The world around me blurred as I pushed forward, one agonizing step at a time. My leg felt like dead weight, the pain radiating from it with every shaky movement. The fever had dulled to a relentless ache in my head and chest, but it wasn't gone. Nothing was gone—not the exhaustion, not the grief, not the promise I made to Alex that weighed heavier than the bag on my back.
The trees began to thin, the dense forest giving way to cracked asphalt and overgrown grass. I wasn't sure how long I had been walking. Time felt meaningless, the hours blurring together in a haze of pain and effort. But then I saw it—a street sign leaning crookedly, almost hidden beneath the vines that had claimed it. My heart skipped a beat.
This place was familiar.