Aneko’s mother, the best Torturer (interrogator) in the Three Valleys, works for the king of Grayfall. She and Aneko live in Sunrise, so they spend a lot of time commuting back and forth. Aneko wonders why they don’t move to Grayfall, but she likes the peace of Sunrise, which is guarded by two giant metal statues said to possess ancient magical powers.

On a trip from Grayfall back to Sunrise, the cart transporting Aneko and her mom is ambushed by scavenger army raiders. The raiders brutally attack the cart driver. Aneko’s mom finds her legs stuck underneath the toppled cart, but she manages to steal a knife out of a raider’s boot and stabs the man’s leg. Aneko’s mom tosses the knife to her daughter before the man kicks her unconscious. Aneko picks up the knife, but the raiders quickly snatch it from her hands and knock her unconscious.

Aneko wakes up, her feet tied together, in a moving cart. Her mother is nowhere to be found, and another girl on the cart, Sam, also with her feet tied together, explains that the raiders will keep Aneko’s mother alive if they think she’s useful. Sam warns Aneko not to run away and to follow all the raiders’ orders. She promises to find Aneko and help her, but soon after Sam is dragged away and killed.

Aneko and the other captive children are forced to walk, chained together, on foot for four days (one day while braving a storm) to the raiders’ town, Last Chance. They are given barely enough food to survive and those who complain are killed, but Aneko is determined to stay alive so she can reunite with her mother. On the first day, a boy behind Aneko on the chain starts crying, so the raiders crack open his skull, and Aneko notices that the chain becomes much heavier for the rest of the day’s distance.

When the children arrive at Last Chance, they are told to dig among the ruins in search of “Before-stuff”—relics and fossils from before the apocalypse. Sometimes, the raiders will ask one of the children to crawl into a small space that they cannot fit into and look for artifacts. Another girl, Nina, is usually picked for such excursions, but one day when Nina is especially sick and weak, Aneko volunteers to go in her place.

Aneko ventures deep into the cave, hoping to find something especially interesting for the raiders so she will be asked to explore again. She comes upon a fossilized head/helmet, but her supervisor—growing impatient with her—sends Nina in after. Aneko worries that Nina will steal the helmet from her and claim it as her own, but Nina encourages Aneko to dig deeper to find the rest of the body. Nina says her dad had a relic like the helmet, and he believed it had magical properties. Working together, the two find the whole suit of armor—and an old-time rifle. Nina straps on the armor and Aneko takes the gun. The supervisor yells at them to come out of the cave. They tell him they are coming.