The road reaches a fenced livestock inspection station half a mile south. Empty pens rust behind sagging wire, and a weathered intake office faces the road beneath a faded quarantine sign.
Sara
This was the alternate intake. The landline should be beside the records window, if nobody stripped the wiring.
Sara slows before the gate, scanning the pens and office windows. She keeps her pack close and approaches along the fence rather than stepping straight into the open yard.
Fin
Fresh tracks would tell us whether the station is empty now, not whether it was safe before.
Fin crouches beside the roadside dust, examining overlapping boot marks and old drag lines. Robin moves to the gatepost, where laminated procedures hang beneath cracked plastic.
Robin
It says alternate arrivals report to the office, surrender weapons for inspection, and wait inside the marked pen. That last part sounds welcoming.
Sara
The office can answer questions without putting Maya at the public gate. We check the phone first, then decide how much contact we want.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the alternate intake terms for Maya’s admission