AARON “Surviving is all we managed to do,” Elliot rasped. Nathan glanced at his brother for less than a second, then went right back to the guard position he had chosen for himself. He stayed near the front of the Mobile Hauler, weapon ready, eyes locked on the street ahead. I wished he would help with Elliot or at least check on Seraphina, but I remembered the look on his face earlier. Hard. Closed off. Dangerous. I was not about to push him and risk setting him off, not when he was armed and already on edge. “What happened?” I asked again, keeping my voice steady. “I almost got us all killed,” Marcus Hale said. His fist slammed down on the table in front of him, the sound sharp in the tight space.“Marcus,” Elliot started. Marcus cut him off fast. “Do not even try to protect me. I should have listened to Nathan. If I had, you would not have a hole in your shoulder, and Seraphina would not have almost been blown apart.” Seraphina shook her head hard. “Stop it. You did not cause this.” “Didn’t I?” Marcus snapped. “They warned me. I knew better. I still dragged you all out there.” “What happened?” I asked again, slower this time, forcing the words out through my teeth. “What do you think happened?” Elliot shot back. “Those machines showed up and slaughtered everyone. Exactly like you said they would.” He glared at me. “What now? Want to say you were right?” I stared down at him while pressing the towel tighter against his shoulder wound. Harder than needed. “No, you idiot. I want to know how you survived. I want to know if there is anything we can use if we end up in the same nightmare.” Elliot hissed in pain and then nodded. A coughing fit tore out of him, sharp and wet, his face twisting as he fought through it. When it finally passed, he sucked in air and steadied himself. “Sorry,” he said once he could breathe again. “I get it now. I understand why you did not want to go, Nathan.” Nathan did not look back. He only gave a small nod to show he heard. The Mobile Hauler rolled smoothly through the Residential Lanes, but Nathan stayed tense, scanning every corner, every rooftop. No one relaxed. No one felt safe. “We survived by dumb luck,” Marcus muttered. Seraphina shook her head. “This was not luck.” “It absolutely was,” Marcus said. “We are alive. You are not hurt. That is the best outcome anyone could hope for after that hell.”My jaw tightened. The anger had been building for minutes, and it was close to boiling over. “So there was nothing special? No trick, no shelter, no warning sign? You just walked past hundreds of killing machines because the universe felt generous?” Marcus let out a long breath. Seraphina slapped his shoulder as he shifted, which only made it harder for her to keep pressure on Elliot’s wound. “We made it to the admittance line,” Marcus said. “There were more of those checkpoint idiots there, acting like security. FEMA people were taking names, keeping order, pretending they had control. We lined up. We waited. Then people behind us started screaming.” He paused. His breathing picked up. Guilt stirred in my chest. I could have stopped pushing. I could have waited. Whatever they went through had carved deep scars into them, and dragging it back out was cruel. I knew that. I pushed the guilt down anyway. Lucas and Elena needed every scrap of information I could gather. I needed answers before the machines found us. Before I had to choose between running or fighting. So I stayed quiet. I did not stop Marcus. I did not agree when Seraphina told him to rest. I focused on helping Elliot and prayed Marcus would finish the story in time. Marcus dragged in a shaky breath and forced himself to continue. “Have you ever seen grown men and women thrown through the air like toys?” he asked. “Your brain cannot understand it. For one second, I thought gravity stopped working. People were flying over cars and tents near the entrance.” He stopped again. His head dropped. The sound he made was broken, wet, wrong. Then I realized he was crying. Elliot nodded slowly. “That is when the militia behind the fence opened fire with one of the big guns. I thought my teeth were going to shake out of my skull. I do not know which was worse. Watching those white and gray machines snap necks like it meant nothing, or seeing someone get hit by a round that missed its target.” His voice faded out. “How did you get away?” Elena asked softly. Seraphina answered instead. “They were almost on us when Marcus shoved me behind him.” “And then one of the guards threw a grenade,” Marcus said. “It was a rocket,” Elliot said at once. Marcus shook his head. “No. It wasn’t.” The argument hung in the air, unfinished, heavy with fear and memory, while the Mobile Hauler kept moving and Nathan kept watch, waiting for the next disaster to come crashing down on us.