Overview
Burn Zone is a novella by Cairo Smith. It was published by Askari and released on January 3, 2026. The story is set in a defeated future United States after the War of American Aggression and follows Carter Clemens, a former wartime civil servant, as he is judged by a Coalition tribunal for his connection to a catastrophic domestic nuclear plan.
The novella centers on a closed tribunal proceeding and on memories of a May 28, 2045 meeting at Rupert Brunn’s home. The meeting brings together former officials and national-security figures who believe President Avett is preparing to surrender American autonomy to the Coalition.
Burn Zone is available through the Askari store page.
Setting
The story takes place after America loses a great war and falls under Coalition occupation. The postwar order includes the American Reconstruction Government, COFOR troops, reconstructed constitutional rules, and military tribunals for enemy combatants and wartime regime figures.
Most present-day action occurs in a controlled zone around Paul Revere High School and nearby Moulsham Community College, where Carter and other detainees are held and examined.
Plot
Carter is detained after the war and brought before Lorianna Blackstone, an American Reconstruction Government major acting for the Coalition. His wife Sara Clemens and their sons are allowed to see him briefly, emphasizing that the tribunal can reach his family as well as him.
The tribunal reconstructs a wartime meeting hosted by Rupert Brunn. Carter, Brunn, Scott Hallman, Kelly Pearson, and Ben Auerbach discuss military defeat, hardline peace terms, removing Avett from the picture, and a proposed domestic nuclear deterrent plan. The plan is to bring the Fort Drum nuclear device into an American city after a Coalition landing and detonate it against the invading army, even though full civilian evacuation is unlikely.
Carter objects to the plan without total evacuation, but the others treat the meeting as a pact of blood. Kelly Pearson, Scott Hallman, and Rupert Brunn threaten Sara and the boys to force Carter’s silence. The plan later culminates in the Boston nuclear detonation, which kills hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers and leaves survivors in the burn zone.
Blackstone’s tribunal initially appears to rely on testimony and pressure, but she eventually reveals the May 28 recording, an accidental recording from Kelly’s glasses and phone. Ray Bishop, who posed as Carter’s appointed counsel, is revealed as a COFOR officer who helped test the detainees’ remorse. The tribunal sentences Ben, Kelly, and Rupert to death and gives Carter a mitigated military-prison sentence for failing to prevent the crime after his family was threatened.