Semua Bab Reborn Before the Crimson Fog: Bab 1 - Bab 10

Chapter 1: The Gate That Never OpenedThe fog tasted like copper and rust.Nora Whitaker had stopped feeling her fingers somewhere around the second mile, when the raiders dragged her out of the supply truck and bound her wrists with wire. Now she knelt in the frozen gravel outside the gates of Haven Ridge, the shelter she had helped carry sandbags for, and watched the crimson fog crawl across the parking lot like something alive.Forty one days. That was how long the world had been ending. Forty one days of sirens that stopped, of radio voices that went quiet one by one, of neighbors who turned into Hollows with milk white eyes and a hunger that had nothing to do with food.And for thirty nine of those days, Nora had believed she was safe."Please," she said. Her voice was a dry crack. "Ethan. Please look at me."The steel gate stood open barely a foot. Behind it was the man she had planned to marry in the spring. Ethan Cole wore a clean wool coat and clean boots, and his hair was co

Chapter 3: Every Credit Card She OwnedNora did not sleep that night.She sat cross legged on the floor of her apartment with the leather folder open in front of her and a pot of black coffee at her elbow, and she photographed every page with her phone. Then she photographed the evidence file she had saved from the powder room, the muffled recording of Gordon and Ethan's voices, and backed it up three times, in three different places.[Host is advised to rest. Cognitive function declines after twenty four hours of wakefulness.]"I have six days," Nora said, scrolling through her bank app. "If I sleep, I lose eight hours of them."[Eight hours is four point six percent of the remaining time. Rest improves the success rate of every subsequent action by an estimated thirty one percent.]She glared at the blue panel. "You argue like an accountant."[Thank you.]Despite herself, she laughed. It was a thin, tired sound, but it loosened something in her chest. She closed the folder, set it a

Chapter 5: Neighbors and NeedlesHer apartment had never felt so small.Ethan stood in the center of the living room with his hands in his coat pockets, surveying the bookshelves and the secondhand sofa as if he were appraising a crime scene. Brielle perched on the edge of an armchair, knees together, wearing a gentle, tragic expression. Dr. Halloran set his leather bag on the coffee table, directly beside the folded blanket, and snapped it open with a click that echoed through the room.Nora sat on the sofa and folded her hands in her lap. In her coat pocket, the phone was recording. Its tiny red light was a pinpoint of courage."Miss Whitaker." Dr. Halloran settled into the chair opposite with an old man's groan. "I would like to begin by saying that you are not in any trouble. Ethan tells me you have recently been experiencing some, shall we say, unusual thoughts.""Which thoughts?" Nora asked pleasantly."That some sort of catastrophe is coming.""Oh, that." She smiled. "Doctor, w

Chapter 7: Twelve Oh SevenShe did not answer him that night."I need to think," Nora said, and Caleb Ashford only nodded, as if he had expected nothing else, and told the driver to take them to the tower.Ashford Tower rose from the heart of the financial district like a blade of black glass, sixty floors of silence. Nora had passed it a thousand times on her way to the free clinic and never once looked up. Now she stood in its marble lobby at one in the morning, wrapped in a stranger's overcoat, while a night guard bowed to her as though she were someone important."Guest suite on thirty one," Caleb told the guard. "Full medical clearance. No one goes up unless I say so.""Yes, Mister Ashford."The suite was warm, neutral, and enormous. A bed the size of her kitchen. A bathroom with a tub deep enough to drown in. A window wall showing the whole sleeping city, strung with lights like a net of stars. Somebody had left a tray of soup and bread on the table, and she ate every drop witho

Chapter 9: The East Service Tunnel"I know," said Caleb.Nora stared at him.They were standing in the vault on level nine, in a cold white chamber lined with steel racks, because it was the only room in the facility where Caleb could guarantee that no one was listening. The recording had just finished playing on her phone. Gavin Pruitt's flat, tired voice still seemed to hang in the air like smoke."You know," she repeated."I have known for nine days." Caleb leaned against a rack of sealed battery cells with his arms folded. He looked exhausted, and strangely calm. "Gavin has had access to my codes for eleven years. When the numbers on my private accounts began to shift, small amounts, cleverly hidden, I suspected a leak. When the Coles began asking for meetings, I was almost certain.""Then why is he still here?""Because an enemy I can see is more useful than one I cannot." The corner of his mouth moved. "I fed him false information. Wrong door sequences. A schedule that does not