Jason Lee Scott (Altered)'s Arc

Chapter 3 of 11

Jason moved back through the district as the afternoon light faded. He needed a place to work from, somewhere he could watch the eastern routes without drawing attention. The patrols would keep hunting and he couldn't lead them to Zack. Not yet. He found it two blocks south of the checkpoint — an old supply depot half-buried in vines and moss. The canvas walls were intact but weathered, stretched over wooden frames that had held up better than most structures. The front faced away from the main routes. He stepped inside and checked the corners. Empty. No signs anyone had used it recently. He could fortify this without raising flags. The patrols swept through on schedules, and if he stayed quiet, they'd pass right by. Jason spent the next hour building a perimeter. He collected scrap metal and broken fence posts from the surrounding rubble, arranging them in a loose circle around the depot. Not a wall — that would draw eyes — but enough clutter to slow anyone approaching. He threaded wire between the posts at ankle height, then attached pieces of salvaged gear that would rattle if disturbed. A patrol wouldn't see the wire in low light. They'd trip it and he'd have thirty seconds to move. The last piece he placed was a bright plastic toy he'd found in the debris, something that made noise when you pressed it. He set it fifty yards west near a collapsed storefront and weighted it with a timer mechanism pulled from an old alarm. When the patrols came through, the thing would go off and pull their attention away from the depot. The first patrol passed two hours after sunset. Jason crouched inside the depot and listened to their boots on broken concrete. They moved in pairs, sweeping flashlights across the rubble. The noise maker triggered right on schedule — a burst of sound that echoed off the buildings. Both soldiers turned west and moved toward it. Jason counted their steps as they walked away from him. When the sounds faded completely, he let out a breath. The shelter held. The trick worked. He could stay here, watch the routes, and plan his next move without getting spotted. For the first time since he'd found Zack's trail, he had ground to work from. That mattered. It meant he could do this carefully instead of charging in and burning everything down. The patience held again, and this time it felt like progress.