Land of Fire: An EMP Survival Thriller (Blackout & Burn Book 3)

by Rebecca Fernfield

  A muffled scream breaks into his consciousness and he’s alert again. Uri was hurt and Bin Sayeed had the women.

  “Are you hit?” he asks as he walks back through the doorway, stepping over the dying man.

  “Da,” Uri replies. “Shoulder.”

  “Can you get up?”

  “Da.”

  “Let’s go then.”

  “Niet. I will hold you back. I will wait here. I shoot if they come past.”

  Without time to lose, Bill accepts Uri’s decision. “Jess, let’s go,” he says as the injured man’s writhing stops.

  “One down two to go,” Jessie says as she steps over the body. “Did you see the dog go for him?”

  “Yes,” Bill replies as it follows his steps, walking at his side down the long corridor.

  “Do you think he’s trained?”

  “Perhaps,” Bill replies noting the anxiety in her voice. “Don’t you like dogs?”

  “Yes, but I’ve never seen one do that.”

  “He was protecting me.”

  “Just remind me not to have an argument with you,” she whispers as they reach the door at the end of the corridor.

  Bill listens. Behind the door he can hear movement. “This time no surprises,” Bill says as he reaches for the door’s handle, the dog by his side.

  “No surprises,” Jessie repeats as she shines the torch onto his hand and the red-stained fur of the dog’s white muzzle.

  Chapter 31

  Throwing the door open it slams against the wall and Jessie shines the torch into the room. It appears empty until she sees the women slumped in the corner. Where the hell is he? Bill holds her back as he too scans the room. His torch lights on an open window.

  “He’s gone!” he says stepping forward.

  Alert to any movement, Jessie makes her way to the women. She shines her torch on their slumped bodies and dismay overwhelms her. Both have been doused in petrol, both are covered in blood. “They’re dead.”

  “I thought he wanted to burn them alive?”

  “We must have interrupted him. He’s stabbed them both,” she says as she trains the torchlight on their chests. The girl’s nightshirt is tattered where a knife has been plunged into her chest and blood has soaked across the fabric.

  “He made sure there was no chance of them living.” Bill squats down. “He’s stabbed them and slit their throats.” He takes the girl’s arm. It lies slender and pale in his large, browned hand. Two fingers placed against her wrist, he’s silent as Jessie waits. He shakes his head then takes Jasmin’s hand, feels for her pulse, then lays the arm gently across her lap.

  “Both gone?”

  “Yes.” He sits back on his haunches.

  “Bastard!” Jessie spits.

  “How could he have done it so quickly—if he was interrupted?”

  “There were two of them.”

  “Bill. We have to put an end to this monster—right now.”

  He stands and takes a step away from the women. “When I catch him, I’ll kill him,” he seethes.

  “Unless I get to him first.”

  Bin Sayeed hits the ground with a thud then sprints down the side of the building, with Jamal close at his heels. Jasmin’s blood is still wet on his hands. Stupid bitch! She got what she deserved. His only regret is that he didn’t set light to her first, and he would have done if Jamal hadn’t lost the lighter. Idiot! As he reaches the corner, a body blocks his way; a huge man dressed in leather with a dark helmet hiding his face. Bin Sayeed jolts to a stop and Jamal knocks up against him with a grunt. He turns to look back down the pathway. Two figures, a broad-shouldered man and what looks like a woman are running towards him.

  “Stop him, Harry,” the broad-shouldered man shouts and the biker takes a firm, escape-blocking stance across the path. In his hands is a heavy chain. As he lifts it, Jamal shouts in pain and stumbles. A dog barks then growls. Twisting to look at Jamal, a silver rod protrudes from his neck and he clings to the wall, the bricks biting against his fingers as he slides to the path. The dog barks and the girl raises her arms level with her shoulders in a classic firing pose. Through the brightening light of morning he can make out the crossbow she holds. Bin Sayeed looks from the bolt stuck through Jamal’s neck to the snarling dog and then to the chain swinging through the air. He has only one option—jump over the balustrade to the path below.

  He turns to grab the stonework railing. The chain whips through the air and its tip catches his back. He shouts in pain as the metal beats his flesh. The dog snarls. Gripping the top of the balustrade, he vaults over just as the dog pounces and the woman fires. Metal clanks against stone as his feet arc over the railing and the dog yelps, its snout caught by his foot. Missed me! As he rotates, he catches a glimpse of the ground below and in that moment determines to cling onto the stonework; the drop is long, far longer than he expected, made deeper by a flight of stone steps that leads to a basement. Iron railings, black and spiked, run along its edge. If he simply drops he will certainly break his legs on the steps. Pain sears his shoulders as his fingers grasp the stonework and his leg catches on the stone lintel of a window below. As the dog’s claws scratch against the stonework Bin Sayeed’s grasp slips.

  Jessie reaches the balustrade as Bin Sayeed’s scream of agony fills the air. She pulls back from the grotesque scene, takes a breath, then looks back down. Speared through the torso by long black railings, their spikes pointing out through his shoulders, Bin Sayeed floats above the path in an impossible vertical pose and stares blindly at the river.

  “Now, that’s karma!” Harry says as he steps back from the balustrade.

  “It certainly is,” Bill grimaces then lets out a low chuckle. “Mission complete. I think our job’s done here, Jessie.” He pats her on the back as a pair of large white paws land next to him on the balustrade. “Time to get back to Bramwell. Sam may need a little bit of help.”

  “Sam may need a lot of help,” Jessie replies.

  “True, but he’s a capable man, Jessie.”

  “Oh, I know that. I just meant the situation was getting pretty desperate back there and it’s not going to get any better until the grid’s back up and running.”

  “True.”

  “What about the girl?”

  Bill quiets for a moment, his face draining. “I’ll tell her father.” The dog pushes its head against Bill’s arm and he strokes at his head as he looks out over the river.

  Harry winds the chain around his arm and takes a final look at the body of Bin Sayeed. “That is just gross!” He grimaces and pulls back.

  The dog nuzzles at Bill’s hand as he steps back from the balustrade. He strokes its head in response.

  “Looks like you’ve got a new best friend,”

  Bill stares down at the dog. “He’s a bloody hero. He saved my life.”

  “And killed a couple of terrorists.”

  Harry looks at the dog with a quizzical frown.

  “Yep. He tore their throats out.”

  “Hell!” Harry stares at the dog and takes a small step backwards. “What’re you going to call him then?”

  “You can’t keep him!” Jessie buts in.

  “Nelson.”

  “Bill-”

  “Yes, Nelson. After-”

  “Mandela?”

  “No. Horatio. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. He called on every Englishman to do his duty and fight to stop the invasion of Britain—we all need to remember that.”

  As the sun begins to rise, casting a thin yellow light across the river and the pavement below, a crow swoops to the railings. As Jessie takes a final look at Bin Sayeed the crow hops closer to the skewered body. It caws, then, with a determined flap, lands among his black and curling hair, leans over and begins to peck at his eyes.

  The story continues in Book 4, Days of Hunger.

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  How would you survive in a starving world?

  The terrorist threat may have been subdued but as the blackout continue
s tensions rise to breaking point.

  Food production and deliveries are non-existent.

  There is no fresh water.

  With a population of more than ten thousand, the town is in crisis.

  Without an effective response from authority, Bill, Jessie, Sam and the group are about to discover that their struggle for survival has only just begun.

  Not all heroes are human.

  Nelson, Bill's new, four-legged best friend, has proved himself a hero, but with the group pushed to its limits will he be welcome at Bramwell?

  Find out in Days of Hunger, Book 4 of Blackout & Burn

  Days of Hunger is an action-packed, apocalyptic EMP survival thriller about courage, love and loyalty pushed to the limits in extraordinary and life-threatening circumstances.

  Author Notes

  July 30th 2018

  Hello reader! I guess you’ve read to the end of my book. I hope that you’ve enjoyed it and thank you for giving up your time to come along for the ride.

  In Blackout & Burn I wanted to explore how we survive against the odds, when natural forces, way beyond our ability to resist or change, take us by the throat and squeeze, and how we fight back when pernicious ideologies of hate rear their ugly heads and attempt to rob us of freedom.

  I’ve always loved stories that pit man against the elements or overwhelming forces and wanted to write something exciting that would see ordinary, and perhaps quirky, characters in extraordinary situations. How we react to extreme situations fascinates me and it’s not always the obvious candidates that become the heroes of the hour. We’re complex beings. We have emotions, desires and needs. The quietest of men or women can become ruthless when threatened and, when the world turns upside down, we may survive by drawing on strengths we never knew we had. Those who have seemed stalwarts of morality and right can break and turn bad. The survivors aren’t always the good and the strong. What would you do to save yourself?

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