All Chapters of REBORN IN THE CATACLYSM: I DUMP MY LEECH HUSBAND FIRST: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The plain offered nothing.No folds deep enough to hide in. No rock large enough to break a thermal outline for more than a few seconds. Only low scrub that tore at legs and the long, clear distance to the scrub pine on the northern horizon. The column moved at the best speed the wounded could sustain—short of a full run, harder than a march, every step chosen to keep Rios and the burned fighter from going down permanently.Behind them the Continuity cordon finished its turn and began to close the gap. Vehicle engines carried faintly on the morning air. The drones adjusted altitude and began a methodical lattice pattern overhead, mapping residual heat and the weak, continuous signature of the bond.Sarah remained completely passive in the carrier. The permanent link had settled into a flat, exhausted baseline that no longer spiked or dipped with any effort on her part. She was conscious—her fingers still hooked weakly in my jacket—but the reserves that had let her hold through days of

They cleared the last trees at a dead run.The basin opened under a hard blue sky with nothing between the column and the distant northern rise except two kilometers of dry grass and low scrub. No cover worth the name. The Continuity scout behind them shouted once. The search lines adjusted instantly. Drone engine notes climbed into descent profiles before the group had covered the first fifty meters.Howard kept the staggered intervals tight enough to prevent isolation and loose enough to avoid a single pulse erasing everyone. The burned fighter ran with one arm clamped over the worst of the seared flesh and did not fall. Rios was carried between two men in a grim, pounding rhythm that sacrificed anything resembling care for pure distance. Lia stayed on the left flank, watching the angles. Sarah’s weight against my chest was completely inert; the permanent link carried only the flat residual of a child who had already given every reserve she possessed.The first pulse struck forty me

The gully system in the secondary basin was a maze of eroded channels and undercuts that favored the hunted only for as long as the hunters remained uncertain of the exact path.Howard used that uncertainty without mercy. He kept the column moving through the deepest cuts, changing direction at every junction, forcing the Continuity lead element to split and probe rather than simply follow a single thermal trail. The drones stayed high, their engine notes sweeping the basin in patient arcs, waiting for a clean moment when the group would be forced onto higher ground.The burned fighter had stopped contributing any of his own power. The two men supporting him simply carried the full weight and accepted the reduced speed. Rios was no better. His eyes opened occasionally, but there was no recognition in them—only the mechanical fact of still being alive. The men carrying him rotated every few hundred meters without discussion.Sarah remained a completely passive weight against my chest.

The slope dropped fast into a chaos of shallow cuts, scattered rock, and low brush that offered no clean lines of sight from above.Howard kept the main group moving at the edge of control, using every fold to break residual heat while the Continuity correction closed the stand behind them. The drones adjusted to the new terrain with obvious frustration—engine notes climbing and falling as clear shots refused to form. The ground itself was doing part of the work.There was still no sign of the two fighters or the wounded.Sarah’s residual presence in the permanent link remained unchanged—flat, exhausted, continuous. She had not stirred since the basin. Her weight against my chest was the only constant that required no decision.Lia dropped back during a short stretch of deeper cut. “If they made the fringe they would have left a marker. Something small. We taught the same doctrine.”Howard did not answer. He simply adjusted the bearing northwest, toward a line of higher rock that woul

They dropped into the secondary cut under the edge of the next pulse.The shot struck the shelf lip behind them and sent a cascade of broken rock and superheated air over the entrance. The concussion knocked the rear fighters forward. They kept their feet only because there was no other option. The downed man was hauled between two others; his breathing remained shallow and uneven, but it continued.The cut was narrower than the previous systems—steep walls of packed earth and stone that forced single file and limited every movement. Howard took the lead. Lia watched the backtrail. The rest of the column filled the space between with the wounded fighter and the residual weight of a child who no longer reacted to anything.Sarah’s presence in the permanent link stayed exactly as it had been since the basin: flat, exhausted, continuous. She had not stirred when the pulse hit. She had not stirred when the rock fell. She simply remained against my chest while the adults around her spent t