Free Earth Zero: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Next Book 2) by Scott Nicholson

when something scratched and scraped at the door.
    She half opened her eyes, expecting Geneva and another interrogation. But it wasn’t.

 
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    “I should kill you,” Capt. Antonelli said.
    “ But I didn’t do it ,” Colleen said.
    “Keep your voice down. I don’t want this getting around the unit.”
    Antonelli had waited until Colleen returned to the telecom room and kept his composure until she’d settled in. Then he’d locked the door and confronted her with the damaged equipment. Even as he accused her, he’d feverishly studied her face, hoping he was wrong but knowing he wasn’t.
    “This isn’t a military tribunal,” Antonelli said. “This is me, making a decision for the good of my soldiers and the country. Under Directive Seventeen, I’m sworn to terminate any threat to the successful conquest of our enemies. Sabotage and treason hurt the whole human race, and I can’t abide that, despite my feelings for you.”
    Colleen bowed her shaking head, exhibiting the same denial for the past hour. Antonelli was torn by a dozen emotions, and he was okay with anger and fear and betrayal. What scared him was the deep chill in his gut that disguised itself as duty, a remorseless place that commanded him to employ whatever means necessary to complete his mission.
    But now he was confused about the real mission here. True, he had his orders specific to the defeat of the Zaps, but didn’t he have a higher law to follow? Hadn’t Colleen made him human in a way that fighting and dying for the human race never could?
    Her eyes were bloodshot with tears, bewilderment joining the pain in her face. He hadn’t touched her at all, but she was battered nonetheless. “Think about it, Mark. Why would I cut off contact?”
    “You wanted us to stay here. You wanted me to ignore orders. You thought I’d roll over and wag my tail, waiting for a belly rub. You actually thought I’d betray my country for you.”
    “I…it was just a thought. A moment of weakness.” She glared at him, freckled face a passionate mask. “I’ve always supported you, even when you’re wrong.”
    That caught him off guard and he had to force himself not to explode. “That’s because I’m the captain. Your superior officer.” He waved at the bedroll. “Whatever else we are, whatever else we do, that fact doesn’t change.”
    “Funny, you seem to surrender every time I’m on top.”
    He pointed at her, knowing the gesture was childish and rude. “That’s not fair, Colleen.”
    “None of this is fair! We didn’t ask for the sun to fuck up the sky and turn our friends into flaming-eyed freaks. We didn’t ask for monsters to chase us like we’re walking sausages. We didn’t ask to go to war or else vanish from the face of the Earth.”
    “What you said earlier—I’m a soldier. That’s all I’ve ever been. I don’t expect you to understand.”
    “I understand completely. You’re cut off from receiving orders and being told what to do. Now you have to make your own decisions. That scares the hell out of you.”
    Antonelli spun and raked his arm across the table, sweeping the radio parts to the floor. “I’m just scared I’ll kill you.”
    “For the last time, I didn’t do this. If I’d really wanted us to stay here in the bunker, I’d have played you into believing it was the right thing to do. I’m a woman , Mark. For God’s sake, I hope you’ll at least give me that much credit.”
    Antonelli looked down at his trembling hands. He could kill her if she was truly a threat to the human race. If duty demanded it. But where was the honor in stupidity?
    He was mostly enraged because she was right. Traveling by foot another ninety miles was nothing but suicide, given nature’s chaotic rebellion. Even if the beastadons and wild bears and barrel-sized rattlesnakes didn’t get them, the Zaps now appeared to have an aerial fleet they could control from a distance.
    Reaching Asheville and the Fourth