Back From The Dead: My Apocalypse Level-up System novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Brent Comes Back

He was waiting outside the wall at sunrise.

I saw him from the barn platform, sitting in the dirt with his back against the gatepost and his hands hanging off his knees.

It took me a moment to be sure it was Brent.

One side of his face was scarred from the temple to the jaw, a long shiny pucker of burned skin.

Two fingers were missing from his left hand.

His pressed shirt was gone, and so was the smile.

By the time I came down the ladder, half the farm had gathered at the gate.

"Is that him?" the farrier asked.

"That's him."

"The one who paid the thieves?"

"Yes."

"He looks bad."

"He's alive," I said. "He wasn't supposed to be."

Conroy came to stand beside me with his rifle on his shoulder.

He did not say anything, and I was grateful.

I walked up to the bars.

Brent lifted his head.

His eyes filled before he said a word.

"Devon," he said. "Babe."

"Don't call me that."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." His voice cracked. "I got out. The ward, they said nobody gets out, and I got out. I've been walking for nine days."

"Why?"

"To find you."

"You found me."

"I need help."

"I know."

He pressed his forehead to the steel.

"I'm begging you," he said. "I know what I did. I know I don't deserve a thing. I'll sleep in the dirt, I'll carry water, I'll clean the latrine. I just need to be inside somewhere."

I looked at him for a long moment.

Behind me nobody spoke.

I thought of the tailgate, and the key, and a man who had shouted that I was bitten, and I waited to feel something.

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