TheSycamore
Hollow Trials

Mike O’Connell was struggling to hold his family together long before the world fell apart. For Mike, being needed offers a way back from the bottle. For Amelia, it means deciding whose safety she can afford to risk.

Far away, Captain Sheraton leads his stranded soldiers through the ruins, searching for someone still giving orders. Near the Hollow, Duggan has stopped waiting for them. He offers frightened survivors a place in his new world. Obedience is the price.

As his following grows, Mike and Amelia’s refuge becomes something worth taking.

Keeping the children alive may mean teaching them how to kill.

At Sycamore Hollow, Amelia keeps answering questions about her missing husband while organizing defenses against the next attack. Wire strung through the trees might give them warning. It cannot tell her whom to trust. To reach Hannah inside Duggan’s settlement, she needs help from a woman whose own family could pay for the attempt. Waiting is dangerous. Acting too soon could get them all killed.

Hannah’s captors say they have saved her from demons. They feed her, ask her to tend their wounds, and lock the door when she is done. As she learns their routines, she begins to understand how ordinary kindness can coexist with terrible cruelty—and how becoming useful might make it harder to leave.

Meanwhile, Captain Sheraton’s soldiers are following reports of monsters in the woods and a leader who promises protection. His people need a way forward. Duggan has something they need, and a use for their guns.

With the Hollow’s enemies drawing closer, one rescue could put the entire community at risk. Amelia has promised to protect her people. Keeping that promise may require trusting someone whose family’s survival depends on Duggan.

Some promises hold a community together. Others put it in the line of fire.