DAY 3: THE QUIET EARTH

The fires dimmed but never died. Smoke blackened the horizon, turning the red haze into a permanent dusk. In cities, silence became heavier than the noise that came before. Without engines or voices, every sound carried. The scrape of metal, the crack of cooling glass, the cry of something human in the distance. Those who survived gathered in the shadows of buildings, drawn together by instinct more than trust. They shared water, tended wounds, and searched the ruins for food. For a moment, the will to help outweighed fear. Yet when darkness fell, that fragile mercy collapsed. Night turned men into scavengers. Compassion vanished beneath the sound of desperate screams.

[END TRANSMISSION]