PRACTICAL NOTES · SURVIVAL · CONFIRMED ACROSS MULTIPLE REPORTS

Every Scavenger trusts their compass until the day it lies. Ours don't fail loudly — they drift, a few degrees at a time, close enough to plausible that you keep walking before you'd ever think to check.

A compass that's wrong by five degrees will put you somewhere else entirely by the third kilometer.

The tell: shadow angle stops matching heading before the needle does. Check the sun, not just the dial, every time you cross open ground. It costs ten seconds and it's the only cross-check that catches the drift before it catches you.

◎ TEN SECONDS. EVERY TIME.