Page 90 of What Remains

Crack.

A third ambusher fell before he could even shoulder his weapon.

Seth frowned, ears straining. That wasn't Jay. Wasn't Cara. Wasn't anyone with them.

Another shot. Another body.

The ambushers abandoned the attack at once. "Fall back!" "Move!" "They've got another sniper!" The figures burst from the trees, sprinting deeper into the forest. The unseen marksman picked off one more before the ambushers vanished into the snow-covered pines.

Silence settled almost instantly, broken only by the ringing in Seth's ears and the hiss of steam from a ruptured radiator.

Jay looked around, wide-eyed. "...Who the hell was shooting?"

Seth had already started moving. "Cover me."

He slipped into the trees, moving low where the shots had come from. His eyes scanned the ground until he found it: a single set of boot prints. He followed them, noting the disciplined spacing, the unhurried strides. Not running. Walking. Confident.

He found him nearly a hundred yards up the ridge.

A man in his early thirties knelt beside a fallen log, calmly packing away a suppressed bolt-action rifle with the unhurried precision of someone who had merely finished target practice. Dark beard. Weathered coat. A pack worn thin from months of hard travel.

He looked up before Seth could speak.

"I would've waved," the stranger said evenly, "but your friends were a little busy."

Seth kept his rifle lowered but ready. "You just saved our lives."

The man shrugged. "They picked a bad place for an ambush."

"You a vet?"

Cade offered nothing more, and Seth respected the silence. Seth appreciated that.

"You got a name?"

"Cade."

"Seth."

They shook hands—firm, brief, each man quietly taking the other's measure.

"You alone?" Seth asked.

"For now."

"You heading somewhere?"

Cade's gaze drifted toward the southern horizon, and something unreadable passed across his face. "Yeah."

"Family?"

His expression hardened. "...Something like that."

Seth nodded toward the road. "You helped us. You don't owe us anything—but we'd like to repay the favor."

Cade raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Travel with us. We're heading for supplies. You can eat, get warm. Move on tomorrow if you want."