What I saw filled me horror. And with it came the same feeling I’d had with sending the warden to hell -– an emptiness worse than having been frozen lifeless for thirteen years. You could never really settle a score. Even if the things in there were Federation, they were still human beings like us. Except they’d turned into rotters and we hadn’t. Yet.
Your brother could be in there, I thought. Cutter had told me he’d joined up. Whether or not he did it under his own free will didn’t matter. He could be in there with the other rotters. And some part of his brain could still recognize you.
“Are you okay, Brand?” I heard Jade ask. I turned and everyone was watching me with concern. I felt better knowing we were still together. I wished poor Trevor could have been with us, that he’d survived the scorpion toxin and the wolves. If it hadn’t been for him, we wouldn’t have made it this far.
I understood what filled the emptiness in me then. What I couldn’t get from having my revenge on the warden or Sorenson or any Pilgrim.
I had friends.
About the author
As an increasingly rare Portland, Oregon, native, I grew up in the land between volcanic mountains (Cascades) and the sea (Pacific Ocean). However, I’m very fond of long road trips – a fondness that has led me to the high desert of Oregon and the American Southwest. If you read my stuff, you will see the influences of ocean, mountains and desert in abundance.
I write primarily action/suspense stories but I do sometimes cross genres. Even so, a certain eerie mystery tends to pervade my writing. I have always been a fan of the odd, the macabre, the unseen and sometimes the downright shocking.
Red Mountain
Minus Tide
The Teriyaki Samurai
Torn Web
South of Noir
Bramble
There Goes My Baby
Stickman
Stickman 2
Stickman 3
Float Collector
The Haunted House on Wheels
The RiverTalker's Daughter
Axeman's Progress
Room Service Confidential
Infected Planet