2025-07-29 00:13:16Jared didn’t waste time watching Mei pack. He knew the moment she walked back into that house, she’d feel the pull of comfort again. The luxury. The lie. If he gave her too long, she might stay.
He loaded the SUV with what little gear he had—his old rucksack, a folded camp stove, a water filter he hadn’t touched in months. There was a sidearm buried in a lockbox under the driver’s seat. He checked it now, loading each bullet with mechanical precision.
[Time Remaining: 66 hrs 03 mins]
[Objective: Evacuate Safe Zone]
The system’s calm tone was beginning to unnerve him. Like a god whispering in a burning temple—offering guidance just moments before everything crumbled.
Mei came back out fifteen minutes later, wearing a dark hoodie and jeans, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She looked different. Smaller. Like the world had finally reached her skin.
“I didn’t bring much,” she murmured.
“Good,” Jared said. “We’ll need room for supplies.”
She climbed into the passenger seat without another word. When she reached for the seatbelt, her hands trembled. He noticed. Didn’t comment.
He started the engine.
The gate slid open slower than usual, its motors straining. As they rolled out into the neighborhood, Jared couldn’t help but glance in the rearview mirror. The Bai mansion sat tall and gleaming, like it still believed the world owed it protection.
It didn’t.
They were six blocks away when Mei broke the silence.
“Why are you helping me?”
Jared kept his eyes on the road. “Because you’re the only one who ever looked at me like I mattered. Even when your parents treated me like I was invisible, you didn’t. You just never said anything.”
She swallowed. “I didn’t know how.”
“I get it,” he said. “But this isn’t about guilt, Mei. It’s about surviving.”
They passed by a pharmacy. The glass front had been smashed in. Shelves picked clean. The street was littered with empty boxes, crushed pill bottles, wrappers. A man sat on the curb, cradling a plastic bag like it was gold.
“This started fast,” she said, voice small.
“It didn’t,” Jared replied. “It just went unnoticed.”
They reached the outer district checkpoint—a set of concrete barricades manned by two soldiers. Young. Nervous. Sweat clung to their foreheads despite the cool morning air.
Jared slowed down, rolled his window down halfway.
The taller soldier raised a hand. “ID?”
“Evacuating,” Jared said calmly. “Heading north.”
The second soldier peered into the SUV, eyes lingering on Mei. “That your sister?”
Jared smiled. “Wife.”
The soldier’s eyebrows lifted slightly, but he didn’t question it. “You’ve got thirty minutes. After that, we’re locking this checkpoint.”
“Understood.”
He nodded them through.
As the SUV pulled away, Mei exhaled slowly. “You’re good at lying.”
“I’m good at surviving.”
They drove for ten more minutes before the skyline behind them lit up.
A column of fire shot into the air—an explosion somewhere in the city core. The kind of fireball that didn’t just light up windows, but shook them.
Mei gasped, turning around in her seat. “That was downtown—Jared, my father’s office—”
“Don’t,” he said quietly. “Don’t look back.”
She didn’t answer. But she stopped turning.
They reached the first fuel point—a small service station Jared remembered from back when he did odd delivery runs. It was shuttered, but the side entrance had been broken open. Inside, two people were already raiding the place—a woman with wild eyes and a man clutching a tire iron like it was a sword.
Jared parked on the far side, grabbed his gun, and turned to Mei.
“Stay inside. Lock the doors. Don’t open them unless it’s me.”
She nodded, wide-eyed.
Jared stepped out, slow and steady. The gravel crunched under his boots.
The man saw him first. “Hey—back off, man. This one’s ours!”
Jared didn’t raise the gun, but he didn’t hide it either. “Relax. I just need a few supplies. You take what you need, I’ll take what I need. No fights.”
The woman hissed. “There’s no sharing anymore!”
“I’m not asking permission.”
The man stepped forward—too fast.
Jared moved faster.
In one clean motion, he slammed the butt of the gun into the man’s wrist, knocking the iron bar loose. A second step and his knee met ribs. The guy went down hard, gasping.
The woman screamed, reaching for her bag.
Jared didn’t fire. He simply stepped back, gun aimed now.
“Don’t. This isn’t worth dying for.”
The woman froze.
“Take your guy. Go.”
She didn’t argue. She dragged the man to his feet and stumbled out the door, cursing as she went.
Jared exhaled once, then turned and began moving through the shelves. He grabbed bottled water, a few remaining protein bars, two packs of bandages, painkillers. Not much. But enough.
Back in the SUV, Mei looked at him like he’d walked out of a warzone.
“You didn’t shoot them.”
“I didn’t need to.”
“They would’ve hurt you.”
He gave her a tired smile. “A lot of people will try in the days ahead. Doesn’t mean they’ll succeed.”
They kept driving.
The roads became narrower. Less paved. Nature crept in through cracks and curbs. Civilization started thinning out.
Mei turned toward him again. “Where are we really going?”
Jared looked ahead, his voice low. “A place I found years ago. Before I met your family. I used to live off the grid for a while, after the military.”
“You were in the military?” she asked, surprised.
“Special unit. Got out when things turned ugly.”
“You never told anyone.”
“No one ever asked.”
They crossed a bridge. Below, the river had already begun to fill with drifting wreckage—pieces of cities, of lives.
A second explosion rang out in the distance.
Jared didn’t flinch. Mei did.
She reached for his hand without thinking. He let her.
“Will we make it?” she asked quietly.
He glanced at her, and this time, his answer wasn’t hardened by experience or burdened by doubt. It was clear. Certain.
“Yes.”
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Chapter 85- What the World Is Becoming
POV: JaredI go farther than I ever meant to.It starts small. A longer walk. One more hill. A place I used to avoid because there was nothing there and nothing is dangerous when you are used to things breaking.But the nothing is gone now.There are paths.Not carved. Not forced. They curve the way feet prefer to move, the way water would choose if it had legs. I follow one and realize I am not deciding where to step. The ground already knows.I pass a frame of something that might become a shelter. Three walls leaning into each other, patient. No tool marks. No signs of hands. Just intention, paused mid-thought.I touch the surface. It is warm. Alive in that quiet way stone sometimes is when it remembers heat.There are people.Not echoes. Not visitors who vanish when you look too closely.People with packs and stories and tired eyes that have learned how to hope without making noise about it. They move carefully, like the world might change its mind if they rush.When they see me,
Chapter 84- Proof of Life
POV: JaredThe visitor returns on a morning that feels undecided.Not stormy. Not kind. The sort of morning that could become anything if pushed hard enough.They do not come alone this time.There are two of them now, standing where the ground still remembers Emma’s footsteps. One waits farther back, respectful or wary, I cannot tell. The other holds a narrow case against their chest. Not sealed. Not dramatic. Just carried like something that has already been opened too many times.I do not ask why they are here.I think part of me has been expecting this since the footprint by the river.They kneel. Open the case. Push it toward me.“There’s no point bringing images,” the visitor says. Their voice is softer than before, like they learned something since last we spoke. “Those can lie without knowing they’re lying.”Inside the case are three things.They are arranged without ceremony. No labels. No explanation. Just objects, trusting me to recognize the truth on my own.The first is a
Chapter 83- The Day the Journal Changes
POV: JaredI notice the journal first.Not because I am looking for it. It has learned how to find me on its own. It sits where it always does, near the window, catching the part of the morning light that feels undecided. I pick it up the way I always do, careful, familiar, like my hands remember rules my head did not make.I read the same page as yesterday. I am sure of that. I even remember where I stopped, the way her handwriting slanted when she got tired, the tiny pause before the sentence broke off.That is why my eyes trip.There is a line that does not belong.Not a new page. Not an ending. Something threaded in, quiet and precise, as if it had always been waiting for space.The ink is darker. The letters are steadier. Cleaner than the rest, like her hand did not hesitate even once.I read it again. Slower.I remember more when I’m farther away.The room feels smaller for a second. Or maybe I do.I flip back a page. Then forward. I check the margins, the binding, the spine, li
Chapter 82- Staying Still Means Trusting
POV: JaredTime does not pass the way I expected it to.It does not rush at me. It does not circle back to hurt me on purpose. It moves like the river does when no one is watching. Forward, uneven, sometimes quiet enough that I forget it is working at all.The first days are the hardest. Not because of pain. Because of habit.I keep turning to speak to her. I keep saving thoughts like spare coins, planning to hand them to her later. When I realize there is no later yet, my chest tightens, then loosens. Over and over. Like a muscle learning a new job.I do not break.That surprises me.Instead, I learn the shape of loneliness without panic. I learn that missing someone does not mean I am losing them. It just means there is space now, and space can be lived in.I talk. Out loud.At first it feels foolish, then it feels necessary.I tell the tree by the river about my dreams. The ones where the world glitches and she laughs like it is nothing. The river gets updates too. I explain my day
Chapter 81- The Goodbye That Isn’t One
POV: JaredEmma did not disappear.That was the lie I had been preparing myself for. Light. Noise. Some dramatic tearing of space that would give my grief something sharp to hook onto.Instead, she packed slowly.Not with bags. With pauses.She touched things like she was checking they were still real. The edge of the table. The wall where the shelter leaned a little to the left. The river stone she liked because it fit perfectly in her palm. She left it where it was.I stood a few steps away and did not help. Not because I did not want to. Because helping would have meant participating in the leaving, and I was not ready to be that honest.When she was done, she walked.No announcement. No speech. Just forward, toward the place where the air thinned and the world felt less certain. The visitor waited farther ahead, out of respect or strategy. I did not care which.The grass bent under her feet. Then sprang back up.Every instinct in me screamed to follow.I had chased her across coll
Chapter 80- Emma Chooses Something New
POV: JaredShe did not say it like a sacrifice.That was the first thing that scared me.Emma said it while folding her sleeves, like she was preparing to wash her hands. Calm. Thought through. Already lived with the idea long enough that it had softened around the edges.“There’s a third option,” she said.I waited for the catch. There was always one.She would go with the visitor. Not forever. Not to save everything. Just one breach. One place that was still tearing itself apart. She would help them stabilize it, show them how to listen instead of forcing fixes, teach them how to let broken systems breathe.Then she would come back.No vows attached. No guarantees smuggled into the sentence.Just intention.I opened my mouth and nothing came out.I wanted to argue. I had the words ready. I had them memorized. I could list risks and probabilities and timelines like scripture. I could tell her how fragile this world still was, how fragile she was, how every separation felt like tempti
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