He didn't blink.
He didn't flinch.
He just stared—unmoving, unreadable—like nothing about this moment surprised him. Like he had anticipated every second of our arrival with mechanical precision. The tilt of our rifles. The way the mud stuck to our boots. The uneven hitch in my breath. The precise number of meters between his stance and the edge of my reach. He wasn't waiting. He was watching.
Subject 3829.
The designation echoed in my mind like a curse. I didn't need to glance at 3830 to feel the change in her. Her movements slowed as she stepped forward—not out of caution, but from the weight pressing down on her. She was composed, yes. Measured. But for the first time since I'd known her, she looked… shaken.
Not afraid of dying.
Afraid of him.
"I didn't think you were still alive," she said, voice soft, nearly lost to the wind.
He offered no answer. Not even a flicker of recognition. Just silence. A wall. A living failsafe draped in human skin.
