The siren wailed louder, a metallic scream that tore through the crowded market like claws on steel.

  Vendors scrambled to shut their stalls. Food hit the pavement. People shouted, chairs overturned, and children shrieked. One woman screamed as she dropped her bag and bolted. Another man grabbed his kid and ran in the opposite direction. No one knew where to go. No one waited for orders.

  It was total chaos. Everything happened in a fraction.

  But Adrian didn’t move.

  This was the first time Adrian had experienced anything like this. The alarm itself didn’t freeze him, but by the way people reacted to it, like the entire street had cracked open and spilled pure panic.

  Back in the slums, Adrian had heard his share of alarms. He used to sit through them in silence, unmoving, unfazed. Not because he was safe, but because there was nowhere to run. No bunkers, no shelters, no one who cared enough to warn him where to go.

  The world could burn, and he’d still be there, staring at cracked walls and waiting for it to be over. He wasn’t brave. He just stopped caring. But now, as the sirens howled and the crowd scattered in all directions, he felt something stir deep in his chest. A tightening. A weight. Not quite fear. Not quite hope. Just the sharp realization that, for the first time in a long while, he didn’t want to die.

  Maybe, without realizing it, the last few days had planted something in him. A quiet kind of hope. The thought that things could change. That he could change. That life was still worth chasing.

  He felt like he was behind glass, watching it all unfold from the outside.

  A bowl slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground, spraying broth and beef across the concrete.

  Then a hand grabbed his sleeve, tight and urgent.

  “Move!” Alex shouted, yanking him back to reality.

  They sprinted.

  Adrian had no idea where they were going. This was his first time in this part of the city. So he just ran, keeping his eyes locked on Alex’s back and trusting his friend to lead the way.

  They ran for the closest alley, the one that looked the least crowded. A few others had the same idea, but it was still better than the chaos unfolding in the open street. Adrian didn’t question it. He just followed Alex and hoped they weren’t running into a dead end.

  There were three people in front of them, and by the looks of it, they were just as clueless. A few seconds later, they all found themselves at the end of the alley. Dead end. No way out. But at least they were safe from the stampede outside. The chaos hadn’t followed them here.

  “Now what?!” Adrian gasped.

  “I don’t—shit—just give me a sec!” Alex’s eyes darted.

  The three men who’d led the way were already retreating, shoving past Adrian and Alex as they sprinted back toward the street.

  “Wait. Just a minute. Let it thin out.” Alex’s words tumbled fast.

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  Without wasting more time, they hurried back toward the street they’d come from.

  Back on the street, the chaos was gone. In its place were bodies on the ground, some unconscious, some maybe worse, and a few people desperately trying to help.

  Adrian muttered, “Do we… help?”

  Alex glanced around. Everyone on the ground already had someone attending to them. Alex shook his head. “No time. Move.”

  Adrian fell into step behind him, casting a wary glance over his shoulder.

  He thought about staying, about trying to help. But what could he really do? Could he even carry someone? Probably not. And even if he could, where would he take them? He knew a little about first aid; his mother had taught him some things, but that barely felt like enough. He wasn’t an expert, not by a long shot. Honestly, he wasn’t sure he knew anything useful at all. None of what he’d learned had prepared him for something like this, not for being trampled by a panicked crowd, or knowing how to save someone in this chaos.

  He swallowed hard, the weight of helplessness pressing down on him like the rubble beneath the streets.

  “Where the fuck are we going?!” Adrian’s voice cracked.

  Alex didn’t answer. He just kept moving, his pace quickening with every step. “Underground—no—fuck it—the park! They won’t hit a park, right?!”

  “They wouldn’t,” he mumbled to himself, barely above a whisper.

  The sirens wailed relentlessly in the background, their piercing cries growing sharper, echoing through the streets.

  The streets ahead were empty; they were clearly going in the wrong direction. Maybe they should have asked the people back at the sizzles.

  “How the fuck did we miss that?!” Adrian roared, sirens drowning him out.

  Suddenly, an explosion cracked through the air, sharp and harsh, like thunder right on the edge of hearing. The ground vibrated beneath their feet.

  They didn’t even glance at each other; they just took off, sprinting without hesitation.

  His heart pounding wildly, Adrian screamed at the top of his lungs, “THE PARK! GO TO THE PARK!”

  Then another explosion hit, this one closer, the blast throwing Adrian off balance. He stumbled, coughing, and he forced himself upright, legs trembling but refusing to give out. Every breath burned, and his legs felt like lead, but he kept running.

  Ahead of him, Alex struggled too, breath ragged and steps faltering, but he kept pushing forward, refusing to slow down.

  A sharp, piercing whistle sliced through the air to Adrian’s right—a sudden, high-pitched scream that cut through the sirens and screams. A moment later, a deafening blast erupted, shaking the street like a hammer against steel. Windows exploded outward in showers of glass, glittering like deadly rain. The shockwave slammed into them, hurling dust and debris through the air, swallowing sound and vision in a chaotic storm.

  The next thing Adrian knew, he was slammed against the rough pavement, breath knocked from his lungs. His ears rang with a relentless high-pitched buzz, drowning out everything else. He couldn’t see more than a meter ahead. Everything was engulfed by a thick cloud of dust. The world had turned to a blur of grays and shadows, and every breath burned like fire in his lungs.

  He struggled to move, every limb heavy and uncooperative, like wading through mud. Around him, shards of glass sparkled like cruel stars. The only sound cutting through the chaos was a persistent, high-pitched buzzing that droned in his ears, like a swarm trapped just beyond reach. Panic clawed at his chest as he fought to make sense of the world collapsing around him.

  His palms ripped open on glass. He barely felt it. He shoved himself up, coughing through dust, every movement rough and desperate amid the chaos surrounding him.

  When he finally managed to get up, staggering, dizzy, and half-blind, he looked around in a panic. There was no sign of Alex.

  A tightness gripped his chest, sharp and suffocating. Cold sweat broke across his skin, trailing down his spine like ice. His breath came in short, ragged gasps as the sharp grip of fear closed in around his chest. The high-pitched buzzing still swallowed every sound, trapping him in a suffocating silence.

  “Alex!” he screamed, voice cracking. “ALEX!”

  Nothing. Or maybe there was, but all he could hear was static.

  He forced his legs to move, stumbling toward the spot where he’d last seen Alex.

  Every nerve screamed as he stumbled closer to the body in the dust. It had to be Alex. It had to be. The dust still hung thick in the air.

  As he got closer, there was no doubt. It was Alex. Adrian forced his legs to move faster, stumbling to his knees beside him. Alex wasn’t moving. Unconscious, Adrian hoped. Just unconscious.