Solare Flare

Chapter 1

"Need more coffee, Nathan?" Jacinthe, the barista at the small café where I was sitting, asked me.

"Yes, please," I replied.

Jacinthe had been retired for a few years, but she decided to open a small café in the neighborhood. The place perfectly reflected her personality, with walls adorned with wooden shelves filled with books, green plants, and various trinkets. Artificial leaf vines and a few incandescent bulbs hung from the ceiling, creating a warm atmosphere. The café was frequented by its regulars: two men playing chess on the outdoor terrace, a student sitting at the end of the counter studying her notes on her laptop with vibrant red headphones, and a nurse from the nearby hospital coming for tea after long hours of work.

"Is Lena working today?" I asked Jacinthe.

She gave me a knowing smile, well aware of the feelings I had for Lena, and replied, "Yes, she's doing inventory in the back. She'll come to see you when she's done. It shouldn't take too long."

Jacinthe's expression suddenly shifted from amusement to intrigue. She was looking at something behind me, which naturally caught my attention. Without directly looking at me, she asked, "Why is everyone looking at the sky?"

Intrigued, I turned to observe the outside. Everyone in the street seemed to be staring at the sky in awe. Even the two chess players had paused their game to look up. I stood up and approached the large window to gaze at the sky. What I saw stunned me: northern lights! We were far too south to see them normally. Jacinthe asked me what I saw, and she was surprised too, but out of lack of curiosity, she didn't come to witness this strange spectacle.

I was filled with wonder and, I must admit, a bit of fear. The northern lights that were initially near the northern horizon a few minutes ago were descending further and further south, until they were directly above us. It was at that moment I realized that something abnormal was happening. Suddenly, the lights in the café brightened violently and then went out abruptly, plunging the place into complete darkness.

In panic, I was struck by a burning pain in my leg. I instinctively tried to put it out by slapping my thigh, but it only worsened the burn. That's when I realized the source of my pain was in my pants pocket. I threw it violently to the ground to relieve myself. It turned out to be the battery of my mobile phone that had exploded. My hands began to burn in turn.

Panic reigned around me, but I became aware that the student next to me was experiencing a real nightmare. Her phone was also on fire, and she lay on the floor, struggling to remove the acid and laptop pieces that had been thrown by the explosion of her battery. I rushed to help her despite the pain in my leg. We used paper towels to try to clean her face, but the burns seemed severe, and she did not respond to our words.

The nurse a few tables away quickly approached us, trying to communicate with the student. But she still didn't react, and he realized she had become deaf due to the explosion of her headphones. Jacinthe then came closer and said to the nurse, "I have a first aid room upstairs with bandages and cream that can surely help this poor girl."

Jacinthe and the nurse took the student and brought her to the second floor.

Behind me, the café's bell rang, and the two chess players came inside. The usually calm men were completely disoriented. They were babbling incoherent sentences without end.

"Calm down," I exclaimed, "we have bigger problems right now."

The two men immediately stopped talking, understanding that I was worried about something other than what they were saying. Lena was in the back doing inventory and might need help. Despite the darkness, I cautiously walked towards the back of the café.

"Lena?" I called into the dark corridor leading to the room where she was supposed to be.

I heard the door of the room open and the sound of shuffling footsteps advancing slowly towards me. I still couldn't see her because of the darkness, but I felt her getting closer to me.

"Lena? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me. What's happening? The lights suddenly went out; I thought it was a momentary outage, but the power never came back."

She groped for my arm, seeking my hand to help her navigate. Slowly and along the wall with my free hand, I guided us to the main room of the café where I could still hear the two chess players talking.

Back in the main room, the two players stopped talking and looked at us as if waiting for my instructions. I think silencing them earlier had quite an impact.

"So, what do we do?" the taller of the two players asked before being interrupted.

The café's door opened; a young boy rushed into the café and climbed the stairs to the second floor. We all stopped to watch him pass and disappear into the steps.

"But... What..." the player continued before being interrupted a second time by the sound of tables and chairs being overturned on the terrace.

A few seconds later, the large glass window shattered. A mass of bloodied and decomposed people began to invade the room. They moved clumsily but quickly. Without thinking, I grabbed Lena by the arm and pulled her towards the stairs to barricade ourselves on the second floor. I heard the screams of one of the chess players behind me, but I continued without looking back. I pushed Lena into the room on the left and, after entering, closed the door behind me. Quickly, I pushed a heavy piece of furniture in front of the door to block it. Then I took two steps back, keeping my eyes fixed on the door. After two deep breaths, I was surprised that all movement had ceased on the other side of the door. I no longer heard the zombies, and they weren't trying to force the door. As if the zombies had disappeared by magic.