Free The Fall (Book 4): Genesis Game by Joshua Guess Page A

wilderness camping,” the scarred man said, a wistful note seeping into his voice. “I know that look. Had it on my own face a time or two.”
    Kell watched the horses recede into the distance, the woods next to the road swallowing them. “We should probably get moving,” he said with more than a hint of regret.
     
     
     
    The rest of the trip was uneventful. There was a minor band of zombies, easily avoided, but no other surprises. When the van slowed and made its way off the main road, Kell was curious. When Mason and Kincaid told Marco to stop in the middle of a road surrounded by trees overgrown with kudzu, he was confused.
    The two men walked toward a nearby section of the green veil and pulled it aside. Mason seemed to know what he was looking for, and found it within a minute. He and Kincaid hauled tendrils aside and motioned for Marco to drive through.
    There was a road there, narrow and crumbling. Pieces of vine slapped against the van, tree branches scraping discordantly across the armor and windows. The inside of the overgrowth was darker than Kell would have thought possible just before noon, but they broke through into the light a few seconds later.
    The van came to a halt in a small parking lot sheltered on all sides by more verdant growth. The cedar fence surrounding the space was buckled in places from the weight of it.
    “Are we going into the batcave?” Kell mused, mostly to himself.
    Emily chuckled. “Dibs on any capes we find.”
    Two sets of double-wide garage doors covered most of the building the parking lot butted up against, and one of them opened. Rob, the scout, appeared as it widened, hauling on a chain to raise the thing. 
    The van rolled in, Mason and Kincaid jogging in behind it before Rob lowered the door again. Emily helped Kell navigate to the rear door in the dim light and they stepped into the garage together.
    It was far from what he had expected, especially considering he'd camped in a few garages over the previous five years. The word that came to mind was cozy, and a moment of contemplation cemented the impression.
    The van sat on bare concrete, of course, but the rest of the huge space was taken up with what appeared to be a combination of hideout and observation post. One wall held a vast pegboard tool rack full of weapons, ammunition, and supplies. The floor was covered in a dense pile of carpets, looking as though someone had unrolled bulk carpet in layers. Which, Kell realized, they probably had.
    The rest of the space was lined with trunks, mattresses, various observation gear such as binoculars and an assortment of scopes, and the odds and ends that said it was well lived in. There were even lights; power-sipping LED strips traced the edges of the room. Kell didn't hear a generator, but survivors knew their business when it came to renewable energy capture and storage.
    “What is this place?” Kell asked.
    Emily flopped onto the only chair in the room, a huge leather recliner, and lounged in it with a leg thrown over one of the arms. “It's a safe house we set up with New Haven. Scouts from one of our communities are almost always here.”
    Kell frowned and walked over to a low table stacked with recording devices, including a parabolic microphone. “What's with all this stuff?”
    “We watch the locals pretty carefully,” Emily said. “The guy we're going to meet, he's the leader of the community where your test subjects are. He's...”
    “What?” Kell said sharply. “Dangerous? Who isn't, nowadays? Or is he more like a marauder?”
    Emily shook her head. “No, definitely not that. But dangerous as hell, sure. He's kept his people safe by being absolutely ruthless. He's not like us, Kell. He doesn't have much of a gray area when it comes to threats against his community. We like to keep an eye on what's going on around here. Sometimes people act differently when they think you're not watching.”
    “We'll be walking from here,” Mason added. “This place