By morning, the tower still stood. That should have felt like victory.Instead, the compound moved under a silence so heavy it seemed to press the fog closer to the ground. Survivors stepped around broken fencing, blood-darkened mud, and discarded weapons without speaking much. The eastern perimeter was ruined in three places, the generator shed wall was dented inward, and every exposed surface smelled faintly of smoke, wet wood, and death.Eli’s body lay wrapped in a blanket near the main cabin. Caleb sat beside him on the porch steps, elbows on his knees, eyes fixed on nothing. No one asked him to move.Nora kept Lily inside the cabin, though the little girl had woken once before dawn and asked for Eli in a voice that made the entire room go quiet. Nora had held her through the answer. Evelyn had stayed near the window, pretending to watch the treeline, because she didn’t know what else to do with the look on Lily’s face.Outside, Warren started assigning cleanup crews. His voice ca
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