By the time the car passed through International City, they were going down the final stretch of the highway. Sen and Bali watched the road with somber silence as the mist dwindled.

Outside, the Flow in the air had thinned significantly as well.

“That thing in the mist,” Sen murmured. “It was the one letting out all that cold energy outside. It was the source of the fog; the salt crystals were evaporating on its skin.”

Bali nodded blankly. “Nowhere is safe anymore,” he said. “Has God just abandoned us?”

“Maybe he decided the world was better without us in it.”

“And that it would be better with these monsters?”

“I’m not God,” Sen said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t know what he thought. But if I had the chance to meet him… I don’t know what I’d say. I’d probably just start kicking.”

The man frowned at that, then sighed.

“I suggest you keep those thoughts to yourself, my friend. The Lord hears you, and we need all the good faith we can get.”

Sen shook his head, but didn’t argue. He watched Bali drive the car down the fading fog, and as the Flow in the air faded, so did their cover. Bali slowed the vehicle down without prompting from Sen. They advanced carefully—down the ribbon-curve of the road, watching the looming corals pass overhead. Even a dozen meters off the ground, the corals still dwarfed the overpass.

And yet, they were smaller here. Smaller than farther into the heart of the city. Where the corals in Al Warqaa matched the distant skyscrapers in length, here they stood like ancient trees, spearing into the sky with all their branching limbs and bulbous curls.

The four of them approached the middle point of the highway, and Sen found the road infested with a collection of daggerpoint growths and elkhorn corals. They clustered down the path like rows of hungry teeth, consuming hundreds of meters of road and stabbing out from under the cars. They were tire-killers—sharp as knives.

Their Honda stopped in front of the roadblock, unable to proceed.

Sen pursed his lips.

He stared off to his right, where the asphalt ended and the dry soil began. Off the side of the road was a flat, barren land—a shortcut to Academic City, marred only by a sparser collection of giant corals and glowing, Flow-soaked moss. Big, bulbous globes of scab-skinned stones bulged out of the ground like pale tumors. Sen and Bali shared a glance.

“Do you think this car can go off-road?” Sen asked.

Bali scanned the desert plain, his hand tight against the wheel. “We can try, my friend. But we’ll have to go on foot if the corals slash the tires.”

“If we go forward, the ones ahead will slash the tires anyway. Let’s try our luck here.”

“I have never been a lucky man.”

“Then it’s good you have me with you. Let’s go.”

Bali gave a hesitant nod, before turning the wheel all the way right. He drove them off the side of the road, and the car immediately started rumbling over the rough terrain. Sen felt himself sway as the Honda rolled over stones and smaller coral, the salt rain weakening as they drove farther away from the city. Even here, the wheels crunched against the crystals on the ground, releasing wisps of Ardor into the air.

As they passed that section of Dubai’s coral forests, Sen saw smaller creatures dart in and out of cover. There were fish here, he realized. Small, floating shapes. They were indistinct in the darkness, save for the bioluminescent scales that traced down their backs.

Over the next twenty minutes, the forest came alive in their wake.

More and more of the small fish drew near, coming close to investigate the metal beast passing through their territory. Sen saw them peer into the glass before darting away, the lights on their bodies flickering. And then… they calmed. They realized the car was not a predator, and so they drew nearer; closer as their curiosity trumped their fear.

Sen peered outside as a small fish kissed the passenger-side window.

It was a tiny little thing—no larger than his thumb. The fish had six fins along its belly, the air below each vibrating with Flow. The energy kept it flying in the air, its many fins dancing to keep it afloat.

“Bright,” someone said, and Sen blinked.

He turned his eyes to the rearview and found Bali’s daughter, Tasha, staring out of the glass. Her voice was soft and absent, as if her mouth had somehow leaked her thoughts into the air. Beside her, Em was also awake, her finger tapping against the glass. Tap, she went, and the fish darted away, only to come close again. Tap, tap.

Bali’s daughter caught him looking at them. She turned her head and met his eyes through the rearview mirror, her lips pursed. The little girl leaned back on her seat.

“The ocean is mad at us,” she said. Bali paused in his seat as if surprised by the sound of his own daughter’s voice. It was the first time she’d spoken a word in Sen’s presence—the first time, it seemed, in a long time. Sen saw Bali’s mouth open, then close, then open again.

“…Why do you think so, my daughter?"

“Because we throw plastic in it,” Tasha replied, after a pause. She continued staring outside. “And we explode it. Like my teacher said. Now the tiny fish are here and they hate us.”

“They don’t look angry. Maybe they are just here to say hello.”

She nodded, then turned quiet. After another moment, Tasha spoke again. “I wonder where Priya is,” she said. Sen saw Bali close his eyes, his jaw trembling, before he relaxed. The man slumped down on his seat, looking more tired than ever.

“We will find her,” he said. “And then we’ll be together again.”

“I want to play some games with her.”

“You will, Tasha. You will.”

Sen lapsed into silence as they talked. He let their words fill the dead air in the car, and in between their short exchanges, Em’s tapping continued. Tap. Her finger clicked against the glass, and the fish scattered again. The next ten minutes proceeded in the same way—long moments of silence, cut apart by pockets of brief conversation. They were all tired, he knew. Too exhausted. It had been a long week of pain and struggle, constant fighting and worry with little time to relax in between.

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But now there was hope. They were on a detour, but now they were headed to Maladh. They had a goal beyond just surviving to see another day. Now there were other people—waiting for them in a safe place.

Perhaps there, things could be normal again. And Sen could wait on the rest of the world to fix their problems for him.

Then the car ran over a patch of sharp coral, and two of the front wheels burst.

Sen closed his eyes as Em clicked her tongue.

He was so very tired.

----------------------------------------

After a short debate over what they should do with the car, the four of them decided that going on foot was the best option. Driving with the tires popped was dangerous—the car had been conspicuous before, and with ruined tires, it only made it impossible to escape should they catch a monster’s attention.

On foot, however, it was much easier to hide.

Sen’s group plunged deep into the coral forest. They ducked under arches of hole-riddled stones and pushed through patches of long, wriggling anemone. Compared to the heart of the city, the corals here were less predatory—and so were the things that lived inside of them.

A school of fish followed them as they passed through the desert reef. The glowing little things darted around them, zipping closer and away in sudden, zig-zagging routes that followed their path. He watched them go into clusters of glowing, Flow-infused fauna, before darting out as the glow diminished. Soon, Sen realized that most of them followed him specifically, staring at him expectantly between bursts of movement. In a flash of curiosity, Sen flared his Flow reserves, urging the energy to flow out from his skin.

A faint sheen of rippling cold enveloped his hand with invisible energy; the fish immediately darted towards it. They nibbled on his fingers as if it were candy, their mouths sucking in the Flow that ran out into the air.

He found himself smiling at that, spreading his hands wide as the fish clustered around him. A swarm of them latched onto his arms, feeding on the tiny traces of Flow he released.

Sen caught Em staring at him. He raised an eyebrow her way.

“What’s that look for?”

“You look like a Disney princess,” she said, before pausing. “You aren’t going to break out into song, are you?”

“Don’t tempt me. I have every line in Mulan memorized.”

“You spend too much time on the TV.”

“Says the girl with anime powers.”

“Touché.”

He smirked at that, their conversation carrying over the silence. They spoke in low voices; barely above a whisper. It was a little dangerous to even speak, he knew, but conversation was all they had. Too much silence was… unnerving. It made him feel like he was losing something important—something whose absence would break him sooner than any rogue monster could.

Little conversations. Little jokes and comforts. That was all they had.

Sen was glad to have them.

To his right, Sen saw Bali glancing their way, some of the tension in his body fading as they continued into the wilderness. Far ahead, past the sea of corals and dry earth, Sen saw the embermoon rising on the southern horizon. It traced lines of molten light over the silhouettes of Dubai’s distant skyscrapers, glinting off the glass like strings of fire. Sen saw the glow fall over the impossibly tall corals. It cast deep shadows across the earth, blanketing the streets and the forest they found themselves walking in.

“The moon is rising,” Bali said, his eyes staring at the distant sky. “Are we safe here?”

Tasha squeezed her father’s hand as she looked away from the moon.

“I don’t like the dark,” she murmured. “But bad things come out when it’s brighter. I… I want to go away from here. Please.”

“Hush, my daughter. We’ll be okay,” Bali said. He turned his eyes to Sen. “Can we find somewhere to hide, my friend? I don’t enjoy the idea of being in the open, either.”

Sen agreed. He put a stop to his Flow, and the fish following them dispersed. As if sensing the sunrise, they zipped into the gaps in the corals, hiding away in fear. Sen nodded towards the rest of the group, before motioning west. There, a line of buildings stood abandoned next to a gas station. A convenience store stood gaping in the face of the moon, the orange light flooding through the shattered windows in front. To its right was a Subway and a KFC in equally wretched states.

But what truly caught Sen’s attention was the office building. It was a small one—three stories tall—resting on the side of the gas station with the paint peeling on its walls. Purple moss crept up the side of its walls like a giant, ugly bruise.

And yet, compared to the other buildings which were covered in glass, it was mostly concrete.

It was the perfect place to hide.

Em caught him looking at it, and the two of them exchanged a glance. She nodded. “Let’s hide away in that building for now,” she said, pointing her fingers over a patch of knee-high corals. “I’m sure none of us want to be out here when the moon’s in the sky—not when the other things start to wake up.”

Sen nodded. “I’ll go and check on it to make sure there’s nothing inside. You three stay behind cover. Em can protect you and your daughter while I scout ahead.”

“I can do that. But what if you need help with anything inside?”

“I’ll send a signal.”

“What kind?”

“Hand signs.”

She glared at him, and Sen smiled. He activated [Bone Armor], letting the growths burst out of his arms in vicious, jagged shapes. He tapped his bicep with an armored finger. “I’ll shout if I need help. Don’t worry. If there’s anyone here who can survive long enough to shriek for backup, it’s me.”

Em looked him up and down, her eyebrows scrunched up into a frown. “…You’re looking forward to this,” she said. “Going on ahead to scout by yourself.”

“Haunted houses and abandoned buildings are exciting places to be. Just as long as there aren’t any real monsters in them.”

“Just don’t die to some stupid vampires hiding in there because you’re too busy soaking in the atmosphere.”

“I’ll try my best. See you soon.”

“Come back intact.”

Sen flashed the three of them a quick smile, before ducking under an arch of coral. As soon as he turned away, Sen felt the grin slip away from his face. In its place, he found himself frowning, his fingers twitching nervously at his sides. It was hard to play confident all the time. But that was what he needed to be in front of Bali and Tasha, and maybe even in front of Em.

Bravado wasn’t as reliable as confidence, but it was as good of a replacement as they could get. If he had to act like a peacock to feel like he wasn’t about to shut down, then he was more than willing to play up the cocksure act.

It was obvious enough to him that Em was doing the same.

“Fake it ‘til you make it, I suppose,” he muttered, weaving through the fauna in a crouch. He circled around the abandoned gas station, trying to view it from all sides. The restaurants next to the office were ransacked. And judging from the dents in the metal and the shattered tables inside, it was no human that did the work. Not unless somebody had come in just to make a mess of the place.

Sen drew closer.

He approached the side of the office building. It was covered in barnacles of different sizes. Some were clustered like tiny, fingernail-sized growths, while others gaped with openings that looked like beaks, each large enough to bite his hand off. The immobile creatures infesting the wall breathed, inhaling the faint energies lingering in the air.

Sen walked past the snapping mouths and tried the back door.

It rattled; locked.

Sen debated using Flow to open it with Mortal Commandment, but his overuse had already left him with only a third of his reserves—even after nearly two hours of driving and walking. It wouldn’t be good to waste any more of it now.

So, Sen circled around the building to find all the doors locked. Some of the doorknobs turned smoothly, but something on the other side blocked them from opening.

He frowned as he looked up at the building.

There were no windows on the first floor, but… his eyes traced the fire escape on the side, a ladder leading up to the roof. Most buildings of its like had one. And if he was lucky, it would be his way in. Sen clambered up immediately, climbing faster as more of the embermoon’s light flooded into the world. It cast a faint, orange glow on his back, barely bright enough to be called dim.

It was strange, how much that unnerved him. How comfortable he’d become hiding in the darkness after just a week. Sen swallowed as he pulled himself up over the lip of the flat roof, with its satellite dishes and naked pipes.

His eyes scanned the rooftop until he found it: an entrance. A single door led deeper into the building, standing off to the side.

Sen approached it, reached for the doorknob, and—

The door jerked open. Sen froze.

He stared ahead, deathly quiet.

A shotgun barrel stared back.