novelraw Chapter 336: Pure Trouble
Chapter 336: Pure Trouble
"Let’s move," Zubair called out, looking over his shoulder to check to see where Sera was.
The five of them shifted without chatter.
Bags were stowed away in the flatbed of the truck, as Elias looked over from the passenger seat to make sure that Sera’s seatbelt was properly tightened.
Luci jumped in, turned once, and dropped with his head pointed toward the road like he knew which way south was by scent alone.
The woman with the jean jacket tried one last pass. "You can still do this the smart way," she called out, her voice sweetened venom. If she was trying to copy the glossy woman, this one had a lot of work to do. "Harlow will play nice if you’re... civilized."
Lachlan stepped up onto the bumper and looked down at her. "Civilized is a word men use when before everything went to shit. Now, being civilized is a nice word when you mean someone who dies young."
"That coat makes you think you’re a general," the woman snapped, looking pointly at the leather jacket Lachlan had snatched from the first store.
"It makes me warm," he replied with a bright smile on his face.
"You won’t be for long."
Alexei turned toward the woman and smiled like a knife. "You still trying threats? You must be tired."
The bat man’s jaw worked. He didn’t lift the bat. He remembered the lightning. Everyone remembered the lightning.
Zubair closed the last latch. "We’re done here."
They pulled out with no theatrics. No horn. No rev. Just a truck that belonged on the road more than the building did.
At the corner of the lot, Sera leaned an elbow on the open window and watched the mall shrink into the distance. "If Captain Harlow brings more men, they can have the empty boxes."
Elias glanced at her. "You don’t want the building."
"I don’t want to carry the weight of it," she answered with a shrug. "Just think. If we stayed here and took over a practically empty mall, what good would it do? We’d be trapped in a cage of our own making, with no way out. We’re not staying, and I’m not running a store for someone else and we don’t have the people the General does protect it."
"Makes sense. Where are we off to then? Region T?" Lachlan asked, cocking his head to the side. He was stuck in the middle with Sera on one side and Alexei on the other. It also didn’t help that he had a massive dire wolf sitting on his lap like it was a throne. "Or are we still pretending the General owns the next hundred miles?"
"East first," Zubair decided. "Then south. If night snaps on, we stop where we stop."
"I wonder what will happen when night happens? So far, we’ve had tornados and frogs. Oh my. I’m still waiting for the spiders, myself," Lachlan joked, cheerful like he was almost impatient for night to fall. "Bring a hat, just in case it rains."
"Bring a tarp," Elias corrected. "And stop talking."
Alexei rolled his shoulder. "Bring better enemies."
Sera’s mouth curved. "They’ll find us."
"They always do," Zubair said.
They had no trouble finding the onramp to the highway and started down it like they were just on a fun road trip. Sera even took out some chips and popcorn and handed it around.
Of course, she kept the good chocolate for herself.
Behind them, Captain Harlow’s convoy sped off in the other direction.
He rode silent for the first mile. Then he rapped the dash once with his knuckle, a habit he didn’t remember starting. "They’ll be gone."
His driver nodded. "What do I tell him?"
"The truth," Harlow answered. "We warned them, and they moved on."
"The General won’t like a report with no blood in it."
"The General doesn’t like a lot of things," Captain Harlow shrugged. "But he cares more about results than the smount of blood spilled."
"You want to go back with more?"
Harlow watched the road unspool. "Not for a floor of coats." He let a beat pass. "If he wants to make an example, he can pick one that bleeds the right way."
"Those four men," the driver tried. "They move like—"
"Like they’ve done this a long time," Harlow finished. "Yeah. I saw that, too."
"And the woman?"
Harlow didn’t answer right away.
He pictured the way they had formed around her without closing in. He pictured the wolf’s ear twitch when she shifted.
He pictured the way she didn’t force the argument and still won it.
"Pure trouble," he said at last. "And not the kind you fix with a bullet."
He looked east. Then south. The map in his head didn’t care which region owned what. The world owned itself now. Men who didn’t learn that got buried under it.
The convoy found the main road and picked up speed.
Back at the mall, the woman in the jean vest stood in the loading bay and stared at empty air.
An endcap that had been full looked fine. A rack looked fine. Behind the counter, a display case that had always been there was still there.
But she knew better. Rage skittered under her skin with nowhere to land.
The binder girl closed her book and walked away.
------
The truck settled into its hum.
Luci’s head lifted into Sera’s palm. She scratched behind one ear. "Good boy."
Zubair checked the mirrors and then the road and then her. "General will hear anyway."
"He can send men," she replied, soft. "We’ll keep driving."
Elias folded the useless map and tucked it under his thigh. "If we keep going this way, we’ll hit Region T first. Then we’ll have to head east before we can get to Region L."
Zubair pressed the accelerator a fraction. The truck answered.
Noon held steady like it always did. The world stayed bright and mean.
Somewhere behind them, a man with a title turned a page and decided how angry to be.
Somewhere ahead, a state line waited under a broken sign. They weren’t interested in either. They had a road, a center, and a plan that didn’t care who claimed what on paper that had burned two years ago.
"Next stop?" Elias asked out of habit.
Sera reached into her space and set a chocolate square on his knee. "Outlet stores," she decided. "Then south."
Lachlan laughed under his breath as he held up the energy drink Sera had handed to him. "To the victors."
"To the spoils," Alexei finished as he held up a flask of vodka, also thanks to Sera.
Zubair didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
He kept them between the lines no one else could see and let the miles come to him.