The bell attached to the diner door chimed softly.
Ethan pushed the glass open with both hands, using his body weight to keep the door from closing while Tabitha stepped in right behind him, balancing a heavy cardboard box.
The place was no longer crowded with the breakfast rush. The smell of fried food and freshly brewed coffee lingered in the air.
Behind the counter, Tian-Chen Liu was drying a few cups. When she noticed them, the older woman set the cloth aside and approached them warmly.
Her face lit up with a welcoming smile, though her eyes carried the exhaustion of someone who had lived in that place for far too long.
In contrast, in the opposite corner of the room, Sara—who had already seen them before they walked in—pretended to clean a table, avoiding any interaction with Ethan.
Further back, Father Khatri, sipping a cup of tea, stiffened slightly when they entered, but soon relaxed after observing Sara's posture.
"Good morning." Tabitha let out a small breath from the weight. "Sheriff Boyd mentioned that you keep a community storage here. We brought some things we won't be using anymore." She lifted the box slightly.
Tian-Chen nodded promptly. She understood the language perfectly, but the speaking barrier always made her prefer her own language or simple gestures.
"M̀h-gōi," she murmured softly in Cantonese, thanking them. Then she gestured with her free hand, inviting them to follow.
She walked toward the back of the establishment, passing through a double door and turning left until they reached the storage room.
"Feel free," Tian-Chen said with a thick accent.
Tabitha smiled in thanks as she stepped into the space. The storage room was organized chaos: boxes, suitcases, old books, and mundane objects piled on the shelves—remnants of hundreds of lives that had passed through that town and never made it back home.
Ethan stopped in the doorway, his eyes shining with the kind of childish wonder that ignored the macabre context.
"Wow. Look at all this junk," he exclaimed, stepping forward. The boy's hands were already lifting toward an old brass compass.
"Hey, don't touch anything," Tabitha whispered quickly, lowering the box to the floor with a dull thud and dusting off her hands.
"Why?" Ethan tilted his head.
"Because they belonged to other people, sweetheart."
Ethan thought for a second.
"Oh. It's like in the Lonely Dragon's Cave. When Cromenockle got lost in the Rainbow Sky, she found the cave where the Lonely Dragon lived."
He began walking slowly along the shelves with his hands behind his back.
"There was a bunch of stuff nobody wanted there, but for the Dragon, all of it was treasure. And in one of the piles, there was the map of the Rainbow Sky. So the Lonely Dragon gave it to Cromenockle so she wouldn't get lost again."
He looked around, scanning the dusty shelves.
"Maybe we can find a map here."
Tabitha gave a faint but genuine smile, infected by her son's unbreakable imagination.
"Yeah. Maybe we will," she agreed, playing along.
Her eyes wandered across the nearest shelves without any particular intention—until they stopped.
At the end of one of them, among forgotten bracelets and necklaces, there was one made of braided shoelaces, worn down by time.
Tabitha slowly approached and picked it up.
Her hands trembled as she brought the object closer to her face.
The air left her lungs.
Her face turned pale, her thoughts scattering in directions she couldn't control.
"Mom? What happened?" Ethan's voice sounded distant, as if he were speaking from underwater.
That pulled her back.
"It's nothing," she said, her voice coming out slightly shaky.
In one quick motion, she shoved the bracelet deep into her pants pocket and forced a small smile.
"Come on. I need to start lunch. Your dad should be coming back soon."
---
After getting everything they needed from the crash site, Jim and Jade returned to town, but they stopped the pickup truck on the outskirts and continued into the forest on foot.
The sound of grass under their shoes marked the irregular rhythm of their walk.
Jade was a few steps ahead, guiding the way.
"We're here," he announced, stopping abruptly and pointing at a tree that stood out among the others. "I analyzed this beauty yesterday. It's perfect for the antenna."
Jim stopped beside him, squinting against the sunlight filtering through the leaves, measuring the trunk and the arrangement of the branches with a clinical eye. He shook his head. "It won't work."
Jade turned, eyebrows raised. "Of course it will."
"It's not tall enough."
Jade let out a sharp sigh, throwing his arms down. "We'll figure that out later. This is just a test for now. Can you stop being so damn contrarian?"
His tone started to rise. "Dude, you're an amusement park engineer. You spend your days making sure kids don't puke on the carousel."
He pointed to his own chest. "Meanwhile, I built a company from scratch and sold it for an amount you wouldn't see in three lifetimes of work. Between the two of us, who do you think knows more about solving problems?"
Jim stared at him. Jade had been treating him like an employee since morning, and he had tolerated it—but the insult was the last straw.
"You know what? Do it yourself." He turned his back.
"Hey, hey! Wait!" Jade's eyes widened. He ran forward and planted himself directly in front of Jim, blocking his path. "I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry."
He let out a sigh. "People say I'm not good at talking to others. You have no idea what it's like being smarter than everyone else."
"The truth is... I need your help."
"You do need it," Jim replied dryly.
"The thing is," Jade began, glancing away with the discomfort of someone who rarely admitted limitations, "this antenna has to be positioned properly at the top. I asked Kenny, and this is the tallest tree around here. The problem is I can't climb. I get vertigo."
Jim understood.
"That's why you wanted Daniel to come. To climb the tree."
A cynical smile appeared on Jim's face. He was already turning to leave.
"Look!" Jade shouted, desperation returning. "If there's even the slightest chance this could work, you're not going to see it through? Don't you want to get out of here?"
Jim stopped.
The word out did that to everyone in that town—it anchored their feet to the ground.
He closed his eyes, thinking about his family, and took a deep breath. "Fine."
Jim walked back to the tree and reached out his hand. "Give me the antenna."
Already hugging the trunk and searching for footholds, he took the equipment Jade handed him with a victorious smile. Then Jim began to climb.
Down below, Jade connected the radio to the battery and then attached the antenna wire to the receiver. When he finished, he stood up, dusting off his pants.
"Everything's connected down here. How are things up there?"
"It's great." Jim's voice came muffled through the foliage.
Jade rested his palm against the side of the trunk as he looked up.
When he lowered his gaze, he saw something that made his stomach twist.
Blood.
Thick. Dark. Soaking his palm and running down between his fingers.
He looked up in panic, afraid Jim had been hurt.
But Jim wasn't there.
Instead, a macabre scene unfolded above his head.
Hanging from the strongest branches, swaying gently, were several bodies. Men dressed in old uniforms—soldiers from the Civil War era.
Mutilated. Bound by their feet with thick ropes. Severed limbs were scattered across the canopy. Blood kept pouring from the corpses, dripping in heavy drops that splashed across Jade's face and clothes.
He staggered back in terror.
His gaze traveled down the trunk—and there it was.
The same symbol he had seen at Colony House.
A circle with three intertwined lines ending in hooks, carved deep into the wood.
The sound of footsteps caught his attention.
A soldier wearing the same uniform emerged from nowhere. His face was disfigured. The long musket aimed directly at Jade.
The shot tore through the air.
The tree bark exploded inches from Jade's face.
He ran blindly, screaming, hearing the heavy footsteps right behind him. After a few meters, while trying to dodge around something, his foot caught on a root.
Jade fell backward onto the ground.
The soldier stopped over him, raising the musket.
The sharp bayonet came down toward his chest.
Jade closed his eyes.
The pain never came.
"Jade! Jade, are you okay?"
He opened his eyes.
The soldier was gone. The forest was clean.
Jim was crouched beside him, his hands extended.
"I don't know what you saw, but it's not real. Come on, I'll help you up."
"Get your fucking hands off me!" Jade shoved Jim hard and staggered back.
"What did you see?" Jim asked, confused, trying to understand the sudden madness.
"Go fuck yourself."
Jade walked away in quick strides toward town, his breathing short and his thoughts in shambles.
"Just what I needed," Jim muttered, shaking his head.
Alone, he returned to the base of the tree, turned on the radio, and picked up the microphone. "Is anyone out there?" Only static answered as he patiently switched frequencies.
---
The exterior of Colony House was almost empty when Daniel returned from the forest.
It was close to lunchtime.
He walked to the motorhome at an unhurried pace, lightly tapping the soles of his boots against the step to knock off the excess dirt before climbing inside.
The screen split into four quadrants flashed two red alerts in the upper-right corner.
"Finally, something."
He sat down in front of the TV and opened the recordings.
The first showed a young woman standing in front of the flower bed beside the house. She crouched down, picked a yellow flower, and tucked it behind her ear. She spent two seconds checking her reflection in a piece of window glass before leaving.
In the second clip, an older woman picked a flower, smelled it, and then ate it.
Daniel closed the video and stared at the screen, realizing that reviewing the footage from the front camera would take far too much manual analysis.
[A brilliant deduction on your part to consider this an investigative clue. The creature's threat manifests in floral form. Fascinating.]
"Can you notify me if anything useful shows up in the footage from these cameras? I'll pay you a few coins, like I did when you fixed the motorhome."
[I am a System, not a cheap surveillance assistant. However, your human limitation moves me. You may spend 50 silver coins to upgrade the vehicle's camera hardware, granting them the same functionality as the ones you purchased.]
Daniel frowned. "Wait. If I can upgrade this, does that mean I can upgrade other parts of the vehicle too?"
[Congratulations on the deduction. Your intellect has just reached the acceptable average for a bipedal primate. Yes, you can.]
He ignored the insult, already used to the acidic personality of the voice in his head.
"And what exactly can I upgrade?"
[There is an application on your TV called 'Vehicle Upgrade.' Simply open it and weep over your lack of funds.]
Daniel picked up the remote and accessed it.
Most of the options were locked. The only available upgrades were the camera system and an Auto-Pilot function.
He spent the 50 coins on the cameras without hesitation.
The Auto-Pilot had two levels.
The first cost 100 coins: by holding the key and pressing the alarm button three times in a row, the vehicle would automatically drive to wherever the key was.
The second cost 1,000 coins—a full package that allowed the vehicle to drive, park, and avoid obstacles completely autonomously.
"I'll stick with the basic one for now."
He spent 100 coins on level one. If he spent a thousand, he'd be left without resources for emergencies.
He configured the AI and had it review the morning's footage.
Nothing useful.
Daniel stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower. While the water ran down his back, he whistled a nameless melody, his mind drifting back to the upgrade panel.
"In future upgrades, will the motorhome get a built-in flamethrower? It'd be hilarious to see the creatures' faces melting."
[Who knows. But your sadism is developing in a very healthy way. Do keep it up.]
After finishing his shower and putting on clean clothes, Daniel returned to the TV, removed the camera feeds from the main screen—they would continue recording in the background—and spent a few minutes adjusting the multimedia system settings.
When he finished, he stepped outside and headed to Colony House.
The buzz of conversation filled his ears the moment he walked through the door. A few people waved in greeting as he passed.
He crossed the room and approached Julie, who was sitting near Donna, Fatima, and Ellis.
"Hey," Donna greeted him when she saw him. "Did the traps work?"
"Yeah." Daniel pulled up a chair. "Now we wait. I'll check the results tomorrow morning."
"Good luck then," Donna said, returning her attention to the task board.
He nodded to Fatima and Ellis before turning to Julie.
"So you know how to hunt too," she said, resting her chin on her hand with clear curiosity.
"It's one of my many talents. Surprised?"
Julie gave a short laugh. "I don't think anything would surprise me anymore. If tomorrow you told me magic was one of your hobbies, I'd probably just believe you."
Daniel shrugged, accepting the implicit compliment.
"Have you eaten yet?"
"Not yet." She frowned slightly. "Why?"
"Because I said I'd cook for you. And I don't forget my promises."
Julie's eyes widened slightly, suddenly shy at how direct he was being—especially with several attentive ears around them.
But soon a scene began forming in her mind: the two of them sharing a quiet meal alone, far from the constant chaos of Colony House.
Her lips moved involuntarily as she tried to hide a smile.
Donna, who had been watching the interaction from the corner of her eye, let out a quiet chuckle.
"Ah, it's good to be young," the matriarch murmured, loud enough for a few nearby people to laugh in agreement.
The comment snapped Julie out of her thoughts, and her face turned a faint shade of red.
Fatima quietly moved closer to Julie's chair. With an encouraging, conspiratorial smile, she leaned down and whispered for her ears only.
"Remember our conversation."
Julie nodded.
She took a deep breath, her tense shoulders relaxing. Straightening up, she shot Daniel a playful, challenging look and stood.
"Alright. Show me what you can do, Hunter."
Daniel let out a short laugh and led the way back outside.
When he unlocked the vehicle and stepped aside to let her enter, Julie paused in the narrow corridor.
Her eyes scanned the interior. She had been there before, but it still impressed her.
The contrast with Colony House was striking.
Inside the motorhome, everything was metallic, hygienic, organized, and above all—perfectly quiet.
She sighed in satisfaction as she sat down on the sofa.
"I've got some things downloaded on the TV. Feel free to browse and pick something if you want," Daniel suggested, pointing to the remote on the table.
Before bringing her there, Daniel had hidden ninety-five percent of the available content and limited the visible titles to productions released up to 2022. From casual conversations he had overheard, he already knew that was the current year in that place.
That way, he would avoid difficult questions.
Julie nodded, picking up the remote. She glanced toward the small compact kitchen beside them.
"So what are you making?"
"It's a surprise," Daniel said, maintaining the mystery as he opened an upper cabinet. He pulled out a manual meat grinder.
"But I hope you like real food, because I refuse to serve canned food in my own territory."
Julie rested the remote on her lap but didn't look at the television.
Instead, she watched him working seriously in the kitchen, and a soft smile appeared on her face.
For a moment, inside that quiet space, it felt like the outside world didn't exist.
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