Joyous Hunting

Hunter spreads the copied pages across the crate in the barn, and the room goes still. Nora and Elias lean in from either side, reading line by line as the noise outside fades behind the boards.

The top page is not a policy draft. It is a list of vendors, marked and sorted for removal. Hunter’s name sits first, boxed in hard ink.

Elias flips the corner of the page, and another familiar name surfaces lower down. Mrs. Gable’s copied bundle was never just support, it was access. Someone inside the collective has been feeding the office what it wants.

Nora straightens slowly, pale with the realization, while Elias stares at the list like it might change if he looks long enough. The barn feels smaller around the crate, as if the truth has taken up all the air.

Hunter drags the pencil through the first column, marking the names that need warning before the office can touch them. Elias shifts beside him, already scanning for the safest order.

He taps the list with the pencil tip, then circles two more names in quick, hard strokes. Nora reaches for the copied bundle and starts sorting the pages into contact order.

Hunter shifts the paper stack toward the barn doorway and begins marking the page margins with initials and short notes, building a route instead of a warning. The barn door hangs open just enough to catch the fading light.

Elias pulls the logbook closer, opens to a clean page, and writes down the first names while Hunter finishes the last circle. Outside, a voice from the lane is faint but present, and the list in Hunter’s hands is no longer private.

Get the priority names warned