'Why aren't they answering me?'
The thought cut through Eli's head like static. But beneath it was something worse—offness.
Why did everything feel wrong?
His lungs still burned, every breath scraping against his throat as if the water hadn't fully left him.
His hands trembled where they pressed into the dirt—except it wasn't stone anymore. Not the jagged, freezing cave floor he remembered. His fingers sank into mud, slick and warm, mixed with ash and crushed leaves.
The air hit different too. No longer thick with salt or blood. No metallic tang of death.
Just the scent of rain,soil, and burned wood.
Eli coughed again, harsh and wet, a line of water dribbling down his chin as he forced the last of it out. His chest heaved. His head pounded.
When he finally looked up, blinking through the blur—
—his breath caught.
The cave was gone.
No stone walls. No echoes. No distant roars or the oppressive dark.
