Chapter 2 Ashes and Silence

Chapter One: Ashes and Silence

The sky was the color of blood and smoke.

Dylan Kane crouched low beside the wreckage of an armored transport, its steel frame twisted from an IED blast. Ash drifted through the air like snow. He adjusted the strap of his rifle, scanning the horizon for movement-friend or foe, there was little difference these days.

Two years had passed since the collapse. Governments had fallen like dominoes. Borders vanished. Cities became battlegrounds, and survival was no longer a right-it was a prize.

He hadn't spoken to another human in thirteen days.

That changed when he heard the voice.

"Help... Please... anyone..."

Faint. Cracked by dehydration. It came from the ruins of a nearby gas station, half-buried under concrete and rusted signage. Dylan moved without hesitation, instincts taking over. He cleared the door with his shoulder, weapon drawn, eyes darting.

A woman-mid-30s, blood on her forehead-was pinned beneath a support beam.

"You alone?" he asked sharply.

She nodded, coughing. "They left me."

Dylan slid his rifle behind him and began lifting the beam with a grunt. His muscles strained, but after a few seconds, she slid free, gasping.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I'm Lena. You're not with the Vultures, are you?"

He shook his head. "I don't wear colors."

She reached into her satchel and pulled out a leather-bound journal. "Then you need to see this. Before they come back."

Inside was a map-faded, torn, but unmistakably old. It pointed toward something deep in the Red Zone. Something marked with a single word in ancient ink:

EMBER.