The RV's engine had long gone quiet, its cabin bathed in the dim orange hue of a rising sun filtered through ash-stained windows. They had parked the Phoenix Rig in a pocket of ruined terrain, surrounded by collapsed concrete and skeletal trees—just beyond the mouth of the tunnel where death had nearly found them.
Inside, it was silent. Warm, even. A rare stillness that wrapped around them like a blanket.
Yue Fei sat on the built-in bench, her jacket off, shoulder exposed. A shallow gash ran across her upper arm—clean, but red and swollen.
Lin Xia knelt beside her with steady hands, brushing antiseptic across the wound with a practiced touch. "It's not deep. You'll have full range of motion."
Yue winced but said nothing. She simply looked out the window, watching the static sky shift from dull gray to pale gold.
Lu Zhen sat across from them, checking over the remaining shotgun shells and rebalancing the Vault storage. Metal clinked as he rearranged compartments inside the new modular armory cabinet installed beneath the floorboards—his latest upgrade to the RV's internal systems.
"Paneling's reinforced. We've got fresh kinetic insulation on the right flank," he reported absently, eyes still on the HUD. "Still need to figure out a better solution for shock absorption on rough terrain, though."
Lin wiped her hands and sat back on her heels. "I've done what I can for now. Try not to stretch it too much."
"Noted," Yue muttered. She pulled her jacket back on.
As Lin rose, Lu looked up. "Thanks for patching her up."
Lin glanced at him briefly, then offered a soft smile. "I'm not a fighter like you two. But I can keep people together."
"Trust me," Lu said, "that might be more important than pulling a trigger."
He turned back to the dashboard and tapped open the tactical map.
[Mapping Overlay Updated]Route to Base Tianlei: 112.8 kmEnvironmental Warning: Minor dimensional interference detectedMagnetic polarity unstable – recalibrating HUD compass
Yue stepped closer, peering over his shoulder. "That shimmer—see it? That's not normal radiation."
"No," Lu replied. "It's a weak rift signature. Like a scar the sky left behind when the shift happened."
"It's spreading?" Lin asked, leaning in.
Lu hesitated. "Not exactly. More like... thinning in places. The barrier between our world and whatever bled into it is weaker in some zones."
A heavy silence followed.
Yue broke it. "We'll cross that bridge when we're strong enough. For now, we keep moving."
They spent the next hour maintaining the Phoenix Rig.
Lu installed a compartment beneath the sleeping bunk for tool storage and lined the front panels with insulation mesh he synthesized earlier. Lin helped organize the medical supplies, sorting everything by usage type and expiration dates. Yue double-checked all weapon mounts and did maintenance on their makeshift melee weapons.
By midday, the rig was ready to move again.
But before they started the engine, the three of them sat down—just to breathe.
Yue sipped water from a dented thermos. Her gaze rested on Lu, quiet for a long time. Then, suddenly, "You always like this?"
Lu blinked. "Like what?"
"This... calm. After everything that's happened."
He paused, letting the hum of the RV fill the air.
"No," he admitted. "But panic never fixed anything. Building things... gives me something to hold on to."
Yue watched him for a moment longer, then turned her gaze back to the window.
"I think I envy that," she said softly.
Lin, listening from the bunk, smiled faintly to herself.
Later, when Yue drifted off for a short nap, Lu found himself outside the RV, crouched beside a broken road sign half-buried in gravel. He was inspecting an old transmitter spike—part of a long-abandoned signal system.
The metal was mostly useless, but nearby, he noticed something strange.
A warm patch of earth.
Still-smoldering coals buried beneath loose rock.
He knelt and brushed away the top layer.
A small, cold campfire. Not days old—but hours.
Scattered near the ashes, he found a cracked flashlight and an empty canteen. The trail led slightly northeast, away from the tunnel and deeper toward the wild zone of Sector H11.
Back at the RV, Lu presented the items to the others.
"Survivor?" Lin asked.
"Maybe," he said. "Definitely recent."
"Think it's a trap?" Yue asked.
Lu shook his head. "Too messy. If anything, someone was moving fast. Or scared."
They agreed not to follow the trail—for now. Base Tianlei was still their main priority. But Lu uploaded the location into the HUD and tagged it: [Potential Survivor – H11 Route].
As the sun began its slow descent again, they prepared to leave.
Just before they rolled out, Lu stood one last time beside the edge of the tunnel.
The gaping entrance loomed behind them, quiet now, like a mouth waiting to close. He brought up his HUD, overlaying the scanned data from their exploration.
[Tunnel Collapse Risk: 78%][Navigation Viability: Low – 3 Blocked Segments Detected][Width Constraints: Incompatible with Phoenix Rig size]
He sighed and muttered under his breath, "Too narrow. Too unstable."
Yue approached beside him. "Still thinking about it?"
"We can't take chances. Phoenix Rig won't survive another ambush in a tight corridor with no turning room. We stick to the highway."
She nodded. "Faster anyway. And at least on the surface, we can see what's coming."
Back inside, the atmosphere had shifted—sharper, but focused. The kind of silence that followed shared understanding.
The engine of the Phoenix Rig rumbled to life. Lu took the driver's seat. Yue sat beside him, her arm bandaged. Lin strapped into the back, finalizing their supply log.
Outside, the wind carried ash across the road like ghostly ribbons. The sky remained clouded, faintly shimmering with the scars of dimensional fracture.
"Base Tianlei…" Lu whispered as he looked toward the horizon. "112.8 kilometers more."
Yue glanced at him. "We'll make it."
Lin nodded from behind. "Together."
Then the RV moved forward—steady, armored, and alive.
And the world, scarred and burning, rolled on with them.