Chapter 34

• The standoff on the dead highway was a silent, suffocating thing. The world seemed to hold its breath.
• Reese’s soldiers, her “Free Rats,” as I would later learn what they called themselves, had us surrounded. Their rifles were steady, their faces grim, emotionless masks that had been forged in the fires of a hell I had helped create. They were in professional outfits, a world away from the desperate, scared survivors I had left behind in that fire station.
• Reese walked a slow, deliberate circle around us, her boots crunching on the broken glass, her eyes taking in every detail. Our ragged clothes, our exhausted faces, the fear in Lily’s eyes, the defiant set of Yara’s jaw. She was assessing us. Weighing us. Judging us.