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The Burning 20
I leaned back against the wall, letting out a long, shaky breath.Ben sat beside me, his body warm and solid, and I felt the familiar pull between us, the unspoken connection that had been there ever since we’d first met. Even in the worst of times, even in the middle of this nightmare, there was something between us—something I couldn’t ignore. "You okay?" Ben asked, his voice low and rough in the quiet. I nodded, though the truth was more complicated than that. "I'm... here" I said, forcing a small smile. "That's something, right?" Ben chuckled softly, but there was no humor in it. "Yeah. That’s something...." We sat there in silence for a while, the weight of everything we’d been through pressing down on us. I could feel the tension in Ben’s body, the way his muscles were coiled, ready for action at any moment. But there was something else too—something softer. Something more vulnerable. He turned to look at me, his expression unreadable in the dim light, but his eyes wer
Last Updated : 2024-10-31The Burning 21
The radio felt like a lead weight in my hands. My mind raced, piecing together the implications. Someone had been listening in on us—tracking our every conversation, our every move. For how long? I glanced up at Ben, who was staring at the radio with the same horrified realization. "Shit," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "How the hell did we miss this?" I didn't have an answer. I felt sick, a cold knot forming in my stomach as I thought about all the things we'd said, all the plans we'd made—thinking we were safe, thinking we were alone. But we weren't. Someone had been watching. Listening. Sarah came back into the room just then, her brow furrowed with concern as she noticed the tension in the air. "What's going on?" she asked, her voice low. I held up the radio. "We found this," I said, my voice tight. "Someone’s been spying on us." Sarah's eyes widened, her face going pale. "What? How— ?" "I don't know," I cut her off, my mind still reeling. "But we need t
Last Updated : 2024-10-31The Burning 22
Just as we were about to move again, a sound cut through the silence—a rustling in the trees above us. I froze, my hand instinctively going to the knife at my belt. Ben raised his rifle, his eyes scanning the darkness. "Did you hear that?" Sarah whispered, her voice trembling. Before any of us could react, a figure stepped out of the shadows—a tall, broad-shouldered man with a scar running down the side of his face. I recognized him immediately. Marcus Kane. My blood ran cold. "Going somewhere?" Marcus asked, his voice smooth and mocking as he stepped closer. He was flanked by two other men, both armed, their faces hard and expressionless. I felt my heart plummet into my stomach. Marcus was one of Harlan’s top enforcers, a man known for his brutality and loyalty to the camp. He must have overheard us talking about our escape. We were caught. But something about his expression didn’t sit right with me. There was a gleam in his eyes, something calculating and dangerous. And
Last Updated : 2024-10-31The Burning 23
The forest was a blur of shadows and branches whipping at my face as we ran. My lungs burned with every breath, and my legs screamed with exhaustion, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. Not with Marcus and his men right behind us. Not with the weight of betrayal pressing down on us like a lead blanket. Beside me, Ben moved like a ghost, his rifle clutched tightly in his hands, his face set in grim determination. Sarah was just ahead, her smaller frame darting between the trees with surprising agility. But I could see the panic in her eyes, the way her shoulders hunched every time we heard a branch snap behind us. The fear was starting to take hold, and I knew that if we didn’t find some way to lose Marcus soon, that fear would eat us alive. The forest was dense, our only salvation. It offered cover, a labyrinth of trees and undergrowth that could confuse even the most seasoned hunters. But we weren’t dealing with amateurs. Marcus was ruthless, smart, and driven by something mor
Last Updated : 2024-11-08The Burning 24
I gasped, my fingers clawing at his arm as I struggled to breathe. My vision blurred, my head spinning from the lack of oxygen. I could hear Ben and Sarah fighting somewhere nearby, the sounds of grunts and scuffling filling the clearing, but I couldn’t focus. All I could see was Marcus's cold, hard eyes boring into mine. "Do you really think you're going to escape?" he growled, his grip tightening. "Do you really think you can outrun me?" I couldn't answer. I couldn't breathe. But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. A flash of steel. And suddenly, Marcus grunted in pain, his grip loosening as he staggered back. Sarah. She’d come up behind him, slashing at his side with a knife. It wasn’t a deep wound, but it was enough to give me the opening I needed. I kicked out, my boot connecting with Marcus’s knee, sending him crashing to the ground. I sucked in a ragged breath, my throat burning as I scrambled to my feet. But Marcus wasn’t down for long. He pushe
Last Updated : 2024-11-08The Burning 25
Pain radiated from my side with every step, a sharp, relentless reminder that I was slowing us down. Each breath was like a knife twisting in my ribs, and I could feel the warm, sticky trickle of blood beneath my jacket. Ben shot me worried glances every few minutes, his brow furrowed with concern, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. We both knew I wasn’t going to last much longer like this. The forest was dense, the trees towering above us like silent sentinels, their branches casting long shadows in the fading light of dusk. The air was thick with the smell of damp earth and pine, the sounds of the night creeping in around us—crickets chirping, the rustle of leaves in the breeze, the distant hoot of an owl. Normally, the forest would have felt like a sanctuary, a place where we could hide from the horrors of Eagle’s Nest and the dangers that lurked beyond. But tonight, it felt like a prison. Every step felt heavier than the last, and I could feel the weight of the
Last Updated : 2024-11-08The Burning 26
Ben shot me a small, sympathetic smile as he began cleaning the wound. "You’ll be fine. Tough as nails, remember?" I snorted, though the sound was more of a pained wheeze. "I'm starting to feel more like rusted nails." He chuckled, but the laughter didn’t quite reach his eyes. There was something else there—something darker, something that had been lurking just beneath the surface ever since we’d escaped Eagle’s Nest. I didn’t have the energy to ask him about it now, but I knew we’d have to talk about it eventually. There were too many secrets between us, too many things left unsaid. Once Ben had finished stitching me up, we moved our small group to the second floor, where we found a storage room filled with old, dust-covered furniture and a few broken shelves. It wasn’t much, but it was safer than staying on the ground floor, where we’d be too exposed if Marcus or anyone else came looking. We settled in for the night, each of us taking a corner of the room. The silence betwee
Last Updated : 2024-11-14The Burning 27
The moment we stepped into Dylan Matthews' camp, I knew something wasn't right. The air felt too still, too heavy, like the forest itself was holding its breath. There were no birds singing, no rustling of leaves, just the low murmur of conversations from the Nomads scattered around the campfire, their faces half-hidden in shadow. Dylan stood at the center of it all, tall and broad-shouldered, his grizzled beard flecked with gray, his eyes sharp and calculating. He looked like someone who had seen too much—someone who had survived this world long before it crumbled. His Nomads were a ragtag bunch, dressed in mismatched survival gear, their weapons hung casually at their sides. But there was nothing casual about the way they watched us. "Welcome," Dylan said, his voice low and smooth, like he was trying to put us at ease. It didn’t work. "You've picked a hell of a time to wander into our little corner of the world.." I exchanged a quick glance with Ben, my stomach twisting wit
Last Updated : 2024-11-14
Latest chapter
The Burning 82
The past will always be there” Eli said, standing up and brushing the dirt from his hands. “But it doesn’t have to own you. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, Maya. Don’t waste it looking back.”That night, as I lay beside Ben in the small room we shared, Eli’s words echoed in my mind. I stared up at the ceiling, watching the shadows dance in the dim light of the lantern, my thoughts a tangled mess.Ben shifted beside me, his arm brushing against mine. “You okay??” he asked, his voice quiet in the darkness.I turned to face him, my heart heavy but full of something I hadn’t felt in a long time—hope. “Yeah,” I whispered. “I think I’m starting to be.”He smiled, his hand finding mine under the covers. “Eli’s a smart guy.”I laughed softly. “Yeah he is.”We lay there in silence for a while, the warmth of his hand grounding me, making me feel like maybe, just maybe, things could be okay.“You ever think about the future?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.Ben was quiet fo
The Burning 81
I glanced at him, wiping sweat from my brow. “Yeah. It’s peaceful.”He gave a small nod, his focus still on the soil. “Peace is hard to come by these days. Harder to hold onto.”I knew what he was getting at, but I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t ready to talk about it. Not yet.Eli didn’t push, but after a few more moments of silence, he added, “You’re still carrying it, you know. The weight of everything that happened before.”I clenched my jaw, my hands pausing in the dirt. “I don’t have a choice.”“There’s always a choice,” Eli said quietly. “The past can burn you if you let it. But the future is what you make of it.”I stared at him, the words sinking in like stones dropped into a still pond. I wanted to argue, to tell him he didn’t understand, that he couldn’t possibly know the kind of guilt I carried. But then I remembered what he had told me that night by the fire—. that he had been part of Project Inferno, that he had helped design the weapon that burned the world.If anyone un
The Burning 80
The mornings at Eli’s farm were quiet, the kind of quiet that felt almost sacred in a world like ours. No distant gunfire, no grim-faced survivors shouting orders, no smoke curling from the ruins of a settlement. just the soft rustle of wind through the crops, the occasional lowing of a cow in the distance, and the steady rhythm of our footsteps as we worked the land. The air smelled of earth and life. It was a stark contrast to the acrid tang of burning metal and ash that had seemed to cling to me for years.Here, the only smells were simple ones: the sweetness of hay, the faint iron tang of soil on my hands, and sometimes the sharp, almost medicinal scent of the herbs Eli kept hanging in the barn. It had been weeks since Ben and I arrived, stumbling through the farm’s weathered gates with nothing but the clothes on our backs and the weight of our pasts. I hadn’t planned to stay. I wasn’t even sure what had driven me to keep walking after the settlement fell apart. The idea of s
The Burning 79
As we ate in the flickering firelight, I couldn't help but marvel at how normal it all felt. Almost like the world hadn't ended, like we were just travelers stopping at a kind stranger's house for the night. But as the evening wore on, I noticed a change in Eli's demeanor. He became quieter, more thoughtful, his gaze lingering on us in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "You two've been through a lot," he said finally, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over us. It wasn't a question. "We've seen our share," Ben replied carefully, his spoon pausing halfway to his mouth. Eli nodded, leaning back in his creaking chair. "I've seen a lot too. More than I'd like, truth be told." He paused, seeming to wrestle with something internal. "I wasn't always a farmer, you know. Before The Burning, I worked for them. The government. I was part of something... something I'm not proud of." My heart stuttered in my chest, and I felt Ben go still beside me. We'd
The Burning 78
As we got closer, the outline of a small farmstead came into view. It was nestled against the edge of a narrow stream— miraculously still running —and surrounded by a patch of what looked like actual crops. Corn, maybe, or something that used to be corn before the world ended. The sight of growing things, of life persisting despite everything, made my throat tight with emotion."Look at that" I whispered, almost afraid to speak too loudly and break whatever spell was keeping this place alive. "Actual plants. Growing. How is this possible??"Ben shot me a cautious look, ever the pragmatist. "Could be a trap. You know how some groups operate. Make something look too good to be true, wait for desperate people to come running.""It could be," I admitted, remembering all too well the stories we'd heard about such things. "But I don't think we have much choice. We need water, and this place looks like it has it. Besides, if it were raiders, they'd probably have worse security. This place
The Burning 77
The wasteland stretched out before us, endless and desolate, a s ea of cracked earth and skeletal trees marking the landscape as a constant reminder of the world we had lost. Despite the harshness of it all, there was something oddly freeing about being out here, away from the settlement and the ghosts of the past that haunted its walls. Out here, it was just Ben and me, two souls trying to carve out something new in the ruins of what had been.Our footsteps crunched against the dry dirt as we walked, the horizon shimmering with heat in the distance. The sun hung high and merciless in the cloudless sky, and the only sound was the wind cutting across the plains, whipping at the tattered edges of our clothes. My muscles screamed with each step, my throat parched and raw, but there was a strange kind of peace in the rhythm of walking. One foot in front of the other. Keep moving. That was the only way to survive in this broken world.I glanced over at Ben, studying his profile as he wa
The Burning 76
He hesitated, his brow furrowing as if he were trying to find the right words. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you a long time ago.” My stomach tightened. I didn’t like the sound of this. "Ben..." He stopped walking, turning to face me fully, his expression serious. "I knew about Chloe." The air seemed to leave my lungs all at once. "What....?" "I knew about her involvement in The Burning." he said, his voice steady but heavy with regret. "I....I knew before we ever got to the settlement. Before we ever found those documents." I stared at him, my mind racing. "You knew? ...how?" He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It’s a long story, but... back when we were with that other group, before we got separated, I came across some intel. I didn’t understand all of it at the time, but Chloe’s name was there, tied to Project Inferno. I didn’t know the full extent of her involvement, but I knew enough to realize she wasn’t just some random survi
The Burning 75
I packed the last of my things into a worn canvas bag. The light was soft, almost golden, but it felt like a lie. There was nothing soft about the world we lived in now. Nothing golden about the reality we faced.I tightened the strap on my bag, my hands trembling slightly. It wasn't the weight of the bag that made me shake. It was the weight of the decision I'd made. After everything— after uncovering the truth about The Burning, after confronting Wells, after the chaos of the past few weeks— I was leaving.I couldn't stay here anymore. The settlement wasn't my home; it never had been. I had only stayed because I thought I could help. Thought I could make things right. But the more I tried, the more I realized that the answers I was searching for weren't here. They were out there, somewhere beyond the borders of this broken place.Ben was waiting for me by the gate, his silhouette dark against the pale sky. He had packed light, just like me. Neither of us had much to take. The wo
The Burning 74
Wells' jaw tightened. “We weren’t going to let the government cover it up. My unit was sent to investigate, yes, but we weren’t loyal to the people who caused this. We wanted to expose them. To bring the truth to light.” I laughed bitterly, the sound hollow in the small room. “The truth? You think exposing the truth is going to fix any of this? It’ll destroy what little we have left. People will lose whatever faith they have in rebuilding. Civilization will collapse all over again.” Wells didn’t flinch. “People deserve to know the truth, Maya. They deserve to know what was done to them.” I shook my head, the anger giving way to exhaustion. “And what happens when they find out? What happens when they realize that their own government burned them alive, that Chloe —someone they trusted —was part of it? What do you think that’ll do to them? To us?” Wells stepped closer, her voice calm but insistent. “It’s not about what it’ll do to us. It’s about justice. About holding the people res
