Page 3 of After the Burn

Beck started toward him, but Ben grabbed the back of his shirt. “Leave him.”

“But he⁠—”

“Move, boy!”

Another wave of infected hit the yard.

Stain backed toward the house, his face gone completely gray at the sight.

“Beck, help me!” he screamed.

“Fuck you!” Beck laughed, but there was nothing funny in it. “You opened the fucking gate!”

“Nash said he’d bring us back into the club. He said we’d scare Calder out and he’d help protect everyone. I just wanted back⁠—”

An infected hit Stain from behind, and he screamed.

They went down together, as Stain drove a knife into its eye and shoved it away, but another caught his leg. Then another piled on top of him.

“Beck!”

Beck took a step toward him as Stain looked up and their eyes met.

Stain’s face held deep regret and the realization that he was a dead man walking, literally. “I fucked up.”

An infected sank its teeth into his shoulder, and Stain screamed.

Beck raised his gun. “I’m sorry, brother. If you’d stuck by me, things wouldn’t have gone down like this.”

The dead covered him, biting hunks of flesh from all over his body.

Beck fired once, and Stain’s body went still beneath them.

For half a second, Beck didn’t move, then Ben shoved him toward me. “Grieve later. We’ve got to get everyone out.”

A shot from the direction of the driveway shattered the front window. Glass and wood went everywhere.

How many men had Nash brought?

I saw two guys in biker vests grab the bastard and drag him off. I really hoped he died from the wound Beck had inflicted, but I didn’t think I was that lucky.

“We can go through the basement door.” Ben took off in that direction.

Adrian grabbed my arm, but I jerked it free. “I can run without your help!”

“Then fucking do it!” he growled.

We reached the hallway as Lila came barreling from the other side with Ethan, Lane, and the twins behind her.

“Where’s Lucas?” Adrian asked, frantically firing behind him at the infected pouring into the house.

“Here,” Lucas came from the back room, carrying several more rifles.

“What’s happening?” Lila screamed, terrified.

“Gate’s compromised,” Ben said shortly.

Something slammed into the living room wall, just as Max came tearing down the hallway, blood covering his muzzle.