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

by Kellee L. Greene

  “Are you cold?” Shawn asked.

  I was huddled under a mostly uprooted tree, but it didn’t provide any warmth. The days had been warm, but the nights were quite chilly. Shawn stood out several feet away and continued to scan the horizon even though it was much too dark to see very far.

  “It’s not too bad,” I said, but I shivered giving away my little white lie. We could have started a fire, but with it just being the two of us in the middle of nowhere, I preferred not doing anything that could draw unwanted attention.

  My mind wandered off imagining what it would have been like if things had gone according to my original plan. I’d be stuck out here under a tree hiding all alone. Or maybe I wouldn’t even have made it as far as we had.

  My desire to help Charlie surged hard through my veins making sitting still difficult. I shifted myself around trying to get comfortable. We shouldn’t have stopped. We should have kept traveling through the night. Then again, I knew the odds of actually finding anything were slim to none.

  I had to hold on to the hope that once we made it back to the farm, Charlie would already be back to her old self. She’d act annoyed that we’d left. She’d probably tell us how careless and stupid it had been, but I wouldn’t care even a little bit. I’d just be happy she was back to her normal complaining self.

  “What are you smiling about?” Shawn asked as he lowered himself to the ground next to me.

  “Nothing,” I said, not feeling like explaining my thoughts. In fact, I was afraid that if I tried, I’d burst out into tears, and that was not what I needed to be doing. We needed to be alert and prepared.

  “I’ll pretend it was about me,” Shawn said bumping his elbow into me lightly.

  My insides warmed at his touch, and my mind drifted to what it had felt like to be with Shawn. Being back at the house, taking things slow was how things should have been, but nothing was ever that easy. And it probably never would be. All I could do was be happy with what we were able to have.

  “Why don’t you try to get some rest?” Shawn said, patting his thigh, offering it for me to use as my pillow.

  “I don’t think I can sleep.”

  “Why not? You must be exhausted.”

  I looked back in the direction that we’d come from. “I can’t stop thinking about her. Maybe we should just keep going. It’s quiet, we’d be able to hear if anyone was approaching us.”

  “Maybe. But if we arrive at night, and the city is already occupied, I worry about our chances of survival.”

  “Aren’t you worried about our chances either way?”

  Shawn nodded. “Of course, but in the darkness, in a place I don’t know, I feel like we’d be at a huge disadvantage.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. It’s just that I really want to find something and get back to her.” I sighed as I shook my head. “Not that I really believe we’ll find anything.”

  “If only I could break into our old base up north.”

  “Who knows if whatever The Evolved had would even help her. We don’t even know what’s wrong with her.”

  Shawn looked down at his fingers as he played with a small pebble. “Some kind of food poisoning I’d guess, but yeah, what they had might have been useless for her. I just want to help her get better.”

  “I know. I do too.”

  “She looked terrible.”

  I bit my lip, hoping the tinge of pain would stop the tear that was threatening to leak out of the corner of my eye.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Shawn said wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “There’s always a chance she’ll fight whatever it is off.”

  “It’s fine. I have eyes. She looked worse than terrible.” I rested my head down on Shawn’s shoulder. “And Logan… I can’t stop wondering if the same thing is going to happen to him. Maybe it already has, and we just abandoned them when they needed us.”

  “They wanted us to go. We’re trying to help. Ryder thought it was worth a shot even though he knew it was a slim one.”

  An icy chill ran up and down my spine. “Ryder doesn’t want to lose them.”

  “None of us do,” Shawn said looking down at the pebble.

  “I’m afraid of what it’ll do to him.”

  My body stiffened, not because of the cold, but because the fear of losing everyone suddenly overwhelmed me. Maybe it would have been better to stay alone. At least then the only person I could have lost was myself.

  Chapter 10

  The rundown city popped into view. It was like a blister on the horizon that kept swelling. The city felt like something we should have been walking away from, not toward. My skin prickled at the feeling that there were hundreds of eyes on us.

  There was a stillness in the air, but at least the hot sun was illuminating every building. A strong earthy scent filled my nostrils as we walked past a rotting tree stump.

  “Be ready,” Shawn warned as we drew closer to the city with each step.

  We hadn’t yet slowed our pace. If anyone was inside the city watching for intruders, they’d see us coming, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it, except turn around.

  “I’m always ready,” I said, sounding way more confident than I actually was.

  As we got closer to the outskirts of what had once been a large city, most of what remained had crumbled to the ground. But as we walked down what had once been a street, more remnants of the past remained intact. Some of the buildings still stood tall although the integrity of the structure was highly questionable.

  The air in the city was still, and warmer, or at least it had felt that way. My hand hovered near my hip although I hoped nothing would happen where I’d actually need to use it.

  We walked close together, keeping our bodies tight to the remaining structures. Shawn looked each of the remaining buildings up and down.

  “What are we looking for?” I asked when we stopped in front of a tall, large building with a wide opening where the doors must have been long ago even though there were no signs on the ground that they had ever existed.

  “I’m not exactly sure. A hospital, I guess.”

  “What do they look like?”

  Shawn shook his head. “I’m not exactly sure. We’ll just have to check out what we can. Like this place.”

  He stepped inside the building and looked up at the tall ceiling. There was a crack that ran along to top near the entrance although the way across to the back of the room we were standing in.

  “What if this whole place falls down on us?” I asked drawing in a slow and steady breath.

  “Then that’s that,” Shawn said.

  We walked slowly through the building as if one wrong step could cause a collapse. There were rusted, torn apart chairs laying on their sides and a large desk several feet from the doors. The wood was dark with black speckles covering almost every inch, and it smelled like rot.

  A faded sign hung on the wall with just three seemingly random letters. Shawn waved his hand back toward the door.

  “I don’t think this is right. Let’s keep looking,” he said.

  We walked back out making our way down the street, poking our head into the various buildings. Nothing must have fit what Shawn was looking for, and maybe it just didn’t exist any longer.

  When we reached what appeared to be the center of the city, we weren’t sure which way to go. There were several options that we hadn’t already investigated, all of which would take us to new parts of the hopefully uninhabited city.

  I was about to suggest giving up when Shawn grabbed my arm. He pulled me along as he moved quickly toward one of the buildings.

  It was a smaller building nestled between two buildings, a wide one which looked like it was about to tip over, and a tall one that was missing all of its windows. There was a faded sign on the building that informed me that it had once been a medical clinic.

  Shawn pulled me into the building and stopped to look around. His breathing quickened, but his shoulders slumped d
own.

  The entrance had been covered with a thick layer of dirt and grime. There was a strange plant that was growing over one of the broken chairs, looking as though it was trying to grow its way out of a nearby window.

  “Shit,” Shawn said pounding his fist against his thigh.

  It was clear that the medical clinic had been ransacked years ago. It was unlikely anything would remain, and even if it had, it probably wouldn’t be what we needed, or maybe it wouldn’t even be safe to use.

  “This was a dumb idea,” Shawn said dragging his feet through the dirt. He was walking toward a large room that had once been the pharmacy according to the faded letters that were still attached to the wall.

  “Is this where they would have kept the medicine?” I asked looking at a hole that had been broken through the tall, wooden front desk. There was a door laying on the floor to the left that had been ripped off its hinges and broken in two.

  “It would have been,” Shawn said walking through the doorway. I didn’t bother to follow him and turned around to watch the entrance.

  Shawn noisily kicked and moved things around. He didn’t bother to hide his frustration.

  “We could look for another clinic. A city this large would have more than one, wouldn’t it?” I asked.

  “It might. But it almost might be one of the piles of rubble we’d already walked by. Even if we did find another, it would look just like this.”

  Shawn threw a rectangular hunk of rusted, dirt-covered metal at the wall before taking in a deep breath. He made his way over to me, and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the building without another word.

  We spent much of the day going through random buildings that looked promising, but much like we suspected, everything had been emptied. With each disappointment, Shawn wanted to give up, but I kept insisting on one more.

  Night had crept up on us much quicker than we had planned, and Shawn wasn’t thrilled about spending the night in the city. But we didn’t have much of a choice. It would have been pitch black before we reached the outskirts thanks to the thick clouds that had filled the sky.

  “I guess we’re staying in here,” Shawn said with his hands on his hips.

  I couldn’t even guess what kind of building we were in, but at least it looked to be one of the most structurally sound of all of the places we’d been inside. My nerves twitched at the idea of trying to sleep in the strange place, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it another night without dozing off.

  At least when we slept in the middle of nowhere, we could see everything, inside the building, felt different. We couldn’t see anything except for what was outside the windows.

  “First floor or second floor?” Shawn asked.

  “What do you think?” I asked, not thrilled with either option.

  “Hmm,” Shawn tapped his chin. “I like that the back door opens to another road in case we’d have to split. First floor.”

  I nodded. “First floor it is.”

  Shawn picked a spot that was slightly away from the window but close enough that we could peek out should we desire. We sat down with our backs against the scummy wall.

  “Morning can’t come soon enough,” Shawn said putting his arm around my shoulders and squeezing me closer. The warmth was welcomed, but unfortunately, I didn’t feel any safer.

  Shawn picked at some of the mud around his shoes and let it crumble to the floor. I could tell he was frustrated that we hadn’t been able to find anything that would help Charlie.

  The earthy scent of mold filled the air and threatened to make me sneeze. My eyelids were getting heavier and heavier with each passing minute.

  I was just about to let them close completely when Shawn jolted upward and soundlessly crept toward the window. He held up his finger and pressed it to his lips.

  It didn’t take long for me to hear what had caused him to rush to the window. The voices were loud and careless. They weren’t even a little worried about who might hear them, but maybe that was because this was their city. Maybe they hadn’t expected anyone to be hanging around.

  “Three groups yesterday, and another two today,” a deep voice said. “It won’t be long.”

  “They have that big group to the east,” a woman’s voice said. Her voice cracked with every other word. “That’s the one that is going to be a problem for us.”

  “You give them far too much credit,” the deep voice said with a chuckle that turned into a cough. “This war is coming to a swift end.”

  Shawn’s eyes practically glowed in the darkness. He looked at me for a brief second, before slowly repositioning himself, so his back was tight against the wall.

  My nostrils caught another strong whiff of the mold, and it tickled my nose. It was as though the mold wanted us to be found. My eyes started to water, and I pressed my hands hard of my eyes and nose in an attempt to smother the sneeze before it could escape.

  “The Evolved took out the renegades, their numbers are so small it doesn’t even matter. It’s just them and us. Now it’s just a matter of time,” the deep voice said. The volume of his voice had increased with each word. They must have been coming closer to the building.

  I wanted to get to my feet in case we had to run, but I didn’t dare move. Maybe we’d be OK. I’d only heard the two voices, and I was pretty confident I could manage to take them out. Their bodies would hit the floor before they’d even see me.

  A second later, I heard more footsteps. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. It didn’t seem to end. That’s when I realized exactly what was outside the window.

  It wasn’t just two natives. It was a whole line of them making their way through the city. They were heading somewhere after attacking two of The Evolved bases they’d mentioned. If they found us, they would make easy work of us, or worse, they’d recruit us.

  My body trembled uncontrollably. I was afraid that they could hear my bones rattling.

  The bragging, confident voices were quieter, but the stomping of feet hadn’t stopped.

  “A few days, and we’ll take out the rest. The end is in sight,” the deep voice said. “This stupid war is almost over, and everything will be ours.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” was all the woman said in response.

  If they were still talking, they were too far away for us to hear them. But the footsteps… the footsteps weren’t slowing. They kept going on and on and on.

  All I could do was pray they would continue to follow their leaders. That none of them would notice us.

  I held my body tightly as if trying to make myself smaller. My lungs felt tight as if they were desperate for more oxygen, but I couldn’t move.

  Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

  Chapter 11

  Shawn and I hadn’t slept at all. Even hours after the natives had gone by, we still hadn’t been able to relax our nerves enough to get any rest.

  The night had dragged. All I could think about was how I wanted to be back at the farm with the others.

  My stomach growled, and my mouth was as dry as the grains of rice that it craved. At the first hint of morning light, Shawn and I left the city.

  It took several minutes to orient ourselves and make sure we were walking in the right direction. Thank goodness the sun was rising and the clouds weren’t hiding it, or we may not have been able to figure out the right path quite as easily.

  “They walked that way,” Shawn said pointing in the opposite direction we were heading. “Let’s hope they continued on that route.”

  We walked quickly back down the same broken-up road we’d taken to enter the city. I was anxious to get back out into the wide open area and put the city behind us for good.

  Of course, it would have been nice to have found something that could have helped Charlie, but hopefully, by the time we got back to the house, she’d already be back on her feet. I could see the openness spread out before us and made my feet move faster.

  “In a rush to get back?” Shawn asked looking like he was dragging his feet.

  “Ye
s,” I said, my brow wrinkled. “Aren’t you?”

  “I suppose so.” Shawn ran his hand through his messy hair. “It’s just that I’m not really looking forward to telling them our trip was unsuccessful.”

  I touched his shoulder at the same time something quietly whistled past my head. “Did you hear that?”

  My eyes darted around trying to see in every direction at once. We weren’t far from where the city ended, but I didn’t miss the arrow that had stuck into the ground several feet to my right.

  “Oh, no,” I said grabbing Shawn’s arm. “We’ve got trouble.”

  He spotted the arrow as I yanked on him to follow. Shawn looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, we do.”

  We started running before I had a chance to turn around and look at what was behind us. Another arrow whooshed by us, landing several feet in front of us.

  “How many were there?” I asked between breaths.

  “Five. At least,” Shawn said taking another glance over his shoulder.

  I was trying to decide if I wanted to stop and pull out my gun, or if it was better for us to keep moving. Shawn made the decision for me by moving faster and pulling me along.

  “They aren’t following us,” Shawn said. “At least not yet.”

  “Maybe they just want us out of their city.”

  “Maybe they didn’t know why a native was with one of The Evolved.”

  I lightly touched my skin with my fingertips. “If they think you’re kidnapping me, they’d keep coming after us, wouldn’t they?”

  “Maybe they don’t care that much about losing just one?”

  Shawn and I both looked back at the same time. I saw the natives standing there holding their bows. They weren’t trying to send arrows our way any longer, they were just watching us.

  “I wish we weren’t running in the exact direction of the farm,” I said brushing a few stray strands of hair out of my eyes.

  “Good point,” Shawn said, letting go of my arm as we veered off toward the south.