Seven of us stood packed on the narrow balcony, breathing hard, the wind still whipping across the open edge. Below, the ground remained clear, no infected shambling through the moonlight, no movement except scattered debris rolling lazily across cracked pavement. Every last one of them was still inside the building above us.
"Give it a minute," Mercury said, voice tight. "Just one."
I stepped to the railing and leaned my forearms on the cold concrete, letting the night air cool the sweat on my neck. The Fallen City stretched out in every direction, broken rooftops jagged under moonlight, empty windows staring like dead eyes, streets carved into silver and shadow. A place that had once breathed with thousands of lives now lay completely still, exhaling dust and silence.
"Has anyone thought about Richard and Jenn?" Mercury asked into the quiet.
No one answered. The others had no thread to those two. They were ghosts who had drifted in and vanished back into the plain.
