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

by Kellee L. Greene

  “Thanks,” Logan said jerking his chin toward the bedroom. “I need rest.”

  “OK.”

  I helped him into the bed which was quite a bit harder than I thought it would be. Logan was probably pretty worn out after the day's events, but I had to mentally give Abby credit for taking care of him the way she had. She was a lot stronger than I had realized.

  “He’ll be all right,” Logan said when I didn’t move.

  “Oh,” I said as I came back into the present moment. “I really hope so.”

  “It had hit him hard when we lost Eli, but he was able to keep that hidden better. He did it once, he’ll get through it again.”

  I chewed on my lip and nodded. “What about you?”

  “I got through it once I’ll get through it again,” Logan said with a half-smile.

  “I really hope so,” I said smiling back. “If there is anything I can do just ask, OK?”

  Logan’s eyes shifted downward. “You know as well as anyone there isn’t anything you can do.”

  “I know.” I swallowed down the lump that had formed in the back of my throat.

  My mouth felt dry, as I turned to leave.

  “Emery,” Logan said, and I stopped without turning.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s my fault, and I’m afraid once he realizes—”

  “Logan,” I said turning sharply. “It’s not your fault. You have to get that out of your head. What happened was not your fault.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think I can.”

  “You have to. You have to do it for yourself, for all of us… for Abby. That girl took care of you day and night, waiting and worrying. You’re going to keep fighting because you owe it to her.”

  Logan rested his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes. “It just doesn’t seem right.”

  “A lot of things that happen don’t seem right, but we just have to keep going for those around us that we care about.” I took a step toward the hall. “Get some rest.”

  And with that, I dashed from the room. I sat down on my bed feeling overwhelmed. I’d started out on my journey alone, but suddenly I had people around me that I cared about. Hopefully, it hadn’t been a mistake, but after seeing what Ryder and Logan were going through, I couldn’t help but think that maybe it was.

  I could understand how Ryder felt because if anything happened to Shawn, I wouldn’t go on. My hand would be holding the gun to my head just as Ryder had done.

  Maybe it hadn’t been right for me to stop him. What if things would only get worse?

  Chapter 19

  Several days had gone by before Ryder had even gotten off of the sofa. He’d spent most of his time staring at the ceiling or sleeping, but he had a lot of sleep he needed to catch up on. Ryder surely hadn’t gotten much rest while he’d been tending to Charlie.

  I wasn’t sure how many days it had been since Charlie passed, but I remember the day Ryder got up and stood near the window. He didn’t say anything just stared out looking at the field.

  Shawn had just come back from getting some water from the lake. He looked at Ryder wearing an awkward smile.

  “Hey, you’re up,” Shawn said.

  “Yup,” Ryder said without looking at him. “Is it hot out there?”

  “It is.”

  Ryder nodded. “Thought so. Getting hotter in here every day.”

  “Everything is drying out.”

  “Huh.”

  Shawn started to walk toward the fireplace to boil the water. It was unfortunate that we had to use the fireplace because it raised the temperature in the house to the point it was almost unbearable. But at night it got colder, and I was glad we had it.

  “Hey,” Ryder said turning around pointing at Shawn. “Want to go fishing?”

  “Ummm.” Shawn shifted his gaze toward me momentarily. “Sure.”

  Logan had been making his way into the living room and stopped in his tracks when he heard. He shook his head and then sat down in the chair.

  “Hungry for some fish?” Logan asked clearing his throat.

  “Yes, yes I am,” Ryder said. “Maybe you’ll be able to join us soon.”

  Logan coughed but smiled at the idea. “Yeah, I hope so.”

  Abby walked into the room rubbing her hands together. “He’s getting better every day.” She smiled at him so brightly I couldn’t miss all the love she held for him. “Thinking about making him try the stairs today.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Logan said shaking his head. I think he looked more frightened than I’d ever seen him look before.

  “You can do it,” Abby said. “I’ll be there to help.”

  Logan shook his head. “And if I fall?”

  “I’ll catch you.”

  “Ha! I’ll crush you.”

  Abby looked at me. “Emery will help, won’t you?”

  “Of course,” I said, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it was a good idea and Abby must have been able to sense my uncertainty.

  “My mom and I had to take care of my sick brother before he passed,” Abby explained. “Helping Logan is far easier than that experience.”

  I was curious what had happened to her brother, but I didn’t want to pry. If she had wanted to share, she would have, and it probably didn’t really matter anyway.

  Shawn got the water boiling and asked me to remove it when it finished. He and Ryder were off to try to catch some fish.

  “OK,” Abby said holding onto one of Logan’s arms while I walked behind him on the other side. “You’re doing great!”

  “I feel like I’m seventy,” Logan grunted after taking in a deep breath.

  Abby clicked her tongue. “Nonsense. You have no idea what it feels like to be seventy.”

  “I have a pretty good guess,” Logan said.

  “Look,” Abby said with a slight bounce. “One more step. I’m so proud of you.”

  Logan narrowed her eyes at her, but he couldn’t hide the slight curl to his lips. It seemed as though maybe he was proud of himself too.

  “I still have to get down,” Logan said scrunching up the side of his mouth.

  “Down is the easy part,” Abby said.

  “Who says?” Logan asked, he turned around and glanced at the room Charlie had been in. He swallowed hard and looked down at his feet.

  Logan probably wished he would have been able to get up the stairs sooner. To have spent time with her in her last days. Or maybe he was making himself feel guilty all over again for surviving when she hadn’t.

  “Help me down,” Logan said gripping the railing tightly.

  I held my hands out in front of him as if I’d be able to catch him if he fell, which I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do. Abby was behind him with her hands on his hips.

  Either Logan was motivated to get away from the room, or he’d improved with the more he pushed himself to do. He didn’t need me there. He was slow, but he wasn’t having much trouble, if any, making his way down the stairs.

  “Great job!” Abby said throwing her arms around his neck when we got to the bottom of the stairs.

  I stepped around the snuggling pair that seemed to have forgotten I was there and walked over to the window. There was still no sign of Shawn and Ryder.

  “Hey, guys?” I said glancing over my shoulder. They had already made their way over to the chair, and Abby was curled up on Logan’s lap.

  “Yeah?” Logan said already sounding as if he was uninterested in whatever I was about to say.

  “I’m going to go check on Shawn and Ryder,” I said placing my hand on the doorknob.

  Logan suddenly remembered I existed. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

  “Yeah, sure, why not?” I tapped my hip where my gun rested. “I’m the one that’s armed.”

  “That won’t do any good against a pack of natives,” Logan said raising a brow.

  I tilted my head to the side. “I’d see a pack of natives coming a mile away. It’ll be fine.”

  “I co
uld go with her,” Abby said.

  Logan and I both shook our heads at the same time. I held up my palm and opened the front door.

  I stepped out onto the porch and stuck my head back inside. “That won’t be necessary.”

  I quickly closed the door and made my way over to the lake.

  Chapter 20

  Ryder was wearing a half-smile as I approached. He pointed at the bucket they’d brought with them.

  “Guess how many I caught and how many Shawn caught?” Ryder said.

  I looked inside the bucket and counted three fish, two of which were quite small.

  “Have a guess?” Ryder asked as Shawn stepped up next to me. “I caught them all.”

  “Nice,” I said feeling Shawn’s eyes on me. It felt as though his stare had made the temperature rise several degrees.

  “Came out by yourself?” Shawn asked keeping his voice low.

  I watched as Ryder cast his line out into the lake. He looked happier than he had in a long time.

  “I did,” I said avoiding Shawn’s eyes.

  I knew he wanted to tell me that I’d been foolish, or that I shouldn’t have risked it, but he didn’t say it.

  The clouds in the distance were dark, and the wind howled and whistled through the trees. A shiver ran up and down my spine at the feeling in the air.

  “There’s a storm coming,” I said.

  “Maybe it’ll cool things down,” Ryder said slowly reeling in his line. “Think we have enough?”

  Shawn picked up his fishing pole as a harsh wind blew into us.

  “Yeah, this will do for now,” Shawn said looking over his shoulder at the dark clouds. “It’s going to be a strong one.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “I can feel it… it’s like there is a charge in the air.”

  My head bobbed up and down in complete understanding because I had felt it too.

  “Let’s get inside,” Shawn said.

  “Maybe we should stay a little longer. I heard once the best time to catch fish is just before a storm,” Ryder said shoving a hand into his pocket.

  Shawn chuckled. “Really where did you hear that?”

  “I don’t remember. But hey, look at how many I caught, it could totally be true,” Ryder said grinning.

  Ryder grabbed the bucket, and we started to walk back toward the storage shed. There was a strange vibration in the ground that made me stop in my tracks.

  “Do you guys feel that?” I asked, but they looked at one another and then at me, both shaking their head.

  Maybe I was imagining it, but it felt as though the ground was shaking ever so slightly. Perhaps it was just on account of the storm. In fact, I was pretty sure I could even hear a faint rumble.

  With each step closer to the house, the ground seemed to shake more and more.

  “You guys really don’t feel that?” I asked.

  “I do now,” Shawn said slowing his pace as he looked around. “What is it?”

  “Earthquake?” Ryder asked, his nose scrunched up.

  I shrugged. Since I’d never been in an earthquake, I had no idea what it might feel like.

  “What’s that?” Shawn said, his eyes squinted as he peered into the distance.

  I turned to follow his gaze. Just below the dark clouds gathering miles off, was a thick cloud of dust that appeared to be rising off of the ground.

  “Dust storm?” Ryder asked, but he was shaking his head if he was already voiding the suggestion.

  “I think we should get inside,” I said feeling my nerves prickle as the dust cloud seemed to grow nearer.

  “I think you’re right,” Shawn said grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the storage shed.

  Ryder grabbed the fishing pole from Shawn and ran ahead. “Get her inside.”

  “Will do,” Shawn said, and Ryder ran ahead to put their supplies away. Water splashed out of their bucket as he stepped out of the building and waved us along.

  Ryder was at our heels as we ran toward the front porch. We all stopped and turned to look at the growing dust cloud.

  It seemed as though something was pushing the cloud. There was movement at the bottom, and I could hear the noises better.

  “Oh my God,” I said when I spotted the animals running.

  “Holy shit,” Ryder said stepping down onto the ground below the porch step. “There must be hundreds of them.”

  “We should get inside,” Shawn said tugging on my arm.

  Ryder turned and looked at us with a big grin on his face. “We should shoot one. I mean… right?”

  “It’ll be too loud,” I said just as thunder rumbled in the distant.

  “If anyone is out there, they’ll think it’s thunder. Besides, I don’t think they’d be able to hear it. Listen to that stampede,” Ryder said.

  The pounding of their hooves hitting the ground grew louder and louder the closer they came toward the house.

  “Think of the food,” Ryder said.

  I shook my head. “Without all the snow and ice we had in the north, it’ll go bad in no time… especially with this heat.”

  They were moving far faster than I had realized. In minutes they’d be wildly rushing through our yard.

  “Well, we’d eat good today,” Ryder said with a smile on his face. “We all need it.”

  “I don’t know,” I said rubbing my palm down the front of my pants.

  “Want me to do it?” Ryder asked raising an eyebrow.

  I cocked my head to the side. “No, if anyone does it, it’ll be me.”

  As we stood there staring at the animals rushing toward us, it felt like all of the air was being sucked out of the area. Everything around us had become still as if it were the calm before the storm.

  Ryder leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. “It’s deer. Come on, Emery, shoot one of them.”

  “Ryder,” Shawn warned.

  They locked eyes and held each other for a long moment before Ryder looked away.

  “Fine,” Ryder said throwing his hands up in the air as he stepped back onto the porch. “Who knows if we’ll ever get a chance like this again.”

  I knew it was mostly Ryder’s stomach that was doing the talking. We’d been living on mostly rice since we’d arrived at the farm, and his body, all of our bodies, were craving more.

  Logan would probably get better even faster with something a bit heartier. Something that would be filling in a much different way than the rice was.

  “OK,” I said as the pounding on the ground increased. My heart rate sped up to match the sounds of their impending arrival. “I’ll do it.”

  I took out my gun and stared at the pack of deer heading our way.

  “Yeah!” Ryder said clapping his hands together as he came to stand next to me.

  I shook my head and narrowed my eyes at him. “You are far too excited about me killing an animal.”

  “What can I say? I’m hungry.” Ryder grinned.

  “Are you sure about this?” Shawn asked.

  “Do you think I shouldn’t?” I asked, lowering the gun, and Ryder groaned.

  Shawn crossed his arms as he eyed Ryder. “I don’t think you should unless you want to.”

  “It’s fine,” I said squinting at the deer. I could see there black, almond-shaped eyes staring in our direction.

  “Here they come,” Ryder said.

  We all took a step back closer to the house as the deer rushed forward. They were going to run right past the house.

  I jumped when someone knocked on the window behind Shawn.

  “What’s going on?” Logan shouted through the glass.

  “Stampede,” Ryder shouted back.

  Logan’s face scrunched up as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard him right. But just then, the first deer in the pack ran right by the front porch.

  He wore a magnificent crown of antlers that seemed as though it would have been impossible for him to hold up. But he was doing it, and seemingly with ease.

  The other
deer were on his heels charging after him. They were too close to one another, and I was surprised they hadn’t managed to trip each other up.

  A strong wind blew my hair back out of my face. At first, I thought the wind was from the storm that would be arriving shortly, but quickly realized it was from the deer.

  A loud crash sounded off to our right, and Shawn held out his arms protectively. When I saw the deer that had slammed into the side of the porch get up and shake his head, I aimed my gun at it. In less than a second, he kicked his feet and joined right back into the pack as if nothing had happened.

  It was hard to aim at any deer in particular. They moved much faster than I had expected.

  “I can’t line up a shot,” I said as my gun glided along with each target I tried to pick in the pack.

  My dad and I had done target practice but never on moving objects.

  “Just shoot,” Ryder said nudging me. “You can’t miss.”

  The noises of the stampede made it hard to concentrate. Even the wind they created was distracting me. I could taste the dust that had found its way into my nostrils.

  My hand started to shake, and I tightened my grip. I felt a bead of sweat drip down the side of my face, and the dust that clung to it made it itch.

  I started to take in a breath, but it almost made me gag.

  “Come on, Emery,” Ryder urged softly. “You can do it.”

  I widened my stance and pulled the trigger. A deer made a strange honk like noise as it stumbled and fell to the ground. The deer behind it looked panicked as they tried to hop over it, but most of them stomped on him.

  The dust was thick, but I could see through it well enough to see the deer was suffering. It wasn’t my bullet that was going to take its life, it was the other deer stomping on him that would slowly take it out of this world.

  “God dammit,” I said softly as I covered my mouth. I couldn’t watch. I couldn’t listen. I buried my face against Shawn’s chest and waited for the stampede to end.

  Maybe if we had been more desperate for food, it wouldn’t have bothered me as much. But shooting the deer was more agonizing than it had been when I’d shot and killed Ross. Ross had deserved it. This deer? I wasn’t sure if he had.