The Ironhowl X4 rumbled to life beneath her, the engine hum low and steady as Raven slid behind the wheel. The sun hadn't yet risen over New York, but she wasn't planning on waiting around for it, too. Seeing her dashboard Raven saw it was now January 6th. 12:30 AM. Then she leaned back in her seat.
"Enter Sanctuary. Bring my SUV," she said aloud.
The world blinked.
In the next breath, Raven was no longer in the cracked alley behind Grand Theft Autonomous. She was home—or as close to it as she had in this broken world. Sanctuary, still pristine in its untouched artificial serenity, stretched out before her in all directions. Grass, trees, the pond. The clearing she'd chosen days earlier for her future home was quiet.
She laid the seat back, unzipped her armor halfway, and closed her eyes.
She slept.
When she woke, it was 6:32 AM. She sat up, rubbed the sleep from her face, then pulled out a breakfast sandwich from one of the many fast food bags stashed in the system. A warm coffee followed. Sanitary, hot, perfect.
The kind of meal she is learning to treasure before everything falls apart. Raven then changed into some normal clothing after this said to the system.
"Leave Sanctuary."
In the next blink, she was back in the real world—still inside the Ironhowl, parked in a side alley by Grand Theft Autonomous.
Her next target was waiting.
Kenneth Rourke.
Middle-aged, clean-shaven, bald, always wearing collared shirts tucked into business slacks like he was on the verge of giving a TED Talk. He ran a company called EcoSpark Solutions, a greenwashed, solar-and-battery energy front that sold knock-off Tesla panels and cheap emergency backup systems to suburban preppers and clueless environmentalists.
In her last life, her parents had sold her to him.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
A few canned goods. A few solar chargers. Some water filters. And the protection of their little raider group when things fell apart.
It was all it took for them to sign her away.
Kenneth had looked her up and down like she was livestock. Had smiled when he handed her father a bag of rations. He'd even winked at her mother.
And the way he'd led Raven inside his showroom—hand on her back, like she was property, she never forgot it or the things he did to her over the following days.
Now, she was going to kill him.
And not just because of what he did. But because of who he is. A vice leader of the Red Blood Raiders. One of the most depraved mid-level raider groups in New York during the early apocalypse. They did not last long, not once Raven started hunting them.
Adam Carter is the actual leader of the Red Blood Raiders. A psychopath with a tactical vest and a god complex. He'd fancies himself a warlord, but Raven bleed him out on a rooftop like the pig he truly was.
Kenneth, though, had always been quieter. Smarter. The kind of man who planned things in back rooms while others did the killing.
Still, the Red Blood Raiders were small compared to what was coming.
In her last life, she'd watched as groups like the Black Night Raiders carved out whole states for themselves—men and women dressed in black leather, faces painted, skin tattooed, high on everything they could get their hands on. They ruled by fear. Public executions. Cannibalism. Worship of the strong you name it they did it or smoked it.
It didn't take much to become king in a lawless world. Just the willingness to be worse than everyone else.
And Kenneth? He had that willingness. He just hid it behind a showroom and a smile.
Raven checked the address again and pulled out onto the road.
EcoSpark Solutions sat in a quiet suburban business strip an aging two-story unit building tucked between a shuttered dental office and a seasonal fireworks outlet. It had no signage that stood out, just a clean white logo on the window and a solar panel display in the front lobby. The kind of place that looked respectable from a distance. The kind of place nobody questioned.
Raven parked across the street and turned off the engine.
She sat in silence, watching the dark windows.
These men always picked quiet neighborhoods. Easy to stash things. Easy to hide bodies. Fewer cameras. More silence no questions asked.
She rested her arm on the steering wheel.
Time to see if Kenneth Rourke still remembered the girl he bought and the girl who will kill him today.
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