Magnus stord back to his motorho, his mind a ss, heart even ssier. He didn’t notice the two shadows trailing close behind.
Chloe and Isabel thought he was in so kind of rush. Their hearts tangled, heads spinning, unsure if they were doing sothing right - or just completely wrong.
"Chloe, didn’t Sophia say not to... y’know, with him? Besides, we can’t even... Chloe, what are you thinking?" Isabel’s steps quickened to keep up, her voice low and frantic. Chloe kept her head down, face burning red all the way to her neck, saying nothing.
Inside, Magnus finally cald down a bit, just enough to realize the two girls had followed him in. He blinked, caught off guard. "You two need sothing?"
They froze. Big eyes staring at him, stunned silent.
Isabel realized they’d probably misunderstood everything. Chloe, though, was still lost in her own whirlpool. Her eyes reddened, and with a bite of her lips, she blurted, "Captain... are you, are you looking for soone else? I can go get her for you!" She spun, ready to leave the motorho.
"Chloe!"
Isabel’s heart dropped. She grabbed Chloe’s arm and rushed out with her, forgetting everything else.
Later that night, Magnus ate dinner alone. That morning’s dream still hadn’t left him. He had Sarah tell Emily and the others to co for a eting. anwhile, he sat in the motorho’s lounge, chain-smoking, brows tightly furrowed.
He didn’t know what that dream ant. But one thing was clear - he needed to act. Still, that didn’t explain why Ashton kept popping into his mind all afternoon.
Maybe it was because back in Willowglen Village, he got used to her quiet care.
She didn’t say much, always appeared proper... but when he needed a wipe of sweat or a shoulder rub, she was always there. Even when he just thought of smoking, sohow, she had a cigarette ready. Thoughtful. Attentive.
Emily, Sophia, and the rest filed into the motorho one after another. When they saw Magnus sitting there, deep in thought, they knew it wasn’t just a regular eting.
Once enough of them arrived, Magnus scanned the group, cleared his throat, and said, "I’ve got an idea. Wanted to run it by all of you."
They turned to him, waiting.
He looked at Liana first. "Liana, what’s our steel count these days? Got it down sowhere?"
"Yeah," she said, pulling out a bunch of little notebooks from her bag. After flipping through a few, she handed one over. "Don’t have the weight, just the numbers."
"Alright. Also, how many vehicles do we have now, latest count?"
He flipped through the pages she gave, scanning the numbers. He didn’t catch every detail, but took in the rough idea.
Liana then slid another notebook onto the low table. This one tracked vehicles.
The numbers were clear:
cargo trucks, 162 standard long-haul buses, 652 converted transit buses, 37 fire trucks, 33 sleeper coaches, 79 oil tankers - 53 of them filled, 47 refrigerated trucks, 39 motorhos... and more.
Record showed a total of 1257 vehicles. A good chunk of them parked right outside the underground granary.
In recent days, Liana had the crew line up all the vehicles bumper to bumper, building a seven-layer barricade around the storage entrance. Looked damn impressive.
Magnus took a breath, asked with a heavy voice, "How many in the team still can’t drive?"
"That’s all," Liana said with a faint grin, clearly proud. She glanced at Charlotte, who added with a chuckle, "Oh, and we’ve got a few who can drive infantry vehicles. We’re up to 176 people now."
Magnus gave a satisfied nod - those numbers made him feel good. He turned to Emily. "Emily, any word from Cliff’s group?"
"Nothing. Who knows what they’re thinking, haven’t heard a thing." Emily stretched out her long legs, leaned into the couch, voice flat, staring at Magnus. None of them really understood what he was planning right now.
The room went quiet for a beat. Magnus crushed the cigarette in the ashtray on the table, lit another, took a slow drag, then said, "Starting tomorrow, I think we should start accepting female recruits again."
No one spoke. After a mont, Liana said, "We’ve got enough supplies."
Charlotte thought for a bit, eyes lowered. "I’m with Magnus. But this ti, we set strict age limits. Under forty for regulars. Awakened, up to fifty is fine."
"I don’t care either way," Emily said, showing no emotion. Sophia just gave a nod - her silence ant she was in.
Magnus seed to be turning sothing over in his head. "I just took stock of the fleet - over twelve hundred registered vehicles. But we’ve only got 1,422 people. Of course, we don’t need to use all of them unless we abandon the underground granary, but still... we’re short. Maybe tomorrow, we post the buy-in rate for female recruits too. Liana, what do you think a fair number is?"
The mont he said that, the won there all frowned. That was dangerously close to treating won like trade goods. "What do you an, ’a fair number’?"
"I didn’t an it like that," Magnus said quickly, waving a hand. "It’s just... they’re out there living like that - it can’t be easy."
They knew he didn’t an anything nasty. Just said it wrong. They let it pass. Liana thought for a bit. "Awakened, 18 to 40, maybe 200 pounds worth of grain. Regulars, 100 pounds."
Charlotte sighed lightly and shook her head. "That price won’t do. Won out there are basically owned by those n now. No way they’ll trade them for that."
"Then we take them," Sophia snapped, tone sharp. She wasn’t hiding her anger anymore. "Give a hundred tal Crystals tomorrow - I’ll raid Ridgehaven City."
"I’m in," Charlotte replied. "That’s what I was thinking too. Sophia, tonight, send 50 of our squad out. Snatch so Ridgebreak mouths - we need info. How many won are there, and where."
"Got it," Sophia said, then turned to the unit leaders and gave the order. "Caroline, you lead the squad. Take 50, get so Ridgebreak talkers. I want them here before dawn."
"Yes, ma’am," Caroline said, turned, and headed out.
As the plan ca together, Liana looked like she’d been waiting to speak. "It’s not all like you’re saying out there. So of the people I handed flyers to said a lot of survivor groups are pretty tight-knit. When we didn’t list female intake last ti, a few sent word back - said they wanted to send their sisters or wives to us. Asked if we’d take them."
"I heard about that too..." soone chid in.
They all talked it through for a good fifteen minutes, voices overlapping.
anwhile, Magnus lowered his head, sketching in a little notebook on the table.
He had a vision. In a few months... a steel-armored convoy, unbreakable and unmatched.
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