The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3

by Mary, Kate L.

  I was finally breathing normally by the time Cade came back. Emma sat on one side of me, and Jasper on the other. Cade took the chair across from us while Harper stood off to the side watching with terrified eyes.

  “What happened?” Jasper asked in a soft yet gruff voice. “Where are Blake and Kellan?”

  “B-Blake—” I swallowed. “Blake stayed in Altus. He’s okay.”

  Emma winced but said nothing.

  “Kellan?” Cade asked. “What happened?”

  “We got caught in the tornado. At the farmhouse.” I inhaled, feeling like I’d said too much without taking a breath. When I blew it out, I said, “It was destroyed. The tornado ripped right through it.”

  “Is he dead?” Emma asked in a shaky voice.

  My heart jumped to my throat as images of Kellan dead flipped through my mind. Dear God, please don’t let him be dead.

  “No.” My voice trembled. “I don’t know. We made it out okay, but the car was under a tree so we had to walk. That’s when we came across some men. We ran. Hid in a cave for hours. Kellan went out to see if the coast was clear and didn’t come back.” I focused on Jasper in hopes his strong presence would help me keep it together. “It was the men we’ve been hearing about. I’m sure of it. They took him.”

  “No,” Harper whispered.

  “They didn’t have any zombies with them,” I said quickly.

  Jasper let out a deep breath. “How long ago?”

  “A couple hours.”

  “Shit,” Cade muttered.

  Emma’s grip on my hand tightened. “I’m sorry, Regan.”

  “Sorry?” I blinked and looked around the room, saw the resignation on the faces of my family, and my stomach lurched. I was going to be sick. I jumped to my feet, but once I was up, the nausea disappeared and had been replaced by anger. “We can still help him. He has to be okay.”

  “How?” Cade asked.

  I turned my gaze on Harper. “Her.”

  She shrank back when everyone looked her way. “Me?”

  “You were there.” I took a step closer to her. “In their hideout.”

  “I don’t know where it is,” she said.

  “You have to remember something about it. You said there were a lot of buffalo and longhorn cattle around, so we can safely assume it’s near the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.” I looked around and found the others nodding.

  Jasper got up. “What did you see around the house?”

  Harper shrugged but then shook her head, twisting her braid around her fingers nervously as she thought it through. “It wasn’t really a house.”

  “What was it?” Emma asked.

  “Kind of a church.” Harper tugged harder on her braid. “But old. Musty. It was weird.”

  “What was outside?” Jasper prompted.

  “Mountains. There were a lot of mountains. But there was also this other building not too far from the one we were in, and some walls that had arches.” She brought her free hand up and around to mimic the shape of an arch. “They were made of stones and reminded me of a castle. It was strange.”

  “The Holy City,” Jasper said.

  I spun to face him. “You know what she’s talking about?”

  Jasper rubbed his chin. “I do. They used to have a live Easter performance there every year. There’s a little chapel and a few other structures. Walls, walkways. It’s in the wildlife refuge, but not really a part of it.”

  “Can you draw a map?” Cade asked.

  Jasper nodded. “Sure, I can.”

  “What then?” Emma asked, looking around. “What do we do? Harper, you said there were at least a dozen of these guys, right?”

  “Close to that,” she whispered.

  Emma looked at Cade, and then me. “There aren’t enough of us.”

  “There are five of us,” I snapped.

  Emma nodded at Jasper. “He can’t go.”

  “I’d argue, but my arthritis has been giving me hell. I’d only slow you kids down.”

  “What about you?” Emma looked at Harper, who swallowed.

  “I want to help. I think I can.”

  Emma shook her head. “Four. We have four people.”

  “Well, that’s going to have to be enough to get Kellan out,” I said, “because I won’t leave him.”

  “We’re not going to,” Cade replied. “I just wish we had more people.”

  Emma exhaled. “Damn you, Blake.”

  “We don’t need him,” I snapped. “We have the element of surprise.”

  I turned my back on Emma and found Jasper already busy drawing a map. His gnarled knuckles were evidence of how bad things had gotten, and I found myself missing the old, capable Jasper who’d been in charge of this place for so long. He would’ve led the charge, and it would’ve made me feel more certain of our success to have him on the front lines. Unlike how I felt now, which was a mixture of dread and terror.

  Jasper ripped the paper off the table when he was done. “This will get you there.”

  “How long will it take?” Cade asked, taking it from him and studying it.

  “Hour.” Jasper shrugged. “Longer if you come across any debris from the tornado or torn up roads.”

  “Do we go now?” Emma asked, looking around.

  “We can’t wait,” I snapped at her again, and then let out a deep breath.

  Never before had I argued with Emma. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I’d ever been angry with her. Now, though, I was ready to punch her. If Cade were the one in danger, she wouldn’t hesitate, and it was pissing me off.

  “You need to go now,” Jasper said, ignoring the tension. “It will still be dark when you get there, which means you’ll have the cover of night.” He pointed to the paper in Cade’s hand. “Park the car here and walk the rest of the way on foot. It will be a hike, and you need to watch out for wildlife that could hurt you, but it will give you the element of surprise. Don’t go running in. Stake the place out. Get a feel for who these men are and what they’re doing.”

  “I’ll be able to tell you where I was held,” Harper said.

  “Good.” Cade nodded as he stared down at the map. “That will help.”

  “Then what?” Emma asked.

  “You get in there the second you think the coast is clear,” Jasper said. “Don’t wait.”

  “We won’t.” I had to swallow down more terror when it threatened to bubble up in the form of a scream. “We can’t.”

  Cade shoved the map in his pocket. “Okay. Let’s grab some gear so we can head out. Water, extra ammo, a little food. Not a lot. We need to travel light.”

  Emma headed for the stairs, not looking at me.

  I started to follow but stopped when Jasper grabbed my hand.

  “Kellan will be okay,” he said.

  “I hope so,” I whispered.

  Despite the tension coiled in my belly, I dozed in the second row of the truck as Cade drove. I tried to keep my eyes open and my mind on Kellan, but I was too worn out both physically and emotionally to fight it, and I eventually gave in to the need to sleep.

  He was in my dreams, though. My Kellan. The Kellan who’d laughed at me until I’d cried when we were kids, the one who’d saved me when the zombies came, who’d looked after me every day since then. The Kellan who had kissed me in the cave.

  When the truck rolled to a stop, I jerked awake. My heart was pounding, and the image of Kellan’s smile tugged at my memory, pushing the sleep away, and within seconds I was wide awake.

  I sat up straight. “Are we here?”

  “Yeah.” Cade slammed the truck into park but didn’t move. “We have to get up over that mountain. The city should be on the other side.”

  “Looks like the perfect place to get bitten by a rattlesnake,” Emma said.

  “Shut up.” I shoved the door open and climbed out.

  My heart was going a thousand miles a minute, and the last thing I wanted to think about was the possibility of running into zombies, snakes, or anyth
ing else that might want to take a bite out of us. Kellan was what we needed to focus on. The only thing we needed to focus on right now.

  The others climbed out. I was already at the front of the truck, impatiently tapping my toe against the ground as I waited for them to join me. Emma said nothing about how I’d snapped at her, and despite the fact that she was royally getting on my nerves, I already felt bad about it. She was probably only worried about the possibility of Cade getting hurt while we were out. It was understandable, especially considering what we were walking into. Not to mention how slim the chances were that Kellan hadn’t already been bitten.

  I pushed the thought away. We wouldn’t be too late. We would make it on time.

  “Let’s go,” I said once everyone was at my side and ready.

  Cade shot me a look before exchanging a confused glance with Emma, but he took off only a second after I said it. I wanted to lead, but he had the map, and he was no doubt thinking more clearly than I was at the moment. My thoughts were more jumbled than a word search. They bounced between Kellan’s safety and the kiss we’d shared before going back to replay every moment we’d spent together over the last twenty years. I wanted to focus, but the worry gnawing at my insides made it impossible.

  We reached the mountain and started climbing. It wasn’t what most people would picture when they imagined a mountain, but really more of a rocky hill that was littered with boulders. Some were the size of my head, while others were bigger than Cade and me combined. Their smooth surfaces made it difficult to get over them at times, and prickly weeds sprang from the crevices that left tiny stickers behind when they brushed against bare skin. The fibers were nearly invisible, but literally seconds after being pricked, an intense itch would begin. Of course, those weeds were nothing compared to the other dangers that could be lurking between the boulders. There were four types of rattlesnakes indigenous to the area, not to mention copperheads and cottonmouths.

  The only benefit of climbing up the rocky terrain was that we didn’t have to worry about zombies nearly as much.

  No one uttered a word the whole way up, and when we reached the top, Cade motioned for us to stop. I crouched next to him, peering over the boulder in front of us so I could get a good look at the place. We were behind it, only a little higher than the structure itself, and from this vantage point it didn’t look like much. I’d been to the wildlife refuge many times as a kid, both for a day of hiking and to camp, but my family had never bothered coming here. It looked like the leftovers from the set of a Biblical movie with a really low budget.

  “That’s it?” Cade asked, pointing to the building in front of us.

  On the other side of him, Harper nodded. “That’s it.”

  “No movement,” he said.

  “They could be sleeping,” I whispered.

  “It’s a good guess,” he agreed.

  “Do we move closer?” Emma’s eyes were wide when she looked from the building to Cade.

  He shook his head before turning his gaze on Harper. “Where did they keep you?”

  “A small back room. There wasn’t much there.”

  “Was there a way in or out other than the front door?” I asked her.

  “Not that I know of.”

  “We’re going to need to get closer,” Cade hissed.

  He nodded to the right only a split second before taking off over the boulders, heading for the structures to the right of the building. I ran off after him, with Emma and Harper taking the rear. In the distance, illuminated by the moonlight, stood what looked like a stage. There were also a few walls that, although crumbling slightly, were still standing, as well as some other small structures I couldn’t identify. Among them stood two crosses, with a third one lying on the ground.

  Cade stopped behind a crumbling wall a good distance past the chapel. When I caught up with him, I ducked down and worked on trying to catch my breath. My heart had started pounding out the beat of Kellan’s name again, and even the utter stillness couldn’t calm it. Realizing I wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing to calm myself down until Kellan was safe, I stood and peered over the wall. Nothing moved, and as far as I could tell, no one was around.

  “They’re gone,” Harper hissed.

  “How do you know?” Cade asked.

  She pointed to an overgrown parking lot where a lone car sat. “They had three cars and the truck. There’s only one car here.”

  I recognized it immediately. “It’s the car that chased Kellan and me.”

  “They usually keep the zombies in the truck, right?” Cade asked.

  He sounded more like he was talking out loud than asking a question, but I felt compelled to answer anyway. “That’s the rumor.”

  “That’s what they did when they found us,” Harper agreed.

  “Maybe a big group took the zombies somewhere,” he said. “Maybe the two guys who grabbed Kellan didn’t have any zombies with them.”

  “Meaning they’re waiting for the others to get back.”

  My heart beat harder as his meaning sank in. Kellan could still be okay.

  Cade shrugged. “It’s only a theory.”

  “It’s a theory I love.” I pulled my gun. “We need to go. Now.”

  “We can’t just run in there,” Emma hissed.

  I stood, giving her a cool look. “If Cade were in there, you wouldn’t be saying that.”

  Emma flushed. “That’s not true.”

  “Yes,” I said as I flicked the safety off, “it is.”

  Cade stood as well. “This is the best chance we’re going to get. It’s the middle of the night, and the men are probably asleep. If we wait any longer, the rest of them might come back, and then we’ll be seriously outnumbered.”

  Emma looked between us, her eyes as wide as Harper’s, but after a second she nodded. “Okay.”

  “We can do this,” Cade said.

  I nodded once before taking off, and the others were only a few steps behind me. I stuck to the shadows I as ran, moving at a half crouch that kept me low while also keeping me in a ready position in case we did run into trouble. The world around us was so starkly quiet that it seemed to echo through my head. There were no sounds from animals or bugs, no howl from the wind that normally blew across the mountains and hills, and no moans from the dead. Even our footfalls against the dusty earth seemed to have been stripped of sound, and like that moment in the field when I’d screamed Kellan’s name only to be met with silence, I was struck by how loud the quiet of this new world suddenly seemed.

  When we reached the chapel, I paused, holding my breath as I listened for any sounds that might indicate someone was awake. Like before, there was nothing but silence.

  Cade was at my back, followed by Emma and Harper. The other two women looked ready to shit bricks, but I felt steady and calm. I’d never killed a person, had never thought I’d be able to, but standing there outside the building, thinking about what could’ve already happened to Kellan, I was filled with the certainty I would have no problem pulling the trigger when the time came. For Kellan, I would be able to do it.

  “Let’s go,” I said when still nothing moved.

  “Right behind you,” Cade hissed.

  I went, rushing toward the front door with Cade one step behind me. They were double doors, made of old wood that was thick and heavy, and when I pulled them open, I held my breath, expecting the hinges to creak. Like everything else tonight, the old metal didn’t make a sound.

  Inside was a small entryway and yet another set of doors. The four of us paused for a moment while we caught our breath, but when we were still greeted by the heavy silence that told me no one was up, I made my move.

  I had the doors open in seconds and rushed inside, not even registering whether or not they’d squeaked. The interior of the little chapel was musty from age and pitch black, but the bright white of the walls and high ceiling helped my eyes adjust. The old wooden pews had been moved around and placed so they were facing one another in order
to make beds, and all but two were empty at the moment. To my right, a man was curled up on one of the makeshift beds, while a second man was in an identical position on the left side of the room.

  I moved toward the one on the left, jerking my head to the one on right as I did. Cade nodded and moved so he was standing over the other sleeping man. At the back of the chapel, Emma and Harper remained motionless, their guns out and ready. I paused by the man when I reached him, watching for a signal from Cade that told me he was ready. When he nodded, I pushed the barrel of my gun against the sleeping man’s head while Cade did the same with the other guy.

  Then I said, “Wake up, asshole.”

  “What the hell?” The man jerked and groaned.

  “Don’t move an inch or I’ll blow your fucking head off.”

  He froze and his eyes widened. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Someone who’s going to blow your head off if you don’t listen. Understand?” The guy nodded. “Good. I want my friend.”

  “The Indian?” the guy with the gun to his head said.

  I slammed the butt of my gun against his temple. He groaned and reached up to grab his head, holding it between his hands.

  When the barrel was back against his skull, I said, “He’s Native American, you prick, but yes, that’s the guy.”

  “In the back room!” the man in front of Cade yelled.

  I looked up and found Emma and Harper already moving toward the door. My heart pounded, and I pressed the barrel harder against the guy’s face, trying to make up for the fact that I was no longer looking at him. I should’ve been paying attention, but I couldn’t focus on him because all I could do was watch as Emma worked to get the door open. It was locked, but from where I was, I couldn’t see how. Whatever it was, she must not have needed a key or combination, because she had the door open in no time. I had to force myself to stay where I was while I waited for Kellan to appear. The room grew warmer as the anticipation inside me built, and my heart began beating faster.