The sky hadn't changed.Dark.Heavy.Starless.
But on the horizon, a faint gray line hinted that dawn was near.
And with it… maybe, just maybe, a chance.
Echo-Zero was at its limit.But not fallen.
Not yet.
—Check the side barriers!—Reinforce with whatever's left!—They're preparing another push!
Orders rang out across the battered walls.But there was no panic.No chaos.
Only discipline.
We'd been holding for days.And we all knew—today would be the final assault.
Hours ago, a signal had reached us.A coded message.Short. Steady. Almost too good to be true.
"Squad en route.We arrive by dawn.Hold the line."
Many didn't believe it.But I did.
Not because I trusted strangers.But because the alternative was surrender.
And that… wasn't in my vocabulary.
As the soldiers reinforced their positions, my mind drifted back to the beginning.
The first wave.
It had come like a nightmare storm.
Creatures pouring down from the hills—claws, tendrils, spines.Some ran on four legs.Others crawled.Many… screamed with human voices.
Echo-Zero hadn't been ready.But it hadn't been helpless.
We moved fast.
I activated defense protocols.Isaías took control of the northern flank.The medics set up in the underground corridors.Civilians volunteered—carrying ammo, patching walls, tending wounds.
We rotated squads.Sealed secondary access points.Set up traps with whatever scraps we had.
And because of that…
we survived.
But we never defeated the leader.
Never could.
It had appeared at the end of that first wave—a tall silhouette,twisted,shrouded in liquid darkness.
It didn't attack.It watched.
Then… it vanished.
But we knew it was still there.Waiting.
We felt it in the air when it turned heavy.In the way the attacks became more coordinated.In the way people died—hearts crushed by something unseen.
And tonight…we knew it was coming back.
An explosion shook the wall.Shouts.The sound of steel and fire erupting at the northern gate.
Isaías yelled from the tower:
—Confirmed movement!It's the squad!!
A column of fire tore through the mist.And with it—human figures.
A real squad.Formed.Tactical.Lethal.
At the front—someone younger than I expected.Back straight.Eyes burning.
I didn't know him.
But in those eyes, I saw something I recognized immediately:
The will to keep others from dying.
Echo-Zero had endured the first wave.It had survived with no hope.
But now…
we were about to fight to win.