The mall was too quiet.

No wind. No birds. Just the distant creak of metal and the wet slap of something dragging across tile somewhere deeper inside. The kind of silence that meant something was waiting to happen.

I moved slow, rifle lowered but ready, scanning every broken storefront and overturned bench. The carousel in the middle of the food court sat half-collapsed, horses eaten away by mold and time. This place used to hum with life. Now it stank of rot and bad memories.

Then I saw them.

They rose from behind a photo booth like a shadow given shape—silent, fast, a blade already in their hand. They didn’t speak right away, just watched me with those sharp eyes, waiting for the wrong move.

I didn’t give them one.

I raised my hand slowly, fingers spread. “Don’t.”

They didn’t lower the knife.

“If I was going to call you in,” I said carefully, “you’d already be on the floor.”

That got a response.

“Bullshit,” they said, voice rough from disuse. Tired. Like they hadn’t had time to sleep, let alone trust anyone.

I saw the way their fingers tightened on the hilt. Ready to strike, even as they held back. Their stance wasn’t reckless. It was practiced. Controlled. The kind of poise that only came from a life lived on the edge.

“What’s your name?” they asked.

I hesitated, then answered. “Calder.”

They didn’t offer theirs. Just watched me like I was another threat in a world full of them.

But I didn’t see a threat.

I saw someone who moved like they’d had to carry too many people on their back. Someone scavenging not for themselves, but for a group that couldn’t come in here. Someone running out of time and options.

They weren’t supposed to be in the city. The Sanctuary didn’t allow outsiders—especially not mutants. Especially not the hunted kind.

If command found out I let one walk away, that I didn’t pull the trigger… I’d be reassigned. Maybe worse.

But I didn’t raise the rifle.

Because when they looked at me, they didn’t see the uniform.

And when I looked at them, I didn’t see the bounty on their head. I saw the fight in their eyes. The guilt. The hope.

And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like a soldier.