The wind howled outside the abandoned shelter, carrying the ghosts of a world long gone. Ivy Mae, Roman, and Jas had just settled in for the night when the tablet suddenly went dark.
"Was that live?" Jas asked, their voice trembling, the faint glow of the screen still in their hands.
"I don't know," Roman replied, brow furrowed. "But if it was, it means he's still out there… somewhere."
Ivy Mae stood, her silhouette outlined by the dying fire. She walked to the window, staring out at the endless wilderness. In the distance, she could just make out animals moving northwest, following paths their ancestors had walked for centuries.
She let out a slow sigh, unease settling in her chest. "And if he is… maybe he's the reason we’re still in this mess."
A heavy silence fell. It wasn’t just Musk’s frantic message or the Canadian dollar surge to 4.44 that weighed on them—it was something older, hidden beneath the ruins of their world.
The fire crackled, offering little comfort.
Roman shifted on the floor, fingers brushing the leather-bound book they had found days earlier. He opened it carefully, flipping through pages of cryptic notes—like code. Ivy Mae had glanced before, but the meaning had eluded her.
Then Roman stopped, finger hovering over a page. “Listen to this,” he said quietly:
"The Time Capsule is more than just a memory—it's a legacy. A way to understand why the systems failed, and how one man tried to change it all. But only a few will know the truth."
Ivy Mae stepped closer. The words felt both familiar and alien, almost as if the author knew someone would find this book in the future.
Roman pointed to another section:
"Rio’s name will be remembered, but he will be buried in shadows. His work, his sacrifice, will remain hidden until the right time comes—when the world has fallen and only a few can comprehend the depth of his mission."
A chill ran down Ivy Mae’s spine. Rio—the man they had only heard of in fragments—the one who had tried to warn the world about the economic system and the 4.44 scandal.
"Who was Rio?" she whispered.
She turned to Jas. “You’ve been researching everything about the time capsule. What do you know?”
Jas hesitated, shadows across their face. “Not much. There’s barely anything left from the old world. The 4.44 scandal… he was part of it. One of the whistleblowers trying to warn everyone before the crash.”
Roman spoke, voice low but firm. “They tried to discredit him. Trump, Musk, Bezos—they called him a liar, a troublemaker. But he wasn’t just warning people. He was building a way for humanity to survive when the system failed.”
Ivy Mae clenched her fists. "And now we’re supposed to just… keep going? Look for the capsule? What good will it do?"
"Maybe it’s not about fixing the mess," Roman said softly. "Maybe it’s about understanding it. Knowing what Rio knew."
Suddenly, the tablet flickered to life again. A cryptic map appeared, incomplete and damaged, but the coordinates felt familiar.
"We’re close," Ivy Mae said, resolve hardening her voice. "We just need to find it."
The silence that followed felt different, as if the air itself was holding its breath.
Ivy Mae stepped into the darkness. The wind whistled outside, the auroras flickering above. The world seemed fragile, balanced on a thread of hope. Rio’s legacy, the truth of the time capsule—everything was about to unfold.
But the path ahead was uncertain, and the dangers they faced were greater than they could imagine. The fire flickered and died.
And in the quiet night, under the ghostly auroras, they knew their journey had only just begun.