After The Fires | Book 2 | The Trials Ahead
Page 1
The Trials Ahead - A Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Thriller
Kellee L. Greene
Contents
Books By Kellee L. Greene
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
What’s next?
Books By Kellee L. Greene
About the Author
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 Kellee L. Greene
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author.
First Edition February 2021
Books By Kellee L. Greene
After The Fires
The Water Farmer - Book 1
The Trials Ahead - Book 2
Coming Soon! - Book 3
The Reset Series
Flood - Book 1
Sinking - Book 2
Drowned - Book 3
Swamp - Book 4
Torrent - Book 5
Striking - Book 6
What Remains Series
Sickness - Book 1
Outpost - Book 2
Infected - Book 3
Evasion - Book 4
Red Sky Series
Red Sky - Book 1
Blue Cloud - Book 2
Black Rain - Book 3
White Dust - Book 4
Indigo Ice - Book 5
Yellow Heat - Book 6
Ravaged Land Series (1)
Ravaged Land -Book 1
Finding Home - Book 2
Crashing Down - Book 3
Running Away - Book 4
Escaping Fear - Book 5
Fighting Back - Book 6
Ravaged Land: Divided Series (2)
The Last Disaster - Book 1
The Last Remnants - Book 2
The Last Struggle - Book 3
Ravaged Land: Eventuality Series (3)
The Wall - Book 1
The Outside - Book 2
Falling Darkness Series
Unholy - Book 1
Uprising - Book 2
Hunted - Book 3
The Island Series
The Island - Book 1
The Fight - Book 2
The Escape - Book 3
The Erased - Book 4
From Below Series
Creatures - Book 1
Desolation - Book 2
The Alien Invasion Series
The Landing - Book 1
The Aftermath - Book 2
Destined Realms Series
Destined - Book 1
1
My life wasn’t my own. And ever since I ended up on the farms, it wouldn’t be. Which was why I had to figure a way out of my prison.
My body was rocking back and forth. It felt like I was riding the waves on the lake as the blistering sun beat down on me.
“Cory!” Ivy said, inches from my face.
I repeatedly blinked until her face was clear.
“Get up! Keeper Marie is going to be here any second.” Ivy’s frustration squished her eyebrows together. She walked back over to her bed. “Don’t get us in trouble, please.”
Farmer Watson couldn’t speak, but her eyes said enough. She too wanted me to get up and make my bed.
“Okay, okay,” I said, covering my yawn.
I didn’t have control over anything. I had to follow the rules, keep my head down, and my mouth shut. It was hard when all I could think about was getting off the farm and finding out what happened to my brother and sister.
They were in the Capital City. I was sent to the farms ten years ago without even knowing if they’d be okay. If there would be someone to take care of them. I’d been fifteen at the time, and they were just kids.
Keeper Marie eyed me as she walked into the room. Her eyes skimmed over Steph’s empty bed.
Steph still wasn’t back. I had no idea if she was even okay. The only thing we’d been told was she’d been in an accident, and the medics were taking care of her.
“Let’s get moving, ladies,” Keeper Marie said, pivoting on her heel. “The water doesn’t move itself.”
I tilted my head down and rolled my eyes. Lucky for me, I managed to keep my mouth shut.
After lunch, I stared out at the glorious Capital in the distance. I envisioned the people living there going about their lives with smiles on their faces. They were sitting outside, getting sprayed with water in an attempt to stay cool. They didn’t give a single thought to where the water came from or how it was delivered to them.
Perhaps they were sitting inside, the roof over their head providing protection from the sun. They’d be sipping cool drinks and enjoying delicious foods.
How would they spend their time when they wouldn’t have to lift a finger like those of us on the farm? They didn’t have jobs to worry about. All they had to do was enjoy life and pray to the Great Mother. If they wanted something, all they would have to do is ask.
The rules in the Capital were different. They could look at one another. They could talk to others without fearing for their lives.
I bet there wasn’t anyone in the city that had eaten a pile of slop for breakfast. They were likely enjoying soft bread with crispy edges, spread with the sweetest of jams. At least, I thought I remembered my mother serving that to me and my siblings when I’d lived in the Capital.
My life before the farms seemed like someone else’s life. It was hard to remember things. There was a haze around everything as if maybe it had all been a dream.
The only thing that was clear in my mind was the day they sent me to the farms. Dragged from everything I knew and loved and left here only to be forgotten.
“Move your feet,” Ivy scolded with squished eyebrows. “And stop staring.”
“Shh!” I said as if Ivy was the one to have done something wrong. Although she shouldn’t have been speaking, so in a sense, she was breaking the rules too.
Ivy shook her head and filled her bucket full of water. Keeper Marie paced back and forth, watching us with a scowl on her middle-aged face. Her arms were crossed—a sign she wasn’t thrilled with my pace.
“I’ve been back and forth four times to your one,” Ivy grumbled. “It’s like you forget they’re watching.”
“How could I forget that?” I asked.
I sighed and looked away from the Capital. The one thing I knew for sure was that those living there weren’t about to start a wretched day of work in what felt like hell. They wouldn’t be soaked in their own sweat before lunch time. And even if they were, they coul
d take a shower and change their clothes.
I wasn’t exactly sure when the jealously of those in the Capital had started, but it was probably around the time Hawk tried to convince me we could get out of the farms. I shouldn’t have ever allowed myself to fantasize about the possibility.
There was a reason they didn’t want us talking or remembering. They wanted that life erased, so we didn’t think about it. They didn’t want us to remember what we were missing.
It actually kind of made sense, though. Since it wasn’t possible for us to leave the farms, they didn’t want us to daydream about being elsewhere. We were all stuck on the farms until the day we died. I’d be buried with the other farmers, and my brother and sister would never even know I’d passed away.
Maybe they wouldn’t even care.
I sighed and carried my bucket with my head down. My body knew how many steps it was from the lake to the spot where I’d dump my water into the tank to get filtered and sent to the city. I could work with my eyes closed.
Everything on the farms was back to normal since the deaths of the Watchers in the tree circle. No one mentioned it. And no one asked questions. Everyone stayed quiet, did their jobs, and followed the rules as though nothing had happened.
Hawk hadn’t been around much. He was always busy working on the wind farm and trying to figure out how to get us out of the farms and back to the Capital.
I hadn’t seen Steph since I’d left her with Watcher Brody in the tree circle. For that matter, I hadn’t seen Watcher Brody either. I wasn’t sure if I would ever see either of them again. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if Steph was alive.
Watcher Brody would have done everything he could to help her. I had to believe that. But I knew it hadn’t been good… she’d been left in terrible shape.
The morning passed by in a blur. I’d been moving in slow motion, thinking about everything that happened since the day I’d been kicked out of the Capital and brought to the farms. It was always just the same thing day after day.
If only I would have been smarter, things would be different. I’d reacted without thinking. I’d been fed up. If I would have been able to control myself, I wouldn’t be stuck working my life away on the farms. I’d be in the Capital, living a happy, peaceful life.
“Hey,” Hawk whispered as he walked closer to me after lunch.
Everyone was trying to digest their food and cool down before we’d have to return to our jobs.
I kept my head down but flicked my eyes upward to meet his. Hawk didn’t even know what had happened that night with Steph, and I didn’t think it would do any good to tell him. It would just make him eager to get us out of the farms sooner, and while I was ready to leave at a minute's notice, I didn’t want him to get caught with whatever he was doing to research the way out.
“Still working on the plans,” Hawk muttered hastily.
“Blessings,” I replied in case there were any Watchers or Keepers in hearing distance.
“I’m going to figure this out for us, Cory. I promise you,” Hawk said, brushing his pinky against the back of my hand. Even in the heat, I shivered at his touch.
Hawk raced off and joined his group as though nothing had happened. I watched them as they walked away from the food tents to get back to work.
Not far from where they were, I spotted Commander Godfrey on the hill, pacing back and forth as he spoke. His hands were clasped behind his back and his spine was pole-straight. Four new Watchers were lined up, facing him, but each one of them had their eyes down.
Respect?
Obedience?
Perhaps both, as the Commanders were above the Watchers. They were their masters, just like the Keepers and Watchers were our masters.
It hadn’t taken long for the Capital to send new recruits for the team of Watchers. Were there really that many people in the Capital waiting to be sent to the farms? It was hard to believe that anyone would want to come here by choice.
There wasn’t anything they could do if they didn’t like their training or the rules. Once they were here, they were stuck here until the Commanders released them. Which, of course, was almost never. Old age was the only reason I could think of where Watchers had been relieved of their duties.
Most of the Watchers I saw on a daily basis had been working on the farms for as long as I’d been here. Only a handful had come after I’d arrived.
The new Watchers seemed young. Maybe even younger than I was. They were definitely foolish. Commander Godfrey likely preferred it this way so he could mold them to his liking.
The new young Watchers, however, didn’t know what they’d gotten themselves into. It wouldn’t take long for reality to set in. I couldn’t wait to see the regret in their eyes, even though they’d try to hide it.
Farmer Watson appeared at my side. She was so quiet I wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there.
Her eyes flashed briefly toward the young men.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “New Watchers.”
Her head bobbed once as if she already knew about them.
“Idiots,” I whispered as I met her eyes.
She held my gaze and nodded again.
We both turned at the clanking sound the carriages made as they bounced down the bumped pathways on the farms. Someone from the Capital was coming.
2
The carriage came to an abrupt stop twenty feet from where Farmer Watson and I stood. She took a step closer, hiding halfway behind me.
Keeper Marie came racing toward us, concern wrinkling her brow. Her cheeks strawberry red as sweat streamed down the sides of her face.
“I’m coming,” she shouted as she waved her hands at the man dressed in pure white stepped out of the carriage. Keeper Marie pasted a fake smile to her face and slowed her pace. “My apologies for my tardiness.”
The man looked down his nose at her and grunted. He reached inside the carriage and yanked out an arm.
“No!” The voice was familiar. “I don’t want to be here. Take me back. I’m not better!”
She broke free of his grip and slapped his arm before jerking her arm back inside the carriage. Another man walked around the carriage. Together, both men first caught Steph’s legs and then her arms.
She fought with everything she had. Steph didn’t give a shit. She punched and kicked and screamed at the top of her lungs.
The men flung her to the ground and quickly closed the door. She dropped to her knees and pressed her hands together.
“Please, take me back,” Steph begged. “I’m not well. I’m still in so much pain. You can’t do this to me. Please, I don’t belong here.”
The men easily ignored her. It’s like they don’t even hear her painful cries.
They bob their head toward Keeper Marie and drive off as Steph screams for them to stop. With her palms on the dirt, she clawed the ground as if that would somehow get them to stop and come back for her.
“No!” Steph screamed. They wouldn’t have even heard her over the noisy carriage at their distance.
Steph flopped down onto the dirt. Her hands lazy at her sides and her eyes wide and unblinking as she stared at nothing.
I walked toward her with Farmer Watson close behind me. Keeper Marie held up her hand to stop me. She whispered something to Steph, but she still didn’t move.
Steph looked broken.
Keeper Marie called over to a couple of Watchers. She spoke quickly to them as she pointed toward the cabins.
They nodded and lifted Steph. She was like a doll with too little stuffing as they carried her away.
“So nice to see your sister, isn’t it?” Keeper Marie asked with a big, fat, fake smile on her face.
“Is she all right?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off her.
“Of course,” Keeper Marie said with narrowed eyes. “She probably didn’t get much rest while she was healing in the Capital City.”
I bit down on my cheek to stop myself from asking more questions. I was lucky I’d gotten away w
ith asking the first.
Keeper Marie seemed distraught from the situation. Maybe even a little embarrassed too.
“Come,” she said. “Let’s collect Ivy and get to work. Busy day ahead of us.”
The work we needed to do wasn’t any more than any other day. Every day was a busy, important day in Keeper Marie’s eyes.
I worked hard the rest of the day. The sooner the day was over, the sooner I could check up on Steph. To say I was worried was an understatement.
I’d never seen her like that. It was like she’d given up, and that sort of behavior wasn’t going to be tolerated on the farms.
After work, I was the first in line behind Keeper Marie as she led us back to our cabin. She scurried as if she too wanted to see how Steph was doing. Or maybe she was worried Steph wouldn’t be in the cabin. A thought that had crossed my mind as well.
The door squeaked as Keeper Marie opened it and took several hasty steps inside. Steph was lying in the same position she’d been in after the men had left her in the dirt—a blank stare and shallow breaths.
I wasn’t the hugging type, but I wanted to go to her. However, with Keeper Marie in the cabin, I had to stay in my own space. Keeper Marie knelt down next to Steph’s bed, and from inches away, she ducked into Steph’s empty gaze.