The storm hadn’t stopped for two days.
Rain washed the ash from the streets, but the city still smelled like blood and smoke.
Leon watched from the top of a half-collapsed tower, his coat flapping against the wind. His System displayed faint outlines of patrols below — the Apex Legion, moving like mechanical ghosts through the flooded streets.
[Scanning Zone…]
[Hostile Units: 42.]
[Safe Houses Detected: 3.]
Nova’s voice came through his earpiece. “You’re going to catch pneumonia up there.”
“Better than getting caught in a nest of Apex drones,” Leon muttered.
“You’re still bleeding, by the way.”
He touched his ribs and winced. “I noticed.”
“You need rest.”
“What I need,” he said quietly, “is people who can fight.”
They met in an abandoned hangar — a relic from before the War. Ha
