Hunted

  Defy the Ravaged Book Three

  E.M. Raegan

  HUNTED

  We’ve stumbled into a situation I’m not sure we’ll find our way out of. We’ve done something that may result in the end of our race across the country. Our race to safety.

  But safety is an elusive dream. I can’t see it or touch it. I’m not sure it exists. But what else are we to do? What else is there to reach for? The ravaged have taken over our home and threatened our survival. All we can do is run, and search, and pray we find a place to rest our heads.

  But we’re nowhere near finding it. If it’s not the ravaged, it’s other threats that keep us from finding anything to hold onto.

  Psychos, biters, misguided intentions. Our own demons mocking us. We’re being hunted. Chased from all directions. All we can do is continue this never-ending race for survival and hope nothing catches our tiring strides.

  But we’re tripping over every obstacle and barreling into every wrong decision.

  Because this isn’t the end, but it feels like we’ve already lost.

  Contents

  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

  To be concluded

  Thank You

  Other Books by E.M. Raegan

  Books by Erin Raegan

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Sneak Peek

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Hunted. Copyright © 2019 by E. M. Raegan. All Rights Reserved.

  Cover Designed by Cortney E Designs

  Edited by Joy Editing

  All characters, alien or human, events―on planet Earth or otherwise―in this book are a product of the author's imagination and hours of daydreaming. Any resemblance to actual people, or otherworldly beings, living or dead, or actual events, are entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted, or distributed in any form, by any means, without explicit written permission from the author with the exception of brief quotations embodied in reviews or articles. This book is licensed for your enjoyment only. Thank you, a thousand times and all the hugs, for purchasing.

  For my sister, D, who’s love for zombies and romance may out rival mine. And who listened to this crazy dream I had two years ago and told me to write this story.

  Chapter One

  After Paulie had killed Charlie in front of everyone in the courtyard, those that had backed Rowan’s decision to release us, quickly changed their minds. It was one thing to free us when we were innocent. It was entirely another thing to free us after we had killed one of their own––after Paulie had so suddenly and brutally killed one of their own. The crowd became hostile once more. We weren’t locked up again, but we might as well have been.

  Jay and the others wanted to leave right after the incident. I doubted a single person from our group even thought to disagree. But it was late. It was dark outside. There were too many things lurking in the dark. Rowan tried to herd us back into the building, but Paulie wasn’t having any of it. There was a brief standoff before it was agreed that we could all stay together in a small building that stood off on its own. It looked Iike a shack, and we were all crammed inside, but it was better to stay together than apart.

  I don’t think anyone got much sleep. I know I didn’t. I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel safe much at all these days, but this place felt distinctly hostile. Most of these people didn’t want us here. Most of them would have rather shot us. But even so, we were still missing two of our group.

  Goon had gone inside to be with his daughter, and Rowan allowed Ren inside to see how they were. Rowan had told us she survived, but we were not going to take his word for it. Ren stayed with Goon and Lacey for a few moments before coming outside to inform us that Lacey had, in fact, survived, but it would still be a very long time before she recovered fully. And that was if more complications didn’t crop up. She could get an infection. Our new life was hard and rough on the body, and she could very easily tear her stitches. She was weak and slow, which would be dangerous for her outside.

  Without the two of them, most of us felt more anxious. Too anxious to sleep.

  Then there were those of us that were grieving. We had lost someone again. Reed was gone. And that was their fault. There was no sleeping surrounded by the very people that had taken him from us.

  Monty was up pacing all night long in the small space available to him. The dogs were out there. I had no idea where they were, but I knew they were out there with those things. At any moment, they could be attacked. Bitten. Killed.

  The dogs had listened to him so perfectly when he told them to leave. At the time, that had saved their lives. But now, instead of trying to find us or us trying to find them, we were in a weird limbo. All we could do was wait for the sun to come up.

  Jay found a spot against a flimsy wooden wall and pulled me down between his legs. Blue rested against us as he slept. And Liam stayed close to my other side.

  Several times Jay told me to sleep, but I just couldn’t find it. Instead, I watched Blue and played with Jay’s fingers, focusing on the strength in them to distract myself. The shack was hot, even though it was chilly outside. There were just too many of us inside. We weren’t getting enough fresh air.

  Most of the members of the club glared at the walls or the door, no doubt anticipating any enemy that might find their way inside. Paulie had two members outside taking shifts to watch the facility and make sure no one snuck up on us at night. Our things had been returned to us along with most of what we had taken from the shops in town, but Cam swore he was missing ammo. It was just another reason to get out of here as quickly as possible.

  Paulie had all of us up and ready to walk out the instant thin beams of sunlight streamed through the cracks in the walls.

  Rowan kept his word. He was waiting outside for us, ready to escort us back to our vehicles.

  “You guys ready to go?”

  We gave him nothing but grim expressions.

  Goon was already waiting for us outside the facility. He was sitting in the back of a truck with a small cot holding Lacey’s limp, tiny body. Paulie immediately jumped up into the back of the truck and rested his hand on the top of her head. Her chest moved up and down in little erratic pants. We all held our breath waiting for her to acknowledge him. But she didn’t even flinch.

  Paulie turned his worried eyes to her father. Goon just shook his head. He looked rough. His face was haggard, and his eye sockets were rimmed red and bruised.

  Gia was next to climb into the truck. She knelt down next to Paulie and grabbed Lacey’s hand. I was surprised to see tears in her eyes. But Gia had been doing that a lot recently––surprising me.

  We had been brought here last night through the woods on a small path. I remembered the branches whacking me in the face. I remembered the rocks and roots that I tripped over as I was herded closer to the facility. There was no way the truck Goon and Lacey were in was going to get through all of that.

  Rowan then informed us that we would not be traveling the same way that we came. He would have to take us on a longer route to get out of the woods. But I noticed that there were no other vehicles lined up for us. We would be walking.

  It took us hours. Hours of walking. Hours of anxiety. Hours of terror, our eyes flitting all over the landscape. Hours of watching our backs as multiple people from the facility surrounded us. Rowan didn’t seem the least bit worried about them, but I didn’t trust them for a minute. I didn’t recognize any of them. I didn’t know if these were the people that had originally brought us here. If they were Sam’s supporters or Rowan’s supporters––the dynamics of this place were too much to keep straight. Jay kept me in front of him and rested his hand on my hip. His other hand held his gun tight in his grip.

  Hours and hours of walking and not a single sign of the dogs.

  We walked around the facility and down a long dirt road. At some point, we hit the opposite side of town and walked another two hours before arriving at the hotel we had left the day before. There were a few of the ravaged far off in the distance, but we miraculously managed to stay undetected.

  I had started to believe we really made it––until we rounded the hotel and saw the front lot. There were several of them ambling around the parking lot, and there was no hiding from them. They spotted us immediately, but when Paulie, Ren, and Burman stepped forward to take them out quickly and quietly, Rowan’s people decided to use their guns.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Ren shouted.

  Two men and a woman looked back at him in confusion, making another fatal mistake. One of the ravaged took the opportunity to lunge for the woman. She screamed, and Berman shook his head with a grim tilt of his lips, burying his ax in the thing’s head.

  “You can’t just go around shootin’ em’,” Wiley said with a groan. “That’ll just bring more of ‘em.”

  “How do you know?” one of the men scoffed.

  Wiley just pointed into the distance.

  And sure enough, several of the ravaged could be seen running in our direction.

  “No more guns,” Burman grunted.

  “How the fuck are you gonna kill them without your guns?” the man asked.
  Wiley looked at them with clear annoyance.

  Cam snickered, “How often have you been out of that little hole of yours?”

  Rowan sighed. “Not very much. And only recently, in the last few days.”

  Paulie shook his head this time. “You have no idea what’s out here, do you?”

  Rowan glared at him. “I know you don’t approve of how we’re living. But what you don’t understand is that we are not willing to drag our families out here and endanger them any more than this fucked up situation already has. I respect your decisions, and I understand why you choose to do so, but that is all the more reason for you to understand why we choose not to.”

  “Fair enough,” Jay said gruffly, shooting Paulie and the others a warning glare.

  Paulie nodded to Ren, and he, Burman, and Cam moved forward to meet the incoming ravaged. The three of them quickly dispatched them. Paulie looked back at Rowan. “But you won’t be able to protect anyone until you learn just what’s out here and just how capable they are of reaching you anywhere and everywhere.”

  Rowan nodded warily.

  The group moved closer to the hotel until we reached the doors. There, all of our cars, trucks, and bikes were lined up outside the hotel entrance. Paulie and the other men of our group stiffened. I didn’t know if it was because Rowan’s people had moved them for us or that they had touched their bikes. You just didn’t touch a biker’s motorcycle. Especially not a motorcycle that belonged to one of The Matron’s Watchmen. Regardless, seeing all of them lined up together, it really hit home just how many people were back at the factory.

  Rowan might not want to take his people out here, but he had done it anyway. To help us. I didn’t think he was as clueless as Paulie made him sound, or Rowan himself showed us.

  So many of them had managed to survive this long.

  Still, they should be raiding this town, not trying to preserve it. It was full of supplies. If they didn’t take advantage of what was available to them now, there was a good chance they would meet a group unlike ours.

  Someone else would stumble upon this town and take advantage of what was on offer. And if Sam and his followers tried to take it back, other, more desperate, people wouldn’t hesitate like we had. They wouldn’t wait for a peaceful resolution.

  They would hit back with everything they had.

  And I couldn’t blame them. You did what you had to do to survive. If we had done that, Reed would still be alive. Lacey wouldn’t have been shot. And we would be long gone from here.

  Those kinds of thoughts terrified me. But I knew they would keep me alive. They would keep Blue alive, Jay alive, Dahlia and Billy. Our entire group would also have to adapt like Paulie had just implied to Rowan. We couldn’t keep getting ourselves into these situations. We wouldn’t survive much longer like this. If we didn’t bite back, someone would bite us first.

  Jay took my arm and pressed me up against the side of the building next to Krissy and her mother, Margaret. The older woman was quiet like her daughter, and I had never actually had the chance to speak to her. She tended to stick with Adella, Syd’s mom. There was another woman, Elena, huddled with them sometimes, but she had two children and stuck pretty close to Holt. I didn’t think they were married—Holt was easily in his late 50’s—but he watched out for her and her two children most of the time. Both children older––maybe ten and twelve––but they were all quiet. Sometimes I got the impression they were grieving, though I didn’t know who they had lost. The club members were very respectful toward her and her children, though.

  Krissy gave me a small smile, and her mother sighed, sitting down on the concrete. Sometimes it felt like I had been with this group for years, and other times it felt like many of them were still complete strangers. In reality, I had only learned most of their names in the last few weeks. The end of the world was speeding up interaction––but also somehow hindering it.

  Nina sat down beside me and bumped my shoulder against hers with a small smile.

  I was getting to know these people, but they could be gone from the world at any second. Life seemed so fragile now. It made me want to forget their faces. Forget their names. But that was selfish.

  We all needed each other, and burying my head in the sand would only drag me down into a darkness I might not be able to crawl back out of.

  Paulie and a few others went inside to check out the building while Jay and Cam searched the vehicles and the supplies we had gathered before Sam had stopped us.

  “It’s all there,” Rowan called from the other side of the lot. “If you need more, we can help you stock up before you leave.”

  Jay shook his head. “We’re not leaving until Lacey’s healed up.”

  Rowan stiffened his jaw.

  Dahlia collapsed onto the ground by my feet and kicked off her flats. “Here comes the pissing contest,” she drawled with a small exhausted grin.

  “How are you holding up?” I asked quietly, watching the parking lot as Rowan came closer to Jay. Dahlia had ridden in the truck with Goon and Lacey, but she looked completely worn out.

  She waved me off, leaning forward as several men from both sides converged on each other.

  “You can’t stay,” Rowan said firmly. He was tall, as tall as Jay, but leaner. The two of them faced off, and I held my breath, seeing the angry flush fall over the top of Jay’s cheeks.

  “Your guy shot our girl,” Jay drawled menacingly. “We’re stayin’ until she’s fit to travel.”

  Rowan shook his head. “If it were up to me, I would have no problem with it. But this town belongs to more than just me, and they won’t be happy you’re squatting here.”

  Cam chuckled grimly. “You’re soundin’ like that old fuck back there.” He stepped up to Rowan, his nose nearly touching the other man’s. “You need to look around you. Ain’t nothin’ belong to no one anymore. If it ain’t us rollin’ up here and cleanin’ you out, it’ll be someone else. And after that, someone else.” Rowan ground his teeth together, shifting his jaw harshly. “And if it ain’t the livin’ fuckin’ up your grand plans to move back in and pick up where you left off, it’ll be the dead that comes for you and this whole town.”

  “I get you,” Rowan ground out. “I’m not holding any fantasies that this will all blow over. But, back there,” Rowan waved off to the woods, “they do. They won’t like you guys here, and I may have been able to intervene last night, but it won’t be long until they come right back out here to reclaim everything you touch. I can’t guarantee your safety here.”

  Cam chuckled again and slapped Rowan on the shoulder. “Don’t you worry about us, Sheriff, we didn’t know ya’ll were out there before.” He looked at Rowan’s people with a twisted grin. “We do now, and we’ll be ready for you next time.”

  Burman pulled a semiautomatic weapon out of the back of a truck and casually hefted it onto his shoulder. He turned and leaned heavily against the truck’s tailgate, glaring at Rowan and his people.

  “We shouldn’t have given them back their weapons,” a man grunted, glaring at Burman.

  “Our weapons,” someone else muttered mulishly.

  “Don’t make me regret giving those back to you,” Rowan warned, his face hard.

  I shifted nervously. I was so tired I could fall asleep right here. I didn’t know what I would do if we had to run again.

  Jay pressed his palm into the center of Cam’s chest and lightly shoved him back and away from Rowan. “We won’t cause any trouble.” He looked over the group. “But just like you protecting your town, we’re going to protect our people, and I will tell you this, our family means a fuck of a lot more to us than this wasteland does to you. Just how much are you willing to come at us for it?” The men and women behind Rowan shifted nervously. Jay seemed to swell in size as his voice deepened. “Cause you come for mine, I won’t breathe until every last one of you is in the ground. None of us will.”

 

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