The Safe Zone - Reckoning (Book 2)

Chapter 2: Scarred Earth

Lena:

Morning broke slowly, the pale light creeping in through the shattered windows, casting long, fractured shadows across the room. My back ached from sleeping on the cold floor, but the discomfort barely registered. Everything out here was uncomfortable. The cold had seeped into my bones during the night, and even now, as the sun struggled to rise, the air was thick with a bone-deep chill that refused to let go.

I shifted my weight and rubbed at my eyes, trying to shake off the lingering fog of sleep. Of course, Ethan was already awake, standing by the broken window, staring out at the ruins of the city beyond. His rifle was slung over his shoulder, his posture tense, every muscle coiled as if ready for something to jump out at us.

He hadn't said much since we'd escaped. We were both trying to process everything we'd left behind—the walls, the false sense of safety, the betrayal of the Safe Zone itself. But out here, the silence felt heavier, more oppressive. And even though I was grateful for the open air, for the sense of freedom, I couldn't shake the feeling that we'd traded one prison for another.

The landscape outside was as broken as everything else. The city, or what was left of it, stretched out in jagged, crumbling ruins, the skeletal remains of skyscrapers jutting into the pale morning sky. The streets below were cracked and overgrown with weeds, strewn with rusted cars and debris. It was a wasteland. Everything about it screamed of loss, of a time when the world had been whole, functional, alive. Now, it felt like a graveyard, a place abandoned by hope.

Ethan hadn't noticed I was awake yet. He was still staring out at the horizon, his face drawn, the tension in his jaw evident even from across the room. I couldn't remember the last time I saw him relax. Maybe back in the Safe Zone before everything went to hell. Maybe not even then.

"Do you think we're far enough away?" I asked, my voice rough from the cold and sleep.

He didn't flinch or turn to look at me right away. He was too focused, too locked into whatever he was thinking.

"No," he said finally, his voice low. "Not yet."

I sat up, feeling the weight of his words settle over me. Of course, we weren't far enough away. We could run for days, and it wouldn't be far enough. Nora would send her Enforcers after us—if she hadn't already. We knew too much. We'd seen behind the curtain, uncovered the truth about the Directive, and now we were fugitives in a world without a place for us.

"Then what's the plan?" I asked, pulling my jacket tighter around me as I stood up.

Ethan glanced at me then, his eyes hard. "We keep moving. There's an old settlement just outside the ruins. Zara told me about it before..." He trailed off, but I didn't need him to finish before everything went to hell. Before the Safe Zone had shown its true face.

Zara had been one of the few people we could trust—an ally, a survivor, just like us. She had hinted at the larger world outside the Safe Zones, the scattered remnants of people living in the shadows beyond Nora's grip. We needed to find them, but I wasn't naive enough to think it would be easy.

"And you think they'll help us?" I asked, doubt creeping into my voice.

He didn't answer right away. His silence was telling, but I already knew the answer. Help was something we couldn't count on anymore. Out here, in the scarred wasteland of the world, it was every person for themselves.

"We don't have much choice," Ethan said, quiet but firm.

I sighed and nodded. He was right. We didn't have much choice at all.

Ethan:

I wouldn't say I liked it. Any of it.

Cold and lifeless, the ruins stretched before me, a grim reminder of the world we'd left behind. The city was nothing more than a shell now, a hollowed-out husk of what had once been a place full of life and movement. The air tasted like ash, heavy and bitter on my tongue, and the wind whipped through the broken windows of the building, carrying with it the smell of rot and decay.