The Hunted Read online

  The Hunted

  Black Carbon #1

  A.J. Scudiere

  The Hunted - Black Carbon #1

  Copyright © 2019 by AJ Scudiere

  Griffyn Ink. All rights reserved. No part of this document 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.

  * * *

  FIRST EDITION

  Contents

  Books by A.J.

  Introduction

  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

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  About the Author

  Want a free story?

  Go to www.ReadAJS.com/free-book to get free short stories.

  * * *

  Look for other novels by A.J. Scudiere.

  Available in bookstores, online, and at ReadAJS.com.

  * * *

  The NightShade Forensic Files

  Book 1 - Under Dark Skies

  Book 2 - Fracture Five

  Book 3 - The Atlas Defect

  Book 4 - Echo and Ember

  Book 5 - Salvage (A Shadow Files Novel)

  Book 6 - Garden of Bone

  Book 7 - The Camelot Gambit

  Book 8 - Dead Tide (available 9/5/19)

  Book 9 - Sabotage (A Shadow Files Novel) (available 2/4/20)

  * * *

  Black Carbon

  Book 1 - The Hunted

  Book 2 - The Surface (available 11/21/19)

  Book 3 - The Tempest (available 4/21/20)

  Book 4 - The Swarm (available 11/10/20)

  * * *

  Legends

  The Landa Landa & The Aellai (available 1/22/19)

  * * *

  FORTUNE (red)

  FORTUNE (gray)

  FORTUNE (Red & Gray)

  * * *

  The Vendetta Trifecta

  Vengeance

  Retribution

  Justice

  The Complete Vendetta Trifecta

  * * *

  Stand Alone Stories - Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited

  * * *

  Resonance

  * * *

  Dissonance - a companion novella to Resonance

  * * *

  God's Eye

  * * *

  Phoenix

  * * *

  The Shadow Constant

  * * *

  Stand Alone Novels by A.J. Scudiere: Resonance, God’s Eye, Phoenix, The Shadow Constant

  * * *

  A Collection of Blogs

  Smart Chickens - Deliver Us From Email

  Smart Chickens - We’re Not Like Other Families

  Smart Chickens - Tele Me More

  Smart Chickens - Omega Dog

  Join A.J.’s Renegades here: www.ReadAJS.com

  Praise for A.J. Scudiere

  "There are really just 2 types of readers—those who are fans of AJ Scudiere, and those who will be."

  -Bill Salina, Reviewer, Amazon

  * * *

  For The Shadow Constant:

  * * *

  "The Shadow Constant by A.J. Scudiere was one of those novels I got wrapped up in quickly and had a hard time putting down."

  -Thomas Duff, Reviewer, Amazon

  * * *

  For Phoenix:

  * * *

  "It's not a book you read and forget; this is a book you read and think about, again and again . . . everything that has happened in this book could be true. That's why it sticks in your mind and keeps coming back for rethought."

  -Jo Ann Hakola, The Book Faerie

  1

  Joule could hear the dogs in the distance, and she broke into a run. Just barely in earshot, they rustled the underbrush in the woods behind the houses.

  The approaching clouds had brought them out early tonight, and she hadn’t calculated correctly. Breath huffing, arms pumping, she ran down the street and hung a sharp righthand turn. Her feet pounded the pavement as she heard the first deep bark—faint, but within range.

  She had another turn to make, then the tenth of a mile up her dead-end street before she could close the door behind her. They lived in the last house, and right now she wished they didn’t. Her breath was coming hard, but she didn’t slow down. The sky was darkening rapidly, and that would only make things worse.

  Her house was less than two-tenths of a mile from the place she’d been raiding, but she couldn’t cut through the woods—not with the cloud cover rapidly coming in. So she was taking the long way because, although it was not safe at all, it was safer than the alternative.

  She could almost hear her mother, worrying at the window. But her parents were smart enough to close the curtains anyway… even though she wasn’t home. At least, she hoped they were. If they didn’t do it, the dogs would get them, too.

  Joule listened to the slap of her sneakers on the pavement, thinking it would keep her focused. It didn’t stop her from seeing the blur of movement behind the Dunford house. The Dunfords were dead, the house empty. Still running, she counted. Just the one dog. So far.

  She might be able to take on one of them, but they never traveled alone. She could only see one, but she was certain there were at least three others—if not ten—right behind him.

  She could see the roof of her house over the slight hill and found some stamina to pick up her pace again. Halfway down the street, she passed a mental checkpoint. She could see her whole house from there.

  But she could also see the lone dog that had braved his wa
y out into the street.

  He stood between her and her home, pacing on soft paws. His eyes seemed to glow, reflecting light almost like a cat’s. Though he changed direction, he never stopped staring at her.

  It was over.

  She wasn’t going to make it.

  The dog had seen her.

  She had seen victims of the dog packs before. She’d seen a few of her neighbors—or the pieces left of them—after they had stayed out too late. Their sense of smell sucked, but once the dogs saw you, they were relentless. Smart. Operating almost from a hive-mind. No one had ever survived an encounter to tell whether that was really the case.

  Though she didn’t let the dog see her eyes flick, she gauged the distance to a tall tree she had picked out. There was no telling if it would work. She had no idea if they could climb up behind her. No evidence that they were or weren’t strong enough to topple a tree. But she was relatively tall for her age, and if she gave a determined jump, she could grab the lowest branch and scramble up. She only had to make it until morning.

  The Cranston house had bank notices pasted all over it. It was definitely abandoned, so she’d picked up two small computer units when she was there. Now they felt heavy in her hand, like a decision that would change everything.

  She hefted the bigger one at the dog. Though she missed his head—where she’d been aiming—Joule managed a glancing blow off its side. Still, it was a mistake.

  The whining yelp the helldog let out summoned its friends. Though Joule was bolting for the tree, it was still too far away.

  Two dogs appeared in the road before her, cutting her off before she was even halfway there. Running home had been her only real plan. Now, she turned on a dime, heading the other way, and spotting three more dogs emerging from behind the house.

  For a moment, she stopped moving. They had her on three sides. She’d seen what they did to the people they caught, and she could only pray death would be quick, though she knew it would not be painless.

  But they move in packs, she reminded herself. Thus, they’d likely been together before spotting her. The chances they had managed to surround her—when they’d only just now been willing to step out into the darkening twilight—was low.

  She had to bank on it. It was her only chance.

  With a lightning-fast dash, Joule bolted through the empty space. One house stood there, and she prayed it wasn’t locked. The inhabitants were gone. The wife was dead by the dogs, the husband and daughter disappeared. But whether they’d moved away or if the dogs had gotten them, too, Joule didn’t know.

  The knob turned under her hand, the only good luck of the darker-than-usual afternoon, and she stumbled harshly through. Turning, she slammed the heavy door shut, feeling the weight of a dog pounding against it as she slid the bolt shut.

  She might be inside, but she likely had less than a minute.

  The dogs knew she was in here. She was their prey, and once spotted, they would not give up. She’d seen more than ample evidence of the dogs having broken into houses—ramming down doors, hurling themselves against windows, however many tries were necessary to get through—just because they’d spotted someone inside.

  Hearing the first dog make an attempt at the window on the porch, Joule dashed upstairs. She was looking for something specific.

  In the hallway, she passed a shotgun carelessly left leaning against the wall. These people had tried. They hadn’t known the dogs were hard to kill with bullets and axes and baseball bats. As she passed, she caught a whiff of food rotting from the kitchen. No, they had not left willingly.

  The window behind her shattered, and she heard the scrape of nails on hardwood floor. One dog, two, three… too many to count. They were inside the house and behind her, racing up the stairs.

  Joule looked up and spotted what she’d been looking for.

  2

  “Close the curtains!” Kaya commanded harshly, grinding the words out to her husband, who stared out the window, waiting for their daughter to come home.

  Her heart would be breaking, if it hadn't frozen solid. A little while ago, as the cloud cover had come over the neighborhood, she’d become worried. Now she would be in full panic, but she’d shut that part of herself down.

  Joule had gone over several streets to check out one of the growing number of empty houses. She would see if anything of value had been left behind. She’d gone out later in the day, but until just moments ago, the day had been sunny and the light kept the dogs at bay. They usually just came out at night. In fact, the dogs operated with such regularity that most of the residents of Rowena Heights went on about their days as though they were normal.

  People merely closed up shop early. Pulling all the curtains, shutting the windows, and dramatically lowering the noise levels within the house right before dark seemed to do the trick well enough. The Mazurs did the same, and their usual pattern had worked very well… until now.

  Most days now, dinner was early. Evenings were for reading. Voices were kept low and all was fine. The family had taken to using clothes pins to keep the gap in their curtains tightly shut. Kaya smacked them into Nate's hand now, whispering, “Close the curtains.”

  Her husband just stood there, staring at her, and she could almost hear him saying he would go out and find Joule. But she couldn’t lose him, too. Still, he stood before her, jaw clenched, open hand still cupping the clothespins, but doing nothing.

  She listened to the sound of the curtain rings, dragging across the pole at the top, as Cage stepped in and did what the rest of them couldn’t do: Close the curtains and shut his sister out.

  If he didn't do it, the dogs would see them.

  If the dogs saw them, they would beat the doors until the wood broke, or come through the windows and get all three of the remaining members of the Mazur family.

  So it was the hardest thing she'd ever done, but Kaya went through the house and bolted each of the three doors.

  Just as she did every night.

  But tonight, her daughter—her oldest by only two minutes—was still outside.

  She could only hope that Joule had stayed in the house she was checking out. Joule would know that her family realized the danger of the darkening sky and locked all the doors and closed the windows. Kaya crossed her fingers that her daughter had taken the necessary precautions and was safe. But neither Kaya nor Nate, nor her brother Cage, had received any message to that end.

  That made Kaya think her daughter had headed home. If Joule was safe, she would have turned the phone off. None of them had considered pinging her or calling or anything that would make the phone beep. Even just the light could attract the dogs’ attention. If Joule was hiding, then messaging might kill her.

  Kaya looked to the two men—her husband, who was almost the same age as her, and her son Cage, literally the same age as Joule.

  “Each of us takes a door,” she said, her voice soft in the tone that she generally used in the evenings. Anything more would indicate something was wrong. It was terribly wrong, of course. One of her children was outside and there was nothing she could do about it except kill herself, too. So she pretended that she knew Joule was safe, and she used her evening voice.

  Once the curtains had been closed, if someone stubbed a toe and yelled, the dogs would know they were inside. Turn the TV up too high? The dogs would know. The family had learned to sleep a quiet sleep—but not tonight.

  Both Nate and Cage nodded at her and headed off for the other doors. Turning her back, Kaya slid down the wall until she was sitting at the base of it. Not the warmest place in the house, but she didn't care.

  The slightest noise and she would gladly throw the door open wide. If the dogs wanted to get in, all they needed to do was learn how to knock like a human.

  She stayed there for an hour, numb in her position and her thoughts. When she looked at her watch, the face glowing dull in the dim light—all the beeps and whistles disabled—Kaya realized it was over. Either Joule had found a safe p
lace or she was dead.

  There were no other options that Kaya knew of. No one had ever survived the dogs.

  It had started with the neighborhood cats disappearing. First the feral ones, then the house pets. There had been an increase in the number of “missing pet” signs. Then the small dogs had gone missing. Pet owners had started using leashes and not letting their dogs out at night.