By morning, the line outside the First Citadel ran from the west gate to the closed train station three blocks away. Families stood with empty bags, old delivery carts, and the last of their household supplies tied in blankets.
They had not come for a speech. They had come because the freight trains still passed their neighborhoods, the municipal ration halls remained locked, and Diana's map showed that the Citadel had recovered grain somewhere inside the old school.
Nox watched the line from the gatehouse with Emilia and Vasa. The recovered depot had added four days to the Citadel's position, but four days was not a promise he could extend to every person who reached the wall.
"There are more than two thousand people outside our first barrier," Emilia said. "We can process perhaps one hundred at a time without turning the intake hall into a crush."
"How much is still safe to distribute?" Nox asked.
