The road north has brought Ashlynn, Leith, and Katrina to a fortified high school in Pleasantville. Winter is closing in, and their food is running out.
Here’s a spoiler-light look inside the refuge in We Will Not Be Taken Here.
WHAT THE SCHOOL OFFERS
Hot meals. Clean clothes. A room where the three of them can sleep together. After the road, those are reasons to stop moving.
Katrina has other children to play with. Leith is given work he knows how to do. Ashlynn is offered the thing she's been trying to live without. The people running the school understand needs very well.
WHAT THE FAMILY NOTICES
Ashlynn notices how carefully people avoid questions. Leith notices the chained fire exit.
They stay anyway.
The relief is real. So is the difficulty of leaving a warm room, useful work, and other children behind. Each thing the school offers gives the family another reason to stay, even while they’re beginning to question its rules.
PREORDER BOOK TWO
The Kindle edition of We Will Not Be Taken Here releases October 20, 2026.
Preorder: https://link.amazon/B0dIA724L
WHERE TO BEGIN
This is Book Two of The Unburied. Begin with Ashlynn and Leith's escape from New York in We Will Never Have to Bury Each Other. Katrina is part of the family they become on that road.
Read Book One on Lantern: https://lanternserials.com/story/we-will-never-have-to-bury-each-other-4a79e687
The companion letter, A Place to Sleep and Room to Choose, looks at the harder question beneath those details: when someone meets your needs, how much of your freedom should they get in return? Get future Letters from After the Fall: https://kaseger.substack.com/
Read the full companion letter, “A place to sleep and room to choose”: https://kaseger.substack.com/p/a-place-to-sleep-and-room-to-choose