Page 39 of Hell Breaks Loose

Ora swallows once, realization dawning all over her face.

“Gav… I thought you knew. Or would have figured out…”

“What happened?” The worst possibilities flicker through my stress-addled mind.

“She’s alive, if not exactly well.”

A wash of dread fills my chest. “She’s not with you? Where’s Tell? He was supposed to?—”

“Tell barely made it out alive. And then he went and pulled a card from your playbook and took off after her like a fucking?—”

“Where is Hell, Ora?!” I stop her, gripping her shoulders and making her look at me.

“She’s with Marco. He hit them the night of the flood. Tell sent me one message before he dropped off the map saying he was going to follow, but that he was in bad shape. He couldn’t get to this side of town, anyway.”

“What the fuck…” I stagger back, trying to process what to ask first, how to contextualize it all.

“He also checked in this morning.’

“You suck at debriefing.” Alaya huffs, grabbing my arm to steady me. “Tell is on his way here. He said he has news, and we don’t need to worry about her, at least for now.”

“Which makes me worry that we do have to worry about Marco, soon.”

“We don’t know that. There’s been no sign of him in weeks.”

“Other than his scouts still patrolling the wreckage…”

“Well, yeah. That.”

“I–I need to sit down.”

“You need a meal and a bed. I don’t think we can carry you if you pass out.”

“Not to mention the smell…”

“Check your upper lip,” I growl, heading off in no particular direction.

“Your bunk’s that way!”

My middle finger is all the reply I give, turning back the opposite direction.

“So that’s not even a fraction of the grounds. We have facilities and stockpiles of food. We're even working on growing plants, farming and all that good stuff to last us for a few seasons if need be.”

“We’re going to need it with the way town looks.”

“It’s not as bad in some spots. A good fourth of the town is still relatively intact.”

“For now.”

“Until the wild gangs of junkies need more food and want their shelter.”

“Speaking of which, we finally got a name for that shit they’re on.”

“Devo. Sounds like a designer drug.”

“Looks like a fucking nightmare incarnate.”

“Great. Just what we needed. Make a note that anybody caught bringing that poison into the camp gets locked up and throat-chopped.”

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