All Chapters of The Burning: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The crackle of static was the first sound that broke the silence of the night. I fronze, my hand hovering over the small, battered radio, unsure if it was just another burst of interference. But then, through the distortion, a voice cut through—a voice that sounded so alien to me that I almost couldn’t process what I was hearing. '…repeat, this is New Haven. We are accepting survivors. Safe shelter, food, and medical supplies available. Coordinates… twelve degrees north, forty-one degrees west… anyone who can hear this...' I blinked, my heart stuttering in my chest. Was I dreaming? Was this some kind of cruel trick? I turned the dial, adjusting the frequency, desperate to catch the rest of the message.Deja vu was hitting me like a tone of bricks. '…repeat, this is New Haven. We are accepting survivors. Safe shelter…' The voice faded into static again, but I had heard enough. A settlement. A real, honest-to-god settlement offering safety, supplies, and—most importantly—hope. F

The sun was unforgiving. It beat down on us relentlessly, turning the cracked earth beneath our feet into a furnace. Every step felt like wading through sand, slow and exhausting, each breath a struggle as the dry air parched my throat. My injury throbbed with every movement—a sharp, stabbing pain that radiated up my leg and made me grit my teeth to keep from crying out. But I kept going. I had to. We’d been walking for days, the coordinates from the radio transmission our only guide. Ben had argued that we should take a longer route, one that would let us avoid the worst of the wasteland’s dangers, but I had insisted we take the direct path. We didn’t have time to waste. My leg wasn’t going to hold up much longer, and our supplies were almost gone. Every moment we spent out here was another moment closer to death. I glanced over at Sarah, who was trudging along beside me, her expression distant. She was quiet, as she had been for most of the journey. Ever since we’d left the r

The body hung limp in the barbed wire, swaying slightly in the breeze. From this distance, I couldn’t make out the details—whether it was fresh or long-dead—but the sight of it was enough to send a chill crawling up my spine. It was a message, clear as day: Keep out. Ben cursed under his breath, his eyes scanning the fence. “This doesn’t look good.” “No kidding,” I muttered, swallowing hard as I tore my eyes away from the corpse. I felt Sarah shift nervously beside me, but she said nothing, her face pale as she stared at the body in the wire. I couldn’t blame her—it looked like New Haven was worse than we thought. Still, we didn’t have a choice. We were out of options, out of supplies, and running on fumes. We needed whatever was inside that settlement, even if it meant walking into the lion’s den. “We should find another way in,” Ben said, his voice low and tense. “There’s no telling how many people are watching this gate.” I nodded, my heart pounding. “Agreed. Let’s ci

I stood over Sarah’s body, the weight of her final words crashing down on me like a tidal wave. Harlan’s inner circle. The same Harlan who had torn the world apart, who had turned everything into this hell. And Sarah....she had been part of it. I wanted to scream, cry, to tear the sky open with my fury. But there was no time for that now. No time for grief, no time for betrayal. Ben was dying. I turned, my breath coming in ragged gasps as I rushed to his side. He was still lying in the dirt, his face pale, his eyes closed. Blood seeped from the wound in his side, pooling beneath him, soaking into the earth. I dropped to my knees, my hands shaking as I pressed them against his wound, trying to stop the bleeding. But it was too much. Too fast. I could feel his life slipping away with every second that passed. “Ben,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Ben, stay with me.” His eyes fluttered open, just barely, and he looked up at me, his gaze unfocused. “May....” he rasped, h

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