The rain had slowed to a mist, cold and steady, soaking through Natalie’s jacket as she held Daniel close. He had drifted off against her chest, exhausted, the adrenaline finally giving way to the fatigue that years of confinement, experiments, and chaos had forced upon him. Adrian sat nearby, his head bowed, hands resting on his knees, eyes scanning the blackened, smoking remnants of Site Eleven.
The facility, once a fortress of human ambition twisted into horror, now lay in ruin. Metal skeletons of walls jutted out like broken teeth; shattered glass crunched underfoot, and the air still carried the acrid sting of burning circuits. The storm had calmed just enough to reveal the scale of the destruction — nothing would rise from this place again, at least not without a new architect.
Nat
