Grid Attack

Cyber War

Book TWO

Emerson Hawk

Copyright 2015

All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters or incidents are all a product of the author’s imagination. Any likeness to persons, places, and things are purely coincidental.

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Contents

Copyright

Chapter 1 - Anthony

Chapter 2- Katherine

Chapter 3 - Anthony

Chapter 4 - Katherine

Chapter 5 - Anthony

Chapter 6 - Katherine

Chapter 7

Chapter 8 - Anthony

Chapter 9 - Katherine

Chapter 10 - Anthony

Chapter 11 - Katherine

Chapter 12 - Anthony

Chapter 13 - Katherine

Chapter 14 - Anthony

Chapter 15 - Katherine

Chapter 16 - Anthony

Chapter 17

Chapter 18 - Anthony

Chapter 19 - Katherine

Chapter 1 - Anthony

There are times in a mans life where he wishes he would have made different choices. Better choices.

Right now was one of those times for me. If I had listened to Katherine when she said for us to leave, it would have been much easier than to try to leave now.

By now, we were sure that most of the roads were probably blocked or guarded by people who didn’t have any qualms about taking a life for food or anything else for that matter.

The National Guard had been called out and apparently were trying to help people. But there were some others who were using the situation to kill and loot from people.

We had been watchful for the last couple of weeks, trying to lay low and hide away in our home. For the most part, no one knew we were there. And if there was any major looting going on, they chose not to come to our house.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that our home was a huge brick house set up high and there was no real easy way to loot the place without being noticed easily.

It had gotten pretty cold over the last week, and we figured people didn’t care to be out in the cold. We thought that maybe that kept people closer to their own location instead of venturing out too far and finding us.

We could smell wood smoke through the area so we knew that other’s had held up in their homes as well, probably sharing with their neighbors. It wouldn’t last, though.

Two weeks ago, some men who were dressed to look like military came around and shot anyone who answered doors. Maybe they had gotten enough supplies through that method, but we knew we wouldn’t be safe here for much longer. We knew they would probably be back to take whatever they wanted and we didn’t have enough people to fend them all off if there was more than a few.

Kat was right. We should have packed up what we could and left. Now we had no choice. It was just a matter of figuring out how to get out of the city with what we could and not get shot in the process.

I found Kat upstairs digging through some boxes, frantically looking for something.

“Babe? Whatchya doin?” I asked her.

She rubbed her face with her hands and then put her hands on her hips.

“I’m trying to find the maps!” she said, flustered. “I had put some maps of the state away in case we ever needed them. I was going to toss them, but I just couldn’t, even though we never used them.”

I decided to help her look through some boxes when I spotted what looked like a small magazine box on the book shelf. Walking over, I pulled it out, and it was full of folded paper maps.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” I asked, with a bit of a smirk.

She softly punched me in the arm. “Now why couldn’t you have come up and done that an hour ago?” she said, with a slight smile.

She went through the maps and found the one for Missouri.

“Got it, woot!” she said and kissed me on the cheek as she took her candle and went downstairs.

We pulled the map open and began to look at the different routes out of town. Carl, Kat and I followed the roads with our fingers, talking about ways to get through and places to turn around if we needed. Damn, I missed having a maps app right now.

We figured if we could get across the Missouri river, we would have a much better chance of getting free from marauders. We just had to decide if we wanted to take side roads or main roads.

“Carl, see if you can get anyone on the radio talking about the roads. Even if it isn’t in our area. If we can find out what other’s are doing, it will only help us.”

The local radio bands had all finally went silent so the only real contact we had now was Carl’s portable HAM radio.

He pulled out his radio and sat on the recliner, trying to find anyone talking about roads. There was all kinds of chatter about everything including about how police were taking people away to the FEMA camps. It was hard to tell what was the truth and what was just conspiracy theories.

We took our time and plotted our route, allowing for backtracking if needed and also considered what would happen if our vehicle got stolen and we had to hike the rest of the way.

That wasn’t a pleasant thought. The idea of having to hike 60 miles in this kind of weather was not something I wanted to do, much less subject Katherine to.

She also would never let me live it down. And in general, I just didn’t want to disappoint her.

I knew it was important to her to get to her mom’s. Her mom lived in a small town just near the river. Damn, if I only had a boat we could get to a waterway and float all the way down.

It was a historic town with residents that never seemed to leave. I loved the area, but I had always wanted to stay close to the city with the conveniences that go with it.

The country life was never something I envisioned for myself. Now, I kinda wished we had lived in the country. We would probably have been better prepared.

Carl couldn’t find anything on the radio about the roads, so he helped us map our way.

“Carl, do you want to come with us? I mean, we can bring you along if you like?” I said, without asking Kat if she was okay with it.

Kat glared at me. But I knew what I was doing. I figured it was probably going to be a rough trip. We could use Carl to help us get through some things, especially if we ran up against anyone that would do us harm. He was a good shot, after all.

“I dunno, man. I really don’t have any reason to go with you. Plus, your mother-in-law doesn’t know me. She may not be keen on the idea of a stranger.” He said.

“Well, you think about it. It will be a day or so before we head out. I just wish we knew if the weather was going to cooperate or not.” I said.

I looked over at Kat who was motioning for me to go upstairs. I was about to get a tongue lashing for inviting Carl without asking her first.

I guess the apocalypse never changes certain parts of a relationship.

Chapter 2- Katherine

“What the hell are you thinking? We can’t bring anyone with us. We have no idea what lies out there. I don’t want anything to happen to Carl, and it be our fault because we invited him to come!” I whisper yelled at Anthony, totally pissed that he’s invited Carl to come along without consulting me first.

I mean, it’s wasn’t HIS mom’s house, it was mine. And I knew my mother was probably worried sick about us. The last thing she needed was to have some strange person that she didn’t know in her house, and trying to feed him as well as us.

“Babe, listen, please…” Tony started. “I know that Carl will help us out on this. He won’t just mooch off your mom or us for that matter. He will contribute to working and figuring out things that may make all our lives easier. He’s smart like that. Plus, we need an extra person for security.”

“Security?” I said.

“Yes, think about it. If it’s just you and me, we are the only ones that can monitor things on the way down, as well as at your mom’s place. That means that it’s much harder because only one of us can be on security watch while the other person drives or sleeps. Your mom and step-dad are not agile enough to do security. So Carl will allow us to rotate security, and watch out for people that don’t have a good nature about them.” He said.

He had a good point. If it was just the two of us and things were bad down there, it would be really hard for just he and I to manage things. Having one extra person would help out tremendously. Providing we could actually get out of the city and down there to begin with.

“Okay, fine,” I said. “Then what about Alice? We can’t just leave her.” I said. The thought of just abandoning her after her husband just died wasn’t something I could do.

“We need to offer to her to come as well, I suppose.” He said. I could see he was having the same thoughts as I was. It was hard to think in terms of keeping people around just because of their usefulness. But that is what we were faced with. If someone wasn’t useful to us, it made sense to let them find their own way.

What a horrible world we lived in now. But I decided I wasn’t about to leave her here, alone. No way. She was always working before and I had no doubt that she would make herself useful now.

“Speaking of Alice, where is she? I haven’t seen her in a while.” I said.

“Alice?” I called out quietly. I didn’t want to speak too loud, even in the house. We never knew who might be just outside.

She wasn’t upstairs and I didn’t remember her being on the main floor when we were all looking over the map.

I went down to the basement, and she wasn’t there either.

“Tony, where the hell is she? I didn’t even hear her leave…” I felt a knot in my stomach. Where had she gone?

I knew she was terribly heartbroken over the death of her husband. As much as I tried to console her, there was nothing anyone could do to speed up the emotional healing when it came to the death of a loved one.

We all grabbed a couple of flashlights and went outside to look. We had to be quiet, because we didn’t want everyone to know we were still there. We kept the flashlights off for the most part allowing our eyes to adjust to the dark as we walked around looking for her, but stayed within earshot of each other.

We all met up by the garage where Ernie’s body was.

I whispered to Carl and Tony, “You don’t think she would be in there, do you?” I asked.

Carl shrugged and Tony said he would go take a look inside.

Carl and I both stood outside, waiting and watching to make sure no one would sneak up on us. Thank goodness we had installed the gate between our two houses when we put our fence up.

Alice always liked sharing her food with us and we would share eggs from the chickens. So when we put up the privacy fence, we made sure to add a gate between our two back yards. It made it easier for us to pass things through and chat with each other without having to go all the way around to the front of the house.

Tony appeared a few minutes later, grabbing my hand and pulling me back into our house. I could tell by his walk that he was in a hurry and he seemed upset.

I felt my stomach lurch as he pulled me into his arms and hug me.

“What? What is it?” I asked as I pulled away to look at his face.

His eyes were filled with tears.

“She…she slit her wrists. She laid on top of him and slit her wrists.” He said.

Chapter 3 - Anthony

When I got into Alice’s house, I used the flashlight to see inside, being careful not to shine it towards a window.  Since the tree was still covering most of the front of the house, it was easy to go through the back and not be seen.

The first thing I noticed as I made my way towards the garage was the smell.  We hadn’t noticed it up until now, probably because the door was closed to the garage and the temperatures had been pretty cold, so any decomposition would have been slow.

When I got to the garage door entrance from inside the house, I could see the door was ajar.  We had made sure it had been closed before, so I knew either someone had been looting or someone was in here.

“Alice?”  I called out softly.  “Are you here, Alice? It’s Tony.”

Making sure I identified myself was vital these days.  We didn’t want to accidentally get shot.

Of course, I had no way of knowing if she was even in the garage or if someone else was in there.  I pulled my pistol as I made myself ready in case someone jumped me.

As I got into the garage, the smell of death was overwhelming.  So much so I almost lost my dinner.  I grabbed my jacket and pulled it up around my nose and mouth, hoping to block the smell.

There is something about the smell of death that once experienced, you always remember and know what it is. It is the most putrid of smells and can linger inside your nostrils for days.

I took the flashlight and shown it around the garage as I slowly worked my way around the first car.  As I got toward the center area I slipped on something and almost landed on my ass.

With a shaky flashlight, I shined the light down on the floor. Following the bright red trail of blood, it led me right to Alice’s body.  She had decided this world was too hard to live in without Ernie.

Her eyes were still open, as I rushed over to her.  But I could tell she was already dead.  I carefully felt for a pulse, then closed her eyes.

It hurt my heart that someone could take their own life because of heartbreak.  But I understood it.  Having someone suddenly torn from your life by death isn’t something that is easy to handle no matter who you are or where you're from.

Some people can manage to deal with death more easily than others.

I remembered reading an article about how many couples who had been married for years, died shortly after one another.  It was almost as if their heart was so broken, that it couldn’t be put back together.

Alice and Ernie were that kind of couple.  She just couldn’t bear the thought of life without her husband.

I backed away from them and quickly made my way back to Katherine and Carl.  I needed to feel Kat in my arms right then.  My emotions had begun to get the best of me and I choked back the tears that pricked at my eyes.

Living life in a state of constant stress isn’t something that most people can handle.  I know I have talked with combat Veterans who’ve tried to explain it to me.  But there is no way to explain stress of the constant state of fear unless you have been to war.

Fortunately, I had never had to experience war. At least not at the level of the troops.  I didn’t envy any of them, and always respected anyone that could come back and manage to live any kind of normal life after fighting.

I hurried out of the house and grabbed Kat by the hand, leading her into the house before pulling her close to me and feeling her warmth. I needed to do that before telling them about Alice. Carl followed us inside closing the door behind him.

I knew she would be upset.  Rightfully so.

After I told her, she just shook her head and went to sit down on the couch.  Grabbing some tissues she covered her face and quietly sobbed.

Seeing Kat cry was one of the hardest things for me.  When she cried, it was almost like I could feel her pain inside me and I had to swallow hard to keep myself together.  It wasn’t always possible.

I went and sat down next to her, pulling her into me and laying her head on my shoulder so she could let go of the stress and pain of the last few weeks.  I petted her head and held her tight until she finally calmed down.

“Damn, I hate to cry,” She said.  “I always get a bad headache when I cry.”

The headaches were something she had fought with for years.  So crying wasn’t something she allowed herself to do often. When she did it would trigger a headache that would last for days.

She had medication, but since it was expensive she only used it when the pain became unbearable.

I knew she had been stockpiling it as often as she could when we had insurance so that during the times when we didn’t or if we couldn’t get it, she would have it.  Her migraines were disabling and that wasn’t something she could deal with right now.

Carl was quiet as he went back over to the map and continued to look at the different routes.

“I think I will go with you guys if you both agreed and are okay with it.”

He knew that Katherine had concerns and that we had gone upstairs to talk about it.

I whispered to Kat, “What do you think?” I asked her.

She nodded yes.

“Yeah, we would love to have you.  It most likely won’t be a fun trip.”  I said.

“Well, it makes sense to stay together.  If I went out on my own, I would have less chance of making it by myself.  Being in a group helps.”  He said.

I believed he was right.  He probably figured he would never make it to his mother’s now anyway, at least not in the current state of the country.

“What about your mom?  And your brother?” I asked him, making sure he had considered all his options.

He shrugged and sighed.  I could tell it was a weight on him.  He was here with us and probably felt he missed his opportunity to get to them safely.

“Unless ya’ll were planning on making a side trip, I will just have to find a way to get to them later.” He said.

I nodded.  He was better off coming with us for now and figuring out how to get to his family later as things calmed down.  Besides, his mom lived out in the burbs and most likely was better off than we were in the city.

Katherine finally calmed down and grabbed more tissues to wipe her tears.

“I think I want to sleep.  We can finish this in the morning unless you guys want to plan things out.” She said.

She kissed me on the lips.  “I’m fine babe. I’m just tired.  It’s been a long month.” She said with a slight chuckle.

I knew she was trying to suck it up and just deal with life, but life was so different now.  Life was scary, and dealing with constantly being scared made it easy to want to just give up.

I gave her hand a squeeze.

“We’ll make it.  Your mom is waiting.  Let’s make sure we show up.” I said.

Chapter 4 - Katherine

Sometimes the pain of life and death can make you wonder if it’s worth it. Why do we keep going when things seem so bad and it appears that there is no hope?

I pondered that, as I slipped off my shoes and pulled the cold covers up over my head. We had been sleeping in our clothes in case something happened and we had to hurry up and get out of the house.

The last thing we wanted was to be outdoors in our pajamas in the winter. Plus, it helped keep us warm.

The fireplace helped and we would turn on the vent-less propane heater I had bought several years ago. It was a godsend during those winter months when the radiator heater didn’t seem to want to take the chill off this old house fast enough. Now, it was what was keeping it tolerable inside the house in addition to the fireplace constantly going.

Unfortunately, the little amount of wood we had was quickly being used just to keep it at a tolerable temperature.

I had picked up the propane heater after an ice storm took out power for a week in what was the coldest week in the history of storms here. The power was out for most of the St. Louis metropolitan area for almost a week.

A lot of people died that year. Mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning because they were bringing in their gas grills to heat the inside of their homes. It was brutally cold, and the hotels outside the city filled up fast.

Not to mention we had no way of knowing when the power would be back up and a lot of people just didn’t feel comfortable leaving their homes for that long with no power. We were the same way.

Fortunately, for Tony, his office had power so he was able to work and stayed warm when he went into the office. I managed to stay home and keep the firewood on the fire while listening to the radio and playing solitaire.

The ice kept me from doing anything else and there was no way I was getting on the road if I didn’t have to.

I really felt sorry for those linemen. They worked day and night in freezing temps to get everyone back up and running. But the weather just wouldn’t play nice. We got hammered with high winds which only made things worse.

The fireplace kept us going that year, but I never wanted to be without an alternate source of heat ever again.

So I waited until off season and got the vent free propane heater along with the propane tank, and it works like a charm. I would have to remember to bring it when we headed down to moms. It could come in handy if there is no heat down there.

As I closed my eyes, I tried not to tear up thinking about Alice. How sad she must have been and didn’t really say anything to us. She must have felt as though we had enough on our plates with trying to keep the food and heat going for all of us.

There were so many chores now. So many things that had to be done manually that was done with machines before. Washing clothes was the hardest and waiting for them to dry in the cool dampness of the winter seemed to take forever.

Although, when we would dry them near the fire, the moisture would help put humidity in the air so it would not feel so itchy on our skin.

What I was really missing was my heating pad. I used to take it and put it between the sheets at night to take the chill out of the bed down by my feet. It made it so much nicer to slip into bed with a warm spot for my cold feet.

For now, I would just have to deal with what I had. I began to warm under the dozen blankets we had on the bed. I pulled them up to my eyes so I could warm my nose under them. Sleep finally began to creep in as I longed for my fan to make white noise to block out the silence.

Now, it was too quiet. I could hear the house groan and creak like an old man when the wind would blow strong enough. Occasionally, there would be a gunshot in the distance or the sound of glass breaking.

It had become the norm for all of us to rotate sleeping upstairs. Usually, two of us were sleeping down on the sectional in front of the fire and the third would be upstairs under a bunch of blankets.

I actually slept a lot better upstairs. I guess knowing that the guys were downstairs keeping an eye and ear on things helped.

I worried about mom and I hoped they had remembered all the things they should be doing to stay warm. I’m sure they were fine, but not being able to get in contact with them was the worst.

Hopefully, we would be on our way down to them in a few days, if nothing else bad happened to change our plans.

Plans weren’t something we could count on anymore. We were constantly changing them based on what we needed to do or have done for the day.

The next morning, I woke to the sun peeking through that crack between the shade and the window trim. You know the one…it’s the one that some how finds your eyes even though the slit is only 1/4 inch wide.

I laid in bed for a moment to see if I could hear anyone stirring downstairs. All was quiet and I was glad because quality sleep for any length of time was so hard to get these days.

Slipping on my shoes, I tip-toed as quiet as I could down the stairs, trying not to wake the guys. I wasn’t sure how late they’d stayed up planning our route and wanted to let them sleep as long as possible.

As I pulled back the makeshift curtain that we used to block off the upstairs, I could hear both of them snoring softly.

I crept quietly around and down to the basement stairs, trying to make sure to miss those spots in the floor that creaked when you stepped on them.

The chickens were up and cooing softly as I talked to them and checked for eggs.

We had made an indoor cage that worked quite well to allow them to have plenty of room to move around, but by doing so, the poop that accumulated had to be cleaned daily or else the house would smell.

I gave the girls a few handfuls of black oil sunflower seeds that they gobbled up like it was their last meal. We still had plenty of organic feed and at least there was some small amount of light coming in through the glass block windows so it didn’t feel like a cave.

We noticed the egg production dropped considerably since they had been moved indoors. I figured it was from lack of outdoor light and sunshine, so I built a shallow cage that I could use to move the girls outside to get some sunshine, but still be able to move them back into the house quickly if needed.

I was afraid to leave them out for long. If someone heard them, then we would have people showing up to claim them and we just didn’t need that kind of attention.

But I also didn’t want the chickens to be forced to stay inside all the time. I knew that was how commercial farms did it and with enough light we could get eggs, but the girls were more like pets than they were livestock.

I took two of the girls and put them in a cat carrier and quietly went out the outside basement door. Looking around and listening, I didn’t see or hear anyone so I went up and let them out into the small makeshift run.

Even with the coolness of the breeze, the sun made a huge difference in how warm it felt. They were excited to get out and began scratching at the brown grass for bugs and worms. I loved watching them do what came natural as I got lost in daydreaming about living on a farm outside of the city.

I would soon find out that my lack of awareness was a huge mistake.

Chapter 5 - Anthony

A single gunshot woke me as I tried to gather my senses from the deep sleep I was in. Carl shot up as well and we both looked at each other as we tried to figure out what had happened.

“Kat? Katherine?!” I yelled out.

Since I wasn’t sure where the shot had come from, I was worried that maybe she had done something to herself that would make me hate the world. My mind went into a million different directions as I sprang up the stairs, only to find the bedroom empty.

I heard the noise of the chickens coming from the back yard and realized that she must have been outside.

“Kat? Are you okay?” I asked out the window, not able to see if she was even out there. Later, I would think about that action and realize it wasn’t a smart thing to do. You never know what the situation is and having stealth becomes an advantage.

“Anthony? Help…” I heard her soft voice come up from outside.

I rushed back down and out the back door.

She was standing with her pistol in her hand and pointed across the yard. She was shaking and trying to catch her breath. I instinctually drew my pistol as I made my way over to her.

I looked over to where her gun was pointing. There was a skinny black man lying on the ground. He didn’t appear to be moving.

Reaching over, I gently eased her arms downward so that her muzzle was to the ground, then walked over to see if the man was still alive.

His eyes were wide open and he taking short breaths. He tried to speak but nothing came out other than gurgling coughs. Her bullet had hit him right in the neck and through the carotid artery. There was a large pool of blood that had surrounded him and the wound was gaping and pulsing as blood shot out of his neck.

It was the same guy that had come by a month earlier asking about the chickens. I guess he figured my story didn’t seem as believable as I had hoped.

If he had been checking us out when he passed, he would have been able to see or possibly hear when Kat would bring the chickens outside.

I knew it was only going to be a few more seconds before he passed from this life. I’m not sure why I did what I did, but I squatted down and reached for the mans hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

I felt him squeeze back right before the life left his body. I closed my eyes and asked God to forgive any sins the man had.

Standing up, I walked back over to Katherine. She was just staring over at him, wide eyed and having a hard time forming words. I could tell she was struggling with what had just happened.

“Knife. He had a knife. I told him to stop. He kept coming.” She said.

“Babe, come on, let’s go inside.” I said as I carefully removed the gun from her hand and took her through the back door.

I led her into the living room and sat her down on the couch. She was shivering from the adrenalin, so I took and wrapped her up in a blanket.

“You stay here. Carl and I will take care of this.” I said, as I lifted her chin up until her eyes met mine. I needed her to understand what I was saying.

She nodded as Carl and I went back into the back yard to assess the situation.

“Damn, Tony. I didn’t know she had it in her.” Carl said.

“Me neither. But I imagine this will give her nightmares for a while. We need to do something with the body.” I said, not exactly knowing what we should do.

It wasn’t like we could call someone to come and get it. And even if we could, I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to really know what happened.

Even though it was in self-defense, our world was different now and who knows how things like this were being handled.

“I guess we need to bury him or something.” I said, looking around my back yard and evaluating whether I wanted to bury someone in it.

“Why don’t we bury him over there?” Carl said, pointing the the back yard of Alice and Ernie. “And while we are at it, we should go ahead and bury Alice and Ernie as well.”

I took a deep breath and sighed. Nodding my head, I told Carl to pull one of the older tarps out of my shed so we could wrap this guy in it.

We made sure to look around at the neighbors back yards that butted up against us. We knew a few of them, but hadn’t seen them since the whole collapse started and had no idea if they were even there.

Perhaps it was a good idea to find out, but it would have to wait.

“I think maybe it would be wise to take turns, so one of us can be on watch while the other digs.” Carl said, and I agreed.

I went inside to check on Katherine. She was calmer now and had come out of her dazed state.

I sat on the coffee table opposite of her and brushed her hair out of her face.

“You doing okay, baby girl?”

“I think so. I just…I never killed anyone. Didn’t know it would feel like this. I didn’t want to shoot him.” She said as she looked up at me, eyes in need of approval.

“I know you didn’t babe. It’s okay. It was self-defense. And I’m sorry you had to do that.” I said.

“Carl and I are going to dig a few graves out behind the neighbors garage. WE will be at it for a while. Why don’t you stay here and just rest.” I added.

She nodded and stared back at the fire going in the fireplace.

I knew from things that I had read that traumatic events can cause people to disconnect if they can’t figure out how to deal. I also knew Kat was pretty strong and figured she would be okay.

At least, that was the hope.

Carl and I grabbed gloves and shovels and we took turns digging three shallow graves. The exercise felt good, even if we didn’t really need it.

The sunshine warmed us up and we were grateful that it wasn’t raining or snowing, and that the ground wasn’t so waterlogged that it would be like digging up clay.

We didn’t waste time as we lowered in the body of the stranger and covered it up.

Next was the grueling task of burying the bodies of Alice and Ernie. Even with the cold, the bodies had begun to decompose and the smell was overpowering.

I went in through the broken house and opened the garage door. Both Carl and I had to walk away and catch our breath as the odor made us gag.

We guessed that it was the smell that had kept looters from ransacking their house since there was still a big tree across the living room.

Carl and I were glad we had dug the graves prior to opening the garage, because we couldn’t move fast enough to get both bodies in the ground and get them covered.

We both quickly covered them with dirt and I took a bucket of rainwater and some bleach and poured it on the blood that was in the garage and closed the door.

This was a task I didn’t want to have to repeat any time soon.

I made the conscious decision that in the future either bodies would need to buried or burned immediately to prevent this type of thing. Not only would it be safer and cleaner, but if this had been in the summer the smell would have not allowed us to sleep.

Of course, my goal was not to have to bury anyone else in the near future. I just didn’t know if that goal would be realistic or if I was just trying to be hopeful.

Only time would tell.

Chapter 6 - Katherine

I watched out the back window at the guys digging up those graves. I couldn’t stop shaking.

Why did that man have to start running towards me? I didn’t have time to even think about it. I just saw the knife and drew my weapon and fired.

I had never shot anything before. Hell, I couldn’t even bear to slaughter our chickens for meat.

When we originally got chickens the plan was to have them for eggs for a year and then slaughter them for the freezer. When the year rolled around, I couldn’t bear to kill them. They were my “girls” by then.

I knew their personalities and when I would sit out on the bench near their coop, they would come and hop on my lap and chirp and chatter as I talked back to them.

The funny thing was, I still ate chicken and bought chicken at the store. Of course, I had made the decision years ago to only buy humanely raised chicken, but still there was that disconnect between us and our food.

For that first year of having the chickens I was in a real quandary with my feelings about eating chicken. Of course, my hunger would always outweigh my decisions. So I figured out how to deal with it internally and not worry about it.

I guess in a way, I was sticking my head in the sand about where our food comes from.

As I watched the guys trying to deal with the smell from the bodies of our dead neighbors, I thought back to a story I had read about how people who lived in the country didn’t name their animals because it made it to hard for them when it came to slaughtering.

When you give an animal a name, it becomes a pet. And we don’t eat our pets here in America.

As the adrenalin finally started to release, I couldn’t hold back the tears. I had to let it out and let myself cry for several minutes before forcing myself to stop for fear of another headache.

The daily life was becoming unbearable and I couldn’t get out of the city fast enough. The hope of seeing my mom and being in a smaller, close-knit community gave me another reason to keep on trying.

I gave the logs in the fire a stir, trying to get what happened to stop replaying over and over in my mind.

I knew this would be hard to recover from, but I would make it. I refused to be one of those women who falls apart at every bad thing that happened to her. That just wasn’t in my nature.

The sun was out and I needed to feel it as much as possible. I really wanted to go back outside, but decided instead to open the shades and let some of the passive solar light come in through the south windows.

That would require removing our window darkening panels, but we needed to see the sun and it would allow us to sit down and look at the map better.

I peeked outside to make sure no one was out front, then popped the panel and set it off to the side.

The shade was already up half way and I raised it all the way up allowing as much sun as possible flood the living room. It was grand, and both kitties came down and found a sunny spot to lie in.

Sunshine always had a cleansing effect, at least that is what I believed. I sat down on the couch and allowed the sun to wash all over my body. Within a few minutes, I could feel the tension release from my body and my mind.

I had to really concentrate on not thinking about shooting that man, but I kept at it until I lowered my heart rate and my shaking finally began to subside.

My cat, Lady, came and sat on my chest and began to purr. She licked the side of my cheek once and gave me little cat chirps to let me know she approved of the sunshine beaming into the house.

Petting her almost made it seem like the rest of the world didn’t matter.

Not long after I began to relax, the guys came into the house.

“What are you doing?” Tony asked, looking at both windows wide open to the world and pointing with a look on his face as if I had just shot someone else.

“The sun is shining and it will reflect enough on the windows that no one will be able to see inside unless they come right up to the window.” I explained.

I knew as long as we put the panels back up when it began to get darker, we would be fine.

“She’s right,” Carl said. “We should be fine as long as the sun is out. But if it starts to get cloudy or dark, we need to put the shade panels back up.”

I was glad Carl backed me on this. I needed to feel like the house was somewhat normal.

The front of the house faced south and the trees had already lost their leaves, so when the sun was out, I always tried to open the shades for passive solar heat to warm the house.

Plus, it kept this old house from feeling like a cave.

They guys brought the chickens back inside to their makeshift pen and changed out of their clothes. The smell of the bodies had permeated the clothes and I insisted they let them hang outside on the rail so the air and sun could clean them before I had to manually wash them.

I tried as best I could to not keep my mind wandering back to the events that happened this morning. It was hard to keep focus, but we took the map and really made progress on the route we’d plan on taking down south.

“The biggest hurdle is getting across the river.” Carl said.

He was right. There was only one way out of the area without having to cross one of the three rivers that surrounded St. Louis.

And we were certain that those large bridges were probably already taken over by either some government entity or someone else that we didn’t want to have a confrontation with.

What normally would have taken an hour and a half to drive would probably take us more than a day now. Especially, because we weren’t sure about what was out there waiting for us.

I began to process just how difficult this could turn out to be. I also began to doubt it was the best option now. It was so risky being out there and possibly being exposed.

“Are you planning on taking the chickens?” asked Carl.

“Yes. They will be put into boxes with holes. They will be fine and will actually be quiet that way. Plus, we need the eggs.” I said.

“I assume the cats, too” he asked.

Tony and I both looked at him like he had two heads.

“Yeah, that would be like us leaving our kids.” Tony replied.

I was glad he made it clear what the cats meant to us. The chickens were pets, but not like the cats. Our kitties were our babies and we would find a way to take them with us.

In my mind, there was nothing that would stop me from taking my kitties, even if we had to give up the chickens to do it. I knew that wasn’t logical. It was an emotional decision. But that was the way it was going to be.

Chapter 7

Tony, Kat and Carl spent the rest of the day planning their route. They knew it was going to be a long trip. The truck they had wasn’t a four-wheel drive so they couldn’t take anything that would leave them stranded. They had to stay on some kind of road at all cost.

It took them several days to pack up everything they were planning on bringing. Most of it being food and water, the water filters, ammo and guns and as many clothes as they could bring for both summer and winter.

Since they figured they may not ever see the house again because it most likely would have be looted before they made it back up to the city, they limited the personal items only taking things like a few photographs.

It was heartbreaking for all of them. There were so many memories that they wanted to bring, but they just didn’t have the space. Kat decided to take a couple of plastic tubs and put some of their personal items that they were leaving in it and had the guys put it up in the attic. At least if the house were looted, the odds of someone actually going up into the attic was slim.

They all made sure to also pack a backpack that they could each take should something happen and they had to abandon the truck or if the truck died.

They pulled out the leaves of the dining room table to use as a template. It was almost as big as the truck bed and they figured they wanted to put as much as possible in the truck but keep it low enough to pull a tarp tight over what they had.

Plus, they figured that one of them could travel in the truck bed under the tarp, lying down so that they were out of sight.

The worst part was that the truck was white, so it stood out especially at night. They figured it would be best to travel in the early morning when most people would actually still be sleeping or waking from sleep and the odds would be smaller that they would run up against someone.

They spent the time going over plans until they were all exhausted from even trying. Their minds were all turning to mush, so they chose to just give themselves a day to just rest and not think too much about the trip.

It helped that Kat was really good now at making stews and soups that were hearty and tasted good. They all had a great meal and took turns napping to try to recoup some of the energy that they all had expended the last few days trying to make sure they didn’t forget anything.

Katherine had found several boxes and punched holes in them for the chickens. There were eight birds and she figured two birds per box so they wouldn’t freak out because they had a pal for the trip. Plus, chickens normally go quiet in the dark so it wouldn’t hurt them to be in the box for a day or so if needed.

She wasn’t sure where she would put them once we got to her mom’s house but she figured there would be plenty of garage space if she needed it.

Tony told her to just wait until we got there before she started planning that. She knew he was right. At this point, getting out of the city was the priority.

They knew they had a hectic trip ahead of them and since they had no way of knowing what lie ahead, there was no sense in planning.

Kat set her phone to go off at 3 a.m. They figured it would take them an hour to get the truck loaded and didn’t want to do it until they were ready to actually leave.

They would be on the road by 4 a.m. at the latest. It was going to be hard to sleep due to the high anxiety, but they tried anyway.

They guys sprawled out on the sectional while Kat curled up on the recliner as they watched the firelight.

“I love you.” Kat spoke into the darkness over to Tony. “No matter what happens, I love you.”

“I love you, too. Don’t worry. We’ll make it.” He responded with a certain amount of reserve in his voice.

“Well, since we are all getting emotional, I just wanted to say thanks to you both. Being here with you has really helped me deal with what has happened.” Carl said.

Both Kat and Tony said “you’re welcome”, then the room became quiet once again.

Kat listened as the guys began to fall asleep. She could always tell by their breathing and snoring. It always amazed Kat that men wouldn’t wake up at the sound of their own snoring.

She took a pillow and put it over her head to block out some of the noise. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough that she could begin to fall asleep as well.

The kitties had taken residence over by the fire. And Katherine had found herself daydreaming about being in the country at her mother’s.

Chapter 8 - Anthony

The loud rapping on the side door woke all of us up with a start.

“Who the hell?” Kat whispered. There was still enough fire glow that we could see each other well enough to know we were all awake now.

I raised my hand to have her stay put as I got up to investigate. All three of us had our pistols in our hand, and Kat had hers trained on the door.

I took my hand and signaled for her to lower hers so she wouldn’t accidentally shoot me instead.

I instinctively peeked through the peephole and heard a familiar voice.

“Tony, let me in. It’s Evan.”

“It’s Evan, guys.” I whispered back to Carl and Kat, who visibly relaxed.

Opening the door, Evan rushed inside and was out of breath.

“Hey man, relax.” I said, trying to calm Evan down. We had not seen him since the grid went down and had no idea he was even still in the area.

“You need to leave. NOW.” Evan urged.

“What? Why?” Katherine asked.

Evan looked over at Kat, then at me then over to Carl, then back to me.

“There is a band of looters headed this way. They are breaking into houses, killing anyone that is still alive.” He said.

“How do you know this?” I asked.

“Because I was down a few blocks scavenging for supplies when I saw them.” Evan said.

Kat looked over at me.

“With the four of us, we should be able to defend this place.” She said.

Evan shook his head. “Too many. There are at least fifty of them, maybe more. And they all have guns. Even with the four of us, we could not cover all the doors and windows.”

Kat went over and began to put her shoes on.

“I’ll get the chickens and the cats. You guys start loading the truck.” She said with authority.

Carl and I looked at each other. She was right, we had to hurry.

“How soon before they get to our block?” she asked Evan.

“Hard to tell. If they find a house that has a lot of stuff, it takes them a little longer. But since most people ran out of food weeks ago, they are usually in and out and moving on to the next house.” Evan said. “I would say no more than half an hour to be safe.”

“Then we need to be out of here before then. I don’t want them seeing us leave.” Kat said.

Carl, Evan and I worked like mad men loading up everything into the truck that we could, leaving room for both Carl and Evan in the truck bed. It was crazy but we managed to get everything in within 20 minutes, including the cats and chickens.

“Hang on, I need to get something.” Evan said as he took off for his house across the street.

He knew we were in a hurry so we started the truck and pulled through the gate to the front driveway.

Out of habit, I hopped out and pulled the gate to the back yard closed. Obviously, that wouldn’t stop anyone. Old habits die hard I guess.

I slowly rolled into Evan’s driveway as he bolted out his front door. On his way by, he handed me a walkie-talkie through the open window.

“Keep it on channel 13. If things go south, you can talk to us with this.”

I looked at the walkie-talkie and wished we had them earlier in this collapse, but was glad to have them now.

Carl and Evan both sat at the back tailgate, each with a couple of rifles and shotguns ready. I didn’t have the kind of back-glass that slid open in the truck, so the walkie-talkies were a great idea.

I took a heavy duty flashlight and handed it to Katherine.

“Take this, roll down your window and shine it on the road for me. I don’t want to turn on the truck lights yet.”

She did and it gave me enough light that I could slowly move around the parked cars and downed trees to get to the end of the street we were on.

I had always loved living at the end of the dead end street. Now dead end had a whole new meaning.

At this point, I just wanted to get away from the approaching hoard. As we made it to the main road, we couldn’t see anything. It was amazing just how dark things were when there was no city lighting.

But we could see the glow of houses on fire to the north, where the hoard of looters had already been. I never understood why people who looted also felt that burning places down was a good idea.

I flashed back to Ferguson when the riots had taken down several businesses in that area. It was only a few miles up the road from where we lived and we had a heightened sense of awareness that soon wore off after things calmed down.

Kat and I would discuss things and she worried that it would bleed into our neighborhood. We never had any issues, but I knew she had valid concerns.

We were learning just how quickly things could spiral out of control, and that was when law enforcement was actually trying to keep things under control.

I turned to go south without incident as I looked in my rear view mirror. Most likely, I was saying goodbye forever to my street and my home. I began to feel tears welling up in my eyes as I choked back the feelings of being overwhelmed.

I couldn’t dwell on that now, I had to focus. But I knew I probably would never see our home again.

Chapter 9 - Katherine

There was an eerie silence between us as we moved slowly through the darkened roads of the city.

We all knew the route almost by memory now so it was just a matter of finding the streets to turn on.

When we were on the 4 lane roads, there were no trees shading the moonlight and it allowed us to slowly move between cars without having to use our lights or have me hold the flashlight for Tony to see.

“You doin’ okay over there?” I asked Tony. He had not spoken a word since we had left.

I knew he was concentrating and trying to pay attention to everything.

He inhaled deeply.

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. I just want to get us far enough away that I feel we can take a breath.”

I totally understood where he was coming from. We weren’t going to feel truly safe until we were outside the major part of the city.

We made it almost ten miles before we came upon a blocked road. What made me raise an eyebrow was how it was blocked. Almost as if it was deliberate.

The cars weren’t just stopped on the road. It was almost as if they were placed there, forcing someone to turn around.

“I don’t feel good about this.” I said, hoping Tony would understand what I meant.

“Don’t worry babe. Remember we planned for this. We’ll just backtrack and go around.” Tony said, trying to reassure my paranoid brain that I wasn’t seeing what I thought I was seeing.

We both had been riding with our windows down despite how cold it was. It made it easier to hear things as well as made it better should we need to shoot at something. We didn’t want to have to think about rolling the window down in a gunfight.

Tony grabbed the walkie-talkie and pushed the button to talk.

“Stay low. Not seeing people but feeling something is off.” He said, then put it on the seat.

Just as he was getting ready to put the truck in reverse, we both heard the sound of a shogun being racked.

Out of the road block on Tony’s side was a man that appeared to be in his 50’s. He didn’t look like someone who’d ever carried a gun, much less shot one.

Over on my side, a young boy who couldn’t have been over 13 had another shotgun trained on me.

Great.

“Put it in park, and turn off the engine if you want to live.” The older guy said.

“You don’t want to do this.” Tony pleaded. “I have food I can give you.” He said.

I reached down and flipped the safety on my shotgun. It had been leaning up against my legs so I would have easy access to it if I needed.

But as I looked over at the boy, I could tell he was scared to death.

Shooting someone wasn’t something people wanted to do. Most of the time, people just wanted to live in peace. But when people get hungry, they will do whatever it takes to eat.

If they have children, it’s even worse. No parent wants to see their child starve to death. Those parents can become worse than anyone when it comes to keeping their children alive, and they will do anything and everything necessary to do so.

The boy could barely hold the shotgun level he was so weak. It broke my heart that things had come this far, but I wasn’t about to let them take the truck.

“Get out of the goddamn truck!” the old man roared, startling even his own son.

“Take the keys out of the ignition and give them to me.” Said the old guy.

I looked over and realized that Tony had his work keys hanging on the lighter that never got used. He put the truck in park and turned off the engine.

But instead of taking the keys out of the truck, he grabbed his work keys instead.

“Okay, okay…” Tony said as he opened the door to step out.

“You too little lady.” They guy said to me. I opened the door slowly and stepped out of the truck but stood inside my door, the shotgun in my left hand waiting.

The man walked over to take the keys from Tony, but Tony reared back and threw them in the opposite direction as hard as he could.

As the young boy watched the spectacle he wasn’t watching me and had moved closer to the front of the truck. I grabbed my shotgun and had it cocked and ready and aimed at the boy’s head.

The sound of a woman’s shrill voice called out with a scream.

“Marshall!!” it said, as a woman emerged from behind one of the cars.

The old man stopped and turned to see the predicament he was in.

“Drop the guns.” I said as I pushed the barrel of the gun into the side of the boys skull.

They both looked at each other as if to contemplate whether they had enough time to take us both down.

“Don’t make me ask twice! I already killed one punk this week, it won’t matter to me if I kill another one!” I said with as much crudeness as I could.

The man nodded at his son and they both lay their firearms on the ground. Tony picked them both up and went to take out the cartridges.

“Empty. They are both empty.” He said.

I kept my gun still trained on the boy. I knew better than to assume that just because they had empty shotguns that they may not be packing something else I couldn’t see. Plus, I had no way of knowing if there was someone else hiding behind the cars.

Regardless of our current predicament, I couldn’t help but think these people just ran out of supplies and were trying their best to make it with what they had.

“That was a stupid move.” Tony said to the man. “Putting your son at risk with no ammo is not the way to fix things.”

The man moved over to his son as the wife moved behind them both.

Tony had already back up and turned around as I backed up to it and got inside, keeping my gun still trained on the family.

We were just about to pull away when I saw two little girls run out and hug their mother and father.

I couldn’t just leave them with nothing. We weren’t the enemy here.

“Tony, stop the truck.” I said.

“What?” it was a reasonable question.

“Please, just do it.” I asked.

He did so, but took the shotgun and placed it out the window pointing it towards the family. They saw him and didn’t move as they watched what I was doing.

I hopped out of the truck and pulled back the tarp up behind where I sat. There was a bucket I had been collecting eggs in and it was about half full. I took out five eggs, one for each of them.

I then grabbed one of the small boxes of canned food and went to just the back of the truck, set it on the ground and opened it to put the eggs inside.

“Not everyone is the enemy.” I said, as I made my way back into the truck and we drove away.

I looked back just in time to see the woman wave. I knew it wouldn’t get them far, but knowing that there were still good people might help them try a little harder to survive without having to kill someone first.

Chapter 10 - Anthony

Stress is a funny thing. It can turn someone who is considered normal into something they wouldn’t recognize. And everyone responds to stress differently.

The stress of having that shotgun pointed at me made me realize just how close we came to losing our lives.

I don’t think that really hit me until just now. With all the things that were happening, maybe I just blocked out the real danger that we had all been in.

After we had made enough distance away from the family and got back on our track, I found a place to pull over momentarily. I needed to collect my thoughts, but I felt like I was going to lose my lunch.

I just needed to take a breath. This world was something I never expected to have to live in. And Katherine was right about how people will go bad in no time flat.

I pulled out the walkie. “Just taking a minute guys. All is fine now. You doin’ okay back there?”

“Yeah, we’re good. What happened?” Evan asked.

“Will explain later. Just need to get back on track.” I said, trying to get my head back into driving.

“10-4”

I tried not to think about how bad things were and decided to focus instead on just getting us the hell out of town.

We still had at least another 20 miles until we reached the outside of the suburbs.

It had seemed like we had been on the road for hours now, and I could barely see the sun beginning to lighten up the sky behind me. I knew it would only be a few more minute of having to deal with the darkness and Kat having to use the flashlight off and on to see the roads.

I figured it was risky to use the headlights, but at this point, it may gain us some speed.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled on the lights. Kat looked over at me, but didn’t say anything.

“I want to try to get some speed and get us out of here. If I can see, then we can move faster.” I said.

She nodded. It was risky, and we both knew it. But it would allow me to move faster and get us out of here.

The route we had planned had kept us on side roads as well as four-lane roads that weaved through the area. We made sure our plans allowed us plenty of room to turn around if needed.

As we drove through the area, we could see groups of people huddled up around barrels that were on fire. There were some places that looked like people had set up tents and created camping communities right inside some of the local parks.

It was as if tent cities had sprung up all over the place.

We didn’t slow down to take a look. I wasn’t about to take a chance on not being able to get out of town.

When we finally made it to the interstate ramp out of the city, I pulled over and turned off the lights.

The sun was peeking over the horizon and it was a good time to be on the highway if we had to be.

I radioed to the boys in back and told them to come out and stretch their legs and take a pee if needed while I walked up the on-ramp to take a look and see if I could tell if the way was clear enough.

All was quiet. That was a good thing in my book, because now I was looking around for someone to jump out at us. I hated feeling that way.

I thought about the delicate threads of our world and how easily things had turned into chaos. I regretted not getting to know my neighbors down the road better.

If we could have come together as a community beforehand and planned things out in case there was an emergency, things may have played out much differently.

As it was, right now the band of looters was probably burning our house down. I reached the peak of the on-ramp and looked around. There were a few stranded cars that looked like they had actually been pushed off the road, but for the most part, the area was clear and there was no traffic.

It was weird that I was standing in the middle of I-55 and nothing was moving. I wasn’t sure if it being deserted made me feel better or worse.

Could it be a trap? We weren’t that far out of the city yet. There was no way we would know for sure.

I decided to ask the rest of the group and see what we wanted to do. We could try to take the highway but that would leave us really open an exposed. However, it would also give us room to turn around if needed.

If we took the smaller two-lane road, it would be longer, but we wouldn’t be as exposed. The down side is that none of us really knew the road that well, and we didn’t know if we ran into a barricade or something if we would be able to turn around.

Plus, who knows what people might be waiting to take our stuff…or worse.

I presented the options to the group.

“I think we should chance it on the interstate. As much as I don’t like being on the highway, the ability to turn around and keep driving without hitting something is high on my list.” Carl said.

“I agree. The highway has my vote.” Evan said.

I looked over at Katherine. She was looking at the on ramp and pondering the options.

“The only thing I really worry about is how far any exits are spaced out. Plus, there are a lot of steep bluffs that people can hide in.” She said.

“True,” I said. “But that would be no different going the long way.”

She sighed.

“Okay. Let’s take the highway. You guys stay down and quiet if we have to stop. We will let you know if something is up. Otherwise, stay down. We don’t want anyone knowing you are there if at all possible.”

Carl and Evan both nodded and got back into the truck bed. I pulled the tarp taught against it and handed the bungees to the guys so they had access to the hook. They were able to hook it from the inside, concealing where they were.

I pulled Kat into my arms and hugged her tight before we hopped into the cab.

We were half-way there. If the highway was this clear all the way down, it would be an easy second half.

Of course, that wish was too good to be true.

Chapter 11 - Katherine

We were able to drive with the windows up for a while which was nice because the damp chill just seemed to penetrate all the way to the bone.

I was feeling a little bad for Carl and Evan in the truck bed. I’m sure it had to be cold as fuck and even with coats on, the wind coming from under the tarp had to be a pain.

But I was glad they were willing to do it. If we could get down to mom’s safely, it was because of the help we’d received from them.

We passed several cars that had ran out of gas on the road. For the most part, it was pretty open and it almost felt like we were driving down under normal circumstances.

I reached over and turned on the radio. I knew there would probably be nothing on, but it gave me something to do instead of the nervous chatter I would normally take on.

Tony was the type who didn’t really like to talk a lot when he drove. And in the current situation, I could tell he just needed to get us there and not be distracted.

He chuckled at my attempt to find something on the radio.

“Yeah, you know that’s a waste of time, right?” he said.

I gave him a glare then a wink to let him know I wasn’t irritated at his snark. It was good that he was able to come out of his shell momentarily.

“Yeah, I know. I was thinking maybe there was someone that figured out something. We can’t pick up stations out here from in the city. Maybe there is someone broadcasting. You know how it is in the movies. There is always a lone broadcaster that everyone hears and gives everyone hope that the end of the world really isn’t the end.” I said with a laugh.

I pushed the button and went over to the AM band. I used to listen to AM when I wanted to listen to talk radio.

I was just about to turn it off when I decided to let it scan one more time. Tony and I both jumped when it stopped on a signal with someone talking.

He reached over and turned up the volume. The signal faded in and out but as we kept moving south, it kept getting stronger.

“Is that the…President?” Tony asked, as we both heard the sound of the familiar voice.

He slowed down the truck a little to see if he could hear better, then eventually pulled off to the side.

Then there was a beeping sound. Just like the sound that the Emergency Broadcast System does on the TV when it’s being tested.

A voice came on, and this time it was clear. It was the President.

Tony grabbed the walkie and told Evan and Carl to just listen, that we’d found an announcement. He handed the walkie to me and I held it next to the speaker as we listened.

“Today is a sad day in our country’s history. There has been a cyber attack on all major networks, including most of the country’s electrical grid. From what intelligence we have, this was an act carried out by ISIS. They had people in our country that they had coordinated to carry this out all at the same time.

From what we know, most of the lower 48 states are without power. The exception is Texas, which has it’s own grid. There are a few smaller areas that have alternative energy who are using that, but anyone that relied on the electric grid is out of power and we do not have a time frame of when the grid will be back online.

Please know that we are working as fast and as hard as we can to restore power. We want to ask all of you to do your best to help your fellow man.

It is times like this that test the civility of humanity. Let’s not allow ISIS to win by turning us into the same barbarians that they are.

We can rebuild and come back stronger and better, but we have to do it together.

When we have new information, this message will be updated. Until then, may God bless you, and may God Bless America.”

The message went silent and then began to beep again. Tony turned down the radio and I spoke into the walkie.

“You guys hear all that?” I asked.

“Yeah. Let’s get moving.” Evan said.

“10-4” I said as Tony went to put the truck into drive.

As Tony began to pull back out into the lane, out of the corner of my eye I could see a big red truck fast approaching from behind.

“Look out!” I yelled.

Chapter 12 - Anthony

I slammed on the brakes as a big four-wheel drive pickup just barely clipped the front bumper.

As it sped by, there were a bunch of young boys sitting in the back hollering while they were holding shotguns in the air.

I held my breath as I watched them pass us and disappear over the next hill.

Reaching over, I grabbed Kat’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

I then rolled down my window and listened to see if I could hear them. It sounded like they kept on going. I slowly pulled out into the road and made my way up to the crest of the hill.

The truck was just cresting the another hill a few miles ahead.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing we needed was a gunfight out here in the middle of nowhere.

However, I wasn’t disillusioned into thinking that we may not see them again. They may be up around the next bend waiting for us and I kept that in mind as I drove.

Fortunately, most of the rest of the drive was long stretches and there weren’t too many places that you couldn’t see several miles ahead. That had its advantage.

When you can see far enough ahead, you can choose whether to keep going or turn around.

I really didn’t want to have to turn back and try to find a way down through side roads. We just didn’t know how good or bad they would be.

As we continued to drive I relaxed a bit. It looked like the boys had gone wherever they were going and weren’t concerned about us. That was a relief.

Kat had decided to turn the radio off since the message was just repeating itself. I could tell she was thinking about it.

“I wonder how many people will be planning on going to Texas. Can you imagine? The whole country moving to Texas?” she said.

I could tell she was actually thinking about it herself.

“It would be either that or Alaska, providing you could get there.” I said. “Alaska has it’s own grid as well, so unless they attacked them directly that’s probably the other place to go.”

“Ugh, Alaska. I know it would be less populated, but there is no way I would want to try to become an Eskimo.” She laughed.

“What, you don’t want to live on seal blubber all winter?” I joked, feeling a little squeamish at the thought of it myself.

“I have a great deal of respect for the Eskimos and any other other human that can endure living up there. Hell, I’m pretty sure that most people that live in Alaska probably would laugh at how soft and spoiled we are down here.”

I nodded in agreement.

Both Kat and I had lost weight since the grid went down. We teased each other that we should put together a manual called “The Apocalypse Diet” and make a million.

Of course, money wasn’t good anymore. Food, water, fuel and any other conveniences that weren’t being supplied anymore was the new currency.

I thought back to when Kat was begging me to allow her to stockpile supplies. I didn’t mind it so much, but I was afraid she would go overboard.

The one thing she asked for that I really wished now I had done, was buy some property out of town. We would have the conversation every so often.

She would try to explain to me why it was important. She said it made sense to get it now, while we were young enough to work the land and put in a garage, so we could set it up to camp on when we came out. She said we could plant fruit and nut trees and let them grow over time so that if the time ever came, we would have a ready made cereal forest.

I didn’t want to spend the money I had saved up for retirement. In my mind, putting money in real estate was a way of locking it up. If for some reason we needed cash, it was harder now to get loans and I didn’t want to risk not being able to get cash for the land.

She would complain because it wasn’t doing us any good sitting in the bank, but if we had land we would still have the land should something happen to the currency.

I felt there was no way something was going to happen to the currency. We are America and we are at the top. Everyone uses the dollar. So I didn’t buy that argument.

Now, had I had a small plot set up, we would have been a lot better off.

Oh well, I couldn’t change the past. I could only look towards the future and try to make the best of the situation that I had.

Kat was staring out the window watching the fields pass by. I was glad we were almost there. I knew she was glad to be out of the city and I could see her visibly relaxing a bit.

When we got to the exit to the town where her mom lived, I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze.

“We made it babe. See, I knew we would.” I reassured her.

“Yeah. Let’s just get there. I need to know they are alright.” She said, squeezing my hand back.

We exited the highway and took a look around. There wasn’t a soul moving.

I felt pretty good about now as we rolled onto the small two-lane highway. It was only 5 miles into town.

The small town was right off the Mississippi river. Our hope was that it’s residents had managed to keep things in order. Most folks out here were country folks and took care of each other in times of need.

When weather would knock down trees there would be a slew of men out cutting things up, making sure their neighbors were okay.

There were a lot of seniors that lived there as well. A lot of grandparents who’s kids weren’t that far, or who were like us and lived in the city.

The community was close knit, and just about everyone knew everyone else.

Of course, there were always a few hoosiers who had to make life hell for some people. And then there were the people who would come into town and try to start some kind of meth lab thinking they wouldn’t be noticed.

That never happened for too long. Even the stoners didn’t want meth in their town and made sure that the cops knew about it as soon as it went up.

I began to daydream a little, wondering how we were all going to manage in her mom’s house. It was big enough for all of us, but we weren’t used to living together.

I decided not to worry about that just yet, and as luck would have it, I had more important things to deal with.

As I crested the hill, there sat the big red truck sideways across the road. It was the one that passed us on the highway. Two men were facing us with rifles pointed directly at us.

I quickly looked for a place to turn around. There wasn’t one, and this particular road was too small to make a u-turn without putting us in the ditch.

We were trapped.

Chapter 13 - Katherine

“Fuck.” Was all I could think to say.

We had made it so far and had managed to shake off anyone that had posed a threat, only to be greeted with country boys that decided to play crossing guard.

We were at a location where a small highway went right off the main road. They had taken their truck and blocked it in such a way that it cut off both ways.

There just wasn’t enough space to go around them without hitting their truck.

Tony threw the truck in reverse but before he could back up, there was a guy that came up from the back of each side of us, holding shotguns at eye level.

I still had my window up, but Tony had his partially down.

“Looky what we have here.” The guy on Tony’s side said, his thick drawl reeked with condescension.

“Nice and slow like, put it in park and shut’er down.” Tony did what he said. He didn’t want to risk getting killed over what was in the truck.

“Now roll down that window, and hand me your weapon.” He said.

“I don’t have a weapon.” Tony said.

The guy let out a laugh. “Yeah, okay, you really gonna tell me you don’t have a weapon? I ain’t that stupid. Don’t make me ask again.”

Tony took one of the empty shotguns we had from the people in the city and slid it out the window to the guy.

The guy took the shotgun and tossed it in the ditch behind him and quickly opened the door, grabbing Tony by the scruff of the neck and pulling him out of the truck.

I could see Tony reaching for his concealed pistol but he didn’t have a chance. The guy took the butt of his gun and knocked Tony out cold.

“Tony!” I screamed as I began to go for my shotgun. I wasn’t fast enough as the guy on my side use the butt of his gun to break my passenger side window.

Glass went flying and the next thing I knew I was being dragged by my hair out into the road.

“Tony! Tony!” was all I could say as I had my hand up around whatever had hold of me.

I struggled to get to my feet when I was finally dropped on the pavement.

The guy squatted down and gave me a goofy grin. He was barely over 20. He was tall and lanky and had several teeth missing.

He let out a guffaw and said, “Daddy gonna like you a lot.”

I shuddered at the implication, and went to reach for my pistol that was tucked in my pants.

A strong male hand grabbed my wrist and twisted it up into my back, making me scream in pain.

“Oh no you don’t.” A voice said as the pistol was taken from me. He brought me to my feet and I was then pushed into the man who had pulled me out of the truck.

“Tie her up good.” The man behind me said as I turned around to get a good look at him.

He was an older dude with a beer belly and a full beard that look like it had food in it for days. He had a shotgun in one hand and put my pistol inside his waistband.

I kept fighting against the guy trying to tie me up, and the old guy came over and backhanded me as I dropped to the ground.

Blood and stars were all I could taste and see. I slumped down pretending to be knocked out. I figured if they thought I was out, they would leave me alone and I might have a chance to free myself.

I laid still on the ground as the young man tied my wrists behind me. My hair covered my face so they couldn’t see my eyes, but I could peek through my hair to see what they were doing.

The guy decided he wanted to cop a feel and reached under my shirt and roughly grabbed my breast and squeezed it.

“Cecil, knock it off. They’ll be time for that shit later.” The old guy said. “Come help deal with this guy.”

I peeked through my hair and I could see all four men standing over by Tony’s body.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I saw one of them raise a shotgun up to Tony’s head.

As I struggled to get free, I was just about to yell at them to stop, when both Carl and Evan popped up from the back of the truck bed.

In a slew of bullets, two of the younger men went down right next to Tony as the other two started to run away.

One went into the ditch and turned around and began to shoot at Evan while the old guy went around to the back of their parked truck and started to shoot at Carl.

I rolled until I was in the other ditch trying to free myself from the rope.

From my vantage point, I could see the two boys that were next to Tony. Both of them had been shot in the head, so they were no longer a threat.

My biggest fear now was that Tony would wake up and try to sit up, getting hit by crossing gunfire.

I prayed to anything that would listen to please let him pull out of this. I couldn’t lose Tony now, not after everything we had already been through.

As I scanned the road, I could see the old guy’s feet from under their truck, so I knew where he was.

I couldn’t see Carl or Evan because of the pitch of the road, so I knew they were hidden and I couldn’t see the other man who went into the other ditch either.

We were at a stand-off and it was obvious no one was going to give up.

I was finally able to pull myself free from the rope and moved over to where I could get a better view.

I reached down and pulled out my little LCP from my ankle holster. It wasn’t meant for long ranges but I was close enough that if I could hit the leg of the old guy, I might just be able to wound him enough that one of the other guys could take him down.

I crawled on my belly as fast as I could up onto the edge of the pavement.

Taking a deep breath, I brought my head up enough and put my arms out in front of me on the ground, taking aim at his calf.

Gently squeezing the trigger, I pulled off three rounds. As if in slow motion, the mans front shin shattered and he went to the ground in a horrid scream.

I waited until he was down on the ground, and leveled my site on him. I didn’t want him to have a chance to shoot me once he figured out who’d shot him.

Where he dropped, I didn’t have a clear shot of his head, but I did have a shot at his huge beer belly. I decided I would go for the most obvious target and pulled 3 more rounds.

All three bullets buried themselves in his belly. Blood began to gush from the bullet holes as the man began to shudder. It only took a minute before he stopped moving.

I wasn’t assuming he was dead until I could check to be sure.

At that point, Evan called out to the last shooter.

“You’re all that’s left alive boy! You wanna live, you put down that gun and come out with hands raised!”

It only took a few seconds for that to click in. A shaky voice called out.

“Okay, don’t shoot! I’m coming out with no weapons.”

I waited in the ditch and the young man raised his hands and stood upright just like Evan said.

Evan came out from behind our truck, walked right up to the man, and shot him square between the eyes.

Chapter 14 - Anthony

“Tony, wake up. Com’on man, snap out of it.” Carl said, as he stood over me, popping me slightly on my cheek.

“Dammit Carl, leave him alone!” Kat said as she rushed over to me.

My head hurt like a motherfucker and the last thing I remember was being dragged out of the truck. I couldn’t see a whole lot and my vision was really blurry. I was really dizzy, too.

Carl and Kat lifted me up and leaned my back against the side of the truck. Kat was taking a bandana and holding it against my head.

“Here, hold this on your head babe.” Kat said as I began to get my vision back.

“What happened?” I asked.

Carl and Evan laughed nervously.

“You decided to take a nap in the middle of a gunfight.” Carl joked, trying to release some of the tension we all were dealing with.

I looked up and noticed blood all over the road.

Kat sat down on the road next to me. I could see the worry on her face as I reached out and touched her on the cheek. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes.

“Babe?” I said as she pulled me close and held me so tight I almost couldn’t breathe.

She began to sob into my shoulder as I put my arms around her and held her until she let out all her anxiety.

Whatever had happened, it must have been bad.

“Where are the hoosiers?” I asked.

“Dead!” Evan said, almost with a sense of pride.

“All of them?” I asked, astonished but thankful.

“Yeah, it was crazy. Kat made it easy for us.” Carl said.

Katherine was finally calming down as she pulled away and wiped her face on her sleeve.

“Not exactly, but I helped.” She said, trying to catch her breath.

“Guys, I know we’re glad we are all safe and stuff, but we really should get out of here. Who knows who these guys kin folks are and if they see us here, they will hunt us down, no doubt.” Evan said.

He was right, we needed to get the hell out of here.

I tried to stand but was too wobbly. Carl and Evan helped me get into the passenger side.

“Do you think we should take their truck? Sure would be handy to have a four-wheel drive out here.” Kat asked.

“No,” Evan said. “They see one of us driving around with that truck it’s like riding into town with a target on our backs. Lets take any supplies and guns, move the truck over there on the side of the road and toss the keys.”

“Good plan.” Carl said.

Carl and Evan pulled everything they could from the truck that might be useful but not identifiable. Evan backed up the truck several hundred yards and put it halfway in the ditch as well.

As he hopped out, he locked the doors and tossed the keys as hard as he could into the open field.

“Why did you park it so far back there?” Kat asked as Evan passed her and hopped back in the bed of the truck.

“Because if they see the truck, they may not find the bodies if they don’t look far enough. If they don’t find the bodies right away, maybe wolves, or other animals will take care of them and they won’t know there was a gunfight so they won’t be on the warpath to find out whoever did it.” Evan explained.

Kat nodded. It made sense. I know neither one of us would have probably thought about that. We would have probably left things and just got the hell out of dodge.

But Evan was thinking ahead. And it was a good idea.

Kat was still shaking when she started the truck and slowly began to take off down the road.

It was only 4 miles into town. We just hoped that there wasn’t some kind of road block or anything else to keep us from getting to her mother’s house.

Right now, I really just wanted an ice pack and an aspirin and a nap. I kept feeling really sleepy and just wanted to sleep.

“Stay awake, Tony.” Kat pleaded. “You most likely have a concussion. You can’t sleep, or you may not wake up.”

Isn’t it funny how our bodies seem to know what it needs. I remembered a few years back after I had been in a car accident that I learned it was a myth not to fall asleep if you had a concussion.

“Babe, that was a myth. The body knows what to do and sleeping allows it to repair any damage. I’ll be fine. A nap won’t hurt me and will actually most likely help heal me faster.” I said, hoping she wouldn’t get defiant and pissed because I knew something she didn’t.

She didn’t say anything, but instead just focused now on the road.

The sun was out and it was actually a beautiful fall day. The only thing I didn’t appreciate today was the curvy road made me feel like I was on a roller coaster. It wasn’t a bad road, but the head injury made it seem more pronounced than I remembered.

As we made our way into town, there were only a few cars on the road. We stopped at the first light to make sure no one was coming before heading down and turning at the second and then into the subdivision where her mom lived.

I was glad it was daytime. I didn’t want to startle her parents, if they were even there.

We had had no communications with anyone since the outage so we had no way of knowing if they were even alive.

It would have been horrible to have come all this way, only to find they had died or something bad had happened to them.

Either way, we would know in a few minutes.

Chapter 15 - Katherine

As much as I tried to focus on the road, I was having a hard time driving. I didn’t realize how much stress can paralyze a person.

The anxiety of what had just happened hadn’t really hit me just yet. I knew it would soon. But I couldn’t think about that. Right now, I had one goal in mind, and that was to get to mom’s.

I kept praying as we got closer into town that we wouldn’t run into anything else that was bad. As I pulled around the corner and saw my mom’s house, I felt like a weight had been lifted.

It had been such a hard month, not knowing if they were okay, dealing with all the stuff in the city, too much violence and way too many deaths were pushing me past my limits.

I understood more than ever why the boys that served in our military had PTSD trying to deal with death and violence.

I knew this was nothing like living in war, but it was enough for me. I had already had enough, and it gave me a new respect for those that helped to protect our country.

I pulled around to the back of the house and backed into the driveway. Turning off the engine, I listened carefully to see if I could hear anything moving around.

All I could hear was the clicking of the engine cooling down.

Reaching over, I patted Tony’s arm.

“Stay here until I know it’s safe. They won’t be expecting us so I don’t want anyone else to get shot.” I said.

Carl and Evan were still sitting in the back of the truck.

“You guys stay here and let me evaluate the situation.” I said.

They both nodded as they got out of the truck and went up to talk to Tony, as I am sure they both wanted to give their versions of what happened while he was taking a blacktop nap.

I went up the stairs to the main floor deck. The house was three levels but you couldn’t tell that from the front.

From the back, there was the basement door, but you couldn’t see anything from there. I had asked them to put in a peephole years before but they thought I was being overly protective.

After all, it was a small town and not much happened there. It was one of those places that people left the keys in their car when they went into the store and didn’t think about anyone driving off with their car.

I lightly tapped on the glass patio door. I put my hand over my head to shade the glass so I could see inside. I didn’t see any movement, so I tried the handle. Locked.

I hesitated to call out because I didn’t want the whole neighborhood to know we were there. I tapped a little louder on the glass and waited, putting my ear to the glass to see if I could hear anything. It was silent. Almost too quiet.

“Maybe they’re in the basement. I know they had a little heating system set up for emergencies. Maybe they were living down there.” I said to myself.

I went back down to the basement door and carefully opened the screen. I knocked with one of those knocks that you’d do if you were expected. Knock, knock…pause…knock, knock, knock.

I stood back away from the door as I finally heard some movement behind it.

Holding my breath, I had my hand on my pistol just in case it was someone other than them.

“Who is it?” I heard a voice say.

“Mom, it’s me, Katherine.” I said.

There was a bunch of rustling and what sounded like furniture being moved. The door flew open and my mother came running out and into my arms.

I hugged her so tight and she hugged me back, both of us bursting into tears at the sight of each other.

She reached up and kissed all over my face.

“Oh, dear God, thank you for bringing my baby home!” she praised.

I looked over at all the guys and they all had to try to act like they didn’t have tears in their eyes. I felt bad that they had not been reunited with their own families.

Maybe we could find a way to get them home.

Someday.

Chapter 16 - Anthony

I slowly made my way out of the truck and went over to Kat’s mom, Carol and step-dad, Albert. They looked pretty good considering they were seniors and looked as though they hadn’t lost much weight, which was a good sign.

Katherine’s mom was a hard core prepper. She had been storing food for years and had always told Kat that she was storing extra for us if we ever needed to come down.

Kat knew that, but always felt like it was important to store our own food. She didn’t want to rely on her mother to take care of all of it for us.

We hadn’t stored the kind of foods that her mother had, but between the stuff we did manage to bring, plus the chickens we figured we could do pretty good.

Kat introduced Evan and Carl to them and insisted that I go inside and take a rest on the recliner in the basement. I wanted to help, but she was afraid that doing so would make my head injury worse.

“Mom, can you take a look at his head and doctor him up? He got hit pretty hard.” She said.

“What? What the heck happened?” Carol asked.

“It’s a long story. I will tell you everything, but first, we need to get this stuff inside and set up the chickens in the garage.” Kat explained.

I followed her mom inside as she pulled out the first aid kit and began to clean the gash on my head. I didn’t realize I was bleeding that much, but apparently I was.

“Wow, whatever happened, they really gave you a good blow.” She said.

“Yeah, I’m not even sure what happened out there. They knocked me out cold.” I said, hoping she wouldn’t push me for details just yet.

I wasn’t ready to deal with everything yet and really just needed a little time to relax, but I also wanted to help get everything situated.

Her mother was putting some butterfly bandages on my gash to pull it together, when I heard Kat let out a scream.

I bolted out of the chair and out to the back yard, ready to grab my pistol out from my waistband.

What I saw made my heart break.

One of the stray bullets from the gun fight had hit the truck and hit one of the cats. HER cat. She was on her knees on the driveway holding her bloody body and rocking back and forth.

Kat had finally been broken. She was crying so hard that I was worried she wouldn’t be able to stop.

She kept softly saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ as she petted Lady's fur and sobbed hard into her little lifeless body.

I went over and looked at her holding the cat. She was hit in the head. At least she didn’t suffer, but that wasn’t going to help Kat right now.

I leaned over and hugged Kat as she buried her head in my neck. I had had enough of this cruel world as well, and I felt myself release some of the pain and anxiety that I had been holding back as well.

“I’m so sorry, babe. This is so unfair.” I said to her, feeling her pain as I let the tears fall.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and just waited until we were able to regain our composure.

Kat finally stopped sobbing as she tried to catch her breath. She looked over at Albert.

“Shovel?” she asked.

Without a word, he went out to the garage and came back with a shovel.

Kat took the body and shovel and went to the back corner of the property behind the garage. I followed her out to see if I could help.

She gently placed Lady's body on the grass as she tried to hold back her tears.

As she broke the ground, the tears just kept coming.

“Would you like me to do this?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

She shook her head no.

She needed to do it. She needed to feel the ground resist her as she pushed into it and lifted the dirt. She was angry with the world and digging this little grave was therapy.

When the hole was big enough and deep enough, she gently placed Lady's limp body into the ground and covered her up.

By the time she was done, the tears were gone, but the pain was there and was as raw as ever.

We made our way back around the front of the garage, where the guys had already unloaded everything they could.

Kat went inside to remove her bloody shirt and to wash her hands. Her mother went with her to console her.

Carl and Evan came over to me, and patted me on the shoulder.

“Sorry about the cat.” Carl said. He liked Lady, too, and she would always come and talk to him when he came over to the house.

Evan looked down at the ground.

“What should we do about the chickens. They really shouldn’t stay in the boxes all day.”

“We need to set up some kind of pen to keep them in.” I said.

“Do you happen to have anything that would house several chickens for the day?” I asked, looking over at Kat’s step-dad, Albert.

He pondered the question and looked over at his neighbor’s yard. There was a dog cage sitting in the back yard, but no dog.

“Would something like that work?” he said, pointing to the cage.

“I think it would, at least for today.” I said. “But won’t your neighbor miss it?”

“They left a few weeks ago. Said they were going to Texas where they had a few relatives. I’m pretty sure he won’t mind if we borrow it.” He explained.

“Awesome!” Evan said, motioning to Carl to go help pull the cage into the garage.

We took a couple of 2x4’s and put a couple of bars up for them to roost on, then took one of the boxes and cut a hole in it to act as a nesting box. We put in some food and water and even though it was tight, it would work as a good temporary spot for them until we could construct something better.

All of us were so exhausted that all we wanted was to eat and sleep.

That is, if any of us could after the day we’d had.

Chapter 17

The next few days were spent trying to get things set up so that everyone had a place and was comfortable.

Katherine needed a day to mourn for Lady, but she refused to stop and rest for fear that she’d think about all the chaos of the days before.

Keeping busy kept her mind from going places she just couldn’t deal with at the moment. Instead, she pushed beyond even her own limits, working herself into exhaustion.

Carol and Albert filled everyone in on all the happenings around town. They’re power hadn’t been out as long as ours because the town had invested in a way to keep the local things going. Most likely propane generators.

Most of the stores, gas stations, fire and police had power for at least a week after the attacks.

That allowed them to become informed much faster, and allowed everyone to peacefully collect as much gasoline and food supplies as they could before the power went completely off.

Carol said that everyone here was civil and no one got out of hand except a few hoosier types that always were causing trouble anyway. We learned that it was the same men that we left dead on the highway a few days earlier.

Tony reassured her and Albert that those guys wouldn’t be a problem anymore, but that it’s best not to get too comfortable because people can change drastically when they are hungry.

She nodded knowing full well about how people could be.

The biggest thing they needed to do at the moment was find a way to keep the whole house warm. Either that, or they would all be sleeping on the main floor in front of the fireplace. Not that it would hurt them to do so, but with so many of them now living so close together, they would all need their space.

The house was three stories. There was a bathroom on each level. At the moment, the water was still working because the small town had their own well and they had generators to pump water into the storage tank.

The word had been sent out to try to conserve as much as possible. Not to use water if they didn’t have to, and only to flush when absolutely necessary.

In fact, the sewer department was the one area that everyone wanted to make sure had a working generator because everyone wanted to be able to use their bathrooms.

During that first week, they had gone house to house to explain how things should work with and without power. They had redundant backup systems in place as long as they could get fuel.

Fortunately, there was an MFA just outside of town with several huge tanks of propane. If they made sure not to use so much wastewater it would take less for the pumps to run and they could allow people to have water and sewer service for at least a month after the power went out.

That would give people a chance to come up with “alternate” plans for their sewage. They suggested that men go outside on the grass and that if at all possible, women catch their urine in a bucket and throw away the bathroom tissue after use.

We did as much as we could to comply and since four of us were men, we just got used to going outside behind the garage to pee.

The only thing that they decided to do differently, was to conserve water. Instead, they filled up each bathtub and as many containers as they could with water.

The well wasn’t going to go dry anytime soon, but with winter coming on, the less they had to go out to the main well site to hand pump the water, the better.

They decided that Evan and Carl would share one upstairs room, while Kat and Tony the other. If it got too cold, then everyone could make a bed down in front of the fireplace.

Carol had complained because for years she wanted a wood burning insert in the fireplace because it would be so much more efficient, and would heat the entire house if needed.

They just hadn’t gotten around to it yet, so the only thing available was a wood burning fireplace and not very much wood.

The weather was starting to get really cold now, so Tony and the guys decided to go and hunt down some wood.

Katherine, Carol and Albert kept busy by putting up things over the windows. They wanted to be able to see out, but not allow people to see in when it got dark. Even though they were in a small town, Katherine knew that eventually, there would probably be people that would migrate down to the area once they learned that the town was doing well enough.

Katherine worried about those people who might come to take advantage of the seniors that lived throughout town.

“How is Mrs. Graves doing?” Katherine asked her mom. Mrs. Graves was a neighbor across the street.

“Actually, she is probably weathering this better than we are. She grew up in the country and when she was a girl, they didn’t have electricity yet. So she has already had to live life off the grid long before it was popular.” Carol quipped, getting a little giggle out of Katherine.

Carol knew Katherine was having a hard time, but she was holding up okay and would be fine.

Carol continued to share the local gossip as they found ways to insulate the windows with blankets and boards, leaving just enough of an opening to be able to peek outside if needed.

“We did this at home for the month we were there.” Kat said. “It really helped to make the place look dark and un-lived in. From the outside you couldn’t tell we were there with a bunch of candles.”

“What happened up there?” Carol asked, trying not to upset Katherine but her curiosity got the best of her.

Kat paused and stared out the window she was just getting ready to cover.

She quickly went through all the events that had changed her forever. Ernie dying, then Alice. The man she shot and they buried in the neighbors back yard. The men who were dressed as police shooting anyone who came out of their houses.

There was nothing that made sense, other than people getting hurt and people doing bad things.

“It was bad, mom. I’ll tell you all about it, but let’s do that later when we can sit and talk at dinner, okay? I really want to focus on getting things safe and prepared here.” Kat said as she refocused her attention on all the windows and doorways that were at any level that someone could break into easily.

Katherine tried the best she could to put all of it out of her mind. But she knew it would take a while.

She knew she probably wouldn’t be able to relax until things felt safe again. And who knew when that would be.

Chapter 18 - Anthony

“You reckon’ I can buy some of your seasoned wood?” I asked the old man.

I had a knack for talking to people and getting stuff for free. I knew it and used it to my advantage more than once in my life. Katherine used to tease me because I could just walk up to someone and ask them for something and more often than not, they would give things to me.

The old man eyeballed me really well as he sat on his front porch rocker, shotgun resting across his lap.

“Who told you it was for sale?” the old man barked out.

I had already parked and gotten out of the truck, trying to show the man I wasn’t there to harm him.

The old man didn’t seem phased.

“A guy I asked up in town. He was at the gas station. I didn’t get his name, but he said you may have some wood for sale.” I said, noticing the huge wood pile at the back of the field.

“I might…what you got to pay?” The old man asked.

“Well,” I paused and thought hard about my answer. I didn’t want to give away too much, but I wanted that wood, or as much wood as I could get into the truck. “I have a box of food here. I have a few cans of beans, some rice, some crackers and cheese…”

“Oh, that ain’t nothin’!” the man growled. “I got enough of that already.”

“Oh, I see. So I guess you wouldn’t be interested in this canned bacon then? Okay, well thanks anyway.” I said as I fondled the canned bacon and put it back in the box of goods.

“Now hold on there…” the old guy said.

I knew I’d got him with the bacon. Most people in America loved their bacon and it wasn’t readily available anymore. The canned bacon was like having three whole packages already cooked and ready to eat. You didn’t even have to heat it if you didn’t want to. It was ready to eat right out of the can. It was good, too.

The old guy groggily stood up out of his rocking chair. He looked back to his wood pile and back at Tony.

“Alright, I’ll make ya’ll a deal. I can’t fell trees like I used to. If you boys would come and fell the trees, and chop and split the wood, I halve it with you. Today, I’ll let you take half my pile for your food. We got a deal?” The old man said, with a toothy grin.

I let out a laugh and grabbed the box of food out of the truck bed, bringing it to the man’s porch.

I extended his hand as the old man shook it.

“You got a deal! I’m Tony.” I said.

“I’m Ralph. Ralph Walters.” He said.

“Thank you, Mr. Walters,” I said, grateful I was able to make the deal. And having a place where we could come and get wood later was going to be a godsend, providing I still had the gasoline to bring the truck here.

Ralph lived on the outskirts of town and owned about 70 acres of wooded acreage. It was a great location, too. Up high enough on the bluff that you could actually see out over town.

The house was pretty old but looked to be in decent shape. You could tell he took care of his property and had pride in what he probably worked for his whole life.

“Just pull the truck down the side of this field to get to the pile.” Ralph said, motioning to the little gravel road that ran between his yard and a field full of corn stalks.

I looked around before pulling away and noticed only a small stack of wood between two trees in the back yard. I wondered if he was alone and had to work everything by himself.

From the house, the pile didn’t look that big. But as we got closer, it was apparent that there was at least two full truckload of wood that had already been split and seasoned.

If there was a wood fairy, she was granting me wishes right about now.

We loaded up the truck quick, as the three of us stacked the wood as high as we could and still be able to steer the truck. Since we were using a two-wheel drive I wanted to make sure we didn’t get stuck.

Before we left, I pulled the truck up to Ralph’s dwindling pile of firewood between the two trees. The guys and I quickly filled it up, making sure it was nice and stable and not so high that he couldn’t reach the top.

We figured it was the least we could do. The firewood we were able to get would last us quite some time compared to the food we gave him.

As we pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, I looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see him wave.

It was nice to find people that were easy to barter with. I just hoped we had enough food to last us all winter and to use for bartering for other supplies.

Since I didn’t really know to what extent Carol and Albert had planned for, I felt bad that we didn’t really bring that much food along with us, but brought Evan and Carl. Having the two extra mouthes to feed wasn’t something that was planned, but we would have to find a way to make it work.

As we drove back towards town, I said a little prayer that things would work out and that we would have enough food to get us all through the winter.

Carl and Evan were talking about what Carl was hearing on his HAM radio.

“Oh, man, that sucks.” Carl said. “People are talking about how there are thousands of people flooding Texas. Some are coming in cars and trucks but most people are coming on foot. The problem is that its too many people too fast. There isn’t any place to put them so there are tent cities going up everywhere and it’s creating lots of sickness.” He explained.

“That makes sense. People aren’t real smart when it comes to dealing with their own waste. If they don’t address it quickly, there will be a major outbreak that will wipe out a large portion of the population in no time. Especially, because the hospitals will always be full. And even though they have power, they can’t get the deliveries of food and medicine needed to handle that many people.” Evan said.

I was only half listening. My mind was on how to make sure we all stayed fed during the long winter ahead.

Just then, a deer shot out from the gully and ran in front of the truck. I slammed on my brakes but with the wood load, the momentum just kept pushing us forward.

We slid on the pavement right into the side of the deer, sending the deer flying and landing on the road in front of us.

“Holy shit!” I yelled as I watched it all play out as if it was in slow motion.

Once we came to a stop, everyone looked at each other and took a breath.

“You guys okay?” I asked. They both nodded.

We all got out of the truck and went to take a look. Surprisingly, the deer had been struck by the front corner bumper and did very little damage to the truck.

As we got closer to the deer, we could see he was hurt pretty bad. He was still breathing, but it was obvious his back was broken. The deer looked up at me with his black eyes and whimpered. I felt really bad for the creature.

But I also realized that this was an answer to my prayer. As sad as it was, the deer was big enough to give us meat for quite some time, contributing to the food stores. And since it was cold out, it would be easily stored in the garage away from critters and prying eyes.

I knelt down and carefully petted the deer on his neck. Then I pulled out my pistol and put him to rest.

Chapter 19 - Katherine

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A full truckload of wood and a deer? My husband had turned into Paul Bunyan and I couldn’t be happier.

I always thought the country life suited him better. He always though of himself as a city boy, but when we used to go to his parents property years earlier, he’d thrive the whole time we were there.

Rushing out to greet them, I heard them all laughing as they were joking about Tony’s answered prayer. I wasn’t religious at all, but I knew Tony believed. And I won’t lie…there were times when I wished I knew of a God to pray to. I just had a hard time believing in so much of what was being taught at the mainstream churches.

“I’m gonna have to get you a bunch of plaid flannel shirts.” I jested, poking fun at Tony for finding wood AND food.

He chuckled as Carl and Evan took the deer and strung it up on the tree behind the garage.

Out here, it wasn’t anything to see people gutting their kills in their back yards. In the city, you’d have someone calling the cops.

I began to see that having the extra help would really be nice, because my parents just weren’t doing as well as I had hoped. Mom was putting on a happy face, but she was in a lot of pain. She had been really working hard to keep things going, but trying to cook and eat without power was starting to take it’s toll.

While the guys were out getting wood, I had set up a makeshift outdoor kitchen on the deck, using the awning as our roof, but taking some tarps to hang around it to keep out the wind and rain. It would be safe to use the camp stoves and grill without the risk of burning down the house. Plus, we didn’t want to poison ourselves with carbon monoxide.

I also decided to build a couple of rocket stoves with some pavers, bricks and old grill grates. Having done this in the past, I knew it would work to give us extra “burners” to put pots on.

By the time I was done, we had a nice working setup that allowed us not to freeze to death and to cook outside without worry.

And now that I was there, I would be helping with any of the heavy lifting that mom was trying to do.

Albert had kept himself busy by making sure we had all the tools we needed to do whatever projects we had going and helping mom whenever she called to him.

I went down into the basement and found him tinkering with an old transistor radio he had found in one of the boxes in the garage. He and mom liked to go to yard sales for fun. They would find neat things they could add to their already bulging collection of things that weren’t needed, but it was something they enjoyed and gave them something to do in such a small town.

“Do you think you can get it to work?” I asked as I plopped my weary body down into a recliner and pulled a quilt over me to try to warm up.

“Maybe. These things could last a lifetime and this model was one that could pull in stations that other radio’s couldn’t.” He said proudly.

He went on to tell me about how the GE Super Radio was considered high end in it’s time. As he fiddled with some wires and tube looking things in the back, he pulled out a fresh package of batteries and loaded it up.

He pushed buttons and turned dials, trying to make it work, but it was dead.

“Well, so much for that.” He said as he sighed.

“Maybe not. I remember mom said there was a trick to making the older things work.” I said as I pulled myself up out of the chair.

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” he asked.

I grabbed the radio and gave it a good smack. With a flicker the lights came on and the it began to hum a little.

Albert and I both let out a laugh. It felt good laugh. It felt good to not be so afraid. I sat back down in the recliner and thought about how good things were finally going.

It was going to be hard work for sure. Life was definitely going to be different and we were going to have challenges. But I finally began to relax and felt as if everything was going to be alright.

Albert started searching the airwaves, trying to find any sort of signal. Since there was only AM and FM, we figured it would be just like before. Nothing but static.

Then, Albert found the signal that had the repeating Presidential broadcast. Only this time, it wasn’t the President. This was a new broadcast.

We had caught just the tail end when we got it dialed in clear enough to hear.

This is the Emergency Broadcast System. This is a message for all citizens within a 100 mile radius of any nuclear power plant. Please evacuate immediately. The power plants have all been in meltdown mode and can no longer be contained. It is eminent that all citizens move beyond the 100 mile safe zone as soon as possible. We will update this message with any further information once it becomes available.

Albert and I just stared at the radio. We listened to the recording two more times to make sure we heard what we heard.

My heart sank as I began to realize what I was hearing.

We were okay where we were now, but the people in St. Louis weren’t. There was one nuclear plant that was near the center of Missouri, just west of the city.

Once people realized that St. Louis was still inside the 100 mile range, they would all leave the city in a panic.

Most likely, that would lead them south, since north had more nuclear plants and it was the beginning of winter. And it would lead them straight to us.

I looked at Albert. He had tears in his eyes. I went over and gave him a hug.

“Don’t worry pops. We’ll be alright.” I assured him, knowing it was a flat out lie.

************************

Pick up book three to find out how it all ends!

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OJW Conversion -

Copyright

Chapter 1 - Anthony

Chapter 2- Katherine

Chapter 3 - Anthony

Chapter 4 - Katherine

Chapter 5 - Anthony

Chapter 6 - Katherine

Chapter 7

Chapter 8 - Anthony

Chapter 9 - Katherine

Chapter 10 - Anthony

Chapter 11 - Katherine

Chapter 12 - Anthony

Chapter 13 - Katherine

Chapter 14 - Anthony

Chapter 15 - Katherine

Chapter 16 - Anthony

Chapter 17

Chapter 18 - Anthony

Chapter 19 - Katherine