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

I needed to ask you. Are you satisfied with the way things have turned out? I mean, with Jaxton and all. I just needed to hear it from you. We never get to talk anymore.”
    She exhaled, exasperated. “This is what you wanted to talk to me about?”
    “Of course it is. I was fine for a while, I mean fine. I wasn’t thinking about you. I was doing a pretty good job of avoiding you. Well, remember how we used to talk about how lucid our dreams could be?”
    She regarded him softly, unsure whether she should walk away.
    He stepped a bit closer, and the words came out softly. “I’ve been having these dreams. Not like that, don’t make that face at me. Just dreams with you in them. And it’s totally fucking my thing up. I mean, I wake up and its like we just spent hours together, and my brain can’t tell the difference. I’ve been dreading going to sleep. I never moved on like you did, you know?”
    She couldn’t hate him. She didn’t hate him. “Bennett I’ll never dislike you. There’s gotta be a better way to say that…I mean, I still care about you. It’s not like you did anything wrong. But, things change. Things have changed. This whole thing, it’s changed you.”
    Bennett retreated once more, his bright teeth flashing in amusement. He chuckled. “What do you mean?”
    “You’ve forgotten empathy, you’re aggressive, and selfish. And you think it’s ok because everyone else is doing it too. And it’s not.”
    His smiled vanished. “You owe me more than that.”
    Adira stammered. Bennett cut her off. “I worshipped you for a while. You liked it, don’t deny it. I never treated you wrongly. I made mistakes but I was always there for you. Was I not?”
    She could smell him, and she didn’t like it. It made her mind move more slowly.
    “I’m still in love with you, Adira.”
    “Stop it! Stop it. In love…Bennett we knew each other for what, two months?”
    “I didn’t realize there was a time requirement,” he said softly.
    “My god. What are you even doing? Look I’m sorry it turned out like this. I obviously never intended for it to. But you can’t do this.”
    “Why, because it confuses you?”
    “No! Not even! Because…Just stop. And if Jaxton ever finds you doing something like this, especially how he is now, he’s likely to shoot you.”
    “That’s the other thing. How can you stand by and watch this barbarism go on? Are you ok with this? We’re all going to die. And the infected are going to have nothing to do with it.”
    Adira set her jaw angrily. “No one fucking asked Jax to run the show. He’s the one they look to, of their own accord.”
    Bennett guffawed. “Please. We both know Jaxton. He wants to be in command, he needs it.”
    She was breathing deeply. A moment of anxious silence lingered between them, as the shadows bounced off the sputtering torch.
    Finally, she spoke. “You’re like a child, greedy and scared.” She exhaled. “I don’t like this violence between us all any more than you. Jaxton just needs to calm down. He will calm down. I need to go, Bennett.” Adira’s steel-tipped boots snapped briskly on the tile.
    She heard his voice following her. “If you think you will be able to change his mind, you’re a fool.” She slammed open the door, far harder than she would have liked.
    …
     
    “Boys. What are you doing up here?”
    Jaxton approached the silent pair, perched perilously atop the third story clock tower overlooking the main driveway. The American flag was absent, as he had ordered.
    Duke and Wilder sat four feet apart, their typically boisterous humor gone. Duke shivered in his heavy sweatshirt. Their rifles had been left haphazardly a few feet away.
    “You wont be much use on night watch without your guns.”
    Jaxton received no response. He took a seat calmly, in between them, content to feel the cool breeze cutting into his light jacket for just a moment.
    Jaxton felt lonely on the roof, above the world. “I’m still not used to