One Month Later
The city had learned how to breathe again on its own.
It wasn't peaceful or necessarily safe, but it breathed again, and thats all that mattered for now.
Jin stepped over the rusted hood of an abandoned sedan, boots crunching against shattered glass as his eyes swept across the ruined street ahead of him. The skyline still looked broken, towers blackened by old fires and windows shattered open like missing teeth, but the chaos from the first few days of the system was gone now.
There was no more constant screaming and endless panic. The weak had died, and the survivors had adapted to their new life.
Barricades now cut through certain intersections, built from flipped buses, welded fencing, and stripped-down vehicles. Symbols were spray-painted across walls and storefronts; some marked claimed territory, while others served as warnings.
STAY OUT.
NEST BELOW.
NO ENTRY WITHOUT OFFERING SOMETHING VALUABLE FIRST.
