Isolation | Book 4 | Holding On Jones, Nathan (best smutty novels txt) 📖

fallout of her open opposition to it among their friends, that he'd almost forgotten how she looked without all that worry creasing her brow.

It was nice to see. Maybe in time they could sort out all the chaos they were stuck in, and Larry would be able to see her looking like that when she was awake, too.

He wasn't sure what she thought about them turning themselves in, but for his part he felt like a huge weight had lifted off his shoulders. He still had a lot of worry about the future, especially with what Stanberry would decide to do with Liza for her part in Jay's war, but the fact that he'd finally done what he felt was the right thing made a huge difference.

Finally giving into his own exhaustion, he retrieved his sleeping bag and laid it out across the cage from Liza, facing towards the chain-links so he could look out at the people around him as they prepared lunch. It all looked normal, people chatting and kids playing, which just reinforced how insane Jay had been to try to vilify all these innocent people so he could justify terrorizing them.

Well, Larry was glad he and Liza were done with that now.

He just hoped their information would help Stanberry stop the man before anyone else was hurt. Including everyone in Jay's group; whether they were misguided or just happy to have an excuse to indulge their destructive side, Larry still held out the hope that they'd finally see reason and go home.

Before Jay got them killed in his insane war.

✽✽✽

Ellie paused to look over her campsite one last time, thinking of all the work they'd done to build it and secure it against enemies. Not to mention the wonderful memories she had of this place.

She'd married Hal here. She'd grown closer to Todd, Linny, and Den here. She'd helped quell an outbreak in the main camp from here. This camp represented an important part of her life.

Even so, she couldn't say she felt too bad about leaving it behind.

With Darrel gone and Darby struggling to pull through, the Norsons' friend John Borden on the City Council had taken over leadership of Stanberry. Aside from reorganizing the patrols under new leadership, one of the first and biggest decisions he'd made was to honor Darby's previously made and broken agreement with the quarantine camp, allowing everyone who'd gone through their three weeks to finally move into Stanberry.

That one simple announcement had gone a long way to quelling a lot of the resentment the camp had for the town. And more personally, Ellie was beyond relieved to finally be able to leave their vulnerable campsite and go someplace safe.

Especially with the recent escalation of violence in Jay's war against them.

Since she was mulling on such grim thoughts, she jumped slightly in surprise when an arm slipped around her waist. Then she relaxed at Hal's familiar presence and leaned into his side. “Hey,” she murmured.

“Hey,” he murmured back. “I think we're ready to go . . . saying goodbye to this place?”

“In a way.” She looked up at him with a wan smile. “It has some great memories, but I'm glad we're finally getting behind the barricades. A more permanent home, for once.”

The Norsons, Gen, and Billy had been welcomed into the house of friends when this trouble started, an older couple whose children had moved out so they had plenty of room. Bruce and Winn had convinced their friends to let in Ellie and Hal and their family as well, and after a bit of shuffling around the living room and a study had been prepared for them.

In spite of Cara's complaints, they'd eventually agreed that Ellie and Hal would have the study, while Cara and the kids would be in the living room.

It was a secondary consideration under the circumstances, but Ellie couldn't complain about the opportunity to have more privacy with her new husband. Thus far their honeymoon had been under a pall of tension, with her and Hal trading off shifts on sentry duty to defend their loved ones in case Jay came again.

That had meant far fewer moments for intimacy than she would've liked, and usually they'd had to go out of their way to create them.

Not that those moments hadn't been wonderful, but for once she would like to be able to have an uninterrupted night with Hal, and ideally a leisurely chance to sleep in. She was full of that honeymoon glow and wanted to be with him every second of the day, but with things how they were she'd take what she could get.

With a sigh Ellie took a final long look at the campsite, then turned away. At least all their work here wouldn't be wasted; now that they were moving out Starr planned to expand the main camp's fence to include it, and use it as a sort of reinforced emplacement to guard the entrance to camp.

“All right, let's go,” she said briskly to the kids, who were bundled down with their things. “Everyone ready?”

“We were waiting for you, Mom,” Ricky said, the others all nodding in fervent agreement.

Hal chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair. “That sounds like a yes.” He moved over to pick up his own large load of supplies and camping equipment, Ellie joining him to retrieve hers.

Then they walked away from the campsite without a backwards glance.

At the Zolos-free entrance to the camp a few hundred people were waiting for them, all the others who'd gone through their 21 days. Borden had done his best to find Stanberry residents willing to take people in, but there had only been so many of those. So most of the new arrivals would be housed in businesses and public buildings, made as comfortable as they could.

Nobody was complaining about the accommodations; pretty much anything was better than camping, especially in a crowded place where Zolos loomed as a constant threat.

Among the people moving into Stanberry were Johnny's and