Aiden’s POV

Life in the new camp was not living. It was endurance and survival. Every morning I woke to the same taste of ash in my mouth, the same stiffness in my limbs from sleeping on frozen ground.

Supplies were rationed down to the cruelest minimum. We hunted what we could, scavenged what the ruins hadn’t already surrendered to rot or fire. Some days we came back empty-handed, bloodied and shaking, pretending it was enough just to be alive.

Other days we dragged back carcasses that ...