The warehouse loomed like a rusting corpse against the crimson-streaked sky, its jagged silhouette outlined by the dying sun. Crickets sang their melancholy tune outside, a contrast to the mounting tension inside the group.
Rei stood near the northern wall, arms crossed, jaw tight. His eyes never left the makeshift table where Luka and Sam pored over the scavenged map from the fallen military convoy. The map was tattered but clear enough—there was a government quarantine zone twenty kilometers north.
"A real one?" Alex asked, tone laced with doubt as he leaned against a support beam. His hand unconsciously toyed with the grip of his knife.
"Looks real enough," Sam replied, his voice unusually flat. "The convoy was headed there before it was ambushed. Coordinates match some of the older military broadcasts we picked up weeks ago."
"I don't trust it," Rei muttered. "Too convenient. Why leave a fully marked map behind unless it was meant to be found?"
"Or maybe they died before they could destroy it," Luka shot back. "They were overrun. You saw the bodies."
The room fell into silence for a beat.
Mira finally spoke, stepping out of the shadows. Her presence was quiet but firm. "We can't stay here forever. We're burning through food, and Chloe's fever isn't breaking. If there's even a chance this zone exists, we need to try."
The group collectively glanced at the far corner, where Chloe lay wrapped in blankets, her face pale and glistening with sweat. Eve knelt beside her, holding a wet cloth to the girl's forehead, eyes dark with worry.
"It's a trap," Rei said, quieter now.
"Everything's a trap these days," Luka countered. "But doing nothing is the real death sentence."
Rei opened his mouth, then closed it, turning toward the window instead. The sun had vanished, leaving only an ashen red afterglow. Shadows stretched long across the cracked concrete floor.
Later that night, Mira stepped outside alone. The air was cool, tainted with the distant scent of burning wood and decay. She walked a few steps away from the warehouse before finally letting herself breathe.
The stars, sparse though they were, blinked weakly through the haze. She leaned against the rusting shell of a car, the metal cool beneath her palms. Her thoughts swirled—Chloe's worsening condition, the group's fragile trust, and now this so-called safe zone.
"You think I'm wrong too, don't you?"
The voice startled her. She turned to find Rei, hands shoved into his jacket pockets, standing a few meters behind her.
"I think," Mira said carefully, "that being afraid doesn't make you wrong. But fear isn't always truth either."
Rei walked forward until he stood beside her, both staring out at the empty highway that cut across the ruins like a scar.
"People follow you now," he said. "More than they do me."
"That's not what this is about."
"Isn't it?"
Silence stretched between them.
"You were the one who pulled us through when the city fell," Mira said gently. "I never forgot that. None of us did. But things change. You've changed."
Rei let out a bitter laugh. "You think I don't know that? I lost everything—my sister, my unit, my humanity. Every night I wonder if I'm the next one to snap. And still, I try to keep everyone alive. That map could get us all killed, Mira."
"Or it could save us."
Rei didn't reply.
Inside, tensions hadn't eased. Luka sat near the fire barrel, fiddling with a broken radio. Sparks occasionally hissed from the wires. Alex watched him from across the room.
"You always believe the best-case scenario," Alex said.
Luka shrugged. "And you always expect the worst."
"One of us ends up right more often."
They fell into another silence, broken only by the sputter of flames.
Sam approached carrying a can of preserved beans. "Tomorrow, we decide. No more debates."
"And if Rei won't go?" Luka asked.
"Then we go without him."
Morning arrived on quiet feet. Mist clung to the broken streets outside, casting everything in ghostly white. The group gathered in the warehouse's open bay, backpacks ready, weapons strapped. Chloe, bundled tightly, was being carried in a makeshift sling across Eve's back.
Rei stood apart from the group, rifle slung low, unreadable expression on his face.
Mira stepped forward. "We're heading out in ten. Last chance."
Rei didn't answer.
Luka moved to help Eve secure Chloe's sling, offering a small nod.
As the group began to file out, Rei finally spoke. "Wait."
They turned.
"I'm coming," he said. "But if anything smells wrong, anything, we turn back. No arguments."
"Deal," Mira replied, relief flickering in her eyes.
They set off into the crimson-hued morning, the ruined world stretched before them, uncertain and waiting.
Behind them, the warehouse remained still—silent witness to a fractured trust slowly mending under the weight of survival.