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CHAPTER 72 PART 2
They searched for an hour. They opened every car, checked every trunk, pried open every panel. They found nothing but frost, rust, and a faded child's toy wedged under a seat.Holt climbed back to the street shaking snow off her jacket. She was no closer to an answer than when she had started. If anything, she felt further away.She spent the afternoon interviewing building representatives. The first was Paolo Greco, the thin schoolteacher with the round glasses. He received her in his small office in Building 3, hands folded on the desk, his face nervous but honest."Mr. Greco." Holt kept her tone friendly. "Where do the weekly rations come from?""From Mr. Miles." Paolo blinked at her. "His apartment, I believe.""His apartment." Holt's eyes narrowed. "Have you ever seen a delivery truck? A storage room? Boxes arriving?""No." Paolo shook his head slowly. "Never. He just brings it. Or Mr. Park does.""Brings it from where?""From his apartment." Paolo's voice grew smaller. "That's w
CHAPTER 72 PART 1
The military truck rolled up to the eastern gate of Ridgewood at nine in the morning, its tires crunching over fresh powder, its canvas cover flapping in the wind. Captain Diana Holt sat in the passenger seat with a clipboard on her knee, watching the guard post through the frosted windshield."Remember the cover story." Holt kept her voice low. "We're delivering extra ammunition. Nothing more."Sergeant Dalton, a broad shouldered man gripping the steering wheel, nodded. "Yes, ma'am. And the rest of us?""We look around." Holt's eyes did not leave the gate. "Casually. Like tourists who happen to carry rifles."Danny met them at the checkpoint with his hands in his coat pockets and a polite, easy smile. He had been told to expect a delivery, but the sight of a captain climbing out of the truck made his instincts prickle."Captain Holt." Danny gave a friendly nod. "I wasn't told an officer was coming.""Just making sure the delivery arrives properly." Holt returned the smile, thin and c
CHAPTER 71 PART 2
"The antiviral serum." Mercer lowered his hands. "Eleven men died before I met Miles. Zero have died since. That serum comes from his supply, and I don't know how to make it.""Then we find out how." Holt leaned forward. "Sir, with respect, that's exactly my point. One man controls the cure, the food, the ammunition, and the only functioning trade route in the region. That is not a civilian leader. That is a warlord with better manners.""He signed a treaty with me three days ago.""A treaty can be broken." Holt's tone sharpened. "Ask yourself what happens if he decides he doesn't like our terms. We have sixty soldiers. He has resources we can't even measure."Mercer pushed back from the table and walked to the tent flap, staring out at the grey sky. His shoulders sagged, the posture of a man pulled in two directions by two truths he could not reconcile."I don't like it." His voice was quiet. "I don't like any of it.""Neither do I, sir." Holt softened slightly. "But we can't ignore
CHAPTER 71 PART 1
Captain Diana Holt had not slept in two nights. She sat alone in the cramped supply tent at the military depot outside Ridgewood, a stack of ledgers spread across a folding table, a flashlight clamped between her teeth as she ran her finger down a column of numbers for the fourth time.The numbers did not change. They only got worse."Lieutenant Reyes." Holt pulled the flashlight from her mouth and looked up at the young woman standing in the tent flap. "Close the flap. And come here."Reyes obeyed, zipping the canvas shut against the wind. "Ma'am, you look terrible.""I feel worse." Holt turned a ledger around and pushed it across the table. "Read the highlighted line."Reyes bent over the page. Her eyes moved slowly, then widened. "That's the weekly food distribution at Ridgewood?""Eleven thousand pounds a week." Holt tapped the figure. "Rice, canned meat, dried vegetables, bottled water. Every single week, without fail, for six weeks.""That's a lot of food." Reyes frowned."That'
CHAPTER 70 PART 2
Karla managed supply logistics from a small office in the villa, tracking every crate of ammunition, every barrel of water, every can of food on a sprawling spreadsheet she had drawn by hand. She argued with building representatives over ration allocations and settled disputes with a razor sharp tongue."Building 2 wants double rations because their crew is working harder." Karla tapped her pen against the desk. "Building 5 wants the same. I told them both the same thing. Everyone is working hard. Everyone gets the same."Natalie organized childcare in the villa's living room, gathering the community's eleven remaining children into a warm, brightly lit space where they could play, draw, and eat hot meals while their parents worked."Okay, who wants to help me make paper snowflakes?" Natalie held up a pair of scissors. Eleven small hands shot into the air, and the room filled with giggles.Even Victor Hale, still serving his hard labor sentence, was put to work hauling sandbags. He st
CHAPTER 70 PART 1
The underground garage was packed again, shoulder to shoulder, lantern light flickering across a hundred and forty seven tired faces. Word of the approaching horde had already spread through Ridgewood like a fever, and the air inside the concrete chamber felt thick with fear.Sean stood on the same overturned crate Danny had used weeks earlier, his hands resting in his coat pockets. Cora stood beside the entrance with her rifle across her chest. Colonel Mercer's liaison officer, a tall sergeant named Wilkins, stood against the wall with his arms folded."Quiet down." Danny raised the bullhorn. "The Director has something to say."The murmuring faded slowly. Sean waited until the last whisper died before he spoke."A horde is coming." His voice carried clearly across the garage. "Five hundred mutated wolves. Two hundred armored rats. And an unknown number of steel hawks in the sky above them. They'll reach us in twelve days."A woman near the front gasped. A man in the back muttered a
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