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

their 21 days, move into her family's house in town since Chet's farm was burned up, and focus on getting on with their lives.

They could even begin planning the wedding.

✽✽✽

Not many folks would mourn Jay after everything he'd done.

Nick certainly had little desire to. But even though he wasn't in the least prepared to forgive the man, he still found himself pitying him for the miserable way his life had gone since Zolos, and the tragic way it had ended.

Buried in an unmarked grave, his followers scattered and his enemies celebrating the end of the chaos he'd caused.

Nick had no words to say over the grave, and he was too tired and heartsick to even offer a moment of silence. He just wanted to turn his back on this chapter of his life and go back to Tallie, make sure she wasn't too distressed by seeing Larry shot in front of her.

So he did, slinging his shovel over his shoulder and shuffling wearily back towards camp.

He found his daughter in Val's care, verified she was unharmed, and hugged her tight for a few minutes while reassuring her that the trouble was over and he wasn't going anywhere. After Tallie had calmed down a bit, they set out to find Denny and report in on what had happened.

It was a grim subject, but thankfully his daughter had dozed off in his arms by the time he found the leader of the Zolos immune fighters, returning from a patrol and making for the headquarters to organize the next patrol shifts before going out on another patrol.

Denny didn't seem keen on the details, just wanted to hear in person that Jay was dead. Once he had that, he filled Nick in on what the leaders in both camps and the town had come up with for a final tally of those lost I the fighting.

It was a grim one.

Sixteen of Jay's people had died: seven of his Zolos-vulnerable recruits and nine of the firebombers. Jay himself made that seventeen. Denny's patrols had also captured two wounded, one man from the Zolos-vulnerable recruits who'd taken a bullet to the gut and wasn't expected to make it, and one of the firebombers who'd apparently been severely burned when Hal had shot his buddy and the firebomber had dropped his own Molotov at their feet.

They were doing what they could for the gut-shot man in the main camp, and for the burned man in the survivors' camp, but they didn't have the equipment or trained medical personnel to really help them outside of town.

Needless to say, Stanberry wasn't about to risk exposure to Zolos by letting them in for treatment.

In the camp, Starr had two dead and four injured, one seriously, among his fighters. Among the Zolos survivors Larry was in critical condition, although the shot hadn't hit anything vital and it was possible he would make it. Nick had dropped by to check on him and exchanged a few words with Liza, who looked as if it would take a bulldozer to budge her from his side.

Less lucky were the two other victims of Jay's sniper attack, the first a man in the northeast sentry post who'd been hit in the chest and died a few minutes later. The second was a woman who'd caught a stray bullet while shielding her two adopted children in their tent; she'd bled out before help could reach her, leaving behind the orphans she'd met and ultimately adopted while in the camp, who'd now been left orphaned again.

Another tragedy to lay at Jay's feet.

Stanberry had been more fortunate, since the firebombers had been focused on throwing Molotovs rather than shooting. One man had been shot, although the wound was minor and he was being treated, and eight people had been burned in the fires, two seriously, while dozens of others had suffered from smoke inhalation as they fought the flames.

All in all, it was a tragic loss of life. A shocking one, if you included the people who'd died in the Zolos outbreak caused by Jay's water balloon attack on the camp. And a pointless one, considering it ultimately came down to two towns arguing over their grievances.

Something that never should have happened.

With Denny's scouts out in force combing the area for lurking stragglers from the attack, and Wensbrook most likely reeling and probably done for good after their defeat and Jay's death, that afternoon Nick decided to risk bringing Tallie out of the camp for a long overdue visit to the rest of their family.

With Ellie and Ricky and the others now in Stanberry, they couldn't leave without not only risking contact with Zolos, but effectively exiling themselves from the town unless they went through another quarantine period. That had been hard for Tallie, not being able to see her mom and brother when the threat of attack had kept Nick from being willing to risk the short trip to the barricade with her, even along the most protected route between the town and camp.

And perhaps it was premature now, so soon after such a big fight, but there was a group of other Zolos survivors wanting to visit friends in town now that things felt safer. It was good timing, and in his view the risk was small.

Safety in numbers.

So off they went, Nick and the McCleese men and the other armed people around the edges of the group keeping an eye on their surroundings, while Tallie stayed with Aimee and the few other children at the center of the group.

They hadn't radioed ahead about the visit, for obvious reasons, but the sentries on the barricade were alert and waved them over, then sent a few runners to fetch the people in town they'd come to visit.

Gen was farther down the barricade, but when she realized Nick and Tallie were there she shouted hello and waved, and he carried his daughter over to talk to her.

“How you holding up?” he called up to her as she