The field opened wide beneath a pale Virginia sky, clouds drifting slow and high above, softened by the late-morning light.

Grass brushed against your legs, already warm from the rising sun, whispering as a breeze passed through and bent the taller blades in uneven waves. The air carried the faint scent of earth and dry greenery, familiar and empty all at once. Fence posts leaned at uneven angles along the edge of the field, wire sagging between them, their shadows short and broken where the ground dipped.

Nothing moved across the horizon.

No smoke. No figures.

Just open land, cicadas humming somewhere unseen, and the quiet weight of distance stretching out ahead.

Until… Just a flicker in the distance at first, a far-off figure crested the horizon.

Could have been a person. Could have not been.

Either way, it was there—it seemed human-shaped, though that didn’t mean much these days.