Two days after the battle in Cubao
The SMX Center had never seen a crowd like this.
Not before the outbreak. Not during the first evacuations. Not even during the announcement of the MOA Complex as a permanent survivor zone.
Hundreds of people—maybe over a thousand—had gathered in the main hall of the SMX Convention Center. Despite everything that had happened to the world outside, the hall looked untouched. The polished floors still gleamed under the overhead lights. The glass panels above remained intact, letting in soft daylight through their clear panes. The steel beams overhead were unbent, clean, and steady—like a fragment of the old world frozen in time. It was one of the last places that felt... whole. And that alone gave people reason to breathe a little easier.
