Free August Burning (Book 2): Survival by Tyler Lahey

behind him. “ Elvis?” He asked, his voice shaking as well.
    Wilder snatched Duke’s rifle from the bed of grass. It was still hot. He groaned in terror and squeezed the trigger, snapping the brisk air with a sonic boom. Target hit. There was a scream that wailed and echoed across the field.
    Bennett craned on his toes, scanning the high-grass. “Something’s coming. Five. Six. Eight. They’re coming, fast.”
    “GO!” Adira screamed. They left Tessa to rot on a carpet of scarlet.
     

Chapter Seven
     
    When she awoke from her nightmares, she was alone. Adira approached the metal vat of water they had ferried up from the river behind the school. Vigorously, compulsively, she washed herself. She didn’t like to be alone, in the dark room. Where was Jaxton?
    She found them in the gymnasium. All of them.
    Terrence was kneeling on the wooden floor with his hands tied; his bulky form stripped to the waist and bleeding. Wilder stood before him, his fists dripping. Everyone was watching. Fifty people cheering and jeering, an insufferable mob of curses, spittle, and fists. How quickly they abandoned their civility, Adira knew.
    “You took the gasoline. Cause you’re a selfish fucking bastard. You killed Tessa. And you put the lives of four others at risk. One of whom, is still missing. If Elvis has died, you will die.” Jaxton paced before him, a police baton in his hand. “Again.”
    Wilder unloaded his right fist into the swollen face before him. The crowd roared.
    “He went behind my back! He went behind our backs!” Jaxton cried.
    “Hit him again!” Harley cried. Wilder struck again, and the thunder that came after was deafening under those vaulted ceilings.
    Adira spotted Liam and Joseph, speaking together at the edge of the proceedings. They alone looked disgusted.
    Terrence spat blood. “I didn’t take the fucking gasoline.”
    “Don’t fucking lie to me!” Jaxton roared and raised the baton. A second later a spray of blood spattered his own beard.
    “I will not permit the breakdown of order here. Are you with me?” Jaxton asked the crowd, arms extended. They cheered their vicious assent.
    Terrence remained squatting, his defiance evident. “I did not steal it.”
    “If not you, then who?” Jaxton drew close to the mangled set of cheekbones.
    “STOP this!” Adira yelled, her pulse hammering. “Enough! He has been punished enough. No one of you here killed Tessa. They did.”
    Jaxton sputtered, but Adira continued, drawing the eyes of them all. “If there is any blame to be had, it is mine. I should not have taken us so late in the day.”
    “Don’t waste your time defending him. And we need to find Elvis.” Harley spat.
    “We must strike back at once!” Jaxton roared.
    Adira stepped in front of her lover, and raising her hands, noticed they were still caked in red residue from the night prior. “Wait. Just fucking wait. We don’t want to rush into anything, especially while they might have Elvis, captured. They will cut us, and him, to pieces.”
    “What are they?!” Someone shouted.
    She trembled slightly, remembering the floating tendrils of greasy hair. “They were bitten, but they didn’t turn like the others…. I don’t think. They had crude weapons, and they tried to use them. They were from beyond the factory, in the backwoods.”
    “We need to get together. Attack when they don’t expect it. Yes.” Wilder exclaimed, his eyes frantic as Jaxton nodded thoughtless approval.
    “No we do not. I fucked this up. I think we should at least try to see if they can reason with us. I should try and communicate to them.” Adira didn’t want to go anywhere near the backwoods again, for as long as she lived. But she saw the way they were looking at her. She was the one to blame, the one who had failed the group. Only a remedy enacted by her would force a turn of opinion. But she found herself half-hoping someone would save her from the obligation.
    “You would be killed. No. We send