The sky was an unsettling tapestry of bruised purples and ashen grays, swirling together like a storm-tossed sea frozen overhead. Beneath it, the remnants of a city lay sprawled—a skeletal maze of twisted metal and crumbling concrete, where the ghosts of skyscrapers reached desperately toward a sun that no longer remembered them. The air was thick, heavy with the scent of scorched earth and the distant whisper of something once called hope.
Liam stood atop a fractured overpass, his silhouette sharp against the dying light. Below him, a labyrinth of deserted streets wound through the ruins, shadows pooling in the hollows where life once thrived. His eyes traced the jagged horizon, searching for something—anything—that hinted at a future different from the endless cycle of survival and loss that had become his existence.
In the distance, a flicker of movement caught his attention. A lone figure, cloaked and cautious, navigated the debris with the silent grace of someone who knew that even the wind carried secrets worth fearing. Maya. She moved like a wraith, each step deliberate, her senses attuned to the world's subtle shifts. Liam felt a pang of something—relief, perhaps, or the remnants of a camaraderie forged in the fires of shared adversity.