novelraw Chapter 69: Plans For The Day
Chapter 69: Plans For The Day
The next morning, the light was weak and blue through the frosted windows.
Sera didn’t stir when Lachlan quietly opened the door to her room to check on her.
Her breathing was steady, and while he could sense that something was stirring inside of her at his disturbance, she didn’t bother to move.
With a small smile, Lachlan closed the door behind him and walked down the hall into the kitchen. Rooting around, he found some eggs, bacon, bread, and maple syrup, and decided to make some French Toast for Sera when she woke up.
"Morning, sunshine," Alexei mumbled as he stumbled in, shirtless under his coat. "You always this cheerful at dawn?"
"I’ve been up since five," Lachlan said, making sure to keep his voice down. "Get your ass in gear. Zubair wants a full perimeter check before breakfast."
"If dat’s what he wants, then he can go out and do it himself. Do you know how big that perimeter is?!? Not before coffee."
"I’m already packed," said Zubair from the doorway, fully geared and perfectly alert. "Elias is ready. We’ll do a ten-minute circuit and come back with any updates."
"Great," muttered Alexei, sitting down at the kitchen table as Lachlan brought over a mug of coffee. "Tell me how it goes."
As the door shut behind them, Lachlan started to beat the eggs in a shallow pan before adding the vanilla and milk. He glanced over at the hall that led to Sera’s bedroom door. It was still quiet. She was still asleep.
Noah appeared next, yawning like a bear coming out of hibernation. "Is it too early for coffee?"
"For you? Always," Alexei muttered, his eyes narrowing over the rim of his own mug. "You can make your own. Dat is for me and Lachlan." Noah rolled his eyes, but he didn’t bother to try and argue with the big man from Country S.
He knew he wouldn’t win.
Elias and Zubair returned fifteen minutes later, their boots dusted with frost and steam rising off their shoulders.
"Nothing," Zubair confirmed. "No footprints, no movement. This place is clean."
"For now," Elias added, glancing at the treeline.
"Alright," Lachlan called, setting out plates. "Everyone eats. Then we do watch assignments."
They all gathered at the table—except Sera.
"Should we wake her?" Elias asked.
Lachlan shook his head. "Let her rest. She could use some sleep."
Alexei glanced down at the hall as if he, too could feel a connection to her. "Damn. She’s really out."
"She’s tougher than she looks," Noah said around a mouthful of egg.
They ate in silence for a while, the tension finally loosening into something more familiar.
"So, anyone see anything last night?" Zubair asked, glancing around.
"Only Elias checking the windows every ten minutes," Alexei muttered.
"Just doing my job," Elias replied with a shrug. "We still don’t know who she is or what her background is. A place like this? Already prepared for the end of the world? That doesn’t happen unless you wear tinfoil hats or you have inside information."
"She said she’s from the city," Noah offered. "She’s been working at Lachlan’s gym for the past year and is a psych major, or something like that."
"She a good shot?" Zubair asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Never even knew she could shoot a gun until yesterday. But while she didn’t look scared, her stance was completely wrong. I don’t think she has had any experience with a gun."
Elias gave Lachlan a surprised look. "I don’t believe that for a moment. She is too good of a shot for her never touching a gun before. No one is that much of a natural."
Lachlan didn’t look up from his plate. "Does it really matter?"
Zubair raised a brow. "Not unless she points the gun at one of us."
"She won’t," Lachlan said firmly. "She’s one of us now."
They didn’t argue.
Steam from the coffee as the silence between the men stretched on past the clattering of utensils on the plate. It wasn’t awkward. It was a shared quiet, of a family that had found each other despite all odds. They all understood that each one had a secondary mission, one assigned by their own country, but they also knew that their survival depended on each other. Because Country N was not above having them killed.
"So, what’s the rotation plan?" Elias asked after a moment. "We’ll need two on watch at all times. This place might feel quiet, but if that’s what the infected are avoiding, I don’t trust it."
Zubair nodded. "Elias and I will take first watch after breakfast. Alexei, you and Noah after that. Lachlan can stay on Sera duty."
"Sera duty?" Noah echoed with a smirk. "What, are we calling her the Queen now?"
Lachlan finally looked up, his voice quiet but steady. "She’s the reason we’re in a safe place right now and aren’t dead. You want to make jokes—do it when we’re not sitting in her kitchen."
Noah blinked, the smile slipping just a bit. "Alright. Chill. I didn’t mean anything."
"Then don’t say anything," Alexei muttered, sipping his coffee. "Read the room."
The silence returned, but this time it felt earned—like a boundary had been drawn in the air, and everyone had silently agreed to respect it.
"We heading out again today?" Alexei asked, his tone casual but sharp beneath it. "I somehow feel like we can’t get enough supplies at the moment.
"We have to," said Zubair. "I gave them our coordinates last night, but they hinted that we need to stay put and that they would send people here before extracting them to a secondary site. If they really are going to be dropping people here, we need food, meds, gear—anything we can scavenge."
"And weapons," Elias added quietly. "If we’re going to hold this ground, we’ll need more than handguns and our day to day rifles."
Lachlan nodded slowly. "We’ll split up after Sera wakes up. She might have some ideas about where to go and what to get."
"Maybe teach her to shoot properly when we are all gone," Elias murmured, earning him a sharp look from Lachlan. "Just saying. If she is that good without practice, just think about how good she would be with it."
The five men cleaned their plates with quiet efficiency, and by the time the last bite was gone, the sun had fully cleared the treetops, casting sharp light across the snow-dusted clearing outside.
The calm wouldn’t last. But for now, the quiet was enough.