Chapter 229: G.E. - II

The announcement changed less in Grefort’s eastern residential districts because the changes had already begun.

Several of the smaller enclaves identified months earlier no longer existed. Some residents had simply returned to their own homes once Engineers and patrols cleared the surrounding streets. Others moved into the larger occupied blocks nearby, combining supplies, generators and whatever working vehicles remained between them.

One group that had once occupied three connected buildings now held most of the surrounding street. Another enclave disappeared completely after its remaining families moved west to relatives in a restored district.

Not everyone left. A few communities had survived together long enough that returning to separate apartments no longer seemed particularly important.

For them, Grefort being declared safe did not mean going back to how things had been.

It only meant they could finally choose where they wanted to stay.

Up north, the message reached the small settlement as well.

Edwin Vale had barely gotten comfortable inside the municipal building when the door slammed open.

Bang!

He jerked in his seat.

Tea spilled across his hand and the front of his shirt.

"Damn it! You fucking idiots! Look at what you’ve done!"

The group crowded inside exchanged glances. Vale put the cup down before he dropped what remained of it.

"You better have a damn good reason for ruining my morning."

"Mayor, please calm down."

Vale stared at the young man.

"You’re the ones who barged into my office like the settlement’s on fire. Speak up and stop wasting my fucking time."

"Mayor, we’ve got word. Grefort’s been cleared by the military."

Vale’s irritation faded slightly.

"Hmm? What did you just say?"

"Grefort’s clear."

"That’s a whole damn city. Where’d you get this from?"

The man handed him a flyer.

"A small convoy passed through earlier. They left a few of these around."

Another woman quickly stepped forward.

"Mayor, can we go there now?"

Vale lowered the paper.

"Ask them, not me." He rolled his eyes. "They’re the ones controlling the roads."

He looked around at everyone still standing inside his office.

"And this is what you people broke my door open for? You could’ve knocked."

Nobody answered. Vale returned to the flyer.

The middle-aged man cleared his throat.

"I was thinking of sending a small group toward Grefort. See how far the road’s open, maybe find something useful. If there are survivors there, we could try trading."

"What do you want from me, permission to think?" Vale leaned back in his chair. "Take people who know how to drive and do what you want to do. Just don’t mess with those soldiers."

The middle-aged man nodded. "O-okay."

"And bring something worth trading. Don’t show up at a cleared city carrying three sacks of potatoes and expect to come back rich."

A few people laughed. Vale pointed toward the door.

"Now get out. I still have tea left if none of you idiots knock it over again."

...

Saicine’s northern survivors heard nothing about Grefort that morning.

They had other things occupying them. Their own city had been quieter for several days.

Military vehicles continued using the northern roads, aircraft occasionally crossed overhead and something was almost always happening toward the harbor, but the constant gunfire had stopped.

So had the infected.

People watching from the ridge noticed all of it.

Golden Eagle patrols still passed through the streets below, though considerably fewer soldiers remained inside the residential areas. Most of the larger formations had shifted toward the harbor or the military positions established farther outside the city.

No soldier came toward their barricades to greet them and eventually, curiosity became stronger than caution.

Four people left the ridge shortly before noon.

They carried empty bags, two rifles and enough tools to explain what they were doing if somebody stopped them. Their first destination was only a few blocks away, where several stores had remained inaccessible since the infected gathered along the northern roads.

The streets felt almost uncomfortable without the persistent growling. One man checked between two abandoned vehicles before crossing.

"Place is clear of infected."

"You really think it is?"

"What the heck? You think I have no eyes?"

"You’re wearing glasses. It’s not very reassuring."

"Fuck off."

They continued.

Several bodies remained along the roadway, most already marked with paint from Golden Eagle recovery teams. Empty cartridge cases covered part of one intersection, while farther down the block an infected lay where something considerably larger than a rifle round had torn through it.

Nobody wanted to inspect that one.

They reached the first store without seeing anything alive.

Then someone stepped out from the next intersection.

"Shit! It’s the military!"

The four stopped.

An Army Soldier crossed the street ahead of them. Another followed, then several more emerged from behind a parked truck.

Two rifles shifted toward them, but remained lowered. That did very little to make the scavengers feel better.

One man slowly moved his hand away from the rifle hanging across his chest. The woman beside him tightened both hands around the straps of her empty bag while another stood so stiffly that his knees had begun trembling.

Sweat ran along the side of the first man’s face. He suddenly became very aware of the rifle on his chest.

Don’t touch it. Don’t fucking touch it!

The soldiers noticed all four of them.

The scavengers barely moved, wondering what would happen next. One swallowed hard.

"Uh..."

The squad leader looked at the four of them, then at their bags.

"You people from the ridge?"

"...Yeah."

"Thought so."

The rifles lowered.

The squad continued across the intersection.

The four survivors remained exactly where they were.

One of them blinked.

"That’s it?"

One soldier near the back stopped long enough to pull several folded papers from a pouch.

"Don’t go toward the harbor."

He tossed two of them over. The papers landed on the road.

"It’s a restricted area." Then he followed his squad.

The man with the rifle finally let out the breath he had apparently been holding.

"What the fuck was that?"

The woman beside him bent down and picked up one of the papers.

"I think they just told us to stay away from the harbor."

"Yeah, I heard what they said. But what the fuck was that?"

He wiped the sweat from his face.

"Holy shit. I thought they were going to shoot us."

"You were the one carrying the rifle."

"So were they!"

"There were more of them."

"That’s supposed to make me feel better?"

She ignored him and unfolded the paper. The others crowded closer.

It contained several notices regarding Saicine’s cleared roads, restricted waterfront sectors and areas still awaiting Engineering inspection.

Near the bottom was another announcement received from farther south.

------

GREFORT CENTRAL THREAT ELIMINATED.

------

One of the men read it twice.

"Grefort? The huge city down south?"

"What other Grefort do you know?"

They looked back toward the intersection, but the soldiers were already gone.

The woman folded the notice.

"We should bring this back."

One of the others looked toward the unopened store.

"We came here for supplies."

"Dumbass, of course we’ll get supplies. We didn’t come this far to stare at the door."

That finally got them moving again.

They entered the store, although two of them checked the intersection one more time before going inside.