Even if you don’t like leaving reviews or don’t have time, I’m still extremely happy and excited you read my book. That means the world to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  But if you do have a few minutes, leaving a review will help me build an audience, get noticed, and could make a huge impact on my writing career. It doesn’t need to be a long review, a short honest review is just as helpful.

  Again, a huge thank you for reading my novel.

  ~Kellee L. Greene~

  THE ISLAND - Preview

  Book 1 in The Island Series

  by

  Kellee L.

  Greene

  The Island - Chapter 1

  My life was a living hell. Everything around me was an absolute nightmare. Some days I’d wake up hoping it would all just end so that I could go on to whatever was waiting for me after this terrible existence. But it never ended. Every day, I lived through the same nightmare over and over again.

  When you have nothing… there is nothing. I didn’t have anything to look forward to. There wasn’t anything great out there waiting for me. The only thing that helped me get away were my dreams at night. Sometimes they would take me away from the hell I was living in, but most of the time they didn’t. It was all just one big, never-ending nightmare.

  I had no choice but to keep going, for them. That’s what I’d been doing for my whole life. They were all that mattered to me.

  My sister, Ava, had been sick for as long as I could remember, and for her, one day, she really wouldn’t wake up from her nightmare. Sometimes the sadness at the thought of not having her around was overwhelming, but other times I couldn’t help but think she’d be better off.

  Ava wasn’t happy. How could she be? No one liked being sick, and in the outskirts of the big city, lots of people were very ill.

  My mom struggled to take care of Ava on her own. My dad worked a lot, so most of the time it was just us. I did as much as I could for both of them. I took care of them, but I’m not sure they realized it.

  When I looked into my mom’s eyes, many times I’d see the same thing that I saw in my own when I looked into the mirror - nothing.

  We had very little money and barely scraped by, in a home that was falling apart. The whole place stunk, and the ceiling drooped down, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.

  The government had given up on everyone in the outskirts a long time ago. All they cared about were the extremely wealthy that lived in the big city. They’d bend over backwards to make sure they were happy living a life of luxury. Everything they did was to make their lives even better. The rest of us could rot for all they cared.

  Every single choice, law or decision they made was to benefit the wealthy. Even the air in the big city was cleaner than the air in the outskirts. The wealthy rarely got sick, and when they did, they seemed to magically be healed in the blink of an eye.

  Meanwhile, we all suffered in the outskirts. We struggled. We were barely alive.

  My dad worked his ass off… ten-hour work days in the mines, breathing in dirt and other chemicals, but did anyone care? No. Of course not. Many in the outskirts told him how lucky he was to have a job. He didn’t complain much, but he had the same look in his eyes. Only when he was around, he tried to hide it from us.

  I wasn’t even sure how my mom could have been expected to take care of my sister, or me, when she could only half-assed take care of herself. She rarely bathed, claiming it was to save water, but I think she simply stopped caring. Every day, it seemed she tried less and less.

  Even though I was twenty years old, I couldn’t move away and live on my own like those my age in the big city would. They’d be experiencing life. Living. That was something I’d never have.

  Even if my sister was healthy and my mom was doing better mentally, I wouldn’t be able to afford a life like that. I had no money hidden away, and it’s nearly impossible for someone like me to get a paying job. When there are jobs, they go to men so they can take care of their families.

  I was stuck. Just like everyone else that lived in the outskirts. I’d be in the same house until the day I died.

  My family needed me. At least that’s what I told myself every morning as I stared into the chipped mirror in the mildew-scented bathroom.

  “How are you feeling today?” I asked, patting my little sister on the head before making my way into the kitchen.

  “I think this is the day I get better,” she said with a forced smile. It was nice to see her smile, even if it was fake. “But more importantly, don’t pat me on the head like I’m twelve.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “Really? That’s more important than you getting better?”

  “I’m not going to get better,” she said slumping back down on the sofa.

  “Not with that attitude you won’t,” I said trying to force my own smile, but when it didn’t work, I let out a big sigh instead.

  Ava frowned.

  I shrugged. “Sorry.”

  I stepped into the kitchen and stared at my mom, who didn’t seem to notice I was there. She was standing, holding the broom tightly with both hands, looking at a stain that had been there since I was six. Her body might be in the kitchen, but her thoughts were, without a doubt, somewhere else.

  I opened my mouth to say something but quickly snapped it shut. Wherever her mind was, had to be better than where we were.

  “Oh, Holly,” she said taking a step back towards the counter. It was obvious I’d startled her. She grabbed onto the counter for balance, and I noticed her knuckles were worse. The bumps were covered in black dirt, but there was no doubt they were more swollen than they had been. I cocked my head to the side, and she waved one of her hands into the air as if she was shooing away my non-existent question. She already knew what I was going to ask. “I’m fine. I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “You say that every morning.”

  “And every morning it’s true. This air, it’s just too thick. It’s hard for me to breathe. If we could just get that darn filter replaced we’d all be doing better,” she said tipping the broom to the side and smacking one of the floor vents with the top of the wooden handle. A billowy poof of dust and god-knows-what-else shot out of the vent and filled the air just above the floor.

  I shook my head. “Don’t hit it. That just makes it worse.”

  “Thanks, Holly. As if that wasn’t obvious,” my mom said rolling her eyes at me. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here.”

  “You are?” I scrunched up my nose.

  “I need you to run this soup over to Mr. Hawthorne.” She pointed to a large bowl with a lid on the counter.

  I hit the side of the rounded container with my fingertip. I could feel the liquid sloshing around inside.

  It was no doubt another one of my mother’s concoctions. If the government wasn’t going to do anything to help the sick, then my mom was going to try to do it herself. At least it kept her busy some of the time and gave her a little teensy bit of purpose, although each failed recipe didn’t really help matters.

  “Sure,” I said glancing over at Ava, wondering what she thought of the concoction this time. Her eyes were closed, and her body gently moved up and down with each breath.

  “You can tell him it didn’t help Ava, but that doesn’t mean it won’t help him. And either way, it’s food,” my mom said softly as I pushed open the screen door that led to our backyard.

  I stepped out and let go of the door forgetting the hinges were broken. I tried to reach out and catch it before it slammed shut, but I was too slow. It noisily crashed into the doorframe with a loud bang.

  “Shit,” I said squeezing my eyes shut, hoping I wouldn’t hear either of them yelling at me to be more careful. Thankfully, neither of them did.

  The sky above was the same dreary shade of gray it always was. It was almost always cloudy, and even on the rare occasion it wasn’t, the smoke from the factories made it look that way. Of course, the sky above the big city was always a bright blue, almost as if it was painted right on the sky.

  The air was thick with moisture. It was so humid it was hard to breathe. If it was just a little thicker, I was pretty sure I’d be able to swim over to Mr. Hawthorne’s rickety house.

  I tried to walk across the yard quickly before the mosquitoes that were gathered around a small puddle of water noticed me, but it was hard to pick up my feet. The ground below my dirty shoes felt like a pile of soggy sponges that were trying to suck me down into the earth.

  I knocked on Mr. Hawthorne’s door. “Hello,” I called out. “It’s me, Holly. My mom made you some soup.”

  There was a harsh, watery cough that lasted far too long from a room further inside. I was sure he was in his bedroom, probably lying down.

  “Can you leave it on the counter?” he said in a rough voice when the cough settled.

  I didn’t want him to get up if he didn’t need to. I knew how bad the sickness could get, since he and Ava had the same thing.

  The sickness was something that many people in our area suffered from. Most people believed it was because of the smoke from the factories… pollutants, chemicals and the like, but of course the government denied it and refused to do anything about it.

  “Sure. Would you like me to bring you a bowl now?” I asked wondering if I should stick it in the fridge instead of setting it on the counter. I didn’t want it to go bad before he even got to try it. “I could heat some up.”

  “No, no, no, not now. Don’t trouble yourself. I’ll be up sooner or later,” he said, his voice fading away and rumbling into another cough.

  Most of the people in our neighborhood kept to themselves. The ones that weren’t sick wanted to stay away from my family, and those that were sick didn’t feel well enough to come outside. If it weren't for my mom and me, Mr. Hawthorne wouldn’t get any visitors.

  He didn’t have any family left. Mr. Hawthorne and his wife hadn’t ever gotten around to having children. When he talked about it on the rare occasion, he always added that it was probably for the best. It was less than a year ago that he lost his wife to the sickness and I think he was ready to go find her, even though he never said it out loud.

  “Maybe I should put it in your fridge?”

  “Don’t bother. The fridge isn’t any cooler.”

  I looked around the corner to see if he was making his way out before opening his fridge. The smell that wafted out told me it hadn’t been working for a while.

  “OK, well, I hope it helps,” I said smiling even though he couldn’t see it.

  He chuckled from the other room. “Tell your ma thanks for me, would ya?”

  “Will do,” I said quickly stepping out of his little house in an attempt to get a breath of air that wasn’t filled with the nasty smell of rotting food. The air outside wasn’t much better. It just had a different odor, like someone nearby was burning a pile of plastic, paper, and hair.

  I coughed as I exhaled the thick, acrid air. It was like I could feel the little particles of toxicity floating around in my lungs trying to find their way out.

  When I got closer to the house, I noticed a bucket my mom kept near the door had been moved. It was tipped over about two feet away from its usual spot.

  It seemed odd, but maybe a raccoon or something had moved it the night before, and I hadn’t noticed it when I accidentally slammed the door. I had been worried I’d woken Ava and was just too distracted to care about a bucket that was out of place.

  I picked up the bucket and set it near the back door where it belonged. My mom liked to keep it close by for when it rained and the roof leaked.

  I stepped into the house ready to tell my mom about Mr. Hawthorne’s fridge, not that she could do anything about it, but she wasn’t in the kitchen.

  The broom was lying on the floor, the wood split nearly in half in the middle. Great. We couldn’t even afford a new broom. Maybe if I could find some tape, I could repair it.

  The house was quiet. Usually, I could hear my mom moving around. Maybe she’d gone to take a nap.

  “Mom?” I said, my voice quiet. When she didn’t respond, a weird shiver ran through my spine.

  Something didn’t feel right.

  I swallowed. My eyes shifted towards the hall, and I saw my mom’s feet. She was down on the ground, her toes pointed towards the ceiling. What was going on? I took a step closer.

  “Mom?”

  She didn’t answer. I gasped when her feet started sliding away from me as if something was dragging her.

  Taking quick breaths, I looked over towards Ava. She was staring at me with wide eyes, waving her weak arms as hard as she could towards the door behind me. She couldn’t speak because there was a hand reaching around the arm of the sofa, clamped down over her mouth.

  Whoever had her was completely hidden by the sofa. All I could see was the meaty hand with tan, leathery skin and a shiny gold watch.

  “Ava!” I said moving towards her.

  She shook her head, but I didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me. As I took another step towards her, everything went black.

  The Island - Chapter 2

  I was on my back. Whatever I was lying on was somehow both soft and hard at the same time.

  My senses were starting to return to me one by one. I could hear a sloshing noise, but it wasn’t like anything I’d ever heard before. It was loud, not like running water or rain, but it was definitely water.

  I tried to swallow down the bitter taste in my mouth, but it wouldn’t go away. It tasted like I’d been chewing on dirty coins. My mouth was dry and rough, all the moisture was gone. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the taste or feeling to go away.

  The air was fresh and clean. It was salty, and it felt nice in my lungs.

  I spread my fingers as I tried to push myself upward into a seated position. Little grains that felt like salt moved around my fingers and fell off when I lifted my hand.

  My eyelids felt heavy. Even when I finally propped myself up, they still didn’t want to open.

  I brushed my hands off on my pants, making sure to get all the gritty bits off. It was odd, but my pants somehow felt different. I aggressively rubbed my eyes, trying to loosen them so they’d open.

  When I was able to finally coax them open, the light was so bright it stung my eyes. “Dammit,” I said, placing my hand over them to block out the light. I needed to let them adjust slowly so I could see where I was. “Ow, ow, ow!”

  I opened them a little more and saw the sand around my legs. Sand? Sunlight? Where the hell was I? Everything was so bright it didn’t seem real. Was I dreaming?

  I lifted my gaze and saw the sand stretched out in front of me. It was a long beach that led right to crystal blue water which was making soft, gentle waves on top of the sand.

  I gasped at the vastness of the water. It was everywhere. I’d never seen anything much larger than a pond, and now I was looking at nothing but water for miles and miles in front of me.

  Not far away I could hear someone groaning. I got to my feet, and when my legs wobbled, I stuck out my arms to steady myself.

  There was a girl lying in the sand not far from where I was. Her eyes were closed. It was probably exactly how I looked, lying there only minutes ago.

  “Hello,” I said keeping my distance from her.

  “Who’s there?” she said quickly in a shaky voice.

  “My name’s….” It was like my brain wasn’t working as it should. Finally I remembered, and it felt like a little spark inside my head. “Holly”

  She groaned again and lifted her arm slightly before it flopped back down into the sand. “Are you sure about that? You don’t sound so sure.”

  “I’m sure. What’s your name?”

  There was a long pause.

  “Sadie.”

  “Sure about that?” I grinned, even though her eyes were still mostly closed.

  “Ugh, yes,” she said sitting forward and crossing her legs. She tilted her head forward and hit the sides of her legs with her palms. “It’s just so bright.”

  I turned and scanned the beach, trying to figure out where I was. It wasn’t anything I’d ever seen before. At least I was pretty sure I hadn’t.

  As my eyes moved across the area, I spotted four more people all at varying stages of waking up, just like I had, and just like Sadie was.

  “Whoa,” I said stepping behind her so I could keep my eyes on them.

  “What?” Sadie’s eyes were open, and her face scrunched up as she looked around. “Where the heck am I?”

  I shook my head. “No idea. I woke up here too.”

  There was a part of me that wanted to add that I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there or much about myself. But since I didn’t know anything about her, I figured I’d withhold any unnecessary information. It was weird how the only specific detail I could recall was my name, and even that had been a challenge.

  It was all quite overwhelming, which likely contributed to the extreme confusion I was experiencing. Once everything settled down, and I could think, I was sure it would come back to me.

  “Who are they?” Sadie whispered when the others scattered about started to notice us and each other. They looked just as shocked and confused as I’m sure Sadie and I did.

  “No idea. I woke up here too,” I repeated, feeling as though nothing I said to her was sinking in at all.

  It felt like I was in a bad dream. We were all just standing there staring at one another with the same confused look on our faces. Time felt like it had slowed down to the point it barely moved at all.

  “My head is killing me,” Sadie said rubbing her temples.

  One of the others on the beach was starting to walk towards us, but it was what I noticed behind him that worried me. The clouds over the water were dark, nearly black, and very threatening.

  “That doesn’t look so good,” I said indicating the clouds with my chin.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18