The world outside the system wasn't dead but worse. The light swallowed everything, it did survive though. Jasper hit the ground real hard, which was wet, filled with dirt and cold. There was no shifting metal corridor or glowing tracks, even artificial structures.
He rolled instinctively, coughing as dust filled his lungs. His shoulder screamed with pain, and for a split second he expected the familiar hum inside his head but there was nothing only silence.
"Jasper!"
Stacy's voice snapped through the haze as he forced himself upright. He realized that the light was gone and the facility too. The endless structured nightmare had vanished completely and above them a real sky stretched endlessly overhead, the color was gray and broken.
Covered in massive clouds moving slowly across a dying horizon.
Jasper stared at it for a second too long.
"…We're outside."
The landscape looked like the remains of civilization after decades of collapse as burned highways twisted across dead land as massive rusted vehicles littered the distance like skeletons.
Collapsed cities sat far beyond the horizon, half-swallowed by nature and ruin with no glowing systems, just decay and wind.
Stacy stood slowly beside him, scanning the wasteland.
"This place feels worse."
Jasper nodded faintly.
Because she was right, the facility had been terrifying but this?
It felt abandoned by humanity itself. A cracked road stretched ahead through endless ruins, there were no signs or movements neither certain, it was just the distance ahead. Jasper adjusted painfully, testing his injured shoulder and it was still barely functional.
"What now?" Stacy asked.
He looked at the road ahead.
Then the horizon.
"…Now we keep moving."
Hours passed and silence became oppressive, there were no animals or machines or even voices. Only the sound of boots against broken asphalt until Jasper stopped suddenly.
Stacy immediately noticed.
"What?"
He crouched near the roadside and saw that there were several fresh tracks which were also recent.
"Someone's nearby," he said quietly.
Stacy looked around immediately.
"Survivors?"
Jasper's expression darkened.
"Maybe."
Multiple people moved on that track together, with heavy equipment and weapons and then he saw something else dragging marks and blood. They followed the trail cautiously through collapsed vehicles and ruined structures and the smell hit first, it was the smoke of burned metal and bodies. Three of them in execution-style dead.
Stacy froze.
"…Jesus."
Jasper scanned carefully and realized that there was no scavenging marks.
One of the corpses had symbols carved into his jacket like a warning. A sudden engine roar shattered the silence.
Jasper reacted instantly.
"Down!"
They dove behind collapsed concrete as vehicles burst through the ruined highway ahead, they were modified trucks, armor-plated. Men stood on top holding rifles and crude weapons, scanning the area aggressively.
Their clothing was mismatched military gear and scavenged armor pieces and they all had their faces covered, they were hunters. The convoy stopped near the bodies as one of the raiders jumped down. He was tall and broad with a scar running across his shaved head. He inspected the corpses briefly and then kicked one over dismissively.
"Wrong route," he muttered.
Another raider laughed.
"Told them not to cross sector lines."
Stacy's grip tightened on her weapon.
Jasper grabbed her arm immediately.
"No."
"We can't just watch this."
"We can if we want to live." Jasper said.
The scarred raider crouched near the blood trail and then slowly looked outward towards them.
Jasper's chest tightened.
"…Don't move."
The raider smiled faintly.
"Come out."
"We already know you're there."
Weapons clicked as several raiders aimed directly toward their hiding spot.
Stacy whispered, "How…"
"Tracks," Jasper replied quietly.
"Damn it."
"Last chance!" the scarred man barked.
Jasper slowly stood first with visible hands and Stacy followed reluctantly. The raiders surrounded them almost immediately. The scarred man studied them carefully.
"You two aren't from around here."
Jasper said nothing.
The man smirked.
"Relax. If we wanted you dead, you'd already be dead."
"That's comforting," Stacy muttered.
A few raiders laughed.
The scarred man ignored it.
"Names."
"Why?"
His smile vanished instantly.
"Because I asked politely."
Tension thickened immediately.
Jasper answered first.
"Jasper."
"Stacy."
The man nodded once.
"I'm Kane."
Kane gestured toward the road.
"You picked a bad stretch to wander through."
"We didn't exactly choose it," Jasper replied.
Kane's eyes narrowed slightly at that answer.
Interesting and suspicious.
Suspicious.
"You scavengers?" Kane asked.
"No."
"Mercs?"
"No."
"Then what are you?"
Jasper hesitated.
Because there was no simple answer anymore.
"We survived something," he finally said.
That made Kane pause and for the first time he gave real attention to them.
Kane stepped closer.
"You come from one of the underground sectors?"
Stacy glanced at Jasper briefly but Kane caught it instantly and smiled.
"Well now…"
"You've seen the machines," Kane said quietly.
Jasper's expression hardened.
"You know about them?"
Kane laughed once.
"Know about them?" He asked as he gestured toward the wasteland.
"This world looks like this because of them."
Jasper's mind raced.
"You fought them?"
Kane's smile disappeared.
"We survived them."
That answer felt far worse.
The convoy began moving again.
Kane motioned for them to walk alongside.
"You've got two choices," he said.
"Walk alone out here and die…"
He pointed toward the distant horizon.
"…or keep moving with people who know how the world works now."
Stacy leaned closer to Jasper.
"You trust them?"
"No."
"Then why are we walking?"
"Because right now," Jasper said quietly, "they're the only thing standing between us and whatever else is out here."
As the convoy moved deeper into the wasteland, Jasper noticed more people riding inside the armored trucks, they were just civilians, hungry and exhausted survivors.
One older woman avoided eye contact completely as a teenage boy clutched a pipe weapon nervously and a little girl stared blankly into the distance. The world outside the facility had survivors but none of them looked alive inside anymore. Kane walked beside Jasper calmly.
"You're watching everything."
"I like knowing where exits are."
Kane smirked faintly.
"That habit keeps people breathing."
Jasper glanced around them again and saw weapons with formation spacing, lookout positions and communication signals. He realized that they weren't random raiders but structured military-level which meant that someone organized them.
By sunset they reached a temporary settlement built inside the ruins of an old shipping yard, makeshift walls and guard towers. The floodlights were powered by unstable generators, including armed patrols everywhere. The gates opened slowly as the convoy rolled inside. And that's when Jasper noticed the symbol painted across the walls.
A black circle with three claw marks through the center.
He stopped walking.
Kane noticed immediately.
"You recognize it?"
"No," Jasper said slowly.
"But I think I'm supposed to."
The atmosphere felt tense, the survivors moved quickly and quietly and nobody smiled or relaxed. Children stayed close to armed adults. Everyone watched the raiders carefully not with respect but out of fear.
Stacy leaned toward Jasper again.
"This isn't protection."
"No," he replied quietly.
"It's ownership."
Kane led them toward a large central building made from welded steel and salvaged concrete.
Before entering, he stopped.
Then looked directly at Jasper.
"You know what the difference is between your old world and this one?"
Jasper stayed silent.
Kane answered anyway.
"Out there…"
He pointed toward the wasteland.
"…people stopped pretending survival makes you human."
Inside the building sat armed men around rough tables covered in maps, weapons, and supply routes which had real operations and planning. One man looked up immediately.
"Who are the newcomers?"
Kane answered simply.
"Interesting ones."
That made every eye in the room shift toward Jasper and Stacy.
Then…a loud alarm suddenly erupted across the entire camp.
Everyone froze.
A guard burst through the doorway, panicked.
"Kane!"
"What?"
The guard looked terrified.
"Movement outside the east perimeter."
Kane frowned.
"How many?"
The guard swallowed hard.
"…Too many."
Silence slammed into the room as Kane grabbed his rifle instantly.
"All units move!" He shouted
The camp exploded into motion.
Raiders rushed outside.
Floodlights turned toward the darkness beyond the walls.
Jasper followed and froze because out beyond the perimeter figures stood motionless in the dark. Hundreds of them somewhere deep inside Jasper's mind the hum returned very softly.
"Tracking primary subject…"
Jasper's blood ran cold.
Because the system hadn't lost him, it followed him here.