Kloric woke with a sharp breath, sweat running down his face.

  He wiped it away slowly.

  “Just a nightmare,” he muttered.

  The cabin was quiet. Terren and the others were still asleep.

  Kloric swung his legs off the bed and stood. His body still ached, but the tight pressure in his chest refused to fade. He needed air.

  He stepped outside.

  The smell hit him immediately.

  Rot. Waste. Decay.

  Kloric covered his nose instinctively, turning his head away. After a moment, the smell became duller—still unpleasant, but no longer overwhelming.

  He stood there for a while, breathing slowly, trying to clear his thoughts.

  Eventually he went back inside and dragged a wooden chair toward the doorway. The legs were badly damaged by termites, but it was still usable.

  He sat down heavily.

  For a while, he simply stared at the sky.

  What exactly is going on? he wondered.

  I survived… but who exactly am I now?

  And what’s the way forward?

  He leaned back, trying to relax.

  The chair snapped.

  Kloric dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

  He stared at the broken pieces for a second before pushing himself up.

  “You can’t even let me think in peace,” he muttered.

  As he brushed dust from his clothes, something returned to him.

  On the way here… the guards had mentioned something.

  Wake up at four.

  Kloric stepped back inside the cabin and looked around.

  There had to be some way to tell the time.

  His eyes landed on a clock mounted high on the cavern wall above the bunk beds.

  2:34.

  Still time.

  He considered lying down again, but the thought of sleep made his stomach tighten.

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  Instead, he turned toward the door.

  If he couldn’t rest, he might as well learn something.

  Kloric stepped out into the camp again surveying the surroundings.

  As he moved, the smell changed depending on the area. Some places were bad, others not so much. Another thing he noticed was that there were 32 cabins in total, spread out but surrounded by a fence.

  Along the way he saw warning labels.

  DO NOT TOUCH — ELECTRIC FENCE.

  “Hm,” he muttered.

  There were also timers attached to the fence: 7 PM – 3:45 AM. He didn’t think much of it and kept moving, trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. If he could find the source, maybe it could be cleaned. At least the place would become a little more livable.

  Then suddenly—

  A scream.

  From the back.

  Right after that came the smell of burnt flesh.

  Kloric rushed over and saw the body. One of the prisoners had tried climbing the fence and got shocked to death.

  He just stared.

  He didn’t really know how to react or what to do. Yes, the guy died out of stupidity… but still. Just like that, and he was gone.

  Then Kloric felt someone behind him.

  He turned and saw a woman. He remembered her from the second loop.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  Kloric pointed at the fence. “It’s electric. He tried climbing over it.”

  “Wait,” she said. “But isn’t that dangerous? What if someone touched it by accident?”

  “Not exactly,” Kloric replied. “Based on the burns, it zapped him first. He could’ve backed out… but he kept climbing. I think the higher parts carry more current.”

  “Oh… wow. You’re smart,” she said. “I remember when you were dragged away by that guard. I thought you were done for. And when that scary commander grabbed you too… you really do have resilience.”

  She paused, then asked,

  “So what next? Back at the truck you said we should wait and plan our escape. So… what now?”

  Kloric just looked at her.

  “What next?” He raised his shoulders in frustration. “We don’t even know the situation yet. How do you expect me to answer that?”

  He shook his head.

  “You can’t think about escape when day one isn’t even over yet.”

  The girl stepped a little closer.

  “Yeah… I didn’t catch your name,” she said.

  Kloric turned slightly. “Does it even matter?”

  “Yeah,” she replied. “I don’t want to keep popping up just to get your attention.”

  Kloric nodded a little. “Okay… good point. My name is Kloric.”

  “Hm.” She tilted her head slightly. “Kloric… that sounds like a name from the Valriyth royals.”

  He didn’t respond to that.

  “Well then,” she continued, “my name is Melissa. Nice knowing you.”

  Kloric just nodded.

  Melissa then looked back at the body near the fence.

  “So… what about him?” she asked quietly. “What’s next? Should we… hold a burial or something?”

  She rubbed her arm nervously.

  “I’m not really sure. I’ve never been to war before. On my first day I was captured… so I don’t know how these things work.”

  Kloric looked at the corpse for a moment.

  Truth was, he didn’t know either.

  After a few seconds he simply turned and started walking away.

  “Maybe the guards will handle it,” he said.

  The two of them kept walking. The night was getting quiet, almost dull.

  After a while Melissa spoke again.

  “Not to be annoying or anything, but… where exactly are we heading?”

  Kloric glanced at her. “We aren’t.”

  She blinked. “We aren’t?”

  “You’re the one who tagged along,” he said. “But if you haven’t noticed, I’m looking for the source of that smell.”

  Melissa wrinkled her nose.

  “No wonder I’ve felt like gagging for a while now,” she said.

  “So what are you going to do after you find it?”

  Kloric looked ahead as he walked.

  “You asked me about escape earlier, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How long do you think that will take?”

  Melissa thought for a moment. “Not sure… but I guess it would take a while.”

  She looked at him again.

  “So what does that have to do with anything?”

  Kloric suddenly turned and looked straight at her.

  “How exactly did you become a foot soldier?” he asked. “Because I feel like your IQ is too low for that.”

  Melissa frowned. “Yeah… well, I was sold off by my parents to join the military.”

  Inside, Kloric had two reactions at once.

  Half of him thought, That’s actually pretty bad.

  The other half thought,

  Yeah… that explains a lot.

  Kloric walked a few more steps before asking,

  “Do you have any idea what started the war in the first place?”

  Melissa shrugged. “Not really. The world has always been in war.”

  Kloric frowned slightly.

  What does she mean the world has always been in war? he thought.

  Or is she just that daft?

  He was about to say something else when he suddenly stopped.

  Right in front of him was a large pit.

  The smell hit him full force.

  “Ugh—”

  Kloric turned to the side and started puking.

  Melissa looked confused. “What’s wrong—”

  The smell was horrible, strong enough to make breathing feel painful.

  She stepped closer to the edge of the pit.

  Then she looked down.

  And immediately started puking too.

  The pit was filled with bodies.

  Some were completely decayed.

  Some were half-rotten.

  Some looked fresh, like they had been thrown in not long ago.

  The pit was wide… and packed with corpses.

  Too many to count.

  “What the hell is this?!” Melissa’s voice cracked as she stepped back, trying to turn away from the pit.

  Kloric lifted his head slowly, his eyes scanning the pit like it was nothing new.

  “What happens,” he said flatly, voice low and steady, “when you become useless.”

  Melissa froze, staring at him. The words didn’t need explanation—she understood immediately.

  Bodies. Decay. Rot. That was their fate if they failed.

  No mercy. No warning. Just… disposal.

  She shivered. Kloric didn’t flinch.

  Kloric’s eyes lingered on the pit a moment longer. The stench, the rot, the lifeless limbs—it all burned into his mind.

  A quiet thought formed, almost like a whisper in his own skull: We need to get out of here… before we outlive our usefulness.

  The thought wasn’t loud. It wasn’t panicked. It was steady. Cold. Calculated.