The storm had broken into chaos.
Thunder rippled through the ruins as sheets of acid rain fell, sizzling against the shattered metal landscape. Ethan and the others took refuge beneath the remains of a collapsed transport hub — its steel arches groaning under the strain of wind and static.
Dr. Taylor worked by the faint glow of her scanner, its light cutting through the darkness. Her fingers were shaking, but her voice stayed calm. “The atmospheric readings are unstable. Elysium’s collapse fractured the stratosphere — we need to move inland before this sector implodes.”
Hannah peered out into the storm. “Inland to where? There’s nothing left out there.”
“There’s always something left,” Taylor said.
Ethan sat apart from the others, staring at the horizon. The lightning illuminated what
