"Alright, everybody back in!" Sonya said, her voice betraying her panic as she ran back into the school, everybody else following closely behind in an equally panicked run.

5 minutes later

Soon, everybody made it back to the storehouse.

"So, how long until you think the Catastrophe will arrive, Viktor?" Sonya asked Viktor.

"I don't know, ask Anna."

"Alright. Anna, any guesses?"

"Around seven hours." Anna said, looking out the storehouse window. "Yeah, around seven to eight hours."

"You think it'll reach here?"

"Hopefully it'll have stopped before it does."

"Anything we can do?"

"No, not really."

"Ugh, how annoying… You got anything you want to say?" Sonya said, idly looking around the storehouse.

"I guess we can plan, now that everyone's awake…" Viktor said. "Everybody, come over!"

"Alright, so what do we do?" Sonya asked.

"I would suggest trying to get as far away and as high up as possible after the Catastrophe blows over." Viktor said.

"Why?" Anna asked, confused.

"Because we don't want to fight against a bunch of bloodthirsty students in our first day of freedom."

"Good idea. Anything else?"

"Well, after that, we look around for any signs of civilization."

"And?"

"That's my only plan."

"Hm… It does seem like that is the only option. The probability of becoming Infected is quite high, though."

"Well, we have to take the gamble. What else would we do, stay in the school and slowly starve to death?" Viktor said, knowing full well the storm would not reach them.

"Seems like a good idea. Sonya, what do you think?"

"Yeah, sure. Now we just wait a day or so for the Catastrophe to blow over, don't we?"

"Yeah, I think so."

8:00 AM, Day 15

Viktor got up, immediately looking out the window; sure enough, the Catastrophe had never reached them, and by now had cleared up, only leaving behind black crystals of various sizes which Viktor knew to be Originium. Seeing that the Catastrophe cleared up, he immediately woke everybody up.

"Everybody, wake up. The Catastrophe is over!" He said jubilantly, and as they woke up, everybody else wore the same happy expressions on their faces as they packed up and walked out.

15 minutes later

"Alright, off we go into the unknown." Viktor said, addressing everybody as they stood in front the main. "We must stay together at all times, alright?"

A collective "Alright" came from the other members of the team.

"Alright, let's go." Viktor pushed open the double doors of the exit, and he walked out into the sunlight, taking one last look at the school that had held him for two weeks before walking out. Now he just had to find Rhodes Island… No easy feat.

Viktor looked around; he saw the abandoned buildings, Reunion graffiti everywhere on them; he saw the desolate streets, the now-cold ashes of the fires that Reunion once started here; he saw the bodies of a group of policemen, already starting to rot. The area around him was like a warzone, and yet, all that happened was Reunion taking over the region for two weeks. Such was the transformative power of war.

"What a mess…" Viktor thought, hands unconsciously holding tighter onto his staff.

"There's a lot of things I didn't notice yesterday." Sonya said, also looking around.

"Didn't you say we had to get to high ground fast?" Anna said, pointing towards the apartment they observed the region from the previous day.

"Yeah, that's a good place to settle. We took a look around on the top of that building yesterday, so I can confirm that it's stable." Viktor said, walking towards the building.

"I have no issue with that." Natalya said, catching up with him and quietly whispering a question. "Viktor, do you actually trust them? They are of an entirely different social class."

"Of course I trust them. And you should try and do so too." Viktor whispered back.

"If you say so, I will believe you, on account of the fact that you are, too, a noble."

"As long as you don't force me to kill you, I'm fine with anything."

"Now, should we rejoin the group?"

"Yeah, sure." With that, Viktor and Natalya walked back to the group.

"What were you talking about?" Sonya asked, an edge in her voice.

"She has trust issues with our group." Viktor said, facepalming. "Nothing more."

"Ugh, fine. I'll believe you, but next time, Natalya, if you want to say something say it to everybody, you scheming noble." Sonya said, obviously still not fully comfortable with Natalya being in her team.

"Very well." Natalya said, falling silent.

5 minutes later

Viktor climbed the final staircase leading to the highest floor in the apartment, looking around at the peeling paint, the shattered glass, and the bloodstains on the now-dusty rugs.

"Something happened here." Viktor said, sitting down. "Probably Reunion."

"It does appear so." Natalya said, sitting down.

"Just a piece of advice, stop using fancy words, Natalya. They make you sound arrogant." Viktor whispered to her. "Which is not good, to say the least, if you have Sonya around."

"Ver- Alright, I'll try."

"Good." At that exact moment, Sonya walked in, along with the rest of the students. "Stop climbing so fast, you two nobles."

"Why is it that since Natalya arrived you have started to view me as a noble again?" Viktor asked Sonya.

"Because- Hm, as long as you don't act as one of those shitstains, I guess that's fine with me." Sonya said, turning around and glaring at Natalya. "And that applies for you too."

"Alright." Natalya said, sitting down.

"So now we wait." Viktor said. "Hopefully rescue will come quick…"

"Why does it feel like all we do now is wait?" Sonya said, already tired of the prospect of waiting more.

"Fine, anybody got anything we can play with?" Viktor asked, electing a collective chorus of "No" from everybody else.

"Fuck… I guess all we can do is wait then."

8:00 PM, Day 15

After an entire day of fruitless waiting and idle talking, Viktor laid down and fell asleep, for once able to have a calm thought about the future.

"So, what should I do in the future?"

"Hm… I guess the first thing I would have to do is to join Rhodes Island."

"Second… Become an operator, of course."

"Third… Try and influence the events of the game for the better, I guess."

"Fourth… I have no idea."

"Fuck… If only I had stuck around until Chapter 9 came out…"

"Anyways, are there any issues with my mental state?"

"Hm… I don't think so."

"I need to find a way to check on the others. They were completely mentally unprepared for the events of the past two weeks."

"Oh, whatever." And with that, Viktor fell into a, for once, comparatively relaxed sleep.

The same time, other side of the room

"Sonya, may-can we talk about my place in our group?" Natalya asked.

"Hm? Ugh, fine…" Sonya said, rolling over towards Natalya. "Let's get this over with. What do you want to say?"

"What kind of person is Viktor?"

"A noble idiot who literally does not understand what the word kill means."

"Oh, he rarely kills people?"

"Very rarely."

"And you?"

"A person with a very low tolerance for bullshit."

"Ah, I see. Anna?"

"A nerd."

"Rosalind?"

"I don't know."

"Lada?"

"She's too honest and truthful, but a good person."

"Oh, I see. Thanks for telling me."

"No problem. Now shut up and go to sleep." Sonya said, rolling over to one side and falling asleep.

Natalya, though, didn't sleep, and looked around, thinking.

"Hm… Everybody is sleeping in various postures."

"Lada is curled up in a corner. She seems to be scared of something."

"Rosalind is mostly relaxed, but her arms are continuously moving. She's probably fighting something in her dreams."

"Viktor appears to be completely peaceful. Strange that he appears completely unaffected… Even I have something I have to deal with, and he is two years younger than me. Perhaps he hides it well, even when sleeping."

"Anna also appears to be sleeping peacefully, though with the occasional shudder. Slight trauma, perhaps?"

"Sonya… She seems to be taking it the worst out of all of us. She is continuously rolling around and appears to be quite panicked. A nightmare? Perhaps I should find a way to help her in the future… But I need to survive this, and deal with my own actions, first."

"At this point, though, all we can do to survive is wait…" And with that, Natalya laid down and, too, fell asleep.

3:00 PM, Day 21

"I think we've finally found a group passing through, Viktor." Anna said, pointing to a group of armed people passing through.

"Sonya, you heard that?" Viktor said, looking around for Sonya, only to realize that she was right in front of him.

"Yeah. You want to go check them out?"

"Sure." Sonya said, walking down the stairs, closely followed by the rest of the group, Natalya lagging behind due to her having to carry a heavy siege engine behind her.

"Natalya, you should really stop carrying that around." Viktor said.

"It's for intimidation purposes." Natalya said, holding tighter onto the handle of the machine.

20 minutes later

The students rounded a corner, coming in sight of the men.

"Who's there?" A member of the men said, drawing a sword. "An armed group of children? What's happened here?"

"Go fuck yourself." Sonya said, readying for a fight.

"Wait, we're here to rescue survivors!"

"… Huh?"

"Calm down. We are members of an organization named Rhodes Island. You're safe now."

"I agree, Sonya. Let's go with them." Viktor said, going towards the armed men.

"Alright, let's go to the refugee camps, kids." One of the men said.

"No problem."

2 hours later

"Alright, identity?" The man behind the check-in desk asked Viktor.

"Viktor. My last name and affiliation do not matter."

"May you… by chance be the son of the late Baron Hastevich?"

"I already told you, my past does not matter." Viktor said, slight frustration creeping into his tone.

"Alright, I'll register you as an orphan then. Next!" The man said, waving Viktor to the next desk.

5 minutes later

Soon, the other students were also cleared through the check-in.

"So, what now?" Rosalind asked Sonya.

"How many times do I need to tell everybody to ask Anna or Viktor, not me? I do the fighting, not the planning." Sonya grumbled, standing back.

"Well, there are two lines there. Rhodes Island Recruitment and Refugee Resettlement. Which one should we pick?" Viktor asked.

"Recruitment. We have no other option, do we?" Anna said, pointing towards the tent.

"Alright, let's go. Do you really have confidence we will be recruited?" Viktor said, joining the line.

"No, but we have to try." Anna said, joining the line.

In reality, the main issue Viktor was facing was whether he would be recruited or not.

"Hm… I am confident that they will be recruited, but I may not. This may cause issues…" Viktor thought.

"Eh, whatever."

40 minutes later

Finally, they made it to the end of the line, and underwent a series of physical tests before going out, where they were greeted by a clerk.

"Alright, you will get your results tomorrow. For now, you will reside in Tent 5G-" he paused to gesture to a line of tents -" Which is there."

"Alright, thank you, sir." Natalya said, the group walking over to the tent and settling down.

11:00 AM, Day 22

The group was relaxing and, once again, waiting in their tent when the clerk they had seen from yesterday walked into their tent.

"Here's the results. Congratulations, you all passed! See us at the launchpad by 4:00 PM." He said, handing them a few sheets of paper.

Viktor took a look at his results, showing a series of statistics, with a large [PASS] stamped on the front, and was relieved to see that he was uninfected. Everybody else was equally relieved, and suddenly, the mood in the tent loosened significantly.

"Let's just wait until 3:30 and go over." Sonya said, receiving a "Okay" from the rest of the group. "Alright, time to wait again."

3:30 PM, Day 22

The group walked over to the launchpad and handed their papers to a clerk, who checked them and escorted their group to one of the planes, where they buckled up and got ready for the flight. Soon, the other candidates also made their way onto the plane, and everybody started silently waiting...

30 minutes later

"Welcome, new employees, to Rhodes Island." A voice came over the intercom, heralding the thing Viktor had been waiting for. It had taken him two weeks of bloody combat, but he had made it. He had made it into Rhodes Island.

AN: The final chapter is quite boring, but honestly, I don't know how to improve on it. If people have any ideas (for the final chapter or something else), you can leave a review. My next fic will probably be an experiment in writing in the first-person, and after that I'll probably make a sequel to either this fic or Surviving as Skullshatterer. Anyways, thanks for reading!