Page 8 of After the Burn

I swallowed hard and tried to clear my head, but the memories came anyway.

Gunfire.

Loud.

“Move!” Ben’s voice cut through everything, sharp and commanding in a way that left no room for hesitation.

The gate — no.

The gate was already down.

Bodies pressed against it from the outside, hands clawing through the gaps, metal bending where it shouldn’t.

“There are too many—” Beck shouted.

“I’m going to cover y’all,” Ben snapped. “Get Taryn out!”

Lucas and Adrien grabbed my arm.

I tried to jerk free. “Don’t.”

“I’ll knock you out if I have to.”

And then—another sound.

Not gunfire, but much closer.

Then screaming...

I stumbled half a step before catching myself.

“Taryn?” Lila’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.

“I’m fine,” I said automatically, even though my chest felt tight and my pulse was racing.

Max pressed even closer, a low rumble building in his chest—as if he knew I lied.

I exhaled slowly and scratched behind his scarred ear. “Let’s hydrate, then keep moving. We’re losing daylight, and I want to be somewhere secure before nightfall.”

We all had nightmares now and memories we didn’t want to face. The key to surviving them was never to stop moving.

“Do you think we’ll reach the town by this afternoon?” Lila took a drink from the bottle of water she’d removed from her pack.

I followed suit, then poured some into a small bowl I kept for Max.

“Probably. But I want to wait until dark to check it out.” I let Max drink his fill, then put everything back in my pack. “We’ll find a safe place to rest and regroup.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Lila readjusted her pack, then glanced at me. “Do you think Ethan is mad?”

I started walking, and she followed. “I have no doubt. His new girlfriend snuck out without telling him. Wouldn’t you be pissed?”

She frowned. “I couldn’t let you go alone. That wouldn’t be right.”

After everything fell apart, my house had become the safest place any of us had.

Ethan had no parents left, and Lila’s parents were away and hadn’t returned when everything collapsed. Lane and his sisters were the last to arrive because he didn’t want to risk moving his father.

Sadly, an infected broke into their house and his father ordered him to focus on getting his sisters to safety. Lane wouldn’t discuss what happened next, and we didn’t push him.