Jade made the first rule before the generator finished choking itself awake.
"No sheets over the dead in the main room. Faces visible until I say otherwise."
Waddell stood near the cafeteria doors with blood on one cheek that was not his. His rifle hung empty. The pistol in his right hand had come from a dead soldier's belt. He had the look of a man who had accepted too many bad orders and still wanted the next one to fit inside ordinary language.
"Families are going to ask why we are leaving bodies uncovered where their children can see."
"Tell them cloth gives the wrong thing a handle."
He took that in without flinching. Jade gave him credit for it. Most people wanted horror translated into something softer before they agreed to move.
"I can carry that to the adults without making them panic," he said. "The kids get instructions, not the full nightmare."
