Outside of the clinic's glass doors, Rein stepped into the biting, damp air of the night, her mind still numb from the horrific sight of Caleb's torn flesh combined with the heavy shadow of Professor Julian's words.
Her knees felt weak as she struggled to get to the wet gravel driveway, pulling her coat tight against her chest. She reached the main gate, raised a trembling hand, and managed to hail an idling yellow cab. She slid into the back seat without a word, staring blankly out the rain-streaked window as the streetlights blurred past, carrying her back toward the residential sector.
When the taxi pulled up near the female dormitories, the campus was bathed in the harsh, rotating glare of red and blue emergency strobes.
Rein stepped out onto the curb and froze. Students were pouring out of the heavy oak doors, clutching duffel bags, suitcases, and hastily packed boxes. Campus security guards and state police officers were directing the fleeing crowd toward the central quadrangle—a wide, open assembly area being used as a temporary staging point for transport.
Through the bustling crowd, Rein spotted Claire, Fiona, and Lira standing together near the steps, their faces tight with anxiety as they gripped their luggage.
Before she could take few paces toward them, a tall, heavy-set state trooper stepped directly into her path, his flash-shield visor reflecting the flashing sirens. He unclipped his digital notepad and looked down at her with a sharp, questioning glare.
"Hold on a second, miss," the officer commanded, his voice dropping into a formal interrogation tone.
"Where are you coming from at this hour? I need your full name, student ID, and your exact timeline for the last three hours."
Rein swallowed hard, her pulse spiking. "I... I was at the local health clinic, sir. Medical checkup."
The trooper's eyes narrowed as he tapped a sequence into his tablet. "The local clinic? That puts you directly within a half-mile radius of the Tenth Street corridor during an active Category 3 lockdown. As per standard multi-agency incident protocols under the Regional Emergency Operations framework—specifically cross-referencing open active cases involving unverified bio-contaminants and midnight civilian trespass—we are documenting all movements within the restricted zone."
He took a step closer, his hand resting near his duty belt. "I have a mandatory Directive 404 questionnaire to complete for all unvetted individuals moving through the perimeter. Did you witness any unauthorized vehicles along the south boundary road between 19:30 and 21:00? Were you approached by anyone exhibiting altered behavior, or did you observe any working tools or medical waste discarded near the drainage ditch?"
Rein stood frozen under the barrage of legal references and procedural questions, her throat dry as she tried to piece together a believable response without exposing her inner circle.
Before she could answer, a loud, crackling announcement blared over the university's emergency public address system, cutting through the sirens and the trooper's interrogation.
*"ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS AND FACULTY. BY ORDER OF THE UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR AND THE REGIONAL PRECT ADMINISTRATION, AN IMMEDIATE TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF THE ENTIRE CAMPUS HAS BEEN DECLARED. DUE TO THE ESCALATING RECURRENCE OF UNVERIFIED SAFETY INCIDENTS AND INFRASTRUCTURE BREACHES, ALL ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES ARE SUSPENDED EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. ALL RESIDENTS NOT REGISTERED ON THE CRITICAL REMAINING LIST MUST VACATE THE DORMITORY GROUNDS BY MIDNIGHT."*
The announcement boomed across the quad three times, sending another wave of panic through the crowd and forcing the officer to break his eye contact with Rein as he turned to assist with the sudden, chaotic evacuation.
Rein forced a swallowed breath against the blinding glare of the trooper's spotlight. She kept her eyes low and her posture small, adopting the exact rhythm of a frightened, tired student who wanted nothing more than to go home.
"I took the campus shuttle down to the clinic at seven-fifteen, sir," Rein said, her voice small and wavering with plausible fatigue. "My name is Rein Lawson. You can check the intake desk—Doctor Julian had me scheduled for a routine nerve-conduction checkup on my right arm. I didn't see any vehicles or ditch equipment or tools, officer. I spent the last two hours on the second-floor observation couch waiting for my prescription to process before taking a city cab straight back."
The trooper's thumb hovered over his tablet interface as he ran her statement against the precinct's active log. Her alibi was seamless—entirely by an official medical appointment logged under a licensed physician, supported by the clinic's timestamped entry records, and corroborated by a registered municipal taxi driver whose meter had just flagged its drop-off outside the gate.
It was an airtight, legally inadmissible barrier for any immediate detainment, offering the state police absolutely no grounds to hold her under Directive 404 protocols.
The officer let out a sharp, disappointed breath, tapping his stylus against the screen to close her file.
"Alright, Lawson. Keep moving toward the assembly point. Get your belongings and clear the sector before the midnight hard lock."
"Thank you, sir," Rein murmured, stepping past his shoulder into the crowd.
Before she could take another step toward the dorm steps, Lira materialized out of the sea of evacuating students, her hood pulled low over her forehead.
She was hauling two heavy leather duffel bags in her left hand and a hard-shell rolling case in her right—the group's pre-packed essentials, loaded before the troopers could institute a room-by-room sweep.
"Keep walking, don't look back," Lira whispered sharply, pressing one of the heavy leather straps straight into Rein's hands. "Claire's already idling by the eastern gate."
They moved swiftly through the throng of panic-stricken students, cutting past the perimeter tape and slipping into the dark shadow of the lower oak driveway. Parked beneath the low-hanging branches was their usual matte-black SUV truck—the heavy vehicle left behind by crook.
Claire was sitting behind the wheel, her face illuminated only by the faint blue glow of the dashboard monitors, her hands gripping the leather steering wheel tightly. Ryan held the rear tailgate open, tossing their bags onto the carpeted floorboards before hauling himself into the back seat beside Fiona.
Rein slid into the passenger side, pulling the heavy door shut until the latches clicked flush, instantly muting the shrill, distant wail of the campus sirens.
"Is everyone in?" Claire asked, her eyes darting to the rearview mirror as she shifted the transmission into drive.
Holly who happened to squeeze in with just her hand bags looks at Claire and couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you a little too young to drive and there are cops around remember".
"Don't worry, I'm a good driver and I've updated the logs with yunli help. We're good, right?"
"We're clear," Lira said, locking the doors from the central console. "Get us off this shit hole before the state police set up the highway checkpoints."
The heavy engine rumbled to life, and the SUV truck pulled out smoothly onto the damp asphalt, its headlights dark as it slipped away from the university grounds and vanished into the thick, rolling Ohio fog.