Fending Them Off

by Max Lockwood

  Fending Them Off

  A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival - Zero Power Series Book 4

  Max Lockwood

  Illustrated by

  Natasha Snow

  Edited by

  Donna Rich

  Copyright © 2017 by Max Lockwood

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Natasha Snow Designs

  Edited by Donna Rich

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.

  Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.

  Contents

  Mailing List

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  About Max Lockwood

  Also by Max Lockwood

  Max Lockwood

  Excerpt From Point Of Transmission

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Sign up for Max’s mailing list and find out about his latest releases, giveaways, and more. Click here!

  Follow him on Facebook

  Chapter One

  Clara woke up with a stiff neck.

  For a moment, she wasn’t sure where she was, or what was going on. The last thing she knew, she was home. There had been an EMP attack that shut off the electricity, including cars, and even a plane that came down in the middle of traffic in her town. There was no place for her to be but home, where she lived with her grandmother, Viola, her sister, Tessa, and Cooper, her best friend.

  Then she blinked her eyes opened, and remembered where she was because she could see it.

  She was in a car, had been for she wasn’t sure how long. She looked to the side and saw Felicia in the driver’s seat. Cooper had been the one driving when they left home.

  Then everything else came back to her, and she felt tears sting her eyes. Oh, no.

  Her first thoughts were for her grandmother.

  Viola was gone, and the pain from that hit her yet again. Which meant she and her sister were on their own now. She was killed when attackers from out of town came to their neighborhood. All three of them were outside, but Viola was the only one to get shot, and she and her sister had to watch their grandmother fall.

  Of course, it wasn’t something she could just let die like that. Viola had deserved so much than what those… monsters, did to her, because Clara could no longer call them people. To attack others just so you could maintain a comfortable life… even before the EMP attack, it happened, but then the scale just grew. A whole town was either responsible for what happened, or a large portion of the people left over were.

  The possibility was always there that her town could get that desperate. But because of what those bastards did, they might never get to that point, anyway, because there wouldn’t be anyone left.

  After what happened to her grandmother, she, her sister, and some other people from the town had rounded up some cars to go and ambush the town that had sent people to theirs. Only the place was a ghost town when they arrived, and they came back only to find the invaders were already back at their town.

  Then they were driving away from something atrocious—people being lined up on the streets, men all over with guns, several cars parked all over the place, and the sound of gunshots—going to her home to collect supplies, picking up a few people on the way. She remembered crying, because they had to leave Viola behind, even though all there was left of her were her memories and her body, buried in the backyard.

  Now, because they didn’t have much of a choice, they were on the run. Clara hated it, but there was nothing they could do, and dying senselessly when she still had family to protect was stupid.

  That doesn’t make this easier, though.

  They didn’t even have a home now. Clara had promised Tessa, who didn’t want to leave their grandmother’s body behind, that they would go back when it was safe to do so.

  Clara didn’t think that would be any time soon, or ever, for that matter.

  What the hell were they even doing? Running away and leaving people in trouble… probably leaving them to die. Hell, at this point, it was more likely they were already dead and the town had been looted of whatever was left.

  Her last images of home, of their attackers, swirled in her mind and she winced. They still had the police, and plenty of people had guns. After the attacks started, they’d come up with the idea of having patrols on every street and plenty of people with guns to keep back their attackers. It clearly hadn’t been very effective.

  Maybe they should have gone to the police and talked them into helping. Their numbers weren’t great, but they were always joined by volunteers at the station. They could have come up with a plan, like for all the other attacks they’d dealt with, and ,sure, there would have been casualties, but many lives would have been saved, right? And plenty of their attackers would have been taken down, as well.

  Only, at the time, Clara hadn't even considered that aspect. She’d just seen what was happening and felt the crush of despair, knowing it wasn’t a fight her group could have handled. If she hadn't been thinking just about the people they had around… if she’d thought of going to the police sooner, could they have hoped for a better outcome?

  Well, it’s not like it can be helped now, she thought to herself. Hopefully, there was someone to send word to the cops and most of them would be fine…

  She wanted to curse. There was no way they would get to see now. And she knew, if she’d tried to talk the others into going with that plan, pretty much all of them would have been against it because of the huge risk involved. Cooper, particularly, would have been against it, because he didn’t like going into dangerous situations in the first place. He’d been with her as they went out to carry out revenge, but she knew it was more to keep an eye on her than because he actually wanted to.

  Would they ever go back? Even if they did, what could there possibly be left to go back to? She looked behind the seats and noticed the others sleeping in the cramped space. Cooper and Tessa were squeezed together with her sister’s head on her friend’s shoulder. Felicia’s sister, Barbara, and Alice were seated on the other side, each holding one of Alice’s kids in their lap. Everyone was still asleep, understandable, since the sun was just rising.

  She turned to Felicia and noticed she looked a little sleepy. Considering they’d been out for over a day before they went back home, only to encounter trouble and go on the run again, she wondered when Felicia had gotten any sleep. Cooper had offered to drive and they must have switched when Clara was asleep, but, by how Felicia looked, it must have been a while back.

  “Hey,” she called softly and Felicia shot a sideways glance at her. “I can take over if you’d like,” she offered. “You look like you co
uld use some more sleep.”

  She didn’t mention that she’d, technically, never driven a car before. She had taken the tests, but she didn’t have a license. Not that there was anyone that would stop them anyway just because of that.

  “Nah, I’m fine,” the other woman muttered, not convincingly at all. “I’ve been at the wheel for a while, but not that long. You just woke up, Clara.”

  She shrugged against the seat, even though Felicia wasn’t looking to see it. “Honestly, I don’t think I want any more sleep for some time,” she said, wrinkling her nose.

  She hadn't had a nightmare, exactly, but it left her too disoriented. They were on the road, and, from that point on, anything could happen. She would have to think about staying alert through an attack. Of course, she needed sleep, but there was no need to overdo it when just a few hours of sleep would do. She’d had her time to sleep, even though she had been uncomfortable, so she was going to be up for a while.

  Felicia shot her a sympathetic look. “Bad dream?”

  Clara gave a weak snort. She knew Felicia would guess that. “It’s not that, really, just… I can't really afford to sleep now, can I? We’re on the road. This isn’t home, and we can run into trouble anywhere, any time. We don’t even have a plan…”

  Felicia’s face went grim, and Clara knew the other woman agreed with her. She had been the one at the wheel that time, too, and, while Clara was frozen and not sure what to do, she was already driving them out of danger. It was her initial plan to run, Clara would have tried to fight anyway no matter how impossible it seemed at the time, but Felicia had been the one to get her back to her senses.

  She could have fought, yes—and dragged Cooper and Tessa, not to mention several friends, along with her to their deaths, since they were all, for some reason, following her as the leader to their excursions. She didn’t like that, of course, but she appreciated when people listened to and gave credit to her opinion.

  Was she cut out to be a leader, at all? She didn’t think so…

  She sighed and shook her head to dispel those thoughts. They had no place in this. What was done, was done, and now all they had to worry about was surviving another day. It would be tricky, they didn’t even have a specific place to go, but there just had to be something. Clara didn’t leave her home only to go off and die out in a different location so soon. She was thinking a few more years, and they would have to be hard earned years, but after everything she’d faced recently and not caved, she felt she might have a chance at it.

  “Seriously, though,” she said as she saw Felicia nearly nod off at the wheel again. “Just let me drive, all right? Stop so we can switch. You’re our nurse. Something could happen at any moment and we’d need your services.”

  The other woman scoffed. “You’ve been working with me at the hospital long enough to manage some things on your own.”

  Clara grimaced. “I’m not a professional, though, you know that.”

  “Doesn’t matter. You can learn pretty much anything and you’re good at following instructions down to the letter,” Felicia praised. “I’m sure you’d be able to pick it up pretty quickly. And my sister has some nursing experience, too, so she can help you guys out. I don’t want to sleep yet.”

  Clara frowned at her, watched for about a minute, and noted several times where their lives could have ended in a fiery death if Felicia didn’t stop dozing off and jerking herself awake. Each time, it looked like she was going to fall asleep for real. Clara didn’t think letting her continue to drive was a good idea, either, because her hands tightened on the wheel, and she lost some of its stability.

  “When did you guys even switch out, anyway? I had Cooper sit up front with me and drive so you could get some sleep in the back, you know,” Clara chided.

  “It was a few hours ago. And Clara? I’m fine.”

  “Except the part where you’re not,” she argued back. “Did you get any sleep at all?”

  There was no answer, and Clara narrowed her eyes at her friend.

  “Felicia,” she said again, and it almost sound whiny.

  But Felicia just shook her head, turning long enough to give Clara a tired smile, then she was facing forward again. She yawned a little, taking a hand off the wheel to cover her mouth and blinked her eyes a few times. Clara watched her, a little unsure, but didn’t want to argue the matter right then, so she let it go. Felicia might be stubborn as hell, but Clara had her fair share of stubborn moments as well.

  “So, where are we headed?” she asked instead, looking curiously out her window.

  She didn’t recognize where they were, but then, she’d rarely had need to go this far from home. Even her grandmother, before she came to live with them, hadn't lived all that far off, in a nearby town.

  But out there, as far as Clara could see, there was a long stretch of land on both sides. She knew they were avoiding any routes that connected to the town they were trying to escape from, but that was it. She didn’t think they even had a map, just a few people that had vaguely traveled in the same direction they were taking, and that was about it.

  They must have been out long enough to pass a few towns. They were going farther than Mawdsley, where their attackers lived, since they would probably return once they were done with her town.

  Clara scowled just thinking about it. They could have tried hiding out in their town and waiting for the invaders, tried to stage an ambush, but their numbers… and she hadn't really had the opportunity to even talk to the others about it, since they were all in different cars.

  She dismissed the thought almost as soon as it surfaced. It was one thing to catch them by surprise on their home turf. Clara was pretty sure there would be a different outcome if they tried to defend a town they weren’t at all familiar with from all the locals. They’d still get to kill people, probably, but they would be caught off guard, as well.

  It wasn’t an option Clara would ever consider. Their initial plan had promise, which was why she’d gotten volunteers for the trip, even though a few of them were her friends. Anything else just wouldn’t work.

  Again, we’re getting off topic, she chided herself.

  Felicia sighed, and it sounded long suffering. “Honestly, I don’t really know. We’ve been driving for hours, and, believe it or not, I did catch some sleep. But I don’t really know where we are anymore. I’m just following the person ahead.”

  Clara frowned. She’d noticed the car ahead of them, of course, but she remembered that their car had been in the lead when they left. Had they really just been driving aimlessly for this long? When did the other car manage to get ahead of them?

  Admittedly, they didn’t have a plan besides just getting away, and they were doing that. They didn’t have anywhere concrete to go, but still. Wasn’t this dangerous, considering their meager supplies? They had managed to carry as much food and water as they could without going over capacity, which meant they didn’t pack a lot of other things, like clothes and stuff.

  “It doesn’t seem very sensible to just follow the road,” she muttered, glancing at her family through the rearview mirror. “How much fuel did we even carry? Considering we already took a couple trips to leave and get back… it’s stupid, isn’t it?”

  “Well, yes,” Felicia said bluntly, “but can you come up with any better alternatives? None of us have anywhere to go, though,” Felicia reminded her.

  Clara sent her a look. Because she did know, she was just trying to be cautious. She’d come too close to dying too many times. If it were at all possible, she wanted it to stop.

  They needed to find someplace safe for all of them to relax, but that was easier said than done. Whoever they met would probably be on the alert, as were they, and it would be dangerous if the others happened to be armed. The only thing they all agreed on was to avoid large towns, whether or not they looked to be occupied, and she thought it was a pretty safe bet, but it didn’t leave them much choice for a long stretch.

  They made a quick st
op to switch seats when Felicia started really nodding off at the wheel, enough to make the car lurch a few times before she was awake again. Clara ignored Felicia’s protests when she made her offer a second time, making it more a demand. They had to honk the horn and signal the other cars, so the car in front and the ones behind them could stop with them, and the passengers in the back awoke. Clara felt a little guilty for doing it, but the kids hurried outside to relieve themselves. Some people in the other cars wanted to do the same thing, so they made a five-minute pit stop before they all got back in the vehicles.

  Clara followed the lead vehicle, fumbling only a little as she took control of the car, since she’d watched Felicia carefully. Cooper, who’d moved to the shotgun seat, shot her a look, but didn’t protest as she drove. After a little while, it got a bit smoother.

  She wondered where they were. Unless she’d slept for longer than she thought, they had been out on the road and driving for a day and a half, with stops at night to rest. She wondered how far their few cans of gas would get them, with the number of cars and weight they were carrying. It was a big concern and she was worried about them just driving aimlessly. If they didn’t find anywhere to stop before their fuel ran out, they were screwed.

  More than anything, she prayed that wherever they stopped would be better than from where they’d come. Away from all the fear and the worry, where they wouldn’t have to live day to day on edge and facing attacks where they couldn’t defend themselves. She wondered if there truly was a place like that even left anywhere in the world. She doubted it.