He woke to Elesa shaking his shoulder.
"Storm's passing," she said. "You were talking in your sleep."
"What did I say?"
"Nothing coherent. Something about convergence." She studied him with concern. "The shard?"
"Dreams. Just dreams."
But they both knew it was more than that.
The acid rain had slowed to a drizzle, still toxic but navigable with care. They packed quickly, eager to be moving again. Staying too long in the wasteland invited trouble.
Outside, the world had been transformed. The acid rain had carved new channels in the earth, created pools of toxic water that glowed faintly green. The air smelled of chemicals and dissolution, sharp enough to taste even through their masks.
They picked their way carefully through the changed landscape. Every storm rewrote the wasteland's geography in small ways, making even familiar routes treacherous.
"Look," Xander said, pointing to a structure that had been revealed by the rain's erosion.
It was a vehicle, or had been—a military transport from before the war, its armor plating intact enough to survive decades of acid rain. The rain had washed away the dirt and debris covering it, revealing faded insignia and identification numbers.
"Pre-war military," Elesa identified. "Army, from the markings."
"Might be salvage inside," Xander suggested.
They approached carefully. Vehicles like this sometimes would contain useful supplies, but they could also be death traps—radiation hot spots, chemical contamination, or worse.
Jyn checked his Gieger counter. Elevated but not immediately dangerous. They had maybe ten minutes before exposure became a problem.
The vehicle's rear hatch was sealed but not locked. It took their combined strength to force it open; decades of corrosion seized the hinges up. Inside, the transport's cargo area was remarkably preserved, sealed from the elements.
"Look at this haul guys medical supplies!" Elesa said, examining the crates. "Field surgical kits, antibiotics, drugs."
"All expired by decades," Xander pointed out.
"Some medicines remain viable if stored properly," Jyn said, remembering his parents' lessons. "The surgical tools should still be good, they've been locked up for so long, but those drugs I know are definitely no good."
They grabbed what they could carry—sealed kits that might still work, surgical instruments that could be sterilized, medical equiptment basic electronics, and some manuals.
"Five minutes," Elesa warned, checking her counter.
They left quickly, not wanting to push their luck. As they moved away, Jyn glanced back at the transport. How many vehicles like that were scattered across the wasteland? How many remnants of the old world's last desperate attempts at survival?
The eastern wastes stretched before them, a patchwork of ruins and desolation. They were maybe six hours from Aegis now, well into the territory that casual scavengers avoided. Out here, the risks were greater, but so were the rewards.
"Contact!" Elesa announced suddenly, pulling her sword from her sheath.
Ahead, moving through the ruins with obvious purpose, was a lone figure. Human, from the shape, wearing the distinctive patchwork armor of a deep waste scavenger. They moved carefully but confidently, clearly familiar with the terrain.
"Friendly?" Xander asked.
"Unknown. But they've seen us."
The figure had stopped, facing them directly. After a moment, they raised one hand in the universal gesture of peaceful intent.
Jyn returned the gesture, though his other hand stayed near his rifle.
The scavenger approached slowly, keeping their hands visible. As they got closer, Jyn could see more details—female, probably mid-thirties, with the kind of lean muscle that came from years of survival. Her armor was well-maintained, a mixture of ceramic plating and treated leather. A rifle was slung across her back, and a long knife hung at her hip.
"Don't usually see people this far out," she said when she was close enough to talk without shouting. Her voice was rough, probably from breathing unfiltered air too often. "You heading somewhere specific or just wandering?"
"Salvage run," Elesa replied, giving nothing away.
"In this direction? After that storm?" The woman's eyes narrowed slightly. "You're either very brave or very stupid."
"Bit of both," Xander said cheerfully giving a slight bow.
Despite herself, the woman smiled. "Aren't we all. Name's Sara. I'm heading back to Aegis myself, if you want to travel together. Safety in numbers and all that."
"We're going further east first," Jyn said. "But thank you."
Sara studied them for a moment, then shrugged. "Your funeral. But be careful out there. I've been seeing things... strange things. Hollowborn moving in packs, coordinated-like. And there's something else, something new. Found a camp two days ago, deep wasters like myself. They were just... gone. No bodies, no blood, no signs of struggle. Just cold fires."
"Gone how?" Elesa asked.
"That's the question, isn't it? Whatever took them did it quiet and complete. Even took the bones." She adjusted her pack. "Anyway, watch yourselves. This wasteland's getting stranger by the day."
She moved past them, heading west toward Aegis. They watched her go, each thinking about her warning.
"People don't just disappear," Xander said. "There's always evidence. Chemical dissolution, biological consumption, something."
"Unless they were taken," Jyn said quietly.
"Taken where? By what?"
He didn't answer because he didn't know. But the whispers were growing stronger, more insistent. Something was happening in the wasteland, something connected to the shard, to 'Nepheos', to the convergence his dream-parents had mentioned.
They continued east, the afternoon sun a pale disk behind the perpetual cloud cover. The Geiger counter clicked steadily, a metallic heartbeat marking their passage through invisible danger. The ground here was worse—cracked and broken, with crystalline formations pushing up through the earth like frozen explosions.
"Fallout glass," Xander identified. "We're getting close to a blast crater."
They skirted the worst of it, not wanting to expose themselves to the higher radiation levels at the crater's center. But even the edges were dangerous, the background radiation high enough to limit their time.
"There," she pointed to a cluster of rubble. "At least a dozen."It was Elesa who spotted them, a group of acid crabs.
Waste crabs were one of the wasteland's few success stories. The creatures had adapted to the radiation and toxins, their shells mutating into natural armor that could withstand acid rain and radiation both. They were also delicious, their meat one of the few reliable protein sources outside the agricultural zones.
"You think its worth the radiation exposure?" Jyn asked.
"If we're quick," Elesa decided. "We need the food, and the shells are valuable."
They'd done this before. Xander pulled out a net launcher—another of his inventions—while Jyn and Elesa positioned themselves to herd the crabs toward him.
The creatures scattered as they approached, moving with surprising speed on their six legs. But crabs were predictable, always heading for the nearest cover. Jyn and Elesa used that, driving them toward a gap between two concrete blocks where Xander waited.
The net launched with a soft whoosh, expanding in flight to envelope three crabs. They clicked and snapped, their claws strong enough to cut through steel given time, but the net was woven from Ceramic fiber—just as strong if made right.
"Got them!" Xander announced triumphantly.
They worked quickly to secure the crabs, binding their claws with wire and placing them in reinforced carry bags. The meat would keep them fed for days, the crabs were several feet tall and just as wide and long, and the shells could be traded for ammunition or medical supplies.
"Time," Elesa warned. "We're pushing safe exposure limits."
They withdrew from the high-radiation zone, their counters slowly clicking back to safer levels. The crabs clicked and hissed in their bags, but they'd quiet down soon enough.
The sun was starting to set, painting the wasteland in shades of orange and red that almost made it beautiful. Almost. The shadows were growing longer, and in the wasteland, darkness meant increased danger. Nocturnal predators, temperature drops that could swing rapidly, and worst of all, the psychological weight of not being able to see threats coming. with the clould cover always overhead here all light bloted out to make complete darkness.
"We should head back," Elesa suggested. "We've got good salvage, samples, and food. No need to push our luck."
Jyn wanted to agree. Every instinct told him to return to Aegis, to safety and light and walls that kept the darkness at bay. But the shard was pulling him, stronger than ever, toward something to the east. Something important.
"One more hour," he said. "There's something... I need to check something."
His friends exchanged glances but didn't argue. They trusted him, even when he couldn't explain himself.
The shard led them through a maze of collapsed buildings, past vehicles and the occasional skeletal remains of those who hadn't made it to shelter when the bombs fell. The pull was specific, like a compass guiding them.