The Nerd’s Guide to Surviving an Apocalypse

Sealed Suits, Opened Doors

Madison found me in the library two days after the announcement.

I was sitting near the back, surrounded by books Mr. Collins had pulled from the science section, half of them too outdated to be useful, when I looked up and saw her standing at the end of the table.

I braced myself out of habit.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked.

"That depends on what you want to say."

She pulled out the chair across from me without waiting for permission and sat down, her hands folded neatly on the table like she'd rehearsed the gesture.

"I wanted to apologize," she said. "For what happened. For what I did."

I studied her, waiting for the catch.

"I've been thinking about it since that night," she continued, her voice softer than I'd ever heard it. "I didn't think you would actually get hurt. I know that's not an excuse. I just, I keep thinking about what would have happened if you weren't immune, and I can't stop feeling sick about it."

She looked down at her hands.

"I'm glad nothing happened to you, Nora. I mean that."

I wanted to believe she was lying. Some tired, guarded part of me kept waiting for the twist, the insult hidden inside the apology, the way Madison usually operated.

It didn't come.

"Okay," I said finally.

"Okay?"

"I'm not going to pretend what you did doesn't still scare me," I said. "But I'm tired of being angry all the time. I don't have the energy for it anymore. Not with everything else going on."

Something shifted in her expression, something that looked almost like relief.

"Thank you," she said, standing up. "I mean it, Nora. I really am glad you're okay."

She left before I could say anything else, and I sat there for a long moment, wondering if I'd just done something incredibly foolish.

Adrian slid into the seat across from me a few minutes later, glancing toward the door Madison had just walked through.

"Was that Madison?"

"She apologized."

He raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"I told her it was okay."

"Do you believe her?"

I thought about it honestly before answering.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But I don't have room in my head right now to figure out if she means it. I have bigger things to worry about."

Adrian glanced at the pile of books between us.

"Speaking of bigger things."

Mr. Collins arrived a few minutes later, setting down another stack of books and a folder of loose printed pages that looked like they'd survived the school's outdated printer through sheer stubbornness.

"I want to be honest with you," he said, sitting across from me. "I don't think we're going to find an easy answer in these books. Whatever is causing the rain, and whatever is protecting you from it, isn't something anyone fully understood before this started. But I'd rather look and find nothing than not look at all."

"Where do we even start?" I asked.

"With what we know," he said. "You were exposed longer than the boy in the courtyard, and nothing happened. That tells us it isn't simply about duration."

"Could it be genetic?" Adrian asked. "Like, something in her family?"

"Possibly," Mr. Collins said. "Do you know anything about your family's medical history, Nora? Any unusual conditions, rare blood types, anything like that?"

I shook my head slowly. "Not that I know of. My parents never mentioned anything like that."

"What about your chemistry work?" Adrian asked. "You're always in the lab. Could you have been exposed to something that changed how your body reacts?"

It was a strange thought, but not an impossible one.

"I'd need to go through everything I've worked with this year," I said. "But most of it was standard coursework. Nothing that should do something like this."

"We'll go through it anyway," Mr. Collins said. "Even the smallest detail might matter."

We spent the next hour cross referencing outdated science texts with theories that felt more like guesses than actual research. Nothing lined up. Nothing explained why the rain had touched my skin and simply done nothing at all.

By the time we gave up for the day, I didn't have an answer.

I had a question instead, one that followed me the rest of the afternoon.

Why me?

***

Madison watched Nora and Adrian from across the courtyard windows, the two of them sitting close together on a bench near the science wing, Adrian saying something that made Nora laugh in that quiet, private way she never used to laugh around anyone else.

Madison told herself she didn't care.

She'd told herself that so many times over the past two days that the words had started to feel hollow, worn thin from overuse.

It wasn't about Adrian. Not really. Boys like Adrian were replaceable, interchangeable, the kind of attention Madison had never had to work very hard to get. What bothered her was the way he looked at Nora. Like she was something worth protecting. Like she mattered.

Nobody had ever looked at Madison that way, not without her father's money attached to the reason why.

She turned away from the window before either of them could notice her watching.

The classroom with the old emergency phone line was empty again when she found it, exactly the way it had been two days ago. She stood there for a long moment before picking up the receiver, telling herself this was just about information, just about knowing what came next.

The call connected faster this time.

"This is the Rain Response Hotline."

"I called a few days ago," Madison said. "About a student at Westbridge Academy. Nora Bennett."

There was a pause, the sound of something being typed.

"Yes, that report has been logged and forwarded."

"I wanted to know when someone would be coming."

Another pause, longer this time.

"I'm not authorized to share operational timelines."

"But someone is coming."

"Ma'am, I'd advise you to remain calm and continue following your school's safety protocols."

Madison's jaw tightened. "That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I can give you."

She hung up without saying anything else, her hand still resting on the receiver when the door behind her creaked open.

Chloe stood in the doorway, her eyes moving from Madison's face to the phone and back again.

"What are you doing?"

Madison's heart lurched, but she kept her expression flat, controlled, the way she'd learned to do her entire life.

"Nothing."

"That's not nothing," Chloe said slowly. "Who were you talking to?"

"Nobody. I was checking if the line still worked."

Chloe's eyes narrowed, and for a moment Madison saw something in her face that hadn't been there before, not fear exactly, but something closer to suspicion.

"You're lying."

Madison crossed the room in three quick steps, closing the distance between them until Chloe had nowhere left to back into but the doorframe.

"Whatever you think you heard," Madison said quietly, "you didn't hear anything. And if I find out you've told anyone otherwise, your scholarship will be the least of your problems. Do you understand me?"

Chloe's face went pale, but she nodded once, quickly.

"Good."

Madison stepped back, straightened her blazer, and walked out of the classroom like nothing had happened at all, leaving Chloe standing there alone, staring after her with a fear that hadn't fully left her eyes.

***

I heard the sound before I understood what it was.

Engines. Multiple engines, heavy and mechanical, cutting through the steady static of the rain outside.

Adrian and I were in the science room when the noise started, and we weren't the only ones who heard it. Within seconds, students were crowding toward the windows, pressing against the glass to see what was happening in the courtyard.

Vehicles. Several of them, black and reinforced, pulling up along the front drive despite the rain still falling steadily from the gray sky above.

Figures stepped out wearing full protective suits, the kind sealed completely against the weather, nothing like the thin gear the school had been issued. They moved with a kind of practiced efficiency that made my stomach turn.

"Who are they?" someone near me asked.

I already knew.

I could feel it settling over me before Mr. Collins came sprinting down the hallway, his face pale, his voice tight with something I'd never heard from him before.

Fear.

"Nora." He grabbed my arm gently, urgently. "You need to come with me right now."

"What's happening?"

"They know," he said. "Somehow, they know."

Through the windows, I watched the doors of the school swing open, watched a group of scientists in sealed suits step inside, flanked by armed personnel, all of them moving with a single, unmistakable purpose.

They weren't here to help.

They were here for me.