Chapter 5657

Jared shook his head, every muscle drawn tight. “I don’t know. But nothing here feels right. We move carefully, every step.”

They pushed themselves upright, meaning to scout the wasteland, when a distant, keening scream ripped through the alien air.

Their eyes locked for a heartbeat, then both sprang toward the cry, boots hammering the cracked stone.

The trail plunged into a narrow valley, and the sight waiting there punched the breath from their lungs.

A pack of bandits, eyes wild and blades flashing, hunted a family of three. The mother and father shielded their child while the marauders closed in, laughing with feral delight.

“Stop!” Jared’s roar cracked across the valley like thunder.

He tried to charge, yet an invisible grip clamped around him. His limbs turned to lead, each step slower than the last, as though time itself conspired to hold him back. Beside him, Sylvia fought the same strangling force, eyes wide with helpless terror while the family before them slid closer to doom.