Beyond The Walls: Mutant Wasteland #1 by Samantha Hoffman

Author:Samantha Hoffman [Hoffman, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-12-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Colton

He knew better than to get involved with the military, but even his years of solitude beyond the walls couldn’t completely erase that feeling of needing to stick together. He had no real loyalty to them—nor the desire for a harmonious relationship—but he’d still acted when they’d been in need. And now here he was, leading what was left of a disastrous trip outside the walls alongside Captain Benson—a woman who always seemed to pierce through him with her knowing eyes, as if she was reading his deepest secrets like an open book.

She knew his mother—she’d hinted at as much in their previous interactions—but the extent of their relationship was a mystery to him. He didn’t much care for any kind of politics—military or the underbelly kind that his mother involved herself with inside the walls—and he didn’t like the feeling of being indebted to her for something he didn’t understand. But she had so far managed to elicit those strange feelings from him, as if she was doing him a favor when he hadn’t asked.

So now here he was, putting himself out there in harm’s way to help. He took the remaining soldiers off the main path, across the flat, open ground that stretched out on either side of the road. Much of the wasteland was dead and uninhabitable, but Colton knew where the river flowed down from the mountains, and he had built his fort nearby, making it easier to sustain himself out here alone. Within the hour, the harsh, dead grass and twisted tree trunks would give way to something resembling life and hope.

Captain Benson had organized what was left of the convoy, and Colton was surprised to see what looked like civilians at the center. He hadn’t paid the group much mind before setting off, but he was surprised that she would have allowed any non-military personnel to join.

Something must have happened for them to be here. Something big. He was half tempted to ask, but one look at Captain Benson’s stony face and he thought better of it. He would keep his questions to himself for now and hope their situation improved once they had a roof over their head. He couldn’t shelter such a big group for long, but he could at least keep them out of the open after dark.

He glanced up. The sun was gone, and the darkness was creeping in. He knew this path of his well enough to take the lead from Captain Benson, and she relinquished it with a grimace and a tightness in her shoulders that would have made him giddy with excitement under better circumstances. He knew that a woman like her didn’t give up her hard-fought control easily, and to hand it over to a nobody like him hurt her pride, but losing the rest of her people would hurt her even worse.

The path was hard-packed dirt beneath his boots, and the ground was slowly starting to slope downwards, causing him to shuffle more carefully.

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