Page 4 of After the Burn

“Max!” I pointed to my side.

Ben shoved open the rear utility door, but infected were already inside.

“Shit!” He fired.

Beck took another one out as Adrian shot an infected man in the face.

I swung my bat and hit a sixteen-year-old boy in the head, whom I thought I recognized from my calculus class. Then I swung again and struck a middle-aged man on the head. I drew the pistol from my waist and began firing.

We moved as a unit because Ben had been training us in military tactics, but there were too many to kill. Everywhere I looked, more came through the trees and into the yard. Over the fence that was supposed to keep us safe.

Ben glanced at the tree line and then back at us. I sensed he had made a decision, and I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it.

“No. No to whatever you’re thinking.” I protested before he even opened his mouth.

Over the last few weeks, our relationship had changed slightly. Nothing drastic, just the most minuscule gentling in Ben’s attitude toward me.

And I didn’t want to lose that… or him.

His eyes snapped to mine. None of the aforementioned gentleness remained in them. “Taryn.”

“No.”

“Take the others and go.”

“I won’t!”

“Do it! I won’t tell you again.” He shot another infected from a distance.

“I’m not leaving you!”

The softness I’d seen before returned to his face. “I’m not asking," he said, pushing another magazine into his rifle. “Adrian, get her out of here.”

“No,” I said again.

Adrian caught my arm.

“Don’t.” I tried to shrug him off.

Lucas grabbed my other side. The dead were almost on us.

Ben stepped backward toward the opening between the house and the fence, creating space and drawing them toward himself and away from us.

My stomach dropped. “Dad, please!”

His eyes met mine. “Run.”

Then he fired, causing the infected to turn toward the sound — just as he intended.

“No!” I fought hard to get away from Adrian and Lucas, but I wasn’t a match for two enhanced men.

Ben fired once more, the sharp crack echoing from farther away now. Over and over, without pause.

The dead closed in around him.

“DAD!”

He disappeared for a second, then I saw him. Blood across his face and his rifle raised. “GO!”