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Chapter 11

Asher

By mutual consensus, we agreed to travel to the nearest outpost and ask around about the alleged ‘paradise.’ Fallon made it clear that we would not partake in a wild goose chase; if the outpost led to a dead end, we would bunker down in a fenced-in home.

The drive was relatively uneventful. Beside for a splatter of acid rain and a couple dozen Ragers, we ran into very little trouble.

The heat, on the other hand, proved to be a problem. It crept up on us with the force of a freight train. The sun sat high in the sky, but it felt like it was mere inches from my body. Even with the air conditioning blowing, sweat coated my skin. It was blistering hot, almost to the point of making you feel sick.

Half a dozen water bottles littered the ground of the backseat. Addie was insistent on Tommy and Nikolai staying hydrated. She herself wasnotcovered in sweat, cheeks and forehead red. Definitely dehydrated.

After she shoved another water bottle at Fallon, I placed my hand on hers gently.

“Sweetheart, don’t neglect yourself by taking care of us. You need to drink too.”

She made a face at me, but complied when I handed her a second bottle of water.

Up ahead, the van that Tonya, Davis, Jared, Kai, and Doc were driving slowed to a stop.

“Stay here,” Fallon instructed gruffly. With a pointed look at Ronan, sitting beside him, the two exited with their guns loaded.

The car idled on the road, and Addie took their absence as an opportunity to lean forward, pressing her face to the vents.

“So. Hot,” she moaned dramatically. Ryder, sitting in the middle row of the car beside Nik and Tommy, wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Yes, you are.”

“Language!” Tommy spat out, and Ryder frantically gripped his chest, the dramatic asshole.

“I didn’t even swear!”

“Sexual innuendos are the same as swear words.”

“Look at you. Using big words,” he teased, and Tommy’s glower deepened.

“Look at you. With your nutsack removed and fed to Ragers.”

“No nutsacks are being removed,” Addie said absently, still staring intently at the blower. Cold air blew her brown hair back, and she moaned.

That sound made blood rush to my cock, and I shifted uncomfortably. The memory of Addie’s lips around my erection…

I was barely able to contain my own moan.

Fallon and Ronan returned to the car seconds later, faces somber.

“What’s up?” Tam asked. He and Declan sat behind Tommy, Nik, and Ryder. We were fortunate to have found a van that both ran and fitted all of us in a used car lot. An eleven passenger.

“Ragers. Probably at least fifty of them up ahead.”

“Shit,” I breathed. Instinctively, I inched closer to Addie as my eyes scanned the horizon.

Their forms were minuscule, silhouettes in the blinding sun, but it reminded me eerily of a wave approaching the shoreline. In this case, the wave was full of flesh-eating monsters.

“Is there another way to the outpost?” Addie asked. We had been planning on driving to the one a few hours east of Atlanta, in a town I couldn’t remember the name of, but now, I wondered if that was even possible.

Paradise or not, Fallon would never do something that could cost us our lives.

“We’ll go around it,” our leader said resolutely. It was this behavior alone that had caused us to nickname him Sarge - a drill sergeant and a play on his last name all in one. He knew what he wanted and cupped life by the metaphysical balls. “It might add a few hours to our trip, but I’d prefer that over…” he trailed off ominously, his hand clenching the steering wheel.