Jason and Tahuuk sprinted toward the edge of the forest, weaving between roots and trees. Jason struggled to keep pace—Tahuuk moved through the underbrush with an ease that felt instinctive, almost natural. Jason had noticed it earlier too: the forest didn’t unsettle Tahuuk.

  They broke out of the treeline sooner than expected. Without slowing, they rushed past the farm. The farmer stood on the road with his son, ready to head into the city.

  “Where ya runnin’ off to with my gear?!” he shouted.

  “There’s going to be a bomb in the city—we need to find it!” Jason yelled back.

  The farmer froze, torn between fear and confusion. His son went pale, trembling and avoiding eye contact. But Jason didn’t have time to think about it—every second mattered.

  They sprinted toward the city gate. The sun was low now, leaving long shadows and lighting the sky above the city in soft color. The line at the entrance was shorter than during the day, but still long enough to hide anyone with bad intentions.

  The city walls came into view over the hill. Jason slowed as they reached the back of the line, scanning faces carefully—cloaks, patterns, familiar features, anything out of place.

  Tahuuk rushed ahead to warn the guards.

  Jason stopped suddenly.

  A face—familiar, painfully familiar.

  Someone from the spaceport.

  He blinked. The face shifted back into an ordinary, confused stranger.

  He forced himself to move. If he failed now, dozens would die.

  Not again, he thought. Not again.

  His heart hammered. He picked up his pace, weaving between people but keeping his movements subtle.

  “You killed us…”

  A whisper came from his right. Jason turned, breath freezing in his chest.

  A woman stared at him—the same woman Vincent talked to at the spaceport.

  Her eyes were cold, accusing.

  “You killed us all.”

  His chest tightened. His breath collapsed. The air no longer reached his lungs.

  A panic attack slammed into him like a wave, drowning out thought, sound, reason.

  He stumbled, fell backward, the world shrinking to a tunnel of heartbeat and echoing guilt.

  You could have saved them.

  You let them burn.

  Voices tangled with memory and grief.

  People around him reacted with confusion, alarm, or morbid curiosity. Tahuuk took notice too and started his quickened walk towards Jason. As Jason rolled to his side, struggling for air, his eyes drifted across the line—

  Three figures at a hover cart.

  Heads down. Grey hoods. Faces hidden.

  Just like he had done in the guild.

  Recognition sparked through the haze.

  Jason lifted a shaking arm and pointed, barely able to force sound from his throat.

  “T–There…”

  Tahuuk stopped mid-stride, saw Jason’s trembling hand, and followed the gesture.

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  The cart looked ordinary—but the weight left deep tracks in the dirt. Hover carts didn’t usually do that.

  Then their eyes met—Tahuuk and the saboteurs.

  Everything erupted at once.

  The rear saboteur shoved the cart forward, trying to push it past the line. The nearest one drew a rifle from beneath his cloak, aiming with practiced speed—but Tahuuk was faster. He lunged, grabbed the barrel, and shoved it skyward just as the panicked shot fired into the air.

  Bolt-action. Slow reload. Useless now.

  With a grunt of annoyance, Tahuuk lifted his leg and drove a brutal kick into the man’s stomach. The blow launched the saboteur straight into the second one, who had just drawn an electric baton. Both men crashed to the dirt, the baton skidding away.

  Jason tried to get up, fighting against trembling muscles and suffocating breaths. His heartbeat thundered in his skull. Sound came in and out like distant waves.

  Near the gate, the third saboteur used the cart for cover as the gate descended. Guards armed and ready to stop him. Some already had him in their crosshair.

  “Don’t shoot!” a guard yelled. “If they’ve got a bomb, you’ll set it off!”

  The saboteur grinned at that.

  The guard tried reasoning. “Hey! You’re a mercenary, right? No use getting paid if you blow yourself up!”

  The saboteur hesitated. The crowd instinctively pulled back, but not too fast—guards occasionally pointed weapons at anyone who moved too suddenly.

  Tahuuk stayed still, towering over the two he’d taken down. One wrong move and the saboteur at the gate might trigger an explosion.

  “You don’t know what our boss’ll do if we fail!” the saboteur shouted. “He’ll kill us himself!”

  He raised a small device—a trigger.

  “Stop the gate! Let me through and no one dies!”

  The heavy metal gate halted halfway down. The crowd froze entirely—fear rooting them to the spot.

  All except one.

  Jason.

  Still shaking, still short of breath, he pushed himself upright. His limbs felt heavy. His vision pulsed. But he moved.

  Quietly. Unnoticed. Determined.

  As the saboteur shoved the cart forward and glanced toward the guards—

  Jason grabbed his arm and twisted.

  The saboteur’s hand spasmed, the trigger trapped under Jason’s grip as the man was held in place by Jason. Jason couldn’t hold him for long, he twisted his own body to throw the saboteur on the floor.

  For a moment, the saboteur regained his senses, ready to push the button–

  Then a bullet tore through the side of his head. One of the guards saw an opportunity.

  His body slumped. Jason instinctively reached his hand towards the trigger, locked around the saboteur’s hand, preventing accidental detonation.

  A guard rushed in, sliding the cart to a stop. Relief washed through the entire line like a ripple.

  People clapped. Guards restrained the two surviving saboteurs under Tahuuk’s watch.

  Jason collapsed against the wall, lungs heaving, heart thrashing. He closed his eyes and focused on the rhythm of breath.

  Slowly. In and out. Until the world steadied again.

  Tahuuk sat beside him, letting the silence settle.

  “Because of my decision… a lot of people died,” Jason murmured. “I know most of them weren’t good people. But still… not all of them.”

  “It was a decision everyone made,” Tahuuk replied softly. “We all had reasons. And there’s one rule I learned from childhood… Your own survival comes first. Whatever the cost. That’s how the world works.”

  Jason didn’t agree entirely. But he respected Tahuuk too much to dismiss the lesson.

  “I’m going back to the inn,” he said as he stood.

  “What about the reward?”

  “We’ll get it tomorrow.”

  He turned—and saw the people in line watching him. Some smiled. Some whispered.

  One woman, with eastern features, looked at him with warm, admiring eyes. Her gaze softened something tight inside his chest.

  The man beside her immediately pulled her hood down and ushered her forward.

  Before Jason could react, a guard stepped in front of him.

  “You must be new in town. With something like this happening… we need to question you.”

  Reluctantly, Jason and Tahuuk followed him to a side room, with Jason having a final peek at the line in search of the girl.

  Half an hour later they were released, tired and drained. They barely acknowledged the city nightlife around them as they walked back to the inn.

  Inside their room, Jason noticed the missing people.

  “Where are the others?” he asked.

  “They found jobs,” someone said. “Some got rooms above the shops where they’ll work.”

  Jason nodded and practically collapsed into his corner of the room.

  Tahuuk was already nearly snoring.

  Jason closed his eyes, exhaustion washing over him.

  Even in this new world… He still felt like he was just trying to survive.

  Maybe tomorrow would be better.