"Is everyone alright?" Amanda unfastened her seatbelt.
"Alive," Samantha replied, mimicking the commander's actions.
The hull of the Ether was bent, the windows shattered. Remnants of the energy system sparked. Alexa, seated in the pilot's chair, braced herself against the control panel. A metal rod had pierced the inner lining, pressing against her chest. If not for the active energy field, she would already be dead. A thin layer of energy shielded her from the metal, which was pushing toward her chest. Around the point where the metal tried to pierce the girl's body, the energy of the shield was so dense that it constantly changed colors.
"Alive!" Alexa answered, pushing away from the control panel.
"What happened?" James shouted as he left his seat.
"Not the best landing," John was the first to exit the wrecked Ether.
During the crash, the engine had torn off. A metal ring lay twenty meters away from the crash site. Something had happened, and the engine had caught fire. Flames shot upwards from within.
When the rest of the Wanderers left the Ether, Amanda grabbed the railing, watching the ruins of the shopping mall rise in clouds of dust over the other buildings. Just a few minutes ago, the building stood in place, showing the void that the collapse could not crush it. But now it was a pile of rubble and metal.
Stepping onto the ground, Amanda took a few steps away from the Wanderers. It was difficult for her to stay on her feet, but the weakness wasn't in her body, it was in her mind. Another friend, another person was lost. For ten years, they had been together, a team. But now, she was the last of the original group.
"Be strong" — this is what Amanda told herself every time they set off to the Third District during the Research Center days. "Be strong!" she whispered when Sergey got caught in an anomaly and died. "Be strong!" she repeated to herself on the night train when Ivan perished at a Convergence Point. "How do you stay strong?"the woman quietly asked herself this time. So much lost, so much sacrificed. What else must be given to the Third District for it all to end?
The woman dropped to her knees, took a handful of sand from the ground, and gazed upwards. The blood-red skies gave her an answer.
"Maybe..." John took a step forward.
"No," Samantha stopped him. "Give her time."
"Do we have time?" James turned to the Wanderer.
"There's always time for this," Alexa whispered.
Amanda stared at Corvin for several minutes. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She tried to say the painfully familiar words, but her tongue refused to move. At some point, a moment that shouldn't have come, but did, the woman stood up. Her face was devoid of emotion. It expressed only what was in her soul — emptiness.
But they were here. Very close. She would mourn at home, among metal and glass, among the green parks. At home. For now, the journey had to continue.
Amanda turned to the Wanderers and, in her usual commanding voice, said:
"The Cradle is less than two hours away. We need to make it before sunset."
The Wanderers looked into her eyes. They saw the same emptiness there as in her soul. John remembered his late-night conversation with Amanda at the station. Back then, she told him about her fear that the Third District would take away the last thing she held dear, leaving her as hollow inside as the Exclusion Zone itself. And now, John didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse, but the Third District had taken everything from Amanda, and she no longer feared.
There were no words, no conversations. Amanda was the first to head down the ruined highway toward the Cradle. The Wanderers followed her. Step by step, they moved away from the wreckage of the Ether and the ghost town. Manuel's death, like Ivan's, had affected everyone, though not as deeply as it had the expedition commander.
Walking behind Samantha, John recalled Amanda's words from the start of their journey. Back then, she had uttered a phrase that each Wanderer dismissed as unimportant and unnecessary: "You are not ready for the journey between worlds." Yes, John now understood that. Neither he, nor Alexa, nor Samantha, nor even James were ready for the journey to the Center of Primordial Space. All their training over the past four years had been only a small part of what they needed to know to traverse even a single world.
John wasn't afraid of losing his loved ones. He knew that in a few days, he would see his friends for the last time before they crossed the rift in reality. He wasn't afraid of losing Ioanna, though the thought of never seeing her again, never hugging her, and not saying goodbye in person — only through video — hurt him. John feared that at some point in his journey, he would lose himself like Amanda had, becoming as empty inside as her and the Third District itself. But what worried him most was what would happen after that moment...
Time passed, and the sun raced toward the horizon. The Wanderers' shadows stretched and twisted. The cracks in the highway grew wider. In the distance, explosions from the Convergence Points in Corvin echoed. The scorched earth beneath their feet, the dust that rose with every step, all told the strangers they were not welcome. In a place where death and emptiness reigned, life was a crime. And soon, the Wanderers would face retribution for breaking this strange rule.
Finally, the sun disappeared, and the blood-red moon once again took its place, becoming the sentinel of the void. Red stars twinkled high in the sky. Surprisingly, the minds of the travelers were empty, devoid of thoughts or feelings. There was nothing until the group reached the hilltop, from which they could see the remains of the Cradle.
"So," Amanda stopped and turned around, "we've made it."
"And now what?" James asked, exhausted from the long journey. He sat on a fallen, charred tree. The Convergence Point radar was buried under the rubble of the shopping mall. The cube that suppressed the Convergence Points was useless and remained at the Ether crash site. All they had were rifles and Pulsars.
"Considering all our gear is under the mall's debris, I suggest we climb the hill, assess the situation, and set up camp with whatever is left in your backpacks, near the Cradle's ruins."
"We're spending another night here?" Alexa crossed her arms.
"Or do you want to search for the Energy Disk in the dark?" Amanda pulled a cigarette from a pack she found in the shopping mall. "I don't think you have the strength left. It'll be easier to find it in the morning."
"We don't have much strength left, but it's better to finish quickly and return," James replied. "We're already behind schedule."
"We don't have equipment," Amanda remarked in response. "So, we'll get to the ruins and find a place where there are no Convergence Points. Someone will take watch, and we'll rotate every three hours. The priority now is to set up camp and try to rest. There should be a trace of the Disk, one way or another."
"As you say," James got to his feet and headed toward the hilltop.
"Amanda," Samantha approached the woman, "let's say we retrieve the Energy Disk, but how do we get back?"
"I haven't decided yet," the woman replied, tossing the cigarette butt on the ground and crushing it with her foot. "But I have a few options."
"And what options?" Alexa, hearing the conversation, approached.
"There was an Ether factory half a day's journey from the Cradle. I think one of the working models might still be there."
"If the factory wasn't completely destroyed in the collapse," Alexa added.
"Listen," Amanda took a step forward, "we thought there wasn't a single intact building left in Corvin, that there were only ruins and destruction everywhere. But as you saw, part of the city's buildings survived. It's possible the factory survived the collapse too."
"Possible," Alexa agreed.
"Or we could walk back, after all..."
"Hey!" James's voice called from the top of the hill. "Come over here!"
"What's going on?" John, who had been listening the whole time but didn't want to intervene, moved closer.
"Just come here!" James waved his hand. "Looks like we've got a problem!"
"Damn it!" Amanda clenched her fist. "I bet there's a giant crater from the explosion," she turned and shouted, "let's move up!"
The remaining members of the expedition climbed to the top of the hill. But none of them had words to say anything. What they saw seemed impossible.
"This is impossible," Amanda murmured.
"But how...?" Alexa took a step back, unable to believe what she saw.
"The Cradle has been restored," Samantha whispered.