The dust, fine as powdered bone, choked Elian’s lungs with every ragged breath. He was a phantom, yet the arid air of the Null Zone clung to his skin, a constant, abrasive reminder of his unwanted existence. Beside him, Sarah’s gaze, sharp and restless, cut through the hazy horizon, her silhouette a stark line against the bruised sky. They were ghosts, true enough, but even specters cast shadows in the harsh light of a forgotten world.
"Anything, Sarah?" Elian’s voice, raspy from disuse, barely disturbed the oppressive silence. He scanned the desolate landscape, a wasteland of rusted metal carcasses and crumbling concrete, the air thick with the faint, metallic tang of decay. There was no digital footprint here, no signal for Monarch to trace, but the absence of it felt more like a suffoc
