Through the cracked window of the car, I saw Cassel standing alone in the middle of the ruined road, his tall silhouette cutting sharply against the gray wasteland. He faced the group of strangers who had forced us to stop—people who had appeared out of nowhere, as if the broken world itself had spat them out directly in our path.
Joe and Sebastian stood beside him, slightly behind, like shadows that had learned how to breathe. Silent. Watchful. Ready.
Somehow—without me even fully remembering when or how—it had ended with Joe and Sebastian riding in our car after we departed from the last rest stop. They had… appeared. Slid into the back seats as naturally as if they had always belonged there.
It was unsettling.
