Page 163 of After the Burn

She nodded toward an old county road barely visible through the trees. “Gideon told scavenging teams we weren’t allowed anywhere near here.”

“Did you ever ignore that order?” I studied her face.

“Maybe once.” She shrugged. “I was curious and wanted to see if they had Robin.” Wren turned to Taryn. “Thank God they didn’t, and I finally got my sister back.”

“What did you see?” Lucas asked, ignoring that last part.

“A tall fence. Trucks. Men with rifles.”

Beck glanced at her. “Anything else you’d like to mention before we go any further?”

Wren considered that. “One chased me.”

Colson touched her elbow. “Can you describe him to me?”

“I took care of him.” Her expression grew distant. “He’s probably a rotter by now.”

Colson pulled her into his massive arms for a hug. “Good.”

No one spoke after that, and we left the road, moving quietly through the woods.

A rotter wandered between the trees twenty minutes later. He was male, older, with half its scalp missing.

It hadn’t noticed us yet.

Beck moved before anyone else. He came up behind it, caught a handful of its shirt, and yanked it back hard enough to expose the side of its head, then drove his knife in just above the ear.

The sound was a wet, ugly crunch.

The rotter jerked once, and Beck twisted the blade. The skull finally gave, cracking softly, and dark blood dripped down his hands.

He pulled the knife free with a thick sucking sound and lowered the body quietly into the leaves.

He wiped the blade on the rotter’s shirt and looked at Lucas. “See? No brain on my boot.”

Lucas’s mouth twitched. “Congratulations, biker boy.”

“That’s biker man, asshole,” Beck smirked.

Taryn looked between them. “Are you two seriously continuing this?”

“Absolutely.” Beck grinned. “Now we have to prove who’s the biggest pussy.”

Colson looked confused. “What?”

“Don’t ask.” Taryn shook her head. “Five points deducted from each of you.”

Both men just looked at each other and grinned. Progress came in unexpected forms.

We’d only walked a few miles further when it appeared between the trees without warning.

A chain-link fence at least ten feet high, with barbed wire across the top. Thankfully, it wasn’t razor wire, but it would still discourage most people.

We dropped low.

Before the apocalypse, it had probably been an ordinary rural fuel distributor.

Now it was a kingdom.