Page 24 of After the Burn

Clean streets and organized patrol routes. There was smoke rising from chimneys.

Maybe the women were inside? Everything looked functional and calm. I didn’t trust it.

“They look…” Lila trailed off quietly beside me.

“Fed?” I finished.

She nodded slowly.

And they did.

Clean clothes and lots of weapons. Everyone standing guard looked well taken care of.

Something was setting off warning bells in my head, and I’d learned early on to heed them.

I stared at the fence for a few minutes before realizing what was wrong. The barbed wire curved inward toward the town. The fence wasn’t just built to keep the infected out. It looked like it was also meant to keep something in.

I didn’t like that.

My pulse slowed instead of quickening. Danger always made everything inside me colder now.

Movement near the center of town suddenly caught my attention. Two men dragged someone between buildings, too quickly for me to make out details before they disappeared from view.

Not infected.

Human.

My stomach tightened harder.

“I don’t like this place,” Lila whispered.

“Neither do I.”

Max suddenly lifted his head sharply. Then he moved.

Fast.

“Max,” I whispered harshly. “Hier.”

He ignored my command to come and disappeared into the darkness beyond the truck before I could grab him.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Lila whispered urgently. “He always obeys you, doesn’t he?”

“Usually.” But then a thought hit me, and my pulse quickened. “Beck,” I muttered.

Apart from me, there was only one other person he’d run to.

Moving before I could think too hard about it, I slipped lower as I crossed through the trees toward the fencing.

“Taryn,” Lila hissed behind me.

“Stay here.” I murmured, crossing my fingers she’d actually listen.

Voices drifted through the dark.

Male laughter.