Chapter 12: Eighteen Strangers

POV: Avery

"Weapons on the table first," Victor said as the door opened. "Anyone who hides one sleeps outside." The thin woman stepped in slowly with her hands up, and the cold came in behind her.

"I'm Serena," she said, looking at each of us. "These are my people, and nobody here wants trouble." She put a long knife, a tire iron and a small pistol on the table before anyone asked.

Seventeen others walked in behind her, and they looked like they hadn't slept in days. There were four kids, two old men and a mother carrying a baby. Nathan and Elliot searched every bag.

Serena's eyes stopped on Elliot's gun, and she looked away fast. I didn't think much of it then. A boy about ten handed Nathan a toy car from his pocket, and Nathan gave it right back.

"Thank you for opening," Serena said to me. "We stood outside for two hours, and the baby was almost blue." Helen was already wrapping a blanket around the baby's mother.

"You didn't have a choice either," I said. "The voice told you to come here, right?" Serena nodded and looked at the red lights in the corners.

"It told us last night to walk here at dawn," Serena said. "It said our building would lose its heat if we stayed." Her hands were shaking, and she hid them in her sleeves.

"Where were you staying?" Victor asked, writing on the wall list. He asked it like a soldier, but his eyes were kind.

"An old bus station with forty people," Serena said. "Eighteen of us came here, and the rest got a different order." Her face got tight when she said it.

By noon, everybody had a place on the floor and a blanket. I stood on a box and read my rules out loud, and the room went quiet. "Nobody eats for free, nobody fights, and nobody touches the supplies."

"Who made you the boss?" a tall man from Serena's group asked, with his arms crossed. He had a thick beard and a loud voice. Everyone turned to see what I would do.

"My warehouse, my food, my rules," I said, looking straight at him. "You can follow them, or you can sleep in the doorway."

"Leave her alone, Mike," Serena said, stepping between us. "We walked two miles in the snow to be here, and she opened the door." Mike sat down, but he kept looking at me with narrow eyes.

Victor held out his hand to Serena. "You gave up your weapons before anyone asked, so you have led people before," he said.

"I only know how to keep people alive," Serena said, shaking his hand. Victor smiled for the first time since the cold began, and it made him look younger.

After the rules, I put Serena's people to work with mine. Helen taught two women how to ration soup, and Victor gave Mike the job of checking the fuel cans. Everyone had something to do before the afternoon.

Tyler, still tied to his post, watched the new people like a hungry dog. "More people and less food," he muttered. "Great plan, boss."

"Tyler, your half portion gets smaller if you keep talking," I said, tightening his rope. Nathan laughed out loud, and it was the first laugh anyone had heard since the cold started.

A small girl tugged my sleeve while I was filling bowls. "Is there enough for me?" she asked, holding up an empty cup. I gave her the biggest bowl and told her there was enough for everyone today.

That evening, Serena found me by the back shelves. "Can I tell you something strange?" she asked, looking over her shoulder. "You'll think I'm crazy."

"Go ahead," I said, folding my arms. "I've seen worse this week." Serena took a breath and looked at the floor.

"For three weeks before the cold, I dreamed about it every night," Serena said. "I saw the snow, and I saw people freezing in the street." She looked up at me like she was waiting for me to laugh.

"Nobody listened, so I hid supplies in the bus station," Serena said. "That's why my people are alive." She gave me a small, tired smile.

"Last week, I dreamed about a steel door in an industrial area," she said. "A woman stood at it, and a man with a gun stood beside her." My skin went cold, because she was describing me.

"Was he tall?" I asked, and I tried to keep my voice steady. My heart was beating so hard that I thought she could hear it.

"I never saw his face," Serena said. "But in the dream, he kept talking to the walls, and the walls talked back." She rubbed her arms like she was cold.

I almost dropped my notebook, and my mouth went dry. "Like a radio?" I whispered, and Serena nodded once.

"I don't know if he's your friend or your enemy," Serena said, and she touched my arm. "I only know I woke up scared every time."

"Don't tell anyone else, not yet," I said, and my voice came out smaller than I wanted. Serena nodded and walked back to her group without another word.

I stood still between the shelves for a long time. A dream could mean nothing. But Nathan and Serena had both told me something strange about Elliot in two different ways.

Diane watched all of it from her corner with a face like stone, and she hadn't touched her half portion of soup. Then Serena's baby started crying, and Diane stood up before I could speak. "Give her to me," she said, holding out her arms.

Serena looked at me, and I gave a small nod. Within a minute, the baby was asleep on Diane's shoulder. I hated that she could be so gentle with a stranger's child.

At midnight, I was checking the heater when a single knock hit the front door. Everyone stopped moving, and the whole warehouse went quiet. It was only one knock, soft and slow.

Elliot was at the monitor before I could move. He stared at the screen, and his back went stiff. "Avery, do not open that door," he said.

"Why, who is it?" I asked, stepping up beside him. Elliot kept his eyes on the screen, and his hand moved to his gun.

"I know that face," Elliot said, and his voice was almost too quiet to hear. On the screen, a man stood alone in the snow with his hands raised.