The rooftops felt softer at dawn. Not in any real way, there were still metal sheets and sun-bleached tar, cracked tiles and rusted vents—but there was something about the quiet that made the world feel gentler. Like the city was pretending it was all okay and Hollowed were nothing but a dream.
Kaela walked ahead of me, light on her feet, her scarf fluttering just slightly in the breeze. The sun was barely over the horizon, a dull orange smear across the ruined skyline. No sounds except the distant hiss of wind and our boots scraping metal.
She glanced back. "You always get this quiet before a run?"
"I'm always quiet," I muttered, half-smiling.
"Yeah, but right now, I can see you are clearly thinking."
"We're on a scouting mission, Kaela."
She raised an eyebrow. "We're walking on the rooftops we've walked a hundred times. You know these routes better than anyone. You could do this with blindfolds on. So, tell me what's really going on in that overly analytical head of yours."
I sighed. "Just... the usual. I cannot help but wonder what if my actions have made the people of the camp scared and what if everything, we saw that night was just a trick. What if I am just being paranoid and we are just wasting time and resources into nothing."
She stopped and turned, her face softening. "Noah, you also know how important it is for us to be prepared in these times to stay alive. And if there is literally nothing, then in a few days, everyone will go back to normal. But we can talk about that later. Right now? Just be here. With me."
I stepped up beside her. The city below stretched like an abandoned model set, frozen mid-collapse. Somewhere, something creaked but nothing else.
We moved forward in silence, slipping into the rhythm only rooftops allowed. They were uneven — metal seams popping with age, tar patches curled like old skin. Each step was careful. One wrong placement meant a fall, and down here, even gravity felt cruel.
Kaela took the lead, adjusting the strap of her satchel as she dropped low and crossed the next roof. I followed, eyes sharp, hands brushing the grip of my sidearm just in case. Every few blocks, we stopped and scanned — not just for Hollowed, but for something almost as important: jammer towers.
The first we found was on a rusted restaurant roof, leaning sideways like it had been kicked. The housing was cracked, and the solar panel had long since shattered under storm debris. Kaela crouched beside it, pried open the casing, and checked the node.
"Dead," she muttered, handing me the blackened circuit.
I pulled a small strip of red cloth from my pocket and tied it to the base pole — a quick marker for later to know this one had already been checked. Then I slipped the circuit into my pouch. Even broken jammers had salvageable parts. Capacitors. Coils. If we ever figured out how to build one from scratch, we'd need every piece we could find.
We kept going — roof to roof, ledge to ledge — navigating by muscle memory and instinct. The next jammer was better hidden, tucked behind a ventilation stack on an old accounting firm. Kaela spotted it. This one buzzed faintly but the pulse was weak. Not enough to repel anything anymore.
She clipped the battery node and passed it to me. "Burnt out. Might still be useful."
We hit four rooftops in total, checking every known site along this ridge. Each one was marked and catalogued on my map slate, and the collected parts stuffed into the lined compartments of Kaela's pack.
"Eyes right," she said softly, motioning toward the street below. A Hollowed husk lay curled under a wrecked awning — unmoving, decayed, half-covered in moss. We waited a beat. No twitch. No signal ping. Just the weight of the world pressing in.
We passed a bridge of planks laid between two rooftops, wobbling slightly underfoot, and made for the north ridge. An old surveillance antenna jutted like a broken finger from the building's peak. From here, we could see the stretch of city that hadn't collapsed — yet.
We climbed to the ledge and took a breather. The wind pressed against us. The skyline was jagged, beautiful in that haunted kind of way.
That's when Kaela finally broke the silence.
"Do you ever think about it?" she asked. "What life would've been if this hadn't happened?"
"Sometimes."
"I think I would've been a mechanic. Or maybe a paramedic like Mira. Definitely not a farmer."
"You would've been terrible at farming."
She gave me a mock glare, then laughed. "You wouldn't have survived one day in an office. The thought of you being in an office…"
"Fair."
We kept walking. The wind tugged at my jacket, and the straps of my satchel bounced softly against my side. We passed a familiar sign: a shattered billboard that used to sell toothpaste. The smiling family on it now wore peeling paint and bullet holes.
"Remember this spot?" I asked.
Kaela smiled. "First time we ever kissed. You thought I was going to stab you."
"You did have a knife drawn."
"You were being an idiot."
"I was scouting!"
"You were two inches from falling off the ledge trying to prove a Hollowed was tracking scent trails."
I laughed. "And you saved me."
"I always do."
We sat on a rooftop ledge, legs hanging over the edge. For a moment, it felt like the apocalypse hasn't happened. Just a broken city, two people, and a little warmth.
"What do you think? Where would you have lived if this never happened?" She asked.
"Probably somewhere in the North. My dad was from the Northern side of India, remember? Where would you have lived?"
"I don't know. Maybe in your heart like always." She said as a sweet laugh spread over her face.
She then reached into her jacket and pulled out the necklace I gave her. The chain was frayed, but she still wore it like it meant everything. Maybe it did.
"I never take this off," she said. "Even when I sleep. Even when I run."
"I know."
She turned toward me. "You remember the night you gave it to me?"
"End of winter. Just before the big storm which lasted for days. You told me you hated gifts. And then cried anyway."
"Did not."
"You did."
Her hand slid into mine. I leaned closer.
"You know," she whispered, "if the world had ended differently... maybe we wouldn't have met."
"Maybe. But I'm glad it ended this way and that despite the chaos, I got to meet you."
Her lips brushed mine. Slow. Familiar. Everything around us faded—and all I could think to myself was that if there was a heaven that existed, it was here in this moment.
I sat there for almost an hour with Kaela's head on my lap when suddenly - A scream tore through the morning air. Close and Human-like.
We snapped apart, both ducking low. The scream cut off mid-breath.
"That wasn't far," Kaela said.
"North ridge," I guessed. "Maybe two blocks."
Then came the shuffle. Not the soft wind kind. The meat-on-metal, dragging-kind.
"Noah," she said, her voice tense.
Three Hollowed landed on the rooftop ahead. One of them had wire running through its shoulder. Another had what looked like a shattered headset fused into its skull. All of them looked... wrong.
One of them twitched, head jerking toward us.
"Kaela, run!" I shouted while grabbing her hand and helping her get up.
We bolted across the rooftop, gear slamming against our backs. The Hollowed shrieked, a sound like metal shearing glass. Boots slammed metal, the gaps between buildings narrower than I remembered. Kaela jumped first. I followed.
"Jammer site—south corner!" I shouted.
"Will it still be active!"
"I hope!"
Another scream. Closer.
We zigzagged through a narrow passage where vines had claimed everything. Kaela shoved aside a broken antenna while I kicked through a pile of bird bones.
"Behind us!"
I glanced back—two Hollowed closing in. One dropped to all fours like an animal.
Kaela slid under a pipe and called out, "Two more blocks! Come on!"
The signal jammer site was up ahead, marked by an old green flare stain and half a solar dish. If it still pulsed, we'd be safe.
A big if though.
We didn't speak, not until we landed hard on the rooftop.
The jammer tower stood crooked.
Kaela reached for her sidearm. I scanned the alley below.
Then we heard them, climbing.
We both stood back-to-back.
The jammer crackled uselessly beside us—no hum, no pulse, nothing. Whatever we were counting on, it wasn't working. Around us, three Hollowed emerged, each more twisted than anything we'd catalogued before. One had blades fused to its forearms. Another dragged a hive of cables from its shoulder like a tail. The third... it was just standing and watching like it was calculating our every move.
This was the first time they moved under full daylight. Neither of us had ever trained for this. We never had any protocols or tactics to outrun or survive them. No one at the camp ever thought we will witness them walking again during the day. But we were all wrong and today, if we didn't make it to the camp, they will never know how much danger they are in.
But one thing was certain.
Kaela was not dying here. Not today. Not while I was standing. One of us needs to live and it had to be her.