They had been moving for six hours when Nero stopped counting the dead.
The bone field did not change as they moved through it.
That was the particular cruelty of Golgotha that no map or account had adequately conveyed. Every direction looked identical to every other direction. The fog maintained a consistent density that prevented long-range visual orientation. The bone ridges in the distance were the only reliable directional anchor, and they appeared to grow no closer regardless of how far the survivors moved toward them, the scale of the field distorting perspective in a way that made distance feel recursive.
They were moving toward the ridges.
