The morning after the "therapeutic" shower was the quietest Daniel had ever experienced. Usually, the apocalypse had a soundtrack—distant explosions, the wet slaps of Mana-Husks wandering the streets, or the hum of the purple rot eating the skyline.
Now? Silence.
Daniel lay in the center of the massive king-sized bed, buried under three different sets of high-thread-count sheets. To his left, Mia was curled into his side, her medical intuition apparently telling her that "skin-to-skin contact" was still the best way to monitor his recovery. To his right, Sophia was fast asleep with her arm draped across his chest, her tablet finally dark and discarded on the floor. At the foot of the bed, Kafka lay sideways, her hand resting on Daniel's ankle even in her sleep.
The golden dome was still there. Daniel could feel it—a warm, invisible weight pushing against the world.
"Daniel..." Sophia's voice was a groggy whisper. She blinked, her hair a mess of dark silk against the pillow. She looked at him, then at the window, where the sun was struggling to pierce through the golden shield. "The readings. I don't need the tablet to know... the radius has tripled."
"Is that a good thing?" Daniel asked, his voice cracking. He really wanted to go back to sleep, but the intensity in Sophia's eyes told him that 'nap time' was officially over.
"It's a beacon," Sophia said, sitting up and pulling the sheet to her chest. Her expression turned grim. "We're safe, yes. But in a world of darkness, the brightest light attracts the hungriest predators. Every scavenger gang, every surviving military remnant, and every high-level Mana-Beast within fifty miles now knows exactly where we are."
Kafka was awake instantly, her combat-trained instincts kicking in. She sat up, scanning the room as if a monster might burst through the drywall at any second. "She's right. This penthouse is a glass box. We're sitting ducks if a real army shows up. We need a fortress."
"A fortress sounds like a lot of stairs," Daniel groaned, pulling the pillow over his head.
"Not just a fortress," Sophia continued, ignoring his protest. "A place with a laboratory for Mia to work on a cure, a communications array for me, and a defensible perimeter for Kafka. There's an old government bunker—Project Aegis—about sixty miles north in the mountains. It's built into a granite peak. If we can get your 'Luck Field' inside those walls, we could start a civilization."
Mia sat up, her eyes bright with hope. "A cure... Daniel, if your luck can stabilize the mana in a controlled environment, I could actually synthesize a vaccine. We could save more than just ourselves."
Daniel sighed from beneath the pillow. "Sixty miles? That's at least three days of walking. Do you have any idea how many naps I'll lose on the road?"
"We aren't walking," Kafka said, a predatory grin spreading across her face. "The Scavengers we dropped down the elevator shaft? They left their 'War-Rig' idling in the basement. It's an armored semi-truck with reinforced plating and—most importantly—a sleeper cab."
Daniel peeked out from under the pillow. "A sleeper cab? Does it have a mattress?"
"Memory foam," Kafka lied (or maybe she didn't, Daniel was too tired to check).
"Fine," Daniel muttered, rolling out of bed with the grace of a falling log. "But I get the top bunk. And no one wakes me up unless the truck is literally on fire."
"Deal," the three women said in unison.
The journey to the basement was a blur of packing supplies and "accidental" brushes against his skin as the ladies helped him dress. Sophia had packed a mobile server rack; Mia had crates of vials; and Kafka was carrying enough ammunition to start a small war.
As they reached the garage, the War-Rig sat waiting—a beast of steel and spikes.
"Everyone inside," Kafka commanded, climbing into the driver's seat.
As Daniel crawled into the back of the cab, finding a surprisingly soft pile of blankets, he felt the truck roar to life. The golden dome moved with them, a shimmering bubble of safety carving through the purple wasteland.
But as they broke through the garage doors and onto the shattered highway, Sophia looked at her tablet and paled.
"Something's following us," she whispered. "Something big. And it's not bothered by the luck."
Daniel didn't hear her. He was already snoring, his Lucky Charm humming a protective tune as the truck sped toward the mountains.