Almost everyone turned their heads toward her at the same time.
In the corner sat a girl they had barely noticed before.
She wore an oversized black hoodie, her whole figure tucked into the shadows, white headphones covering her ears with the thin cord disappearing into her pocket.
Her head bobbed gently to the music, slow and steady, as if she existed in a completely different world.
"You? " Almost all of the people questioned in a un-trusting tone.
If she hadn’t spoken just now, no one would have thought she was paying attention to anything happening around them.
For a moment, no one spoke.
A strange hesitation and unease filled the air.
“…What did you just say?” Raven asked.
The girl slowly lifted her head, movements slightly delayed, as if she had been pulled back from her own world. The faint rhythm leaking from her headphones sounded unusually loud in the silent room.
She looked at them, her expression calm to the point of indifference.
At that moment, the same thought rose in everyone’s mind---
Was she joking, or was she serious?
“I’m sorry — I tapped Mike’s phone. Everyone, I found his behavior extremely suspicious.”
The girl lifted the phone with the black-and-white case and gave it a small shake, a faint smile curling at the corner of her mouth.
“Of course, I found evidence.”
"Can you let us see? " Raven eagerly stands upwards.
"For gods sake you are the only few who is smart, yes. "
She tapped the screen a few times, her tone light, as if discussing something completely ordinary.
“Just now, Mike’s phone never received a call from his mother.”
She saids.
“It was a prerecorded mechanical message.”
She pressed play, the emotionless electronic voice burst from the speaker, amplified, echoing through the cramped break room.
Cold, precise — and belonging to no real person.
"Number 1037, this is the Noah's Ark control tower, direct line from the survivor base. Our time is limited, and we are only issuing you the following notification: You are a fortunate human survivor, now granted the right to use any means of transportation to reach West Line Sky Station 2 within fifteen hours and hand over to the staff. The verbal code is "anchor." You are only allowed to bring two selected members; do not let other humans know, as they do not have the right to board Noah's Ark to survive. Your time is extremely limited; please proceed to West Line Sky Station 2 immediately. Do not let other survivors know. Over."
A wave of murmurs spread through the room, low voices overlapping like restless water.
“What was that ‘Noah base’ mentioned in the recording?”
“Has anyone ever heard of it?”
Someone asked in a hushed voice, unable to hide the fear creeping in.
“It sounded like some kind of secret shelter…”
“Or something military.”
Across the room, a few of the younger employees had gathered into a tight cluster.
Alex paced back and forth, frowning deeply.
"If that was real, then it means they knew this was coming."
"Yes, indeed, they always knew, they plan for it."
The girl jumped down the table she was sitting onto, giving out one hand.
"I am Lucas. Lucas P. "
Alex stud for a second then shake hands with Lucas, apart after a few blinks.
"Alex D. "
...
Raven had not joined the discussion at all.
He leaned against the table, brows drawn tight, staring at a point on the floor as if seeing something invisible.
So the government knew.
The thought lodged in his mind like a splinter.
Knew the extreme weather was coming.
Knew the city would drown.
And had already prepared a way to leave.
But they chose silence.
Chose to leave most people here without warning.
Raven’s hand slowly tightened into a fist.
Then where were they going?
If even land wasn’t safe anymore—
He suddenly remembered the phrase: “West Line Sky Station 2.”
Sky Station.
Not a harbor.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Not an underground bunker.
The sky.
Raven suddenly lifted his head.
A far more terrifying possibility began to take shape in his mind.
But were planning to leave this place entirely?
The room was still buzzing with anxious voices.
But to Raven, the noise felt like it was drifting farther and farther away.
As if the entire city had already been abandoned.
"No... " Cried a few girls, hugging each other under a desk.
Raven wants to comfort them, but---
"It is o... " "Shut up! "
Lucas shut the girls cried up, take a deep inhale, explains with thin patient.
"We can still head to the west line sky train station, we can still live, but crying doesn't do anything but worst, move your stupid asses! "
The people exchange looks between each other, starting to find backpacks that can carry rest of the supplies left.
Lucas strongly reminds Raven of his mother, she was similar to Lucas a- lot, but...
Caner.
Caner, the representation of death itself, took away her life at the very early age.
"Let's go. " Lucas snapped to one of the girls, then tap Raven, "Com'on. "
Together they dragged away the desks and chairs that had been barricading the office door. The scrape of wood against the floor echoed down the empty hallway, sharp enough to make people glance back nervously. When the door finally opened, a wave of damp, moldy air rushed in.
They instinctively fell into a line and moved toward the stairwell leading to the rooftop.
Emergency lights glowed dim red, stretching their shadows into long, distorted shapes.
When they pushed open the rooftop door, wind and rain lashed against them.
The city no longer looked like a city.
Only the silhouettes of drowned buildings and faint flickers of light remained in the distance.
More shocking were the crude wooden planks bridging the rooftops together.
Like a chaotic web linking the high-rises across the district.
Lucas crouched down, touching the wet streaks and muddy prints on the planks.
“These are fresh. Well, kind of. "
She pointed to a trail of footprints leading into the distance.
“Mike made these.”
The group exchanged glances.
That meant Mike was still alive.
And that he had made it out of the building.
They carefully followed the makeshift paths.
Some planks creaked dangerously beneath their weight, as if ready to snap.
No one dared look down.
Below was nothing but churning black floodwater.
An hour felt like an entire night.
By the time they finally saw the sky train station, no one had the strength to speak.
The tall steps leading up to the entrance were half-submerged. But scattered footholds still remained from rooftop to ground—billboards, car roofs, collapsed railings. They descended piece by piece, as if walking a crumbling path.
Armed guards stood at the entrance.
Black armor covered them head to toe, their faces hidden behind visors.
Their rifles were aimed steadily at the survivors.
“Code.”
The voice was cold, completely devoid of emotion.
The air seemed to freeze.
Raven spoke the word.
“Anchor.”
After a brief silence, the guards stepped aside, the others were checked one by one.
All twenty-four were allowed through.
They were led inside and taken downward.
A heavy steel door slid open with a mechanical hiss.
Inside lay a corridor wide enough for seven people to walk abreast.
The lights were harsh and pale, the air cold.
Doors lined both sides every few steps.
Through the glass panels, small rooms could be seen inside.
The corridor stretched endlessly in both directions.
As if it had no end.
They were ordered to stop, then each person was escorted into a separate room.
The door locked behind them, cutting them off from one another.
Raven moved close to the vent on the door, hearing guards pacing outside.
He quietly asked what was happening.
A guard replied flatly: “The Ark will launch in fifteen hours, until then, all occupants will remain in isolation. After thirty minutes of clearance, movement will be permitted, to prevent the spread of infection.”
The footsteps faded away.
Then the room besides him opens, guards dragged out a monster.
That is a human, but will be not a human soon, his skins are melting down many disgusting holes, one eye ball is hanging outside of where it should be, and he is roaring loudly with no language belongs to human.
Is that... what the infection is?
A guard come to Raven's door then tap the glass part.
"If you don't move around and stay indoor, not like this idiot have done, you. will. be. fine. "
Raven nodded, watching the guard walking away.
He stepped back and sit on the small bed in the room, opening the only TV on the wall.
The television screen was at first nothing but blinding static, gray-white grains twitching wildly like countless tiny insects trapped behind the glass.
The sharp hiss of electrical noise filled the room, making their teeth ache.
After a few seconds, the image suddenly stabilized, revealing a crude channel interface with only numbers and no names, as if it had been hastily assembled.
Raven frowned and pressed one of them at random.
He had expected emergency coverage of the city’s disaster, or at least a government announcement.
Instead, the screen switched to a studio that was almost unnaturally bright.
Behind the anchor was a vast white hall where massive metal structures reflected the lights with a cold sheen, looking more like a laboratory than a shelter.
A host in a perfectly pressed uniform sat behind the desk, her expression calm to the point of numbness.
“Welcome to the Ark internal broadcast,” she said in a voice devoid of emotion.
“Noah’s Ark is a closed human refuge system integrating survival, medical care, and ecological maintenance—”
The screen behind her cycled through images of orderly living quarters, greenhouse farms, medical pods, and a massive launch platform resembling an airport runway.
In the lower left corner, a red timer counted down in silence.
12:43:17
With every tick, the air in the room seemed to grow heavier.
The host paused for a second, as if receiving new instructions.
“We interrupt with an urgent notice. All residents are asked to remain orderly and not panic.”
“Three new infection cases were reported within the Ark today. All have been neutralized. Environmental safety status remains green.”
She gave a slight nod, as if delivering a weather report.
“All sectors may continue normal activities.”
Raven signs, closed the television, then heard his door slide open.
He looked, three guards stand at the doorway, one of them raising the gun on their hand.
