EMP Catastrophe
Erupting Trouble
Erupting Danger
Erupting Chaos
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, MAY 2021
Copyright © 2021 Relay Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Grace Hamilton is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Post-Apocalyptic projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.
www.relaypub.com
Blurb
The lights are out for good…
After an EMP knocked out power around the globe, Matthew Riley and his family are finding their way to survive while realization of their dangerous new reality sinks in. It was a struggle to reunite in the immediate aftermath, but the fallout from the dangerous journey may be even worse.
Other desperate souls are converging on any place that might offer hope, and the Rileys’ hotel in Galena, Illinois, is a prime target. With food running short and medicine almost out, the Rileys will need to find supplies. But they’re not the only ones looking.
While the family works together at the hotel, Matthew’s brother-in-law, Max, works to escape from prison to reunite with his family and the relative safety they offer. But dangerous enemies have their eyes on him and may put everyone at risk.
With resources running out, family is the only bond that can be counted on. But those bonds are strained and frayed as the tensions of the new world begin to pull them apart. How can one family survive when the world has turned upside down?
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
End of Erupting Danger
Thank you
Make an Author’s Day
About Grace Hamilton
Sneak Peek: Erupting Chaos
Sneak Peek: Undaunted
Also By Grace Hamilton
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1
Stay away from enclosed spaces. Stay away from crowds. Protect your daughter at all costs.
Kathleen repeated those few lines in her head like a mantra as she studied the biker gang clogging the mountain road in front of them. There were perhaps ten of them. Many of them wore bandanas and leather. Some were about her age. While a couple of older-looking members perched on their bikes, several that appeared to be newcomers milled around the road with restless energy.
Already, she could feel her hackles rising as she studied the bikers. She yanked Allison behind her and over to the side of the road. Her daughter uttered a soft huff but fell back behind her. They weren’t off the road completely, but they were at least not in the bikers’ direct line of sight. It wouldn’t do much, Kathleen knew, but she hoped she and Allison could stick to the side of the road and maybe even get by with their bicycles without so much as a hello. At this point, she knew they wouldn’t be able to get by unseen.
A white van had been abandoned on the side of the road, its back doors hanging open. A tattooed man stood on the bumper with a head of cabbage and other produce smashed under him on the pavement. He dove back inside the van and pulled out more produce while the rest of the bikers laughed at his theatrics. Kathleen gritted her teeth. Not only were these people blocking the road, it looked as if they were stealing from the van as well and smashing food that could have fed others who might be hungry. She understood taking food that was needed for survival, but this looked as though they were ruining good produce for the fun of it. Was there any decency left?
This time the tattooed man handed bundles of carrots and a mesh bag full of melons to another biker. This man had a lot more patches and dangling fringe on his leather jacket than the others, making Kathleen wonder if he was the leader of this crew. The patched-leather man took the produce and handed it to another biker who secured it in a large travel bag attached to the bike. Kathleen couldn’t understand why the tattooed man would have thrown perfectly good lettuce against the pavement and then selectively saved this produce, but she’d been met with a lot of actions she couldn’t understand since leaving Chicago.
“Just act like we’re passing these people on the street,” she muttered, more to herself than Allison. “If they notice us, we’ll wave hi and keep going. Easy peasy.”
Even she knew these promises were lies. She couldn’t help but feel on edge and studied every move the group made. Most of their attention remained fixed on the tattooed man raiding the van as if eager to see what else he would bring out for them.
They had to be about a mile from the hotel. Just one mile from home. It felt so close and yet so far at the same time. Kathleen tossed her dark braid over her shoulder and began slowly walking her bicycle up the road with Allison close behind her. As she approached the bikers, she averted her eyes, hoping they would melt into the background, like a squirrel or a deer just passing by. It was unfortunate that they were forced to go around one end of the van to keep their bikes and stay on somewhat level ground. On the other side of the road, the mountain sloped sharply upwards and had been barricaded by a guardrail, giving them little space to pass by undetected.
The trees swayed around them. The crisp mountain air filled her lungs. She pushed her bike off the asphalt and onto the shoulder, which was filled with sharp sticks and fallen pinecones. The tattooed man disappeared into the van again and then brought out another haul of food to hand to another of his biker friends. He sniffed a head of cabbage and made a face. The cabbage head hit the pavement and splintered open.
As Kathleen and Allison drew closer, some of the bikers began to study them. Kathleen swallowed hard and tried to keep her eyes averted and to seem as unassuming as possible. If this were any other situation, she would have given them a wave and a friendly smile. She would have hoped they were having a good day and that they got to their next destination safely. But those days seemed like eons ago. Those niceties belonged to a time when her daughter hadn’t been manhandled by another gang on the side of the road. In the days when she hadn’t shot that man who’d hurt Allison. In the days when Kathleen wasn’t a... She couldn’t think it.
Some of the bikers whispered to each other as she and Allison approached. A strange anticipatory silence descended over them. The tattooed man handed off the last of the produce he’d gathered and then stood on the bumper again with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed at her. Kathleen refused to glance back at Allison, and instead kept go
ing with slow, steady steps.
In response, two men and a woman pressed their backs against the van and crossed their arms as if guarding it. The man with the patched leather jacket glared at her and put one hand on the side of the van, as if he owned it.
Kathleen tried to stop her own snarl in response. She resented the fact that these people were making her feel like a wild animal. What was the point of threatening her when they outnumbered her? The only reason was to make them feel strong and her weak. She began to rethink the situation and what she should have done—hide in the woods, abandon the bikes, wait until the bikers left—but she was tired of obstacles standing between her and safety.
The tattooed man on the bumper took a deep breath and shouted, “Find your own haul, lady.”
A sudden cold swept through Kathleen. She felt frozen in place. It wasn’t that his command had shocked her. At this point, she was used to the violence of strangers. Instead, the cold seemed to freeze her higher thinking, giving her hands agency of their own.
The memory of Andrew Lang loomed in front of her. She’d tried to be the mediator. She’d tried to take the high road, placate him, and hope his better nature would win out. Instead, a man in Andrew’s crew pawed at her terrified daughter while Kathleen tried to play nice. That interaction had ended with Andrew dying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the neck.
While the…murder had been ghastly, what terrified her more was the fear in Allison’s eyes. She wouldn’t let that happen again. Not this time. Not ever.
She reached behind her back. As soon as she felt the ridged grip of the handgun, it seemed to galvanize her. She whipped out the weapon and pointed it at the tattooed man, while steadying her bike with the other hand. Beside her, Allison came to a stop, and Kathleen heard her daughter’s sharp exhale.
“Whoa, I didn’t mean to scare you, lady,” the tattooed man said, and his face melted from suspicious to pleading. “Nothing here is worth dying over. Put the gun down. We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Find my own haul?” Kathleen asked and felt Allison reach out to take the bike from her, freeing her hand. “You’re the one robbing the van. Do you have the driver tied up somewhere?”
“We’re just looking for supplies,” the leader with the patched jacket interjected. He held up his hands, palms out. He wore fingerless leather gloves. He took a step forward, and Kathleen swung the gun to point at him.
“Really?” Kathleen asked and motioned the gun to the head of cabbage that had been crushed on the asphalt. “Is this what you call that?”
“It was rotten,” the leader continued. His voice was soft and lulling, as if trying to woo her into a false sense of security. “You can see for yourself. We shouldn’t have made such a mess. Just having some dumb fun.”
“It’s not so fun now, is it?” Kathleen growled. “I can only imagine what else you’d consider fun.”
She thought of Andrew choking on his own blood. Andrew, who had thought it would be fun to backhand her and steal her things. Andrew, who had thought it would be fun to hurt Allison.
Her hands began to tremble, and she tried to steady them.
“I promise you,” the leader said calmly. “We won’t hurt you. We’re not trying to hurt anyone. This van was abandoned when we found it.”
Kathleen hesitated. With many cars not working, it would make sense that this van might have been abandoned. Maybe he was telling the truth.
Another man wearing a red paisley bandana shifted and took a step back. Kathleen caught his movement in her peripheral vision and saw his hand move toward his belt. That same cold rush of terror flowed through her. Without a second thought, she swung the handgun barrel to point at this new threat.
She should have known. While the leader was spewing a bunch of crap about how they meant no harm, one of their members was getting ready to reach for the gun strapped to his waistband. Kathleen mentally slapped herself. After everything they’d been through, she shouldn’t hesitate anymore. The bandana man’s hand rested on his holster and stilled when he realized the gun was pointed at him.
“Give that to me,” she demanded and held out her other hand.
The man with the paisley bandana glanced between her and the leader. The leader nodded to him reluctantly.
“Give it to me,” Kathleen repeated, this time just a touch louder. “Slowly. If you aim that gun at me or my daughter, it will be the last thing you ever do in this life.”
The paisley man looked startled by her threat and carefully slipped the gun out of its holster. He extended it limply toward Kathleen’s outstretched hand. She snatched it from him and then turned her gun back to the leader. “Not going to hurt me, huh?” she asked. “What do you call that?”
“We were just looking for food and supplies before your crazy turned up,” the man with the tattoo said, sounding angry. “You’re acting insane. Can you blame us for trying to defend ourselves?”
Kathleen gritted her teeth again and glared at the tattooed man. She wanted to trust him, but she’d learned that kindness couldn’t be counted on. She needed to keep her guard up.
She studied the bikers. They watched her attentively. They didn’t have any water bottles or many packs strapped to their bikes that she could see. They had no reason to become so protective of the van unless they were hiding something in it. There was no reason for them to claim they were looking for supplies and yet have limited ways to carry them.
Realization dawned on her as though she’d been thumped on the head. Of course. They were most likely planning to raid the hotel where Kathleen’s family would be. Why else would they be so far up the mountain and so close to the hotel? They probably thought this van was the first prize waiting for them.
She couldn’t let them get to the hotel. Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t let them hurt Allison. She was outnumbered. There was only one thing left to do to protect them both.
“Allison?” She said her daughter’s name softly.
“Yeah?” Allison responded. She sounded breathy, as though her own fear had stolen her voice.
“Remember what we discussed earlier?” Kathleen asked.
“I won’t leave you, Mom.”
“You promised you would. You promised. Now is that time. Get out of here.”
There was a moment when she thought Allison might disobey her. But thankfully, she heard the clatter of the bike falling to the ground and the sudden crunch of gravel as Allison shot past Kathleen and began running up the mountain road away from the bikers and Kathleen. Toward the River Rock Hotel. Toward family and help.
“You all need to turn around and head back to Galena,” Kathleen said to the leader. “There’s nothing here for you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
The leader looked exasperated. His hands trembled from being held up for so long. “I promise you. We’re just here to get some food. We have friends and family to look out for that need these supplies. I know it looks bad, but honestly, Jack wasn’t going to hurt you or your daughter. We wouldn’t do that. He was just defending us.”
I can’t be sure of that, Kathleen thought. “Why would you be this far up the mountain, anyway? Why weren’t you down at the grocery store? Who comes all the way up the mountain looking for supplies?”
The leader went quiet. Distress was painted on his face. “The grocery stores have already been cleaned out. I swear to you. We weren’t going to do anything.”
“You know about the hotel,” Kathleen hissed. “You’re trying to raid my home.”
“No, we aren’t—”
“Shut up,” Kathleen said, taking a step back even as the gun remained steady in her hands. “First you steal from this van. Then you pull a gun on me. And now you’re telling me that you’re just out here for a nice ride through the mountains?”
The man’s face seemed to fall.
“I know you’re trying to get to the River Rock Hotel,” Kathleen said, and she curled her hand around the trigger. “I know you’re here to tr
y to hurt my family. If you don’t leave, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe.”
“Listen, I swear to you—”
“Don’t swear to me. Turn around and leave.”
Only, the bikers didn’t leave. The leader put his hands down, and the rest of the gang closed in around him and faced Kathleen with stonewall expressions. Kathleen pursed her lips. She was severely outnumbered, but she’d do whatever it took to keep her family and her home safe.
2
Matthew put his arm around Patton and hugged him closer. With a relieved sigh, he looked over his shoulder and thought about what had just happened. He’d had Samuel West held at gunpoint on the ground. The man had tried to take over their home, and Matthew had barely managed to kick him out.
He couldn’t believe that he and his father had walked all the way from Madison to Galena. The fact that they’d finally made it home hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Neither had the feeling that they were safe, but hope still swelled within him. Things he once thought impossible had actually become possible. He listened to the birds chirping and the rustling of leaves overhead and…screaming?
Was that screaming?
He paused and listened hard. He heard it again. A high-pitched shriek. He turned to his father with wide eyes and asked, “Do you hear that?”
EMP Catastrophe | Book 2 | Erupting Danger Page 1
