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Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for the novels of Mia Sheridan
  3. About the Author
  4. NOTE TO READERS
  5. Dedication
  6. prologue
  7. chapter one
  8. chapter two
  9. chapter three
  10. chapter four
  11. chapter five
  12. chapter six
  13. chapter seven
  14. chapter eight
  15. chapter nine
  16. chapter ten
  17. chapter eleven
  18. chapter twelve
  19. chapter thirteen
  20. chapter fourteen
  21. chapter fifteen
  22. chapter sixteen
  23. chapter seventeen
  24. chapter eighteen
  25. chapter nineteen
  26. chapter twenty
  27. chapter twenty-one
  28. chapter twenty-two
  29. chapter twenty-three
  30. chapter twenty-four
  31. chapter twenty-five
  32. chapter twenty-six
  33. chapter twenty-seven
  34. chapter twenty-eight
  35. chapter twenty-nine
  36. chapter thirty
  37. chapter thirty-one
  38. chapter thirty-two
  39. chapter thirty-three
  40. chapter thirty-four
  41. chapter thirty-five
  42. chapter thirty-six
  43. chapter thirty-seven
  44. chapter thirty-eight
  45. chapter thirty-nine
  46. chapter forty
  47. chapter forty-one
  48. chapter forty-two
  49. chapter forty-three
  50. chapter forty-four
  51. chapter forty-five
  52. chapter forty-six
  53. chapter forty-seven
  54. chapter forty-eight
  55. epilogue
  56. acknowledgments

Charlie and I watched as Tuck carefully removed his duffel bag, set it on the ground, and then moved slowly and stealthily toward the break in the trees where the light was shining through.

He stopped, and then reached up slowly and moved a tree bough, before leaning forward. Through the larger gap, I could see the edge of concrete on the ground. A driveway?

Tuck let out a heavy exhale, dropping the branches back into place and turning toward us. “It’s not a house,” he said.

My heart plummeted, and I walked to join him. “What? No. What is it?” I’d take any kind of shelter at the moment. Any kind of civilization.

Charlie came up next to me and Tuck glanced at both of us before stepping through the trees. We followed, the flock of birds I’d made myself believe sounded like chickens rising into the sky in a sudden flap of wings. “It’s a substation,” Tuck murmured, walking forward. “Or it was.”

I blinked, looking around at the smoldering equipment that had been surrounded by a chain-link fence that now lay charred on the ground. “A substation?” I asked, a lump of deep disappointment settling in my gut. No house. No electricity. No shower. No chickens. No eggs or coffee. Just a smoldering pile of metal and concrete. I felt like crying.

“This was probably one of the fires we saw from the sky.” His eyes met mine. “There were lots of fires burning though,” he said, his expression deeply troubled. It startled me because Tuck rarely looked troubled. Even in extreme situations like running back into a plane to collect valuables, he’d appeared nothing but completely resolute.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know exactly.” He paused. “Except that there’s no way this didn’t affect the electricity in this area. It must be down for miles around.” He moved forward. “The one silver lining,” he murmured, nodding to a dirt road, “is that that road has to lead somewhere.”

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chapter sixteen

Tuck

“That road might go on for thirty miles,” Charlie whined. “What the hell do we do now?”

I didn’t attempt to provide an answer, instead turning my back and taking a slow walk around the station that had once been part of the electrical grid.