novelraw Chapter 91: East
Chapter 91: East
The pharmacy doors were locked. Elias had them open in six seconds with a tool he didn’t explain, but Sera only shook her head.
It wasn’t like they were going for stealth or anything along those lines. Breaking a window or a door instead of a lock wasn’t that big of a deal.
Going inside, Sera went straight for the aisles, not wanting to waste any time.
She took what made sense: batteries, lighters, hand warmers, any shelf-stable protein bars left behind by less imaginative looters. While she was going through things on her end, Elias was making a neat stack of water filters and electrolyte packets, then an even neater stack of painkillers and antibiotics that weren’t locked behind plexiglass.
He didn’t ask her opinion. He didn’t need it. They both knew the drill.
Back in the lot, Zubair and Noah were already hauling crates from the grocery store: frozen veg, boxes of popsicles that no one needed and everyone would want, bags of ice nobody would use but might barter with later. After all, it was a firm belief that in Country N, summer treats could be eaten at any time of the year.
Alexei appeared pushing a squeaky cart piled with ice cream like he’d robbed a birthday party, the ridiculousness of it not touching the calm in his eyes. He handed Sera a box without comment. She looked down at the picture: mint chocolate chip. Lachlan’s favorite. She tossed it into the back without thinking about why she’d noted that.
They loaded the supplies fast. No one lingered for brands. No one argued about flavors. The list was stupid, but stupid was easy. Easy was quick. Quick was safe.
Back inside the Hummer, Lachlan turned them north without being told. The ferry road wholesale place squatted like a bunker behind a chain-link fence, its sign half blown out by wind years before the end of the world started pretending to be subtle.
The gate, on the other hand, hung open. That was new. She stiffened as Lachlan eased them through and killed the engine near the loading bay.
"Same split," Zubair said. She didn’t nod—she was already moving.
The inside of the building smelled like cold flour and old pallets. The front lights were dead, but the emergency strips still glowed dull along the baseboards like someone had painted the floor with moonlight. The freezers hummed in the low lights, and Sera cracked one and pulled out vegetables by the armful.
Elias found a rolling flat and stacked them high in neat columns, each label facing out. Alexei disappeared into the snack aisle, whistling under his breath, and returned with enough chocolate to keep a battalion quiet for ten minutes. Sera did a double take.
"Are there more?" she asked, breaking the silence. Alexei stopped for a second before smiling at her. "For you, there is always more. Do you want some chocolate, devochka?" he purred. "I can get you as much as you want."
The creature inside of Sera paused before nodding her head. "Please," replied Sera. "Chocolate tames the savage beast."
Alexei looked at her for a moment before going back into the rows of supplies. This time when he came out, he was carrying an extra ten boxes of the chocolatey goodness in multiple flavors. "One is for the higher ups," he explained, putting them all on Elias’ rolling flat. "The rest is all for you."
Sera smiled for a moment before going back to work.
Ignoring the conversation between Sera and Alexei, Lachlan hunted down pop like he was hunting game, plucking cases from endcaps and shouldering them two at a time.
They were in and out of the warehouse in under twelve minutes. Sera had timed it without meaning to. She noted the number anyway. She liked numbers. Numbers told the truth without pretending there was anything holy about it.
On the way back, the Hummer was packed enough to make the suspension grunt. The others talked around the piles: how many more runs before sunset, whether the fuel they had gotten yesterday would hold, if the rec center had enough blankets to cover the people who would pretend to be fine until they weren’t.
The rec center looked the same as it had this morning. The same fogged windows, the same bodies pressed into warmth, same soldier at the doors pretending he wasn’t watching for ghosts. They unloaded without saying a word. Boxes slid from hands to tables as the second-in-command checked items off with a pen that didn’t skip. The commander appeared as if conjured by the sound of frozen food hitting laminate.
"Appreciate it," he said, like the number of words that he spoke each cost him money. She wondered if the bigger ones cost more or if it was based on the number of vowels in it.
Sera didn’t answer him. She didn’t need thanks. She needed them gone.
"Another run," Zubair said to her in a low voice, not a question. She understood his math: while the grid held and the roads were clear, while the sky stayed bright and people kept believing a bus was coming. She nodded her head and turned without a sigh.
On their way out, Noah sidled into their path with a swagger he’d stolen from someone braver. "Are you going out again?" he asked, seemingly picking up on something. "Because... and I hate to keep reminding you, but I am part of your team. You need me with you on the supply runs."
Alexei dropped a single popsicle into his palm without breaking stride. "We’re just heading home. Here, share with your new friends," he purred, voice pure velvet trouble. "It builds morale."
Noah blinked at the purple wrapper, then at Alexei’s retreating back. "I hate grape," he said to the air.
Sera didn’t stop. She didn’t smile either, but the creature under her skin flexed in a way that felt a little like it thought that was funny.
They were almost to the doors when the second-in-command called after them. "We’ll add more items if you’re heading out again," she said, pen poised to write. "If you can locate a generator—"
"You’ll be gone before we are able to find a generator and bring it back here," Sera said over her shoulder, not breaking step.
The woman’s mouth pinched, but the pen in her hand didn’t move.
Outside, the gray had shifted toward afternoon. The light didn’t touch Sera the way it did other people—no warmth on the cheekbones, no sting along the nose—but she could read its angle the way she read a heartbeat.
Time was moving. She had her own clock to answer to, one that didn’t tick loud enough for anyone else to hear yet. Not the rec center. Not the commander. Not the four men who rode with her and didn’t know that the highest floor in the tallest building in City H had already learned her name.
She slid in behind the wheel and waited for the doors to slam. "East," she said, and Lachlan simply grunted, turning the Hummer in whatever direction she asked for. It, like its owner, obeyed her unconsciously.
"Whatever you say, Peach," smiled Lachlan. "Whatever you say."