by Hayden James
Grasp Grace
A Post-Apocalypse Survival Thriller
Hayden James
Grasp Grace
Grasp Grace
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 situation. Separated when the pulse hit, the Conner's found themselves unprepared for such a disaster and they had no plan to in place to find each other.
Rachel risked everything to fight her way back to her family. Through perseverance, hope, and grace, they Rachel reunited with William and her daughters.
The family battled kidnappers to rescue the twin girls, and now they must find their eldest, Liam.
What would it cost for you to see your family again and to make sure they are all right?
Equipped with a working vehicle, the Conner's are making their way down to Nashville, where Liam lives. They will try to find him before heading to safety of Dwight Conner’s homestead.
Liam had his own run-ins with adversity and leaned the evil that comes when disaster strikes.
The failure of the power grid won’t kill you. The chaos that ensues afterward will. The end of the world brings out the best and the worst in humanity.
The Conners make their way from Indiana to Tennessee. Will Liam and his new friend, Prue have what it takes to survive the menacing Bubba Brothers who seek vengeance for the incident at the gas station? Will Rachel and William find their son before it’s 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 that he spent most his life creating?
The pulse was only the beginning. When the world ends, that is only the beginning for what is coming.
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 the complete failure of the nation’s power grid.
Need book one in The Pulse series. Find it here.
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Day Five
Chapter One
Rachel Conner
Scottsburg, Indiana
6:24 PM
“Babe, you seem so tense,” Rachel said as she sat in the passenger seat. She needed to break the silence in an effort to cut the tension as William drove the VW bus down Route 31 heading south. She placed her hand on his arm while he steadied the steering wheel, guiding the vehicle down the highway.
“That was quite a night! I know we wanted to make an early start, but I’m exhausted,” replied William. “I think this morning had brought me down to my knees. Ever since this pulse thing hit, it has driven me to the brink. Until yesterday, I had been tirelessly searching for you, then they kidnapped the twins. Thankfully, we had Gary and Vince to help us with the raid, otherwise, I do not know where’d we be.” He took a moment to look at her, and he affectionately placed his hand on her knee, reciprocating her gesture. Rachel understood that he had been under immense pressure, and he was venting about their situation.
The sun set to their west as they moved southward down the highway. This sunset, particularly brilliant, made everything seem as if it were back to normal. The reds, orange, and yellow hues blended as the glowing orb hit the horizon, showing just a sliver of its mass as it made it’s way down, giving way to the twilight sky. One of the most picturesque sunsets they had seen in a while. It would appear they were on one of their family camping trips if it wasn’t for the pulse that wreaked havoc on their lives only five days ago.
Despite their surrounding appearing as though nothing was awry, Rachel worried about her family’s survival. How many more days did they have supplies for? How could they ration out the supplies to make it last? How many people did this pulse effect? Just the Midwest and the southern region of the United States? The entire country? All of North America? The whole globe?
As William recounted the series of events that led them up to this point, Rachel eyes streamed tears. They were tears of joy, sorrow, but most of all, a mourning for the world she once knew. The old world was forever gone, now she would be forced to live in the new world. Rachel’s tears went unnoticed by William. She didn’t need him to see her showing signs of her emotional strain. She did not want to burden him with comforting her. She wanted to be his support.
As she recounted the series of events she went through, the savage nature she encountered was far more than she ever thought she would see. The day the men attacked Rachel, and then was saved by Gary and Vince was when she thought she hit bottom. Learning the news that those wretched men who kidnapped and held their twins would try to sell them for supplies, was when she almost came undone. Looking back at all the events, even if everything came back in the next day and they could restore power and life returned to the way she once knew it, she’d already witnessed unimaginable brutality of what people do when they were desperate, and she did not like what she saw.
Rachel took a second to look a the back of the van. There she saw, Gary, Vince, and the three girls riding silent in the back of the camper van, exhausted from the encounter with Ron and the other kidnappers. Rachel was vastly relieved to have her two girls back and was grateful that somehow Ron and the other men did not harm them beyond tying them up.
“Shit! William!” Rachel said as he narrowly missed a stalled out car on the road.
“It’s fine Rach!” William barked back.
“It’s not fine!” Rachel shouted. She was the only one who would challenge William. “You need to pull over. We all need to rest.”
The long day wore on William’s reflexes and his response time became vastly delayed as he was no longer aware enough to drive. He swerved more, and often over-correcting as maneuvered the van through stalled vehicles scattered in the road. The camper van was not the easiest vehicle to drive, but they all were grateful that they had it. William did not exit when Rachel thought he should. She let it slide, knowing that his stubborn nature was getting the best of him.
Watching William narrowly miss yet another stalled car on the road, Rachel calmly suggested, “Why don’t you pull over at the next exit,. We all could use the rest. You could use the rest.”
“Hon, because I am worried sick about Liam. We need to get to him before it’s too late. I almost lost two of my children, there’s no way I am going to lose Liam,” replied William as he continued to drive frantically down the highway, ignoring Rachel’s pleas to pull over for the night.
“Pull over now!” Rachel shouted. “You’re too tired and we have to rest. We will all be better in the morning.”
“What about Liam?” William countered.
“Liam is an adult. Dwight has taught him how to take car of himself all of those summers we sent him to stay with your parents. If anyone would have the best chance to survive out of all of us, it would be him,” Rachel said, convincing William that her grown son was all right.
William appeared to accept Rachel’s argument. “You know, you’re right. I’m underestimating him. He is fairly skilled and knows at least how to shoot a gun. Gees, I hope he was able to get one.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. Now, let’s pull over and stop for the night,” responded Rachel.
William heeded to Rachel’s suggestions and exited the next off ramp in Scottsburg, Indiana. Finding a parking lot at a grocery store, the Conners joined other families who were tr
aveling by bike, foot, or vintage vehicle who were stopping for the night as well. William parked the VW bus next to a tent with a large family.
As William turned off the engine of the camper van he yelled to all in the back, “All right guys, we will stay here for the night.” He turned a looked at Gary, Vince, and his daughters and continued, “I know this morning was a lot for all of us. Just know hat we came out of that situation victorious and be grateful that we did. All of that could have been much worse.”
Gary responded, “Yes sir, you’re absolutely right.”
William, with his head turned back around replied to Gary, “Right, Gary and Vince. We owe you everything.”
Vince interjected, “It was our pleasure.” As he said that, he looked toward Addison. Rachel caught on to that subtle interaction and a pit formed in her stomach. She did not like that implication of Vince’s statement.
“Well, let’s set up camp for the night,” commanded William.
Rachel kept an eye on Gary and Vince. She watched them as they took some newspaper left in Ron’s van and made a fire with it on the concrete of the parking lot. They made a nice boarder for the campfire with rocks they found around the parking lot and crumpled the paper. Ron had a few logs of fire wood stashed in one of the outside compartments of the camper van that they found and were sitting at the fire, taking in the peacefulness that were able to breathe in.
Then Rachel watched as her twins joined the two firefighters as they watched the dancing flames. Rachel wanted to interrupt the interlude, but she was taking care of Natasha. “Hey Natasha, let’s play a game,” suggested Rachel to her girl that she hadn’t seen in close to a week. She needed to bond with her five-year-old who missed her every day that they were apart.
“What kind of game, mommy?” Natasha asked.
“We are going to play hide and seek, except you and I are both the seekers.”
“Ok!” Natasha replied. “What do we do?”
“We open each of these cabinets and we find out what is in them,” explained Rachel. She knew the game seemed boring, but it was once way she could spend quality time with her little one and figure out if Ron had any supplies that they could use.
Rachel explained, “I’ll go first.” She opened one of the cabinet doors and said, “I see in the cabinet there are paper towels, toilet paper, and a dictionary. That’s weird. I never thought Ron would have been a wordsmith. I didn’t know him though. Ok, baby girl, your turn. Open up the next cabinet and tell me what is in there.”
Natasha opened up the next cabinet and said, “I see canned food. It says corn, black beans, and sarquines.”
“Sardines, dear. Very good,” replied Rachel, relieved that they had stumbled on some more food, which would lengthen their rations. “Oh! And it looks like we have charcoal. That will come in handy!”
“What’s charcoal?” Natasha asked.
“The charcoal will allow the fire to last longer than wood or paper, which is what we have burning at the moment.”
Rachel’s internal celebration was interrupted as she heard laughter and giggles erupting from outside the van. Her stomach sunk, for she knew what the high-pitched squeals and giggles were. She peaked her head up to observe what was going on through the side window. What she saw was the girls, talking with Gary and Vince as they entertained them by the fire with a lot of hair flipping. Waves of their tousled, long blonde hair were flown in the air with flicks of their wrists as they conversed about meaningless things. Rachel, astutely aware of her emotions, was grateful for the role that Gary and Vince had played in her journey. However, she did not like them becoming close with her twins, especially since they were still underage at age seventeen.
Noting the canned food that her and Natasha had stumbled upon, Rachel calculated that they the seven of them had enough food for two weeks. “That should last us until we get to Dwight's and give us enough time to search for Liam in Nashville,” she muttered to herself examining the cabinets. “Unless we encounter an unforeseen circumstance,” she continued, speaking to herself. Natasha sat on the chair waiting to hear what game they would play next. “What would you rather have for dinner? Chicken or Sardines with are beans and rice?”
“Chicken!” Natasha enthused.
“Chicken it is. Let’s go out to where Maddy and Addy are and start dinner.”
“OK! Let’s go!” Natasha shouted as she led the way to the campfire.
Rachel met Natasha outside with a grill, the charcoal, and pots to cook the chicken, beans, and rice. Gary and Vince assisted Rachel while the twins sat around the fire admiring. William returned from a walk with Regis, as he needed to clear his head and calm down after the eventful day.
Dinner seemed to go seamlessly, as the group of seven enjoyed conversation while they ate around the campfire. During the dinner conversation, Rachel became intent on watching the interaction between Vince and Addy. From what she observed, it appeared Gary and Maddy were friendly, but not interested in each other. However, Vince and Addy seemed to be very interested. This bothered Rachel because despite Vince and Gary being good men and upstanding individuals in society, she did not like the thought of her underage twins involved with anyone, especially someone older. The twins were still her babies, and Rachel was not ready to accept that soon they would be eighteen years old and considered adults.
After dinner, Vince and Gary helped Rachel and William clean while the twins tended to Natasha and Regis.
“That was fantastic, Rachel,” Vince said as he stacked the plastic plates and brought them over to Rachel who was boiling water in the pots over the grill.
William supervised the cleaning of the utensils and plates, “You didn’t find any soap?” he asked.
“No, Natasha and I did not find any soap, but we found more food,” replied Rachel.
“Good,” muttered William as he went back to watching the water boil.
“I thought you would be more excited about that,” insisted Rachel.
“Oh, it's good news. Guess we have a few more days than,” responded William.
Vince and Gary scrubbed the plates, utensils, and the inside of the pots with salt after the water cooled while Rachel and William were silently drying. As they dried the last of the plates, William said, “Gary, Vince take care of the fire and put it out while I help Rach put away these in the van.”
“You got it,” replied Vince. The brothers kept watch on the embers as it died down while William followed Rachel into the camper van.
“Is everything all right?” Rachel asked once they were inside of the camper van with the door shut.
Both William and Rachel stood near one cabinet, about to put the plates and utensils away, but this conversation took precedence. “Yeah, why?” William replied. “I’m worried sick over Liam. And I’m fairly certain that you are angry and disgusted at what I did.”
“What are you talking about?” Rachel asked, not understanding what William was referring to. She opened the door of the cabinet and stacked the plates, taking the plates that William held from him.
“You know, when I held the door shut during the fire so Ron and the other kidnappers could escape,” explained William, putting away the forks in another cabinet.
“Oh right, forgot about that,” replied Rachel. “I mean it bothered me when I watched you. Horrified in fact. But then I got it. We would have never escaped from them if you didn’t do that. Not to mention, they took my babies. As far as I’m concerned, burning to death wasn’t enough of a punishment. I hope they are burning in Hell right now for all of eternity!”
“I am positive they are. So you’re not mad at me?” William asked as he gazed into her eyes, moving closer to where she stood.
Her eyes met his with acceptance and who she saw was her hero. The man who rescued her girls, went searching for her when she did not come home, and protected them from Ron. “Hon, I’m not mad at you in the slightest. I know we are going to have to face even tougher situations as this power outage last
s,” assured Rachel. Tears formed in her eyes as she gazed into his big, comforting blue eyes, “I am so grateful that we get to face the rest of this together.”
Rachel noticed that emotions swept over William, something that does not happen often. With a sigh, he leaned over and placed his lips on hers. They’re first kiss since they reunited. Rachel had been alone with William since they found each other, but they were on edge waiting for Gary and Vince to return before they infiltrated the bar where the twins were being held.
Rachel and William continued to hug and kiss in the VW bus. William paused for a moment and said, “It feels so good to be back on the same page as you.”
“You were really worried about that?” Rachel asked.
“I was. You knew they deployed me to Iraq before we met, but you didn’t know what type of things I did over there,” replied William.
“It doesn’t matter. You have kept us safe. You’re my hero,” Rachel assured, realizing that the topic of William's tour in Iraq was not often discussed, but the ramifications of it usually were as it has been difficult for William to hold down a job since being discharged.
William took Rachel into another embrace, his protective arms engulfing her tiny frame. Their lips met for another kiss, when it was immediately cut short, “Ew! Gross!” Natasha exclaimed as she came through the van door that she had opened.
“Guess we should stop,” Rachel whispered to William.
“You’re right. We don’t want to scar her more than she already has been,” conceded William. Rachel giggled at his joke.
“All right, munchkin. It’s time for bed. Let’s get you ready,” Rachel said crouching down to Natasha.
