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

Maria whirled around to face him. Her hands came to rest on his shoulders, holding him still. The tremors in her fingers vibrated through his shirt, which scared him more than a little. She, however, seemed oblivious.


“People are afraid of Strike for reasons,” she said. “Do you really think I would have risked your health by bringing you behind the borders if I didn’t think it was worse on the other side?”


Her fingers dug into his shoulders painfully, but he was too frozen to break away. “The doctors said—”


“Dr. Keyes said what we asked him to say. But you need to know the truth now, whether I like it or not.”


Dread settled in his stomach, a stony, sickening weight. “What truth?”


“That your heart was never going to be strong enough for Strike. And they would have killed you if we hadn’t run away.”


“You said Strike paid for all my operations when I was a baby.”


Chapter 55