In the year 2184, the US is divided. Half the country has moved on with the rest of the world, while in middle America, the survivors of the terrorist biological attack that split the country struggle just to stay alive. Though a century has passed, few people brave going behind the borders meant to contain the danger. Even the privatized military is reluctant to do so.<br><br>But that doesn’t stop recently discharged Sullivan Eberle. Only one thing drives him anymore -- the need to find Raphael Hamada. He doesn’t know why. He only knows he must. If that means a lifetime behind the borders, then so be it.<br><br>Rafe Hamada ran away from the real world when he was still a kid. The last thing he wants is to be found, especially by a soldier who can’t even tell him why it was so important to locate him in the first place. He’d like nothing more than for Sullivan to leave, but turning his back on a man alone and friendless is against everything Rafe stands for ...

Penny Candles

Reminding himself that the promise of civilization was why he’d agreed in the first place was the only way he could stop from fleeing. Chadwick was small. A good training ground. It would help prepare him for however this ended.


The residential neighborhood merged into taller, heavier buildings with signs announcing everything under the sun for sale. These weren’t relics from the past, like the spectral watchmen at the town’s border. These businesses thrived in the present, with handwritten notices announcing sales and flyers mounted inside the intact plate glass windows. A hardware store was still open, in fact, with a man squatting in front of a display taking a moment to wave at Joe and Shorty as they passed by.


Chapter 5