Gabriel talked the way some people walked.

Like he owned the ground under him and was graciously allowing everyone else to stand on it temporarily.

He released Tobi’s hand and turned to look at the warehouse with the specific satisfaction of someone arriving somewhere they’d already decided was theirs. His fourteen people fanned out behind him without being told to, finding positions, covering angles, and the coordination of it was smooth enough that Tobi’s stomach tightened watching it.

These people had been drilling.

In thirty six hours they had been drilling.

"Good stock," Gabriel said, looking at the carts. "You know what you’re doing." He glanced at Sade. "Your idea?"

"Does it matter?" Sade said.

"Curious, not critical." He looked at the cans stacked on the nearest cart. "We’ve been subsisting on what people carried in their bags. Seeing this volume is." He paused. "Motivating."

"It’s spoken for," Tobi said.

"Everything’s spoken for by someone." Gabriel turned to face him fully. Up close he was maybe thirty five, lean, with the kind of face that defaulted to pleasant and could probably stay there through almost anything. "The question is whether the someone with the prior claim can hold it." He said it without menace. That was the thing. He said it the way you state a fact about weather.

Remi, behind Tobi, made a sound in his throat.

Tobi spoke before Remi could. "We have a campus. Four hundred and sixty people. Awakened security." He held Gabriel’s gaze. "We can hold it."

"Four hundred and sixty." Gabriel’s eyebrows moved slightly upward. "That’s impressive organization for day two." He looked at Tobi with something that was genuinely curious. "Who’s running it."

"Retired Colonel."

"Military structure. Smart." He nodded slowly. "We have thirty one. No military background but several people with relevant experience." He smiled again. "Security work. Construction. A lawyer."

"What does a lawyer do in the apocalypse," Remi said before he could stop himself.

Gabriel looked at him with those warm eyes. "Negotiates," he said. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Silence.

Tobi’s new senses were cataloguing the fourteen in a continuous background process he couldn’t turn off. The man with the pistol, directly behind Gabriel’s right shoulder, had his hand resting near the grip in a way that was casual and wasn’t. Two of the women near the left wall had abilities that were running hot, whatever they were, the biological signature of something active and prepared. The two who’d been hiding at the corner were the most awakened of the group, strong signatures, and they’d positioned themselves between Tobi’s team and the bay door.

Between them and the exit.

He noticed that and didn’t react to it.

"Here’s what I’m proposing," Gabriel said. "Straight split. Fifty fifty. You take two carts, we take two."

"No," Tobi said.

Gabriel blinked. Like he hadn’t heard the word recently enough to recognize it immediately. "No."

"We found it. We loaded it. We take it." Tobi paused. "But you know where it is now. You can come back and load your own."

"What’s left of it."

"There’s enough for both."

Gabriel looked at him for a long moment. The pleasant expression didn’t change. That was the thing about it. It was a mask that didn’t slip, which meant it wasn’t a mask exactly, it was just a different kind of face, one that had learned a long time ago that warmth was more efficient than threat when you were patient enough.

Tobi wasn’t sure he was patient enough.

"You’re not afraid of me," Gabriel said. Not accusatory. Observational, like the Colonel.

"I don’t know you well enough to be afraid of you."

"Most people look at fourteen armed people and make a different calculation."

"Most people don’t have Taiwo," Sade said from the darkness.

Taiwo hardened.

It was subtle. Just the surface of her skin shifting, the light catching it differently, a faint sound like stone settling. But Gabriel’s eyes moved to her immediately and something moved behind them for the first time. Not fear. Recalculation.

His people moved.

Not aggressively. Adjustments. The two near the bay door spreading slightly wider. The man with the pistol’s hand going from resting near the grip to resting on it.

Tobi felt the situation reaching a decision point.

"Stop," he said. Loud enough. To both sides.

Everyone stopped.

He looked at Gabriel. At the recalculating eyes.

"This is stupid," Tobi said. "You have thirty one people and no consistent food supply. We have four hundred and sixty and walls and a generator." He let that sit for a second. "You could spend today fighting us over two carts of food and win and still be hungry in a week. Or."

Gabriel tilted his head slightly. "Or."

"Come to the campus. Talk to the Colonel. If he agrees, your thirty one people get walls and a supply chain and whatever organizational structure he decides you fit into." Tobi paused. "If he doesn’t agree, you come back here and load your own carts and we stay out of each other’s way."

Silence.

The warehouse held it for a long moment.

Gabriel looked at the carts. At Taiwo. At Tobi’s face.

"You’re not authorized to make that offer," he said.

"No," Tobi said. "But the Colonel will hear it."

"And if he says no?"

"Then we stayed out of each other’s way and nobody got hurt today." Tobi kept his voice level. "Which is better than the alternative."

Gabriel was quiet for long enough that the man with the pistol glanced sideways at him.

Gabriel didn’t look back. He was looking at Tobi with the focused attention of someone running a calculation that had more variables than he’d expected to encounter.

Then he did something that surprised Tobi.

He laughed.

Short and genuine, nothing performed about it, the laugh of someone who’d found something unexpectedly funny. "How old are you," he said.

"Eighteen."

Gabriel shook his head slowly. "Christ." He looked at the ceiling of the warehouse. Then back at Tobi. "Alright. We’ll talk to your Colonel." He held up one finger. "But we keep our weapons. All of them."

"Fine."

"And if the Colonel’s answer is no, we have full access to this warehouse. No interference."