Page 2 of After the Burn

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Two.

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“Fuck.” Beck grabbed his gun. “Stay behind me.”

“Right.” Like that was going to happen. I grabbed my bat, propped beside the bed.

We hit the hallway together. Adrian stood near the stairs, pistol raised.

“What’s going on?” I clenched my bat tighter.

His face was in battle mode. “The back gate’s open.”

My stomach dropped. “That’s impossible.” Ben checked the gate every night, trusting no one else to do it.

Then I heard a scream from downstairs, and it didn’t sound human.

We hurried down the stairs, and an immediate stench—blood and decay—overwhelmed us. The intensity, amplified by my heightened senses, nearly made me gag.

The kitchen door stood wide open, and that alone was enough to scare the shit out of me. Ben was fastidious about locking the doors.

An infected stumbled through it, and Ben, coming up from behind us, shot it in the forehead. Its skull burst across the cabinets, black blood splashing everywhere.

“Back!” he shouted.

More shapes moved beyond the doorway. Too many to count.

“How the hell did they get inside the fence?” Beck yelled.

Ben didn’t bother answering as he fired again.

An infected woman dropped outside, then another body immediately climbed over her.

“We’ve got to get the others!” I yelled over the noise.

Adrian stabbed an infected in the temple. “Lucas is on it.”

We cleared the doorway and raced outside just in time to see a man running across the yard from the direction of the gate.

“Is that Stain?” I asked, confused, not understanding just what in the hell I was witnessing.

Beck went rigid.

Stain looked toward us, guilt written all over his face, and that’s when I saw Nash and several men coming through the open gate.

My brain took one second too long to understand, but Beck didn’t have the same problem.

“You no-good motherfuckers,” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

Nash smiled. “Should’ve been loyal to the club.”

Beck raised his gun. “There is no club, dumbass.”

Nash moved fast—but not fast enough.

The shot cracked, and blood exploded across the side of Nash’s face. He spun and hit the ground beside the fence.