Chapter 7: Strict Rules

POV: Avery

"Don't open it," Elliot said from behind me. "They tied you up and held you down."

"I know what they did," I said. My eyes stayed on the monitor, where Nathan had fallen to his knees in the snow. His lips were turning purple.

"Avery, please," Helen cried, and she pressed her face close to the camera. "I told Vanessa to stop. You heard me in the factory."

"She lied to us, Avery," Victor said, shouting over the wind. "She told us you had already agreed to share. We did not know she would hurt you."

"Vanessa had her own plan," Elliot said. "That much is true. But that doesn't make them safe."

Outside, Nathan fell flat on the snow and stopped moving. Tyler dragged him up by the arm and slapped his face to keep him awake. I could not watch them die at my door.

"Okay," I said, and my hand moved to the keypad. "But I have rules, and you will follow every one." I knew exactly how that cold felt.

Elliot didn't stop me. He only stepped aside and kept his gun low, ready. When the lock turned green, I pulled the heavy door open.

Cold air hit us like a wall, and the four of them fell inside together. Helen was crying, Victor was coughing, and Tyler and Nathan were shaking so hard they could not stand. I locked the door twice.

"Sit by the heater," I said. "Nobody speaks until you can feel your fingers."

They sat in a tight circle around the small heater with their hands out. After ten minutes, Helen stopped crying and Nathan's lips turned pink again. I waited until they could talk before I said anything.

"Here are my rules," I said, standing in front of them with my arms crossed. "First, every weapon goes on that table. Knives, guns, everything."

Victor placed a knife and a small pistol on the table without a word. Helen gave me a pocket knife. Tyler waited, and I stared at him until he slowly pulled my own gun from his jacket.

"That's mine," I said, taking it from him. "Second rule. Nobody eats for free, so everyone works."

"We will work," Helen said quickly. "Whatever you need, we will do it."

"Third rule," I said, and I looked at Tyler and Nathan. "You two sleep by the front door, and someone watches you all night. If you move without asking, you go back outside."

"That's fair," Nathan said with a shaky voice. "We understand." Tyler said nothing at first.

Then he lifted his head and looked straight at me. "I'm sorry, Avery," Tyler said. "I was scared, and I did a terrible thing."

His voice cracked on the last word, and it sounded real. But I had learned in my last life that sorry words were cheap. I only nodded and moved on.

"Now give me your bags," I said. "Everything goes on the floor."

"Please, I just need to live long enough to find my daughter," Helen said, holding her bag against her chest. "She's alone somewhere in this city."

I opened her bag first. It had a blanket, two bottles of water and a photo of a young girl, and nothing dangerous. I gave it back to her without a word.

Victor's bag had canned beans, a map of the city and a radio. Nathan's bag had only wet socks and a lighter. When I opened Tyler's bag, I found a big kitchen knife wrapped in a shirt.

"I forgot about that one," Tyler said, but I did not believe him. Elliot walked over from the door and took the knife from my hand. "Next time you forget something, you sleep outside," he said coldly.

Tyler dropped his eyes and said nothing. Victor shook his head at him like a tired father. Then he turned to me.

"Avery, I was a soldier for thirty years," Victor said. "Let me stand guard tonight, and you can rest."

"No," I said. "You are not guarding anything yet. Elliot and I will take turns."

Within the hour, everybody had a job. Helen cooked canned soup on the small stove, and Victor checked the generator fuel. Tyler and Nathan carried heavy boxes to block the back door.

Elliot stayed near the front door and watched Tyler the whole time. I walked to the small desk and counted our supplies in my notebook. The food I bought could last me six months, but now it had to feed six people.

"Six months becomes one month," Elliot said quietly beside me. I had not even heard him come close.

"I can count," I said. "But I will not throw four people out in this cold."

"I did not say you should," Elliot said. "I only want you to see the numbers."

He was right, and I hated it. The cold outside was getting worse, and every day we would need more food and more fuel. I rubbed my burned ribs and tried not to show how tired I was.

I picked up Victor's radio and turned the dial, but only static came out. "It worked in the car," Victor said. "Now it's only noise."

Then the security monitor beeped loudly, and everyone looked up. A black sedan skidded across the icy parking lot and stopped right in front of my door. Its headlights lit up the falling snow.

I knew that car. I walked to the screen with my heart pounding, and Elliot followed close behind me.

The driver's door opened first, and my mother, Diane, stepped out into the deep snow. My father, Gerald, climbed out behind her. Then the back doors opened.

Chloe came out holding her belly, and Damien came out last, pulling his long coat around him. All four of them looked up at my camera.

"Who are they?" Helen asked. "My family," I said. "The ones who let me freeze."

Elliot's hand moved to his gun. The whole room went silent.