The Hunted

By Jon de Silva

Meredith Graye and Danny Warden went off for a romantic weekend in a cabin located in a small, isolated country town in the woods called The Hills. As they took a stroll in the woods, their idyllic weekend turned into a nightmare when they encountered two psychopathic brothers, who made Meredith and Danny their prey.

Cut off from the outside world and relying only on their wits, Meredith and Danny must survive the night.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jon de Silva
• Release date: Jul 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310341694

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The Hunted

Jon de Silva

The Hunted

Copyright 2013 Jon J. de Silva

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission by the author. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

License Notes

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Dedication

This story is dedicated to my sister, Maryanne Couste.

1

Meredith Graye ran down the trail for what seemed like miles. The skies were darkening and the late September warmth turned cold. She wore khaki pants, a thin bright yellow blouse, and a pair of cheap sneakers. Her forty-three year old body told her in no uncertain terms she wasn’t the youthful twenty-one year old girl anymore. Although she regularly exercised, she lacked the physical endurance she once enjoyed.

The landscape was thick with trees, bushes, and kudzu. It reminded her of her father’s stories about the jungles of South Vietnam. Other than the weather and the food, that’s the only thing he ever talked about from the war. The rest was too painful for him, so he refused to talk about it.

She and her boyfriend, Danny Warden, arrived yesterday at a cabin they rented for the weekend in a place called The Hills, which was deep in a hilly, wooded area, near the edge of a group of mountains. It was far from civilization, the perfect place, so Danny thought, to celebrate their third anniversary as a couple.

He reserved the cabin three months ago, much to her chagrin. She preferred to go elsewhere, such as Chicago or, if he wanted to go all out, Hawaii. She hated going out in the woods. With the temperature quickly dropping, Meredith wished she were in Honolulu now.

Danny was a forty-five year old workaholic human resources manager who never married. He rarely, if ever, took vacations and his leave time accrued. He wanted to reach a point in his career before settling down and having a family. By his fortieth birthday, he realized that would never happen. He could never quite find the right woman. Most of the ones he dated were either gold diggers, narcissistic, or drama queens. Then he met Meredith and fell in love.

The former Meredith Turlich taught fifth grade at Harriet Tubman Elementary School, the same elementary school she attended as a child. She married her high school sweetheart, Charlie Graye, two months after graduation. They met at Tubman and started dating in middle school. They consummated their relationship after their senior prom and Meredith got pregnant with their daughter Lauren.

Charlie went to trade school, earned his ASE certification, and made good money for his new family as a mechanic. With babysitting help from her parents, Meredith went to college and earned a degree in Elementary Education.

The marriage thrived for fifteen years and then things changed. As Lauren grew, Meredith and Charlie drifted apart. By Lauren’s eighteenth birthday, they were practically strangers in their own home. They amicably divorced soon after Lauren started college out of state. Meredith tried to date off and on, but the guys she met only wanted sex, which turned her off to them. She gave up dating altogether until she met Danny.

As Meredith ran down the trail, something nagged at her, a sense of déjà vu. Her side ached and she needed to rest soon. She had no idea her cross-country training from high school would ever come in handy, but