The Renegades (Book 5): United by Jack Hunt Page B

back and forth trying to make sense of Sebastian’s actions.
    Frustrated that he wasn’t getting anywhere with the guard, Ethan smashed the side of the container with the palm of his hand.
    “I knew he would do this.”
    “Really? If you knew why didn’t you get him removed?” I replied.
    “It’s not as easy as that.”
    “He sure made it look easy.”
    He took a seat on the ground. “You told me when you came into Paradise you didn’t like rules and yet you have seen how important they are. But with rules and power there is the opportunity to abuse them.”
    I lay back against the side unable to grasp that it had come to this. On one hand he was right. Without rules to govern a society, chaos would occur. With rules, people could turn into dictators. It was a fine line and one that I wished we didn’t have to walk.
    “We should have stayed at the Fortress,” Elijah said.
    “Now you agree with me.”
    “Okay, I admit I’m a sucker for a warm bed, safety and food. But who isn’t?”
    Logic would tell a person that once you were safe, why would you want to walk away from that? In this new world where everywhere you turned danger was lurking behind a corner, you tried to make anything work. We’d spent so much time on the road searching for a safe zone that when we found it, we had just resigned ourselves to stay even if it wasn’t an ideal situation. But that’s the thing. It’s hard to domesticate those who don’t wish to live by rules.
    “Were you aware that large sections of Manhattan had been cleared by this group?”
    Ethan shook his head.
    “Whose decision had it been to expand beyond the walls?”
    “Sebastian’s.”
    “Perhaps he wants to move back into the city.”
    “And you think killing seventy-five people was his way of convincing people? We are missing something here. I don’t think Sebastian knew about those men. I do think he was an idiot for sending us out after them but smart enough to arrange a coup against the rest of the leadership? I highly doubt it,” Ethan said.
    “Maybe not. But let’s face it, if you are playing a game of chess and you want to win, you can’t immediately go for checkmate. You start taking out the pawns.”
    “I’m not following you,” Ethan replied.
    “I’m just saying. You take the route with the least amount of resistance. Where is the real danger for them? Our numbers. The armory.”
    Ethan shook his head. “I think you are overthinking this, Johnny.”
    I blew my cheeks out.
    “How is Annora getting on with her testing?” Ben asked.
    I’d given blood in a less brutal way than what I had experienced in Rikers. As it stood they had found a way to inject people who had been bitten by a Z and in turn keep them alive but it was temporary. Anyone who got bit needed to be injected on a weekly basis otherwise they would turn. She’d been searching for a permanent solution. We still hadn’t discovered what that was but the answer was to be found in us, the anomalies. With only six of us in the camp immune to a bite, there had been a lot of pressure on Annora to find a solution fast.
    “She’s still working on it.”
    “And if she finds it?”
    “Well, then we can turn the tide on this whole thing. It would still mean wiping out those who have turned. For them there is no hope. But for us, and future generations, it would help.”
    “I still can’t get over that they managed to clear the streets in the middle of Manhattan,” Elijah said looking dumfounded.
    “I don’t think they have. Flamethrowers or not. There were thousands of infected in the city.”
    “It’s possible that they have moved on.”
    “True but I don’t think they migrate like birds,” Baja chuckled.
    I stood up and looked out the slatted openings. “We need to get out of here.”
    “And then what? He’s just going to throw everyone back inside.”
    The frustration could be felt by all of us. None of it seemed to make sense. Why go through all of this just so a