Chapter 1: Bunkhouse Blues

As dusk settled over the quiet outskirts of the Spurs Fort, the first bunkhouse stood like a new beacon of hope. While Madie and her group were busy settling into their fresh living arrangements, there was a different energy on the edges of the town—one that lived in the shadows, moving silently through forgotten alleyways.

In the abandoned western quarter of the market, a group known as “The Shadows” had been gathering. Led by a man called Cray, they had a simple goal: survive outside the reach of Central’s gangs. With Central High overrun by the Hulk and his goons, the world beyond was just as unforgiving. But Cray’s crew wasn’t looking for trouble. They just wanted to be left alone.

“You hear about the new bunkhouses near Spurs Fort?” asked Leah, a thin girl with an ever-present frown. She was always the first to get news from the plaza.

“Yeah,” Cray muttered, stirring a pot of stew over the campfire they’d set up behind an old mechanic’s shop. “They’re keeping their heads down. Don’t think they’ll give us any trouble.”

Leah nodded, her frown deepening. “Maybe. But with the Hyenas prowling, anyone new is a target.”

Cray glanced at the shadows moving just outside the firelight. His crew wasn’t big, but they were scrappy, staying out of the way of gangs like the Hyenas and Central’s Bobcats. Cray had heard whispers about Madie and the others at Spurs Fort, but he wasn’t interested in getting too close. People in the plaza were just trying to survive like him.