Chapter 71 The Swarm

• Three days had passed since the military invitation. Lucy hadn’t given them an answer yet. She and Daren continued their medicine drops like before, careful and quiet, moving between safe zones and government checkpoints that seemed to grow more fortified every week.
• This morning, the sky hung low and pale, clouds dragging like bruises across the horizon. The temperature had fallen again — the air dry enough that every breath stung the throat. Snow no longer fell in flakes here, but in thin dust, like ash.
• Their vehicle rumbled across the ice-coated highway, tires crunching over what used to be farmland. Daren drove with his usual calm precision, gloved hands steady on the wheel. The truck heater hummed weakly, struggling against the cold.