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The Burning 69
I made my way through what was left of the settlement. Every step was a reminder of the destruction that had unfolded here—buildings burned to their foundations, homes reduced to rubble, and people.... well, the people were shattered. Their faces were gaunt, their eyes hollow from sleepless nights and the weight of grief. But they were still here. We were still here. I hadn’t slept in what felt like days. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Chloe— her face, her voice, the last moments of her life playing on an endless loop in my mind. I knew I should talk to Ben about it, or at least let someone in, but the guilt weighed me down, keeping me silent. There was no undoing what I had done. No bringing Chloe back. So instead, I buried myself in the work. I knelt beside a young girl, barely old enough to remember the world before everything had crumbled. Her arm was wrapped in a makeshift bandage, blood seeping through the fabric. Her mother sat next to her, eyes wide and frantic,
Last Updated : 2024-11-30The Burning 70
Wells raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting the challenge. “I know it’s a lot to adjust to, but people need structure, Maya. Without it, everything falls apart.” I bit my lip, trying to keep my frustration in check. “They also need to feel like they’re part of something. Not just being told what to do.” Wells looked at me for a long moment, her eyes narrowing slightly. “They need leadership. And that’s why I wanted to talk to you.” I frowned, taken aback. “What do you mean?” She exhaled, glancing over her shoulder at her soldiers before turning back to me. “They trust you, Maya. The people here—they look to you. They know you’ve been through hell with them, that you’ve fought for them, healed them. That matters.” I shook my head, my pulse quickening. “I’m not a leader, Wells. I’m a healer. That’s it.” Wells studied me, her gaze unflinching. “You’re more than that, and we both know it. Chloe’s gone. The settlement is in ruins. They need someone who understands them—someone the
Last Updated : 2024-12-03The Burning 71
Morning came. I'd spent another sleepless night thinking about Wells' offer, the weight of the settlement’s future pressing down on me like a boulder. But instead of making any decisions, I'd buried myself in work— cleaning wounds, rationing supplies, and helping rebuild what little we could. It was all I could do to keep the guilt and grief at bay, to keep *her* voice from creeping into my mind. Chloe's voice. It had been days since Wells had offered me the leadership of the settlement. Days of watching the survivors look to me with those tired, hopeful eyes. Days of pretending I had the answers when, in truth, I was just as lost as they were. I kept telling myself I was just a healer. That leading was for someone stronger, someone who didn’t wake up every morning with the weight of a sister’s death on their conscience. But no matter how much I tried to push it away, I couldn’t ignore Wells’ words. Or Ben’s. They believed in me, even if I didn’t believe in myself. And
Last Updated : 2024-12-04The Burning 72
Project Inferno had been a government initiative, a secret project designed to develop a new kind of weapon —something that could burn entire landscapes in a matter of hours. Wildfire, but faster. Hotter. More destructive. And Chloe… I froze, my eyes locking onto a familiar name. Chloe's name. She... She had been involved. She had been part of the team. My stomach churned, nausea rising as I stared at the words in front of me. Chloe had known. She had been part of the project that had unleashed this hell on the world. "This can't be real." I whispered, my voice shaking. "She wouldn’t have—" “Maya,” Daniel interrupted, his voice tight. “There’s more.” I looked up, and he handed me another file. This one was thicker, the pages dog-eared and stained with something I didn’t want to think about. I opened it, and the first thing I saw was a map—our region, marked with red X's. Target zones. “I think this is where The Burning started.” Daniel said, pointing to the ma
Last Updated : 2024-12-06The Burning 73
I slowly made my way to Captain Wells’ command post. My hands were still shaking, the weight of the documents I had found in the bunker pressing down on me like a physical burden. I couldn't stop thinking about what I had uncovered —about Chloe, about Luther, about the lies that had been woven into the very fabric of the world since The Burning. It felt like the ground beneath my feet had shifted, leaving me standing on the edge of a cliff, staring into a truth I wasn't ready to face. But I had to. I couldn't keep this to myself. The soldiers standing guard at the entrance to the command post nodded as I approached, their expressions neutral, but I could feel their eyes on me as I passed. They knew who I was. They knew I was the one people were looking to, whether I wanted it or not. Word traveled fast in the settlement, especially now that the survivors were clinging to anything that resembled stability. I had to admit, Wells had done a decent job keeping the peace. For al
Last Updated : 2024-12-08The 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
Last Updated : 2024-12-11The 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
Last Updated : 2024-12-13The 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
Last Updated : 2024-12-15
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
