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 sat farthest away, by choice if not by design. Luther hadn’t stopped glaring at him, and Joe wasn’t exactly shy about letting him know he thought Sullivan was the one to blame for this new development. It didn’t matter that he’d protested ignorance at the first mention of Strike. Association was all they needed.


“If there’s only two of them, they can’t be a threat, right?” Rafe posed the question from behind the counter, where Maria had kept him even after he and Sullivan had locked gazes. Her arm was still coiled protectively around his waist, and for now, he didn’t seem ready to push her off.


“Except first there was only one,” Luther said. “Now there’s two more. Next thing we know, we’ll be crawling with them.”


“Sullivan isn’t a part of this,” Belle snapped. “Don’t you dare count him in.”


Luther seemed unperturbed by the outburst. “He’s Strike, isn’t he? And we never had any contact with them before he showed up. He’s probably been planning something all along.”


Chapter 58