Hunted (Parallel Series, Book 3) (Parallel Trilogy)

by Christine Kersey

  “Hi,” I said, trying to keep my eyes open.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” Tyler asked.

  “Water would be great,” Billy said.

  Tyler went into his kitchen and a moment later brought back two glasses of water. Billy gulped his down, but I drank mine more slowly. As I sipped, I listened intently for the scream of the sirens, but didn’t hear any and hoped that meant the Enforcers had given up their search.

  “Do you live around here?” Tyler asked as he watched us.

  “Yeah.” Billy said.

  “Whereabouts?”

  “Look, we appreciate you helping us out, but we’d better get going.” Billy looked at me and motioned with his head that we needed to leave. “Our parents are going to start getting worried.”

  “Really now?” Tyler smiled. “Actually, you aren’t going anywhere.”

  I sat up straighter, on alert, my gut telling me this wasn’t like Mrs. Duncan, who had insisted we stay because she didn’t like what the government had done. My sudden movement must have startled Tyler, because his gaze shifted to me.

  Never taking his eyes off of us, he reached into a drawer behind him and withdrew a gun, pointing it at me. “Sit down, Michelle. Or should I call you Morgan?”

  Billy sighed and shook his head. “What do you want?”

  “What do you think?” His hand never wavered. “The reward money.”

  My gaze was glued to the barrel pointed at my head as all exhaustion fled.

  “Billy, you go sit down next to your friend.” Tyler waved his gun like a pointer, directing Billy to sit next to me.

  I tore my gaze away from the gun and watched Billy as he slowly sat next to me. Our eyes met, but I couldn’t read his expression and wondered what he was thinking. I knew what I was thinking. This guy is either going to shoot us or turn us in. And I found neither option acceptable. I turned my gaze back to Tyler, and as I looked at the black gun in his hand, I wondered what it felt like to be shot. I hoped I wouldn’t find out.

  “What do you have in that backpack, Morgan?” Tyler asked.

  Just everything that I needed to get back to my world. “Nothing.”

  “Really? Well, let’s have a look. Dump it out on the floor.”

  I took the pack off of my back and slowly unzipped it.

  “Dump it on the floor to your left.”

  That would put everything out of Billy’s reach, which was obviously what Tyler wanted. I turned the backpack upside down and the water bottles fell out first, quickly followed by the hatchet, the two stun guns, the GPS device and the first-aid kit.

  “Now kick everything toward me. And drop the backpack too.”

  I did as he asked, the barrel of the gun pointing steadily at me.

  Tyler used his foot to push everything to the side, even further away from both me and Billy. “You have an interesting assortment of items that you travel with.” He picked up one of the stun guns. “Nice.” He put it on his hip. “Now,” he said, grinning, “You both sit tight while I make a phone call.” With his free hand, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He pressed some numbers, then held the phone to his ear.

  His gaze never wavered from Billy and me and I wondered how we’d get out of this.

  “I want to talk to someone about the reward money.” His gaze flicked between Billy and me. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have some information that will lead to their capture. But I want to know what it would be worth to you if I can turn them over to you.” His grin faded a bit and he glanced away, but only for a second. “What do you mean, the price is the same? If I can deliver them right into your hands, I think you should pay me more.” As he listened to someone speak, the look of satisfaction he’d held a moment before turned to anger. “Now you listen here, I have the two punks you’re looking for and I won’t turn them over to you until you agree to double the reward.”

  I glanced at Billy and he looked at me. Then I saw his lips curl into the tiniest of smiles and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: This guy’s greediness is his weakness.

  “I’ll give you one minute to think it over,” Tyler said, then he pressed a button and shoved the phone into his pocket.

  “Not giving you what you want, huh?” Billy said.

  Tyler pointed the gun directly at Billy. “You shut up.”

  “Shhh,” I whispered, hoping Billy wouldn’t make the man any more agitated.

  “Listen to your girlfriend, you worthless piece of trash.” Tyler sneered. “They’ll see it my way. Look at all the trouble I’m saving them. They won’t have to waste time chasing down you two losers.”

  The venom in his voice surprised me and I spoke without thinking. “Why do you hate us so much?” Tyler’s gaze shifted to me, as did the gun, making me wish I’d stayed quiet.

  “What you don’t understand is that I don’t care about you at all. I think you and your kind are a burden on society.”

  “Our kind?” Billy asked.

  His attention turned to Billy. “Yeah. You know. People who think they don’t have to follow the rules.”

  The pledge I’d been saying five times a day in the F.A.T. center immediately popped into my head. I pledge to always follow the rules and to take care of my body. I will strive to put the good of all above the desires of one. A healthy me is a healthy world.

  “What rules didn’t we follow?” Billy asked.

  I wondered if he was trying to distract the man or just irritate him.

  “Shut up, kid,” Tyler said. “Just shut up.”

  “I think your minute is up,” Billy said, smirking.

  Tyler glared at Billy, then pressed a button on his phone and pressed it to his ear. “Time’s up,” he said into the phone. He paused, evidently listening. “Have it your way.” He pressed a button and jammed the phone into his pocket, then looked at us. “Guess you guys aren’t worth as much as I thought.”

  “Or maybe they traced your cell signal and they’re on their way over right now to pick us up,” Billy said. “And give you nothing.”

  I hoped he was just trying to scare Tyler, but I knew he was probably right, which terrified me.

  A look of panic crossed Tyler’s face. “Time to go.” He waved his gun at us. “Both of you. Out to the garage. Let’s go.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice—I had no desire to be captured by the Enforcers—and jumped to my feet. Billy was right next to me. Tyler stayed behind us, making it impossible to pick up any of the items I’d dumped from my backpack.

  I opened the door to the garage and stepped out. As my gaze settled on the motorcycle, I wished we could jump on it and ride away, but I didn’t think that was what Tyler had in mind.

  “You sit on the passenger side,” he said to me.

  I opened the passenger door and sat down.

  He closed the door, but pointed the gun at my head through the open window. “Now, Billy, you open the garage. If you run, I’ll kill her.”

  My gaze shot to Billy’s face, wondering if he’d abandon me. If he wanted to run, this would be his chance. Billy’s eyes snapped to me, then to the garage door. I watched him walk to the garage door and reach for the latch that would allow him to slide the door open. He disengaged the latch and pulled, and the door rumbled open. He stood in the night air, his back to us, and I held my breath, waiting to see what he’d do. Finally, he turned around and walked to the car.

  I exhaled in relief and my heart surged with warmth toward this boy who had done so much to help me.

  “You’ll drive.” Tyler tossed Billy a set of keys, then climbed into the back seat directly behind me.

  Billy slid into the driver’s seat and looked at Tyler in the rear view mirror. “I don’t have my license yet.”

  “Don’t matter. You drive, and if you try anything stupid, I shoot the girl.” He pressed the cold barrel against my neck, and a shiver of fear raced up my spine. “Let’s go already,” Tyler said.

  Billy turned on the
engine and we backed down the driveway. “Where are we going?”

  “Go to the corner and make a right.”

  Billy did as he was told. A moment later several cars flew past us and turned down Tyler’s street. Under the street lamps I could see the cars were filled with Enforcers.

  Tyler swore under his breath.

  I gasped at how close we’d come to getting caught. When I looked at Billy, he glanced at me, then pointedly looked at the seatbelt hanging next to me.

  “Looks like we made it out just in time,” Billy said.

  “Shut up and keep driving.”

  I took advantage of Tyler’s focus on Billy and slowly pulled the seatbelt across myself and softly clicked it into place.

  “Do you have a safe place we can go?” I asked, trying to draw Tyler’s attention away from Billy so he could put his seatbelt on. “A place where they can’t find us?”

  “Of course I do. Do you think I’m stupid?”

  Based on the fact that he hadn’t considered his cell signal was traceable, in fact I did think he was stupid. “No. I was just wondering where we’re going.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Billy had managed to put his seatbelt on. I also knew Tyler wasn’t wearing his—he was leaning too close to me.

  “Turn left at the corner.” His eyes were on Billy, but the gun was still pressed against my neck.

  We turned and I saw a wide street lined with shopping centers. Only a few cars were on the road, making me feel like we stood out. “Won’t they be on the lookout for your car now?” I asked, as I pictured the Enforcers swarming us.

  “Yeah, probably,” Tyler said. “But what’s the worse that can happen? They drag you two back to the F.A.T. center? Who cares?”

  “They’ll probably take you too,” Billy said, a smirk on his face. “You know, for ‘helping us escape’.” He did air quotes with one hand as he spoke.

  “What are you talking about? I’m not helping you escape.”

  “That’s probably not what it would look like to them,” Billy said.

  I sat silently, focused on the metal pressed against the tender flesh of my neck. As Tyler spoke, the pressure of the barrel lessened and I hoped he would move it away from me.

  “Why don’t you just drop us off here, then you’ll be in the clear,” Billy said.

  Tyler was quiet for a moment, apparently thinking it over. “No, then I’d get nothing.”

  Like we cared.

  He shifted in his seat and a moment later he spoke into his phone. “Have you changed your mind?” he asked. A pause. “Yeah, they’re with me now.”

  I looked at Billy and he gave a tiny nod. I gripped the arm rest on the door with my right hand and squeezed the seat with my left, and then shifted slightly to the right, away from the gun.

  Billy stomped on the gas.

  “Hey,” Tyler yelled from the back seat as he was thrown backwards.

  Billy turned sharply to the right into the empty parking lot, then slammed on the brakes. I jerked forward, but the seatbelt held me in place. Tyler wasn’t so lucky. I heard his head slam into the back of the seat. I got my seatbelt off, threw the door open, and bounded out the door. When I glanced toward Billy’s side of the car, I saw he was still in the driver’s seat, struggling with his seatbelt. Then my gaze shot to the backseat and I saw Tyler slumped forward, but then he slowly moved his head, like he was trying to shake off his confusion. I raced to Billy’s door and pulled it open.

  “It’s jammed,” he said, squeezing the seatbelt latch, trying to disengage it.

  I looked over his shoulder at Tyler, who seemed to be coming out of his stupor, then pulled open the door to the backseat. My gaze was immediately drawn to Tyler’s hands as I looked for the gun, but he wasn’t holding it. Then I saw it on the floor behind the passenger seat—completely out of my reach.

  Tyler must have seen it too, because he bent to reach for it.

  That’s when I noticed the stun gun on his left hip. I reached over and snatched it from his hip. His fingers wrapped around the gun on the floor, and as he began to sit up, I pressed the stun gun against his side and squeezed the trigger. He stiffened and dropped the gun, then fell to his side.

  I hooked the stun gun onto the waist of my jeans and glanced at Tyler’s gun, which had fallen back to the floor out of my reach.

  “Forget it, Morgan,” Billy said. “He can’t use it right now. Just help me get this seatbelt off.”

  I backed away from the rear of the car and went to Billy’s side.

  “Hurry,” he said. “The Enforcers are probably on their way. When that idiot called them, they were probably able to pinpoint our location.”

  As if to confirm Billy’s statement, the sound of approaching sirens pierced the quiet night. We wrestled with the seatbelt latch and it finally gave way. I jumped back and Billy sprang out the door.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said.

  I glanced at Tyler, who was still motionless on the back seat, then followed Billy at a jog as he headed toward the dark shadows that lined the parking lot.

  Chapter Three

  We ran onward and the sound of the sirens increased in volume as they drew near the shopping center. I only hoped Tyler would be incapacitated long enough for us to get away.

  “I sure wish we still had that motorcycle,” Billy panted.

  “Maybe we can go back and get it from his house.”

  Billy glanced at me. “I doubt it would still be there.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Enforcers probably confiscated it.” He glanced at me again. “Along with the backpack.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. That backpack held the GPS device which had the coordinates for the tunnel that I would need to enter in six weeks. If I couldn’t find that tunnel again I’d be stuck in this awful world forever. I pushed the thought away—I had more immediate concerns. “Where are we going to go?”

  “I’ve been thinking. The woman who let us use the motorcycle? Mrs. Duncan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “She gave you that paper with names on it. She said they would help us if we needed it.”

  In my hurry to get to the tunnel, and then in our haste to get away from the Enforcers, I’d completely forgotten about the slip of paper. As we ran, I reached into my back pocket and pulled it out. I tried to read it, but there wasn’t enough light. I put it back in my pocket, comforted just to know it was there. “We need to get to a phone.”

  We reached the end of the parking lot and turned down an adjoining street. I glanced back the way we had come and saw three Enforcement vehicles roaring up to Tyler’s car. Enforcement officers spilled out of the doors and swarmed Tyler’s car, guns drawn. Adrenaline flooded my veins. “Look, Billy.”

  He saw what was happening, then immediately picked up speed.

  With fear of capture giving me fresh energy, I had no trouble keeping up. A moment later we were past the shopping center and I couldn’t see what was happening with Tyler. I hoped that meant the Enforcers wouldn’t know where to look for us. Tyler had been lying down when we ran, so I hoped he didn’t know which direction we’d gone.

  I was so tired of running. Not just the physical act—which was bad enough—but running from people who hated us and wanted to hunt us down and drag us back to the F.A.T. center. The place where they forced us to eat drug-laced power bars, and hit us when we didn’t exercise the way they wanted us to. Not to mention the cruel Saturday Challenge competition where I’d fallen into a pit of writhing spiders. Remembering that now, I shuddered with revulsion.

  A few minutes later we found ourselves in a quiet neighborhood. When I realized it must be about ten o’clock, my earlier exhaustion returned. Not only that, my mouth and throat were dry, but we didn’t have any water. Our water bottles were spilled out on Tyler’s floor—assuming the Enforcers hadn’t taken them. My earlier energy burst had been spent and I found myself having trouble keeping up with Billy. “Slow down,” I sputtered.

>   He changed his pace so that he was next to me. “Are you okay?”

  I slowed even more. “Of course not. I’m wiped out, I’m thirsty, and we’ve got Enforcers trying to find us.”

  “Okay, okay. I get it.” He slowed to a walk and glanced at the houses that lined both sides of the street.

  I thought of the empty house we’d found the night before where we’d used the faucet in the garage to wash up. “Maybe we can find an empty house again.”

  “Maybe.”

  The sounds of sirens pierced the night air and a shiver of dread tripped up my spine. “We’ve got to get off the street.” My voice was a whisper.

  “I know.” He paused, then pointed. “Over there.”

  I looked where he pointed and saw another house among the rest, and it didn’t look empty. “Where?”

  “See that shed in the backyard?”

  I squinted in the darkness. “No.”

  “Well, I can only see the roof, but there’s a shed there. Maybe we can sleep in there for a while.”

  I imagined all the creepy crawlies that would certainly be in there and hesitated. Then I thought of Hansen getting his hands on me and decided a few bugs were preferable. “Okay.”

  We headed toward the gate that led to the backyard and I hoped no dog lived there. We paused at the gate but all was quiet and we didn’t see any lights on in the house. Billy opened the gate and I walked in first. The shed was right in front of us—we wouldn’t have to go past the back patio to reach it—but the door was on the opposite side from where we stood.

  “Let’s go,” Billy whispered.

  I followed him as we squeezed through the space between the fence and the shed. The size of the small structure reminded me of the hut that had led to the tunnel that had brought me to this world—about ten feet square—but this building was made out of plastic. We reached the double doors that led into the shed and saw no lock on the doors.

  Billy opened one of the doors just enough for us to slip inside, then closed it behind us. I forced thoughts of dangling spiders out of my mind and tried to see into the darkness. A small window on one wall allowed a little bit of moonlight to trickle in, helping us to see. A lawn mower and other yard equipment were tucked against one wall. Shelves with neatly organized tools lined another wall.