Jason Lee Scott (Altered)'s Arc

Chapter 2 of 11

Jason walked east through the outer district with the woman he'd pulled from the mall rubble. She limped beside him until they reached the checkpoint where the volunteers took her in. She didn't look back. He watched her disappear through the canvas flap, then kept moving. The eastern edge of the district ended at a cracked highway overpass where someone had spray-painted warnings across the concrete. Jason stopped at the base and studied the ground. Boot prints pressed into the soft dirt showed a pattern he recognized — Zack's old habit of dragging his left heel slightly when he moved fast. The prints led toward the overpass but didn't come back. Jason pulled the wrist device from his pack and checked the frequency the locals used. Static, then a voice: "Eastern routes are locked down. Patrols doubled since last week." He clicked off and looked at the prints again. Three weeks old, maybe four. Zack had made it this far. Beyond the overpass stood a statue of Drakkon, ten feet tall with gold plating that caught the afternoon light. The locals had built makeshift barriers around it, turning the monument into a warning marker. Jason approached slowly. Two men sat near the base, their own wrist devices clipped to their belts. One of them stood when Jason got close. "You don't want to go past here," the man said. "Patrols run every six hours now. They're looking for someone." Jason's chest tightened. "How long have they been this active?" The man shrugged. "Three weeks, give or take. Someone passed through before that and they've been hunting since." Jason looked past the statue to where the eastern route disappeared into rubble and burned-out buildings. Zack had gone that way. The patrols meant Drakkon knew someone had slipped through. Jason could follow and risk leading them back to any survivors Zack might be protecting, or he could wait and lose the trail completely. The man near the statue watched him. "You thinking about going through anyway?" Jason shook his head. "Not today." He turned back toward the district, the boot prints burned into his memory. Zack was alive and running. That was enough. For now, knowing that mattered more than charging in blind. He'd find another way east, one that didn't put more people at risk. The patience he thought he'd lost held steady as he walked away from the statue. It surprised him.