Zubair noticed the road first because the truck stopped fighting him.
The steering loosened under his hands. The suspension stopped correcting for cracks that should have been there. The constant vibration that lived in the wheel eased until he realized he hadn't adjusted his grip in over a minute.
That was wrong.
Roads like this never got easier on their own and that made his hands tighten.
A smooth road in a world like this didn't mean safety. It meant something had changed ahead of them. It meant the land had been cleared or claimed or stripped of obstacles by something that didn't care whether humans survived the process.
But he didn't say anything yet. He just drove and watched.
Sera sat behind him, still in Aerenyx's arms since he had still refused to let her go. She was functional, she was present, and she was still carrying damage she wasn't supposed to carry.
