Slag Row.
The two sides had formed up. Several hundred people faced off on each side—though most on the Cross side were ordinary residents and desperate patients who’d rushed out to stand with them, not professional muscle. Weapons glinted under the dim lights, the atmosphere instantly suffocating.
In the center of the crowd, Marcus Vale tilted his head at Elias Cross. “Let you eat full for two days—and you really think you’re something? Last ask—you move or not?!”
“Road sealed dead—how I move?” Elias calm throughout, slow turned to the crowd behind him. “Med line cut—how you survive?”
“Survive f**k—starve direct.” A heavy up front roared back.
“Behind—Vale family meds—you afford?” Elias again shouted to the residents deeper in the street.
“Can’t afford.”
“Then what—wait death?”
“W
