Fleeing the ruins of the safe house with Corbin's revelation still burning in their minds, Emily, Lena, and Jared found refuge in a derelict building on the city's forgotten edge.
The structure's battered walls and broken windows bore silent witness to decades of neglect—a fitting sanctuary for those betrayed and on the run.
In the cramped interior of a long-abandoned storage room, the trio huddled over a scavenged table.
Faded maps and scribbled notes lay scattered among portable devices, all bathed in the sickly glow of a single, swinging bulb.
Emily's hands trembled as she replayed Corbin's final words in her mind—a betrayal that shattered the very foundation of their cause.
Lena's gaze was distant, her knuckles white around the grip of her sidearm. "He was our guiding light," she murmured bitterly, "and now we learn he was nothing more than a puppet—no, a puppeteer—pulling our strings for his own ambition."
