Cordwell was the first.
It was not the last.
Two more weeks passed, and the days began to acquire a rhythm none of them had possessed when they first reached Hale's camp.
Not easy.
Never easy.
But familiar.
Vane stopped waking each morning wondering what shape the day would take.
Usually there was a route to watch.
A patrol to time.
A settlement that had waited one day too long to believe Hale when he said waiting another would make leaving harder.
Four more evacuations happened in those two weeks.
None were as large as Cordwell.
None went perfectly.
One family lost a cart axle halfway through a tree line and had to abandon nearly everything they had packed.
Another evacuation stalled for seven minutes because two brothers refused to leave livestock they had spent years raising.
