Surviving the Blackout: A Post Apocalyptic EMP Thriller (Surviving the EMP Book 4)

by Ryan Casey

  “The dog, or the girl?” he asked.

  Jack’s stomach turned the moment he heard the words. He shook his head. “I can’t…”

  “Your dog is a trusty companion, I’m sure,” Matthew said, walking from side to side. “But then… he’s just a dog. He’s, what, ten? Older? How many years does he have left, really?”

  “You said you were done killing dogs.”

  “Then pick Susan,” Matthew said, reaching Susan’s side. “One of my people. Weaker than I hoped. The girl who helped you. But the girl who got you in this whole mess in the first place. But a human. A girl. A girl with a past. With a story. A life you’ll be responsible for. So which is it going to be?”

  Sickness crept through Jack’s body. He couldn’t make this decision. He wasn’t losing Villain. He’d never turn his back on him.

  But then… the way Susan looked back at him. The fear in her eyes.

  Could he live with her death on his conscience?

  And did he really believe Matthew was just going to let him go once he made this call?

  No. This was just the first step in a whole line of torture.

  Which meant he needed to do something different.

  He needed to make another choice.

  He took a deep breath and he stepped forward.

  Matthew’s people turned their weapons on him in an instant. Matthew watched him step closer, knife raised.

  Jack stopped, right before him.

  He looked at his people.

  Looked at Villain.

  Then he looked back at Matthew and he said the words he knew he had to say.

  The only words a leader could say.

  “None of my own dies,” Jack said. “Susan doesn’t die. If anyone should die… it should be me.”

  Matthew looked shocked for a moment. His eyes narrowed, like he suspected something.

  And then his eyes and his smile widened. “That’s not how it works—”

  “I won’t make this call,” he said. “But I won’t let my people fall, either. You let them go. You let them go and you let me watch you letting them go. But if I have to trade my life to do that, then that’s what I have to do. That’s what being a leader is about. Even if it kills me.”

  He looked over at Hazel and Candice. Saw the tears in their eyes; saw them shaking their heads.

  Then he looked at Emma and saw that emotionless stare in her glazed eyes.

  “You’re right,” Matthew said.

  Jack turned to him. “What?”

  He studied him closely. “You’re strong. Very, very strong to make a call like that. And you know what? Strength like that deserves rewarding.”

  Out of nowhere, he felt hands behind his back.

  He felt himself being kicked to his knees.

  And then he felt Matthew’s hand grab his face, tighten around his jaw.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “Get the tower ready to burn. It looks like we have a very special sacrifice.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Jack looked up at the huge wooden tower before him and he knew what was going to happen if he stepped inside it.

  The sun burned down on his head. He could hear birds singing in the woods as a gentle breeze brushed against the trees. He could smell burning. If he closed his eyes, he could convince himself he was camping with friends, getting a barbecue going. He could tell himself he was going to go paddling in the nearby water soon, or off for a stroll up a mountain or two.

  But he couldn’t kid himself.

  Not with this tower in front of him.

  He looked at it and the hairs on his arms rose. He knew what was going to happen in there. He was going to burn. He’d given himself up to sacrifice. He’d stepped up and told Matthew that if he wasn’t going to spare his people that he’d die in their place if he had to.

  And Matthew had accepted.

  He’d accepted this gesture.

  And now Jack had to carry it out.

  The ultimate sacrifice.

  The ultimate test of leadership.

  The ultimate display of strength.

  He felt a hand on his back. Looked around. Saw Matthew looking at him.

  “Go on,” he said. “We don’t have all day.”

  Jack looked back at his people as they watched from afar. He’d made Matthew promise he’d let them go. But could he trust him? What if they faced the same fate when he was dead? What then?

  It would all be for nothing.

  His sacrifice would all be in vain.

  But then he felt that hand against his back and he felt himself being pushed further towards that tower.

  He climbed the ladder towards the opening. Looked inside it. His heart raced with every step. It looked cosy inside. If it wasn’t where he was going to burn to death, it might actually look appealing.

  He looked at Matthew. Saw him smiling.

  “You let them go,” Jack said. “That was the deal.”

  Matthew took a deep breath. “Jack, I’m a man of his word. I don’t betray deals. As much as I’d love to make your people our own… I respect your strength. I respect you…”

  Just then, Matthew coughed.

  It was only momentary. A splutter. A brief glimmer of fear in his eyes.

  And then a speck of blood on his hand.

  He looked down at that blood, then back up at Jack. And there was a moment between them. A moment of understanding. A moment where Jack felt like he got it. Matthew’s aversion to weakness. His eagerness to maintain his sense of strength.

  He was a weak man masquerading as a strong man.

  And he was doing whatever he could to uphold that illusion.

  Jack looked back at Hazel. He looked right into her eyes. Saw the tears. The inevitability of another loss staring her in the face.

  “Whatever happens,” Jack said. “Just… just tell Hazel I love her. Please.”

  Matthew opened his mouth, like he was about to make another wisecrack.

  But in the end he closed it. Smiled. Like he pitied Jack a little. “I’ll make sure she gets the message.”

  Jack looked back at his people once more.

  But it was Villain who broke his heart.

  He was barking. Growling. Whining.

  Like he knew what was going to happen.

  Jack wiped his clouding eyes and swallowed a lump in his throat.

  Then he turned to the tower and he stepped inside.

  The sounds of the outside world dulled inside here. It was warm already, from the heat of the sun, and it was about to get a whole lot warmer.

  Jack watched Matthew close the gate. He watched him stand there, on the top of that ladder, and smile.

  “You’ll never know whether I keep my promise, anyway. You’ll be dead meat.”

  And then he lowered himself down the ladder.

  Jack kept still. He looked out at Matthew’s people, all watching, and then at Hazel and Emma and Candice and Bella and Villain and Mrs Fuzzles.

  He looked at Susan. The way she nodded at him. The way she knew, just like he did, what he had planned.

  And he thought about Matthew’s words.

  Maybe he could’ve honoured his side of the deal if he’d been sure his people were going to leave with safe passage.

  Maybe it was less dangerous than the plan he had in mind.

  But there could be no doubts about what he had to do now, no matter what his motives were.

  Matthew couldn’t promise safety for Jack’s people and he was rubbing that in Jack’s face.

  Matthew walked towards one of the torches. He lifted it from its stand, then faced his people. “Welcome to the main event!”

  A few claps in the crowd. A few cheers. The theatre of this spectacle really taking over.

  Jack rustled around, urgency building, tension building. He hoped she’d done it. He hoped she’d planted it. Just like they’d planned all along.

  Matthew continued walking side to side. “Now, the plan was to have more people in t
here, keeping Jack company. But I’m sure you’ll agree this represents something far, far greater. It represents a group kneeling before us. Sacrificing themselves, for us. A strong group. A strong leader. But not as strong as u—us!”

  He coughed again on that last word. Spluttered all over.

  And amidst the claps and the cheers, there were a few uneasy whispers.

  Especially when they saw the blood on Matthew’s sleeve.

  He looked up at them, smiled, wiping his mouth. “Don’t worry. Hay fever, nothing more. Now if we can proceed with the—”

  “He’s lying,” Jack said.

  Matthew looked at him, flare in hand.

  Everyone else looked at him.

  Silent.

  “He has cancer. Lung cancer, I’d guess. My dad died of it. That was something that he tried to deny, too. He died three months after his diagnosis.”

  More silence.

  Anger on Matthew’s face.

  A glimmer of weakness, too.

  “That’s—that’s nonsense,” Matthew said.

  But the more riled up he got, the more it seemed to trigger his coughing.

  And the more it stoked uncertainty in his people, too.

  Which was exactly what Jack wanted.

  Exactly the distraction he needed.

  He rustled around in the hay and he felt it, cold between his fingers.

  The Plan B.

  Matthew walked towards him, although his walk had taken on a stagger now. He seemed in a hurry to get this done. Something to distract his people from this moment of weakness.

  Jack stood, too. Lifted what he’d discovered. Walked over to the gate and looked out at Matthew, smiling.

  “He’s a liar,” Jack said. “He tells you he’s strong. He’s not strong. He tells you he purges the weak, but that’s not true. Because my people. They aren’t weak. They are strong. Far, far stronger than this man could ever hope to be—”

  “Shut your mouth,” Matthew said. He was inches away from the wood underneath the tower now, flare close to it. “You don’t know a thing about me. And I can promise you one thing. Your people will die for this. Are you sure that’s what you want? Your dying knowledge as your skin melts and your eyeballs burst is that your people go through the exact same thing just moments later? Hazel? The woman you love? Do you want her to go out that way, too?”

  Jack looked over at Hazel and saw the momentary confusion in her eyes.

  He saw the pain in her eyes.

  And then he took a deep breath, and he looked right down at Matthew.

  “Go on,” he said. “Do what you have to do. But just know one thing.”

  Matthew’s eyes narrowed. Torch in hand. “What?”

  Jack smiled. “You’re not as strong as you think you are.”

  There was a pause. A moment’s hesitation.

  And then Jack lifted the pistol Susan had stolen and placed in here, pointed it at Matthew and pulled the trigger.

  He heard the confusion. Heard the cries.

  He saw the blood spurt from Matthew’s body as he fell back to the ground.

  But the flare.

  The flare fell, too.

  Landed on the wood right beneath Jack.

  Jack heard the pandemonium. Right on cue, his people fought back. Candice swung her blade at the chest of her captor. Hazel booted them down. All of them, fighting, one by one.

  The heat inside this cage getting hotter and hotter.

  He crouched down and punched at the floor of this cage. He knew it wasn’t invincible. He knew he could break it. It might be a gamble with the flames underneath, but he had to use the weakness of the wood to his advantage.

  He kept on punching away at the wood as it grew hotter and hotter; as the smoke started to rise, as his skin began to burn.

  He kept on punching and telling himself he could do this, he could get out of here, he could save his people, he could lead, when the wood beneath him collapsed and he fell into the heat.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Jack fell through the floor of the wooden tower towards the heat of the flames.

  He didn’t see his life flash before his eyes. He didn’t have a chance to think about what had gone wrong, and what he’d do differently if he got a second chance. It wasn’t a Hollywood-esque, dragged-out drama, or anything like that.

  He just fell.

  And then he cracked against the ground.

  He lay there in pain for a few seconds. His back ached. His chest felt like it was burning.

  But…

  The flames.

  They hadn’t reached him yet.

  He looked around and saw them creeping towards him. Over them, he saw the smoke rising.

  And then beyond them, he saw his people fighting back against Matthew’s.

  And then he saw Matthew.

  Matthew was lying flat on the ground. He was dragging himself away from the scene of the crime, holding on to a spurting wound on his leg.

  Jack held the pistol and he knew he couldn’t let him get away.

  He turned around and ran around the back of the tower.

  Just before he got from underneath it, he heard a crack from above.

  He looked up.

  Wood tumbled down towards him.

  He lunged to his right.

  The wood cracked beside him, big enough pieces to knock him unconscious.

  He was lucky to miss them. He’d wake up burning if he passed out now.

  He kept on racing around the side of the fallen tower. He had to get to his people. They were strong, but they weren’t well armed compared to Matthew’s. He could hear gunfire. He knew time was running out.

  And he was going to fight to the end to make sure they survived.

  He ran around the side of the tower when he saw someone up ahead.

  They were walking towards him. Gun in hand. A big bloke. Looked a bit of a psychopath.

  He glared at Jack as he held that gun and stepped closer. “You’re not going anywhere, you weedy—”

  Out of nowhere, Emma appeared.

  She rammed a knife into the side of the man’s neck.

  And before he could swing around and shoot her, Jack lifted his pistol and shot that man to the ground.

  He fell to Emma’s side.

  Jack rushed over to her. “Emma.”

  She looked around at the surroundings, like there was no more time to waste, even if she was missing a hand and looked pasty pale, weak, and in pain. “Susan,” she said. “I saw her… One of them took her.”

  Jack looked up. Matthew’s people were everywhere. Some of them had fallen. Others were racing into the woods. Just like Susan said, the head of the snake had been severed, and now there was no order whatsoever.

  “Our people,” Jack said. “Where are they?”

  Emma pointed over to the right. “Candice, Bella, Hazel. They went to the right with the animals. Fought free. Got the rifles. A few went after them, but—”

  “Go with them,” Jack said.

  Emma frowned. “What?”

  He put his hands on her shoulders and looked right into her eyes.

  “We’ll get you better. We’ll get you through this, Emma. I promise. But right now, you need to get yourself to safety. There’s something I need to do.”

  Emma looked like she was going to question Jack; like she was going to suggest they had everything they needed now.

  But then she nodded, like she understood.

  And then she stumbled off into the woods.

  Jack turned around and looked at the camp before him.

  People on the ground.

  Flames burning the woods from the torches that had been knocked over.

  Chaos and pandemonium everywhere.

  He walked ahead. Followed the bloody trail where Matthew had dragged himself. It stopped suddenly, got smaller. So he’d got to his feet.

  He kept on going when two people stepped around a corner; two of Matthew’s.

  They looked at Jac
k with surprise for a moment, hesitating.

  Jack didn’t even think.

  He lifted his gun and shot them, one by one.

  He stepped forward, then, covering up his face so his identity was less clear. He worked his way past more flames, covered his mouth from the smoke.

  And eventually, praying his people were okay, he reached them.

  Matthew was standing in front of a tent.

  He was holding on to Susan.

  Knife to her throat.

  He was bleeding.

  Barely standing.

  No sign of a strong man anymore. Just weakness. Pure weakness.

  “This is what you did,” Matthew said. “This… this is what you did.”

  He went to slice that knife and Jack lifted his gun.

  “No,” Jack said. “This is what you did.”

  He aimed as well as he could.

  Prayed to God he’d got it right.

  Then he pulled the trigger.

  Time stood still for a second. He thought about the girl called Jean when he’d been caught in conflict with Logan. Thought about how he was aiming at her. Thought about how she’d fallen.

  He saw it happening again. Susan falling. Matthew still standing.

  But then time moved back at normal speed.

  Matthew fell back.

  Susan was still standing.

  He walked over to them, then. He put a hand on Susan’s shoulder, then stood over Matthew.

  He lay there on the ground clutching his neck. Blood spurted out of his throat. His eyes were wide and bloodshot. His face was turning purple.

  Jack crouched beside him and put a hand on his chest.

  “This is what it looks like to be weaker than someone else,” Jack said.

  He pointed the gun at Matthew’s head.

  “This is what a leader looks like.”

  He went to pull the trigger.

  Then he smiled and lifted the gun.

  Matthew stared at him with confusion as he choked on his own blood.

  Jack stood there, Susan by his side, as flames filled the forest and Matthew’s legacy went up in flames.

  He watched Matthew twitch. Watched him struggle. He watched him kick out, cry, and beg.

  He watched him choke to death, slowly, as he came to terms with all that was happening to him and his people.

  And then he watched him go still and take his final forced breath.