2025-05-10 20:55:34Chapter 6
Kaia had only four hours left. Her timer blinked relentlessly on her wrist: 00:04:00:00. Every second felt louder now, echoing in her ears like a ticking bomb. But she wouldn’t spend those final hours trembling or waiting. She needed to make them count. That morning, as the camp stirred under a cloudy sky, Kaia walked with purpose toward the storeroom. The others had gone quiet around her lately—not out of cruelty, but out of helplessness. How do you speak to someone whose life is measured in hours? She had been tasked with checking the food supplies, counting the inventory, making sense of what was left and how long it could sustain them. A task meant for someone who might not live to see its benefit. Still, Kaia welcomed the duty. It gave her something to do—something to focus on. But just before she pushed open the storeroom door, the weight of memory overtook her. She paused, leaning against the wooden frame, eyes fluttering shut as the past surged forward. It had been just three weeks before the crash. Kaia had been spinning with joy. Sunlight filtered through her bedroom window that day, scattering golden patterns on her walls as she twirled in front of the mirror. Her hand extended proudly, flashing the delicate engagement ring on her finger. A soft, shimmering band of white gold, crowned with a brilliant oval diamond. Her fiancé, Aaron, had gotten on one knee in the middle of a botanical garden, surrounded by orchids and ivy. Her heart had nearly burst. They were in love—deep, silly, stubborn love. Aaron’s goofy sense of humor, his wild curly hair, his way of memorizing every detail about her favorite books—it had all carved a permanent space in her soul. And then the phone call came. It was her aunt, voice trembling. “Kaia… you need to come home. It’s your mother. The cancer’s back. It’s aggressive.” Kaia sat in stunned silence. Her mother—her best friend, her lighthouse, her everything—was dying. It had been three years since her mother’s last remission. They thought it was over. But it wasn’t. Regret came crashing in next. Their last conversation had ended in sharp words and wounded silence. Her mother had said Aaron was too much of a dreamer, and Kaia had shouted that she didn’t need her mother’s approval to be happy. They hadn’t spoken since. But now, none of that mattered. Kaia immediately booked a flight. She told Aaron she wanted to tell her mother the news in person. “She needs to hear it from me,” she whispered. “She needs to know before… before it’s too late.” She had stared at her engagement ring the entire drive to the airport. She imagined her mother’s smile when she heard. Maybe it would help. Maybe it would be the one bright spark in her mother’s fading days. And then… the crash. The flames. The smoke. The black sky. And silence. Now she was here. In a place with no cities, no stars, no answers—only a countdown. Kaia opened her eyes again. The storeroom door creaked as she pushed it open. The air inside was cool and musty, with shelves of boxes, canned food, and scattered supplies stacked unevenly against the walls. This place was their lifeline, and Kaia was determined to get it organized. She pulled out a notepad and began counting methodically. Canned beans. Powdered milk. Dried fruit. Empty water jugs. Half-eaten boxes of cereal. As she moved from shelf to shelf, a rustling noise caught her attention. “Hello?” she called. A little head popped out from behind a sack of potatoes. A girl—couldn’t be older than eight. Her big eyes widened at the sight of Kaia. “It’s okay,” Kaia said gently. “Don’t be afraid. What are you doing here?” The girl clutched something behind her back. “I… I wanted a candy bar.” Kaia smiled. “Well, you could’ve just asked.” She walked over to a crate, dug around, and pulled out two candy bars. She handed them to the girl. “Thank you!” the girl beamed. Her name was Lilah. “Want to help me count some things?” Kaia asked. The girl nodded enthusiastically. They worked together for a while—Kaia writing notes, Lilah reading labels and stacking cans. Kaia checked the little girl’s timer out of curiosity. 73 years, 2 months. She felt something sharp twist in her chest. Envy? No. That wasn’t her. She wasn’t that kind of person. But the jealousy pricked her like a needle. Why does she get so long? What makes her different? Kaia pushed the thought away and tried to smile. “What were you doing before the crash, Lilah?” “We were going on vacation,” Lilah said cheerfully. “My mom and dad and me. They work a lot, so we were going to a cabin. No phones. Just us.” Kaia’s heart squeezed. “That sounds lovely.” “I think they wanted to be a family again,” Lilah said thoughtfully. Kaia reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind the girl’s ear. “That’s really special.” She gave Lilah a small task. “Can you run into that room over there and bring me any cans of meat you see?” “Okay!” the girl chirped and skipped off. Kaia continued counting, but minutes passed and Lilah didn’t return. “Lilah?” Kaia called. No answer. She set her notepad down and walked quickly to the side room. The door was slightly ajar. “Lilah, are you—” She stopped. Inside, Lilah stood frozen. A man loomed over her, a bag full of stolen food in his arms. One of Zane’s men. Kaia recognized him—scruffy, broad-shouldered, with twitchy eyes. His hand gripped Lilah’s wrist. His gaze flicked up when he saw Kaia. “You,” he said with a snort. “You’ve got four hours, right?” Kaia’s fists clenched. “Let her go.” He released Lilah’s wrist and nudged her aside. “Relax. Just talkin’. Told her I wanted to see her timer, that’s all.” Kaia stepped forward. “You were taking food. Taking it to Zane, weren’t you?” The man shrugged, stepping closer. “You going to stop me? You’ve got four hours left. What’re you gonna do?” Kaia stood her ground. “I’m still in charge of the food. I still have a voice.” He laughed bitterly. “Nah. You’re already dead. Everyone knows it. You’re just a ghost waiting to drop.” He came closer, eyes darkening. “Matter of fact…” he murmured. “Maybe I’m doing you a favor. You’ve got so little time left, you might as well enjoy your last minutes. Let a real man show you something before you go.” Kaia’s blood ran cold. His hand shot out, grabbing her wrist. She yanked away. “You don’t want to do this,” she hissed. He grabbed her again, harder this time. “Come on, sweetheart. Don’t fight. Four hours
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THE WEIGHT OF JUSTICE
The air was thick with tension.Inside the community hall—an abandoned gymnasium now repurposed for meetings—the crowd stood in uneasy silence. Makeshift lanterns swayed gently from ceiling hooks, casting flickers of light over anxious faces. A few people whispered, but most simply stared ahead, waiting.Kaia sat slumped on a wooden bench, her wound freshly bandaged, her body weak and sore. She didn’t look at anyone. Not at the murmuring crowd, not at Elias who hovered nearby, and certainly not at Leon, who stood at the front with the authority of a self-appointed judge.It had been barely an hour since Elias had found her crawling from the storage room, bleeding and gasping, her clothes torn and her eyes wild with pain. He had carried her to safety, shouting for help. The others had gathered quickly. They listened as Kaia, trembling and pale, told them what happened—that she had been attacked, that she had defended herself, and that she hadn’t meant to kill.But when they checked her
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SURVIVAL
Kaia felt the weight of her body crash against the cold, hard floor. Each breath felt as if it were drawn through a tight, constricting hole in her chest. Her body burned with the memory of the violence she had endured only hours earlier. She could feel the blood from her wounds sticking to her clothes, the ache of her ribs bruised from the struggle, the sharp pain in her shoulder where the man’s grip had crushed her. But none of that compared to the emotional toll—the shame, the fear, and the confusion that kept swirling in her mind like a storm that wouldn’t stop.The man had been more than an attacker. He had been a reminder of the danger lurking in every corner of this strange, lawless place. The assault, the fight for her life, was only the beginning. She had killed him—self-defense, yes, but something deeper gnawed at her soul. Had she killed him because he had hurt her, or had she killed him because she wanted his time?The thoughts circled relentlessly in her mind as she dragg
THE ECHOES FROM THE PAST
Kaia never thought she'd find herself back in that place again—not physically, but emotionally, mentally, in the twisted, nightmarish loop of helplessness. It was the same sick feeling. The same overwhelming panic. The same disbelief.She had been fourteen.It was a rainy afternoon, and her parents had friends over for a small gathering. One of them—her father’s longtime business associate, a man named Ronan—had asked Kaia to help him fetch a book from the study. She had hesitated, but her father nodded encouragingly. "He just needs help finding something," he said.The study was at the far end of the house, quiet, too quiet. When Kaia stepped in and began scanning the shelves, Ronan closed the door behind him. She turned, confused. He smiled.That smile still haunted her."You're growing up so beautifully, Kaia," he'd said, stepping too close.When she tried to move back, he cornered her. His hand brushed against her waist, and when she tried to yell, his palm slapped over her mouth.
KAIA'S FOCUS
Chapter 6 Kaia had only four hours left. Her timer blinked relentlessly on her wrist: 00:04:00:00. Every second felt louder now, echoing in her ears like a ticking bomb. But she wouldn’t spend those final hours trembling or waiting. She needed to make them count. That morning, as the camp stirred under a cloudy sky, Kaia walked with purpose toward the storeroom. The others had gone quiet around her lately—not out of cruelty, but out of helplessness. How do you speak to someone whose life is measured in hours? She had been tasked with checking the food supplies, counting the inventory, making sense of what was left and how long it could sustain them. A task meant for someone who might not live to see its benefit. Still, Kaia welcomed the duty. It gave her something to do—something to focus on. But just before she pushed open the storeroom door, the weight of memory overtook her. She paused, leaning against the wooden frame, eyes fluttering shut as the past surged forward. It had b
DIVIDED GROUND
The sun was just beginning to crest the hills when the group convened again, this time around the charred remnants of a fallen tree near the center of the camp. The air still felt thick with the tension of the previous day’s burial. A few familiar faces were missing—Zane, along with three others whose names Kaia barely remembered. Their absence did not go unnoticed.“They’re with Zane now,” Leon said flatly, scanning the group. “They didn’t show up for breakfast, didn’t show up for cleanup. They’ve made their choice.”Kaia sat on a rock, her elbows on her knees, her body weary. She looked down at her wristwatch. 1 day, 8 hours. The numbers glowed back at her with eerie indifference. Her time was almost gone.Someone had drawn a rough circle in the dirt, organizing where people sat. There were eleven of them now. The meeting had to continue, despite everything. They needed structure. Direction. Safety.“We didn’t finish what we started,” Leon continued. “Yesterday, we tried to organize
GRAVES AND RECONING
The wind swept across the open plain where they had chosen to bury the bodies. The sky was a muted gray, heavy with silence. They had no shovels, so they had used whatever they could find—metal trays, broken seat backs from the crash, even bare hands. The two shallow graves were carved side by side, surrounded by a somber crowd. There were no prayers, no final words. Just silence.Kaia stood with her arms folded tightly around her chest. Her eyes were swollen, her face pale. Some of the others cast glances at her—some sympathetic, some suspicious. After all, death had come fast and brutal to this place.Zane showed up late. His boots crunched against the dry earth as he approached the gathering. All heads turned. The air grew colder.“What are you doing here?” Leon asked, stepping forward. “You here to finish the job?”Zane’s eyes scanned the group, resting briefly on the fresh graves. “I have a right to be here,” he said.“No, you had the right before you stabbed Kul,” someone else m
THE FIRST RULE
They woke up to a strange stillness—too quiet for a world that looked alive. The sun was just beginning to rise, casting a faint orange glow over the endless grassy plain. Dew clung to the cabin’s broken windowpanes, and for a moment, it felt like they had all dreamed the day before.But then Elias saw the body. Kul had helped move it during the night, wrapping it in a dusty tarp from one of the sheds. It now lay silently under the trees just beyond the cabin. A reminder. The countdowns were real.Inside, the others were stirring. Kaia sat alone in the far corner, her knees drawn to her chest, staring blankly at the floor. Her timer still showed 2 Days, 8 Hours. Elias didn’t disturb her. She hadn’t said a word since last night.“Everyone up,” a man called out. Elias turned to see Leon, the older man with graying hair, standing with his arms crossed. “We need to meet. Now. Out front.”Within minutes, everyone gathered outside, forming a loose circle under the early morning light. Some
THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS
The silence after the man’s death wasn’t just heavy—it was suffocating. Elias couldn’t look away from the lifeless body sprawled on the grass. The man’s timer, once bright with the final moments of his life, now displayed a black, empty void. No numbers. No light. Just a dead screen, like a lamp that had gone out forever. Someone had died—because their timer hit zero. It wasn’t a coincidence. It wasn’t symbolic. It was real. “What the hell is this place?” a man muttered near Elias, pacing back and forth with his hands in his hair. “Where are the cities? The roads? What is this timer thing? Who’s doing this to us?” No one had an answer. But the fear, the panic—it was spreading like fire. Kaia, a girl with sharp cheekbones and unsteady hands, leaned against a tree and stared down at her wrist. Her lips were pale. She was whispering numbers beneath her breath. Elias stepped toward her slowly. “How long do you have?” She blinked at him, her breath catching in her throat. “
SILENCE
The world should have ended with the plane crash.Elias Ward had braced himself for the inevitable impact, his heart hammering in his chest as the plane dipped and jolted through turbulent skies. He had heard the screams of passengers, the rapid whoosh of air, and the sharp clang of overhead compartments flying open. Then, as if the universe itself had decided to hold its breath, the noise stopped. Everything went dark. When Elias finally opened his eyes, the first thing that hit him wasn’t the aftermath of a crash — there was no wreckage, no twisted metal, no fire. It was the silence. A silence so thick, it felt like the world had simply paused. He sat up slowly, blinking against the strange light that bathed everything around him. A pale blue sky stretched endlessly above, not a cloud in sight. The air was still, cool but not cold. His hands touched the ground, damp grass prickling against his palms. The oddest thing? There was no sign of the plane. His breath caught in his throa
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