After the EMP- The Darkness Trilogy
Page 49
“You all are sure it’s clear?” Walter stuck his head out the window and hollered at the rest of the group.
Tracy nodded. “We drove through three times and Peyton and Madison scoped out the buildings. It’s empty.”
“Good.” Walter leaned back, about to roll up the window and wait out their search, when the little cat jumped in front of his face. “Hey!”
He reached for the little cat, but the scrap of fur was too quick. Fireball darted away from the truck and disappeared into the closest barn. Tracy took off after him.
It was irrational and crazy, but that little cat meant more to her than Tracy could ever explain. She needed him. “Fireball! Fireball! Here kitty, kitty.”
He mewled and she followed the sound, stopping in mid-stride when she rounded the corner of two bales of hay. Fireball stood in a crouch, ears flattened. He’d cornered three chickens in the back of the barn.
Tracy whooped in joy. “Guys! Over here!” She rushed in and scooped the little cat up with no more than a meow of protest as Madison and Peyton rushed inside. “Fireball found us some chickens!”
Madison laughed in delight. “I’ll look for a crate to put them in.”
“I’ll take Fireball back to the truck.” Tracy walked outside with the cat in her arms as Brianna busted out from the pasture beyond the fence.
The feisty blonde gripped her knees as she sucked in a breath. “There’s two pygmy goats just out beyond the trees. If we can find some rope, we should be able to walk them back to the truck.”
Tracy couldn’t believe their luck. The site of so much confusion and pain was turning out to be a boon of resources. Chickens and goats. She glanced at the dead body no more than thirty feet away. She could smell his rotten flesh, but it didn’t turn her stomach.
They had won. Despite being shot at and losing Tucker and Drew, the Sloanes, Brianna, and Peyton had survived. With any luck, they would be bringing plants and animals and a whole lot more to the Clifton family cabin.
She handed Fireball back to her husband with a smile. “Today is a good day.”
He smiled back. “Tomorrow will be even better.”
DAY SIXTEEN
Chapter Thirty-Three
MADISON
Truckee, CA
4:30 p.m.
It had taken them an entire day to navigate the back roads with two vehicles, two goats, three chickens, and a yowly cat, but they were finally in Truckee. Brianna led the way over bumpy dirt roads that wound higher and higher into the mountains toward her family’s cabin.
Beautiful didn’t begin to describe the tree-filled hills and grass-covered meadows. In the fall when the rains returned the entire place would be verdant and teeming with life. Even now with more brown patches than green, the birds chirped and the blades of grass bent in the wind. It was so far removed from the destroyed cities they left behind.
Madison reached forward and punched the controls on the dash, pulling up the CD player.
Her mother glanced over from the driver’s seat. “What are you doing?”
“Checking something.” Madison pushed a few buttons and music blasted from the speakers.
Her father laughed.
“What is it?” Madison thought she recognized the singer, but she’d never heard the song.”
Her mother joined in with the chorus belting out the words.
“It’s the Eagles. You have to have heard this.”
Madison looked at the display on the dash. “‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’? It sounds corny. When was it recorded?”
Her father shook his head. “Before you were born. And now I feel old.”
Madison scrunched up her nose. “Sorry. But hey, I found us some music!”
“That you did. Turn it up, Tracy!”
Her mother turned up the volume and rolled down the front windows. Fireball scrambled down onto the floorboards to hide from the wind and Madison stuck her hand out the window. It had been a crazy few weeks, but for the first time since the power grid failed, Madison really felt alive. They had survived everything from shootouts to car crashes and everything in between.
Now they were a few minutes away from the start of a new chapter. Brianna’s lights flashed ahead of them and she slowed the Jeep.
As she turned off the gravel road onto a dirt driveway, Peyton stuck his head out the window. “Is that the Eagles?”
“How do you know?”
“My dad helped sign them when they got back together in 1994. I hung out with them when I was really little.” He smiled a bit. “I did tell you my dad had a nice pool.”
Madison shook her head in wonder. Peyton was as nonchalant about his life before as he was about starting over way up here in the mountains.
Brianna hopped out of the Jeep and unlocked a metal gate, swinging it wide to accommodate the vehicles. She turned to Madison’s truck and shouted. “Can you shut this after you get through?”
Madison nodded and waited until her mom drove through the gate in Brianna’s wake to hop out and secure it closed. She turned and watched as Brianna drove straight down a small drive toward a little cabin at the end of the road.
She climbed in the cab as two people rushed out of the cabin and ran toward the Jeep. The brake lights flashed on, Brianna jumped out, and in seconds the little trio was all wrapped up with each other hugging and laughing.
Madison’s mom drove the truck slowly down the driveway and parked it just behind the Jeep.
Brianna pulled away from the embrace and pointed at the truck and Peyton inside the Jeep, her face lit up like a kid on Christmas.
Madison turned to her mom. “I guess this is it.”
Her mom nodded. “I guess so.”
The cabin looked small at first, but the more Madison peered past the vehicles, the more she saw. Multiple chimneys and fenced-in areas of yard. Fruit trees all in a row along one side. Land perfect for a pasture and a greenhouse beyond.
She turned around in the truck and smiled at her dad. “Are you ready?”
Her father looked at her, eyes glassy as he smiled. “You first, honey.”
Madison opened the door to the truck and jumped out, making her way over to Brianna who grabbed her in a fierce little hug. “Mom, Dad, this is my roommate, Madison. She’s funny and smart and really, really good with plants. She can shoot and take care of animals and I can’t wait until you meet her parents.”
Brianna waved at Madison’s mom and dad and they waved back. “Mrs. Sloane can make dinner out of a can of peas and thin air and her dad can fend off a billion men with a handgun and crappy flashlight. Oh!” She squealed as Peyton hopped out of the Jeep. “And Peyton! He can chop all the firewood!”
Everyone standing around in the little circle laughed. Brianna’s mom wiped at her face and held out her hand to Madison. “Welcome to the Clifton cabin, Madison. It’s a pleasure to have all of you.”
Her father hobbled over to stand next to Madison and introduced himself. After everyone shook hands, he cleared his throat. “Brianna insisted that you would want us to stay, but I want to just say from the beginning that we don’t have to. We know this is your land and your cabin and we are more than happy to find our own way.”
Brianna’s mother glanced at her father and smiled. “We couldn’t be happier that you’re here.”
Fireball meowed and hopped out of the truck before scampering over and weaving through everyone’s legs. Madison looked around at all the happy faces and wiped at her eyes. There would be hard work, hot days, and cold nights, but together, they would make it.
They would turn this apocalypse into a new beginning.
Also by Harley Tate
Ready for more After the EMP action? Pick up book four in the series, Chaos Comes, on Amazon today.
Two weeks into the apocalypse, would your switch be flipped?
Colt Potter’s a no-nonsense air marshal who doesn’t hesitate to use his skills. When he sets off on his own, leaving the comfort of a warm bed, good looking woman
, and the University of Oregon behind, he's ready to be a solitary man. Rescuing a fifteen-year-old girl is the last thing he needs.
When you have nothing left, can you find the will to survive?
Dani may be young, but she’s no stranger to hardship. When the pangs of hunger drive her to the brink, Dani makes the difficult choice to steal. She knows she might get caught. She never expects a stranger to save her.
The end of the world brings out the best and worst in all of us.
Joining forces isn’t part of the plan, but desperate times call for desperate measures. With danger around every corner, will Colt and Dani find the strength to trust each other? Or will the past ruin any chance of seeing the future?
The EMP is only the beginning.
Interested in a free story? If you haven’t read Darkness Falls, the exclusive companion short story to the series, you can get it for free by subscribing to my newsletter:
www.harleytate.com/subscribe
If you were hundreds of miles from home when the world ended, how would you protect your family?
Walter started his day like any other by boarding a commercial jet, ready to fly the first leg of his international journey. Halfway to Seattle, he witnesses the unthinkable: the total loss of power as far as he can see.
Hundreds of miles from home, he’ll do whatever it takes to get back to his wife and teenage daughter. Landing the plane is only the beginning.
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading the first three books in the After the EMP series. The Darkness Trilogy was a labor of love and I’m humbled that so many people have read and enjoyed the Sloane family’s story so far.
If you have a moment, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Every one helps new readers discover my work and helps me keep writing the stories you want to read.
With our news feeds inundated with reporting on tragic natural disasters and acts of terrorism, we are reminded on a daily basis how precarious our human existence can be. A single act of terror or a weather event outside of our control could change life as we know it forever.
How many of us will be prepared if that day comes?
I hope my books not only entertain, but also inspire the survivalist inside each of us. Being prepared isn’t crazy, it’s smart.
Until next time,
Harley
About Harley Tate
When the world as we know it falls apart, how far will you go to survive?
Harley Tate writes edge-of-your-seat post-apocalyptic fiction exploring what happens when ordinary people are faced with impossible choices.
Harley’s first series, After the EMP, follows ordinary people trying to survive in a world without power. When the nation's power grid is wrecked, it doesn't take long for society to fall apart. The end of life as we know it brings out the best and worst in all of us.
The apocalypse is only the beginning.
Contact Harley directly at:
www.harleytate.com
harley@harleytate.com