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The Burning 49
Ben’s body was a dead weight across my shoulders, every step sending fire through the muscles in my legs and back. His shallow breaths tickled the side of my neck, a constant reminder that he was still clinging to life, but barely. He wasn’t dead. Not yet. But he was close. I don’t know how I found the strength to lift him. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe it was the sheer force of will—the refusal to let him go, to leave him behind like we had Sarah. I wasn’t losing him, too. Not if I could help it. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. The sun had dipped low, casting long shadows across the wasteland, and the temperature was dropping fast. The settlement loomed ahead of us like a dark silhouette, its fencces and towers now visible through the haze. We were so close. Close enough that I could taste the salt of victory on my lips. But with every step, doubt gnawed at me. This place, New Haven, was supposed to be our sanctuary. But after everything Sarah had told us, after everything
Last Updated : 2024-11-22The Burning 50
I glanced toward the settlement, my heart sinking. Smoke billowed from one of the guard towers, black and thick, rising into the twilight sky. Figures moved in the distance, silhouetted against the dying light. I squinted, trying to make out what was happening, and then I saw them. Luther’s Scorchers. The name sent a chill down my spine, even now. We’d heard stories about them—roving bands of marauders loyal to Luther, a warlord who had taken control of the wasteland after The Burning. They were ruthless, merciless, burning everything in their path. And now, they were here. Attacking New Haven. My throat tightened as I realized what this meant. We were walking straight into a war zone. The settlement we had been counting on for safety was under siege, and if I wasn’t careful, we’d be caught in the middle of it. I looked down at Ben, my heart aching. He needed help. Desperately. But if I carried him into that, we’d both be dead before we even reached the gates. I couldn’t figh
Last Updated : 2024-11-22The Burning 51
The air stung my throat, thick with smoke and the bitter tang of gunpowder, making my eyes water. New Haven’s walls loomed in front of us, but they weren’t the sanctuary I’d imagined. From a distance, it looked like salvation—rusted and battered, sure—but still standing. Still there. But as we got closer, the cracks started to show. The walls, once tall and imposing, were now riddled with bullet holes, blackened by fire, and the gate hung awkwardly from its hinges. The place was crumbling, barely holding on. Ben stirred weakly in my arms, his body heavy and limp. His breathing was shallow, each breath weaker than the last. I tightened my grip on him, determined to keep going even though my legs were screaming in protest. We were so close. I wasn’t going to let him die now. Not after everything. Behind us, the small group of stragglers who had helped carry Ben this far moved quietly, their faces drawn and hollow. We had barely escaped the Scorchers’ assault, slipping through
Last Updated : 2024-11-22The Burning 52
I leaned against the side of the tent, my legs trembling beneath me. My mind was spinning, filled with too many thoughts, too many memories. Ben, Sarah, the Scorchers, everything we’d lost and everything we were still fighting for—it all blurred together until I couldn’t think straight anymore. And then, over the low murmur of voices and distant gunfire, I heard a voice. “Maya?” I froze, my heart slamming against my ribs. That voice… it couldn’t be. Slowly, I turned, my breath catching in my throat. A figure stood just a few feet away, half-hidden in the shadows. For a second, I thought I was imagining it. I had to be. There was no way. She was dead. She had to be dead. But then she stepped into the light, and my world tilted on its axis. It was *Chloe*. My sister. The one person I had thought I’d lost during The Burning. The one person I had mourned for, over and over, in the quiet nights when the world seemed too broken to keep going. She was alive. But she wasn’t
Last Updated : 2024-11-22The Burning 53
I stood frozen in the dim light of the settlement, still processing. Chloe—my sister, my *dead* sister—was alive, had stood right in front of me. But she wasn’t the Chloe I remembered. No..... She seemed harder now, colder, with nothing but survival etched into her sharp features. The spark that once made her Chloe—the laughter, the warmth—was long gone, replaced by something dark and unrecognizable. Something lifeless... I watched as she disappeared into the shadows, her words still ringing in my ears: 'Sisters don’t mean much in this world anymore.' I wanted to scream after her, to demand answers. But I stood there, rooted to the spot, my mind spinning. How could she be alive? How could she have survived The Burning? My heart ached with the memory of the last time I saw her, screaming for me as the flames swallowed our world. I had thought she was dead. I had mourned her. And now, here she was, leading this crumbling settlement like a ghost from my past. The C
Last Updated : 2024-11-22The Burning 54
“You have no idea what I had to do to survive, Maya,” she said, her voice low and cold. “You have no idea what this world has turned me into.” I shook my head, my throat tightening. “Then tell me. Tell me what happened.” Chloe sighed, running a hand through her short, choppy hair. “After *The Burning*, I was trapped. The fires spread faster than anyone could’ve predicted, and I was caught in the middle of it. I tried to get to you, but… I couldn’t make it. I thought you were dead.” “You left me,” I whispered, the words cutting deep. “I had no choice,” Chloe snapped, her eyes flashing with anger. “I did what I had to do to survive. I made choices—hard choices. I left people behind. I abandoned them because I had no other option. And yes, maybe I’m not the same person I was before, but that’s the price of survival in this world. You can’t save everyone. You have to look out for yourself.” I stared at her, my heart breaking all over again. This wasn’t the Chloe I knew. This was
Last Updated : 2024-11-22The Burning 55
Chloe’s eyes, cold and calculating, never left mine.. The fires had died down, but the air was still thick with smoke and tension. I could feel the weight of everything unspoken between us—the years of separation, the choices we’d both made, the people we had become. The sister I had once known was long gone, replaced by someone harder, someone who had done things I couldn’t even begin to understand. “You don’t get it, do you?” Chloe’s voice was sharp, cutting through the heavy silence. “You still think there’s a right way to survive in this world. But there isn’t. There’s only survival, and the choices you make to keep breathing.” I crossed my arms, trying to keep my voice steady. “I know survival, Chloe. I’ve been out there, fighting every day just like you. But I didn’t—” I stopped myself, biting back the words that threatened to spill out. 'I didn’t become like you.' She raised an eyebrow, a slight smirk playing on her lips. “Didn’t what?!! Didn’t make hard choices? Didn’
Last Updated : 2024-11-22The Burning 56
I stared at him, my chest tightening. “You think she’s.... dangerous?” “I think she’s hiding something,” Ben said, his voice lowering. “And I think whatever it is… it’s not good Maya.” I opened my mouth to argue, to defend Chloe, but the words stuck in my throat. Because deep down, I knew Ben was right. There was something off about Chloe, something she wasn’t telling me. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever it was, it was connected to The Burning. “I found something out while I was out there,” Ben continued, his voice barely above a whisper now. “Something I didn’t want to believe at first.” I frowned. “What do you mean?” Ben looked around, making sure no one was listening, and then leaned in closer. “One of the soldiers in my unit—his name was Carter—he died in the first wave of attacks during The Burning. But before that, he told me something… something strange.” “What?” Ben’s eyes were intense, his voice low and urgent. “Carter said he’d been in contact wi
Last Updated : 2024-11-22
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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
