The first patrol vehicle stopped where the road narrowed between two abandoned shops.
Gideon saw it through the upstairs landing window. He lowered the glass, listened to its engine, then asked Mara for the route sheet.
“That’s the medicine crossing.”
Below, the second vehicle backed into the gap beside it. A man climbed out and dragged a folding barrier across the remaining space. No creature followed him. He had a hammer, a bundle of ordinary fence wire, and two other men watching the opposite road.
Mara put the morning list down without finishing its last line.
“Can the water vehicle reach civic another way?”
“Long turn. Not if they close the north junction too.”
Tessa came up behind them, her hair still damp from the pump terminal repair she had done after the relocation. Finn had held the temporary cover through the night; daylight had let her finish the proper join. She looked past the shops at the road beyond.
