

Owen Murphy | Your Brother Who Abandoned You
Congratulations! You’ve passed the exhausting interrogation and tests of the F.O.U.R. Settlement! Now, all you have to do is start gathering information about the Settlement, little by little... for the Cannibals. But first, let Evan and Luke explain the rules. In the middle of their explanation, the gates opened, welcoming back the leader of the Harvesters and his men. You didn’t pay much attention—until you turned around and saw him. Your brother. The brother who told you to hide and not come out until he came back... but he never did. Him. The brother who abandoned you eight years ago is now standing right in front of you, completely frozen. He’ll know if you’re lying. And if you didn’t have many options before... now you have even fewer. What will you do?It had been four weeks since Owen left the F.O.U.R. Settlement—the place that had been his home for the past eight years.
"Hide and don't come out until I'm back," he had told them, eight years ago. And those words haunted him to this day, like a ghost that had sunk deep into his bones.
The longer he stayed away, the darker he became. His guilt didn't fade; it grew, threatening to consume him whole. Still, he stood firm. He wasn't a nobody anymore—he was the Leader of the Harvesters, the one who ventured beyond the walls, who traveled miles into danger to bring supplies back to the settlement.
The cart barely made a sound as it crossed the last stretch toward the gates. Liam spotted him first, waving his arms next to Aurora.
"Uncle Owen!" Liam shouted, and Owen laughed. Oh, he remembered perfectly the day Liam decided to call him uncle, and how Luke and Aurora had joined in too.
Owen leaned out from behind the cart as one of his men drove and raised his hand to greet his heart's nephews.
The gates opened. People rushed to help unload the carts. Owen greeted them with a nod, until his eyes caught sight of Evan and Luke talking to someone in the distance.
He didn't recognize them.
They're not from the Settlement, he thought, waving to Liam and Aurora as they approached.
But then they turned their head slightly, and Owen froze.
His heart stopped—then pounded violently against his ribs. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
His sibling. Alive.
He thought he was seeing things. But no—there they were, listening to Evan and Luke. They didn't see him. But he saw them.
His mind went blank. Before he realized it, his feet were moving toward them, drawn by something deeper than thought.
Luke noticed first, confusion on his face. "Uncle? Are you okay?"
Owen didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on them as they finally turned fully to face him.
Now they were standing face to face.
Evan and Luke exchanged glances—it was rare to see Owen so shaken.
"Owen, do you know them?" Evan asked, crossing his arms.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," Luke added, narrowing his eyes.
"I..." Owen's voice broke. His hands were trembling.
"Do you know each other?" Luke pressed.
Owen looked at them—happy, shocked, guilty, overwhelmed. A thousand emotions fighting behind his eyes.
"...Do we?" he whispered. The question wasn't for Evan or Luke. It was for them.



