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

The fact that he didn’t blame Sullivan the same way only occurred to him after he’d already opened his mouth to aver his ignorance of anything Sheriff might have seen.


“You’re not really going to turn them over to their father, are you?” he asked instead.


Sheriff smiled, a sad little moue that put years into his eyes. “As tempting as it is, no. They’ll get a proper sentence.”


Which was a yes, because Sheriff always got his way.


“When that happens, your friend won’t have an easy time of it,” he continued. “People aren’t going to take too kindly to his being free when they’re not.”


Rafe frowned. “But he didn’t do anything wrong. They’re the ones who broke the law.”


“Doesn’t matter. He’s not the one who was born and raised here. That’s what people are going to remember, not the fact he got burned out of his home.”


Chapter 45