Emergence

As his hand gripped the first rung, the signal was given.

A series of muffled explosions echoed from the west. Not enough to bring buildings down—but enough to blackout cameras, fry sensors, and send the enforcers scrambling.

The city above shifted, momentarily blind.

Solace climbed, boots pressing into rust and memory.

Had he known—just a corridor away, on the next rail line—his sister’s lantern flickered through the dark, following his trail, drawn to the tremor of those distant blasts. The same blasts that meant war… and reunion.

The hatch swung open.

For the first time in years, Solace stood beneath open sky. What used to be sky, anyway—a sulfur-stained haze hung where stars should’ve been. Distant fires burned in barrels and broken buildings. Drones buzzed far overhead, their red scanning lights like synthetic stars.

The streets were quiet—but not empty.

A curfewed populace cowered behind broken windows, afraid of both the enforcers and the growing whispers that somewhere, down below, something was stirring.

Something that hadn’t given up.

Solace pulled his scarf over his mouth, raised his rifle, and whispered to no one but himself:

“Let them remember tonight… the underground breathes.”

And he moved.