novelraw Chapter 72: Orders and Ghosts
Chapter 72: Orders and Ghosts
"Eyes. Corners," Zubair murmured, voice low.
They moved without hesitation.
Lachlan pointed at Noah, then to the leftmost aisle. Two fingers. No words. Zubair flicked a glance toward Sera and tilted his chin. She nodded and fell in behind him, silent.
This was their rhythm. Their world.
Her job was simple: don’t break it. Don’t fuck it up. Don’t get them killed
The team rounded the end of the aisle.
A woman stood frozen near the pharmacy counter, her back braced against the wall. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties, thin and pale, with her hair knotted into a messy bun like it had been pulled in panic. Behind her, a toddler whimpered in a shopping cart. It was too small to be so underdressed in this cold, and his face was blotchy from crying.
Her hands shot up into the air. Empty.
"Please," she whispered. "I didn’t take anything. I just—please."
"We’re not here for you," Elias said evenly. "We are just getting some stuff and will be out of your hair as fast as possible."
The woman blinked, then zeroed in on Sera—the only one not armed. "Are you... military? Are you evacuating civilians?"
Zubair stepped forward. "We’re not taking anyone," he grunted, his voice icy as he shifting his rifle so that it was hanging in front of him. But his finger was still resting just above the trigger, just in case he needed to defend himself.
The woman flinched at his harsh tone as she continued to look between his face and the gun in front of him. "I have a child," she said at last, pointing to the boy in the cart like no one would be able to see him if she hadn’t.
"That doesn’t change our answer."
Noah hesitated. "We could—"
"No," Sera cut in. Sharp. Cold. "We really can’t."
Heads turned toward her voice, and it wasn’t only the woman looking at her like she was crazy. The woman stepped forward trying to get closer to Sera as if she was the weakest link.
"I was a nurse at the QEII. I can help. I have supplies. My son’s barely three—he won’t be that much of a trouble. All we need is a safe place to sleep... my husband..." Her voice cut off as she tried to stifle a sob. "He had a reaction to the vaccine and now he’s..."
"We’re full," Elias said flatly. "Stay inside, even if you have to move in with a friend or neighbor. Don’t light fires. Stay quiet."
The woman’s panic cracked into something sharper. "You think you can just leave us here? You have vehicles, weapons. You’re supposed to help—"
A voice shouted from the other side of the store as the woman became protesting louder and louder.
There were more people in the store than KAS originally thought, and that made Alexei’s eyes narrow. There was no way they had missed them, so where did they come from?
Two men and a woman stepped out from behind an overturned produce stand, eyes wild and accusatory. One had a bat in his hand while the other pointed at Zubair with shaking fingers.
"You’re from the city base, right? Country N?" the first man demanded, not waiting for an answer. "Then act like it. There are families upstairs. Sick people. You can’t just pick and choose who lives."
"We are not the evacuation team," Zubair said, his tone a wall. "I’m sure that the government has plans for you, you will have to wait until they come and get you."
"You’re part of the government, too," the woman said, storming closer. "You have food. Transport. Are you just going to leave people here to die?"
"We’re not here for you," Elias repeated, louder this time.
"Yes, you are!" she shouted, jabbing her finger toward Sera. "You don’t get to walk around armed to the teeth and pretend you don’t have responsibility. If my daughter dies, it’s on you."
Sera didn’t move. "If your daughter dies," she said slowly, "it’s because the world ended and no one adapted fast enough. If she dies, it was because you weren’t strong enough to keep her alive. It would be best if you learned not to depend on anyone else."
The man with the bat stepped forward. "You’re not gods. You don’t get to choose—"
"We do," Lachlan said, appearing at Sera’s back. "Because we came prepared. We came armed. You didn’t."
"We didn’t know!" the first woman screamed, voice raw. "They said it was just an outbreak— that people from a near by mental facility had managed to escape. That they were harmless, just looked scary..."
"And if you believed that, then I have a bridge to sell you a few streets over," Elias replied. "Now, I suggest you be smart. Move."
"Help us, please!" the nurse sobbed. "I can work! I can clean, cook, stitch wounds—anything!"
Noah shifted again, his jaw clenched.
Zubair’s voice snapped like dry bone. "Move."
The crowd didn’t follow. They stood frozen in place as the group turned away. Even the man with the bat didn’t step forward again. Too afraid. Too shocked.
Sera walked without looking back.
The cries faded with every step, dissolving into the quiet crunch of her boots against cracked tile.
They filled two more carts before leaving—one stacked with first aid kits and canned goods, the other with formula, bandages, and sterile gloves. Practical things. Nothing for comfort.
No one said a word.
Outside, the city had shifted again. The sky sagged low and gray, the air pressing down with the weight of something not quite winter and not quite peace.
Lachlan and Elias moved ahead. Zubair remained beside Sera, eyes scanning rooftops and alley mouths. Noah trailed behind, lips drawn in a tight line.
"You alright?" Zubair asked, never glancing her way.
Sera didn’t hesitate. "Just don’t like wasting time."
He grunted. That was answer enough.
The supplies were loaded in practiced silence. Every hand knew what to do. The carts were emptied, the goods arranged, the doors slammed shut.
Then they were rolling out, engines low and steady.
The city disappeared behind them.
From the side window, Sera watched a high-rise slip into view—a tall steel tower on the edge of downtown. It shimmered faintly beneath the clouds, taller than everything else. Solid. Unbroken.
That one might survive.
Maybe.
But even if she didn’t, Sera would.
She always would.
Noah pulled up beside the front vehicle, jogging slightly to keep pace. He swung himself into the passenger seat and shut the door harder than necessary.
"I still think we should’ve helped those people," he muttered.
"They weren’t screaming for us," Lachlan said calmly, eyes on the road.
"They thought we were military."
"We’re not."
"They had kids, Lachlan."
"And we have orders," Lachlan replied. "Stay tight."
Noah didn’t answer. Not this time.
And no one else looked back.
Sera might not have known exactly what their orders were, probably to make sure that the military personnel had supplies at the community center, but she also didn’t care.
Her creature might be inside of her, demanding that she makes four out of five of these men part of her horde, but she didn’t even know how she was going to survive what came next, let alone make sure that they remained alive long enough to appreciate everything that she had tried to do for them.
Even if it was just keeping them breathing one day more.