The gray district improved its offer before the next evacuation warning reached the south blocks. New signs promised hot food, working barriers, dry beds, and a fixed address for anyone willing to register at the collection buildings.
Nox saw the first queue from an upper school window. Parents stood beneath the sign with children beside them, while a line of gray attendants stamped papers at a folding table where the district had placed an actual generator and a tray of meals.
"It is giving them what the city failed to give them," Emilia said beside him. "If we only tell them not to sign, we are asking them to choose hunger for our argument."
"We tell them what the paper takes," Nox replied. "Then they decide with the whole price in front of them."
