The shopkeeper wanted five minutes.
He had spent the morning moving stock away from an earlier warning and the afternoon bringing it back when the barrier strengthened. His daughter stood inside the shop with a crate against her hip, watching the local commander point at the lower market boundary. The wall looked as it had looked yesterday. The conventional sensor showed weak instability and no confirmed opening.
“Five minutes to get the shutter down,” he said.
“You can work from the inside,” the commander answered. “I need this pavement clear now.”
“You just said it hasn’t opened.”
“It hasn’t. The warning names this point and this interval. We’re moving people before we know whether it’s right.”
The honesty did not make him grateful. It gave him something definite to resent. He took the crate from his daughter and told her to go with the neighbors while he pulled the shutter from behind. One of the commander’s hunters stayed far enough back to see his exit without making him feel chased out at weapon point.
Sera reached the district through its independent contact as the first residents moved.
