Chapter Three: Twelve Families
Samuel asked Emily to come outside for five minutes.
She followed him beneath the awning while rainwater ran from the roof in silver sheets.
The twelve vehicles were not identical after all.
One had a dented rear bumper, another carried a cracked taillight, and the last had a child’s drawing taped inside its window.
A woman in the second SUV rolled down her window and asked Samuel whether the hospital had called.
“Not yet,” he said.
Emily counted the people she could see.
There were grandparents, young parents, children, and two teenagers who seemed to be keeping watch at the entrance.
Adrian stood beside the first vehicle and spoke quietly into a handheld radio.
“They are not a security team,” Samuel told Emily.
“They are people from Bellwether Court.
”
Emily knew the name.
Bellwether Court was a housing complex beyond the eastern industrial district.
The local news had described a chemical odor there three nights earlier.
Officials had assured residents that the smell came from harmless cleaning work.
“They were told to remain indoors,” Samuel said.
“Then someone began moving residents in small groups before dawn.”
“Why would that be dangerous?” Emily asked.
“Because no one will say where those groups are going.”
A teenager approached carrying a paper grocery bag full of medicine bottles.
“Mr. Rook, Mrs. Flores can’t find her insulin,” he said.
Samuel turned toward the vehicles.
“Ask Nadia to check the cooler,” he replied.
The teenager ran back.
Emily noticed that Samuel moved slowly but issued no commands that the others seemed afraid to question.
He listened when a woman challenged his route, and he changed his plan when a driver reported a closed bridge.
“What do you need from me?” Emily asked.
Samuel pointed toward the diner’s rear windows.
“You worked here at night,” he said.
“Did you ever see anyone loading passengers behind the building?”
“No,” Emily answered.
“But I heard a bus engine around four this morning.”
Samuel stopped walking.
“Were you still here?”
“Grant made me clean the kitchen before he let me leave,” she said.
“I was outside waiting for a ride when I heard it.”
“Did you see which direction it went?”
Emily closed her eyes and reconstructed the sound.
She remembered a rattling engine, a squeal of brakes, and a long reverse warning.
Then she remembered something else.
“It didn’t leave by the county road,” she said.
“It turned toward the old loading platform.”
Adrian heard her and came closer.
“That platform ends at a locked fence,” he said.
“Not anymore,” Emily replied.
“Grant had a contractor remove the fence last week.”
Samuel looked toward the service lane.
“Show us,” he said.
Chapter Four: The Missing Gate
