Page 44 of After the Burn

Gideon may have thought he was containing us, but the truth was he had the information we needed.

My smile grew wider. He’d made a very dangerous mistake by putting all of us in the same town.

Beck and Adrian had better have a plan, or I’d have to implement one of my own.

CHAPTER SEVEN

ADRIAN

Morning in Gideon’s settlement started with the hum of generators, distant gunfire, and the smell of burning infected wafting over the walls. People moved in groups to the small café for breakfast and to escort their kids to school.

It was all so surreal.

It was a crazy contrast — birds singing and spotless streets right next to the smell of burning bodies and the moans of the infected outside the gate.

There were kids in school, though it wasn’t the same as before, since there were only a few students and one teacher who used a single room for all age groups. Families still lived in houses, though only the strongest groups were afforded that luxury.

And that was the biggest difference of all… the families.

Those were no longer made up of a husband and a wife, but of several men with one woman. A larger family group had won two women, but those men were all fully enhanced, like Beck and I were. Groups of men in threes and sometimes even fours, depending on their strength levels, were allowed to claim a woman.

I understood it on an intellectual level.

Things were dangerous, and the number of females who had survived was dwindling every day. If humanity were to survive, we had to fiercely protect the ones left.

I had an idea brewing.

It wasn’t something I necessarily wanted, but it was the logical answer to keep Taryn safe.

Everything I’d accomplished was because of my love for her. Some would even call it an obsession. I wanted to give us an extraordinary life. A life of luxury, adventure, and challenges.

I guess two out of three wasn’t bad.

Hearing a grunt, I glanced back at the gate and saw a guard opening it for some men who had probably been out scavenging.

The fence didn’t encompass the entire town. That wouldn’t have been feasible. Rather, the central part of the town and the broad residential areas on both sides of Main Street were carefully maintained. There were still groups of men sent out to scavenge homes and businesses outside the fence, and Beck and I had been lucky enough to get that assignment a couple of times.

The second time, we’d hoped to escape and head back to the farmhouse, but we’d been watched too closely, so we settled on stashing what we could when our chance to leave finally presented itself.

Taryn's arrival had altered the entire situation.

We didn’t have a home yet because, for obvious reasons, we hadn’t planned on staying. Additionally, neither Beck nor I was interested in anyone but the stubborn female sitting in a holding cell.

That had been a problem before… maybe not anymore.

We were staying in a room at an old boarding house near the railroad tracks. The place had about fifteen rooms, each with a kitchenette, two twin beds, a large couch, and a small table.

Beck and I had to prove our worth just to claim this. It hadn’t been easy. Gideon appreciated that we were enhanced, but we had to show we were ready to do whatever it took to stay.

Beck wanted to tell him to ‘fuck off’ and try to get kicked out, but I didn’t think we’d get off that easy.

Other survivors were accommodated based on their usefulness to the community. If you weren’t enhanced and had no skills, you were most likely set up in tents on the furthest edge of town, next to the fence.

Not a place anyone wanted to be.

I leaned against the second-floor railing outside the boarding house and watched patrols rotate through the street below.

Three guards remained outside the jail, which was more than usual.