Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
The world of The Endurance tightens not through soldiers but through admin — checkpoints and scan-points, welfare-check teams in soft polo shirts, the polite language of "support" and "for your safety." The story takes its dread from exactly this: a system that is mundane, reasonable, and unfailingly kind on the surface. This entry gathers the everyday machinery through which the squeeze is felt.