Burying her resentment for her father ensured that her sister and her best friend’s family would be well taken care of at David’s compound. Demi did the only thing she knew to do, stuff her emotions down. All she needed was to know that her sister and the Cromwell’s would be safe until the power came back on. As far as Demi knew, that would take several years. In the meantime, she could camp in Glacier National Park, and perhaps Chris would come with her. She hadn’t explored that option yet, but it had crossed her mind.
Demi drove up to the iron gate where they would open it and then go up to David’s house. With the headlights illuminating the dirt road up to the gate, Demi led the way as they reached the brick wall where David’s property started. Almost there.
As Demi was about to make the turn toward the gate and Lacey would get off the ATV to unlock it, in the darkness she made out the outline of what appeared to be a dead man laying on the ground.
“Lacey, what is that?” Demi asked, stopping the ATV. The other ATVs stopped behind her as Lacey and Demi dismounted their ATV and rushed toward the body.
“Oh no!” Lacey screamed. “It’s dad!”
Jack must have seen what the two girls were investigating as he got off of his ATV to assist. “Lacey, start with chest compressions,” commanded Jack.
Lacey began pumping the chest of her father. Jack administered breaths after he found a pulse. “He has a faint pulse,” stated Jack in between breaths.
Demi was not certain how to feel as she saw the strongest man she knew fighting for his life. Mike and Chris joined Demi to comfort her. All the emotions swirled through Demi’s head. Feelings of hatred, resentment, and utter disdain. Yet these emotions had the couplings of reverence, respect, and admiration. Most of all, seeing her dad this way made her want to see him survive. She may have hated her dad, but she did not want to see him dead.
Just then, coughing noises came from David’s mouth. Jack announced, “He made it! He’s conscious!” Relief filled Demi and she buried her head in Chris’ shoulders while she wept.
“Demi!” David yelled. Strange that he had Lacey next to him tending to his needs, yet he yelled for Demi.
“Yes, David. Glad to see you’re all right,” said Demi as she knelt to her dad. “What is it?”
David muttered, “They took over the sanctuary. Don’t go in, it’s been overrun by those people.” David laid on the ground unable to get up after being brought back from the dead. Demi saw that David still had a rifle strapped to his back. He was probably ambushed while investigating a noise or something.
David fell back unconscious. Jack checked him out, “He’s breathing. I’m sure he’s resting. I think he was hit on the head or something, based on how he’s responding,” explained Jack.
“Is he going to be all right?” Lacey asked in pure desperation.
“He should be, but I can’t say for certain,” answered Jack.
Mike suggested, “We don’t know what all is there in the compound. Let’s find a place to stay for the night so we can regroup.”
Chris added, “Demi, is there a campground around here.”
Demi thought about it. There wasn’t a campground, but they could set up camp a few miles away and ascertain the situation the following day.
“I know, we’ll head to a prairie around five miles from here. We can’t go far since we don’t have much gas. But it will be far away enough that I’m certain we’ll be safe,” suggested Demi.
The group got back onto their ATVs. Chris, Jack, and Mike carried David and placed him on the back of Jack’s ATV. They rode where Demi led them, to a level area of land.
Then they set up camp, Lacey and Demi making the fire while Jack tended to David. “This is a waiting game for now,” said Jack to Demi when she walked over to check on her father. “He should come out of this, but it’s going to take some time.”
Demi nodded, stoic with her emotions. With tears in her eyes, releasing the emotion she felt for her father, she said, “I guess, we’ll just wait for him to wake up.”
Find out what happens next in Power Struggle, the third installment in the Lights Out Series, by signing up for the newsletter.
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Also by Hayden James
The Pulse Series
What would happen if the power grid failed? Would you be ready?
Family is everything for the Conners. Rachel, a mother of four, usually works from her Indianapolis home as a marketing aide, but her boss has brought her down to Louisville, Kentucky, for a big client meeting when suddenly the lights go out.
Rachel’s eldest son, Liam, lives in Nashville. He left their Indianapolis home a year earlier to pursue his passion for country music. He’s finally scored a gig and is waiting for his rehearsal time when, without warning, there is no electricity.
William is a security guard for a medical supply company and the protector of his family. While Rachel is traveling for work, he is getting their twins, Madison and Addison, to and from school and making sure his youngest goes to kindergarten.
When our nation is attacked, will you survive?
The Conner family becomes separated when the Pulse strikes. No one knows if it is a HEMP (high-altitude electromagnetic pulse) that has detonated over the southern part of the United States or a CME (coronal mass ejection) from the sun. Rumors begin to spread that this may be a disaster affecting the entire United States, but the only information available is unreliable.
The apocalypse brings out the best and the worst in all of us. It is survival of the fittest at its finest.
When anarchy and chaos fill the streets, the Conners find themselves launched into survival mode. The world as they once knew it is completely gone in the blink of an eye. Can the Conners reunite to survive the apocalypse together? Do Liam and his friend have what it takes to make it in time from Nashville to Townsend, Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains where his prepper grandpa, Dwight, lives?
The Pulse is only the beginning. Have Hope kicks off a post-apocalyptic thriller series that follows ordinary people as they do extraordinary things to survive after the United States experiences a disaster that destroys its entire infrastructure.
Five Days into the apocalypse—would you survive?
Would you still be alive?
When the power grid failed, and the pulse rendered all electronic devices useless, the Conner family found themselves in the worst of situations. Separated when the pulse hit, the Conners found themselves unprepared for such a disaster, and they had no plan in place to reunite with one another.
Rachel had risked everything to fight her way back to her family. Through perseverance, hope, and grace, Rachel had managed to reunite with William and their daughters.
The family had battled kidnappers and been forced to rescue their twin girls, and now they had to find their eldest, Liam.
What would you give to see your family again and make sure they were all right?
Equipped with a working vehicle, the Conners were making their way down to Nashville, where Liam was living. They wanted to try to find him before heading to the safety of Dwight Conner’s homestead. Liam had his own run-ins with adversity and had learned about the evil that comes when a disaster strikes.
The failure of the power grid wouldn’t kill you, but the chaos that ensued afterward might.
The end of the world has a way of bringing out the best and the worst in humanity. As the rest of the Conner family made their way from Indiana to Tennessee, Liam and his new friend, Prue, wondered if they had what it would take to survive the menacing Bubba Brothers who sought vengeance for an incident at a gas station.
Would Rachel and William find their son before it was too late?
Dwight Conner, the family’s prepper, has his own issues with a socialist sheriff who wants Dwight’s resources.
What will happen to Dwight’s compound, the land he spent most his life creating?
&
nbsp; The pulse was only the beginning. When the world ends, silence will be the only sound for miles around.
Grasp Grace is book two in The Pulse, a post-apocalyptic thriller series that follows the Conner family and their friends as they attempt to survive a complete failure of the nation’s power grid.
What would happen if the power grid failed? Would you be ready?
Family is everything for the Conners, and they have finally reunited at Dwight's compound. Little do they know that Sheriff Murphy is after their resources. The sheriff and the new mayor want to pillage Dwight's homestead and distribute Dwight's hard-earned and expensive stockpile to the townspeople.
Meanwhile, the Conners’ eldest son is helping Prue with bringing her parents back to Dwight's compound.
The Conners are learning the hard way that the best way to rely on anything is to create it yourself.
What is worse is when all you have worked for—safety in this very situation—is at risk. At what cost would you defend it?
When our nation is attacked, will you survive?
The Conner family has finally reunited, but they are in for a worse fight than before they got to Dwight's compound. Now, the real fight begins. They must protect and defend what is theirs.
The apocalypse brings out the best and the worst in all of us. It is survival of the fittest at its finest.
When anarchy and chaos descend upon Dwight's compound, the Conners find themselves in the fight of their lives. The world as they once knew it is completely gone in a blink of an eye. Can the Conners defend Dwight's compound? Will Liam help Prue bring her parents to safety?
The Pulse is only the beginning. Forge Faith is the final installment in the post-apocalyptic thriller series by following ordinary people doing extraordinary things after the United States experiences a disaster, destroying the country’s entire infrastructure.
Read it Again in its Entirety
Lights Out Series
What would happen if the power grid failed? Would you be ready?
Demi Thicke, a mega popstar, is on stage when the lights go out. She had finally scored her dream venue, performing at The Dive, an almost twenty-thousand seat arena, and she sold it out. But when the lights go out, Demi and her best friend, Mike, soon discover it’s not just the lights that are gone. Vehicles no longer work, and fires are raging along Las Vegas Boulevard. At first, she wants to denying what’s happening, but she knows what this is. Thanks to her unconventional childhood with an overbearing, prepper father, she recognizes the signs of a high-altitude nuclear detonation that creates a massive EMP.
Demi is on a race against time and the inevitable crumbling of society as she and Mike form a plan to leave Las Vegas so that they can reach her sister and his family. The panic is just beginning, but Demi knows it will only get worse. Desperate people do desperate things, and they need to get out of Las Vegas while they still can.
That proves more difficult than she ever anticipated…
Lights Out is a three-part series.
Powerless kicks off the post-apocalyptic thriller series following ordinary people doing extraordinary things after the United States experiences a disaster that destroys their entire infrastructure.
What would happen if the power grid failed? Would you be ready?
When Demi and Mike make it out of Las Vegas in the wake of an EMP, they find their journey has only just begun. Their first mission, to get to Mike's sister and parents in Salt Lake City. In book 1, Demi relied on her celebrity to get by, but now a few days out of the disaster, she is finding that she is just another human trying to survive. Thankfully she has the training and skills her father, David, taught her. With her rough upbringing, Demi is still trying to reconcile her hate, yet gratitude toward her prepper father.
Mike and Demi find devastation as not all of Mike's family survives the fires that ravage Salt Lake City. While making sense of the destruction, Demi reconnects with her old flame, Chris Wynn, whom she left back in SLC for her popstar career.
Will Demi make it to her sister, Lacey, in ISU in time?
How will Demi deal with being with her old flame, Chris?
How will Mike cope when one of his family members doesn't make it out of SLC?
And will both Demi and Mike lead their families to safety to David's compound?
Find out in Power Trip, the second installment in the Lights Out Series.
Lights Out a three-part series
Powerless kicks off the post-apocalyptic thriller series by following ordinary people doing extraordinary things after the United States experiences a disaster, destroying their entire infrastructure.
What would happen if the power grid failed? Would you be ready?
When Demi and Mike make it out of Las Vegas in the wake of an EMP, they find their journey has only just begun. Their first mission, to get to Mike's sister and parents in Salt Lake City. In book 1, Demi relied on her celebrity to get by, but now a few days out of the disaster, she is finding that she is just another human trying to survive. Thankfully she has the training and skills her father, David, taught her. With her rough upbringing, Demi is still trying to reconcile her hate, yet gratitude toward her prepper father.
Mike and Demi find devastation as not all of Mike's family survives the fires that ravage Salt Lake City. While making sense of the destruction, Demi reconnects with her old flame, Chris Wynn, whom she left back in SLC for her pop-star career.
Will Demi make it to her sister, Lacey, in ISU in time?
How will Demi deal with being with her old flame, Chris?
How will Mike cope when one of his family members doesn't make it out of SLC?
And will both Demi and Mike lead their families to safety to David's compound?
Find out in Power Trip, the second installment in the Lights Out Series.
Lights Out a three-part series
Powerless kicks off the post-apocalyptic thriller series by following ordinary people doing extraordinary things after the United States experiences a disaster, destroying their entire infrastructure.
Power Trip is the second in a three-part survival series about the aftermath of a HEMP. Part three of Lights Out will be available soon.
Book 3: Power Struggle coming out in Spring 2020.
About the Author
What would happen if the power grid failed? Would you be ready?
When the Earth as we know it comes tumbling down, what would you do to survive?
Hayden James writes suspenseful post-apocalyptic fiction examining what transpires when ordinary people face unreasonable choices. Do they come together and help one another or do they look out only for themselves?
If our nation was attacked, who would survive?
Subscribe to Hayden's newsletter for updates on new releases, discounts, and unpublished chapters: https://mailchi.mp/c592e77dbc77/haydenjames
The apocalypse brings out the best and the worst in all of us. It is survival of the fittest at its finest.
The end of the world is only the beginning.
Power Trip: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller
Copyright © 20202 Hayden James
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored on a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988, or under the terms of anybody since permitting limited copying issued by the copyright leasing agency.
This book is the work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidences either are the product of the author’s imagination or coincidental. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN:
Contents
Power Trip
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapt
er Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
Also by Hayden James
About the Author
Lights Out (Book 2): Power Trip Page 14
