novelraw Chapter 477: Get In Line
Chapter 477: Get In Line
The line stretched out farther than Lachlan expected.
It wasn’t packed or crowded like people wanting to get into a concert or a football game. It was just really...really long.
It followed the road in a slow, patient curve across the plain, disappearing and reappearing as the land dipped and rose again. Groups stood in careful clusters—families, couples, lone survivors who had learned to keep a respectful distance from everyone else.
There were small gaps between them, deliberate ones, the kind left by people who understood rules even if no one had bothered to write them down.
Zubair clocked it instantly and couldn’t help the frown appearing on his face. This wasn’t disorder. This was discipline born of fear.
No one pushed. No one raised their voice. Conversations stayed low and tight, their words rationed like food.
People faced forward, their eyes fixed on the distant barricade as if staring anywhere else might cost them their place. Every few minutes the line advanced by a step or two, and the movement rippled backward in a controlled, almost reverent way.
Sera slowed without stopping.
The horde adjusted around her automatically, spacing themselves to match the rhythm of the people already waiting. They didn’t merge yet. They hovered at the edge, just outside the flow, observing.
"This is... civil," Lachlan murmured, keeping his tone light but his eyes sharp. "I was expecting more screaming. Maybe a knife fight or two."
"No," Zubair replied quietly. "Not here."
His creature stirred, voice low and unimpressed. These people understand consequences. That makes them dangerous in a different way. They aren’t risking anything in order to get past those walls.
Sera said nothing. Her attention moved across the line, not scanning for threats, but for patterns. She watched how people stood. How they held their packs. How often they looked down at the ground instead of at each other.
How often they checked on the people beside them without touching.
The first body was easy to miss.
A man sat on the ground several spaces ahead, his back against his pack, and his chin dropped to his chest. At a glance, he looked like he was sleeping. No one disturbed him. The people nearest had simply adjusted their spacing, stepping around him when the line moved again.
When the group behind him advanced, no one woke him.
When the space closed and his pack was no longer directly in contact with him, no one slowed.
Sera’s creature noticed. Of course they won’t touch him, it said calmly. If he doesn’t wake up, then it isn’t their fault.
Sera swallowed as she slowly nodded in agreement. Last time she had been moved to this lab, she got to bypass the lines... trapped in her cage covered by a tarp. But that didn’t mean she didn’t feel their desperation.
Her chest felt tight again, that familiar constriction that had nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with memory. She kept humming under her breath, a quiet, steady sound that anchored her in the present even as the past pressed closer.
Lachlan followed her gaze. "Is he...?"
"Don’t," Zubair replied softly with a shake of his head.
They watched as the line crept forward. The man remained exactly where he was. His skin had taken on a faint grey cast that didn’t belong to sleep.
When the next group stepped past him, someone bent just long enough to pull his pack free before continuing on without comment.
Efficient. Silent. Justified.
"That’s cold," Lachlan muttered.
No one corrected him.
They moved closer to the back of the line, matching pace and posture until they were indistinguishable from the others waiting. Sera shifted her pack higher on her shoulders, tilting her head just enough to look like someone easing a sore neck.
A woman nearby whispered to her companion, voice barely audible. "They say once you’re inside, you don’t have to worry anymore. They screen everyone. Keep the sick out and anyone with a bite is automatically killed. They don’t waste time with 48 hour containment."
Her companion nodded, eyes hollow. "My cousin got in last month. Or... I think she did. We haven’t heard anything since, but that probably means she’s safe."
Probably.
Sera’s creature stirred again, tone cool and certain. They believe silence means safety. Humans are so stupid some times... I wonder just how they got to be at the top of the food chain.
Sera’s fingers tightened around her pack straps.
Farther up the line, a quiet argument unfolded between two men standing a little too close together. There was no shouting. No visible anger. Just a tense exchange of glances and a subtle shift of weight. One of them stepped back half a pace, feigning apology.
When the line moved again, the other man did not.
He remained where he was, swaying slightly, eyes unfocused.
By the time the space closed, he was on his knees.
No one looked directly at him.
Lachlan exhaled slowly. "So," he said under his breath, forcing a grin that didn’t quite land, "we’re doing murder but with manners now. I can’t say that I’m not impressed."
Sera almost smiled.
Almost.
Zubair leaned closer, voice pitched low enough that only she could hear. "Do you want to leave?"
She shook her head once, small and decisive.
"No," she said quietly. "This is exactly where we’re supposed to be."
Her creature spoke again, gentle but unyielding. You feel it because you recognize it. This place does not pretend to be kind. It pretends to be the last human stronghold.
That was worse.
The line advanced again. One step. Then another. The barricade at the front was still far away, barely visible between the shoulders and heads of those waiting. Two soldiers stood there, rigid and impassive, rifles held in a way that suggested they had been standing like that for hours.
They did not speak.
They did not wave people forward.
They waited.
A man a few places ahead turned around suddenly, eyes flicking over the horde before settling on Sera. His gaze lingered a second too long, then slid away as if embarrassed by his own curiosity.
"You headed in alone?" he asked, voice cautious.
"Together," Sera replied easily.
He nodded, satisfied. "Good. They don’t like loners."
Zubair felt something cold brush his spine.
"They?" Lachlan echoed.
The man shrugged. "Whoever’s running it. Doesn’t matter. They know what they’re doing. This place is... different."
Sera tilted her head. "How so?"
The man hesitated, then lowered his voice further. "Order. Rules. No nonsense. They don’t let things get out of hand. Everyone who enters will be given a job and they must do it. People disappear if they cause problems."
Disappear.
The word landed exactly the way Sera expected it to.
She nodded once. "I am fine with working. I’m just too scared of the zombies to want to stay out here anymore."
Her creature laughed softly inside her chest, more than a little amused. Yes, it said. All those scary zombies that run away from us crying for their mothers. Absolutely terrifying.
The sun shifted overhead, the light changing just enough to mark time passing. The line moved again, patient and relentless.
More whispers floated back.
"...heard they have doctors inside."
"...no fighting, not once you’re through the gate."
"...they take your name. Assign you a place."
"...they say it’s the start of something new."
Lachlan looked at Sera from the corner of his eye, smile still in place even as his shoulders tightened. "You notice," he murmured, "how no one’s talking about anyone coming back out?"
"Yes," Sera said softly.
She noticed everything.
Her breathing had steadied now, the earlier panic settling into something sharper and more controlled. This was fear, yes—but not the kind that paralyzed. This was the kind that sharpened her focus until the world narrowed down to choices and consequences.
She had made this choice a long time ago.
And when the line crept forward again... she stepped forward with it.