The Last Struggle - A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Ravaged Land: Divided Book 3) Read online

  “Now what do we do?” I whispered. Maybe Abby was right. Maybe we should just take care of our little problem.

  “If he doesn’t leave in the morning… I’m going out there,” Shawn said. “Get some sleep. Just in case I need your help.”

  I swallowed hard and made my way over to the sofa. My neck muscles were sore from my shoulders being tensed up to my ears. I rubbed the back of my neck and closed my eyes.

  It felt like only minutes had elapsed when someone was shaking me awake.

  “Ugh, what is it?” I groaned.

  “He’s leaving,” Shawn said, and my eyes popped wide open.

  16

  The man kicked the ground as he walked toward the fence. He was taking the exact same path he had the last time he’d been here.

  “He’s alone,” I said rubbing the sleep out of the corner of my eye with my fingertip.

  “Yeaaaaah,” Shawn said. His eyes quickly darted away from the man and back toward the storage building. “That can’t be good, can it?”

  I shook my head.

  The floor above creaked, and Shawn’s eyes darted toward the stairs.

  “We’re going to have to go out there,” Shawn said running his fingers through his hair. “Think Ryder’s up for it?”

  “Probably not.”

  Shawn patted my shoulder as he walked toward the stairs. “I’ll ask him.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, why not?”

  I tucked my hair behind my ears. “I don’t think he’s going to want to leave Charlie alone.”

  “You could stay with her,” Shawn said raising an eyebrow.

  “You are so funny. I don’t know if we should bother him. Don’t you think we can handle it?”

  My eyes shot up when the floor creaked above us. Ryder was standing at the top of the stairs with his arms crossed. The dark circles under his eyes were even worse since the last time I’d seen him.

  “Bother me about what?” Ryder asked, as he slowly descended the stairs.

  “The native left,” Shawn stated as if he was reporting the situation to his commanding officer. “He left the other man behind.”

  Ryder nodded. “And you need me for what?”

  “Just more people to go out there, you know, just in case something should go wrong.” Shawn’s casualness had returned.

  “Oh, yeah no problem.” Ryder looked back up toward the bedroom, but I was sure he couldn’t see Charlie from where he stood. “I can take a few minutes to help out.”

  “Perfect,” Shawn said reaching out for the doorknob.

  “How is she doing?” I asked, and Shawn’s hand dropped down to his side.

  Ryder swallowed hard. “Just when I think she’s taken her last breath, she takes another. She’s fighting her ass off.”

  “How’s Logan?” Ryder asked lowering his voice as he gestured toward the hallway.

  “A little better.”

  Ryder nodded, but his expression hadn’t changed. He shook his head in disappointment. “They knew better.”

  I pressed my lips together to stop myself from saying anything. They’d made a mistake, there was no use dwelling on something we couldn’t change. Logan already blamed himself for what was happening to Charlie, he wouldn’t need help making himself feel bad about what happened.

  “Well,” Ryder said pointing his chin at the door, “should we head out there?”

  “Got your blade?” Shawn asked.

  “Always.”

  I followed Ryder and Shawn out of the house, both of them moved slowly. The native that had left wasn’t in sight.

  When we got to the storage building, Shawn paused and held out his arms as if he was worried it was some kind of trap. He looked the doorway up and down, and when he was satisfied, he dropped his arms.

  Shawn was the first to enter the building, and Ryder followed. They both seemed to stop in their tracks blocking whatever was inside from my view.

  I pushed through, worried I might need to use my gun, but I instantly realized my gun wasn’t going to be necessary. My hand flew to my mouth and the gasp that tried to escape felt as though it had gotten caught in my throat.

  Laying on the ground was the man the native had hauled along. He wasn’t dead, but he looked as though he would have preferred that he were.

  There were both streaks of dried blood and fresh blood on his face. Blood had soaked through his shirt in more places than it hadn’t. There was so much blood that I could actually smell it in the air.

  “Mm-mrr!” the man mumbled with wide, pleading eyes. I squinted at him as I tried to decipher what he’d tried to say to us, but his words were unintelligible due to the fabric that had been stuffed in his mouth and tied around his head. “Mm-mrr!”

  “What’s he saying?” I asked without taking my eyes off of him.

  “No idea,” Ryder said holding his hands up as he took several steps closer. He bent down and untied the fabric quickly as if he was afraid the man would do something to him.

  The man gasped for air and started coughing. He didn’t stop until he spit up a chunk of what looked like dried blood.

  “Oh, God, you have to help me,” he said, a tear trickled down his cheek quickly turning pink, then red before dropping down onto his already blood-stained shirt. “Please, cut me free.”

  The man’s eyes darted from Ryder, and then to me, before settling on Shawn.

  “You,” he said coughing again. “Please!”

  Shawn opened his mouth, but words didn’t come out. It was one of The Evolved members begging another, only the man on the ground hadn’t realized that Shawn was no longer affiliated with his people.

  “I don’t think we can do that,” Ryder said, taking a step away.

  “Then kill me!” the man cried. “Why keep torturing me? I told your leader everything I know!”

  Ryder and Shawn exchanged a glance. The guy on the ground thought that we were working with the native that brought him here.

  “Are you a prisoner too?” the man on the ground stuttered. His eyes were planted on Shawn

  “No,” Shawn said.

  The man grimaced and sucked in a sharp, harsh breath that made it sound like he was being strangled. “Then what are you? You should be helping me! If I weren’t tied, I’d burn the markings right off of you.” The man spit out another hunk of blood. “I hope you rot in hell.”

  Ryder’s shoulders bobbed as he let out a hearty chuckle, and my eyebrows pinched together. I jerked back when Ryder abruptly moved forward and grabbed the guy roughly by the collar lifting his upper half several feet off of the ground.

  “I don’t know who the hell you think you are,” Ryder said between his teeth. “Look at you. You’re pathetic.” Ryder spat on the ground near the guy’s leg. “Unless I ask you a question, keep your disgusting mouth shut.”

  The man tried to hide his trembling as he nodded in agreement. Ryder let go of him, and he dropped hard to the ground.

  “What exactly did the man that brought you here ask you?” Ryder asked staring at the bloodied man.

  “He… he asked me questions about The Evolved. I told him everything I know,” the man’s lip quivered slightly.

  “Traitor,” Shawn muttered, as he flashed the guy a smug smile. The guy started to sneer, but it instantly vanished when Ryder kicked his leg.

  Ryder tapped his chin with his index finger. “What exactly did he want to know about The Evolved?”

  “He wanted to know about any nearby bases, how many men were at each of them, things like that,” the guy said sucking in a breath. “Are you going to let me go?”

  Ryder ignored his question and gestured at his blood-stained shirt. “You didn’t give the information away easily, did you?”

  The man shook his head.

  “Is there anything else he wanted to know?” Ryder asked, looking at his fingernails as if they were more important than whatever the man was about to say.

  “He said he had explosives. He thanked me for hel
ping him, and then he left.”

  Shawn and I looked at one another. We’d searched the home pretty well but hadn’t found any explosives.

  “Explosives?” Shawn said narrowing his eyes. “Are you sure that’s what he said?”

  “Positive. So, you guys aren’t associated with him?” the guy said his eyes brightening with renewed hope.

  “Did he say anything else?” Ryder asked.

  His eyes slowly darkened. “The last thing he said was that God would forgive me.”

  “Huh,” Ryder said nudging me with his elbow. “We need to… we’ll be back.”

  Ryder stood there waiting for Shawn and me to exit before he followed. Shawn kept walking until he reached the front porch. He leaned back against the wooden railing and crossed his arms. I sat down on the step and looked up at Ryder.

  “Well, I bet you both know what I’m going to say,” Ryder said, and Shawn nodded.

  I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. “No, what are you going to say?”

  Ryder let out a long exhale and tilted his head down but kept his eyes on mine. “We have to… we can’t let him… He’s one of The Evolved. We have no choice.”

  “Wait, you’re just going to kill him?” I said, my words sounding squeaky. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I bet he’s done plenty wrong,” Shawn said.

  “I’m not sure what other option we have,” Ryder said throwing his hands into the air. “If we just leave him in there, he could escape. We can’t let him go because he’ll go back and tell The Evolved about this place.”

  It felt terrible, but Ryder was right. Letting him go, would be risking our lives because if they came, there wouldn’t be anything we could do but stand our ground and try to fight. We couldn’t run with Charlie and Logan in their current conditions. They wouldn’t even have to come with many to finish us off.

  “I can’t do it,” I said shaking my head. “If he came at me, or tried to hurt one of us that’d be one thing, but with him laying helpless tied up? I can’t. I just can’t.”

  “I didn’t ask you to,” Ryder said pulling back his shoulders. “Go back inside. Both of you.”

  “Are you sure?” Shawn said taking a step forward.

  Ryder’s head bobbed slightly. “Please, go check on Charlie for me.”

  I bit my lip. “Ryder I—”

  He abruptly held up his hand and waved me toward the house. “It’s fine.”

  My stomach twisted, and my legs felt heavy. Shawn placed his hand on my back and guided me back toward the house. I placed my foot on the first step when Shawn closed the door causing my body to shudder.

  When I was about halfway up the stairs, I heard the man cry out. His begging screams were filled with terror, but it didn’t last long.

  When silence fell, the air felt heavier. I knew it was over.

  17

  That night Shawn and Ryder buried the body together while I waited in the house. I sat on the sofa resting my elbows on my knees while Abby sang to Logan.

  When she finished, he spoke softly to her. He was improving rapidly.

  I sat there unintentionally eavesdropping on their conversation. Abby wanted Logan to try to stand up, but he didn’t feel ready.

  She asked several more times before everything inside the room became quiet. I tried not to think about what was going on in the room, but the silence made it too hard. If I didn’t focus on something, my mind would drift off to what Shawn and Ryder were doing outside.

  I stood up and marched up the stairs. My steps softened as I reached the top. I drew in a deep breath as I stood in the doorway watching Charlie’s slow breathing.

  She hadn’t eaten in days, and she probably hadn’t had much water either. I don’t think she’d even opened her eyes since Shawn and I had gotten back from our failed quest to find medicine.

  “Oh, Charlie,” I whispered as I pressed my hand to my heart. I wished there was something I could do to make it all go away. Charlie had been awful to me, but she hadn’t deserved this.

  I walked into the room and sat down on the bed next to her. A cold chill ran down my spine when I took her chilly hand into mine.

  The house was hot and humid, even in the middle of the night, but Charlie was cold. I didn’t know if Ryder was aware of the drop in her body temperature. Maybe it had only happened recently because he hadn’t told us about it.

  I tucked the blankets around her tighter and tried to decide if I should go out into the night to tell Ryder. They’d both told me to stay put, no matter what, but I wasn’t sure if that included things that had to do with Charlie.

  I’d give it a few more minutes before I’d worry about informing Ryder. Maybe she just needed another blanket.

  I ran down the stairs and pulled the blanket off of the bed I’d been using some nights. It wasn’t like I was going to need it in the heat.

  I doubled it up and spread it out on top of her. Her cheeks were sunken in so deeply I could have poured water into them, and it wouldn’t have run down her face.

  “Charlie, if you have any fight left in you, now is the time. Ryder needs you. I barely recognize him,” I said looking down at her middle as if I couldn’t stand to look at her face any longer. “Logan too. He’s getting better. We all miss you, Charlie. Please, please come back to us.”

  The floorboards near the doorway squeaked, and I gasped as I jumped away from Charlie. Ryder was standing there with dirt smudged on his cheek.

  “Do you know how many times I’ve begged her to come back?” Ryder said with a hard sniff. “I don’t… I’ve lost count.”

  “I’m sorry.” It was the only thing I could manage to say.

  Ryder walked into the room. He moved slowly and sat down on the edge of the bed. His shoulders rounded forward when he sighed.

  “It’s only a matter of time,” Ryder said keeping his voice low as if he was afraid Charlie might hear him.

  “I brought her another blanket,” I said, and Ryder turned so I could see his profile. “She’s ice cold.”

  “Thanks,” Ryder said as he stood up and moved closer to Charlie. It looked as though he was looking at her for the first time in days. He wiped at the corner of his eye. “Shit.”

  He picked up her hand and tucked it between his. His lips parted, and he sniffed as he turned to look at me with his reddened eyes.

  Ryder opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. He shook his head as tears dripped down his cheeks.

  I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him. Seeing Charlie in her condition was tearing him apart.

  I wanted to tell him everything would be OK but I couldn’t. Ryder pressed his face down against my shoulder, and his body shook several times before he stiffened.

  He swallowed hard and pulled himself away from me. Ryder tightened his fist and roared as he threw it into the wall.

  “God dammit!” he shouted as he pulled his hand out of the wall and shook it.

  Ryder didn’t seem to notice the blood oozing out of his red knuckles. Even if he had, he probably wouldn’t have cared.

  “I tried so fucking hard to take care of her every day of my life. Am I being punished?” Ryder asked the ceiling.

  “No, you’re not being punished,” I said softly. I was afraid my words would only upset him further. “Do you think I was being punished when I lost my parents? I wasn’t.”

  “But you didn’t do shit wrong. I’ve done terrible things.”

  I grabbed his hand and studied the cut he’d gotten from the drywall. It wasn’t very deep and had almost stopped bleeding already.

  “You aren’t being punished. We just live in a world where shitty things happen all the time.”

  “Everything OK?” Shawn asked as he softly knocked on the wall outside Charlie’s room.

  I dropped Ryder’s hand, mostly because Shawn had startled me, but I didn’t miss Shawn watching Ryder’s hand as it fell to his side.

  “Yeah,” Ryder said looking down at Charlie, and the
n at his knuckles.

  “I heard a noise, and wanted to…,” Shawn trailed off, his eyes landing on the hole in the wall just behind where Ryder was standing. “Oh.”

  “Yeah,” Ryder said wincing as he shoved his hand into his pocket, his eyes shifting back down to watch Charlie’s slow breathing.

  I turned to her too. It almost seemed as each breath was even more spaced out than when I’d first came into the room.

  “How’s she doing?” Shawn asked.

  “It won’t be much longer now,” Ryder said.

  I turned and looked up at him. He met my eyes and swallowed hard.

  “This isn’t the first person I’ve seen die.” He drew in a deep breath. “It’s just the first person that has really mattered to me that I’ve seen die.”

  “I’m really sorry,” Shawn said taking a step into the room. “Is there anything I can do?”

  “No.” Ryder shook his head.

  Shawn cleared his throat. “I meant for you.”

  Ryder turned and locked eyes with Shawn. He stared at him for a long moment before looking down at the ground.

  “Nothing, but I appreciate that,” Ryder said his voice cracking ever so slightly.

  We all stood there staring at Charlie, none of us knowing what to say. Her chest rose just a bit and paused before the air slowly escaped from her slightly parted lips.

  “I should probably get some—”

  Ryder stopped talking. His eyes widened and focused in on Charlie. It was almost as if he sensed something was different.

  I watched Charlie waiting for her to draw in her next weak breath, but it didn’t come. Ryder’s breathing quickened as if he was trying to breathe for her.

  “Charlie?” Ryder said softly. Of course, she didn’t answer. He grabbed her arm and shook it. “Charlie!”

  Her whole body seemed to move with his shaking. She was totally limp. Ryder dropped to his knees as he pressed her hand to his mouth.

  “Charlie, no, no, no, no,” he said resting his forehead down against the bed.

  I lightly rested two fingers on her wrist trying to feel for her pulse, but I hadn’t needed to. I’d seen the life leave my parents, I knew she was gone.