Shihab, Karam, Ayham, and Engineer Fadel returned to the base camp as the sun bled into the horizon. They were met not with cheers, but with the quiet, anxious faces of survivors whose hope was a fragile, flickering thing. The dust of the road clung to them, a fine grey powder that mirrored the exhaustion in their eyes, but beneath the weariness was a new, solid certainty.
After a brief moment to wash the grime from their hands and drink a few precious clean water, Shihab had called for a gathering. The survivors assembled in the central room a silent, expectant crowd huddled together.
Shihab stood before them, his posture weary but his voice clear and carrying the weight of hard-won experience. He began to recount their journey. He spoke of the desperate fight through the overrun office
