Morning came quietly after the previous day's fighting, and the silence inside Building One was almost strange after hours of gunfire and explosions. Ravi and Kenji were on the first-floor watch with several other Conscripts, peeking through the gaps in the barricades while the rest of the building slept.
"The team encountered a large horde yesterday," Ravi said, stretching his arms while staring outside.
"Yeah, I heard." Kenji leaned against the wall. "The Commander said someone would replace us here today, so save your energy. We might get to clear an apartment without knowing it."
Ravi chuckled. "Will the Commander even let us use our guns for that?"
"He will. The first shot has already been fired. It wouldn't be—"
"Kenji, Ravi! Come over here! I see movement!"
Both men moved toward the window. A pale golden light had already formed along the eastern horizon, enough to outline a group making its way down the highway. They advanced slowly and stopped from time to time, but the movement was too deliberate for infected.
"Those aren't zombies," Ravi said.
"I'll call Dmitri. Keep watching them and don't start anything."
Kenji went upstairs and knocked three times on Dmitri's door.
"Conscript Kenji Watanabe requesting permission to enter, sir! I have something urgent to report!"
The door opened soon after, with Dmitri already pulling on the rest of his uniform. "What is it?"
"We spotted an unknown group approaching from the right side of the highway, sir. They don't look infected."
Dmitri remembered the diner survivors they had seen from the rooftop days earlier. The shooting yesterday probably made waiting there much less attractive.
"Go back downstairs and keep watching them. Don't confront them unless they approach the building."
"Roger, sir!"
Kenji left, and Dmitri was about to follow when Adrian leaned out from his room.
"Need some help? I can take the rooftop."
"Sure. A bird's-eye view isn't bad."
"See you from above."
Adrian headed upstairs while Dmitri woke several of the Army Soldiers and had the first floor reinforced. Nobody knew whether the group was friendly yet, but there was no reason to greet frightened civilians with every rifle pointed at their faces either.
By the time Dmitri reached the lobby, the strangers were already close.
"Situation report."
"They kept coming, sir," Kenji said. "No weapons that we can see."
Dmitri touched his comm bead. "Adrian, how's the view?"
"You've got company, indeed. More than ten people, and most of them look scared enough already. A few seem healthier than the rest, maybe workers or professionals."
"Copy."
He stepped outside with Ryan, Kenji, and Ravi while the others remained inside the entrance. The approaching group stopped almost at once when they saw the uniforms and guns.
"Stop, stop! Sir, officer... uhm, we're survivors! From the diner, yes, from the diner!"
The bespectacled young man at the front had probably rehearsed something much better before reaching them, because whatever came out now barely survived the trip from his brain to his mouth.
Dmitri waited for him to finish. "Who are you people, and why have you come here?"
"We... we're survivors from the gas diner over there." He pointed toward the station. "I'm Cody Black. I'm an undergraduate student... Electrical Engineering..."
"Get to the point, Cody. Why did you come here?"
The middle-aged man beside him hissed under his breath. "You fool. Look, these soldiers are getting impatient."
"Wha—what do you want me to do? I'm not very good at this..."
"Then why did you stubbornly want us to approach them? Are you looking for death?!"
"Sir Marco, please calm down. Let me talk to them."
A young woman in a dirty white nurse uniform stepped forward. "Officers, please don't be aggressive with us. We only want shelter. We've been staying at the diner, but we're running out of food and we don't know how long we can remain there."
Dmitri looked over the group again. "And what can your people do?"
"I am a nurse," she replied, then pointed toward Cody. "He's studying electrical engineering. We also have a cook, a teacher, and several people who can work. We aren't asking to sit around while everyone else provides for us."
That answer was better than the speech Cody had tried to produce. Behind her, the rest of the survivors stayed close together, watching the soldiers more than the building itself. A few looked ready to bolt if somebody raised their voice again, while others were staring through the entrance at the cleaned lobby and the lights as though they had forgotten what an occupied building looked like.
Marco muttered something to Cody, and Cody answered with another nervous whisper before Lira cut both of them off.
"We also have Elena from the diner," she added. "She's a cook. Mr. Marco taught mathematics before all of this, and Roger can handle heavy work. The others can help too. We just... need somewhere safer than the diner."
Dmitri glanced toward the entrance, then back to the group. "We'll let you inside for now, but everyone gets checked first. The Commander decides what happens after that. If any of you were bitten or scratched, say it before we find out ourselves."
"Yes, officer. Thank you."
The relief through the group was obvious, but nobody relaxed completely. They were still walking into a building full of armed strangers, and Dmitri did not blame them for keeping their eyes on every doorway.
The survivors were brought into the lobby and separated into smaller groups for inspection. The female System soldiers handled the women while the others checked the men, their belongings, and any visible injuries without turning the process into a spectacle.
Ryan brought the short report over once they were finished. "Some old scars and minor injuries, sir. Mostly hunger and exhaustion. Nothing that looks recent enough to be an infected wound."
Several of the survivors had brought whatever they could carry from the diner: bottled water, a few bags of food, blankets, tools, and personal belongings stuffed together without much order. None of it looked like enough to keep the whole group alive for long.
"All right."
Dmitri assigned the five apparent leaders temporary rooms on the sixth floor while the rest were placed on the second. It was crowded, but Building Three was still unsafe because of the meteorite fragments, so Hans's earlier idea of separating the civilians would have to wait.
"The Commander wanted to inspect Building Three today," Dmitri said. "We'll scout it before he goes over there."