Page 96 of What Remains

Seth looked at each of them in turn, letting the weight of his words settle. "We leave. No supplies are worth one of us."

The wind howled across the rooftop. Far below, a lone infected drifted through the empty parking lot of the sporting goods store, stopping once to claw at a shopping cart before moving on. It was oblivious to the six people crouched above, debating bolt cutters and exit routes in urgent whispers.

Seth closed the notebook.

"Let's go shopping."

Chapter 22

Store Front & Store Back

The vehicles stopped a block behind the sporting goods store.

From the front, the building was like every other business they'd seen since the world ended. The automatic glass doors were shattered, shopping carts lay strewn across the parking lot—several frozen into snowdrifts—and a faded banner advertising a Labor Day Sale still fluttered weakly above the entrance.

Behind the building, however, everything was almost untouched. The loading dock was hidden from the main road, tucked between the warehouse and a line of dumpsters. Just as Cade had spotted from the rooftop, one section of chain-link fence leaned inward where someone had forced it open long ago. The receiving doors remained shut.

Seth killed Beast's engine.

No one moved. The silence pressed in, broken only by the engine's ticking as it cooled.

Jay kept his voice low. "What do you think?"

Seth scanned the rooftops one last time. "I think if this place has been hit, it wasn't from the back."

Cade nodded toward the loading dock. "Let's find out."

Seth's eyes flicked to the vehicles, then back to Cade. It was all the plan they needed. Jay would stay with the vehicles. Cara would begin loading once the building was secure. Josie would hold position just inside the loading dock with her rifle, covering the rear while Seth and Cade cleared the warehouse.

Seth looked at Josie. "If you hear shooting⁠—"

"I'm getting to cover."

"If you hear me yell?"

"I'm coming."

He sighed. "I knew you were going to say that."

She tilted her head. "And yet here we are."

"Here we are," he agreed, the words resting uneasily in the quiet air.

Their eyes met and held for a heartbeat before Cade quietly interrupted. "You two done?"

Seth rolled his eyes. "For now."

The Marine slipped a pry bar beneath the loading door. Metal groaned, and everyone froze—but nothing answered except the whistle of the wind. He lifted again, rolling the door upward just enough for them to slip beneath.

The air hit them first—stale. Dust, rubber, old canvas. Not the sweet, metallic tang of decay. Seth met Cade's eyes in the gloom, a silent acknowledgment passing between them. The place was empty.

Flashlight beams swept through the warehouse, illuminating towering shelves stacked with unopened boxes, still waiting to be unloaded from the day the world simply stopped.

Cade raised a closed fist. Stop.

Both men listened. Nothing. No shuffling feet, no low growls, no movement at all.

Seth pointed left. Cade nodded and disappeared down one aisle while Seth took the other, each careful step echoing across the concrete floor. A forklift sat abandoned in the middle of the warehouse, keys still dangling from the ignition, a clipboard resting on the seat with inventory sheets dated eight months earlier.