Elias hopped down, his boots hitting the ground with a soft thud. He didn't run—running made noise, and noise brought the horde. He moved with a practiced, predatory grace through the maze of steel. He needed the pharmacy at the end of the block. His sister’s fever was spiking, and the scavenged aspirin was gone.
The screen flickered, showing a top-down grid of his surroundings. A red dot pulsed 50 yards behind him. "Too close," he whispered. Elias hopped down, his boots hitting the ground
The air in the city didn't smell like exhaust anymore; it smelled like wet copper and old smoke. He needed the pharmacy at the end of the block
He pulled his phone from a tactical pouch. It was a miracle it still worked, powered by a folding solar kit on his pack. He didn't use it for calls—there was no one left to answer—but for a modified app he’d scavenged from a developer's corpse in the early days. It wasn't a game anymore; it was a proximity sensor. A red dot pulsed 50 yards behind him