Ravaged Land: Divided Series - A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller Books 1-3

by Kellee L. Greene

  Chapter 22

  Downstairs Ross was staring at us with his arms crossed. His eyebrows low on his face as he clicked his tongue at Benny.

  “Told you not to send him,” Ross said.

  Tina soundlessly washed her hands with air. “Shut up, Ross.” She held up a hand. “It’s not what you think.”

  “It’s not?” Ryder asked using Benny as a shield.

  I couldn’t decide who to keep my gun pointed at, so I slowly shifted back and forth between Tina and Ross.

  “I think you sent him up there to take Emery’s gun so you could have it,” Ryder said with a laugh. “Which part do I have wrong?”

  Tina mimicked his laugh. “Well, I guess you got it right, but the reasoning is what you got wrong.”

  “I bet I don’t,” Ryder said.

  “Look, I just want to keep my people safe,” Tina said taking a step forward. When I readjusted my aim, she stopped. “You are my people now too. I want to keep us all safe.”

  My eyes shifted over to Abby who was sitting on the sofa. Her hands were shaking, and her knee bounced up and down.

  “I didn’t want to cause any problems, it’s just that your friend doesn’t seem to understand how important that gun could be for keeping all of us safe,” Tina said gesturing at me.

  “Trust me, I know how important my gun is,” I said.

  “But if I have it I can protect everyone,” Tina said sticking her arms out to the side.

  I clenched my teeth. “I will never give up my gun. Matter of fact, from now on, I’ll put a bullet in anyone that even thinks about taking it.”

  “OK, OK,” Tina said glancing at Benny. She might not give a shit about Ross, but there was a small flicker when her eyes connected with Benny. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Now, if you’d be so kind.”

  Tina nodded at Benny and waved for him to come to her. Of course, Ryder didn’t let go.

  “I have an idea. Let’s make a trade,” Ryder said, and I narrowed my eyes even though I kept them focused on Tina and Ross. I could feel Shawn shift his weight next to me.

  “Ryder,” Logan whispered.

  “I’ll give you Benny, but you’ll give me Abby,” Ryder said.

  Tina glanced at Abby. Her mouth scrunched up awkwardly, and she blew out a puff of air that sounded like a muffled laugh. She turned and looked at Ross over her shoulder, her expression slowly turned into a smile.

  “Deal. Go on, Abby,” Tina said.

  Ross stepped forward and stood in front of Abby. “What are you doing, Tina?”

  “The slut for our son,” Tina said. “Seems like an easy choice to me.”

  “You’re not that stupid, you know they ain’t gonna shoot him,” Ross said.

  Logan stepped in front of Ryder and Benny. The candlelight glimmered on the edge of his blade.

  “No, she won’t shoot him,” Logan said touching the blade to his neck. “That would be too loud.”

  Tina shifted her weight back and forth. She’d seen Ryder take out The Evolved who’d claimed to have wiped out Jacob’s camp. There had to be very little doubt about what Ryder or Logan might do to Benny over the attempted theft of my gun.

  “I don’t want any trouble. Just want my boy,” Tina said. “I don’t give a flying fuck about the girl.”

  Tina’s hand flapped at Abby, moving faster when Abby didn’t move quick enough. Abby stood behind me, but Ryder didn’t let Benny go.

  “OK now, keep up your end of the deal. Give me my boy,” Tina said.

  Ryder hesitated, but Logan lowered his knife slowly. When the front door burst open everyone jerked to the side, except for me. I kept my gun aimed at Tina.

  “We got problems, Tina,” the man said stepping inside. He sounded as though he was out of breath. “We spotted natives… not far. They’re coming this way.”

  “God dammit!” Ross said, moving his hand back and forth quickly through his hair. “What we going to do, Tina?”

  “We… we gotta run,” Tina said pressing her lips together. Her eyes were still on Benny. “Wake up the others get them down here.”

  The man that had come in ran upstairs, seemingly unaware of the situation in front of him. He pounded on the doors, shouting for them to get up and come down to join the others.

  We stood there facing off with Tina. She sneered at Ryder, taking a quick step forward holding up her clenched fist.

  “A deal is a deal,” she spat.

  “You’re right,” Ryder said.

  Logan stepped out of the way. Ryder shoved Benny so hard he stumbled forward and tripped over his own feet. He fell to the ground, pulling Tina down with him.

  “Run,” Ryder said, and they all bolted out the front door, while I kept my gun on Tina.

  “Come on,” Shawn said grabbing my arm. I glanced back and saw that we were the only two left.

  “Right,” I said, following him out of the door, closing it behind us.

  The moon was still bright enough to light the way, but it was still dark enough that it hid much of our surroundings. I didn’t see the natives that were approaching. Hopefully Ryder was leading us away from them, instead of directly into them.

  “Stay together,” Ryder shouted, looking over his shoulder at Shawn and me.

  We weren’t far from the house when I heard the door open and close behind us.

  “They’re coming,” I said to Shawn between breaths.

  “Faster,” he said.

  I tried to move my legs faster, but the soggy ground seemed to pull my feet down deeper with each step. There were voices shouting behind us, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  “Oh shit!” I said reaching around to pat my back. I started to slow, but Shawn grabbed me and pulled me along.

  “What is it?” he asked. “You can’t stop moving.”

  “My backpack. It’s inside the house. Everything…,” I said feeling warm tears gathering in the corner of my eyes. I pressed my hand to my back pocket and felt the packet of seeds tucked inside.

  Shawn glanced at me for a second. “I’m sorry. We’ll find more.”

  “It was all my stuff,” I said sucking in a deep breath. “My stuff from home.”

  “I’m really sorry, but we have to keep going.”

  My heart twitched inside my chest. “I know.”

  I swallowed down my sadness and forced my legs to work harder even though my calves were burning. Not far in front of us, I could make out the shadows of Logan, Abby, and Charlie. Ryder was just a bit in front of us, waving us along.

  All of a sudden Logan came to an abrupt stop. Ryder held out his arm to slow us.

  “What is it?” Ryder asked when he caught up to them.

  Logan, Charlie, and Abby were all looking down a steep hill. I turned and spotted several shadows behind us.

  “We don’t have a choice,” I said pointing at the shadows. “They’re coming.”

  “OK,” Ryder said running his hands through his hair. “Fuck. I wish I could see what’s down there. There’s no time… slide down. Don’t hit your head on a rock.”

  Logan sat down and scooted himself forward. In seconds he was gone, moving down the soggy hill.

  “Here goes nothing,” Charlie said sitting down exactly where Logan had. She started moving down even faster.

  “Keep your legs in front of you if you can. Knees bent slightly… I think,” Ryder said. “Go Abby.”

  She sat down and slid down the hill. I turned around and saw the shadows were even closer.

  Ryder pulled me forward. “You’re next.”

  “Oh God,” I said sitting down and pushing myself down into the darkness.

  The ground was slippery, but it was also bumpy. I held my hand out to my side while gripping the gun tightly in my other. Dirt coated my fingers and crept under my fingernails.

  It felt like I’d been going down the hill forever when I finally came to a slow, painful stop as my leg scraped against a large log. I winced and grabbed my leg.

&n
bsp; “Take it,” Logan said, and I looked up and saw his stretched-out hand. I took it, and he pulled me to my feet.

  My legs felt numb. I took a few wobbly steps before letting go of Logan’s hand.

  Not long after, Shawn and Ryder appeared at the bottom, almost at the same time.

  “Keep going,” Ryder said. “I heard them.”

  “We’re never going to get away,” Abby said. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this.”

  “It’s better than the alternative… staying back there with them,” Charlie said.

  Abby sniffed. “Except I’m going to end up back there and it’s going to be worse. So much worse.”

  “I won’t let them take you,” I said gripping my gun tighter.

  We didn’t make it more than ten steps before someone slammed into Ryder and knocked him to the ground. I couldn’t tell who was who in the darkness.

  “Ryder!” I said trying to figure out where to aim, but before he could say anything, everything turned black, and my body was falling toward the ground.

  Chapter 23

  In the distance, I heard a woman let out a horrific scream. The pain and terror in her voice chilled my bones.

  I opened my eyes and pushed my palms against the ground trying to get to my feet. My hands were empty.

  My gun.

  It was gone.

  I frantically patted the ground with both hands searching for my weapon. It couldn’t have gotten far. Somehow it must have fallen out of my hand when I’d been knocked to the ground.

  “You’re not leaving with her,” a voice I instantly recognized growled. Ross was near.

  I crawled forward, touching every inch of the ground around me. My eyes peered into the darkness looking for any bit of moonlight that might glimmer on the metal to help it stand out.

  I glanced upward to check on the others. Abby and Charlie were hugging one another not far from where I was. Shawn was standing in front of them with his arms stretched out protectively.

  Abby let out a soft cry and wiped the side of her face.

  Before I could get up, someone kicked me hard on the behind. My whole body shot forward, and I flopped down on my stomach. Dirt coated the side of my face where it landed in the mud.

  In seconds, there was a knee digging into my back just to the side of my spine.

  “Got her,” the guy on top of me said.

  “Take her gun, you fucking idiot,” Ross said.

  I looked over my shoulder, spotting Ross and Ryder a foot or so apart from one another. Logan was face to face with one of Ross’ other men. Logan’s fingers were wrapped tightly around the blade he had pointed at the man, ready to jab him if he moved.

  “She doesn’t have it,” the guy on top of me said.

  “Check her waistband. She likes to keep it there,” Ross said, and the guy’s hand started moving across the top of my pants. I tried to jerk away, but he pressed his knee down harder.

  I grunted into the dirt, trying to force myself to focus despite the pain.

  “It's not there,” the guy on top of me called out.

  Shawn looked down at me for a split second and caught my eye. I was pretty sure he spotted the panic that filled my wide eyes.

  “You might as well let us go,” Ryder said weaving slightly to the side. “The three of you can’t stop us.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Back up is on the way,” Ross said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

  There was more shouting in the distance.

  “Sure about that?” Ryder asked. I noticed his hands were empty, he didn’t have the club or his blade, but his hands were balled up into tight fists. He must have dropped the club.

  I pressed my palms into the ground and tried to push myself up, but I barely moved. The guy holding me down let out a small laugh.

  “Going somewhere?” he said close to my ear.

  “Just hand her over, and we’ll let you go,” Ross said.

  “Not going to happen,” Ryder said turning slightly to the side. “Why not let her decide who she wants to go with?”

  When Ryder turned forward again, Ross yanked his fist back before slamming it into the side of Ryder’s face. Ryder stumbled to the side, but quickly regained his footing and threw his fist into Ross’ gut.

  Ross doubled over, and Ryder punched him near his ear. Ryder pulled back his fist, wincing as he shook it.

  “Shit, man,” Ross said extra loudly. He placed his hand next to his ear and then held it in front of his face. “You hit me in the ear? Who does that?”

  “Guess I do,” Ryder said hitting him again. It was so hard I heard what sounded like a bone cracking.

  “You fucking broke my nose,” Ross said, his voice sounding a little stuffed up.

  “You give up yet?” Ryder asked.

  Ross grinned. “Never. Not without her.”

  I could see in his eyes that he’d rather die than give up Abby to us. My eyes quickly scoured the ground. I needed to find my gun, and when I did, I knew that the only way this would end was if I pulled the trigger.

  Maybe the other two guys would run away, but at the very least, I would have to shoot Ross. We all froze in place when we heard another distant scream.

  “Sounds like they’re killing your people,” Ryder grunted. “You should probably go back and help them.”

  “Nah,” Ross said glancing at the guy on top of me. “They’re in good hands with Tina.”

  “Really? It doesn’t sound like it,” Shawn said.

  Ross pressed his palm to the side of his head again. “Would you fucking find her gun already?”

  “I’m trying, Ross,” he said lifting his weight off me just enough that I was able to shift my hip upward and knock him off balance.

  I quickly got to my feet and launched my foot toward the guy’s face. My foot connected just under his chin. I’d hit him so hard his body flopped backward, and he landed hard on his back.

  I blinked several times noticing the moonlight touching something on the ground near his head. My gun.

  The guy shook his head and must have noticed something had caught my eye. He started to turn, but I charged toward him and dove for my gun.

  Our hands landed on it at the exact same time. He yanked hard, but I held on as if my life depended on it. And it probably did.

  The guy was without a doubt stronger than I was, and I wasn’t sure how to swing things in my favor. If it was a battle of strength I wasn’t going to win.

  “Arrr!” I grunted as I pulled the gun as hard as I could, but he pulled it right back turning my body towards him.

  On the ground near my leg was a rock the size of a baseball. Before I realized what I was doing, I let go of my gun and reached down, wrapping my fingers around the rock. I picked it up, and as the guy held up the gun to show Ross, I bashed the stone into the guy’s skull.

  He stopped moving and stared at me, his eyes almost completely crossed. After a second, the gun dropped out of his hand and tumbled to the ground. Blood trickled down his forehead and into his eye before he flopped backward into the mud.

  I smiled as I turned around and aimed the gun at Ross. But my smile faded when I saw Ryder on the ground and Ross’ arm wrapped around Abby’s neck.

  She reached out her hand toward me. He was holding her so tightly she gagged as she tried to suck in air.

  “No,” Abby managed to utter in my direction.

  “Ah, well,” Ross said, stepping behind Abby. “Should have just let me have her in the first place and avoided all this, huh?”

  My eyes darted over to Shawn who was kneeling down next to Ryder. Charlie was behind him clinging to his back while Logan was crouched down ready to attack the guy standing behind Ross.

  “Shoot him!” Charlie shouted.

  “I… I can’t,” I muttered. There wasn’t a clear shot. I couldn’t risk hitting Abby.

  I moved closer. Carefully planting each step as I made my way over to Shawn.

  “Oh, we both know you won't pull that trig
ger,” Ross said confidently. But he must not have fully believed his words because he kept himself well hidden behind Abby.

  “Shawn,” I said taking in a quick breath. I didn’t take my eyes off of Ross. “Is he OK?”

  “He’s out cold, but he’s alive,” Shawn said, and Charlie whimpered.

  Another scream at the top of the hill echoed into the night. It had sounded much closer than the last.

  “Maybe that one was Tina,” I said.

  Ross swallowed and pinched his lips together awkwardly as he tried to keep the smug smile on his face. “She’s long gone.”

  “Or, she’s up there waiting for you to help her and Benny. To save them. Maybe she’s wondering right now what’s taking you so long.” I flashed him a smirk. “I can’t even guess what she might think if she knew you were down here refusing to help her and your son, selfishly caring only about yourself. Something tells me she wouldn’t like that.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ross said aggressively pointing his finger at me.

  All traces of his smile had vanished and was instantly replaced with anger. Hatred. I’d hit a sore spot.

  “Just go without me,” Abby said. “It’s not worth all this. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

  “And I don’t want you to get hurt anymore,” I said crossing one foot over the other as I stepped to the side.

  The guy in front of Logan held up his hands slowly. He took a step back, and then another.

  “Where are you going?” Ross asked in a rough voice.

  “I definitely don’t want to get hurt,” he said turning and running away from us. He didn’t look back.

  “Two down,” I said, raising my eyebrow.

  Ross took a step back moving his hand to make sure I spotted the knife against Abby’s throat.

  “Fuck this,” Ross said, pressing the knife into her skin. “If I can’t have her, no one will.”

  A droplet of blood oozed out of the tiny cut he started. He was serious.

  “You kill her and then you’ll die,” I said.

  “I don’t care,” Ross said throwing his hand into the air.