The world outside the fortress was worse than I remembered.
It had only been a few hours since we left, but every kilometer felt like a punch to the soul.
Burned houses.Shattered roads.Entire towns reduced to rubble and dried blood.
Fallen light poles.Splintered trees.And among it all—bodies.Scattered.Deformed.Some still barely alive…Others unrecognizable.
There were no words.Only footsteps.And a silence that screamed louder than anything else.
In the distance, we spotted movement.
Creatures.
Small groups roaming the ruins—some slow, twisted zombies,others beastlike, with long claws and empty eyes.
Nothing too powerful, but still lethal if underestimated.
Romina and Pablo dispatched the first threats with surgical precision.The captains kept the formation tight.I stayed alert for signs of an ambush.Grandfather Patricio never said a word, but somehow he always knew where to look first.
Before sunset, we agreed to set up camp.There was no time to find proper shelter.We had to build our own.
With what we could salvage—tarps, metal scraps, plastic, branches and stones—we crafted a makeshift perimeter.
A fire at the center.Around it, runic vibration sensors.Not elegant, but enough to give us a warning.
We all knew what came next:Nightfall.
And with it, the most dangerous part of the day.
Nocturnal creatures were smarter.Faster.Hungrier.
That night, none of us would sleep through.
We rotated watch duty in pairs.Two awake while the others rested in short cycles.No one slept more than an hour at a time.
I took the first shift with Romina.
The fire crackled softly.The sounds of the night were strange—unnatural.Footsteps that belonged to no one.Whispers coming from nowhere.Howls… some far off, others far too close.
But we held the line.
While the others slept, I thought.
Of Vega.Of the artifacts.Of survivors out there, waiting to be found…or hunted.
We didn't know how long this expedition would last.Only that we couldn't fail.
And then…
The scene shifted.
A dark room.
Spacious.Old.Lined with shelves full of artifacts, stacked like forgotten relics.
Two people were inside.
One stood by a table, the other sat with their back to the entrance, wrapped in shadows.
—Some of the artifacts… —the standing figure said reverently—They've awakened powers we didn't anticipate.
A pause.
—We believe they may be the key to survival.
The seated figure didn't answer at first.Only shifted slightly.A soft creak of wood—tension in a chair.
Then, with a dry, firm voice, they spoke:
—Recover them all.Every piece sold at the last auction.
Silence.Then one final command:
—We begin tonight.