Chapter 25

Sera Westbrook's POV

We kept moving forward, but the environment around us was truly brutal.

By evening, we gathered in the fourth-deck command room.

Taylor stood in front of the large screen and transferred the old wristband's data onto it. File names, designations, dates—line after line scrolled down, dense and harsh on the eyes.

When the data reached the last line, Taylor pulled his hands back from the keyboard and leaned against the cabinet. "The team roster is fully decoded. These designations don't exist in any surviving records—which means these field squads are off-the-books secret units. After analysis and comparison, they belong to the conglomerates."

Taylor looked at everyone in the command room. "In other words, we can't track those secret units."

I stood in front of the screen, looking at that tangled mass of data, and felt a little irritated.

I'd just had my injection that morning—the second-generation inhibitor Dorian had developed. It really did work well; its suppression of sequence abilities wasn't as harsh, and the side effects were smaller.

I had the right to feel pain again—and right now, I had a splitting headache.

Suddenly, Dorian said gloomily, "Besides the secret units, I have another piece of bad news. The surface contamination index keeps rising. Our GCI has already started fluctuating. If we don't move somewhere uncontaminated, the whole team's GCI will go out of control."

Vera asked, "So where do we go?"

Dorian said, "Either east or north—but the northern cities have collapsed more severely. Travel and scavenging there won't go smoothly."

Kyle spread out the route map and looked at it for a long time. To the north was wilderness; to the east was the Citadel's marker, with two spore forests and a broken elevated highway in between. He pressed his index finger on the east side of the map and announced, "We go east."

Jax sucked in a breath. "No, wait—the east is the Citadel's territory. Going there is asking for death, isn't it?"

"But the Citadel has a lot of people, and they come from everywhere," Kyle said. "Where there are people, there's intelligence. They come from all over the country—there's no way none of them have seen the conglomerates' field squads."

He paused, his knuckle still pressed against the table. "And there's a lot of uncontaminated land on the outskirts. We need a safe living environment."

And just like that, the route for the next few days was set.

After all the members left, only Kyle and I remained in the command room.

I looked at Kyle, hesitated for a few seconds, and said his name. "Kyle."

Kyle didn't look up, still sorting the route map. "What is it?"

I asked calmly, "You know perfectly well the east is very dangerous. Why go anyway? Just for intelligence?"

"Intelligence is extremely important. We have to know the field squads' movements before they do." Kyle looked up at me. "You should understand the importance of intelligence, shouldn't you?"

I asked, "Is it just for me?"

Kyle said, "It's not for you. It's for the whole Titan."

I looked at him quietly, and finally sighed. "All right."

Just then, Kyle suddenly softened his voice. "You're not an ordinary person. You're the person I searched seven years for."

Something rippled in my heart.

He paused. "So I want you to be safe. I want to be able to see you forever."

I lowered my head and said nothing more.

I knew I should respond to what he said—but what was I supposed to say? And in what capacity?

And so the assignments were done: Taylor handled reconnaissance and decryption, Vera handled contact with Rena, Jax handled communications and routes, Cole handled rear guard and transport, and Kyle and I handled combat, moving with the team.

The team filed out of the Titan, their footsteps scattering on the iron ladder, growing farther and farther away.

I followed at the very end of the group. Kyle was gathering the materials on the table and didn't look up. "Anything else?"

I didn't leave, and I didn't speak.

He looked up at me, the folder still in his hand.

I rested my hand on the doorframe, thought for a long time, and finally said softly, "Kyle, if one day you feel the pressure is too much and you can't hold on anymore, tell me. I'll do everything I can to do the last thing for you—keep you safe."

His figure went still. I didn't look at him again. I turned and went downstairs, and behind me it was very quiet, without a sound.

Since the east was the Citadel's home turf, we advanced by vehicle, with the Titan following behind us at a distance of six miles.

As the road kept opening up, we saw many bases camped along the edge of the city, scattered in different places.

Jax grumbled on and on. "What era are we in? Rena's comms equipment is still that bad, so much static—do they not have credits to buy new gear?"

Credits—the currency of the apocalypse. There was only one official way to get them: trade crystal cores for credits. Among civilians, there were also channels for selling supplies to earn credits. After all, everyone had a wristband and a payment system, so bartering goods for credits worked smoothly enough.

Considering Rena's team setup, it wasn't exactly formal, so they probably really didn't have many credits.

Cole said, "It's fine. We have a spare comm unit sitting unused—we can give it to her."

Jax pursed his lips. "That works, I guess."

I turned to look out the window at the world. A world that had been through Eden's Fall—scarred beyond recognition, trees growing wild, high-rises collapsed. A world so vast, and yet there was nowhere to settle.