Free The Phoenix Trilogy (Book 1): World On Fire by Charles Scottie Page A

Seemingly ignoring what she had said,
he lowered his goggles over his eyes and donned his mouth wrap in silence.
        Further
convinced that she must have made a mistake, Natalie's gut clenched as she
thought about where she may have slipped up. A moment later, BJ started his
climb out the window and Natalie realized she probably wasn't going to find
out.
        “ It's time to go. I'll take point. Rico,
you stick with Natalie. Marco, watch our flank. We're going into dangerous
territory and we've got a bit of a road ahead before we're safe. I trust I
don't need waste any more time explaining the importance of caution.” True to
his word, BJ said no more as he descended. The other men readied their goggles
and wraps. Rico went down the ladder next, gesturing for Natalie to follow.
Marco wouldn't look at her, his eyes resting on the doorway behind them as if attackers might suddenly burst through at any moment.
With a sigh, she prepped her gear and stepped out the window.
         Taking the ladder down, Natalie felt a
small pang of sadness in her chest. Her time here hadn't been pleasant, but it
still felt strange to leave all of the emotions that were tied to this place
behind. With a silent goodbye to the man and daughter who had once lived happy
lives here, Natalie turned to follow Rico. Only then did she notice the look of
apprehension on his face.
         Any feelings of regret at leaving the
house were washed away as she realized what held Rico's attention. The two
corpses that Natalie had dispatched were supposed to be in a pile just up the
street, right where BJ had put them. Instead, there was a mess of blood and
bones in their place. It was too far away to make out exactly what they were
looking at, and Natalie was immensely thankful for that.
         BJ pointed to the trails of gore leading
away from the scene and his message was clear. Whatever had stopped to eat also
appeared to have taken its food with it, leaving behind a clear marker of what
direction it had gone. It stood to reason that choosing literally any other
path was probably a safer decision.
         The men had taken a trail behind the house
to get here from the outpost, and they opted to trace that route back. BJ in
the lead, the group fell into step behind him. Leaving the cul-de-sac behind,
they began traveling through a sizable green belt that divided the residential
areas.
         It didn't take long before Natalie found
herself struggling to keep her calm. The rest of
the group was quieter and more practiced than her in almost every way, which
resulted in a sense of hypercritical self-scrutiny on her part. Every breath
she took felt too loud, and her paranoia was starting to convince her that it
was only a matter of time before she got them all killed. She nearly jumped out of her skin when
Rico leaned back to whisper to her.
        “ Don't fight that feeling. That pressure,
that concern. Just let it play out. Fear is like quicksand: the more you
struggle, the faster you sink.” His advice came as a surprise, considering that
he hadn't actually looked at Natalie for several minutes. Realizing how obvious
her discomfort must have been, Natalie clenched her teeth in determination. She
would not be anyone's burden.
         Following Rico's words, she stopped
denying her emotions. I'm afraid. Sure. I don't have any experience with this shit. Sure. But hey,
neither did they at one point, and look at them now. This didn't happen for
them overnight, and it won't happen for me any faster. Buck up and get over it.
        The
words had more fight in them than Natalie actually felt, but the base sentiment
was there. She was going to have to get used to this eventually. As if to
confirm her point, BJ signaled for them to stop. Natalie froze as he continued
to sign. Two fingers down, one finger up. One walker. Okay.
        Peeking
out from behind Rico, she saw their target. At a distance, she wasn't able to
confirm that it was a