The air shifted the moment they crossed the boundary.
Jin didn't need the system to tell him they'd been noticed. He could feel it.
There was something different about moving through an abandoned city and moving into a claimed one. The streets didn't look much different—still cracked pavement, still rusted cars, still the eerie emptiness that had defined the past two weeks.
But there were signs now.
Subtle, but there.
Windows weren't shattered; they were boarded up. Trash wasn't scattered randomly; it had been pushed into piles. And the biggest giveaway—the road ahead wasn't layered in dust.
Someone had been walking these streets. Recently.
Echo exhaled sharply beside him. "Well," he muttered, "we're officially on someone else's lawn."
Joon cracked his knuckles, his usual smirk in place. "Think they'll roll out the welcome mat?"
