After the Solar Flare (Book 1): Alone in the Apocalypse

by AJ Newman

  I gazed into her tear-filled eyes and realized my eyes mirrored hers, as I said, “Patty, please hold me again, for a long time.”

  And she did.

  I touched my finger to her lips and said, “I love you and I am yours, now, and until death part.

  I know we need to catch each other up on events since we last saw each other, but right now I just want to hold you for a very long time.”

  Kids might read this book so I won’t give any detail about that night, but I will say we had a very enjoyable day and wonderful night. That is all I have to say about that.

  I woke up in Patty’s arms with the sun streaming through the cabin windows. She felt good against my skin and I kissed her closed eyes. Her eyes opened and she had a big dopey smile on her angels face.

  “Darling, what happened to Mary?” she asked as if afraid of the answer.

  I looked away for a second, before recovering my composure and said, “She was on a sailboat and we were getting ready to leave when we were attacked. I was on land when the attack started. The kids, Nuns, Mary, my dogs Brett and Meg, everyone, got away and are now half way to South America.”

  “Kids and Nuns?”

  We took the time to fill each other in on the events since the helicopter took off up in Wyoming. We were both amazed at what the other had been through to survive. I was so proud of this woman.

  We got dressed and had breakfast above deck in the sunshine. The temperature was in the upper-forties so I guessed we had sailed a long way south.

  I looked behind and saw the small sailboat that I had forgotten to tie to Brett’s boat. My supplies!

  “Patty, you brought the Venture!”

  “I guess it must be pretty important to you because you kept talking about it while you were unconscious.

  I saw guns and MREs, so I tied it to our boat and brought it along. I was never so relieved when I saw that there was another small sailboat capable of sailing on the open ocean. Your friends left enough weapons, food and water for a small village.”

  “How long has it been since the attack?”

  “Darling you have been in and out of consciousness for over a week. It took me three days to get the boat ready and packed.

  We have been sailing since then. I figure we’ve sailed nearly 600 miles southeast. That probably amounts to about 400 miles straight south. We have to go between Cuba and Mexico, at Cancun, before continuing southeast to Brazil. We’re sailing into early spring so we shouldn’t have to contend with storms, but, we’ll keep relatively close to shore in case we have to find a sheltered cove.”

  “I’ll be able to help steer, so we can sail 24 hours a day to cover the 3,000 miles to our new home. At 6 miles an hour, if my math is correct, we should be there in about 21 days without stopping. A thirty foot boat like this one tops out at about 8 MPH.”

  “Oh, I’m guessing the warmer weather is probably caused by the warm water coming north in the Gulf Stream.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense. How about slipping over here and warming me up.”

  “You only get five minutes of warming up before I have to get back to the helm.”

  Patty sat down on my lap, we enjoyed the ocean breeze for a few minutes and then she began teaching me how to sail. I didn’t tell her that I already knew how to sail, well, a little.

  I enjoyed the training and the one on one contact. I was in pain while she sat in my lap from the shrapnel wound in my butt: however, I loved every minute of it.

  In thinking about the attack, and the explosion, I didn’t even know I had been hit. I don’t remember much about trailing the thieving rat bastards, or killing them. After that, I don’t remember squat until waking to my Patty’s voice.

  Yes, this was the second butt cheek wound in two months and my ass hurt like hell, but I was so happy, and she felt so good I didn’t let my knickers get in a knot and sucked up the pain.

  She also did a wonderful job of sewing up my ass, again.

  “I think you’ve got the hang of keeping the sail with the wind. Keep an eye on the compass and you won’t go wrong. I’ll teach you about tacking tomorrow. Now how long do you think we ought to sail before switching?”

  “I vote for changing every four hours. That gives a decent sleep and won’t be too boring.”

  “Yes, that sounds about right, we can always lash the helm down long enough for pee breaks and a stretch every now and then. The boat pretty much holds course unless the wind changes.”

  “Okay, but we need to stop for an hour every day when the wind is the slowest to err…”

  Patty replied, “And go skinny dipping. The air temperature is in the high 30’s, but the water is in the high 60’s.”

  “Sounds great.”

  Patty winked at me and added, “We need some personal time also.”

  “Yeah, I need some personal time. Hey what about protection?”

  I brought enough birth control pills to last about two years, assuming they don’t go bad.”

  “But what about until they begin to take effect?”

  “Okay, I guess it’s time, I don’t really know how to say this, so I’ll just blurt it out. I have been on the pill since I was 16. George and I didn’t get along, but even so, we did have sex and I realized early on that I was never going to have a kid by him. Besides, I knew two months ago that we’d end up in bed together. ”

  “I knew you loved me back then. Why did you push me away?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve kicked my ass a whole bunch of times over that one. Matt, I’m not the same person I was then. I hate to keep saying it, but I just didn’t get it, and since change is the only constant in the Universe, now I do.”

  We quickly found that at the end of our personal hour was a good time to take a dip in the water and bathe. The water was much warmer than the air and it was the highlight of our day. We kept an eye out for sharks but never saw any nearby.

  This must be what heaven was supposed to be.

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  Chapter 20

  Betrayal

  Gulf of Mexico

  10 nautical miles from the East Coast of Mexico

  One low spot was that there wasn’t much in the way of fish in the open water away from the continental shelf. There must have been whatever those tiny things that whales eat, because we saw several. We also saw many flying fish near the continental shelf. In the Gulf of Mexico, the shelf runs out to about twenty miles. That’s why the water is so much calmer than in the open ocean, where the shelf usually doesn’t run out more than about five miles.

  The ocean waves hit the shelf and build up making for higher surf on the ocean side. On the Gulf side with the much longer shelf, the waves settle down before cresting on the beach.

  That wasn’t a problem once we figured it out. We just sailed in closer to the islands as we made our way southeast from Cuba, the Caymans and Jamaica. We fished and stopped to fill our water drums every chance we had. We changed our route to follow the chain of islands all the way to South America.

  Of course sailing closer to the islands meant two, not so good things. One, since we had to dump our garbage overboard, sharks constantly accompanied us, and two, people.

  We had to hide from other boats several times after stumbling upon people from one boat shooting at another. Patty ducked back behind an island just in time to keep us from being spotted.

  There were more boats on this route, but at least we wouldn’t starve or die of thirst. We also had several occasions when people tried to get us to stop and give them food or water. I always pointed to the islands and told them to go ashore to find water and to fish for food. Several, just wanted us to give them handouts, others wanted everything we had. A burst from the M-69 squad machine gun from my provision boat seemed to ward them off quite well.

  We only had to shoot at one boat to keep them from trying to board us.

  The result was that they ran, and we ran, but it made us acutely aware that there were heavily armed
pirates so we sailed back to about five miles beyond the shelf until we needed fish or water.

  Patty and I were on a long honeymoon so we enjoyed the alone time. Life was great!

  Patty was still planning to kill Carla if we ever ran across her sorry ass, but again this is a big world and Carla would probably die in a pirate attack or starve to death. I told Patty that to make her happy.

  Yes, we worried about Mary, but knew there was nothing we could do to help her. Mary is a very strong person and can handle herself. She was with some strong people and should make it to their destination. I thought Mary would be fine in the post-apocalyptic world. She was one tough cookie.

  Just when I thought that, everything couldn’t get any better I saw huge black clouds on the horizon stretching as far as the eye could see in both directions.

  Patty saw the storm a few seconds later and yelled, “Lower the sails stow our gear and prepare to batten down the hatches. Let’s fire up the auxiliary, and try to make for a cove along the barrier islands.”

  We completed our tasks and watched as the storm overtook us. The wind roared all around us and the waves grew in size. We kept the auxiliary motor on, and steered into the wind, still our boat was tossed about like a feather in the wind. The storm lasted all afternoon and well into the night.

  Both Patty and I feel this way about our little storm experience, scratch that off the old bucket list and never again. Were we frightened, hell no, we were terrified, and knew we were going to die. I will never know how those little boats held together. Sometime later, I was told that the drag boat actually helped maintain our heading into the storm, talk about babes in the woods.

  After the storms passing, we slept the sleep of the exhausted, and awoke with the sun streaming in through a porthole. Scurrying topside we were greeted by a beautiful day. Our bilge pumps had kept us afloat, but the Venture was nearly gunnel deep in a losing battle with Davy Jones.

  Patty screamed out, “Oh, God, Matt, if she goes down we go with her. Let’s get in the water and start bailing!”

  “I’ve got this, Patty; you stand by with an ax while I bail. Oh, man, we cannot afford to lose that shit.”

  I dove in close. Patty threw a pail and I started frantically bailing the water out. It took about twenty minutes to drop the level enough for me to get in and finish the task. The entire job took about half an hour.

  I then made an inspection, and found that she was in otherwise good shape and ready to sail.

  The thought that in another five minutes the Venture would have gone down dragging us after her by the stern, scared the crap out of me. I didn’t mention that part to Patty as I climbed back onboard with my shorts in my hand.

  The next two days were uneventful until later in the evening on the third day, I heard Patty yell, “There’s a boat up ahead. It’s capsized and I see people clinging to it.”

  I saw her looking at the horizon through binoculars and replied, “I’ll steer wide so they won’t see us.”

  “Matt, there are a couple of kids in the water.”

  “Patty, we can’t save everyone.”

  “Please honey, we haven’t yet saved anyone. This is our chance. We’ll drop them off at the next island.”

  I saw the big puppy dog eyes and could not say no, “Okay, but watch them closely.”

  We steered towards them and took over 20 minutes to close the distance between boats.

  When we were a hundred feet away, Patty yelled, “It’s Antonio and his family. His sister in law is the bitch that sold me into slavery.”

  “Do you want me to turn away?”

  “No, we’ll save Antonio and the kids and leave her sorry ass in the water for the sharks.”

  A few minutes later the man yelled, “Thanks for stopping. We were dying of thirst. Hey, Patty, is that you? Thank God that you’re safe. Why did you leave me?”

  Yes, I’m alive, no thanks to your bitch sister in law. This is Matt, my new husband.”

  I pulled the two kids up onto the deck and then Antonio. I waited for Patty to say something about the hysterical woman.

  Patty glared at her struggling to get on board and said, “Antonio, did you know that Carla sold me to a drug gang?”

  “What? She told me you left on your own.”

  Patty pulled her pistol and aimed it at Carla’s head and said, “I’m going to leave you on your boat and let you die drinking sea water.”

  Carla begged for her life, but before Patty could tell me to sail away, Antonio grabbed the gun and shot Carla. She sank into the water leaving a red trial as she sank.

  Sharks began stirring the bloody water almost immediately.

  I grabbed for the gun, but Antonio was faster and I felt a pain in my head.

  As my lights, once again went out I heard, “Patty you are mine and you will be with me and my kids forever.”

  ***

  I was barely awake and felt the tiny boat rocking. I couldn’t remember where I was or even who I was. It was dark and all I could see as I opened my eyes were stars to the south and the light show in the north. I felt around and found that I was in a small boat about 16 feet long. It had a mast so it must be a sailboat.

  I passed out again and didn’t wake until the sun was burning through my eyelids. The sun was high in the sky, and the wind was chilling me to the bone. I was damp even through a jacket and sweater. I found a bag with clothes and changed into dry gear.

  My memory was slowly returning as I searched the boat. I quickly found the MREs, weapons and bag with my treasure. It’s funny how I remembered them, but didn’t know my name.

  I ate two packages of MREs, drank my fill of water and raised my sail. I took a couple of aspirin and felt better in a couple of hours.

  I found a compass and steered southeast heading that way because it felt good. I put a gun belt on with a Glock 17 and three magazines and placed the AR15 and Keltec Sub 2000 close by in case of attack.

  I couldn’t remember much, but I did remember being hit on the head by a man named Antonio. He took my boat and everything that meant something to me. I kept fighting to remember the rest of what happened to me.

  I didn’t remember Patty or Mary, The Flare or why I had a burning desire to head to South America to find… Hell I just didn’t know at the time.

  Yet, the drive to discover what I had lost burned with a fire I could not explain.

  ***

  Well it’s about time to wrap up the first book in my series about my life after the Solar Flare. Yes, I decided to stop at what you might call a cliffhanger point in time; however, back then life was a series of cliffhangers. “Life is a bitch and then you die,” kind of world.

  I plan to travel to New Washington tomorrow and see if I can get Book I published by a real publishing company. It’s about 1,300 miles from home and we have never traveled to the New USA or New Washington. The wife and kids are looking forward to the adventure.

  There are daily flights from our home in Ecuador, but we call it New Israel, yet we decided to drive on the Washington Expressway so we can see beautiful mountainous country and drive along the Pacific Ocean.

  Well I’ll keep writing and I hope you enjoyed my story.

  Matt Jones

  The End

  If you like my novel, please post a review on Amazon.

  Thanks A J Newman or should that be Matt Jones?

  To contact the Author please leave comments @:

  www.facebook.com/newmananthonyj Face Book page.

  To view other books by A J Newman, go to Amazon at my Author’s page:

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

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  Books by A J Newman

  “The Adventures of John Harris” - a post-apocalyptic America series:

  Surviving Hell in the Homeland

  Tyranny in the Homeland Revenge in the Homeland

  Apocalypse in the Homeland John Returns

  The Day America Died - a Zack Johnson Post-Apocalypt
ic series:

  New Beginnings

  Old Enemies

  Frozen Apocalypse

  “Grumpy Sam and Sammy” - A murder mystery series:

  Where the Girls Are Buried.

  Who Killed the Girls?

  After the Solar Flare - A Post-Apocalyptic series:

  Alone in the Apocalypse

  These books are available at Amazon:

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

  Also from A. J Newman

  The Adventures of John Harris:

  This series of Post-Apocalyptic novels tells how John Harris leads a group of survivors through the chaos of a country that has fallen apart. Rogue US Government officials and a coalition of Third World Leaders have launched a major nuclear and EMP attack on all of the major powers and killed over 100 million Americans. The grid is down and water and food are scarce. The USA is in chaos with criminals and thugs attacking innocent citizens while the DHS is placing millions in relocation camps. John and his team fight back!

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

  Also from A J Newman

  New Beginnings - Zack Johnson is stranded on the west coast when an EMP destroys the Grid. He must get home to find and protect his daughter. This is a tale about what he has to do to get home and survive. It’s also a story about the people he meets along the journey. Many are great people, but some are thugs that have to be dealt with.