Nash agreed with Austin. The woman had lost her father and husband in a month’s time. She was dealing with a lot more than the rest of them. Nash wasn’t sure about his own family but had to believe his brothers were taking care of their mom. The family home was in the country outside Nashville. His brothers all lived around the area and would have rushed to her when things got bad. The way things were now, he felt he had to trust them to take care of her—setting off on his own to cross the territory between him and them might not be suicide, but with the way things were at the moment, it would be a far cry short of smart, too.
The men continued to walk on in silence, focusing more and more on the effort required to haul what they’d found back to the house as the terrain got rougher. There was plenty to think about, too. It had been two days since they’d barely escaped with their lives from the city. They’d spent the day before taking stock of supplies and organizing the household a little.
They’d traveled another mile or so when Nash’s thoughts finally turned to the laptop he’d taken from the mine and put in his pack. It took his mind back to the USB that had gotten Austin and Savannah into trouble in the beginning, and now that the strange door in the mine had been opened, it was the most immediate mystery at hand.
“What do you think we’ll find on that USB?” Nash asked.
“I have no idea. The guy who gave it to me was a bit of a wingnut. The kind of guy who sees a conspiracy at every corner. We were drinking buddies in college, but I hadn’t seen him since then. Obviously, this time, he was onto something. It cost him his life, and Zander went to great lengths to try and get it back.”
“What are you going to do with it once you figure it out?” Nash couldn’t help asking.
Austin laughed. “I think you might be needed for the figuring out part of it. I’m not a techy. I can plug it in and pull up files, but if there’s a bunch of technical stuff, I’m going to refer it to you.”
Nash remained quiet for a minute. “I think it’s best if we keep this stuff to ourselves for now, if you know what I mean.”
Austin turned to look at him. “Wendell?”
Nash nodded, glad Austin had understood what he meant without bringing the guy back up again. “Something isn’t right with that guy. I’d like to think I’m imagining it, but I’ve learned to trust my instincts. There’s something off, there.”
“We’ll keep it to ourselves,” Austin agreed.
37
Austin, Nash, Ennis, and Amanda huddled in Ennis’ bedroom. The door was closed and locked. The hum of voices from beyond the door filled the room that was otherwise quiet enough for them to hear a pin drop as Austin turned on the laptop. It had long since been agreed that no one else needed to know they had a working computer or anything else about the USB.
Savannah had had a good idea about what her father was doing when he’d left that morning, but Austin had kept their discovery vague. He didn’t want to risk her knowing too much and being in danger once again. He also didn’t know Malachi or any of the stragglers the revivalist group had picked up. Trusting Nash was maybe something of a risk, but his gut told him the kid was okay. Plus, Austin didn’t know enough about computers to do much more than plug the drive in.
“Wait,” Amanda said when he turned on the laptop.
“Wait for what?” Austin asked.
“Do we really want to know what’s on that thing?” she asked. Beside her, Nash’s eyes went wide, as if the idea of not finding out hadn’t even occurred to him, and Austin had to hide a grin in reaction—mysteries ate at the kid just like they ate at him.
Austin met Amanda’s eyes, and his voice was firm when he answered, “Yes.”
She sighed. “Alright, but once we know, we know. You said your friend wanted you to get that to someone in the government. What if having it incriminates you and all of us?”
He shrugged. “We’ll destroy it if it looks like it could be something that gets us in trouble.”
“It could be a bargaining chip for the future,” Nash commented.
“I want nothing to do with that group,” Austin said.
“Maybe not, but that ship has sailed. We picked a fight with them. They didn’t seem the type to go away with their tails between their legs,” Nash replied quietly.
“Who cares about that?” Ennis demanded. “Let’s see what it is and then we’ll figure out what to do with it!”
Austin agreed with Ennis. He plugged the USB into the port and waited.
A few seconds later, the screen lit up, and his eyes glued themselves to the screen. Gasps from over his shoulder drowned out the hum of voices in the living room. Austin could only stare, his mouth hanging open as he took it all in.
End of Survive the Chaos
Small Town EMP Book One
Survive the Chaos, 11 July 2019
Survive the Aftermath, 8 August 2019
Survive the Conflict, 12 September 2019
PS: Do you love prepper fiction? Then keep reading for exclusive extracts from Survive the Aftermath and Suriving the Swamp.
Thank you
Thank you for purchasing Survive the Chaos
(Small Town EMP Book One)
Get prepared and sign-up to Grace’s mailing list and be notified of her next release:
www.gracehamiltonbooks.com/mailing-list
If you enjoyed this book:
Share it with a friend,
www.GraceHamiltonBooks.com/books
Leave a review at:
About Grace Hamilson
Grace Hamilton is the prepper pen-name for a bad-ass, survivalist momma-bear of four kids, and wife to a wonderful husband. After being stuck in a mountain cabin for six days following a flash flood, she decided she never wanted to feel so powerless or have to send her kids to bed hungry again. Now she lives the prepper lifestyle and knows that if SHTF or TEOTWAWKI happens, she’ll be ready to help protect and provide for her family.
Combine this survivalist mentality with a vivid imagination (as well as a slightly unhealthy day dreaming habit) and you get a prepper fiction author. Grace spends her days thinking about the worst possible survival situations that a person could be thrown into, then throwing her characters into these nightmares while trying to figure out "What SHOULD you do in this situation?"
You will find Grace on:
BLURB
The New World Order is at hand.
Civilization has crumbled since the EMP thrust humanity back into the Stone Age, and dangerous factions now scavenge for scarce resources in this terrifying new world.
Austin Merryman wonders what the future holds for his teenaged daughter, and if the madness surrounding them is even worth surviving. For now, the group is safe in his brother’s prepper house nestled in the Rockies. But the calm can’t last forever. With sixteen people crammed together in the tiny mountain home, tensions are bound to erupt. It doesn’t help that his brother’s lazy friend gets twisted pleasure from stirring up animosity, pitting brother against brother and daughter against father as battle lines are drawn.
But decisions about who stays and who goes are ripped from their hands as information on the USB drive lays bare pieces of the NWO’s plans. Austin realizes the horrifying truth of why he’s in their sights, as well as the danger he’s brought down on those he loves most. When tragedy again strikes the small group, it will be up to Austin to make the hard choices necessary to ensure their survival.
Until a dying man utters the single word that changes everything…
Get your copy of Survive the Aftermath
Available July 11, 2019
www.GraceHamiltonBooks.com
EXCERPT
Austin Merryman walked outside his brother’s luxury home, which had been built with the apocalypse in mind. The place was a treasure, given all that had happened, but that didn’t stop it from being cramped. Breathing in the fresh air of the outdoors, he took a minute to look around and take stock of who was where. It was tough keeping up with sixteen peopl
e. He could hear male voices coming from the right, mingled with the repetitive thwack of an ax hitting wood.
Down the driveway, he saw a couple of the women from the revivalist crew. They were carrying plastic grocery bags filled with what looked like weeds. Well, scratch that—they actually were weeds, technically, but the women were using them for some project or another. He couldn’t remember what it was.
Thinking he just needed space, he started walking into the trees to find a little peace and quiet. Ever since they’d gotten into the USB the day before and scanned through the litany of files on the thing, his mind had been in overdrive. He’d barely slept at all, thinking about everything he’d seen and trying to make sense of it.
“Hey, is everything okay?” Amanda Patterson asked, her voice coming from behind him.
He turned to look at the woman who’d saved his life and become what he had to think of as one of his best friends. She was stubborn, opinionated, intelligent, a heck of a shot… and very easy on the eyes.
“Everything’s fine,” he acknowledged, and when she didn’t look like she believed him, he moved to sit on a large rock surrounded by tall pine trees, out of sight of the house.
“I wanted a minute to think without being asked what to do next,” he explained quietly. She smiled back at him, and he could tell just from her expression that she understood his feelings.
“There’s a lot of people who are lost and confused… needing some direction. I guess you’re the guy to give it,” she said, sitting down beside him and nudging his arm.
“Lucky me,” he grumbled.
His eyes moved around the area. It was pretty. A place he would have loved to park his fifth-wheel and hang out for a couple weeks. His brother’s property was high up in the mountains north of Denver, Colorado, completely off the grid and off the beaten path—way off. There wasn’t a single road that would lead directly to the house. You had to take a series of dirt roads and know the way if you wanted to find it without getting turned around, which made it an ideal hideout in a world gone bad.
It was a safe haven, without a doubt, and he was grateful for the roof over his head, but he didn’t know if it was the right choice for a long-term living situation. With all that had happened, though, how could he know what the right choice was? He needed a few minutes to himself, away from the busy household filled with relative strangers. It had been nearly a week since they’d all begun cohabitating, and he’d barely said more than a few words to most of them. He didn’t know them and wasn’t sure he could blindly trust anyone. They were living in different times that required him to be a lot more careful than he’d once been.
But Amanda was something else. Outside of his brother and his daughter, she was the one among them he felt sure he could trust. After all they’d been through together, he had to trust her.
Beside him, she picked some dry moss from the base of the rock. “Good tinder,” she muttered.
He looked down at the moss in her hand. “I suppose.”
She frowned back to him. “Come on, Austin, what’s the deal? We walked how many miles to get here? We’ve barely caught our breath! And now that we’re here, you’re thinking about leaving, aren’t you?” she asked.
He couldn’t stop the slow grin from spreading over his face. “You think you know me so well.”
“I think I know you well enough to see you’re feeling a little stir-crazy.”
“Do you ever get that feeling that the other shoe’s about to drop? I keep looking over my shoulder. All that stuff on that drive…” He stopped talking, shaking his head at the thought of what they’d been caught up in.
“I get it, I do. But let’s celebrate our win. You’re here, Savannah is here, and the house is solid,” she said.
Austin nodded, knowing she had a point. He was happy to be reunited with Savannah, and grateful to the revivalists for keeping her alive and getting her to the house, but he wasn’t sure where they went from here. There’d also been no talk of the others moving on since they’d arrived, and that only served to complicate things. He didn’t want to be ungrateful, but how long could the house support all of them?
“We have to figure out what happens next,” he said. They’d been putting off the conversation, but it had to happen.
“Austin, everyone is recovering from the long journey here. Let’s give everybody a minute to figure stuff out.”
“If they don’t leave in the next couple months, winter will set in and traveling on foot will be impossible. The Loveridge family has a home in Salt Lake City—that was their original destination. Is it still? How do I ask them if they plan on staying or going without sounding like a total jerk?” he asked.
She shrugged, her eyes ranging over the forest around them. “Like I said, give it a few days. Tonya Loveridge is still grieving and recovering from the trip. I don’t know if she can make it on her own.”
“She has Malachi and the others,” Austin pointed out.
“You know what I mean. None of them are ready for that.”
He nodded, knowing she was right. “That may be true, but sixteen people in that house all summer is going to be rough.”
Summer promised to be hot and miserable in a world without AC. Fortunately, the house was surrounded by trees and lots of shade, but that only went so far, and it was one of the few things they had going for them. The metal walls and roof were great for keeping out unwanted guests, but they promoted the feeling of living inside a steel box. The only opening was the front door, which they’d taken to leaving open all day to allow fresh air into the house.
“It is getting a little stuffy in there,” she commented, her eyes moving around the area before she spotted more hanging moss and moved to climb up on another rock to pluck it down. She added it to her little pile of tinder and then crouched to rub some more moss from the rock where they’d been sitting.
He looked down at her, watching her gathering supplies even as they chatted. Looking for supplies had become second nature. Today, her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, showcasing her pretty eyes, and she was so easy to look at—watching her had become second nature for him. “Yeah, stuffy is one way to put it. I wish Ennis would have stockpiled deodorant,” he muttered.
Amanda chuckled. “I know you’re not telling me I stink,” she said, nudging his knee.
He smiled. “No, you know what I mean. We need to get better ventilation in there.”
“It’s only going to get hotter,” she replied with a grimace on her face, finally looking back up to meet his eyes.
Austin nodded, staring off into the trees and thinking about the many issues they had to deal with. He felt like they were treading water, barely getting by and not making any real plans for the future.
“It’d be nice to have more blankets or sleeping cots, too.”
“Who needs a blanket when it’s eighty degrees in the house?” she quipped.
“Sleeping on the hard floor is getting old. It’s like we have everything except for comfort. It’s better than sleeping outside on the cold, rocky ground, sure, but I think it would be a morale booster if we could all sleep better. Let’s face it, almost none of us are spring chicks anymore,” he said.
Amanda laughed. “Speak for yourself, buddy. I’m young and spry.”
He chuckled in return as she gave up on the moss and sat back down beside him. “I’ve seen Gretchen weaving pine needles,” he told her. “Maybe she can make sleeping mats. She could use grass, maybe, which might be softer if we could find enough. Anything would be better than sleeping directly on the floor. If only we had yarn. I heard one of the other women say she loved to knit.”
“I know how to knit,” Amanda said casually.
Austin turned to look at her. “Really?”
“Yep. I’m pretty good at it, too.”
“I don’t think there’s anything you’re not good at,” he offered, making her blush a little.
“What else is running through your mind? Besides knitting, I
mean,” she joked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. A lot. I’m thinking long-term, just in case we have to stay here. You say the Loveridges aren’t ready to travel, and that’s fine, but I think we need to know what everyone is planning, and when, or we’re going to be caught unprepared. Right now, we’re burning through resources pretty fast. We need to be thinking about how to make it all last.”
“Like what?”
“The propane, the food, the water—everything,” he murmured.
She nodded, looking unsurprised. “The propane is definitely going to be an issue. We can’t keep using the stove to heat water. It’s wasteful. We should be cooking our meals outside.”
“The ladies did build a fire the other day to heat the water,” he commented.
“Yes, but we need a stove. It wouldn’t be hard to make, what with all the rocks around here. If we’re here in the winter, we’ll be able to use it then, too, if we build a cover over it,” she added.
“Good idea.
Amanda looked off into the trees, lost in thought as she continued and he listened. “We can use foil to make a solar oven and save on using the propane stove, as well. We won’t have to worry about building a fire. We can make bread, stews, or even casseroles in it,” she said. “And we can use it to boil water.”
Survive the Chaos (Small Town EMP Book 1) Page 27
