Chapter 228
The truck had been moving for hours.
Its tires ground relentlessly over the fractured road, kicking up dust that caught in the twisted light. On either side, the world rolled by in shades of ruin—skeletal trees blackened by ash, fields overgrown with brittle weeds, and the scorched bones of towns that hadn’t stood a chance. The sun, or what passed for it, hovered unnaturally high in the sky, refusing to set. It glared down like an open wound, bleeding light that had long stopped warming anything.
Inside, the silence was heavier than usual.
Zara sat near the back of the truck bed, one leg curled beneath her, the other stretched out as she rubbed at her calf. Her boots were dust-covered, scuffed to hell. Leo lay across her lap, half-asleep, thumb stuck in his mouth. She smoothed a hand over his hair automatically, eyes flickering from him to the horizon.
Beside her, Winter had his arms folded, jaw tight, eyes watching the road ahead like it might reach up and swallow them.
"I think she’s heating again," Mike called from the front. He was hunched over the dashboard, fingers tapping a gauge that kept flickering.
"Pull over," Zara said immediately.
Mike obeyed, maneuvering them off the main road onto the cracked lot of what had once been a gas station—its pumps twisted like broken limbs, signs dangling by threads of rusted metal. The concrete was stained with time and something darker. Blood, maybe. Oil. No one looked too closely anymore.
The truck rumbled to a halt. A tired hiss of hydraulics. The solar indicator blinked amber. They needed to cool the engine, rotate the solar batteries, and check the filters before pushing further.
Everyone moved like molasses. Shoulders sagging. Arms dragging. Even Leo stirred only to burrow deeper into Zara’s stomach.
"You good?" Winter asked her softly, nodding at Leo and the shadows beneath her eyes.