2026-08-09 15:06:21
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Chapter 58: The Wolf King's Dead Eyes
"Director, I need to be direct with you Team Seven can't take another Riverside assignment. Send us back in, we don't come out."Ryan delivered it as plainly as he could manage, with no read on how Grant might actually respond.Whatever her decision, he had no intention of being part of it going forward. His only real priority now was keeping the rest of his people alive."He let you walk. Grayson died because he attacked first?"Ryan nodded. Full honesty, straight through no version of this conversation he wanted to navigate with half-truths.Grant sat with that, jaw tight. The pattern held consistent, at least: don't attack Subject One, and you walked away breathing. Every fatality on record traced back to someone striking first.But Adrian and Cyrus were still unaccounted for, actively in his custody. If he was harvesting their abilities if that process simply took time rather than being impossible the ceiling on what he might eventually become didn't just threaten this city.It th
Chapter 57: Summoning Spirits
There was no mistaking it the talking thing in front of them was Subject One. The pressure radiating off him alone was enough to short-circuit rational thought."Zoe NOW!"Everyone grabbed hands on instinct, exactly as planned.It didn't matter. Before Ryan even finished the order, every one of them dropped to their knees right alongside Zoe, following her lead whether they meant to or not."What is this, some kind of kids' game? Holding hands in a circle?"Chase drifted down from the sky, watching Ryan with open amusement.Only purple-tier cores present on this team nothing worth his real attention. He'd mostly come down for the entertainment value at this point.Ryan finally understood, viscerally, exactly what Zoe had been trying to warn them about. Real fear, the kind that hit before you even had a chance to process the threat properly.And she'd been through this twice already.There's always someone willing to test their luck before fully clocking what they're up against a trait
Chapter 56: Chase's Bad Sense of Humor
Pigeons started trickling back one by one, Palmer working through each report as it landed.One arrived visibly frantic, wings beating hard, clearly agitated."Whoa hey, slow down"Palmer struggled to parse the bird's frantic cooing."Coo-coo-coo-coo!""Wait what? Another zombie back there? What are you even""Coo, coo, coo!""It's coming HERE?"Palmer followed the pigeon's gaze and, sure enough, spotted a second bird inbound.This one was clearly wrong. Feathers matted dark red with blood, wingbeats stiff and mechanical."...What is that thing."As it closed the distance, Zoe's skin crawled hard enough to nearly buckle her knees. A ragged wound gaped in the bird's chest, ringed by a dense knot of tumorous growth. Its eyes had gone fully red, movements jerky and unnatural."RUN! Everybody RUN!"Something about it read to Zoe as personal a message, aimed directly at her."Zoe, it's a pigeon. We're fine." Ryan relaxed the second he confirmed it wasn't mutant-tier. He raised his sidearm,
Chapter 55: Vanessa's Chess Game
Vanessa had the chessboard set up in the base's game room, working through the pieces with careful, deliberate focus.Her eighth match tonight. Alone, same as every night this week."Well now a girl playing chess solo, and elegantly at that."A man's voice, right on schedule. Vanessa felt a spark of genuine satisfaction carefully hidden behind a startled little flinch."Sorry didn't mean to startle you.""It's fine. I was too focused on the board to notice anyone come in.""Why play alone, though?"The man's confusion sounded genuine."My father taught me when I was little. We used to play together constantly, growing up. He always said life works the same way chess does you give things up to get something better down the line. I'll never get to play with him again, and tonight I just... really missed him."Vanessa let a practiced sadness settle over her face, fully committed to the role of the grieving daughter, still mourning her beloved father.The man looked visibly moved, and sat
Chapter 54: Unlucky Zoe and Dylan
After a few days settling into the base, Victor had come around to how genuinely fortunate their situation was.Luxury accommodations. Supplies to spare. A roster of seriously capable people standing between his family and everything outside these walls.He'd stayed vague about the specifics of his own ability, sticking to the surface-level version waking awareness of the exact time. Nobody pushed for more.Nina, meanwhile, had no such reservations about her bubble-blowing power, showing it off freely and to her genuine surprise, nobody treated it as a joke. If anything, people seemed to actively enjoy watching her work.Victor had also clocked a couple of residents running abilities that turned people around and forced them into planks and even they seemed to have carved out a comfortable place here.This whole place runs on something I haven't seen anywhere else since the outbreak started. An actual community.These past few days had easily been the happiest stretch either Ellie or
Chapter 53: Miles's Whereabouts
"Adrian's entire rookie squad wiped out?! And both his and Cyrus's teams are unaccounted for?!""Confirmed, Director. Cyrus was operating close to Adrian's position right before contact was lost, so it's likely he's caught up in the same incident. Scene showed signs of combat, but not chaotic precise. Whoever did this dropped most of the squad almost instantly. Adrian and Cyrus's status is unknown, but the odds don't look good."Grant nearly lost her footing and had to steady herself against the desk.Adrian wasn't just muscle his ability ranked among the strongest on record at the base, full stop. He also ran point on training for every high-potential combat recruit that came through, a role nobody else had matched for results.Something took down his entire team, instantly, and he's just... gone?Cyrus, meanwhile, was arguably the base's best-kept secret weapon power tier on par with Adrian's, backed by a genuinely unique resource pool. Some of what those cards could do bordered on
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