20 parts Complete MatureThey don't chase. They wait. And they already know your truth.
After the world fell silent, after machines turned against the minds that made them, a new terror emerged: the Pale Ones. Human-shaped and ghost-quiet, they come not for the body-but for the secrets no one dares to speak. You don't see them at first. But you feel them. Like gravity. Like guilt.
Ty Mercer has walked a long way from Fort McCoy, farther than most, and seen what happens when people stop. He's learned to keep moving, even when he can't make the full thirty miles. He's learned the rules-but not the reasons. When he crosses paths with a ragged group of survivors in the shell of an abandoned megachurch, he gives them a choice: walk south or wait to be unmade.
Among them: a boy with a gift for sensing the wrongness others ignore, an artist who draws what shouldn't exist, a preacher clinging to fire and judgment, and a woman who's lost more than she'll ever admit. Together, they march-not just to escape the Pale Ones, but to outrun the truths that might doom them first.
Because in this world, the ones who fall behind don't scream.
They Whisper.