KAIA

Darkness surrounds me, thick and suffocating.

Then slowly, shapes begin to form. Colors bleed through the black—brown, gray, the dull red of rust.

My vision clears.

I'm standing in a wasteland. Scorched earth stretches in every direction, broken trees jutting from the ground like skeletal fingers. The smell hits me first—iron and decay, thick enough to taste. My stomach turns, bile rising in my throat.

Then I see them.

Two bodies lie before me, grotesquely mangled. My knees buckle, but ...