The Ruins [Book 2] Read online

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  Dedication

  CREDITS

  PREFACE

  Background To The Ruins and Book 1 Recap

  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

  Afterword

  Email & Facebook

  Other Things To Read

  Copyright Info

  The Ruins 2

  A Dystopian Society in a Post-Apocalyptic World

  Book 2 of The Ruins Series

  By

  T.W. Piperbrook

  Find him at

  T.W. Piperbrook

  www.twpiperbrook.com

  www.facebook.com/twpiperbrook

  ©2017 Post Script Publishing

  Special thanks to Sean Martin

  for the seed of an idea that led to the creation of

  the people of The Arches.

  Cover Design and Layout

  Alex Saskalidis, a.k.a. 187designz

  Based on photos by Jeffrey A., a.k.a. Studio

  Editing & Proofreading

  Cathy Moeschet

  Technical Consultant

  John Cummings

  Preface

  Welcome to Book 2 of The Ruins.

  One thing I enjoyed about writing in the realm of THE LAST SURVIVORS—a tradition I've carried on in THE RUINS—is that no one is safe. Just like the real world, where anything can happen, and often does, the characters in these stories have to fight and claw to escape death, a scenario that doesn't always work out for them.

  In Book 1 of THE RUINS, we discovered a realm called The Arches, home to a group of people that, on the surface, appeared similar to those in William and Bray's former township, Brighton, and perhaps not too different from the people in New Hope (Kirby's settlement).

  As a certain ceremony on the bridge revealed, that might not be the case.

  Expect more secrets and surprises as you delve further into the world of The Arches.

  I hope you enjoy this second installment of The Ruins.

  We will see who makes it out alive.

  -Tyler Piperbrook

  March 2017

  THE RUINS Background: Pertinent Recap of The Last Survivors

  Three hundred years after the fall of society, the last fragments of civilization are clinging to life, living in the ruins of the ancient cities in nearly-medieval conditions. Technology has been reduced to legend, monsters roam the forests, and fear reigns supreme. Wind-borne spores disfigure men unlucky enough to be infected, twisting their minds and turning them into creatures to be feared. The survivors have different names for these creatures, but some call them the demons, or twisted men.

  After accidentally killing the mother of an infected boy, a Warden named Bray—a hunter of demons—vows to keep the motherless boy safe. He loses track of the boy, William, in the Ancient City, only to watch as the boy takes up with a band of demons, succumbing to the spore's madness. Before Bray can rescue William, a violent army captures the boy.

  While tracking William, Bray encounters a woman named Kirby from a strange settlement, who carries several pieces of Tech Magic he's never seen—guns.

  Telling some clever lies, Bray gets Kirby to join him, under the guise that William is his son.

  They track the army to Brighton.

  After surviving a bloody battle, in which Bray is shot and wounded, Kirby reveals to Bray that she is also infected. She also reveals that she has figured out some of Bray's lies, but she respects his bravery and his allegiance to William.

  Eventually, they rescue an emotionally battered William, who has taken revenge on the worst of his abductors by commanding a pack of demons to kill them.

  William swears off his demon brothers, and the three make a pact to leave Brighton for good, in the hopes of discovering what lies in the ruins.

  THE RUINS Book 1 Recap

  Bray, Kirby, and William return to Kirby's settlement, New Hope, in hopes of securing the rest of Kirby's stash of guns, only to find the settlement raided. After an altercation with two men with strange markings, Kirby rescues a survivor name Flora, who is from a settlement she has never seen. Flora explains that the pillaging men are from an enemy tribe called Halifax. She does not tell them that she was supposed to bring back the scalp of a Halifax man to her people, in order to be considered for marriage.

  After William takes ill, Flora lures them back to her settlement—a pair of islands in a wide river, accessed by a single, sloping road leading down from the bridge—in the hopes that she can exchange the guns, and information about William's power, to make up for her failed quest.

  Bray, Kirby, and William are welcomed into The Arches, where Jonathan and Bartholomew, the bridge commanders, set them up with a place to rest. Bartholomew and Jonathan say they will introduce them to the islands' ruler, Deacon, when he returns from a hunt.

  Bray meets a neighbor named Jaydra, who makes him suspicious about the islands. She explains that the oldest islanders—The Important Ones—are protected on the second island. She also mentions that everyone is expected to work and provide for the community.

  Bray, Kirby, and William meet Deacon.

  On the surface, Deacon appears helpful, though he is obviously interested in their guns. Deacon devises a plan to watch over Kirby, Bray, and William so he can decide how to access Kirby's guns, and William's power over the demons. He discusses the possibility an impending war with Halifax with a man named Jonas, one of his closest advisors. Jonas, a man with an affinity for a
ncient devices, and an even greater affinity for creating devices of torture, uses these devices on several Halifax men he and Deacon have captured.

  Flora, hoping to make up for her failed quest and preserve her life, offers Bray's scalp to Deacon, if Deacon deems him a hindrance to the using the god weapons, and accessing William's power. She also agrees to keep a close watch on Bray, Kirby, and William.

  Bray decides to go hunting with several of the islanders, to earn his keep and provide food for Kirby and a sick William. While on the hunt, he proves his worth as a hunter and fighter, but fails to kill a deer, which Wardens believe is bad luck, but which angers the island hunters.

  Back on the island, William grows sicker while Kirby worries. Flora and Jaydra talk to Bartholomew, who agrees to house William on the second island. While riding to the island, Kirby and William are surprised by a group of soldiers.

  Bray returns from the hunt to find a strange ceremony occurring on the bridge in the middle of a fog. Deacon presides over an excited crowd as a woman is thrown to her death off the bridge—a woman that Bray fears is Kirby.

  Chapter 1: Bray

  "Bray!" Levi yelled.

  Bray stopped running in the middle of the road, uncertain whether returning to the bridge's entrance would mean his death. He stared into the rising fog that rose from the river, which obscured most of the crowd standing on the bridge. Those who he could see were leaning over the waist-high wall, trying to get a glimpse of the woman who had been thrown over the edge. Smiles lit children's faces and men and women pointed. A few people laughed. Bray scanned the islanders, looking for Kirby and William, even though he was horribly certain he'd already seen Kirby die.

  The kicking, falling woman was gone, but her terrified, deathly shriek echoed in Bray's ears. He'd never forget the brutal sound of her body hitting the water. Her twisted, lifeless body was probably floating with the current, bashing against the rocks as the turbid water carried her to some final resting place. She'd get stuck somewhere, food for scavenging fish and animals.

  No one could survive a fall like that.

  I couldn't have done anything, he told himself.

  But he didn't believe it.

  Bray looked frantically at the massive bridge, thinking another body would follow—William's—but Deacon and the guards were retreating. What if William had already been thrown? The islanders disappeared from the bridge railing, presumably heading toward the long, sloping road that started in the middle of the bridge and descended down to the first island.

  "Bray!" Levi yelled again.

  Bray snapped to attention as two figures approached through the fog. He assumed one was Levi. He wasn't sure about the other. More cloudy figures stood further back, in front of the massive boulders blocking the bridge's entrance, watching, waiting. Or planning an attack. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, prepared to draw it and fight a battle with many more than two men, if that's the way this was going to go.

  He wouldn't let them take him alive.

  He held his ground as Levi appeared, holding up his hands, a nervous look on his face, Hildebrand next to him.

  "What are you doing?" Levi asked.

  Bray kept one hand on his scabbarded sword. "Who was that?" he asked, pointing. "Who did they throw off the bridge?"

  "I'm not sure," Levi said, glancing quickly behind him.

  Bray switched focus to Hildebrand and demanded, "Who did they throw?"

  Hildebrand looked unsettled. "We came back at the same time as you. We don't know."

  Bray studied the hunter's faces for a glimpse of malice or conspiracy—something that might confirm his darkest suspicions and make him pull his sword.

  "You're making the guards nervous," Levi said quietly. "We need to load in our game. We need to get to the butcher's. We don't want to cause a scene."

  Bray looked from Levi and Hildebrand to the dispersing crowd. Through the fog, it looked like a handful of people remained, lingering and waving their hands. Laughing. None looked in his direction. The ceremony—whatever it was—was clearly finished.

  Hildebrand nodded over his shoulder. "The guards told us to come get you."

  Bray wasn't moving. "Why did they throw that woman to her death?"

  "She went to meet the river gods," Levi explained.

  Bray shook his head and took a step backward. "She was screaming. They took her against her will. Whatever ceremony this was, she wanted no part in it."

  Hildebrand and Levi exchanged a grave glance. "Not all of our people meet the end bravely, though they are supposed to."

  Bray thought back to the people who had been burned in Brighton—the curdling screams, the begging for mercy, the crackle of burnt skin. None of those images made him feel any better about what he'd witnessed.

  "I realize you have different beliefs than us," Hildebrand said. "We can explain more, but we should head back, before the guards get concerned and escort us."

  Bray didn't miss the subtle warning. He looked away from Levi and Hildebrand and across the fog-covered road, certain that guards were hiding in places he couldn't see to reinforce the suggestion. He saw nothing except the few parts of the steep, snow-covered mountains visible through the encroaching fog. It took every restraint not to dart away, weave into the forest, and take his chances in that mist. If he got enough of a head start, he might get away.

  But William.

  What if William was still alive? What if he was cornered, sick, and scared? What if he was next to die, if that had truly been Kirby?

  "I need to make sure my friends are all right," he said.

  "If the boy is as sick as you say, he's probably back at your house. In any case, we won't find any answers out here." Levi pointed up the road, where the silhouettes of the guards shifted impatiently. "Let's go."

  "We'll find out where your friends are," Hildebrand assured him.

  Bray's pulse pounded as he watched the soldiers. He took his hand off his blade, but stayed alert and ready to draw it. He followed Levi and Hildebrand up the road and to the bridge's entrance, still not certain he wasn't walking into a battle. All he saw were the silhouettes of the guards in front of the boulders and the waiting hunters. He didn't see Deacon, his closest soldiers, or even Bartholomew and Jonathan. It seemed most of the crowd was gone.

  They could've killed me already, he told himself, but that was no guarantee of his safety.

  The guards stood in a row in front of the boulders, watching Bray with stern faces. A few had their hands close to their flat swords. The hunters took in the scene with confusion, looking from Bray, to Levi, to Hildebrand.

  "It's okay," Levi said, sounding almost as nervous as Bray as he held up his hands to explain to the guards. "He doesn't know the traditions."

  Bray looked from one guard to the next. He wanted to grab someone, stick a knife to the person's throat, and demand answers, but he knew he'd be killed before he got that far. And what would happen to William?

  "You're lucky Deacon didn't see you," the woman with one arm muttered. "You almost caused a scene. You could've interrupted the ceremony."

  The woman watched Bray with a firm glance. Or was it a dare to do something? Bray looked past her and through the gap in the boulders on the bridge, catching sight of a few stragglers leaned against the walls, talking and smiling as if they had watched a pig pull or a harvest race, instead of a woman plunging to her death. No Kirby or William.

  Unable to hold back his question any longer, he asked, "Who was the person in the white robe?"

  "I couldn't hear her name from here," the one-armed woman said, shrugging. "She was one of the chosen, sent to the river gods by Deacon. What more do you need to know?"

  One of the guards spat on the ground. The others gave him stony stares.

  "Where are my friends?" Bray didn't need to clarify whom he was talking about. Everyone knew. He wanted to fight his way to William, to hack through these people until he got answers.

  "We don't know where they
are," the one-armed woman said. "Our job is to keep the bridge safe. That's it."

  A crunching noise ripped Bray's attention to the bridge. Several men Bray didn't recognize wheeled wooden carts from the fog behind the boulders, coming out onto the road and stopping when they realized they had entered a tense situation. Curious looks crossed their faces as they stared from Bray to the soldiers, realizing they might witness something.

  One of the male guards stepped forward, gesturing to the one-armed woman. "Like Petra said, we don't know where your friends are. But if you don't want your game, we have plenty of hungry mouths to feed."

  Bray bristled.

  "We'll find your friends after we get our kills inside," Levi promised him, grabbing Bray's arm. "Come on. Let's load up our things."

  Bray allowed Levi to pull him toward the carts, but he didn't stop watching the guards as he bent down and helped the hunters load their game.

  Chapter 2: Bray

  The hunters collected the kills they'd been dragging and laid them on the carts. A few shrugged off heavy, meat-filled bags and secured them to be wheeled away. Bray kept his bag. He looked across the bridge, hoping to see William or Kirby, but he could not see the other end through the fog. He couldn't erase the thought that he was being fed lies and was about to be jumped. Levi and Hildebrand glanced at him a few times, concerned, or maybe judging his reaction. Bray fought the sickening feeling in his stomach that told him Kirby and William were already dead. A rash move would mean the end of him.

  When the carts were full, the hunters began wheeling them through the gaps next to the boulders with the assistance of the helpers. The soldiers stayed behind.

  Hoping he wasn't making a last mistake, Bray fell in line behind the others.

  The smell of dirty clothing and sweat hung in the air as they entered the bridge where a thousand people had stood packed against each other moments earlier. Fog swirled up from the river, revealing bits and pieces of Bray's surroundings. A few people stood by the bridge's southern edge, perhaps hoping to catch a glimpse of the tossed woman, who had likely drowned, if she hadn't died on impact. There was no sign of Deacon or his closest soldiers, no sign of Kirby, William, Bartholomew, or Jonathan. Bray didn't even see Flora.