The plains were silent after the EMP. The sky hung low and gray, as if the world itself was holding its breath.Dust blew in long, soft waves, and the remains of the old silver towers lay scattered like bones across the ground. But in the middle of that empty silence, something began to move.It started as a pulse beneath the dirt. A slow and heavy beat, like the thump of a giant heart. The soil trembled with each pulse. Pebbles rattled. Old cables hidden under the earth twitched as if waking from a long sleep. Then the light came.A thin red line cracked through the dirt. It spread in a circle, glowing brighter with every second. The pulse grew louder, deeper, stronger. It did not sound like a machine. It sounded alive.A rumble rose from beneath. The ground split open. A massive pillar of red light shot upward like a spear. It tore through soil and stone.The brightness burned against the gray sky. Red dust fell like ash. The air buzzed with static, but it was not the soft hum of t

The wind over the plain carried a strange stillness. It moved softly across the broken ground, touching the shattered towers, brushing against the cold stones, yet it felt as if the world had forgotten how to breathe. The dawn light was pale and weak, as if the sky itself was uncertain of its own color after the terrible blast that had swallowed New Crest only hours before.Lisa ran across the plain with dirt on her face and tears burning behind her eyes. Her legs trembled with every step, but she did not stop. She could not stop. Not when she had seen the city collapse into silence. Not when the world had frozen in that unnatural white flash. And not when she had watched Jonah vanish inside the blaze like a man pulled away by the breath of creation itself.“Jonah,” she whispered between gasps. Her voice cracked again and again, but she kept running. “Please be alive. Please be here. Please do not leave me.”The plain ahead stretched endlessly, a field of twisted remains. Pieces of

Night came slowly over the plains, as if the sky itself was afraid to breathe too fast. A soft blue glow spread across the horizon, gentle and quiet, like a calm wave rolling over sand. The air felt cool. The wind moved lightly through the broken towers, brushing against metal like a hand trying to comfort a wounded friend.Jonah stood at the edge of the plain, staring at the world with tired eyes. He looked thin now, almost fragile, as if the battle between breath and code had cut pieces from him. His hair blew gently in the evening wind. His golden eyes reflected the soft light of the sky. He held his arms against his chest as if trying to stop something inside from shaking.Lisa walked toward him from behind. Her footsteps were soft, but Jonah noticed the sound immediately. He turned a little, his gaze gentle when he saw her. The glow of the fading sun touched her face, lighting her features in a warm amber color. She stopped next to him without speaking. For a long moment, the

The night felt wrong the moment Jonah opened his eyes. He had been sitting on the north balcony of the half-rebuilt council hall. Lisa slept in a chair beside him, her head resting against the wall. Kevin lay curled on a blanket near the railing, sleeping deeply for the first time in days. The city around them was quiet, filled with soft blue light from the towers that still obeyed the Breath-Born. But something in the darkness had changed.Jonah could feel it under his skin. A slow vibration pulsed through the stone, rising into his bones like a distant heartbeat. He pressed a hand to his chest. His pulse jumped and wavered as if answering a call he did not want to hear. He whispered to himself, “No. Not again.”The wind shifted. A cold breeze blew across the balcony, carrying the faint smell of metal and dust. Jonah stood slowly. The air around him buzzed, almost too soft to notice. But he felt it. It wrapped around him like invisible fingers brushing along his shoulders.A whis

The sky over New Crest was a deep and unnatural blue when Lisa prepared to leave. Dawn had barely touched the rooftops, but the air already felt heavy, pressed down by something that did not belong to the world. People whispered on the balconies as she walked through the streets. They watched her in silence, too afraid to speak, because every person in the city knew what lay to the east.The red zone. The place where the new tower rose like a wound.Lisa tightened the straps of her pack and looked one last time at the lantern in her hand. Jonah’s old lantern. The glass glowed with a soft blue flame that did not fade even in the wind. This light was strange, alive, and the only thing that could push away the static fog that rolled out from the red tower each night.Jonah stood nearby with Kevin beside him. Jonah’s face looked more tired each day. Blue veins glimmered just under his skin like lines of star-light, and sometimes Lisa caught him staring at the horizon with fear he trie