After the Storm (Book 3): Survival

by Ryan Casey

  SURVIVAL

  After the Storm, Book 3

  RYAN CASEY

  CONTENTS

  Bonus Content

  Survival

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

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  SURVIVAL

  After The Storm, Book 3

  CHAPTER ONE

  Kerry did the only thing she knew how to anymore.

  She ran.

  The darkness was closing in, but still everything seemed bright. Her eyes were barely open; she’d been in real darkness for that long. She couldn’t even think how long she’d been locked away. So many days passed by where she’d sat in that room where Danny and his people kept their prey, and she’d been convinced that it was her last day. That she wasn’t ever going to see the real light again.

  She had seen the light. And when she’d seen it, Kerry was certain it was for one final time.

  But now here she was, running, getting as far away from Danny’s captivity as she could.

  She looked over her shoulder, the cool breeze somewhat refreshing against her sore skin. Through the trees, which arched over her like watchful guards, she swore she saw movement. Danny’s people would be after her, of course. Maybe not right now. Maybe it’d take them a while to figure which direction she’d run in. But that didn’t matter. All that mattered was right now. All that mattered was this moment of temporary freedom. Of respite.

  She turned ahead and flinched when she heard the branches snapping somewhere to her right.

  At that moment, she had a flash of memory. One of her fellow captives. Hearing their screams. Then smelling their flesh cooking away…

  The memory made Kerry’s skin crawl. She tasted vomit creep up her oesophagus into her mouth. She spat it out, steadying herself on a tree. Still, she couldn’t stick around here too long. She had to get as far away from Danny and his people as she possibly could.

  It wasn’t the first time she’d been in captivity, and that she’d escaped captivity. The first time was when she’d been with her daughter, Olivia. They’d been kept in a disused train cabin by people who called themselves Animals. One night, she’d had an opportunity to run, and she’d taken it.

  She tried to go back for Olivia. She wanted nothing more than to go get her, to be by her side.

  But it was already too late. There was no going back.

  So Kerry had been forced into doing the one thing she didn’t want to do. Leave her daughter behind.

  The guilt crippled her stomach to this day, as Kerry threw up some more.

  Still, she told herself she’d done the right thing. After all, her surviving gave her daughter a chance of being freed someday. It meant that someone could go back for her.

  Kerry herself had gone back for her when she’d met with Andy and his group not long after.

  The Animals’ train was already abandoned.

  Olivia was gone.

  One thing that reassured Kerry, though, was that she’d seen the bodies of the Animals—including Rhino, the leader—and she knew that there’d been some kind of conflict.

  She’d found one of Olivia’s little plastic earrings, too. She was too young for proper ones, but she’d always insisted the gold ones looked pretty.

  Kerry held on to it. She’d cherished it ever since. She’d cried into it. She’d fallen to sleep with it clenched in her palm.

  It made her feel closer to Olivia, wherever she was, whatever she was doing.

  She moved a little further through the woods, fast growing certain that Danny’s people wouldn’t be far behind. She was on her own, all over again, and Andy was back there being held prisoner by Danny and his people. She felt deja vu again like she was abandoning someone else she’d grown to care about.

  Judging from Andy’s screams, Kerry knew what he thought had happened to her, and that was a horrible thing to consider.

  She wanted to go back there. She wanted to help. She wanted to at least reassure Andy that she was alive; she was okay.

  But she couldn’t.

  She kept on going. The further she got into the trees, the more aware of her loneliness she grew. Sure, she hadn’t exactly been in ideal conditions back as Danny’s prisoner, but at least she’d been with people. At least, in a morbid kind of way, she was surviving.

  Now she was out here, on her own, left to her own devices once again.

  She thought about Will and the stupid things he used to go on about. His little contraptions, his experiments, his “survival tips.” If only she’d listened to him more, maybe she’d be able to make it out here on her own.

  As disloyal as she felt to Andy, it was Will she thought about now, more than anyone. It was Will she wanted by her side.

  But make no mistake about it. Kerry knew that Will was gone. He might’ve known his tricks and contraptions, but he gave up too easily.

  Probably died up in the Scottish Highlands, a bottle of whisky in hand.

  Bless him.

  She felt specks of rain start to fall on her as she looked ahead at the dark mass of trees. She didn’t know what lay ahead. She didn’t know what was going to happen in a minute, let alone an hour. But she knew that she had to find someone. She had to find people. Because it was only by pulling together that this world could get itself back on track. There was no room for the lone ranger, the conflicts of interest, not anymore.

  Everyone had to come together. There had to be hope.

  She took a deep, shaky breath of the cool air as the rain fell heavier onto her.

  Then, she started walking.

  IT WAS a whole eight days later that a bedraggled, dehydrated, exhausted and starving Kerry found the settlement.

  It was a whole nine days later that she realised she’d dropped Olivia’s earring somewhere along the way.

  And it was that moment everything changed…

  CHAPTER TWO

  I couldn’t stop replaying the events of the last hour through my mind, over and over again.

  It was dark, and the night was getting even darker. Morning would soon be here, the welcome rise of the sun. I felt like I needed to see daylight just so that I could see things clearly again. Not literally, but it seemed like the events that had
happened needed to lay out in the sun and be given a chance to thaw.

  I clenched my jaw together as I listened to muffled voices behind me, and I tried to process everything all over again.

  First, there was Danny. I’d killed him. Not only had I merely killed him, but I’d cooked a part of his leg and fed it to Bouncer. I guess I could call it revenge. It felt sick, but I dunno. Sometimes, that’s what this world did to you. It made you violent. And hey. Danny deserved it. He’d been cooking and eating people for a long time. He’d told me my wife was one of those people.

  And then he’d told me my wife was still alive.

  I couldn’t be certain he was telling the truth, of course. There was a chance he was bluffing about my wife, using it as one final, evil trick to haunt me and give himself the last laugh.

  But there was a look in his eyes; I couldn’t explain it. A look of total sincerity.

  He’d been in agony as he passed away into unconsciousness, Bouncer chewing at his leg stump. He was in too much pain to be making it up.

  And he claimed he knew where Kerry was, which just churned me up inside even more.

  Then there were the rest of the events that unfolded, too. Olivia, harbouring a gunshot wound in her shoulder that I had to hope she recovered from—fast. Some of Danny’s people, who had changed their allegiances, were checking on her right now. She had to be okay. After all we’d done, and how far we’d come, she just had to be. I couldn’t picture a world where she wasn’t by my side. I wasn’t willing to.

  Just as urgently, the conversation I’d had over the long range portable radio with the woman played on my thoughts. She’d told me she was with Kesha, back at Alec’s old military place. She’d told me that if I didn’t prove Danny was alive in the next twenty-four hours, Kesha would be dead, as would everyone back at Heathlock.

  I wanted to believe she was bluffing about the Heathlock thing. I had to; otherwise, it meant I was making an impossible decision to put Kesha before the people up in the Scottish Highlands. Truth was, they were too far away. Way too far away.

  I wanted to believe she was bluffing about Kesha, too. But she’d put Kesha on, and I’d heard her voice, more than enough of a reason to convince me that she wasn’t messing around.

  I’d seen what Danny and his people were capable of. I’d seen the horrors they were willing to commit, the lengths they were ready to go to.

  I had a choice.

  I had to do something about it.

  I had to fight to find Kesha, and once I knew she was safe, I had to fight to find my wife.

  “Will?” someone over my shoulder said. “What you’re planning. With the cars—”

  “How many?” I asked.

  It was a bald guy opposite me. I think he was called Arthur, but I couldn’t be certain. Just one of the many of Danny’s people who had changed their allegiances. Well, now was the time to really prove it. “How many what?”

  “At the barracks,” I said. “How many people will there be there?”

  Arthur puffed out his lips and scratched the back of his head. “We’re missing… we’re missing eight, nine here. So—”

  “So four of us, armed, could easily take these people out?”

  Arthur shook his head. “These are my people we’re talking about.”

  I grabbed Arthur by the top of his shirt. “And that’s one of my people back there at the barracks. Now you’re lucky. Lucky I kept you all alive. And sure, you might’ve changed your tune. But the fact stands. Elana, or whatever the hell you called her, has Kesha. And you’re going to help me stop her killing Kesha. Now where do you keep this car of yours?”

  I walked past Arthur. He tried to grab my sleeve on the way.

  “You’re making a mistake,” he said.

  I stopped again, my vision filtered with rage. “I’m making a mistake?”

  “Me. My people. We helped you here. We helped you take down Danny. But what you’re asking us to do… it could kill us.”

  I gritted my teeth together. I wanted to sympathise with Arthur. In a way, I supposed I wanted to thank him. But I couldn’t. “You made the choice to side with Danny. Now you get to clean up that mess. I’ll ask you again. The weapons. The cars. Where are they?”

  Arthur lowered his head, and I knew then that I’d broken him. I’d stuck to an argument and actually won my case. “You don’t care about what happens to my people. But some of them… they are good people. You might not realise it yet, but they are.”

  Arthur was right about one thing. And it was something I didn’t want to admit.

  I didn’t care about what happened to his people.

  All I cared about was me and those close to me.

  “Get the car loaded up,” I said. “And don’t you dare try and pull anything stupid.”

  I walked past more of Danny’s people, who looked at me sheepishly. I wasn’t in the mood for small talk. I wasn’t in the mood for anything except getting the job done.

  I went inside the room on the ground floor where Olivia was sleeping. She looked pale, and she’d clearly lost a fair bit of blood from her shoulder, where she’d been shot.

  A woman with glasses looked up at me and squinted. “She’s not in great shape. But she’s going to m—”

  “She’d better make it,” I said. “Or I’ll be having serious words with you and your people.”

  I leaned over and kissed Olivia right on her head. She was cold, and it made me shudder to think that she’d be cold if she died, too. I didn’t want to come back here and find she hadn’t made it. The thought destroyed me.

  “Make sure she survives,” I said, as I turned to the door and headed outside.

  I took one last look back at her, went to check Bouncer was going to be okay staying behind here.

  And then I wiped my eyes and made my way to the car.

  I GOT inside the Honda CR-V—apparently one of the lucky cars that’d stayed working, its own metal body acting as a Faraday cage—alongside Arthur and two others of his people—Moira and Stan. None of them looked convinced by what we were doing, by where we were going.

  Arthur put a handgun on my lap as I sat there on the passenger seat. As I went to lift it, he grabbed it and looked right into my eyes.

  “Anything happens, you have our back. We all have each other’s backs. Got it?”

  I didn’t nod. Not at first. Maybe it was that hesitation that made Arthur second-guess this whole thing after all. Maybe if I’d taken a little longer to respond, he wouldn’t have given me that handgun.

  But I pulled it closer towards me and nodded. “We’ve got each other’s backs. Now let’s do what we have to do.”

  I saw the uncertainty in Arthur’s eyes, as he started up the car and pulled away, starting the journey to the barracks.

  I couldn’t blame him for being uncertain.

  If I were him, I wouldn’t have got into a car with me right now.

  My wife was out there, sure.

  My daughter was in a critical state, absolutely.

  But right now, there was only one goal in my mind.

  Get to Kesha before anyone hurt her.

  And as the car left the gates of Danny’s place and headed up the road, towards the hills, I knew for a fact I’d let everyone around me die if it meant getting Kesha back in one piece.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Kesha stared into the woman’s handgun, and she knew that one flinch could cost her life.

  She was disoriented by what time of day it was. There were no windows in this room—the room that, while she was recovering here, had become something of a cell for her over the last… shit. Day? Two days? How long had she been here at all?

  She could remember the circumstances that led to her getting here. She’d been walking with Will, Olivia, and Bouncer. She’d stepped in something sharp. A leg-hold trap. She remembered the agony, but above that, it was the cold feeling that came over her that stuck in her mind. It felt like someone had just turned the temperature of the planet dow
n a few notches. There was such an unpleasantness to it.

  And then… yeah. The agony kicked in again.

  But she’d been brought here. She’d been seen to by Alec’s people. They were military doctors, apparently. She didn’t know where they were right now. She’d heard some shouting and a few gunshots, and she just had to hope they’d pulled through. They were the only real company she’d had over the last few hours, especially since Will took off.

  Damn him.

  She’d wanted to be by his side the whole time while he looked for his wife. She had to admit there was something between her and Will. But she understood how things were. He had his old-world commitments to think about. He had a daughter, too, who he had to look out for. Kesha couldn’t be selfish. What she and Will had was nice.

  But hell. She wasn’t sure anyone was going to be by Will’s side now he’d gone off on a hunt.

  The woman opposite her didn’t talk much. She had dark circles under her eyes, contrasting strongly against her pale skin. She didn’t look healthy.

  She stared at Kesha all the time.

  “Any need for you to point that at me?” Kesha said.

  The woman didn’t say a thing. She just kept the gun pointed.

  Kesha pointed down at her leg, which was wrapped in bandages. “As much as I’d like to, I’m not sure I’m in any fit state to go walkies anytime soon.”

  Again, the woman didn’t say a thing. She was just holding that gun. Waiting.

  Kesha knew what she was waiting for. She’d told Will on the radio that he had twenty-four hours to prove Danny was alive, or Kesha would be killed—along with everyone back at Heathlock. At least she knew Will was alive. That was one thing.

  As for Danny…

  Something told Kesha that Danny hadn’t quite been so lucky.

  “Can I at least have some water?” Kesha asked. “Or some—”

  “You’re a yappy bitch, aren’t you?”

  Kesha raised her eyebrows. “Wow. She speaks.”

  The woman shook her head. “You know, at first, I felt kind of guilty about all this business. I don’t like doing what I do in Danny’s group. It’s never nice to take lives. But it’s food. It’s the way the world works. But you… I thought you’d be different. I mean, you’re a person. You’re not cattle. And yet I’m looking forward to putting a bullet between your eyes in all truth. Least it’ll shut you up.”