The Fall (Book 5): Exodus in Black by Joshua Guess Page B

don’t…do you need me in here for this?” Greg asked, his voice weak.
    Kell shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I’m just looking for anything useful, but I’m not going to search top to bottom. Why don’t you go check the outlet for the escape tunnel, see if anyone made it out that way.”
    Looking grateful, Greg sped off. Kell picked up a few things, mostly items like knives that had a lot of utility for their size, and left as quickly as possible.
    The air outside felt less oppressive. Emily made her way over to him.
    “I saw Greg run off,” she said. “Everything okay?”
    “Not really. I mean, look at this place. We let ourselves get comfortable here. We started to feel safe.”
    “Happy, you mean,” she said, a shrewd note in the words. “Everyone here let themselves feel happy for the first time in ages, and those motherfuckers took it away.”
    Kell nodded. “Five years ago I’d have hardened at this. I did do that. Cut myself off. Now, though…even seeing my home like this, feeling so…”
    “Violated?” Emily suggested.
    “Yes,” Kell said. “Exactly. Violated. All that, and losing Laura and who knows who else, I don’t feel it happening all over again. The part of me that shut down before just isn’t reacting the same way.”
    Emily cocked an eyebrow. “You sound surprised.”
    “A little. I mean, I was a worried on the drive over, thinking about what we’d see, how much it would bring back. Losing another home is hard, but it’s not as hard as it was before.”
    She smiled at him. “My dad used to yell at me not to climb trees. ‘Bones heal stronger,’ my mom always said.”
    That much was true. It had taken him years, but the scars were tough things. They held fast where he had been vulnerable. “Is it weird that despite what I just saw in there, I’m kind of excited that we’ll have some resources to use? How morbid is that?”
    Emily pointed to the fence. “No more morbid than receiving an inheritance. Look out there, Kell. All those plants? They’re food we can harvest and take with us. Early yet, but still edible.” She pointed to the barn. “That gas will get us back to Haven.” Toward the armory. “Those weapons will keep us safe. You can mourn— should mourn—what we lost here. But at least you can take a little solace in the fact these people died in the name of a bigger cause. And that we can at least keep carrying on.”
    He felt a wave of affection for her, so powerful and pervasive it tightened his chest. Then he laughed, hard and loud. Emily looked at him sideways. “What could you possibly have found funny?”
    “I was just wondering if you ever get tired of having to give me these pep talks,” Kell said.
    “Oh, lord yes,” Emily said. “You’re a perpetual teenager. The angst is so thick I could cut it with a knife. But you’re worth it.” She narrowed her eyes. “Usually.”
    They continued on for a while, sifting through the scattered remains of their home. They added pieces and parts but found no large caches. Kell pointed out that the scattered caches outside the compound might yield more usable supplies, and Emily informed him that the brothers had checked only to find most of them ransacked.
    It was oddly comforting. The missing gear was hidden, implying that others had escaped. Kell didn’t know why they hadn’t made the rendezvous, but it didn’t matter to him. Whether they saw the destruction of the compound and decided enough was enough or just hadn’t shown up yet, it gave him hope.
    That feeling stayed with him even when they found Laura and set her body in the house before lighting a trail of gasoline. The battered wooden frame served as the best funeral bier Kell could think of. It was only fitting she and the home she had given everything for burned together.

Emily
     
     
     
     
    “I really wish Kincaid and the others would have come with us,” Emily said as she looked down the road they traveled.
    Lying next to her on the