Page 34 of After the Burn

He folded instantly with a choking sound.

Behind me, crowbar guy scrambled desperately toward the dropped rifle.

I reached it first.

Both men froze with the rifle trained on them, their quick, trembling breaths louder than the creek.

For a second, nobody moved.

The creek rushed loudly beside us as sweat dripped down the rifle guy’s face. Withdrawal drained them both more deeply than hunger ever could.

“Please,” crowbar guy whispered suddenly, clutching his wrist against his chest. “Just tell us if you’ve seen a pharmacy. We need something… anything.”

I should have killed them both.

But I lowered the rifle anyway, gambling that they wouldn’t live long enough to hurt anyone else.

It was inevitable.

I lowered the rifle slowly. “Go.”

Neither moved immediately. They were both probably scared I’d change my mind and shoot them in the back.

Honestly? I should.

It would be kinder to put them out of their misery now.

“Can we have our weapons back?”

I just stared at them, saying nothing.

Finally, rifle guy grabbed his friend and stumbled backward into the trees.

I stood there, breathing hard, long after they had disappeared.

Violence was becoming instinct, and every day made it harder to tell who was surviving the darkness and who was feeding it.

By the time the trees thinned after dark, exhaustion sat heavy on my shoulders. I found the place where the girls had holed up, but their packs were gone, and the sleeping bags lay empty.

They’d probably gone to scout the town. At least Taryn had the sense to wait for darkness. I only hoped she was watching first instead of charging straight into whatever waited inside.

Since everything fell apart, isolation had kept us blind. No internet. No phones. No way to know how the rest of the state—let alone the country—was surviving.

I gave them an hour. When neither came back, I followed. If they’d been spotted, anything could’ve happened. For all I knew, this settlement wasn’t a trap. It was bait.

Who fucking knew?

“She needs her ass spanked,” I muttered as I followed the path they’d taken.

I admired her bravery, but the woman was reckless as hell. After watching her with Ben, I understood some of what had made her that way. It didn’t mean I forgave her. It just made hating her harder.

Hating her got harder every day. After what happened at Ben’s, Taryn had softened in ways I hadn’t seen since we were kids.

Her new, honest friendship with Lila proved it.

I smirked. Watching Adrian’s controlled mask crack whenever Beck got near Taryn had been endlessly entertaining. Adrian had assumed she’d be his whenever he decided the timing was right.

Taryn had other ideas, and Beck was the variable Adrian hadn’t accounted for.