The Remaining: Refugees by D.J. Molles is the third book in The Remaining series. I’m not an author by any means but I have read hundreds and hundreds of books throughout my lifetime ranging from all different kinds of genre and I can say this much about Mr. Molles: this guy is a winner. All three books in this series has been a blast to read so far and I am, like many others out there as well, eagerly anticipating for the 4th book to be release. Finally, the author addresses what I saw as one of the main issues with the series so far and that was the talk of the infected. In Refugees, the author spends a lot more time focusing on the infected (aka zombies) and the questions surrounding them of how they act and behave. However, the question of “how” the plague actually got started and what exactly happened is still being eluded to. But whatever the case, once you start reading this series, you will definitely find yourself having a hard time putting it down!

Here in Refugees, it’s been about 3 months after the events of the second book, Aftermath. More survivors have been rescued and the Camp Ryder hub is steadily growing. As always, Captain Lee Harden and his crew is at the center of attention. All kinds of crazy events happen when Lee stumbles upon a den of the infected. Also, tensions run high within Camp Ryder itself due to the camp being separated between groups of survivors who are in support of the Captain and those who think he is wasting precious resources in fighting a fight that they cannot win.

The characters we know and love in the previous two books are once again present here. I would have loved it if the author spent just a tad bit more time developing them and giving them just a bit more personality and life. For example, Harper and LaRouche, although we see them in the story, they hardly make a big impact. Basically, they do whatever they’re told by Lee and that’s the end of it. However, I’m guessing that’s about to change in the next book as both of these characters seem to have a much bigger role to play judging by what happens at the end of Refugees. This is good because we need other people to start stepping up and making decisions instead of having to read about Lee do everything himself.

I know I’m being mean but someone in the story needs to get bitten by the infected! I don’t care who it is. We can’t have a zombie story with the main characters escaping and getting away cleanly each and every time they encounter the infected horde! Sure, some characters do die but not due to the infected. This makes reading encounters with the infected predictable. While it’s sure fun to read about the characters battling their way through the infected horde, it sometimes can make things pointless because in the back of my mind, I know for sure the group will come out unharmed. If they are going to be harmed, it’s more likely to come from bullets than the infected zombies themselves.

In the end, I have no doubt that the next book in the series is when the story will really pick up. Judging by the end of Refugees, it seems as if some of the main characters will finally start to branch out during the next phase of the story rather than having everyone hang around within the same radius of each other. Hopefully this will allow the author to expand his story even more. Now, can you pretty please release the 4th book already?!