The rover rattled across the Dead Plains, kicking up clouds of ash that clung to everything. Kael kept one eye on the dashboard’s power gauge, the other on the horizon, where storm clouds churned like a bruise. Three days into the journey, the signal was stronger—Mira’s comms unit pinged every hour now—but so were the dangers.

“Slow down,” Torm growled from the passenger seat, his rifle propped against his shoulder. “Tracks ahead.”

Kael eased off the throttle, squinting through the windshield. Claw marks gouged the earth, too big for any animal he knew. “Ferals?”

“Worse,” Torm said. “Hulks. Mutated. Fast. Hungry.”

Mira leaned forward from the back, her map spread across her knees. “We’re halfway to the signal. If we detour, we’ll lose a day.”

“If we don’t, we’re lunch,” Torm snapped. “Your call, fixer.”

Kael cursed under his breath. “We skirt the tracks. Stay quiet, stay low.”

He veered west, the rover’s hum muffled by the ash. For hours, they drove in silence, the only sound the wind’s low howl. Then Mira gasped, pointing to a ridge. A shape moved—hulking, bipedal, its skin glistening like oil. Another joined it, then a third. Their eyes, too many and too bright, locked onto the rover.

“Floor it!” Torm roared.

Kael slammed the pedal, the rover lurching forward as the hulks charged. Gunfire erupted—Torm leaned out the window, his rifle spitting rounds that barely slowed the beasts. One swiped at the rover’s rear, denting the chassis. Kael swerved, dodging a second claw, but the power gauge blinked red. “We’re burning out!”

Mira scrambled for her comms unit, fumbling with wires. “I can boost the signal—maybe confuse them!”

“Do it!” Kael shouted, weaving through a field of rusted girders.

Mira patched the signal through the rover’s speakers, amplifying the pulse into a screeching wail. The hulks froze, clutching their heads, and Kael gunned the engine, putting distance between them and the ridge. When the gauge steadied, he slowed, panting. “That was too close.”

Torm reloaded his rifle, his jaw tight. “Told you. Wasteland don’t play nice.”

Mira clutched her map, her hands shaking. “The signal’s louder now. We’re close.”

“Close to what?” Kael muttered, but he kept driving.

That night, they camped in the shadow of a collapsed tower, its steel skeleton half-buried in ash. Torm took first watch, his cybernetic arm glinting as he scanned the dark. Kael sat with Mira by a solar lantern, patching the rover’s dents. “You really believe in this Horizon?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

Mira traced a line on her map. “My dad used to talk about it. Said it was a city where the reactors never failed, where people didn’t have to scavenge to survive. He died out here looking for it.”

Kael paused, his wrench still. “Didn’t take him for a dreamer.”

“He wasn’t,” Mira said. “He was a cartographer, like me. He found a signal once, same as this one. Never made it back to tell me what it was.”

Kael wanted to say something comforting, but words weren’t his thing. Instead, he handed her a ration bar. “Eat. You’ll need it.”

She smiled faintly, tucking the bar away. “Thanks, Kael.”

A scream shattered the quiet—Torm’s voice. Kael grabbed his pistol, Mira her knife, and they ran toward the sound. Torm stood on a rise, wrestling a figure cloaked in rags. The stranger fought like a feral, but Torm pinned them, ripping off their hood to reveal a young woman, her face smeared with ash. Data-pads dangled from her belt, their screens cracked but glowing.

“Who are you?” Torm demanded, his rifle at her throat.

“Lira,” she gasped. “I’m a hacker. I saw your rover—thought you were raiders.”

“Why follow us?” Kael asked, stepping closer.

Lira’s eyes darted to Mira’s comms unit. “That signal. I’ve been tracking it for weeks. It’s not what you think.”

Mira frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lira hesitated, then pulled a data-pad from her pack. “It’s not just a beacon. It’s a loop—old military code. Someone’s broadcasting it to lure people in.”

Torm tightened his grip. “Lure them to what?”

“I don’t know,” Lira said. “But I’ve seen others go after it. None came back.”

Kael exchanged a look with Mira. The signal was their only lead, but Lira’s words gnawed at him. “You’re coming with us,” he decided. “If you’re lying, you’ll wish the hulks got you first.”

Lira nodded, her expression unreadable. As they tied her hands for the night, Kael couldn’t shake the feeling that the wasteland wasn’t the only thing hiding secrets.

Chapter 2: The Wasteland’s Teeth

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