Page 165 of After the Burn

We all had a habit of charging toward danger because we were stronger and faster than most people left alive. Here, that advantage narrowed considerably.

Then I noticed the women.

One stood over an outdoor cooking surface near the warehouse. Another carried folded clothes between two trailers. Two hauled buckets from a hand pump. A fourth knelt beside a galvanized tub, scrubbing shirts on a washboard.

None carried weapons.

Men sat beneath a canvas awning drinking while a woman moved between them with plates.

She set one down. Then a man caught her wrist before she could move away, and she froze.

He pulled her close and whispered something too quietly for me to hear, and the others laughed. His hand slid slowly down her back, and all she did was stare at the ground. When he finally let her go, she picked up the second plate and kept walking.

Taryn went still beside me as another woman emerged from one of the trailers. A bruise darkened her cheek, and her lip was split. A man followed behind her, fastening his belt.

Wren whispered, “I know her.”

We all turned to look at her.

She pointed toward the woman carrying laundry. “Angela.”

“You’re sure?” Taryn asked her intently.

Wren nodded. “She lived near the north gate.”

“When did she leave?” It must have been well before Beck and I came to town, because I didn’t recognize her.

“A couple of months ago.” Wren turned back towards the compound.

“Does anyone see Lila?” Beck’s eyes moved methodically around the area.

“No,” was the unfortunate answer to his question.

One hour became two, as we studied their routine. Guards changed at the gate roughly every ninety minutes. One patrol walked the inside perimeter, as another moved beyond the fence irregularly.

Recognizing how precious the things inside the fence were, they watched them vigilantly.

The women seemed to have designated work areas. Most disappeared into the larger warehouse at times. The men occupied the trailers, which told me more than I wanted to know.

“Twelve,” Wren whispered eventually.

“Women?” Colson’s eyes were still trained on the compound.

She nodded. “But no sign of Lila.”

Taryn sat back against a tree.

Beck noticed immediately and studied her face. “What terrible idea are you cooking up?”

She met his eyes. “It’s not terrible. It’s logical.”

“Not if it involves you going in there,” Lucas growled.

I nodded in agreement. “Most definitely not.”

Taryn looked at us in exasperation. “Are y’all ganging up on me?”

It took longer than I expected, but this was my original hope from the start.