CHAPTER 73: EPILOGUE- THE WALLS OF FORT AEGIS

’We survived’.

That was the only thought in Ethan’s head as he stumbled into the inner wall of the Fort after the grueling dash of the Kill Road.

They finally arrived at the quarantine zone.

At this moment, Ethan couldn’t help his emotions as they cascaded. He couldn’t believe that he made it, and it was even more surreal due to the fact that none of them died during the grueling marathon to the quarantine zone.

This was made even more impressive when considering how close most of them came to dying as they adapted to the dangers of the apocalypse.

Ethan could still vividly remember when Reid was almost killed by the monster plant. Then, though the trust between them was already budding, it was nowhere as strong as what they felt for each other now.

At that moment, Ethan thought that they’d lost their leader, he thought they’d lost Reid and yet they didn’t.

He played his own important role and somehow, by pooling their powers and special abilities together, they managed to save Reid from certain death.

’And Travis’. He threw a subtle glance at the chef.

It may not seem like it, but he changed the most among their group. When Ethan first arrived, he saw Travis as the weak point of the group, the useless bum, but with time he saw Travis morph from a useless good for nothing into one of the most important cornerstones of the group.

He saw him bring Jonas back to life!

That visage... he would never forget it for the rest of his life. ’Who said only Jesus can bring the dead back to life?’

’We have our own resident Mr. Healer here’. He smiled.

He looked at Kara, then at Holt, and finally at himself. ’We made it,’ he thought, then his smile though exhausted widened a bit. ’I made it’.

It was almost a week already since the apocalypse started, and his journey started all the way from his city.

He could still remember it. It was just like any other day till the sky tore apart, and he saw monsters descending into the world.

He remembered the first monster that he encountered, and how close he came to dying from that one encounter.

He chuckled. ’How far I’ve come since then’.

Since then, with his special ability, he got better at improvising, his special ability working on overtime to help him survive the apocalypse.

He had really come a long way.

Ethan sighed. ’Finally, hope’.

They moved forward.

Behind them, the Hollow Plains finally thinned into hard-packed earth.

The jagged crags faded into stretches of barren soil where grass had withered long before the Rift ever split the sky.

By now, Ethan’s legs felt like lead and every breath that he took tore at his chest raw. Still, he walked. They all did.

Inside, the silhouette of Fort Aegis rose from the horizon like some slumbering titan. At first, it seemed almost like a mirage, hazy in the pale morning light.

But the closer they drew, the more the walls sharpened into reality, revealing colossal bastions of concrete and steel, reinforced with jagged scaffolds and humming powerlines.

Watchtowers crowned the parapets, their floodlights slicing through mist like blades.

No one spoke. Exhaustion had crushed even Travis’s tongue.

The silence was heavier than the packs slung across their backs. Each of them knew what these walls meant... survival.

And yet, as the inner gates came into view, black slabs scarred with shell impacts, welded shut with layers of iron, it didn’t look like salvation.

For some reason, it began to look like a prison.

"Stop," a metallic voice barked.

Ethan raised his hands without thinking, instincts flaring. From the watchtower above, mounted rifles angled downward as half a dozen red dots crawled across his chest and head.

The others froze with him.

The floodlights swept across their battered faces, lingering on the dirt, blood, and exhaustion painted across their clothes. For a moment, Ethan swore they’d be cut down right there, after everything.

’The heck?’

But then the voice called again, gruffer this time. "Identify yourselves".

Reid stepped forward, shoulders squared despite the limp in his leg. "We’re survivors from the west. We heard of the quarantine zone, and came".

There was a pause after Reid spoke.

The silence stretched so long Ethan thought they hadn’t been heard. Then, with the groan of shifting machinery, the massive inner gates cracked apart.

Light spilled through the widening gap as soldiers emerged, rifles steady, faces hidden behind reinforced visors. They motioned for the group to approach.

Jonas muttered under his breath. "Not exactly the best welcome party".

"Shut up and walk," Reid said. His tone was steady, but Ethan didn’t miss how his hand hovered near his blade.

And finally, they stepped into Fort Aegis.

The first thing that struck Ethan was the order.

The chaos of the world outside, the screaming winds of the Ashroad, the guttural roars of beasts, the shrieks of the dying, all of it was absent here.

In the place of chaos was rhythm.

Rows of civilians shuffled in tight lines toward ration stations where soldiers distributed food with clinical precision. Children clung to their mothers’ skirts, wide-eyed and silent.

A few men worked assembly lines under barking orders, moving crates of ammunition and steel parts like ants in a colony.

Above, automated turrets hummed, tracking invisible threats. The metallic tang of oil, gunpowder, and sterilized earth hung in the air.

It was safe.

But it was suffocating.

"This isn’t a quarantine zone," Kara murmured. Her lips barely moved, but Ethan caught the words. "It’s a barracks," she said.

Reid’s eyes narrowed as he watched the soldiers herd civilians down narrow alleys. His voice was so low only those closest heard him. "Safety, but with control".

Mira said nothing, her gaze fixed on the Awakened patrolling the inner perimeter. Unlike them, these Awakened wore uniforms and armor reinforced with Rift-forged plating, rifles slung across their backs.

Some held their hands out, manipulating flame, water, or stone with practiced ease. They weren’t just survivors, they were soldiers.

Ethan’s stomach knotted.

Inside the walls of Fort Aegis, power wasn’t just survival, it was property.

Then the Wheel stirred.

His vision blurred as the noise of the camp dimmed as if submerged underwater. A flicker of light pulsed in his skull, and text etched itself across his mind.

DING!

~----~

[Checkpoint Reached: Fort Aegis]

[You have been registered as an "Unstable Variable."]

[Warning: Observation Protocol Initiated.]

~----~

Ethan stiffened.

The words burned, lingering even after the Wheel dimmed again.

He clenched his fists, forcing his expression to stay neutral. No one else noticed. ’Unstable variable? The hell’.

It echoed inside him like a curse as they were escorted deeper inside.

Travis finally broke the silence. "So," he whispered, "What do you think the food’s like here? Government-issue rations, or do they let us order from the five-star apocalypse menu? Personally, I’d kill for a cheeseburger."

Jonas gave a weak snort, shaking his head. "You’d kill for anything edible, don’t lie."

Even Reid’s mouth twitched. For a fleeting second, the crushing weight of the walls lifted.

But it didn’t last.

As they passed through the inner gates, Ethan noticed civilians watching them. Some stared with open awe; new arrivals, still carrying weapons, not yet broken into the machine of Fort Aegis.

Others looked bitter, even resentful. It was just a week for the oldest but it felt like they had been here too long.

Would the apocalypse ever go back? Hope had rotted in their eyes.

No one spoke. Ethan’s mind was still wrapped around the Wheel’s whisper, the weight of those two words. ’Unstable variable’.

When they reached the barracks that had been assigned to them, they collapsed into the cots provided, too exhausted to care about the thin mattresses or the sour smell of disinfectant.

Jonas groaned as Travis fussed over his wounds, Mira sat cross-legged in silence, Kara rolled her eyes at the soldiers pacing outside, and Reid leaned against the wall, arms crossed and eyes sharp.

Ethan sat alone.

He stared at his hands, flexing his fingers slowly. He remembered the gauntlet’s spikes, the sound of blood spraying, the weight of lives he had ended on the Kill Road. Monsters, yes, but also men.

His stomach churned.

He had never killed a human before Pike, never even imagined it. And yet he had, because he had to. Because if he hadn’t, they’d all be dead.

Still, the memory of their faces wouldn’t leave him.

’It’s either us or them’. Reid’s words whispered in his mind.

Ethan shut his eyes as the Wheel pulsed faintly, but no text appeared this time. It was just a rhythm, steady and slow, like a heartbeat reminding him of its presence.

He opened his eyes again, staring at the barracks ceiling. "We survived," he whispered under his breath again, like he couldn’t quiet believe the reality yet.

But survival didn’t feel the same anymore.

The next morning, sunlight poured over Fort Aegis, glinting off the fortress headquarters in the distance, a black tower that loomed above the rest of the zone.

Ethan stood outside, watching civilians file into their morning shifts under military command. The air smelled of discipline, not freedom.

The Wheel flickered again, faint and patient.

He realized then that the road to Fort Aegis hadn’t been the end, it had only been the first step.