Iyisha's heart lurched as the truck slowed, then stopped.
She had no sense of time anymore. Night had stretched and folded in on itself until it felt endless. The engine cut, and the sudden quiet was shattered by voices outside, loud and pleased, the kind of sound people made when work had gone exactly as planned.
The doors swung open.
Light flooded in, harsh and disorienting. Men leaned over the edge of the truck bed, grinning, calling to each other as they started pulling the crates free. Metal screeched against metal. Someone laughed outright, proud, like they'd landed a haul worth bragging about.
Iyisha set her jaw, bracing herself to see what everyone whispered about.
The Route.
But when she looked up, her brow creased in confusion.
This wasn't it.
There was no sprawl of shacks or barricades. No maze of structures stacked on top of each other. Instead, a large house stood a short distance away, solid and intact, lights glowing warm behind curtained windows.
