novelraw Chapter 439: That’s New
Chapter 439: That’s New
Alexei saw the checkpoint before the others spoke.
Concrete barriers blocked the road, forming three lanes that bottlenecked into a single armored gate. Soldiers moved between vehicles in tight patterns, their expressions blank with exhaustion.
Behind them, white CDC tents vibrated from the steady thrum of generators.
Lachlan slowed beside him, gaze sweeping the barricades. "Crowded morning," he muttered.
Zubair counted head positions and weapon angles with the same calm he used for hunting. "Too many rifles pointed inward," he said. "Not enough pointed outward."
Aerenyx lifted his chin slightly as the chemical smell drifted toward them. "This region hides behind disinfectant," he observed. "Fear always smells the same."
Alexei didn’t answer. His attention was already settling into the rhythm of the scene — soldier movements, intake flow, tension pockets, blind spots.
Psycho slid up behind his thoughts, restless and eager. Easy prey. Freeze them. Break them. Taste what survives.
Alexei kept his breathing steady. "Not today," he murmured under his breath.
You are going to have to eat soon. And even if you don’t... she will have to.
Alexei nodded his head in acknowledgement but didn’t reply. If Sera needed to eat, then she would eat. It really was just that simple.
Sera walked in the center of their loose formation with Luci at her side. Neither of them showed any interest in the tension around them. Her steps were slow, even, unfazed by the soldiers shouting orders or civilians staring at the tents as if waiting for judgment.
They reached the back of the line and stopped near a rusted pickup with three people inside.
A woman in her fifties gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles had turned bloodless white. A teenager stared at the CDC tents with pupils blown wide, while a younger child coughed into a cloth mask, shoulders shaking.
The mother flicked a glance at Sera’s group, then away again as if looking any longer would invite trouble. Alexei noticed the way her attention drifted back against her will.
People always did that around Sera; they looked twice, even when they knew they shouldn’t.
"Outer line is symptom checks," Alexei said quietly. "They’re sorting people before they get near the soldiers."
"Are we going to stand in line like obedient little citizens?" Lachlan asked.
"No," Alexei replied. "We’re going there."
He nodded toward the fenced-off lane reserved for something else. The soldiers guarding it didn’t look as tired as the ones working the civilian queue. Their gear was cleaner. Their rifles were better maintained.
One of them wore an armband with a symbol that looked suspiciously like a stylized biohazard mark.
Sera followed his gaze. "Problem lane?" she asked.
"Probably," he said. "Which means it’s ours."
Zubair’s hand brushed lightly against her elbow as they shifted direction. He didn’t guide her; he simply moved with her, taking the outer edge as they stepped away from the civilian line. A few people muttered under their breath when they realized they were bypassing the queue. No one tried to stop them.
"That lane’s for authorized personnel only," one of the closer guards called. He jogged a few steps toward them, his vest hanging slightly crooked, his eyes sharp despite the fatigue etched into his face. "You need clearance for that."
Alexei met him halfway. "We have it," he said, without hesitation.
The guard’s gaze flicked over his posture, his boots, the way the others fell into formation without comment. There was a moment where the man’s training tried to match what he was seeing to whatever protocols he’d been given. Something about the way they carried themselves didn’t fit the civilian pattern.
"What unit?" the guard asked.
"Last Northern convoy," Alexei replied smoothly. "Transfer detail. Our paperwork didn’t catch up before the last grid outage. You can confirm with whoever’s running the tents."
He didn’t clutter the lie with unnecessary detail. The more chaotic the system, the more gaps he could hide inside.
The guard hesitated. His eyes drifted toward the CDC tents, then to the fenced lane, then back to the civilian line that twisted farther than it should.
He looked tired enough to accept any story that gave him fewer problems to manage.
"Fine," he said. "Use the inner lane. But they’re scanning everyone at the barrier now. You don’t pass, you get pulled."
"We understand," Alexei said.
They stepped through the gap in the fencing when the guard pulled it aside. The moment they entered the inner lane, the noise shifted. The civilian murmur faded behind them, replaced by shouted commands, the clatter of equipment, and the distinct hiss of pressurized disinfectant being sprayed across surfaces that had already been scrubbed raw.
"You were lying," Aerenyx said mildly, as they walked. "You are able to lie."
"Obviously," Alexei replied.
A soldier at the first concrete barrier raised a hand. He wore a full helmet with a clear visor and held a handheld scanner that looked like it had been built from the scraps of three different devices.
"Hold there," he said. "You’re not logged on the schedule."
"We came in with the convoy that got rerouted last night," Alexei said. "Your man at the perimeter cleared us through to you."
The soldier shot a look past them, saw the guard who had waved them in, and swore under his breath. "They keep doing that," he muttered. "Fine. You know the drill? Symptom verbal, thermal, and then the lab takes who they want."
"No symptoms," Alexei said.
"You’ll still answer the questions," the soldier replied. "Protocol."
His tone made it clear he didn’t expect anyone to like it, including himself.
He pointed the scanner at Zubair first. A faint chirp sounded, and numbers flickered across a small screen. The soldier frowned. "You’re running hot."
"Always have," Zubair said. "I was born in the desert... I can’t stand the cold."
The soldier grunted and turned the device toward Lachlan. The display jumped, cycling through readings too quickly to settle. Lachlan raised both brows and gave the man a bright, unhelpful smile.
"What’s it say?" he asked.
"It’s glitching," the soldier muttered. "This thing hates me. Again." He smacked the side of the scanner with the heel of his hand until the numbers steadied. "There. Normal range."
He shifted to Sera.
Her creature pressed against her skin, interested in what the man held in his hand. The scanner beeped the moment it aligned with her chest, then made an odd warbling noise and went dark. The soldier stared at it in disbelief.
"That’s new," he said.