The engines didn't even try to be quiet as they came through the broken gate, grinding over debris like the mess in the yard didn't matter.
Or they didn't see it.
Given who it was and why they were here, I was going with the first option.
How many occupations did that make now? Four? Five?
I shook my head. It really didn't matter.
What mattered was who was standing at the end of the day.
And, just to be clear, that would be me.
I didn't move from the window as the first vehicle stopped, then the next, then the one behind it, forming a loose line across what used to be my front lawn.
The smoke was still drifting, the smell still thick, and the bodies were exactly where we had left them, which made the timing feel less like coincidence and more like bad luck.
The passenger door opened first.
Because of course it did.
Meilan stepped out like she had somewhere better to be and we were already wasting her time.
