Isolation , Jones, Nathan [top 20 books to read TXT] 📗

us have been actively fighting, but they went after everyone. Almost seventy people, including women and children!”

And who was it who decided to keep those women and children with us? Larry thought. But to be fair, none of them had expected that Stanberry would find them, and certainly not that they'd do something like this.

He wasn't the only one coming to terms with what had just happened. “You're right, why would they hit our camp at all?” a woman from the Zolos-vulnerable recruits shouted. “We didn't do anything to them, and they tried to burn us alive!”

“Because they don't care!” Jay shouted back. “You were close to us, and they didn't care if their attack hurt you too. That's the kind of people they are.”

There was an angry rumble of agreement, people shouting insults at Stanberry, calling for action.

Larry raised his voice. “To be fair, we did just try to blow up their town and murdered their mayor.”

“Whose side are you on, Barons?” Jay shouted at him; it came as a shock to hear his friend call him by his last name, as if he was a stranger. Jay continued with such fury that Larry actually took a step back from him. “Every word out of your mouth is how we're the bad guys and Stanberry never did anything to deserve it! You love them so much you'll side with them over your own people, and I'm sick of it!”

The crowd roared again, their ire immediately transferring to Larry. He flinched as lifelong friends and neighbors hurled insults and threats his way, then ducked as someone in the back of the crowd actually threw a rock, hitting him in the shoulder.

“Enough!” Jay shouted, surprising him. “Remember, Stanberry's our enemy! They'll play the victim and pretend they're in the right until even our own friends take their side, and that's why we have to stand against their aggression!” Jay paced like a caged animal in front of the furious, volatile crowd, waving his arms to further rile them up. “We aim only at the people who've wronged us in Stanberry, and in return they try to burn innocent women and children to death! We can't let them keep getting away wi-”

Something in Larry snapped, and he let out a blistering curse and snatched his rifle off his back, hurling it at the ground at Jay's feet. It hit with a deafening clatter, causing the man to cut off in surprise.

“You still want to play this game?” Larry demanded, striding forward to glare down at the man who'd once been his closest friend, but who he barely recognized anymore. “This is on us!” he shouted, both at Jay and at the crowd around them. “This is all on us!”

“On us?” Jay demanded incredulously. “How can you say that when they've-”

“All! On! Us!” Larry roared. “We've hit them and hit them and hit them while they've stood there begging for us to stop, and then when they finally snap and hit back you act all outraged that they'd do such a monstrous thing. Then you try to use it as an excuse to keep hitting them even harder.”

He turned to face the crowd. “You want to know how we end the war with Stanberry? We walk away! We literally walk away, and it's over! We're the ones pushing this fight, we're the ones causing thousands of innocent people to cower in fear while we try to tell ourselves we're the good guys!”

Dead silence greeted his words, everyone staring at him in a mixture of shock and resentment. But not much guilt or remorse, he couldn't help but notice.

“You want to walk away, no one's stopping you,” Jay shouted, voice shaking. “Although you saw what Stanberry did to us the last time we tried that.”

Larry could've argued that, but he was sick to death of all of this. So he just suited his words, turned, and walked away from the group.

“You coward!” Chuck shouted at his back. “Run off with your tail between your legs, Barons! Shows what kind of friend you are!”

The little weasel wasn't worth answering, and Larry was keenly aware that Jay didn't try to call him back or shout any insults after him. So he kept going.

Unsurprisingly, Liza was soon at his side. But what was a surprise was that ten or so people, mostly their fellow Wensbrook survivors, followed as well.

Larry made for the truck he'd saved, the others gathering around him as he made to open the door. “What are we going to do now?” Liza asked quietly, staring back at where Jay had gathered the rest of the crowd to him and was continuing to rant and rave at them.

Larry shook his head wearily. “I don't know about the rest of you, but I intend to go to Stanberry and turn myself in for justice.”

His friends all made shocked noises, Liza staring at him like he was crazy. “What?” she demanded, voice rising. “You can't do that . . . they'll probably beat you to death or hang you from the nearest tree!”

“They might,” he agreed. Honestly it was hard to care anymore; what did he have left now? If nothing else, at least he could face up to what he'd done and accept the consequences, maybe reclaim some of his integrity. “But I know how Jay thinks, and I know a lot of the plans he's made for future attacks. If I go, I could help them stop him from hurting anyone else.”

Liza was visibly shaking as she stared up at him, eyes shining with tears in the darkness. “B-but what about us?”

Something in her tone made Larry pause. Did she mean “us” as in everyone who'd followed him when he turned his back on Jay, or a different “us”? She had to realize he was still grieving his lost family; much as he considered her a friend, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to open up his heart again.

As if she was aware of