The fog came in off the coast thick enough to swallow trees.
David hated mornings like this.
Out in the Evergreen Wastes, fog made everything feel closer than it was. Sounds bent. Distance lied. A stump could look like a man. A man could disappear before you ever saw him coming.
He crouched low at the edge of a broken logging road, rain dripping from the hood of his coat. One hand rested on the worn stock of his hunting rifle.
Behind him, boots shifted quietly in the wet gravel.
"Anything?" Jason asked.
David didn't turn.
"Yeah," he said. "Something's out there."
Jason moved up beside him, slower but steady. His long coat brushed the wet grass as he stepped forward, eyes narrowing into the fog.
"Figures," Jason muttered. "Place feels wrong."
The road stretched ahead in two cracked lines of asphalt. A rusted sign leaned off to the side:
PORTLAND – 87 MILES
Then—
A sound.
Breathing.
Low.
Watching.
David's grip tightened.
"You hear that?" he whispered.
Jason didn't answer right away.
Then—
"Yeah," he said quietly. "I do."
The eyes appeared.
Two faint glows in the fog.
Low to the ground.
The shape stepped forward.
A wolf—but wrong.
Too big. Its ribs showed through patchy fur, and something along its spine pulsed faintly with a sick green glow.
David raised his rifle.
Another set of eyes appeared.
Then another.
Jason exhaled through his nose.
"…pack," he muttered.
"…of course it is," David said.
The first wolf lunged.
David fired.
The shot cracked through the trees. The wolf dropped—but the others came fast.
Too fast.
One slammed into David, knocking him onto the wet pavement. Mud soaked through his coat as he jammed the rifle between them. Jaws snapped inches from his face.
"David!" Jason barked.
David shoved, struggling—
The wolf slipped—but lunged again—
BOOM.
The sound hit like thunder.
The wolf jerked midair—
Collapsed.
David froze.
Jason stood a few steps away, revolver still raised.
A worn Smith & Wesson Model 19 in his hand, smoke curling from the barrel.
"Get up!" Jason snapped.
David rolled to his feet.
Another wolf darted from the side—
Jason fired again.
The second wolf dropped.
The last one hesitated—
Then vanished back into the fog.
Silence returned.
Rain filled the space where the fight had been.
David stood there breathing hard.
Jason lowered the revolver, flicking the cylinder slightly before snapping it shut again.
"You good?" Jason asked.
"…yeah," David said, catching his breath. "I had it."
Jason gave him a look.
"Sure you did."
David wiped mud from his sleeve, glancing down at the dead wolf.
Up close, it was worse. The faint green glow pulsed slowly beneath the skin.
"Still not normal," David muttered.
Jason shook his head.
"Nothing out here is."
David checked his ammo.
Too low.
Always too low.
Jason watched him for a second, then glanced toward the trees.
"We shouldn't stay here," he said. "Noise like that travels."
David nodded.
Then—
His Pip-Boy hissed.
Both of them froze.
Static crackled.
Then—
"…ault… active…"
David stared down at the screen.
It flickered—then text appeared:
SIGNAL DETECTED: VAULT-TEC EMERGENCY FREQUENCY
His breath caught.
"Vault…"
"—help…"
Then silence.
The forest felt colder.
David looked up slowly.
Jason wasn't looking at him.
He was staring at the Pip-Boy.
"…damn it," Jason muttered.
"You know what that is," David said.
Jason didn't answer right away.
Rain tapped against the road.
Finally—
"Yeah," he said.
"I do."
David frowned.
"What's north?"
Jason hesitated.
Then looked at him again.
That same look.
Like he already knew more than he should.
"Something people are killing for," he said.
David felt something tighten in his chest.
A flicker—
Fire.
Shouting.
A gate opening.
He blinked it away.
Jason turned slightly, scanning the trees again.
"We move," he said.
David nodded.
Together, they stepped off the broken road and into the forest.
The fog swallowed them quickly.
And somewhere ahead—
Something was waiting.