The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and rot, but Leona didn’t notice it. Her senses were on high alert, tuned to a different kind of frequency. The low, ominous hum of the drone was long gone, replaced by the more terrifying silence of an enemy that walked on two feet. A predator, unlike any she had ever known, was hunting them, a predator with a new kind of strategy. Julian walked behind her, his breath ragged, his sophisticated gear now little more than a dead weight. His scanner was fried, a useless piece of metal. But his mind, she knew, was working just as fast as hers.“This is different,” Leona whispered, her eyes scanning the foliage. “They’re not using technology anymore. They’re using the forest. They’re setting traps, not for animals, but for us. Parang chess game ‘to.” She stopped and pointed to a small, nearly invisible loop of vine tied to a low branch. It was a simple snare, a classic hunter’s trap, but Julian’s scanner would have never picked it up. “They kn
Last Updated : 2025-09-07 Read more