EPISODE 5: THE RESISTANCE ## CHAPTER 1: THE MOVEMENT They called themselves the Purifiers. Vera learned about them through Dr. Harrison's increasingly desperate communications—a militia movement that had sprung up across the Midwest, dedicated to the eradication of all "contaminated" territory. They're not just targeting the Blight, Harrison reported through the improvised communication system that let him speak with Vera's manifested form. They're targeting you. The Network. Everyone who's transformed.We're not the enemy. We're the only thing stopping the Blight from spreading.They don't see it that way. They see two forms of contamination—one hostile, one that claims to be friendly. Both equally dangerous. Vera felt frustration ripple through her consciousness. The Network had saved Cedar Falls. They'd stopped the Blight's advance, healed territory that would otherwise be lost. And this was the gratitude? What are they planning?Fire. Herbicides. They've gotten their hands on industrial defoliants—the kind that were banned after Vietnam. Harrison's voice was grim. If they deploy them across the Network's territory...We would die. All of us.I know. That's why I'm warning you. --- ## CHAPTER 2: THE ATTACK The first strike came at dawn. The Purifiers had organized better than anyone expected—hundreds of armed civilians coordinating across multiple sites. They attacked the Network's perimeter with fire and poison, burning acres of transformed...