Free August Burning (Book 1): Outbreak by Tyler Lahey

first, startled, before he too found
comfort in an embrace. He had spent a few hours with the girl on the first
night they met, and he had been able to tell immediately that she was drawn to
him. There had been no intimate contact though, as Elvis was already entangled
with her. He had known within minutes he and Harley shared the same crude,
juvenile sense of humor.
    He couldn’t deny it felt good to hold
her, as he stared at her brown hair spilling over their arms. Elvis shifted in
his slumber, and Liam froze, feeling guilty. Harley didn’t seem to notice. She
looked up at him with bright hazel eyes, dotted with lighter specks and seemed
to draw strength from his own gaze. Then she reached up on her toes and kissed
him hungrily, her mouth hot and soft. Liam recoiled in his own mind, but
couldn’t find it in himself to pull away. He found himself answering her before
they both broke off after a breathless minute. She kept her arms locked around
him, however, for a while longer. Liam sighed. He knew he was ensnared, and
there would be no going back.
    Jaxton awoke in his own bed to the
sound of banging. He jumped out of bed in an anxious rage and ran to open the
front door of the apartment, passing Bennett and Adira sleeping on top of each
other on the couch. His neighbor stood at the door, her dull brown eyes alight
with unnatural energy. He had been connected with her once before, but it had
never panned out. Without the veil of makeup, she would never be called pretty,
but it didn’t matter. She had always been kind to those who deserved it, and
avoided the normal drama that plagued the dorms, strong in her own fashion                   “They blew the bridges,” she explained,
her eyes staring at Jaxton’s own mouth.
    He rubbed his eyes to clear his head.
“What?”
    “All the bridges on both rivers
leading to Manhattan. Gone. And now people are putting cameras on little drones
and flying them into the blackout zone. It’s crazy. They’re fight-“
    “Tessa, slow down. Jesus Christ, slow
down.”
    Troy appeared behind Jaxton’s back,
peering out with a face like death. “What’s going on?”

 
 
    Tessa threw her tiny hands up in
exasperation. “C’mon just look at your phones! Turn the TV on! Anything!” Her
slight southern drawl awoke the rest of the apartment.
    Jaxton took a step forward, gripping
her on the shoulder. “Show me.”
    Tessa burst in the room, her unshapely
body moving with force to the kitchen table. The others gathered around as she
drew out her own phone. “Somebody posted this an hour ago.”
    The tiny screen showed amateur footage
from an airborne drone, spinning blades slightly visible at the top of the
frame. It whirled over a highway completely clogged with cars. Jaxton peered
for movement but the drone was flying too high and too fast. The camera moved
up a hair, revealing the same highway extending far into the distance, clogged
in both directions. They could see where dozens of cars had attempted to cross
the barriers and drive outbound in the opposite lane, often with disastrous
results. Finally the sluggish Hudson River came into view, with the city of
skyscrapers beyond. Adira’s jaw became slack. Where the George Washington
Bridge had been was now a smoking wreck. The center pillars still stood, but
the horizontal pieces had been blown away violently. Twisted metal stuck out of
the brown waters, singed with black from the explosion the night before.
Everyone wanted to fill the air with words, but they were too shocked to speak.
    “They tried to contain it,” Adira’s
voice was harsh and husky from exhaustion.
    “My god.” Adira touched Bennett on the
arm, prodding him. “They’re starting an evacuation. New York, Connecticut, and
New Jersey. Non-compliance will be akin to treason.” Bennett exclaimed,
haltingly. “My Dad just sent me this.” He stuck out his phone for the others to
see. Armed soldiers argued with screaming citizens in their