RIVAL’S POV
Fresh air hit my lungs like a punch I didn’t see coming.
It wasn’t clean — not by any sane person’s standards — but compared to the recycled metal-and-sweat stench of the base, it might as well have been mountain air. My chest expanded, my shoulders loosened without me meaning to.
Thomas stopped beside me, tilted his head back, and closed his eyes. “God… air shouldn’t feel this good.”
I knew what he meant. We’d spent years breathing only what they allowed us — filtered, stale, never free. Out here, even with the faint reek of gasoline and hot asphalt, it felt alive.
But the second the gate clanged shut behind us in my head, reality tightened its grip.
The street ahead stretched into Vegas like a beast with its mouth open — neon signs flickering even though the sun was sti
