Chapter 7

This page is blighted with mold and the imprint of a memory…

The words seep experience into your open mind…

THROUGH THE EYES OF KATABASIS…

Restless sleep plagued by the nightmare.

I am in the streets when the sirens start.

I lay watching the Traveler for a long time. Disbelief. The gap in thought of a semiautomatic mind.

Red Legion sweeps. I see their harrowing fusillades tear annihilation through the Tower.

Everyone is standing but me.

Debris falling. I am separated. I reach for Gilgamesh and he is gone.

The cage chokes our Light.

Fire chases me from street to street. No Light. No ammunition. The City is burning.

Faceless zephyrs screaming to me beneath a pitiless god. Red-plated death lines the walls, and

The City is burning.

I flee. I flee. I flee. I flee. I flee… my steps weighted down by guilt.

The City is burning and you did nothing.

.

.

.

Gil's broken star finds my shame.

There is only us, forging survival.

Together we crawl to exile.


FRENETIC SCRAWL INKED IN THE MARGIN READS: Nightmare's back. Took months, but it always comes back—in force this time. Every night since we took on our cargo, they've been howling. I swear they're three decks down, but you can still hear 'em. Gil's been wandering the ship more.

Time to start making go bags. Think I'll carve out a spot near the hangar… opposite side from Qinziq's lab. Place is swarming now.