Running Away - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

said through the opened driver-side window. I looked at him, ready to swear at him, but when he wasn’t wearing the sinister smile I expected, it threw me off guard.
    Patchy walked away from the car before the slender man finished. The gang of road pirates stood there watching and waiting for the man to finish filling up their gas can.
    The whole ordeal went by pretty fast. It seemed as though these road pirates had done this hundreds of times. We weren’t their first victims.
    The man walked away carrying the gas can and Patchy saluted goodbye to us as his group of pirates boarded their vehicles.
    “Good luck,” he shouted before he got onto his motorcycle. He started it up and the gang drove away leaving us stranded there on the interstate with nothing but the clothing on our backs.
    Penn put his forehead down against the top of the steering wheel. There were a small handful of abandoned cars scattered around the highway, but I would have bet the clothes I was wearing that the road pirates had drained them a long time ago. We were going to have to set out on foot. At least we still had our guns.
    Alice’s cough broke the silence inside the car. I turned to look at her while her brother held her shoulders. The look on his face was a combination of concern and worry.
    “How long has she been sick?” I asked looking at Carter.
    “A couple weeks I think… it’s a very stubborn cough,” Carter said holding my gaze. “Don’t worry, I don’t think she’s contagious. I’m still fine and I’ve been with her every day since she came down with it.”
    I nodded. Of course that didn’t mean I or the others couldn’t catch whatever it was, but if Carter hadn’t caught it yet, maybe we wouldn’t either.
    “Did any of the others in your camp get sick?” I asked narrowing my eyes at him.
    “A few…,” he said, as her coughing slowed. He turned to her, and she forced a smile indicating that she was done. “I guess this is where we should part ways.”
    Carter opened the door, swung his legs out and swiftly stood up outside of the car holding the door for Alice. Sienna looked at me and shook her head as if I should do something to stop them. It was painfully obvious she didn’t want them to leave, but it wasn’t up to me to beg them to stay. And I wasn’t even sure if I wanted them to.
    I looked to Penn to see if I could tell what he was thinking, but he still had his head down. Dean and I locked eyes, but he shrugged his good shoulder, probably having the same feelings I had.
    Sienna folded her hands together as if she was begging for my approval. But I didn’t know the right answer, and I couldn’t answer for everyone. It seemed as though Dean didn’t care one way or the other but without talking to Penn, I was pretty sure he didn’t want them with us.
    “Stay with us!” Sienna blurted out. Penn didn’t raise his head but the groan he made sounded like he thought things just kept getting worse.
    “Are you sure?” Carter said ducking down looking into the car towards Penn.
    “No,” Penn said not caring or bothering to hide his grumpiness. He sounded like a crabby old man that wanted the neighborhood kids off of his lawn. “We don’t have any supplies, no car… you’ll do better out there on your own.”
    “You have a gun,” Carter said aiming his eyes at Penn’s back. “We have nothing at all.”
    “For all you know we are lying and we’re from HOME,” Penn said turning to look at Carter. He lowered his head slightly so his eyes looked dark.
    Carter shook his head, “You said you weren’t.”
    “Oh. OK, well then. It’s not like we could possibly lie about it,” Penn said rolling his eyes. I wondered if he realized that he sounded like a big jerk. He must have, because he let out a big sigh. If I had to guess, he was probably just sick of all the bad things that kept happening to us. “I apologize for my behavior… if you’d like, you can come with us.”
    Sienna clapped her hands