July 11th, Friday

As soon as the students got off the bus, they went home. Gabriel got off alongside Principal Lucie, who lit yet another cigarette, as usual.

"Gabriel, this was the last day of the school year—you and the students already knew that. But what you may not know is that there won’t be an end-of-letive-year fair, nor a graduation ceremony," said the principal.

"I figured as much…" replied the teacher, exhausted. "Why? Budget cuts?"

"Resources are running out. The government is allocating everything to public safety and emergency shelters. They can’t fund festivities."

"I think they deserve it. Especially after everything," Gabriel said, turning his back on Lucie.

"I know. But the world isn’t the same anymore…" Lucie replied, finishing her cigarette and putting it out with the sole of her shoe, as if crushing the last shred of hope.

Jonas got home, worn out. It was another day of work at the bunkers he had managed to skip, but would have to make up for with overtime. He left his backpack in his room and noticed, from afar, that his grandmother’s door was open—something rare since she sold everything. When he went to check, he saw Thérése trying to reanimate their grandmother.

"Jonas! Jonas!" cried the girl, tears in her eyes, running toward her brother as soon as she saw him.

"What happened?"

"It’s grandma!" the girl sobbed. "I just got home and went to check on her, but she’s not even moving! Did she die, Jonas?"

The money Jonas earned working in construction wasn’t just for food for him and his sister. He also bought food for his grandmother and left it in her room, but both he and the food had been ignored, as were the forced attempts to feed the old woman.

Jonas walked into the room, eyes wide, and saw his grandmother—her face pale, much thinner than before, eyes nearly closed, dry lips, struggling to breathe, but still clutching her rosary. Jonas listened to her heartbeat, which was barely there, and confirmed she was still alive, but the situation looked critical.

"Grandma?" Jonas asked, a mix of worry and anger in his voice, like she was a child doing something foolish.

"Jonas, should we call an ambulance?"

Iris arrived home, still holding the animal rescue pamphlet, its vibrant colors seeming like they came from a world where the future still existed. But that feeling quickly faded when she heard her parents arguing.

"Rain, hunger, wars between peoples—it’s all happening just like the Bible said!" her mother declared.

"We really do need to prepare. We have nothing left. Most of the church has already moved to the camp," her father responded.

Iris looked at the pamphlets on the table. They showed photos of a religious camp located somewhere in the forest, with solar panels and neat rows of simple prefabricated cabins. There were also pictures of children playing in dirt yards, with banners reading "The Last Sanctuary" and "Together We Await Salvation."

"Are you seriously thinking about going to that place?" Iris asked.

"Iris, sweetheart, we need to talk…" her mother began.

"No! You need to listen!" Iris snapped. "You want to abandon everything—this house, your jobs, my education—for what? A camp where people just sit and wait for the world to end?"

"It’s not like that. It’s a community…" her father tried to explain.

"It’s a cult!"

"Iris, don’t say that! We’re doing this for you! We want you to be safe and saved!" her mother insisted.

"I don’t want that kind of salvation!" Iris shouted. "If you really think the world’s going to end, fine! But I won’t spend my last months locked away with a bunch of pessimists, praying instead of doing something! I want to live! I want to do something that matters!"

"You’re a child! You don’t understand how serious this is!" her father retorted.

"If you force me to go, I’ll move in with Uncle Thierry and Aunt Rita," Iris said, arms crossed.

"Oh no, not with Thierry!" her mother scolded, as if she’d threatened to run off with the devil himself.

"Are he and his wife still weird?" her father asked.

"At least they wouldn’t force me to live in a camp like that!"

"Iris!" her mother yelled.

The girl stormed out of the house in anger and walked into the street, just in time to see an ambulance leaving Jonas’s house.

The boy was sitting on a bench outside one of the hospital rooms. He couldn’t even cry. Thérése was beside him, shaking, looking at Jonas as if he could somehow fix the situation. Their grandmother was intubated behind a thin curtain. A machine beeped rhythmically, sounding like a cruel joke.

"Her body has entered multiple organ failure," said a doctor, his face covered by a medical scrub cap and a mask. "The fasting unfortunately accelerated the deterioration of already weakened systems like the kidneys, the liver..."

Jonas barely heard the rest. He just kept remembering his grandmother collapsed and frail on the floor. He remembered when his mother died during Thérése’s birth. Two years later, their father died in a car accident. So, he and his sister went to live with their grandparents, and that’s how he became Iris’s neighbor. Life was normal then, but after their grandfather died two years ago, the truth was their grandmother, despite trying, couldn’t find happiness again.

Half an hour later, the machine stopped beeping, and the same doctor returned to speak with them.

"I’m sorry…"

Jonas just looked at the doctor, unable to respond or comprehend.

"She did it out of faith…" said the doctor, holding his cross necklace. "Sometimes, that faith gives peace to people who no longer find meaning in the world. She believed she was doing the right thing."

Jonas suddenly stood up, startling Thérése.

"She starved herself to death!" he shouted. "She thought it was the right thing because the world has gone insane. Because people like you keep saying it’s 'peaceful' to slowly kill yourself! Starving to death thinking it’s a sacrifice—is that peace?"

"I’m sorry, I just meant to—"

"You talk about faith like it’s medicine. But it’s not! It’s poison! It killed her, and it’s killing everyone! Are you a doctor or a priest?"

Jonas turned and stormed out of the hospital in rage, leaving his sister alone, crying on the bench.

253 days left.