Page 23 of After the Burn

“Look at the tits on that one! I bet she was something else before the shit hit the fan.” One man near the perimeter said, then drew his rifle and fired.

“You’re disgusting, Andy.” Another man spoke, grabbing the body by the ankle and dragging it toward a smoking trench burning somewhere beyond the road. “The lack of female company is getting to you.”

“Not for much longer.” The first man growled. “I’m scheduled to fight in a few days.”

“Isn’t this the third time?” the body dragger asked. “I’d think you’d be tired of getting your ass kicked by now.”

“Fuck off, George.”

My nose wrinkled at the smell of the burning bodies.

I gagged, and my eyes watered. Right now, I didn't appreciate my heightened senses.

Using my shirt, I dabbed my eyes and focused back on the town. They seemed to have adapted well to the threat of infected.

“I wonder how they’re feeding this many people,” I muttered under my breath.

A shadow shifted behind me, and I turned instantly. My knife was already half drawn before I registered Lila’s scent.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed.

She froze mid-step. “You’ve been gone for hours. You said you were checking it out, not moving in permanently.”

I stared at her in disbelief. “You were supposed to stay hidden.”

Things had really changed with her. My words used to be law. Now she treated them as suggestions.

“And you were supposed to come back an hour ago,” she said sarcastically.

Fair.

But it didn’t mean she should’ve followed me.

“Fine.” I pulled her down beside me, exhaled slowly, and looked back toward the settlement.

Something wasn’t right, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I studied everything more closely for a few moments.

“I don’t see any women,” Lila whispered.

Shit! That was it.

Every person I could see moving through the streets was male.

Men on the walls.

Men near the gates.

Men dragging infected bodies toward the burn pit.

Not a single woman in sight.

Not even any children that I could see.

My grip tightened around GG, resting across my knees.

Most of the infected outside the fence were women, with a few men and children interspersed among them.

The floodlights swept across the road again, briefly illuminating more of the settlement.