Seraphina's Revenge: A Rebirth In The Apocalypse Novel

Chapter 335: We Don’t Fight For Things

"You’re on the General’s ground," Captain Harlow warned, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the five people in front of him. "And if I am not mistaken, you’ve already made noise in other parts of it." He paused for a moment. "Like our bridges."

"Bridges?" Lachlan asked, cheerful. "Right! Remember that. You know, its amazing just how expensive the road taxes are these days. I mean, we used to joke that they cost you an arm and a leg, but you guys go above and beyond."

"Apparently, Captain Rafael is much more intelligent than you. He seemed to have used some common sense," Zubair added, even. "You might want to try it."

Harlow didn’t show that he knew the name. "Rafael files his tithes."

"Good for him," the woman returned. "I liked him. Good man."

Captain Harlow knew that at that moment, he had a choice to make.

Shoot now and make an example.

Or send a message, let the General pick the size of the hammer.

He weighed both options in his head.

The wolf breathed softly as it continued to press against the side of the woman. The quiet one didn’t. The big one looked ready to move into fire, not away from it.

"You’ve got the warning," Harlow told them. "I won’t repeat it."

The blond nodded his head and stretched like he’d just woken up. "Good talk."

Harlow nodded to his team and stepped back. The men pulled out in order, rifles up, heads on a swivel. He didn’t turn his back until the door frame was at his fingertips. He didn’t hurry.

Outside, he pulled himself into the cab of the army green truck, honked the horn twice, and the trucks rolled.

"Report?" his driver asked.

Harlow slid a folded page back into his pocket. "Four men. One woman. Wolf that was too big to be a normal wolf. Too calm. They’ll be gone soon, and we’ll be on our way."

"And if they’re not?"

He watched the mall fade in the mirror and let out a long sigh. "Then we’ll have to make an example of them and hope that we call survive it."

-------

Inside the mall, Sera kept her eyes on the empty entrance until the last sound of the truck disappeared.

"They’ll be back," Elias murmured, his voice low as he continued to scan the men left with them.

"Not before ’sundown,’" Lachlan replied with his hands behind his head like he’d invented the joke. "Which is adorable. Someone should tell him the sky stopped listening to the General."

Zubair didn’t smile. "We load and we leave. No reason to argue with a clock he can’t read."

"On it," Alexei answered, already moving, already cold again.

They didn’t bother to waste time talking or worrying about the outsiders.

Elias took the west wing with a duffel. Zubair covered the service corridor and the loading dock. Lachlan cleared the escalators and the balcony for sight lines. Alexei bled stock from shelves that looked full and then weren’t.

Sera walked the center like it was a mall built just for her pleasure. Luci padded beside her, his nose low as he catalogued the different smells, the tip of his tail brushing her boot every other step.

The woman with the jean vest on apparently tried to take over the position that the glossy woman once held. "That went well," she chirped for the benefit of anyone listening as she returned her gun to the holster on her hip. "Captain Harlow’s reasonable. He’ll give you a fair cut for returning what you took."

Sera didn’t slow down; she simply shook her head and continued doing what she was doing. "No." That was it. A single word that spoke volumes to whoever was paying attention.

"You really don’t understand how things work here," the other female returned. "This is how we keep order in an orderless society. After all, you listened to the police before the world ended, didn’t you? That is how you should look at us. We are the police, the General is the President, and we fully believe in capital punishment for crimes against society."

"That line keeps getting older every time I hear it," Lachlan muttered, stepping past her to drop a coil of rope into Sera’s hand. "Find a new one. Or don’t. I’m not picky. Mom always said I have selective hearing."

The binder girl hugged the thing to her ribs like it might protect her heart and lungs if something went sideways. She continued to watch Sera move and didn’t say a word. She didn’t warn the others that Sera could make things disappear, she didn’t say peep.

As far as she was concerned, the best way to survive in this new world was to keep your head down and your mouth shut.

Zubair cleared the loading dock and main entrance of the mall in slow circuits, his eyes on angles and exits, never still for long.

He kept Sera centered without making it a show. He angled her away from a blind corner with a brush of his knuckles. He set his back where it needed to be and didn’t announce it. He didn’t need praise to do his job. He just needed her within reach.

Elias came out of the pharmacy with gauze, filters, and a face that said the shelves had been hit hard months ago. "Still enough to matter," he reported, tone neutral. "Not enough to tempt a fight."

"We don’t fight for things," Sera reminded him with an innocent look on her face. "We only fight when someone stands in our way of getting what we want. There is a difference."

"Story of my week," Lachlan said, tossing a bundle of socks that hit Elias in the chest. "Footcare is my love language."

"Riveting," Alexei deadpanned. "Next you will be telling us that a black eye is your love language, too." He slipped a sealed jar of water tabs into Sera’s pocket like a magician closing a trick. She one upped him by making it disappear completely.

It went like that for another hour.

They weren’t in a rush, but they didn’t drag it out either.

But it was definitely a pace that ignored the kind of deadlines Captain Harlow seemed to believe in.

When they were done, the place looked like it always had.

A little thinner at the edges.

A little cleaner where Sera’s hand had grazed a counter.

And anyone counting the inventory would have sworn the numbers were the same.

But anyone with eyes could tell that something was wrong, and that the numbers were lying.

It was just the way Lachlan liked it, and he couldn’t stop smiling.

Zubair swung the roll-up at the loading dock and checked the lot. It was still clear, just like it had been the 45 other times he had checked it.

Heat from the midday sun shimmered above the asphalt, and the horizon lay flat and far away.

And there was no one else out there waiting for them.