Chapter 17 — Blood Lines

By dawn, the fires were still burning.

Ren moved through the warehouse district, the air thick with soot and melted plastic. The smell clung to everything. War left a scent you never forgot.

The safe routes were gone.

Barricades carved new borders through familiar streets. Spray-painted symbols marked faction claims — Iron Dogs’ jagged fang insignia, Serpent coils twisting over doorways, scavenger glyphs warning trespassers to stay out.

The city had redrawn itself overnight.

Ren stepped over shattered glass and approached a collapsed loading gate. He stopped.

A body lay near the threshold.

Iron Dogs armor.

Throat cut clean.

A message.

Ren crouched, scanning the surroundings. No movement. No sound beyond distant machinery and the crackle of distant fires.

Too quiet.

A soft clatter echoed behind him.

He pivoted.

A young runner stood frozen near a stack of crates, eyes wide, clutching a food pack to his chest. Not a fighter. Not a scavenger.

Just someone trying to survive.

“Wrong street,” Ren said quietly.

The runner swallowed. “They said this was neutral ground.”

Ren shook his head.

“There is no neutral anymore.”

A distant engine roared to life.

Ren’s instincts surged.

“Move,” he ordered.

The runner hesitated only a second before sprinting down a narrow side passage.

Ren turned toward the approaching sound.

Three Iron Dogs bikes rolled into the street, engines growling like caged predators. Their riders scanned the area through reinforced visors.

They weren’t patrolling.

They were hunting.

Ren slipped into shadow, scaling a fire escape with fluid efficiency. From above, he watched the riders dismount and examine the fallen soldier.

One pointed to the blood trail.

Another gestured toward the passage the runner had taken.

Ren’s jaw tightened.

The city was forcing choices again.

Stay hidden.

Or intervene.

He exhaled slowly, feeling the weight of every lesson carved into him over the past weeks.

Survival alone was no longer enough.

If the city was drawing blood lines…

he had to decide where he stood.

Ren dropped silently onto the adjacent rooftop and began moving parallel to the alley below.

Not rushing.

Not hesitating.

Hunting the hunters.