The massive chrome doors began to hiss, parting to reveal a tunnel of blindingly white light. Elias shielded his eyes, his heart hammering against his ribs. He took one step, then another, leaving the rust and the violet neon behind.
As the doors began to slide shut, he looked back one last time. High above the gate he had just entered, a new sign flickered to life in a crisp, digital font: Continue para o ponto de verificação 2. The journey, it seemed, had only just begun.
The neon sign buzzed with a low, rhythmic hum, casting a flickering violet light over the rusted metal gate. Painted in crude, dripping white letters across the barrier was the phrase that had become Elias’s entire world: Continue para o ponto de verificação 1.
As he moved, his boots crunched on glass and silicon. He wasn't alone. Other silhouettes moved in the periphery, shadows with the same desperate gait. No one spoke. In the Lowlands, breath was too expensive to waste on pleasantries.
