Afterburn (Next, #1)

by Scott Nicholson

One of the crows turned, and its eyes flashed with fire. A blood-chilling caw cracked the brittle air. Rachel slid her machete from its canvas sheath, but the crow veered wildly and then rejoined the broken formation heading south toward the distant city of mutants. DeVontay Jones chuckled behind her. “What were you going to do with that blade?

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up on a Honda sedan, which bore a thick coat of grime on its windows and blue paint. They had passed the same car plenty of times in the last five years, but it was wise to avoid complacency. You never knew what surprises lurked in this ever-changing world. “See anything?” Rachel said as she subconsciously drifted to the opposite side of the road. The sedan had bottomed out in a ditch, and the corpses inside had long ago gone to bone. Those unlucky travelers had endured the solar storms with their windows down, so their flesh had both rotted fast and been raided by scavengers. But at least they hadn’t been collected by the Zaps. DeVontay poked the barrel of his rifle through the open window. “Just like before. Never noticed this guy wore a wedding ring, though.” “You have marriage on the brain all of a sudden?” “Beats thinking about whatever’s waiting in Stonewall.”