Felicity's Beast World Apocalypse-Chapter 127: Time to go?

The door shut behind Victor with a quiet, solid click.

Not loud.

Still final.

The sound landed in the room and stayed there.

The chamber they used for Snow Team meetings had been a storage room once. Seven months ago someone would have filled it with barrels or dried grain or spare tools nobody wanted cluttering the main hall.

Now it held predators.

Stone walls. Cold and damp where the morning air crept through the mortar. One narrow window cut high into the wall near the ceiling. Too high to see through without climbing.

Gray daylight spilled through it in a thin strip.

Dust floated slowly through the beam like something underwater.

The table was wrong for the room.

Too big. Too heavy. It had been dragged here a few days ago.

The legs didn’t match anymore. One had been replaced with a metal support. Another had a wedge hammered under it to stop the wobble.

A map of the city lay spread across the surface. Pinned down with knives.

Everyone was already there.

Which meant everyone had already been thinking.

That never helped.

Voss stood near the far end of the table with his arms folded behind his back. Head tilted down slightly as he studied the map like it might confess something if he stared long enough.

Damien leaned against the wall under the window. One shoulder touching stone.

Arms loose.

Eyes half closed.

He looked asleep.

No one in the room believed that.

Ivan sat backwards in a chair near the table corner, forearms resting on the backrest, fingers loosely linked. The wood creaked occasionally under his weight.

Sarge stood behind him.

Not leaning.

Not sitting.

Just standing with his shoulders squared and his jaw set like someone who had been chewing on a thought that tasted bad.

Marx and Sam occupied the other side of the table.

Marx flipped a knife between his fingers in a slow, steady rhythm. The blade flashed silver each time it turned.

Sam rubbed the back of his neck again.

And again.

Like something there refused to loosen.

Kai sat on the edge of the table itself. One hand braced behind him, long legs stretched out, heel tapping faintly against the wood.

Pope stood near the door Victor had just closed.

Watching everyone.

Not saying anything.

Shadow and Draco stayed back near the wall where the light from the window didn’t reach properly.

Two silhouettes.

Still.

Victor stepped forward.

Boots scraping softly on stone.

No one greeted him.

They didn’t need to.

The tension had been here before he arrived. Victor rested both hands on the table.

The wood creaked slightly.

"Say it."

No preamble.

No one asked what he meant.

Voss looked up first.

"The numbers are worse."

Ivan snorted quietly.

"That’s not new."

"No," Voss said calmly "This part is."

He tapped the map once.

A sharp little sound "Four thousand refugees."

Sam nodded.

"We know."

"Fifty women."

The knife stopped moving in Marx’s hand. Just stopped.

He didn’t even seem to notice.

"And," Voss continued, voice steady, "twelve are children."

Kai’s heel stopped tapping.

The room went quiet.

Not surprised quiet.

Calculation quiet.

Voss went on "Thirty are beyond childbearing age."

Ivan leaned back in the chair slowly.

Wood creaked.

"Which leaves," he said.

"Eight," Sam said quietly.

The word sat in the air.

Eight.

In four thousand.

Marx set the knife on the table.

The metal clicked softly "That’s going to get ugly." Damien spoke from the wall.

Eyes still closed.

"It already is."

Several heads turned toward him.

Damien tilted his head slightly "Predators don’t need spreadsheets."

Victor exhaled slowly "And Felicity."

No one answered.

Which was answer enough.

Ivan leaned forward again, forearms tightening slightly on the chair.

"She’s stronger."

Not a question.

Voss nodded once.

"The amplification effect is increasing."

Kai frowned.

"She hasn’t said anything."

"She wouldn’t," Damien said quietly.

Sam glanced toward Victor "She thinks this is normal."

Sarge’s fingers tightened against the back of Ivan’s chair "Yesterday in the yard," he said.

Everyone looked at him.

Sarge rarely volunteered.

"They fought better."

Sam nodded slowly.

"Yeah."

Marx leaned back.

"They were trying harder."

"No," Voss said.

"They weren’t."

Silence again.

Voss tapped the map with one finger.

"She was watching."

Understanding moved across the room slowly.

Kai straightened.

"Wait."

"Yes."

Ivan’s grin appeared slowly "That explains the mercenaries."

Victor looked at him.

"Explain."

Ivan shrugged "They broke too fast."

Marx nodded.

"They weren’t fighting us." Sam finished the thought.

"They were fighting men being watched."

Damien opened his eyes "And loved."

The word landed heavier than expected.

Sarge looked away.

Victor didn’t react.

"What about the spike."

Voss glanced at Damien.

Damien pushed off the wall slowly. Stone scraped against his shoulder as he straightened "She’s approaching her heat."

Kai blinked.

"Already?"

Damien nodded once "Probably."

Pope finally spoke "How soon."

Damien rolled one shoulder "Soon enough to matter."

Ivan looked at Victor "But it’s coming."

Victor didn’t respond.

He didn’t have to.

Everyone in the room already knew.

Sarge spoke quietly.

"If it happens here.."

Marx cut him off "The whole city will smell it."

No one laughed.

Sam’s hand stopped moving against his neck.

Damien looked across the table "Four thousand males."

The silence that followed had weight.

Kai stared down at the wood grain like it might rearrange itself into a better outcome.

Pope folded his arms slowly.

Sarge’s knuckles went pale against the chair back.

Victor stood very still.

Ivan finally broke it.

"Well."

Marx looked at him "That’s one way to start a riot."

Ivan shrugged "If she blooms here the city burns."

No one argued.

Seven months ago the world had collapsed.

Seven months wasn’t long enough for predators to learn patience again.

Scarcity had sharpened everything.

Rumors were already spreading.

A fox woman.

Protected.

Desired.

Already surrounded by dominant males. Add a bloom cycle to that? The result would not be subtle.

Kai dragged a hand through his hair "Jesus."

Voss looked at Victor "There’s one solution."

Victor already knew.

Still he said it.

"Say it."

"We leave."

Sam frowned.

"Leave."

"When the bloom begins."

Ivan nodded slowly.

"Take her out of the city."

"Immediately," Voss said.

Pope spoke quietly.

"Before the scent spreads."

Sarge stepped away from Ivan’s chair "And if it starts suddenly."

Victor answered without hesitation "We move faster."

Marx leaned back "Where."

Damien shrugged slightly "Anywhere far enough that four thousand predators can’t smell it."

Kai let out a breath "And Felicity."

Victor’s eyes shifted toward the door "She doesn’t know."

Ivan frowned "She’ll ask."

"Yes."

Sam shifted in his chair.

"And when she does."

Victor’s jaw tightened.

"We tell her."

A pause.

"Part of it."

Damien’s mouth curved faintly "The part where we leave the city."

Victor nodded once "The rest she doesn’t need yet."

Marx sighed "That’s going to go well."

Sarge spoke again "Doesn’t matter if it goes well."

Everyone looked at him.

His eyes were dark.

"If she blooms here," he said quietly, "this city becomes a feeding ground."

Silence returned.

Victor straightened slowly.

His voice came calm.

Controlled.

Final.

"Then we make sure it doesn’t."

The quiet stretched.

Tommy finally leaned back on his hands again. Looking around the room.

Looking at the men.

Something crooked crept into his smile."You know," he said casually.

No one answered.

Tommy shrugged.

"We’re called Snow Team."

He glanced toward the little gray strip of daylight in the window. Then back at them.

"I’ve never actually seen snow."

For a moment no one moved.

Then Ivan huffed a laugh.

Marx picked his knife up again.

Victor looked at the door.

And the room began thinking about winter.

Victor did not smile. He lowered his gaze to the map spread across the table and studied it for a moment as if the inked lines could explain something he had already decided not to say earlier. His attention moved briefly to the knife pinning one corner of the paper and then to the districts drawn across the surface, crowded shapes pressing against each other where the city had grown tighter than anyone liked. After a few seconds he lifted his head and looked back at the men in the room.

"I didn’t say anything earlier."

The words shifted the mood again.

Ivan leaned forward slightly in his chair and rested his forearms across the backrest.

"About what."

Victor’s hands rested on the edge of the table.

"My space upgraded."

Voss frowned immediately.

"Upgraded how."

Victor’s eyes flicked briefly toward the door. It was not a glance toward the corridor outside. It was toward the direction of the living quarters deeper in the compound where Felicity was still asleep.

When he spoke again his voice remained calm "There’s a nursery now."

For a moment no one reacted. The word sat there without context.

Voss slowly straightened where he had been sitting on the edge of the table "A what."

Victor met his gaze evenly "A nursery." He did not add anything else. He did not need to.

Marx’s knife stopped turning in his fingers. The blade hung in the air for a second before he caught it again without looking.

Ivan blinked once.

Voss stared.

Damien did not move but something in his shoulders tightened almost imperceptibly.

Draco leaned forward slightly "For after the heat."

Victor gave a small nod.

"Correct."

The silence that followed felt different from the ones earlier in the meeting. This one carried weight. Not alarm exactly. Something heavier than that. Something quieter.

Ivan leaned back again in the chair and rubbed a hand slowly across his jaw "Well. That’s optimistic."

Voss let out a short breath that might have been a laugh "Optimistic."

Sam dragged his palm down his face "You’re saying the house just added it."

"Yes."

"With no warning."

"No."

Voss swung one leg down from the table and planted his foot on the floor. "So the universe has already made the decision for us."

Victor did not answer.

Sarge spoke after a moment "She’ll notice."

"Yes."

"And she’ll ask why."

Victor’s mouth moved slightly before he answered "Correct."

Marx picked the knife up again and rolled it once across his fingers "You planning to answer that question when it comes."

Victor glanced toward the door again "Eventually."

Kai watched him for a few seconds and then leaned back on his hands again "Does it at least look nice."

Victor looked at him.

Kai smiled faintly.

"If the apocalypse is going to give us a nursery I’d like to know the decorating situation."

Ivan laughed quietly under his breath.

Damien shook his head.

Shadow muttered something that sounded suspiciously like disbelief.

Ash shrugged as if the conversation were perfectly reasonable.

Victor placed both hands flat on the table again.

The room adjusted around the information slowly.

A nursery.

For Felicity.