Story 1225: Baptized in Ash

Smoke clung to the shattered hillside like a second skin.

The trio—Lena, Ward (now on crutches), and the girl—emerged from the ruined vent behind the Virex facility. Trees stood blackened. The earth was scorched. Birds did not sing.

They had entered the Ashlands.

Legend among survivors told of this place. Once a military purge zone, it had been the site of a failed cleansing operation. Entire towns incinerated to contain a “spiritual mutation.” The fire never fully died.

Ash rained from the sky like cursed snowflakes.

Their destination: a chapel they’d seen marked on a torn cultist map. “Sanctum of Renewal,” it read.

But nothing renewed here. Not truly.

The chapel rose ahead—crooked, leaning, built from scrap and scorched wood. Its cross was inverted and burning at the tip.

Ward hesitated.

“This feels wrong.”

Lena nodded. “Everything does since Virex.”

Inside, the pews were filled—with people.

Or what remained of them.