was just rain.
“Madison, I don’t want to do this.”
Then Chloe said, “What if something goes wrong?”
“It won’t.”
“You said that before.”
There was a pause.
“Chloe.”
Just her name.
“You know what happens if my dad hears you’re refusing to cooperate.”
Chloe went silent.
Madison’s father had given Chloe a scholarship. Everyone knew that. What I hadn’t realized was how much control that scholarship gave Madison over her.
“Your dad isn’t going to take away my scholarship because I don’t want to pretend I’m sleepwalking in the middle of an apocalypse.”
“Then don’t make me ask him.”
“You can’t do this.”
“I can.”
Chloe’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Madison, I’m scared.”
For the first time, Madison sounded almost impatient rather than cruel.
“I don’t care, you have to do what I want, maybe if you do this, I’ll make my father get you a job at one of his company, so you don’t have to waste your stupid life after school, from now on you do what I say without complaint or it’s over”
Chloe said absolutely nothing, she felt defeated. There was nothing someone like her could do against someone like Madison
If she was going to survive and change her life, she has to follow Madison’s wishes
Everyone had been settling down for what Mr. Collins called a “quiet period” when Chloe suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway.
She was barefoot.
Her eyes were half closed.
And she was walking toward the emergency exit.
For a moment, nobody understood what they were seeing.
Then Madison screamed.
“Chloe!”
People jolted awake around us.
“Chloe, wake up!”
Chloe kept walking.
Her expression was blank, almost peaceful.
“She’s sleepwalking,” someone whispered.
My stomach dropped.
The emergency exit was only a few metres away.
Beyond it was the courtyard.
Beyond the courtyard was rain-soaked ground.
“Chloe!”
Madison’s voice cracked through the hallway.
“Stop! Somebody stop her!”
Chairs scraped against the floor as people rushed forward, but everyone hesitated at the same time.
Nobody wanted to be the person who opened the door.
I didn’t think.
I ran.
“Nora!” Adrian shouted behind me.
Chloe reached the door.
I grabbed her arm.
Her eyes opened.
For one second, we stared at each other.
She looked terrified.
Not sleepy.
Terrified.
“You need to stop,” I whispered.
Her lips parted.
“I’m sorry.”
Before I could understand what she meant, something slammed into my shoulder.
Madison.
She had come up behind me so quickly that I barely had time to react.
My hand slipped from Chloe’s arm.
Madison shoved me again.
Hard.
My foot crossed the threshold.
The world outside seemed to hold its breath.
Rain was falling.
Not heavily.
Just enough.
A few cold drops landed against my hair.
Then Adrian reached me.
His arms locked around my waist, pulling me backward with enough force that my feet left the ground.
I heard him shout something, but the sound was swallowed by the screaming around us.
He dragged me inside.
The emergency door slammed shut.
For a second, nobody moved.
Adrian was still holding me.
His breathing was uneven against my hair, and one of his hands was pressed firmly between my shoulder blades as though he needed to make sure I was actually there.
Then someone shouted, “The shield!”
Adrian looked down.
He had already grabbed one from the emergency supplies.
He pulled it over himself before stepping outside after me, and the transparent material sealed around his body with a faint click.
He hadn’t even thought about his own safety.
He had just seen me cross that doorway.
And now he was looking at my hair.
Rainwater glistened across several strands.
Madison’s face changed.
For the smallest moment, satisfaction broke through her panic.
It was there.
She had done exactly what she’d wanted.
Adrian saw it too.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Madison’s expression hardened. “I didn’t push her.”
“You did.”
“I was trying to stop her from going outside.”
“You pushed her into it.”
The hallway erupted into voices.
Chloe was crying.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Madison turned toward her sharply.
“Don’t start.”
Chloe flinched.
That was when I understood.
All of it.
The fake sleepwalking.
Madison screaming.
The way Chloe had looked at me when I grabbed her.
It had never been about Chloe.
It had been about me.
“It’s okay,” I said.
Adrian looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“Nora—”
“It’s okay.”
I touched my hair.
It was wet.
Everyone knew what that meant.
The first boy had turned to stone almost immediately.
I remembered the gray spreading over his skin. The way his body had hardened while everyone stood there screaming.
I waited.
Nothing happened.
A few seconds passed.
Then a minute.
Still nothing.
Mr. Collins pushed through the crowd.
“Nora,! don’t move, stay right where you are”
“I wasn’t planning to sir” I knew what it meant to be touched by the rain, I wasn’t interested in being treated like it’s going to be fixed after a diagnosis
He came closer, studying me with an expression I’d never seen on his face before.
“Where did the rain touch you?”
“My hair.”
“Anywhere else?”
“My shoes are wet”
He looked at the strands resting against my shoulder.
Then at my shoes
Then back at my hair.
“That’s impossible.”
Madison spoke before anyone else could.
“Maybe it takes longer.”
The hallway went quiet.
She folded her arms.
“We don’t know that it happens immediately every time. The boy could have had a faster reaction.”
Mr. Collins frowned. “We have no evidence of that.”
“Then we shouldn’t assume she’s safe” Madison said sternly.
Someone behind us whispered, “She could still turn, we can’t risk our lives, she is an hazard!”
Another voice answered, “Get away from her!”
They were all panicking…
Adrian stepped between me and the others.
“She’s not going anywhere.”
Madison gave him a cold look. “You don’t know that.”
“I know she isn’t dangerous.”
“You don’t know what she is.”
That sentence changed the room.
People moved away from me.
Not because they hated me.
Because they were afraid.
It hurt more than I expected.
I’d spent years wishing people would notice me.
Now they couldn’t stop.
Mr. Collins ordered everyone to give me space while he tried to figure out what was happening. The government team had warned them not to touch anyone exposed until they knew whether the effects could spread.
Adrian stayed.
Of course he did.
He sat outside the storage room while I paced inside.
“You don’t have to stay,” I said.
“I know.”
“Then leave.”
“No.” He was being very adamant about staying with me
I turned toward the door.
“Adrian.”
“I’m not leaving you alone.”
“Please.”
My voice cracked.
He went quiet.
I pressed my forehead against the cool metal of the door.
“Everyone thinks I’m going to turn into a statue.”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know you and I won’t let you die”
That only made it worse.
Because I knew he meant it.
I opened the door just enough to see him sitting on the floor outside.
His shield lay beside him, its ten-minute protection already long gone.
“You need to go,” I whispered.
“Nora—”
“Please, Adrian.”
He didn’t move.
I could hear people talking beyond the corridor. Mr. Collins was arguing with someone about containment. Madison was somewhere nearby. Chloe had disappeared.
Everyone was waiting.
Waiting for my skin to harden.
Waiting for my body to become another statue.
I couldn’t stand the thought of Adrian watching it happen.
So I shut the door.
Then I locked it.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered through the wood.
There was silence on the other side.
Then Adrian’s voice came quietly through the door.
“I’ll still be here.”
I slid down against the wall, pulling my knees toward my chest.
Outside, everyone was waiting for the rain to prove what I was.
Inside, for the first time in my life, I was terrified that it already had.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD