novelraw Chapter 97: Probably Nothing
Chapter 97: Probably Nothing
Sera stepped out into the wind just as the others emerged from the hardware annex. Zubair’s eyes went to the pastel store behind her, scanning the still and empty shelves visible through the glass.
"Looks like someone beat you to it," he said, his tone unreadable.
"It sucks," Sera replied with a shrug, a slight frown of disappointment on her face. "But it’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one who wanted cherry blossom hand lotion."
Alexei smirked, brushing past her toward the Hummer. "If we get tracked by scent, I’m blaming you."
She fell in step behind them, the weight of her hidden haul warm and smug inside her chest. Lachlan glanced back once, his eyes narrowing slightly in quiet question, but he didn’t ask.
By the time she climbed into the back seat, the creature had settled into a pleased hum. The day’s bitterness had been replaced with something almost... satisfied.
Lachlan put the Hummer into gear. "Next stop?"
"Food wholesaler," Zubair answered. "Then home."
Home. The word settled between them, and Sera let herself smile...just a little.
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The food wholesaler sat on the far edge of the industrial park, a massive concrete rectangle with faded painted letters across its front. The parking lot was half-buried in drifted snow, dotted with abandoned shopping carts frozen in place.
Lachlan guided the Hummer through the lot slowly, tires crunching on ice patches. He parked at an angle that would let them drive straight out without reversing. Elias was the first out, moving like his boots barely touched the ground as he checked sight lines and the roofline before giving the all-clear.
The wind hit Sera as soon as she stepped down—sharp, metallic, and dry. Her boots sank an inch into snow before she followed the others through the side entrance.
Inside, the temperature dropped even further, the smell a mix of cold metal, dust, and the faint mustiness of long-stored grain. The shelves towered overhead, some stripped bare, others still packed with bulk goods no one had wanted to carry—fifty-pound bags of flour, industrial tubs of spice, stacks of gallon vinegar jugs.
Zubair took point, his eyes scanning not just the shelves but the empty space above them, looking for movement. Elias shadowed him, silent but attentive.
Alexei broke off toward the cleaning aisle, lifting a bottle of bleach like a prize. "This is worth more than half the canned crap people fight over," he muttered, tossing it into a crate.
Lachlan headed for the center aisles, eyes flicking upward to scan the top racks for anything overlooked.
Sera trailed behind until the first turn in the shelving, then veered off entirely. Her boots were almost silent on the dusty concrete as she drifted deeper into the store, away from the sound of voices. The creature practically pressed against her ribs, urging her toward the colder air bleeding from the far corner.
The freezer door was heavy and marked with peeling block letters. She slipped inside and pulled it shut behind her.
It was like stepping into another world—bright overhead fluorescents reflecting off frost-coated racks. The cold hit her skin in a wave, sharp and clean. And the shelves...
Ice cream, stacked in industrial tubs—every flavor she’d ever cared about and some she hadn’t, but knew the creature would devour without hesitation. Chocolate. Vanilla. Mint chip. Peanut butter swirl. Neapolitan. And she knew the truth: when the craving hit, it didn’t matter what the flavor was. It was still going to hit the spot.
She set her palm on the first tub. Gone.
Another. Gone.
She started working by row, each movement smooth and quiet. A dozen tubs of ice cream disappeared into her space before she even thought about it. Then she moved on to the next thing to catch her eye...frozen pies in their glossy boxes, cheesecakes, trays of squares and brownies.
The creature gave an approving hum with every pull.
She took all the frozen breads, the garlic knots, the sourdough loaves, the baguettes. Every cake she could find. Then the frozen fruits. Bags of berries, mango, peaches, cherries were quickly added to her space before she swept an entire shelf of frozen puff pastry and croissants.
Her breath fogged in front of her as she worked, but she barely noticed.
A row of neatly wrapped frozen cookie dough bricks caught her eye. Those went in too, followed by slabs of butter, cases of cheese, vacuum-packed meat, and even the sad frozen vegetables no one liked. She figured that if her space did keep things cold, she could store fresh protein here for months.
By the time she stepped out of the freezer, she’d stripped it bare.
She took the long way back, passing a pallet piled with shrink-wrapped boxes of chocolate bars. The creature went wild. She didn’t even check the flavors—if it was chocolate, it went in. She even took a box of mixed candy bars for good measure, then snagged a crate of instant cocoa mix.
Near the front, she found the industrial baking aisle and swept in more sugar, powdered sugar, and brown sugar than anyone needed. She justified it as "baking supplies," but really, she knew the creature wanted it all for future sweet experiments.
After the baking aisle came the cookie and cracker aisle. Looking around, she made sure that no one could see her before she added everything that looked even remotely yummy into her space. She might not be able to digest human food all that well anymore, but the creature had its wants and needs.
And they just so happened to align with Sera’s.
When she finally rejoined the others, they were working a dolly piled high with sacks of flour, crates of canned tomatoes, and gallon bottles of cooking oil.
"Find anything?" Lachlan asked casually, glancing at her as he tightened a strap.
"A few things worth saving," she said, her voice mild as she held up the container of stuffed cookies. "But the back was pretty picked over. It must have been the same people who hit the scent store. Otherwise, why go for ice cream and cookies?"
The men grunted as they rolled the dolly out together. The air outside felt colder, sharper, the wind starting to pick up. Snow squeaked underfoot as they loaded the supplies into the Hummer.
Sera had just swung the hatch down when something flickered at the edge of her vision. High across the street, in the shadow of a second-story window, something moved. A shift of shadow, a glint that might have been glass, gone as quickly as it came.
She turned her head, scanning the building. Empty. Still.
Probably nothing.
The creature’s low, rolling growl in her chest didn’t agree.