The night passed in a haze of escape, wrapped in darkness and haunted by chaos.
Above the clouds, the airships sailed like ghostly giants through a torn sky, their hulls trembling from the earlier battle. Down below, the city they once called home was drowning in monstrosity. Flames still crackled in the distance, painting the clouds with red streaks. Screams had long faded, replaced by an eerie, suffocating silence.
Inside the ship, grief was everywhere.
Men sat hunched, staring at nothing. Women clutched children with hollow eyes. Bloodied bandages wrapped wounds both seen and unseen. The air smelled of burnt wood, sweat, and dried blood.
Everyone aboard lay broken.
Some had lost their parents. Others, their lovers or siblings. For many, entire families had vanished into the madness, consumed by the hollows or left behind in the stampede of fear.
It had all happened too fast.
Too sudden for anyone to prepare. Too brutal for anyone to understand.
And yet, they were alive.
