The engine hummed quietly, the only sound for miles. Ahead, the road had crumbled into broken pieces, lost under the dust of the Wastes. Behind them, the sun rose and stretched long shadows over the land.
Jace sat in the passenger seat and watched the horizon. Theo drove quietly, one hand on the wheel and the other close to his blade. He sat stiffly, his face hard to read.
Jace finally spoke. "That city we passed through... the one with the collapsed towers and the blackened glass. That reminds me of something."
Theo didn't look at him. "It's called Manila. It was once a trade hub, I believe. Now it's just another corpse."
Jace blinked. "That's why it felt familiar."
Theo's voice was flat. "What do you mean?"
"Well..." Jace leaned back, arms crossed. "It was a lively city. Cars everywhere. Malls. Traffic was so bad that it made you question your life choices. I saw the old road signs yesterday while we were walking."
Theo's brow twitched. "So it was a business center."
"Yup," Jace said. "And now it's just... gone."
Theo didn't respond.
Jace exhaled. "You ever wonder what it was like before all this? Before the Veil, the Fracture"
Theo's eyes stayed on the road. "Wondering doesn't change anything."
"Maybe not," Jace said. "But it just kind of sucks. I mean, I sense that society hasn't really changed. Still power-hungry. Still broken. Just dressed in ruins now."
Theo's grip on the wheel tightened. "Corruption doesn't die with the old world. It adapts."
Jace glanced at him. "So you agree?"
Theo's voice was low. "I've seen what they do to anyone who steps out of line. It's not justice. It's control."
Jace nodded slowly. "Then maybe the Fracture didn't cleanse anything. Just gave monsters new masks."
Theo's jaw flexed, but he said nothing.
Jace looked out the window, watching the desolate landscape roll by. "It's terrifying, you know. Waking up in a world where myths walk and the sky bleeds twilight. You don't get how insane that is."
Theo's voice was quiet. "I do."
Jace turned to him. "Then why do you keep going?"
Theo's eyes flicked toward him, sharp and unreadable. "Because stopping means dying. And I'm not done yet."
Jace hesitated, then leaned forward. "Back in the Wastes... those things we saw. The ones that exploded when they died. Why did they look like that?"
Theo's voice was flat. "Their cores are unstable. The energy builds up, warps the body, scrambles the mind."
Jace frowned. "They looked like zombies."
Theo scoffed. "Not zombies. Mutants. Twisted people, animals, sometimes just organic matter that got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Jace's gaze darkened. "I saw them in the tapes. Early experiments. They injected Aether into living subjects. Thought they could weaponize it. Heal people. Enhance soldiers. But it didn't work. It just broke them."
Theo didn't speak, but his grip on the wheel shifted.
Jace continued, quieter now. "Some of them were still conscious. You could see it in their eyes. Like they knew what they'd become."
Theo's voice dropped. "That's why we burn the bodies. No salvage. No mercy."
Jace didn't speak for a moment. Then: "You've fought them before."
Theo's jaw flexed. "I've put down more than I can count."
Jace looked out the window again, the silence pressing in. "So they're not just leftovers. They're still out there."
Theo nodded once. "Scattered. Dormant. But they surface when the core fields spike."
Jace muttered, "Like in the city waste."
Theo didn't respond.
They kept driving in silence. The ground got rougher, and the road narrowed into a cracked, overgrown path. Jace frowned and leaned forward.
"Uh... we're off the main track."
Theo didn't slow down. "I know."
Jace looked around. "Why?"
"There's a checkpoint at the main entrance to the forest," Theo said. "We're not going through it."
Jace blinked. "So we're detouring?"
Theo gave a curt nod. "There's another way in."
Jace narrowed his eyes. "You mean a secret way."
Theo didn't confirm or deny it.
Jace studied him. "You've done this before."
Theo's voice was flat. "I know the terrain."
Jace let it go for now. He was starting to put things together. Theo wasn't just a soldier. He knew things the Citadel probably wanted to keep secret.
The vehicle slowed as the path narrowed into a thicket of twisted roots and skeletal trees. Theo killed the engine.
"We walk from here," he said, stepping out and slinging his gear over his shoulder.
Jace followed, his boots crunching on the dry ground. With each step, the air got colder and smelled of rot and damp moss. The trees above were twisted and bare, their branches tangled. There were no birds or signs of life, only the wind moving through the dead trees like a warning.
He shivered, pulling his jacket tighter. "This place gives me the creeps."
Theo didn't slow. "Good. It should."
Jace glanced around, unease creeping into his voice. "Okay, not funny. This feels like one of those found footage films. I don't want to die again."
Theo didn't respond.
They stepped deeper into the forest, swallowed by shadow.