The wind was warm and dry as Liora stepped out from the house, the sunlight casting long slants through the leaves that rustled softly in the afternoon breeze.
The base had a strange stillness to it—a quiet murmur of distant voices, tools clinking, and the smell of stew thick in the air, but nothing chaotic. Still, something had changed.
The sudden earthquake from earlier had shaken more than just the ground. It had rattled nerves, stirred old fears, and fractured the thin calm the residents had painstakingly built since settling in this new base.
Liora glanced around. The house was empty. Zhou Yinuo and little Eli had already gone out, probably tending to their usual work. Everyone else had scattered across the base, busy with whatever jobs they'd taken up. No one was idle anymore.
She followed the sound of hammering and the clatter of wooden planks, drawn toward the western edge of the base.
