The ashes continued to fall over the dead city like silent snow.

  Rust moved forward with heavy steps through the ruined, gray-painted streets. Despite carrying the hundred-kilo, half-conscious Vance on his right shoulder, there was not the slightest sway in his posture, not a single falter in his breath. Normally, he would take the lead, but Nia wanted it this way. The young girl walked a few steps ahead of him, gripping her rusty pump-action shotgun tightly, constantly glancing over her shoulder at this "thing" behind her with terrified eyes.

  Nia’s mind was a mess. How is it possible? she thought. How could he tear apart that massive 'Scrap-Weaver' in minutes without taking a single scratch? Was he a soldier? No, they wouldn't draft someone this young into special forces... Then again, a lot has changed in two years. As Nia looked down at the asphalt, sad and distracted, that cold, monotone voice echoed from behind her:

  "Are you okay?"

  Nia startled and stopped. When she turned around, she saw Rust looking at her with those blank, expressionless eyes. Rust didn't exactly know why he asked that question either. He was just concerned that she might be shaken or injured. But this feeling was completely alien to him. Why was he internally concerned? Did it even matter?

  Nia tilted her head up slightly and swallowed hard. "Yes... Yes, I'm fine."

  Rust merely nodded and continued walking. However, no matter how calm he looked on the outside, the inside of his mind was like a stormy ocean.

  What am I? he asked himself. He slightly raised his left hand. He saw that pitch-black, disgusting blood drying on the torn part of his tactical glove. I keep asking the same question, but I can't find a logical answer. Why am I like this? Why am I as strong and fast as those disgusting things I killed... but why am I not like them?

  If the pitch flowing in his veins was the same, why hadn't he turned into a flayed, mindless mass of flesh welded to piles of metal? Who did this human form, this consciousness inside him belong to?

  Nia broke this suffocating silence. She decided to overcome her fear at least a little, to believe that the person in front of her was also human. She slowed her steps and moved to Rust's right side.

  "Um... Your name is Rust, right?" she asked in a timid voice.

  "Yes," Rust said in a cold tone, without taking his eyes off the road.

  "So, how old are you?"

  Rust was taken aback for a moment. He didn't know what to say. He had so many fatal questions in his head that such a simple and human question felt completely alien to him.

  "I don't know," he said in a flat voice.

  Nia frowned. "What do you mean? How can you not know your age?"

  Rust slightly tilted his head up. He stared for a long time at the white ashes floating in the sky, dancing with the wind. "I stopped counting," he said. He couldn't think of a better answer at that moment.

  Nia stepped a little closer, carefully examining Rust's facial features. "You look just a bit older than my brother... You're 17 or 18 at most."

  Rust just shrugged.

  This brief dialogue had relaxed Nia a little more. This killing machine in front of her could talk like an ordinary person. He wasn't like those creatures in the sewers. She took a deep breath.

  "So... Where are you from?"

  Rust had plunged back into his dark thoughts. Seeing that he didn't answer, Nia muttered, looking at the ground: "You're going to say 'I don't know' again, aren't you? Why do you know nothing? Or is there something you're trying to hide from us?"

  Rust turned his head and looked directly at Nia with those dull, Steel-Gray eyes. "No, there isn't. I just don't remember anything. The only thing I remember is my name. I'm sorry, but I can't answer your questions."

  His voice was still cold, but Nia had caught a momentary blankness on his face. Even though she didn't know the man in front of her, she felt sorry for him. Not knowing who you are, your past, your family... How would she feel if she remembered nothing? Then again, what was left beautiful to remember in this world?

  "But if I have to say..." Rust added slowly. "I come from far away."

  Nia squinted curiously. "How far exactly? You're not from the South wing, are you?" she asked, smiling slightly, thinking it was impossible.

  "Yes," Rust said. "I come from there. It's been two days since I entered this city."

  The smile on Nia's face instantly vanished, replaced by deep shock and growing fear. He survived the South zone? But P.A.R.A.D.O.X. broadcasts and other survivors said the South was a dead hell completely covered with parasites. It was impossible for a human to walk out of there alone. Either they are lying, Nia thought. Or Rust is hiding something. But right now, while she was alone, she wasn't in a position to question it.

  A massive logic gap Rust had noticed while walking came to his mind. He turned to Nia and asked the inevitable question:

  "These monsters... Why do we never encounter them outside?"

  Nia sighed, surprised that Rust was really this oblivious to the world. "You mean the Parasites... Yes, they don't come to the surface in the mornings or in daylight. The sun's rays slow them down. The light doesn't burn them to ashes, but it weakens their disgusting cells and suppresses their instinct to spread and hunt. So actually, half of these buildings, parking lots, and tunnels we're walking past right now are swarming with those things."

  "So the sun doesn't kill them?"

  "No, unfortunately," Nia said, shaking her head. "They just get weaker, making it easier to kill them during the day. But the sunlight doesn't affect the massive mutated ones like that 'Scrap-Weaver' you tore apart in the sewer that much. Still, even they prefer to go out at night or hunt in the dark because of their massive size. Luckily for us, they infiltrated the massive sewage systems under our city and turned it into a hive."

  When Rust heard this, another lightning bolt struck his mind. The sun weakens them... Then why am I walking under this sun, in these ashes right now, without weakening in the slightest? Why doesn't the thing in my veins force me to hide underground? He quickly suppressed this terrifying thought. "Then what were you doing down there? Since the underground is their hive..."

  "We had no other choice," Nia said, her voice suddenly starting to tremble. "Vance is a former plumber. The walls of our camp in the Northeast are getting weaker every day. The attacks of those things increase at night. If the walls fall, we were going to map a secret and safe escape route through the sewers for the people inside, but... our luck didn't hold up. Food is scarce in our camp, weapons are scarce, and we lose people every day."

  Nia's eyes had slowly started to tear up.

  "I have one last question," Rust said, lowering his voice a bit more. "Why do you call them 'Parasites'?"

  Nia sniffled. "Well... I don't exactly know either. But the people you should ask are in our camp in the Northeast, at the Ash Keepers' settlement. There are many people there who can answer you." The young girl suddenly asked to change the subject. "By the way, how did you lose your memory?"

  Rust assumed his dull, expressionless state again. "I don't know."

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  Nia paused for a moment, realized the absurdity of her own question, and slapped her forehead with her hand. "Oh, my head... A million apologies. How would someone who lost his memory know how he lost his memory? I'm so stupid."

  The girl's cheeks flushed slightly with embarrassment.

  At that moment, a millimetric change occurred on Rust's ice-cold, lifeless face. The corner of his lips curled upwards very slightly, almost invisibly. His face smiled slightly. He liked it. Since waking up, amidst all that blood and brutality, for the first time, he was having such an intimate, such an ordinary dialogue with someone. For the first time, a human treated him warmly and genuinely, not like a monster.

  Rust asked in a monotone voice, "So, where is this group you're talking about?"

  Nia stopped. She gently pointed to the gray, ash-falling sky with her hand. "Look up, and you'll see."

  Rust slowly tilted his head up. He saw that mind-boggling sight that had been hiding behind the fog and ashes until that moment, standing like massive tombstones over the city.

  This was the Sky Scaffold.

  Three massive skyscrapers standing side by side, their construction left unfinished, piercing the sky. When people realized that life below was impossible, they had moved life to the clouds. Those massive yellow construction cranes perched on top of the skyscrapers had been toppled horizontally between the buildings and connected to each other with massive steel cables, turning into deadly suspension bridges. On those steel webs swinging in the void, dozens of floors up, makeshift shacks, tin windbreakers, and tarps to collect rainwater were stretched. Makeshift bridges hanging out of shattered windows swayed gently in the wind. Unlike the gray hell below, up there, among that steel pile, feeble fires burned, a vertical slum seemingly suspended in the air was breathing.

  "This is the Sky Scaffold," Nia said, with a slight crumb of pride reflecting in her voice. "When smart people realized the ground wasn't safe, that the insides of the buildings were swarming with those disgusting parasites, we found the answer in going up. We built a massive colony with cranes and steel cables. You know, it actually has the best view in the world right now!"

  However, as Nia explained these things, her momentary excitement faded within seconds. Her face fell, her shoulders slumped. She lowered her gaze back to the asphalt, to the tips of her own boots.

  "Did something happen?" Rust asked.

  "Nothing," Nia muttered in a trembling voice. "It's just... I'm returning to the camp empty-handed. Plus, I got someone as valuable as Vance into this state. I'll definitely get scolded. Maybe they'll even exile me down into the ashes because of this failure..."

  Rust paused. He slowly turned his head back over his left shoulder, toward that heavy tactical bag hanging on his back. This was the bag of the man who died on the roof of the skyscraper a few hours ago, choking on his own blood, his stomach exploding. It was full of P.A.R.A.D.O.X. rations. Actually, keeping these for himself was the logical thing to do. Why give food to people he didn't know, especially in a world where survival was so hard? Besides, as that meaningless, bottomless hunger inside him was slowly waking up...

  Yet...

  Rust turned his gaze back to Nia. He slipped the bag off his shoulder and extended it toward the girl with one hand. "Alright," he said, showing no sign of emotion. "I don't know if these will be enough to lighten your punishment, but..."

  Nia took the bag hesitantly and unzipped it. Her eyes went wide at the sight she saw.

  "This... This is incredible!" Nia gasped. Her hands trembled as she touched the silver packages inside. "There is so much food here... And it's all P.A.R.A.D.O.X. property! It's almost impossible to get these anymore. Where did you find these?"

  "In the South zone," Rust said expressionlessly. "They were inside a supermarket."

  "You found a supermarket with full shelves? That's impossible! God, I know so many people who will be thrilled about this when we get to the camp..." Nia suddenly paused. She looked up at Rust with distrustful but surprised eyes. "But... are you sure about giving these to me? After all, the rule in this world is simple; finders keepers."

  At that exact second, from the depths of Rust's mind, from the pitch-black void in the furthest corner of his brain, an ice-cold, disgusting whisper echoed. This wasn't his own voice. It was a more ancient, greedier, and animalistic voice.

  ?Don't listen to that idiot girl... She said it herself, finders keepers. That food is ours. Take it back. We need it more. We need energy... We need flesh...?

  Rust's left eye twitched a millimeter. As he slowly exhaled, he ruthlessly crushed and silenced that dark, selfish voice in his mind with the weight of his will.

  "No, it's fine," Rust said, maintaining the smooth coldness of his voice. "I couldn't eat it all by myself anyway."

  Nia's hands tightly gripped the fabric of the bag. Her eyes welled up, and a teardrop sliding down her cheeks washed the soot stains on her face, traveling down to her chin. It had been a long time... a very long time since she had seen such a great fortune together. There was enough clean food in this bag to keep at least four families alive for two weeks.

  "Are you serious?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "You... You really... I never thought I would meet someone like you. Maybe you're lying, maybe you're just crazy, but... are there really people like you left these days who give something without expecting anything in return?"

  Nia grabbed the straps of that heavy food bag settling on her shoulders tightly. She still had that disbelieving, grateful expression on her face. "Thank you, Rust. I will definitely repay this, I swear to you."

  Not a single muscle twitched on Rust's face. "I just have a few questions. If you just answer them, that's enough for me."

  "No," Nia said suddenly, raising her voice a bit. "I can't settle for that. You... you absolutely have to join us!"

  Rust furrowed his brows slightly, unable to make sense of the girl's sudden outburst. "What?"

  "Yes," Nia said hurriedly, trying to convince him. "You are truly, unbelievably strong. The Ash Keepers need people like you, our leader will definitely accept you!"

  "I'm not sure," Rust said in a cold voice, fixing his eyes forward. "I have a place I need to go. I have a purpose."

  "I don't know what your purpose is," Nia interrupted, "But if you join us, you'll have a group backing you up. Wandering alone in this city is not safe at all. There are not only parasites anymore, but also scavenger gangs and psychopaths hunting humans... If you're with us, at least you'll have a place to close your eyes at night."

  Rust hesitated. That silent, relentless compass deep within his mind stubbornly told him Keep going North. But on the other hand... an alien warmth he felt for the first time in a long while resisted that logical voice. To belong. To be in a group. These were forgotten words that couldn't find a place in his erased memory.

  But in that millisecond when Rust faced these human emotions, that feral voice tearing from the darkest, pitch-black pit of his mind scratched his brain.

  ?IDIOT! YOU REALLY ARE AN INCURABLE MORON! WHY WOULD YOU CARE ABOUT THE OTHERS WHEN WE ARE HERE?! YOU CAN TAKE DOWN THIS GIRL AND THAT HALF-DEAD MAN IN SECONDS. YOU CAN TEAR THEIR THROATS OUT! YOU CAN DRINK THEIR BLOOD AND WALK AWAY LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED! HOW MUCH LONGER DO YOU THINK YOU CAN KEEP ME SILENCED, HUH?! I AM YOU—?

  Rust took a deep, ice-cold breath as the muscles in his jaw twitched. He brought the crushing, steel weight of his will down on that feral dog in his mind like a sledgehammer and forced it into a brutal silence. He was in control of his own body. For now.

  "Alright," Rust said, perfectly hiding the momentary tension in his voice. "Maybe... I can stay for a while."

  A huge, hopeful smile appeared on Nia's face. "Perfect! Believe me, you'll love it there. We might not have much left, but... at least the possibility that people like you can still exist puts my mind at ease. Thank you for giving me this hope again."

  Rust simply gave a small nod of confirmation.

  After half an hour of silent walking, they reached the foothills of those three massive skyscrapers piercing the sky. The ground floors literally resembled a fortress. The entrances and the first few floors of the buildings were sealed with piled-up scrap cars, welded rebar, concrete blocks, and a mind-boggling pile of objects.

  Nia went around this massive barricade and came next to a thick iron pipe hidden behind a scrap bus. Inside the pipe ran a taut steel wire reaching all the way up to the 10th floor.

  Nia grabbed the steel wire with her gloved hands. She pulled this wire, which was connected to the bell in the watchtower above, with a specific rhythm: Two short, one long.

  A metallic clinking sound echoed along the exterior of the building, climbing upwards. A few seconds later, the engine of one of those massive yellow cranes on top of the skyscraper roared to life.

  As the thick steel cables rotated with a bitter creak, an open-top, wide industrial cargo elevator began to descend from above. The elevator settled on the ground with a heavy THUD. On the right corner of the platform stood a rusty wheeled stretcher and a small first aid kit.

  "Lay Vance on that stretcher," Nia said quickly. "The nurses will take him over immediately when we get up."

  Rust lowered that hundred-kilo man he carried on his right shoulder onto the stretcher in a single smooth motion, gently, as if putting down a cardboard box.

  Nia moved to the corner of the platform that looked like a control panel. This time, she grabbed the red wire inside the platform itself and gave it a single long pull. This meant, "Pull up."

  The crane roared again, and the elevator lifted off the ground with a slight jolt.

  Right at that moment, Nia turned back to Rust with concern. "I think you better get behind me," she said in a warning tone. "If you stand this far forward and exposed on an elevator coming from below... The guards don't like strangers. They might mistake you for a threat and shoot before even asking who you are."

  Without saying a word, Rust walked with heavy steps behind Nia, into the shadows. His black tactical gear rendered him almost invisible on that dimly lit platform.

  The elevator was slowly rising towards the sky, accompanied by the creaking of steel cables. As the howling of the wind increased in intensity, that ruined, ash-covered dead city began to shrink under Rust's feet.

  As the wind blew his black hair, Rust looked down at those dark streets. The inside of his mind was boiling with thousands of unanswered questions. Where did he come from? When would that disgusting entity in his veins wake up? And when he found that little girl smiling in the photograph in his pocket... would this nightmare end?

  As the elevator rose into the darkness of the Sky Scaffold, Rust hoped to find the answers there.