August Burning (Book 2): Survival Read Online Free PDF Page A

blew a tendril of black hair out of her face. “What?”
    “So… wait, why did you say you would have my back again?”
    Adira paused, suddenly unsure. She hadn’t even realized what she had said. “Because you’re my hero,” she crooned sarcastically, and fell into his chest pursing her lips dramatically.
    He embraced her. “That’s not what you said.”
    “Don’t push it.” She took his hand, and dragged him out of the haze, and into a long since abandoned classroom, its dusty windows blockaded and boarded up with scraps of building material. They shut the door, and soon, they were breathless.
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Bennett tugged his jacket closer around him, feeling the wind working a chill into his bones. He could see the outlines of the high school, nestled down in the valley below him, surrounded by silent, ominous buildings. As far as the eye could see from the ridge, there was darkness. The electrical grids had failed them in late June, almost a month after arriving. A million pixels of light burned overheard, far more than he had ever seen in his life. It took his breath away, and for a moment he was content to take it in, feeling his own soul teetering on the precipice between awe and horror; there was no more light at night, save by fire.
    Bennett hefted a powerful hunting rifle, and trudged back to the old fire-watch tower that loomed ahead in the darkness. His comrades were keeping the torches above burning brightly, he noted with approval. They would be seen for miles, which is why they trekked up here multiple times a week, with the hope other survivors would see it. He felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. Was something close by? He quickened his pace and raced up the steel ladder, ascending sixty feet into the sky.
    “I don’t understand why you don’t just piss off the side.” Leeroy grunted. He pushed his glasses further up his nose, and adjusted the massive assault rifle that lay across its lap. The weapon had a large scope with an electronic sight and zoom, and a bipod tucked aft. The flames of a nearby torch lit the tiny man’s pasty face. Bennett was pretty sure his own distaste was visible; Leeroy still creeped him out.
    “I like it down there,” Bennett said, taking a seat himself.
    “He likes it because it’s like being on a knife’s edge. I know the feeling, and I hate it. The infected could be anywhere,” Joseph said without looking up. His small, callused hands tinkered with a large battery-operated transmitter radio.
    A faint smile curled Leeroy’s thin lips. “We could just fire our guns, and kill them as they swarmed us.”
    “Or we could die,” Bennett said curtly. He knew he needed all the help he could get. It pained him to be civil with such strange men. But Leeroy had been willing to make the trek multiple nights a week, and was an excellent shot with his rifle.
    Bennett looked to Joseph, pleased the smaller man with the practiced hands had not been sucked in by Jaxton’s speeches.
    “You know, they’re building a dam now. And turning the baseball fields into land for crops,” Joseph continued to speak without looking up. Bennett suspected he was a very intelligent man, emotionally and practically. He was glad to have him on his side.
    “I don’t plan on being here long enough to make use of those.” Bennett growled, looking back down into the forested valley, all shadows in the night. Jaxton was down there, with a few of the younger men following eagerly at his heel, ready to follow his commands. And so was Adira. He got a sudden series of images of them down there, together and panting, and he shook his head angrily.
    “I just don’t want to believe it’s all over. There has to be someone left out there, somewhere. But we’re lucky Jaxton’s boys are willing to forage for us. We almost never contribute, after all,” Joseph mused, shrugging.
    Leeroy shifted the military grade vest that he had strapped over his chest. Bennett counted