Aden Aden Aden -

"Aden" was not a person. It was an old fishing outpost on the jagged northern coast, abandoned fifteen years ago after the Great Surge. It was also the codename for a contingency they all swore they would never have to use.

Elias looked at his oldest friend, then down at the heavy case in his hand. He didn't waste his five minutes on a goodbye. He turned and ran into the dark. What kind of genre or plot twist Aden Aden Aden

The truck bounced violently as Elias turned off the main road onto the dirt path leading to the ruins of the Aden cannery. He killed the lights a quarter-mile out, coasting the rest of the way in the dark, guided only by the faint, pale glow of the moon breaking through the mist. "Aden" was not a person

Twenty minutes later, Elias was pushing his rusted truck through the dense coastal fog. The headlights barely punched through the grey soup, reflecting off the skeletal pine trees that lined the cliffside road. His mind raced back to the academy, to the four of them—Elias, Marcus, Silas, and Clara. They had promised to look out for each other, no matter where life scattered them. Marcus was the one who came up with the emergency protocol. Elias looked at his oldest friend, then down

"Marcus?" Elias called out, his voice barely louder than a whisper, swallowed by the crashing of the waves against the rocks below.