Chapter 31: Deception
The city was a graveyard of crumbled dreams and scorched earth, where silence didn't promise peace it screamed of lives already lost. The sky hung heavy with ash, choking out the sun's warmth and leaving a cold, bitter shadow over everything.
Jaden and Silas moved cautiously through the ruins, the weight of every step pressing on their nerves like a noose tightening. Their breaths came shallow, their senses stretched thin. They weren't just wandering, they were hunted. Not by monsters or ghosts, but by other survivors.
The word 'survivor' was meaningless here. Hunger had turned people into something else, something brutal. Every scrap of food was a battle scar. Every warm meal is a hard-won prize. Mercy was a luxury none could afford.
From a nearby alleyway came the sharp, broken sound of footsteps, scraping and dragging. Voices murmured in rough whispers, low and harsh, riddled with desperation.
"Look at 'em," spat a voice thick with disgust. "Weak as hell. Can't fight back worth a damn."
"They've got food," another growled, ragged and dry. "We're starving. No choice left. We take it or we die."
Jaden tightened his grip on the broken pipe in his hands. Silas folded his wings close, a fragile shield against what was coming.
Four figures stepped from the shadows faces hollow and hard, eyes wild and cold. They were ghosts shaped by hunger and fear, moving like predators in a world gone mad. There was no hesitation in their steps, no flicker of mercy in their eyes.
Silas raised his voice, calm but firm. "We don't want trouble. We're just passing through."
The scarred leader's lip curled in a bitter snarl. "Trouble's what you bring. Food's what we want. Give it up, or we take it."
Jaden's heart hammered, but the cold truth settled like ice: in this broken world, survival wasn't about kindness or hope. It was about fighting, taking, and sometimes, killing.
As the first blow landed, the world tilted into chaos where the desperate prey became the hunted, and mercy was the first casualty.
The battle erupted in brutal silence no warnings, no declarations, just desperation with sharpened edges.
Jaden barely had time to react. The survivors weren't scavengers; they were predators now. One swung a rusted pipe at his ribs, and he deflected it with his own. The sound of impact rang out, metal on metal, bone on bone.
Across the crumbling street, a woman fought like a cornered animal fierce, ragged, unrelenting. She slammed a brick into one of Silas's summoned shields, blood on her teeth and rage in her voice.
"Get out of our way!" she snarled. "This food this is for my children. I'm not letting them starve because some strangers got lucky."
Jaden faltered for a moment, the words hitting something deep. She looked worn, hollow-eyed, but determined. Not evil just... surviving.
Silas held back, watching her movements carefully. "There are ways to ask. This isn't one."
"No one asks anymore," she spat. "We take. Or we die."
Her group surged again, the fight escalating screams, steel, the grunts of the injured. Jaden ducked a swing and countered, heart hammering in his chest.
Then came the gunfire. One of the scavengersnpanicked fired blindly.
The shot hit her.
It slammed into her chest, just under her collarbone, and she dropped like a marionette with its strings cut. The others fell back instinctively, startled by the unintended wound.
She coughed violently, blood smearing her lips, eyes wide in disbelief.
Jaden dropped to her side, grabbing her shoulders. "Hey—stay with me—! You said you had kids where are they? We can help!"
She laughed.
It was sharp. Wet. Mocking.
Her voice was low, breaking apart. "Help? There's no helping what's already gone."
She tilted her head toward him, her face a mix of pain and something colder guilt buried so deep, even death had trouble dragging it out.
"I sent them into the ruins… Told them to run. The monsters would follow movement. I said I'd meet them on the other side."
She choked on her own breath. "I didn't go. I waited. Let them draw the danger away."
Jaden stared at her, frozen. "You… you used them."
Her eyes locked on his no more lies, no masks.
"I wanted to live," she whispered. "Just once. I was so tired of being the one who dies."
Tears streamed down her face. "I told myself they might make it. But I knew. I knew."
Silas stood behind Jaden, silent, unreadable.
And then, with a final shuddering breath, she went still.
The silence after her death was deafening. Not because of grief but because of what her final words carved into them.
The food she fought for was never meant for hungry children.
It was her ticket to survive the aftermath of feeding them to the dark.
—----
The wind stilled as Jaden rejoined the others, blood splattered across his sleeves, eyes distant.
Rowan looked up from bandaging Niko's arm, his brows knitting at the hollow expression on Jaden's face. "You okay?"
Jaden didn't answer right away. His gaze flicked back to the smoke curling from the wreckage behind them, where the woman's body still lay cooling.
Kael, breathless and bruised, gave a grim nod toward the fallen attackers. "They're not coming back. What's left of them ran."
Silas lingered at Jaden's side, quiet. No jokes now. Not after what they'd heard.
Aya approached last, still gripping her knife. "Did she say anything?"
Jaden finally spoke. "She said she was fighting for her children."
A beat of silence passed. It almost sounded like a noble thing. Almost.
Then he added, his voice low and splintering, "She lied."
Their faces shifted, waiting.
"She used them," Jaden continued, each word heavy like broken glass. "Sent them running into monster territory… so she could escape. Used her own kids as bait."
Aya's breath caught. "No way. No mother would—"
"She did," Silas interrupted, gently. "People do worse in this world."
Rowan sat back on his heels, stunned. Even Niko stopped fidgeting. Kael's fan lowered, limp at his side.
Jaden dropped to a half-broken wall, scrubbing a hand down his face. "I thought… I thought things were bad. But this… it's not just about survival anymore. It's how we're surviving. And what we're willing to become."
He looked up at the group his friends, his only family left in this broken world.
"People say they're protecting their loved ones, but even love gets twisted when you're starving. They'll murder strangers for a stale loaf of bread. Trade their brother's life for a dry place to sleep. Sacrifice their children and call it mercy."
Silas folded his arms, wings shadowing over his shoulders. "The world's rotting from the inside. And most people don't even notice the smell anymore."
Kael whispered, "What happens to us if we do notice?"
Jaden stared into the flickering dusk, voice quiet. "We keep noticing. We don't stop looking. Even when it hurts."
No one spoke for a long moment.
There was no comfort in that silence. Only understanding. A mutual agreement forged in ash and blood:
This world was cruel.
But they'd choose not to become it.
Not yet.
The wind picked up again, scattering ash over the broken road.
They walked forward, one step at a time still together, still human.
But in this world, even that was a fragile victory.
Author's Note : Chapter 31
I warned you we were past the healing arc.
This is where the rot shows through where survival isn't just fighting monsters, but watching love decay and still daring to care anyway.
Jaden's learning that the apocalypse doesn't just take your body. It chews at your soul, and calls it mercy.
Thanks for making it this far.
Next chapter? They'll have to decide what kind of people they want to be when kindness starts feeling like a liability.
See you in Chapter 32. Bring emotional armor.