Sera decided she liked the way Region T smelled on the surface.
Not because it was pleasant—nothing in this world seemed to be pleasant anymore—but because it was different. The air tasted sun-baked and dry, with a faint underline of fuel and old metal that didn't belong to labs or cages.
It was different, and that made it… fun.
The town ahead was bigger than the border settlement she'd imagined.
It wasn't just a handful of houses clinging to the fence line. Low buildings sprawled in layers, pushed out across the flat land like the town had once tried to grow into a city and then forgotten halfway through.
She stepped off the cracked service road and onto the main street without slowing. Luci trotted at her side, his tail low, his eyes bright, and his paws were silent on the grit beneath their feet.
