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

“That’s a lot of candles,” he said.


Rafe chuckled again. “You’re the soldier here. You’ve got to have seen a lot more death than this.”


“Well, yeah, but…” How to voice what the difference was? And how to do it so Rafe wouldn’t hate what he’d been? “You must have cared about all these people to want to say a prayer for them.”


“Everybody should be remembered, regardless of how you cared about them.” Any amusement fled his face as he raised his eyes to Sullivan’s. In fact, he seemed almost bleak now, bearing the same load Sullivan had felt when he heard the candles’ purpose. “How many people have you killed?”


Of all the questions he could have asked…“I didn’t keep count. You can’t. You can’t do the job if you think about the specifics.”


“Then you must have some idea of a number.”


Chapter 24