Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series Two (Book 8)) (21 page)

Once the rebellious inmates had gone over the wall, life at the prison didn’t seem so bad. With our number down to about three hundred, in a prison that could house five hundred or more, there was
enough room for all of us to have our own cell and space. But still, the supplies dwindled. The prison already had its own allotment and garden that was tended to by the inmates. Now it was four times bigger than it had been since the thunder had come, and most of our food was grown there. But there was stuff that we needed and couldn’t grow in the vegetable garden or from the trees. People still got ill or injured, and supplies soon ran out in the prison medical centre. Soon paracetamol became like gold dust. Then the water supply to the prison packed up. One of the nearest towns was Leapers Ledge, which was on the other side of the bridge that connected the Razor to the mainland. All around the prison raged the ocean, and to the north lay the sprawling lands of Ungland. It was those lands that were now infested with the creatures we had come to call the Scorchers.

“What you thinking?” Governor Banks cut in.

“Huh?” I said.

“You look lost in thought,” he said. “Thinking about the race?”

“No,” I said, slowly shaking my head and looking at him.

“What then?” he asked, cocking one of his bushy eyebrows at me.

“Why did you stay?” I asked. “Why didn’t you try and leave like the others?”

“I had a responsibility to you all here, it was my job,” he said.

“Is it still your job?” I asked right back. “I mean, you don’t get paid, yet you choose to stay instead of going beyond the walls in search of your family.”

“I never really had a family,” he said, crossing my cell and sitting at the end of the bunk. “Had a wife once, but she left long before the thunder
came. No children. The people living here are my family.”

Banks always knew the right thing to say. It was like he was in tune with your own personal thoughts. It was like he could read your mind somehow. Perhaps there was no trickery to it and he did feel just the same as the rest of us? Perhaps he did see the inmates as his family now? For a prison governor, he was pretty easy to talk to, and I often found him standing on the landings, propped against the stone walls, hands in pockets and chatting to groups of inmates. If he wasn’t talking, he could be found on the yard playing ball or shooting some hoops. He had a kind of fatalistic approach to life now – maybe we all did. Those guards I saw dying on the yard that day were the first of many deaths I had seen over the last five years. Some of the inmates had died from illness – simple stuff that could have been treated on the outside with some pills that probably cost just a few pence. A couple of the guards had lost their minds and been found swinging. Death had become commonplace these days, and the Governor seemed to take it all in his stride – we all did, I guess.

Then, staring at me, Banks said, “Why are you so desperate to leave, Tessa? I’ve read your file and you have no family either. What is so important on the other side of that wall that you would risk everything, even your life for?”

Looking right back at him, I said. “There are two reasons.”

“And what are they?” he quizzed me.

“Joe McBride,” I answered.

“And the second thing?” he pushed.

“I want to get to that island,” I told him.

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More books by Tim O’Rourke

Kiera Hudson Series One

Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1

Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2

Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3

Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4

Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4.5

Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5

Kiera Hudson Series Two

Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1

Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1.5

Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2

Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3

Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4

Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5

Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6

Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7

Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8 Coming December 2013!

Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9 Coming Soon!

Kiera Hudson Series Three

Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1 Coming 2014!

The Jack Seth Novellas

Hollow Pit (Book One)

Seeking Cara (Book Two) Coming 2014!

Black Hill Farm (Books 1 & 2)

Black Hill Farm (Book 1)

Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary (Book 2)

A Return to Black Hill Farm (Book 3) Coming 2014!

Sydney Hart Novels

Witch (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 1

Yellow (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2

Raven (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 3 Coming 2014!

The Doorways Trilogy

Doorways (Doorways Trilogy Book 1)

The League of Doorways (Doorways Trilogy Book 2)

The Queen of Doorways (Doorways Trilogy Book 3) Coming 2014!

Moon Trilogy

Moonlight (Moon Trilogy) Book 1

Moonbeam (Moon Trilogy) Book 2

Moonshine (Moon Trilogy) Book 3 Coming 2014!

Samantha Carter – Vampire Seeker Series

Vampire Seeker (Samantha Carter Series) Book 1

The Vampire Watchmen (Samantha Carter) Book 2 Coming 2014!

Unscathed

Written by Tim O’Rourke & C.J. Pinard

Flashes

Coming 2014!

You can contact Tim O’Rourke at

www.kierahudson.com
or by email at
[email protected]