The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3

by Mary, Kate L.

  We reached the stream with no problem, and stepping from the cover of the forest meant the beams of moonlight were able to illuminate the area even more. They sparkled off the rushing water, making it shimmer as I knelt beside it, and for a moment I found my mind wandering as I remembered visiting my grandparents when I was a kid. They’d lived outside Altus on several acres of land, and at the back of their property there had been a stream just like this one. I remembered wading in it as child and how cool the water had felt on hot summer days. Remembered seeing small fish and even crayfish, and how angry Matt would get when I splashed him.

  “You okay?” Beth asked, bringing me back to the present.

  “Yeah.” I cleared my throat, pushing away the emotion that had unexpectedly clogged it. “Just thinking.”

  She frowned like she understood. “That can be dangerous.”

  I only snorted in reply.

  “At least you can remember the past,” Ava said from my other side.

  We knelt in a line, each of us watching as the water swept over the canteens.

  “How old were you when the virus hit?” Beth asked her.

  “Five.” Ava sighed. “Too young.”

  “I was twelve,” I said. “Still too young.”

  “Eighteen,” Beth piped in. “Even so, most of the things I remember don’t seem real.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “It feels more like a dream now. Fuzzy.”

  “Exactly,” Beth replied.

  She shifted so she was sitting on the ground instead of kneeling, and I became aware of the ache in my calves. I did the same, and only a second later Ava copied us so she, too, was sitting. A silence that was neither happy nor sad fell over us. It was more resigned than anything. It was how I felt most of the time when I thought about the past and everything that had changed.

  We’d been sitting in the same spot for maybe ten minutes when the sound of voices reached us. I knew Beth heard it, too, because she stiffened at my side, and Ava moved as if to stand.

  I put my hand on her arm. “Wait. Listen.”

  The voices were male, but they weren’t from our group. Of that, I was certain. But I wasn’t sure where they were or which way we needed to go to get out of sight.

  I held my breath, straining to locate the people in the dark forest, and after only a few seconds felt confident enough about which direction they were coming from to know where to go. Easing my canteen from the water, I motioned with my free hand for the others to do the same. I was already moving by the time they stood, carefully placing my feet on the forest floor as I did, praying I didn’t make a sound. Beth waved for Ava to follow me, staying between the teen and trouble. Like me, they moved slowly, crouching in order to stay low and out of sight in case the men were closer than we thought. They still sounded like they were a reasonable distance off, but voices carried differently in the forest, and we didn’t want to take any chances.

  I reached a grouping of bushes and pushed the branches aside, waving for Ava to go first. She did, ducking behind the foliage and disappearing from sight as Beth followed. Before going after them, I looked back, my gaze scanning the darkness as the voices grew closer. Something had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end, but I didn’t know what right away. Then I heard it.

  “Let’s just get this done so we can get some sleep.”

  It wasn’t the words that made my skin crawl. It was the voice.

  Andrew.

  I practically threw myself behind the bushes, dropping to the ground beside Beth, my heart thudding against my ribcage like a wild animal that was trying to break free from a cage. The rush of adrenaline had made my pulse quicken, and I couldn’t seem to calm down. On top of that, I was trembling, both from the realization that the man we’d been running from had shown up, and from the memory of how it had felt to have his hands on my body. If he got hold of me again, I knew what I would face. He’d get me to Atlanta, but what happened along the way would be more horrible than the darkest nightmare I’d ever had.

  Beth put her hand on mine and whispered, “Are you okay?”

  I had to swallow before I could find my voice. “Andrew.”

  Her hand tightened on mine, but this time she said nothing.

  We didn’t move, barely even breathed, and by the time Andrew and two other men came into view, my body felt like stone.

  “Told you I was going the right way,” one of the men grumbled.

  I could just make him out in the moonlight, and right away I recognized him. The asshole had been with Andrew when he grabbed us, had been driving the car. Karl, I thought his name was, but I couldn’t say for sure. It wasn’t like we’d been buddies.

  He knelt beside the river while the man behind him grumbled, saying something I couldn’t hear. I recognized him, too. The night Beth and Logan saved us, this asshole had been on guard duty. I didn’t have a clue what his name was, but his expression had reminded me of a bulldog.

  “Shut up, the both of you,” Andrew snapped. “Just fill your canteens so we can go.”

  No one said anything after that, although Bulldog and Karl couldn’t stop glaring at each other.

  Once they’d finished filling their canteens, they headed back the way they’d come, the two men still shooting each other evil glares. Andrew walked at the back as if wanting to keep his distance, but after only a few steps stopped and turned to face the stream. No, not the stream. He turned to face our hiding place.

  He stood that way for a minute or so, just scanning the forest with his lips pressed together and an expression on his face I couldn’t read. Whatever it was, it was dark—evil, even—and when a shiver ran through me, all I could picture was the devil running his finger down my spine.

  Finally, Andrew turned away, but it was almost hesitant. Like he knew I was somewhere nearby, and he found leaving difficult.

  When he’d disappeared through the trees, I stood. “I’m following them.”

  “What?” Beth grabbed my arm before I could move. “No. Regan, you can’t.”

  “I’m not going to let him get away. Not after everything he’s done.” Heat had started in my veins, making it feel like my blood was boiling, and I clenched my fists as the memories of everything we’d been through came screaming back. “This might be our only chance to catch him by surprise.”

  I tried to shrug Beth’s hand off, but she tightened her grip on my arm. “You have to be crazy. It’s dark, and it’s just the three of us. We have no idea how many men he has.”

  “He hasn’t had enough time to regroup,” I said, but I didn’t know if it was true.

  It was impossible to guess where he’d been since he came looking for us at the settlement in Memphis. He could have found another place and rounded up a new group of assholes who didn’t mind getting their hands a little dirty. Not that it mattered, because even if he had a dozen men, I wasn’t going to let him get away.

  “Plus,” I said, “we have the element of surprise.”

  Despite the way he’d looked around a few minutes ago, there was no way Andrew could have known we were here, which gave us the advantage. The odds were in our favor, and even if I had to wait outside their camp for hours until they fell asleep, I wouldn’t leave until he was bleeding on the ground. He deserved it. That and so much more.

  “They’re getting away. I have to go now.” This time when I shook my arm, Beth released me.

  I moved from the trees, keeping low. Every step I took after Andrew made my heart beat harder, but it wasn’t fear as much as it was anticipation of what was about to come. Of finishing this thing once and for all and sending Andrew to hell where he’d face eternal torment for the things he’d done on this Earth.

  “Go,” I heard Beth hiss behind me. “Tell Kellan what’s happening.”

  “What about you?” Ava asked.

  “I’m going with her.”

  There was a rustling of branches, and I looked back as Beth stepped from the hiding spot I’d just left.

  “B
e careful,” she hissed before running after me.

  I was already crossing the stream by that point, and even when she whispered for me to slow, I didn’t listen. I could hear voices in the distance, but they were faint, and I was terrified Andrew and his men would get away. Terrified I’d lose my only chance to stop him once and for all.

  No. I wouldn’t let that happen. This was it. Andrew was going to pay tonight, and not just for what he’d done to Kellan and me. For killing Jasper and dozens of other people, for kidnapping Harper and hunting her down after she escaped. For shooting Bill and leaving our people stranded. Tonight, he would pay for all of that and for everything else he’d done that I knew nothing about, because men like him didn’t deserve to live.

  I found myself moving faster, my thoughts centered around one thing: revenge. Beth was behind me. I knew because I could hear her breathing, but I didn’t look back. Her footsteps were staggered and louder than before, as if she was having a difficult time keeping up. It was the only reason I acknowledged how fast I was moving. Too fast, I knew. I was getting sloppy, barely paying attention to where I was stepping, let alone my surroundings, but with my focus zeroed in on the sound of male voices in the distance, I couldn’t force myself to slow.

  “Regan.” Beth’s voice was barely above a whisper as she pawed at me, trying to get my attention, but I refused to look back. “Slow down. Stop. You’re too close.”

  “I wanna make it back to Oklahoma tomorrow,” I heard Andrew say, and it made me move faster despite Beth’s warning.

  “You should just cut your losses and let them go,” one of the men replied. Karl, I was pretty sure. “Haven’t they beat you enough?”

  “They haven’t beat me yet,” Andrew growled in response. “I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

  Someone snorted.

  I pushed past a bush, and the back of Andrew’s head came into view, barely ten feet in front of me and just visible over a tangle of bushes. My heart jumped, and I finally came to my senses. Beth was right. I was too close, risking too much.

  Stopping, I ducked down and forced myself to slow my breathing, inhaling deeply as I waited for my heart to slow and my body to relax.

  Beth, panting, crouched beside me, shaking her head. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I can’t let him get away,” I said, shocked by the way my voice shook. Even worse, tears had come to my eyes. I swatted them away, angry at my weakness, but more followed. “You don’t know everything he did to us. You don’t know—”

  My voice broke.

  Beth put her hand on my arm. “I get it, okay? But, Regan, you’re not thinking straight. What if he catches you? What will you do then?”

  I shook my head, swallowing down my grief. “He won’t.”

  “Maybe not, but either way, we are outnumbered. Even the element of surprise won’t help if he has a dozen men.”

  She was right.

  I sucked a deep breath in through my nose then blew it out through my mouth, working to get myself under control. “You’re right. I get it. But I want to at least see where their camp is. I want to see how many people they have. You heard him. He’s going back to Oklahoma. He isn’t done with us yet, which means we have to be ready to stop him.”

  “Okay.” Beth gave my arm a squeeze. “We’ll go and stake the place out, but that’s it. Okay?”

  I nodded, my head bobbing so hard that tendrils of loose hair fell across my face, tickling my forehead and nose.

  Shoving them aside, I took another deep breath and stood. “We need to keep up.”

  “But at a safe distance this time, right?”

  “Right,” I responded as I pushed my way through the bushes.

  I stayed at Beth’s side, matching my pace with hers. It helped ground me, helped keep me focused. The voices were still audible—these men weren’t worried about staying quiet—and they allowed us to keep our distance and still know which direction they were headed. The stream was a lot farther from their camp than it was from ours.

  We’d walked for maybe another ten minutes when the snap of a branch made me freeze. It was close, and when I turned, I found Beth staring down at the branch beneath her boot. Shit. Had it been loud enough to alert Andrew to our presence?

  A second after the thought went through my mind, I heard him say, “You hear that?”

  Beth ducked, pulling me with her.

  My heart rate had doubled at the sound of the branch, tripling at Andrew’s words, and as we knelt behind a grouping of bushes, I worked to calm myself down, taking deep breaths. It felt like I was on the verge of a heart attack.

  “Just an animal, probably,” Bulldog said.

  “Too big to be an animal,” the leader of the group snapped. “Somebody’s out there.”

  “Alive or dead?” another man asked.

  “Don’t know,” Andrew replied, his voice low and curious.

  Silence followed, but it only lasted a few seconds before someone let out a loud whistle. The sound made me tense even more.

  “Anybody out there?” Andrew called a second later.

  Beth and I stared at each other, both of us holding our breath as we waited to see what would happen next. Would they come back to check things out, or would they let it go and continue on their way? It was impossible to say with Andrew. If he suspected I was here, he would look for me, but how could he? He wasn’t God, and he didn’t have superpowers, so there was no way for him to know I was here. What if he simply suspected another person was around? Was he still hell bent on finding immune people, or had his focus shifted completely to revenge?

  I didn’t know him well enough to guess.

  “Nothing’s there,” Karl said after a few minutes of silence.

  Not a second later, another crack echoed through the forest, this one from somewhere to my right. Beth’s eyes widened, and her hand gripped my arm tighter. I looked around, my heart thudding out a rhythm that reminded me of the menacing tune from a horror movie, something that would play just before the killer struck.

  Was it Kellan looking for me? I hoped not.

  “Someone’s there,” Andrew said.

  A moan broke through the silence, and I ripped my knife out without thinking. Like me, Beth pulled her weapon, but neither of us moved as we scanned the trees. We were being quiet, unlike Andrew and his goons, so odds were good that the dead would head their way, not ours.

  Another moan sounded, and scraping footsteps followed.

  “There you are,” Andrew said.

  He was nowhere near me, but the words made my stomach lurch.

  “He’s an ugly bastard.” A grunt echoed through the forest. “Hold on to him now. Yeah, like that. Get behind him. Get a good hold on his collar.”

  “Shit, these things stink.”

  “They’re dead, you moron.”

  Shuffling and scraping of feet followed, along with a few grunts and moans. Beth and I stayed where we were, listening, and it finally occurred to me what was happening. Andrew and his men were capturing the thing.

  They were collecting zombies again, and odds were, the creatures were meant for me.

  24

  Beth’s hand on my arm made me jump.

  “What are they doing?” she mouthed when I turned my attention on her.

  I swallowed as I leaned closer, pressing my lips against her ear. “Collecting zombies to release later.”

  When I pulled back, her eyes had widened again. She didn’t say anything. What was there to say? We both knew what that meant. Even if he didn’t use the zombies on us, he’d use them on someone else he happened across.

  We stayed where we were as the scraping and grunts, as well as the occasional order from Andrew, moved away from us. Once I was sure he was a safe distance away, I nodded in that direction and took off.

  Beth followed, both of us moving at a crouch as we pushed past branches and stepped over fallen logs and other debris. I did my best to keep my footsteps light and move at a reasona
ble pace, but it was impossible to move noiselessly in the forest, and every crunch of leaves beneath my feet made my heart pound harder. The sounds were quiet, and I had to hope if Andrew and his men could hear it over the sounds their zombie captive was making, they’d assume it was nothing more than an animal scurrying through the forest.

  I slowed when the voices grew louder, their words clearer. They weren’t moving anymore, telling me they’d reached their camp, and we weren’t far behind. Waving to Beth, I moved even lower, hunching until I was practically crawling across the forest floor. The thud of my heartbeat in my ears was deafening, but luckily Andrew’s group wasn’t worried about being quiet. Maybe it was part of their plan. Maybe they did this every time they stopped, hoping a zombie or two would follow the sound so they could catch the creatures and use them later. It was foolish even if it seemed to be working for them. One or two they could take without a problem, even if it was just the three of them. But a horde was something else altogether.

  Distracted by the flickering light of a campfire that was now visible, I almost didn’t spot the string in time, coming to a stop less than an inch from it. Either it hadn’t been up when Andrew and his men came this way a minute ago, or they’d somehow avoided it. I wasn’t sure, I just knew I was damn glad I saw it before it was too late.

  Getting Beth’s attention, I waved to the string before pointing out the cans attached to it. Her gaze moved over it, and I did the same, following its path as it wrapped around a few trees and disappeared into brush. Dozens of empty cans dangled from it, and the warning system no doubt encircled the entire camp. At least Andrew had some sense.