2025-07-29 00:11:53The SUV’s engine rumbled low and steady like a warning growl. Jared stood beside it for a moment, listening, testing—every gear, every turn, every tremor in the machine. It wasn’t perfect. It wouldn’t outrun an explosion. But it would move, and in the days ahead, that was enough.
He wiped his hands clean, though the grease clung to his fingers like guilt. The garage lights flickered. Another surge. The city’s power grid was failing in waves now, and no one was fixing it.
[Time Remaining: 68 hrs 42 mins]
[Objective Update: Gather Med Supplies – In Progress]
The system had gone quiet after that, no new prompts. No help. Just a countdown.
He turned back toward the house.
A sharp voice echoed through the halls upstairs—Mrs. Bai, again, her shrill tone cutting through silence like shattered glass.
“You’re saying we can’t get through to the warehouse? What do you mean gone dark? Are you telling me the entire eastern district shut down and no one knows why?”
Jared climbed the steps slowly, each footfall careful and quiet.
He reached the top landing and saw chaos in motion.
Mr. Bai stood near the window, phone pressed to his ear, face pale as ash. Beside him, his wife paced with fury in her heels, clutching her tablet like it held answers. Mei sat on the couch, biting her thumbnail, her eyes darting from screen to screen on the TV.
News reports played on a loop.
Riot in Port Harrow.
Supermarket looted in broad daylight.
A man attacking paramedics on Main Street.
No motive. No warning.
Just… rage.
“What’s happening to people?” Mei whispered.
Jared watched her for a second longer than he should’ve. Her soft voice didn’t match the fear in her eyes. This wasn’t the world she was raised in. The ivory tower was crumbling—and she had no idea how to breathe in the dust.
Mrs. Bai finally turned, catching sight of him. “You.”
Jared raised a brow. “Me?”
“You fixed the garage car, right? I want it moved into the covered port. It’s not going to sit outside in that filth.”
“I’ll get to it,” Jared said, voice flat.
“Now,” she snapped.
“Sure. Right after you all stop ignoring the fact that this city’s falling apart.”
That made the room pause.
Mr. Bai looked up from his call. Mei slowly turned toward him. Even the television anchor seemed to hold his breath.
“What did you just say?” Mrs. Bai asked, her voice sharp with disbelief.
“I said you’re pretending this is just a bad news cycle. But it’s not. This isn’t a riot. This isn’t a protest. It’s collapse,” Jared said evenly. “The supply chains are gone. Communications are failing. People are panicking. And in about three days, the real violence starts.”
Silence.
Then Mrs. Bai scoffed. “And what—now you’re some kind of expert? Please. You’re a mechanic, Jared. An unemployed son-in-law we dragged in from the streets out of pity.”
“Enough,” Mr. Bai barked, but his voice lacked bite.
Jared ignored her. His eyes went to Mei. “You saw it. You’ve been watching. You feel it in your chest, don’t you? That sense that something’s wrong—not just wrong, but different.”
Mei didn’t speak. But she didn’t look away either.
“Listen to me,” Jared continued, tone low. Measured. “In less than three days, whatever’s spreading will reach this neighborhood. And once it’s here, your gates and bodyguards won’t mean a thing.”
“We have a panic room,” Mr. Bai muttered, as if repeating a prayer.
Jared nodded slowly. “Sure. You do. But it’s stocked for maybe a week. After that? You’ll need fuel. Food. Water. And good luck finding it when the whole city’s tearing itself apart.”
“You sound insane,” Mrs. Bai spat.
He turned to her now. Fully. Calm, but firm.
“I sound prepared. You’ve spent years treating me like a ghost in this house. Useless. Weak. Like I belonged beneath your heels,” Jared said. “But here’s what’s going to happen. In about sixty-eight hours, those same heels will be soaked in blood, and you’ll realize the world doesn’t care how rich you were. It only cares how fast you ran and who you stepped on to survive.”
Mrs. Bai opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Jared took a slow breath, then turned to Mei again. “You still have time. If you want to come with me when I leave, I’ll keep you safe. But I won’t ask twice.”
Mei stared at him like she didn’t know who he was. And maybe she didn’t. Not this version. Not the one who wasn’t afraid anymore.
Jared turned and walked out without waiting for a response.
Outside, the sky had turned gray.
Thick smoke crept in from the northern districts, and sirens had given way to silence. The kind of silence that rang too loud. That hinted at something breathing in the dark.
He stepped into the SUV and closed the door.
There was a knock on the window. He looked up—and saw her.
Mei.
She stood stiffly, arms crossed, hugging herself. Her voice muffled through the glass.
“Where would we even go?”
He rolled the window down halfway. “Out of the city. Into the hills. I know a place.”
She hesitated. “And my parents?”
Jared’s jaw clenched. “You know they won’t come. Not until it’s too late.”
She didn’t answer right away. Then nodded once. “I’ll pack.”
He watched her turn and hurry inside, and for the first time in hours, something shifted inside him. Not relief. Not comfort. But resolve.
He wasn’t just surviving anymore. He was choosing who to save.
[System Update: Companion Acquired – Mei Bai]
[Survival Bonus Activated: +15% Resource Luck]
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 67- The Thing About Freedom
POV: JaredJared does not tell Emma where he is going.Not because he wants to hide it from her, but because he knows she would come if he asked. And this is something he needs to face without her steadying the ground beneath his feet.The imprint waits where she found it.It does not look dangerous. That is its trick.The place feels quieter than the rest of the world, like sound itself is holding its breath. The air has a faint pressure to it, the kind you feel before rain, before something gives way. The ground here does not quite commit to being solid. It remembers something else.Jared steps closer.The imprint stirs.It recognizes him immediately.Not with words. With knowing.The world tilts, gently, and then the visions begin.Not explosions. Not triumph. No glory.Relief.He sees Emma sitting beside the river, whole in a way that makes his chest ache. Her breath steady. Her gaze clear. No pauses. No flickers. No fear hiding behind her eyes. She laughs without checking herself
Chapter 66- What He Would Erase
POV: EmmaThe question slips out of her before she can stop it.They are not arguing. That is the worst part. There is no raised voice to blame it on. No sharp edge to pretend caused the damage.They are sitting near the river where the water moves slow and patient, like it has nowhere else it needs to be. Jared is skipping stones, not very well. Each one either sinks immediately or hits the surface wrong and dies with a sad sound.Emma watches his hands. Strong. Scarred now. Real.She tells herself not to ask.She asks anyway.“If you could change one thing,” she says quietly, staring at the water instead of him, “would it be me?”The world does not react.The river keeps moving. A bird calls somewhere far off. The question does not echo or shatter anything. It just exists.Jared’s hand stills.He does not throw the stone.He does not answer.That pause stretches, thin and unbearable.Emma feels it inside her chest like pressure building behind glass.She should not have asked. She k
Chapter 65- The Weight of Knowing
POV: JaredJared notices it in the pauses.Emma still walks beside him. Still listens. Still answers when he speaks. But the spaces between her words have grown careful, like she is choosing where not to step.She laughs less. When she does, it comes late, like an echo that almost didn’t bother returning.That night, the fire burns low. Not dying. Just contained. Jared feeds it small sticks, one at a time, watching the way the flames respond immediately now. No correction. No delay. Cause and effect, clean and honest.Emma sits across from him, knees pulled in, arms looped loosely around them. She is staring into the fire but not really seeing it.He does not say her name at first.He waits.The waiting stretches. Too long.“Okay,” he says finally, keeping his voice light on purpose. “You’ve been doing that thing.”She blinks. “What thing?”“The quiet one,” he replies. “The one where you think if you don’t move too much, the world won’t notice you’re there.”Her mouth curves slightly.
Chapter 64- The Imprint
POV: EmmaEmma notices it because the birds stop mid-sound.Not silence. Worse than silence. The echo of a sound that forgets how to finish.She is standing near the riverbank, rinsing dirt from her hands, when the water ripples wrong. Not outward. Inward. Like the surface hesitates, then resumes pretending nothing happened.Her breath catches.She does not call for Jared.Instinct tells her this is not for both of them.She steps closer. The ground feels normal under her boots until it does not. One step is solid, the next sinks a fraction too deep, then snaps back like it regrets allowing her weight. Her head pulses faintly, not pain, just pressure behind the eyes.The world here stutters.She kneels slowly and presses her palm to the earth.It is warm.Not sunlight warm. Active warm.Her glasses are gone. Her tools are gone. But her mind still knows how to listen. She closes her eyes and lets the feeling rise instead of fighting it.Something answers.Not a voice. Not code. A prese
Chapter 63- Something That Lasts a Night
POV: JaredBy the time the light starts to tilt, Jared realizes they have been walking in loose circles.Not lost. Just not going anywhere on purpose.The world here does not rush them. Shadows stretch slowly. The air cools without warning. When the sun lowers, it does not feel like a threat, but it does feel like a question.He stops near a cluster of trees and looks around.“This is as good as anywhere,” he says.Emma nods. She looks tired in a way that has nothing to do with weakness. More like she is learning how to exist inside a body again. She lowers herself onto a rock and watches him.“So,” she says lightly. “What’s the plan?”Jared stares at the trees.He has led evacuations. Built fortresses underground. Optimized supply chains while cities burned. But right now, all he sees is wood and uneven ground and the fact that night is coming whether he is ready or not.“We build something,” he says.She raises an eyebrow. “Something permanent?”He lets out a short breath. “Somethin
Chapter 62- Emma Forgets
POV: EmmaIt happens in the middle of a sentence.Emma is talking about the river. About how the water sounds different here, like it knows where it is going. She is explaining it badly, she knows she is, using her hands too much, trying to describe something that feels more than it sounds.Then she is sitting down.The ground is cool against her palms. Her breath is wrong, too fast, like she has been running. Her heart stutters once, then starts again, hard and uneven.She blinks.Jared is crouched in front of her.Not rushing. Not shouting her name. Just there, steady, eyes sharp, like he has already measured the situation and decided not to be afraid.That scares her more than panic would have.“How long?” she asks.Jared tilts his head slightly. “A few seconds.”Her mouth feels dry. “I was standing.”“You were,” he says.“And talking.”“You were doing that too.”She presses her fingers into the dirt, grounding herself in the pressure. The world feels intact. Too intact. That makes
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