Chapter Two - A Night Without Night

Carl pulled into a gas station. The pumps were dead. The digital signs were black. A man lay outside the convenience store hugging a half-case of bottled water, his chest moving, but barely. "Leave him," Carl said too quickly. "We take the fuel." "He's alive," Mara said. "He'll be dead in twenty minutes anyway." Elliot did not argue. Behind them, three motorcycles had stopped at the corner, riders watching the station in mirrored goggles. Elliot recognized the look immediately. Not panic. Not hunger. Calculation. "Ten seconds," Elliot said. "Carl, the lock. Lucy, rear watch. Mara, grab water." They smashed the side door with a crowbar. Heat and gasoline smell burst out at once.