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

Sullivan scraped the last of the egg off the plate and set his fork down, waiting patiently for Rafe to finish. “I appreciate everything you’re doing for me,” he said in all seriousness. “But I don’t understand why.”


So many ways to answer that. Rafe swallowed and replied, “Because it’s the right thing to do.”


“You don’t know me. I’ve probably done things that would give any decent person nightmares.”


“But you said it yourself. You’re done. Everybody deserves a second chance.” The sudden flare in Sullivan’s eyes drove Rafe’s back to his plate, unable to bear the heated hope his words had elicited. He believed what he said. He’d lived it, after all. But he hadn’t been prepared for how badly Sullivan obviously needed that validation. “Who gave you my name? You didn’t just make me up out of thin air.”


Chapter 17