BARREN: Book 2 - Escape from the Ruins (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) Read online

  Escape From the Ruins

  Barren: Book Two

  J. Thorn

  Zach Bohannon

  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

  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

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Coming Soon

  Free Book

  About J. Thorn

  About Zach Bohannon

  Copyright © 2018 by J. Thorn & Zach Bohannon

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, places, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by

  Jennifer Collins

  Proofread by

  Laurie Love

  Cover by

  Roy Migabon

  For more information:

  http://barren.us

  Chapter 1

  The early September breeze brought with it a hint of winter. Hado stood at the base of the wall and removed her mask, looking up at the girl in the watchtower. She waved at Dia before finishing a perimeter check and heading toward her.

  Dia’s long, brown hair blew in the wind along with autumn’s first discarded leaves. She had tied it back to reveal gray eyes beneath ragged, split bangs. Once the summer heat had relented, the girl had begun wearing the cloaks and leather armor of the Venganza clan, which kept her warm and protected throughout her explorations of the ruins. She had grown several inches during the summer and now stood five-foot-two, being just as lanky as the rest of the clan women struggling to find nourishment. Dia was no longer a child, but not quite a woman—that age when the bleeding would begin at any moment.

  The mid-day sun made Hado squint, but she realized that Dia would be enjoying the perfect sun-lit view of Erehwon. The stream cut through the valley and the Venganza had built their settlement on the bluffs above it, erecting a wall that functioned more like a fence—a symbolic border more than anything, since it wouldn’t keep much out. Two promontories jutted out over the valley a hundred feet below, the granite crawling with vine that would soon give way to the long, cold, winter. Erehwon’s huts and common cooking pit had been built away from the bluff with the hopes that the towering trees would mask the smoke.

  Hado stopped and watched the girl. It seemed as if Dia had become a different person in the months since she had joined them. Her face had hardened. She’d become physically stronger, forced to adapt as the other forty or fifty warrior women living in the fortified settlement had before her. But even though the girl had been maturing, Hado still felt a responsibility to protect her. She was important to the Venganza—in more ways than one.

  Hado slid her mask back on and followed the path along the creek whose name had floated away like so many relics of that other time. She climbed the hill and cut between a row of parallel trees that had to have been planted in this fashion at some point in the distant past, and then she entered through the gate which was guarded by two warriors. The women bowed and allowed her inside of Erehwon without a word.

  She knew Dia heard her approaching as she climbed the stairs of the watchtower, but the girl didn’t turn around, keeping her eyes on the horizon and scanning the Cleveland ruins. Even though Dia had not made eye contact with her, Hado felt the energy off in a way she couldn’t explain.

  “How much longer do we have before it becomes cold again?” Dia asked without looking back. “I’ve lost track of time.”

  Decker raised his head and sniffed at the air with his tail wagging, and then he lowered it again, the dog uninterested in the conversation.

  “The winter will come quickly and without remorse. We could see our first snowfall of the season within six weeks.”

  Dia uncrossed her arms and opened her hand. In her palm lay a brass hinge, filthy and covered in a green patina. She stared at it, then closed her fist tightly. Hado sighed and looked out beyond the ruins to where Erie cut a razor-straight line from east to west. They had stepped upon the lake and survived, although most of the women still held on to their irrational fears of it. Dia had continued combing the sands in the months that followed, looking for evidence of the woman who’d left, but Hado had given up her curiosity and whatever emotions she’d had for Katy. It had to be that way.

  As if disappointed that the boat hardware had not drawn a reaction from Hado, Dia slid it into a pocket. “Six weeks…” Dia’s words trailed off.

  For her part, Hado stepped forward and put her hand on Dia’s shoulder. She said nothing, looking down and watching the white, foamy water bubbling over the rocks in the stream. She looked at Dia with big eyes, her face long and sunken, and slid her mask up before asking Dia the question.

  “How much time?”

  Dia narrowed her eyes. “What?”

  Hado squeezed Dia’s shoulder, then put her hand on the girl’s back. “I need to know. The cisterns are low.”

  Dia avoided Hado’s gaze, staring off into the ruins again. “Weeks. Perhaps a month, if we’re lucky.”

  “Some of the women have been collecting rain water from the old gutters.”

  “Yes, that is safe,” Dia said. “But unpredictable and not nearly enough for the whole village. We need more than rainwater.”

  Hado nodded. She removed her hand from Dia’s back and turned to the steps that led out of the watchtower and into the settlement.

  “Come.”

  Dia followed, hurrying to catch up to the Venganza tribe leader.

  As Hado walked into the heart of the settlement, the Venganza women kneeled and bowed their heads. The tribe leader walked slowly, making eye contact with each woman. One Venganza warrior stumbled as she went to kneel, barely catching herself on a thin sapling. She landed on her knee and dropped her head like the others as Hado approached, stopping in front of the young woman.

  “Lift your head.”

  The woman did as Hado had requested. She was perhaps twenty years old. Flowing locks of auburn hair were swept in front of her face, but Hado reached down and tucked it behind the girl’s ears. She looked back at Hado with bloodshot eyes, her parted lips blistered and cracked. Hado touched the girl’s cheek with the back of her hand, the skin feeling tight and flaking like dirty powder. The water rations could not be cut back any
more.

  “We don’t have weeks,” Hado whispered to Dia as they walked away from the others. “These women hardly have the energy to kneel. It leaves our tribe vulnerable. How are we to defend ourselves from Los Muertos if we can’t fight?”

  “What will we do then? Are we prepared to abandon Erehwon? What will Shiva say? The Council?”

  Hado had been asking herself these same questions for months. Shiva answered to the Council, and Hado answered to Shiva. But in the end, someone would need an answer for the problem itself—resources. They had decimated Los Muertos along with several of the other independent clans scavenging the ruins. They had documented the locations where women of child-bearing age lived. And, yes, Hado had secured the region for now. But protecting the new world from the male energy that had destroyed the old one would take constant, ongoing human resources. And that would take food. And water.

  “We’ll have to create another scouting crew,” Hado said, finally answering Dia. “There must be fresh water somewhere.”

  A bark interrupted the conversation. Dia smiled as she kneeled.

  “Hey, Deck. I was wondering where you went.”

  The dog wagged his tail and sat down in front of the young girl. Dia petted him on the head and scratched his ears, thinking that the shaggy, Tolling Retriever would need another trim soon. He was big for a retriever, but lean with beige fur and a white stripe of it running up the middle of his snout.

  Hado looked toward the wall, where a squad of warriors were approaching the gate. Decker stood up and looked across the village. His tail pointed straight out, and he barked twice.

  Shiva stopped before Hado, who had dropped to a knee, with the other Venganza warriors still knelt down out of respect for Hado.

  The head of the Council lifted Hado to her feet. The older woman had streaks of gray running through her hair, which had been bundled and positioned atop her head almost like a crown. Her mask hid several scars and disfigurements that she had earned fighting Los Muertos in the ruins. She lifted it, revealing a gaunt face with high cheekbones and piercing green eyes. A collection of bones and rusted metal hung around her neck beneath a heavy, woolen vest. Shiva sheathed her short sword and motioned her guards away with one hand before stepping to the side and addressing Hado. Dia knelt five feet away, petting Decker on the head.

  “The raids on the ruins.”

  “Yes,” Hado said, waiting.

  “They have to stop.”

  Chapter 2

  The nights on the watchtower grew colder with each passing sun, and with little fresh water to go around the camp, it was that much more difficult to stand guard throughout the night. Kareena had been on her shift for less than an hour when her eyelids had already begun to droop, her fatigue exacerbated by the dehydration that plagued every woman in the settlement. Other than Sunji, she was one of Hado’s strongest warriors, as well as one of her most loyal, but even her awareness was affected by their water shortage.

  Night watch had to be earned in the Venganza tribe—it was a time when Los Muertos slept and one’s thoughts could turn to other, more pleasant things. With the sun down and only a campfire or two glowing from within Erehwon, visibility into the valley and beyond to the ruins was low. A watch was necessary, however. Hado had placed a night watch guard on all towers at each corner of the settlement, and Kareena looked out from the south tower.

  She was only eighteen years old. Born amongst the Venganza in the clan’s early days, the young warrior hadn’t known life in the world before. Her mother had been an original member of the Venganza tribe, but had died nearly seven years ago after succumbing to a fever during the spring thaw.

  Kareena’s senses were such that she could almost see with her ears, and that may have been the initial reason Hado had granted her night watch duty. Other women rotated on and off the watchtowers, but Kareena stayed, only occasionally moving from one to another—but never to a scouting crew or raiding party.

  After flipping her long braid off her shoulder, Kareena scanned the horizon. To the east, she heard a rustling coming from beneath a copse of trees no more than fifty yards away. She looked out, squinting her eyes as she stared through her mask.

  A snap, followed by a distant cry.

  The Venganza had set several booby traps on Erehwon’s perimeter and at the base of the footbridges crossing the stream.

  Kareena grabbed her spear and hurried down the watchtower steps, racing through the settlement and ignoring the inquisitive faces of Venganza warriors sitting by campfires.

  In the process, she almost ran Dia over, finding the girl dressed in dark garb and standing in the shadows next to Hado’s cabin.

  “What are you doing here?” Kareena asked.

  “I heard it, too.”

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “I will be where Hado asks me to be, and I will do what she wants me to do.”

  Kareena shook her head, slamming the meat of her right fist into the door. “Hado. Hado.”

  A guttural call came from the dark woods. A battle cry.

  Hado opened the door, her mask in one hand and a spear in the other.

  “What’s that?” Hado asked, awake and alert as if she hadn’t been sleeping.

  “They’re here.”

  Hado’s eyes looked past Kareena. Dia appeared on the cabin’s threshold, Decker sitting on his hind legs behind her.

  “You can’t come,” Hado said to the young water whisperer.

  “But I’ve told you, I can help fight—”

  “No.” Hado slid her mask over her face. “You will go to where you will be safe. You are far too important to this tribe to risk your life in a nighttime ambush. I will not have it.”

  Dia’s face twisted and her cheeks flushed red, but the young girl nodded.

  “Now, go. Run straight to your hiding place and do not come out until I have come for you.”

  Dia turned, and ran through the settlement and down a side path that would take her into the heavily-wooded forest where even the owls would struggle to see her.

  “How many?” Hado asked Kareena.

  “I’m not sure.”

  A horn blew from the valley—the night guard stationed at the stream crossing alerting the Venganza of an imminent attack.

  Hado ran with Kareena two steps behind her. Other warriors had grabbed their weapons, and some had even donned their masks, ready for war.

  Chapter 3

  Hado crashed into the night surrounded by the battle cries of her warriors. The Venganza had fanned out and trickled down from the bluffs via the worn trails leading to the valley. While the invaders would not be able to get to the gate, they had already infiltrated the low banks of the stream and the marshy patches at the base of the cliffs.

  She followed three warriors down to the bank where two more waited with drawn bows.

  “Los Muertos,” one of the women said from beneath her mask.

  The gang living in the ruins reminded Hado of animals—no intelligence or reasoning beyond their primal urges. Stealing their newborn boys had been merciful, an act that spared them from a life of violence and death. It was a ruthless strategy, but one that had to be honored in order to keep the mistakes made by the old world’s patriarchal system from being repeated.

  In recent weeks, Los Muertos had increased the frequency of their attacks against Venganza. The first violations had come in the form of ambushes on Venganza warriors scouting the ruins. The filthy Los Muertos devils had even come close to Erehwon once, losing a contained battle just beyond the walls of the settlement. But this attack came in the dead of night—bold and brazen for a group of men on the verge of extinction. Hado gripped her spear and bit her lip until she tasted blood.

  She ran out into the middle of the clearing alone and stopped next to the woman in time to see Sunji slit the throat of a Los Muertos fighter, his limp body crumpling to the ground. Sunji wore her mask and, even in the darkness, Hado could see the sweat glistening off her brown skin. The wom
an spun, lifted her mask, and winked at Hado.

  “How many are there?” Hado asked.

  “I’m not sure. Fifteen or twenty, I think.”

  “Where is Shiva?”

  Sunji shook her head. “Don't know. I haven’t seen her.”

  Three men cried out as they ran toward Hado and Sunji from the eastern edge of the clearing and now only twenty yards away, wielding knives and machetes.

  “Stay tight on my left,” Hado said.

  Sunji nodded, dropping her mask back down over her face.

  The two Venganza warriors stood side by side as the three Los Muertos came closer. Two of the men lunged at Hado while the other, a larger grunt, faced Sunji.

  A man wielding a machete reached Hado first, and she landed a chopping blow on his hands. He dropped the weapon and she thrust her spear into his stomach, yanking it out as blood poured from his mouth. He fell to his knees, both his hands clutching his gut.

  The second man spun and dodged Hado’s first spear thrust. He held a knife in each hand and danced to the right. She waited for the man to engage, but he also waited. Most of the lumbering fools she’d encountered rushed in and made it easy for her. This man, however, displayed a patience she hadn’t seen from Los Muertos members in months. His muscles looked tight beneath his shirt, and his eyes had a fire burning in them.