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

He had to look away to find the wherewithal to start the bike. It roared to life, protesting months of disuse, and he gunned the motor until it settled into a caged beast beneath him.


Rafe waved as he pulled away. Sullivan didn’t trust letting go of the handlebars to return it, but hopefully, Rafe saw his answering smile.


The day was the kind of bright that hurt the eyes, especially with the countryside zipping by faster than he’d experienced in months. He hadn’t even had a window seat on the flight from London. The sense of vertigo had exacerbated the headaches that had plagued him for weeks after the bombing. The sun stabbed into his eyeballs, but keeping his head tilted low and fixed on the road in front of him mitigated a lot of his discomfort.


Chapter 60