Authors: Christine Kersey
Hunted
Hunted
Christine Kersey
Book Description
Trapped in a parallel universe where it is illegal to be overweight, sixteen-year-old Morgan Campbell is on the run with Billy Foster, the boy who helped her escape Camp Willowmoss, the Federally Assisted Thinning (F.A.T.) center where they were both held prisoner.
With nowhere to go, and no resources, they fear for their lives as they hide from the Enforcers who would capture them. Morgan has six weeks until the right date, at which time she can pass back through the portal that brought her to this world.
Will she be able to stay free until that date arrives, or will the Enforcers find her and lock her up, condemning her to live in this dangerous reality forever?
Also by Christine Kersey
He Loves Me Not (Lily’s Story, Book 1)
Don’t Look Back (Lily’s Story, Book 2)
Gone (Parallel Trilogy, Book 1)
Imprisoned (Parallel Trilogy, Book 2)
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance it bears to reality is entirely coincidental.
Hunted (Parallel Trilogy, Book 3)
Copyright © 2013 Christine Kersey
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.
Visit Christine’s blog:
christinekersey.blogspot.com
Acknowledgements
I’d like to take a moment and thank all of my wonderful beta readers. They gave me fantastic feedback on
Hunted
, helping me to improve it. Each and every one of them volunteered to read an early version of
Hunted,
and I so appreciate their willingness to help me out. Their names are listed below, alphabetically by first name.
Ali Fruit
Angela Macias Dial
Brandi L. Byrne
Corinn Kendall
Dahlia Morgan
Evelyn A. Cohen
Heather Connor
Ioana Clayton
Jennifer Dhillon
Judy F
Kathy Labossiere
Katie Marsh
Kris Bird
Kristina Baumler
Kym Smith
Laura Anne Kersey
Laura L. Ratcliff
Lisa Furie
Lisa Wilkerson
Marie Madison
Marjorie St. John
Michelle Lynne Rivera
Sandy Shepard
Shantel Anderson
Shirley
Tiffini LeJeune
Traci Sessions
Yvonne Rylander
Zach Fruit
And last, but certainly not least, my editor, Annette Fruit.
Chapter One
I held on to Billy, my arms wrapped around his waist, as we sped away on the borrowed motorcycle. I listened to the Enforcers’ sirens in the distance and felt numb—devastated—that I was still in this world. My hopes that going through the tunnel would take me home had been so high that the reality had been all the more bitter when it had turned out that I was still here.
Even though deep down I had suspected that I might be returning to the tunnel too early, I had still harbored the foolish hope that the date didn’t matter and that I could go through the tunnel before November tenth. Now it was all too clear that the date
did
matter. November tenth was the date I had come through the portal, or whatever it was, from my world. But when I had arrived in this world it had been early September, so it would seem November tenth was the magic day.
Now, as I clung to Billy, I also clung to the hope that I only had to live in this world for six more weeks, then it would be the right date for me to walk through the tunnel, and on the other side would be my home world. A world where it wasn’t illegal to be overweight. A world where my family was intact. A world where an Enforcer named Hansen didn’t want to kill me.
I shuddered as I vividly recalled Hansen’s threat just hours before. “
I. Will. Kill. You.”
I could understand his anger—I’d quite literally stabbed him in the back using the knife Billy and I had used to cut the tracking chips from our arms—but I knew that was just the last straw for him. He’d hated me ever since the night he and his partner had tasered me in my own home, then dragged me to the Federally Assisted Thinning center where I was locked up as a criminal for being a few pounds overweight—not to mention my serious crime of handing out homemade cookies at school.
I forced thoughts of Hansen out of my mind when I realized the sirens were fading as Billy and I raced away from my old neighborhood in Fox Run. The neighborhood that had led to the tunnel. The neighborhood I would have to return to in six weeks if I wanted to get back to my world.
I pressed closer to Billy, grateful beyond reason that he was with me. I never could have gotten this far on my own. I’d met him at Camp Willowmoss—the F.A.T. center where I’d been locked up—and he had wanted to escape that place as badly, or worse, than I had. He had been there every step of the way, making sure we succeeded in breaking out of the government-controlled facility. Once we were free, he’d gone with me to Fox Run, even though he had no idea why I insisted on going there. When I’d finally admitted to him that I was from another world, I could tell he doubted me—maybe even thought I was crazy—but he was still here, still helping me.
We left the leafy neighborhoods of Fox Run behind and entered the freeway, speeding along mile after mile of black asphalt. We rode on for another fifteen minutes, then Billy coasted off at an exit, turned onto a side street, and stopped.
As soon as he put down the side stand, I slid off the back of the motorcycle, then took off my helmet, enjoying the feel of the late September breeze in my face.
He climbed off and removed his helmet too. “We’re almost out of gas.”
I looked back the way we had come, still feeling shell-shocked by the discovery that I was still in this world and that we were still being hunted by Enforcers. The sun had nearly set and I felt somewhat invisible in the dusky evening light. I turned back to Billy, but didn’t say anything, too numb to speak.
“If we leave our helmets on while we get gas, they won’t recognize us.”
I nodded, visualizing the pictures of Billy and me that I’d seen on the news earlier that day when we’d stopped at a convenience store. It had been a terrible picture of me, taken the day after I’d arrived at the F.A.T. center—not smiling, my face bruised, my lip swollen. I looked like a criminal, which is exactly what the news called both Billy and me.
Billy reached out and touched my cheek. “How are you doing? Are you okay?”
His sweet kindness warmed me, bringing a half-smile to my face. “I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t sure if that was really true, but he was clearly relieved when I didn’t collapse in a heap of hysterical tears like I had back at the hut when I’d realized I was still in this world. I needed his mind focused on what we should do next, not on me.
“Good.”
“What should we do, Billy? Where should we go?” My only plan after escaping the F.A.T. center had been to get to the tunnel. I hadn’t allowed myself to consider anything but success, so I hadn’t thought beyond that.
“Well, now that the Enforcers know we’re in the area, they’ll be all over the place. I say we keep heading north.”
My shoulders slumped. We hadn’t slept in nearly thirty-six hours and in that time we’d managed to escape the F.A.T. center, jog for miles, ride bicycles for even more miles, then travel on the motorcycle for hours until we’d reached Fox Run. Then I’d made the devastating discovery that I hadn’t gotten home. I was physically and emotionally drained.
Billy must have seen the weariness in my face. “Look, I know you’re tired. So am I, and I promise I’ll find us a place to get some sleep. But first we need to put some distance between us and the Enforcers.”
“I know.”
“Okay. Let’s gas up and keep going.”
We put our helmets back on and rode to a nearby gas station. I stayed next to the bike while Billy went inside to give the clerk twenty dollars—half of the money Mrs. Duncan had given us when she let us take her son’s motorcycle. I wasn’t sure if that would be enough to fill the tank, but I hoped it would take us far enough to stay out of the hands of the Enforcers.
We had parked next to the gas pumps closest to the door and I waited nervously as I watched Billy get in line behind two other people. I glanced at the pump and wished we could have just paid outside, but since we had cash, we had to go inside. A car pulled into the station, catching my eye. It didn’t have a light bar on the roof, but there was no mistaking the uniforms the men inside wore.
Enforcers.
They pulled up to the pump just on the other side of where I stood. My heart pounded as I turned away and I prayed they wouldn’t notice me. Were they on the lookout for a boy and a girl on a motorcycle? I stepped closer to the gas pump, hoping it would hide me from view. I watched Billy as he handed money to the clerk, then turned to come back outside. I had no idea if he’d seen the Enforcers, but didn’t know how to warn him.
I thought about the pair of stun guns stashed in the backpack I wore on my shoulders and wondered if I should take them out. The thought brought a vivid recollection of the night before when Billy had used the stun guns on the Enforcers who had tried to stop us from leaving—including Hansen. That was after I’d sunk the small knife into his back, and his promise to kill me was still fresh in my mind.
Billy walked through the door and headed toward me. With both of us wearing our helmets, it was difficult for me to communicate, but I gestured with my right thumb for him to look behind me. He must have gotten the message because he shifted his trajectory so that the gas pump would help block him from the Enforcers’ view.
He finally reached me and muttered, “Keep cool.”
I realized my hands were shaking and shoved them in my pockets, wishing I could always be as calm as Billy seemed to be. It was nearly full dark but the bright lights of the gas station made up for that. Billy began pumping gas into the tank and I heard the Enforcers talking as they got out of their car. It didn’t sound like they were talking about Billy and me and I hoped they hadn’t heard about us—though I knew that was unlikely.
I heard the beep of the pump as they used a card to pay for their gas, then I heard the sound of them putting the pump into their car. I watched Billy pumping gas into our motorcycle and it seemed like it was going extra slow, even though I knew it wasn’t. Finally he finished and placed the dispenser back into its slot, then screwed the cap on the tank.
One of the Enforcers laughed and I hoped they were too busy talking to pay attention to us. Billy climbed onto the bike and I jumped on behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, then he turned on the engine.
One of the Enforcers called out, “Hey, I think it’s those two kids.”
Billy turned and looked at them, and through his face plate I saw him grin, then we shot forward, out of the gas station and onto the street. I couldn’t see what the Enforcers were doing, but in my mind’s eye I pictured them snatching their radio and alerting any Enforcers in the area where we were, then jumping into their car and taking chase.