The Shattered Earth: Book 3 of the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series: (Surviving the Fall Series - Book 3)

by Mike Kraus

“I don’t know. Maybe they won’t, but we should assume the worst given the fact that they stole those army Humvees and tried to kill us.”

  Jane nodded and slowly started to stand up. “We should keep moving then, shouldn’t we?”

  Rick helped Jane to her feet and watched her closely, waiting to see if she was going to collapse again. “You sure you’re good to move already?”

  “I think so. Just feeling a little bit dizzy.”

  Rick got out one of the lanterns he had taken from the lumberyard and turned it on. The glow was swallowed by the cavernous darkness in the casino, illuminating only a few feet around Rick and Jane. After picking up his gear, Rick and Jane began moving deeper into the building, leaving the noise and commotion of the group outside behind. Before long the shouts and clangs of their efforts to get inside had vanished, leaving only the eerie silence of the casino in their place.

  “What happened to this place?” Jane spoke quietly, not wanting to raise her voice above a whisper due to the overwhelming quiet of the building.

  Rick shook his head. “Not sure. I heard a group at the lumberyard and that bunch outside talking about earthquakes, though. If there really was a quake that hit the city I guess that would explain all the damage.”

  “Is this place going to hold together?” Jane nervously looked up at the ceiling, casting a wary eye at the cracks and holes that pervaded it. In the main section of the casino sunlight was visible through the breaks in the ceiling. As they moved into the building and the ceiling dropped to accommodate the floors of the areas above them, they could see that the paint and plaster were cracked there as well. The darkness of the place along with the overturned furniture and gambling equipment and the cracks in the ceilings created an atmosphere where it felt like the entire building could cave in at any second.

  “I hope so. Let’s just try to get through here quickly, though. I’ve no idea where the other entrances are here.”

  Rick and Jane continued on in silence as they walked through the wide halls and expansive rooms of the casino. Rick had stepped foot into two casinos before in his life for business reasons and had been immediately turned off by their maze-like quality. Having large clusters of games and tables jammed next to each other with people standing shoulder to shoulder wasn’t something he was a fan of and he never felt the desire to go back.

  Even with the darkness and destruction in the building, though, Rick could see that it had been like nothing he had experienced before. The older maze-like layout had been replaced by a wider, more open “playground” style with wide aisles, small clusters of machines and tables and a brighter, cheerier atmosphere. Sunlight streamed in through a collection of windows in one of the next rooms. A few scattered rays of color showed up amongst the white light from the few bits of stained glass that had survived the earthquake.

  “This place doesn’t look like any casino I’ve seen before.” Rick whispered as he looked around the room, both for a possible exit and for any sign of the men from outside. “It looks more like a resort.”

  “Think they have any food around here?”

  Rick couldn’t help but smile at the question and nodded. “Yeah, probably.” The thought of having something other than energy bars and water to eat made his stomach growl. “I’m not sure we should be stopping for a meal, but keep your eyes open for a kitchen and we’ll grab something to take with us and eat once we get out of here.”

  Jane nodded and gave Rick a weak smile. “Sounds good.”

  Rick and Jane continued to pick their way through the large room, heading for the back of the building, when the low rumble of a diesel engine came from outside the nearest wall. Despite the thick walls and layers of carpeting and sound deflection materials, the utter silence of the interior of the building made it possible to just barely pick up on the noise. Jane was the first to hear it and stopped short, grabbing Rick’s arm and pulling him to a stop as well.

  “Did you hear that?” Jane whispered to Rick and he cocked his head to the side. The engine thrummed as it surged forward and there was a deafening sound as the vehicle hit the side of the building at a high rate of speed.

  After failing to get in through the front entrance the two Humvees had split up, with one traveling down each side of the casino, looking for a way in. After locating a service door that was tightly sealed, the group in one of the vehicles decided that trying to ram the side of the building to break down the door was the smartest thing they could do.

  In a battle between the armored Humvee and the thick steel door frame and reinforced concrete exterior of the building, the building came out victorious. The Humvee sputtered and choked from the impact and all of the men inside groaned, rubbing their necks to try and relieve the pain from the severe whiplash. The front end of the Humvee was severely dented and one of the tires had nearly popped from the impact, but otherwise it was still drivable.

  Inside, Rick listened as the sound of the Humvee’s engine receded and he breathed a sigh of relief. “Bunch of idiots. What are they trying to do?”

  “Maybe they found a way in?”

  “It sounds more like they were trying to ram the building to bring it down on us.” Rick snorted and shook his head. “Whatever they’re doing, I’d rather not be nearby if they happen to succeed.”

  Chapter 4

  The Waters’ Homestead

  Ellisville, VA

  “Mom! Mom, wake up!”

  Dianne groaned and opened her eyes, blinking against the dawning sun’s light. She wondered why the curtains in the master bedroom were open until she saw the beaming face of her young daughter pop into view. Josie wore a huge smile on her face as she leaned in close, rubbing her nose against Dianne’s nose in an affectionate greeting.

  “It snowed, mom! It snowed!” Josie bounced across the bed on her hands and knees and landed on her feet on the floor. Dianne closed her eyes for a few seconds then opened them and sat up, finally processing what Josie had just said.

  “It snowed?”

  Outside, the sloping field, outbuildings and trees were covered with a thin blanket of snow. It was difficult to see much beyond the small lake at the base of the slope due to the falling snow that was rapidly growing thicker and more intense. Patterns were beginning to form in the snow beneath the trees as it fell from branches and leaves. Beneath the eaves of the outbuildings there was the faintest trace of grass and bare earth, though that was rapidly vanishing as gusts of wind blew the snow every which way.

  The peaceful serenity of the unexpected snowfall was punctuated by the shouts of Dianne’s three children. She slowly got out of bed and rubbed her arms and hands, realizing just how cold it was in the house.

  “Mark?” Dianne called out as she went to stand next to Josie at the window.

  “Yeah, mom?” Mark bellowed back from downstairs. Heavy footsteps came pounding up the stairs and he stepped into the bedroom a few seconds later.

  Dianne glanced at her son and raised an eyebrow. “Shorts and a t-shirt?”

  Mark shrugged. “It’s warm downstairs. Jacob and I got a bunch of wood inside and started a fire a little while ago.”

  Dianne beamed and embraced her son. “Thanks, kiddo! I was going to ask you if you could start getting the wood together for a fire.” Dianne looked back out the window and shook her head. “I didn’t expect snow this early in the year.”

  “It’s happened this early before, hasn’t it?” Mark stepped up next to his mother and crossed his arms.

  “Yeah, but not for several years. I hope this doesn’t mean a particularly bad winter. So much for checking the weather forecast, huh?”

  “Hey mom?” Jacob came running up the stairs next. “Breakfast is… sort of ready.”

  Mark turned around and glared at his younger brother. “Jacob!”

  Dianne turned and raised both eyebrows. “What’s this about breakfast?”

  “Uh… you can tell her.” Jacob raced back out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Mark to sheepishl
y turn to his mother.

  “Mark?”

  “We sort of had an accident while making the eggs. You might want to come and see.”

  Dianne rolled her eyes and gave Mark a playful shove towards the door. “Get whatever mess you made cleaned up and I’ll be down there in a few minutes.” Josie followed Mark out of the bedroom and Dianne looked back out the window, taking a moment to try and soak up some more of the beauty before she had to turn her attention to more mundane matters.

  Chapter 5

  Four Days Before the Event

  Dianne and Rick Waters sit on the couch in their living room. Outside, through the open glass sliding door, they can see and hear their three children playing near the water down by the bottom of their property. It is shortly after dinner, the sun is setting and Dianne and Rick are enjoying a few moments of peace before their children are back inside.

  On the television across the room plays a nightly news broadcast that Dianne watches intently. Next to her, Rick browses on his tablet, swiping through news stories and opinion articles from the day while simultaneously replying to mundane emails that have piled up from work. Dianne elbows Rick gently in the side and points at the television.

  “What’s up?” Rick looks at her, then at the TV.

  “What’s with all this bad stuff going on the last couple days?”

  “Hm?” Rick squints as he reads off the ticker at the bottom of the screen. “What stuff?”

  “There were those oil platforms catching fire, then half a dozen tech companies just went out of business.”

  Rick shrugs. “No clue. Maybe sabotage on the oil platforms? This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

  “What about all the companies going out of business.”

  “Well, we’re near… wait, no.” Rick furrows his brow. “Huh. That is odd. I haven’t heard anything about it at work and they’re generally tuned in to the latest that’s going on in the tech world.”

  “You think this could mean trouble for the company?”

  Rick shakes his head. “Nah. If there was trouble coming I’m sure I would’ve heard of it.”

  “You have been pretty busy lately with that big project and presentation.”

  “Ugh.” Rick rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck. “Don’t remind me. I’m trying to forget about that until tomorrow morning.”

  Dianne smiles and puts an arm around Rick, pulling him in for a kiss. “I’m sure that can be arranged.”

  Rick lets his tablet slide off his lap onto the couch as he leans in to return the kiss. He is about to say something in return when the sound of three children all shouting “ew” at the same time makes him look up. Mark, Jacob and Josie are standing on the back porch, panting with exertion after charging up the hill back to the house. Josie and Jacob are both soaking wet and covered in dirt and leaves while Mark is standing behind them with a grimace.

  “Sorry.” Mark speaks sheepishly. “They sort of… fell in.”

  Dianne laughs at the sight and stands up. “Don’t you dare come inside like that. I’ll get some old towels for you to dry off with then it’s time to get cleaned up before bed.”

  Rick smiles as he watches Dianne help the children get out of their clothes and upstairs for their showers. After the living room empties out and there are sounds of loud talking, playing and running water from upstairs, he picks up his tablet and glances back at the television. He considers—for a moment—watching to find out more about what’s going on before he realizes that he needs to do yet another read-through of his presentation before work in the morning.

  Rick leans back on the couch with his tablet and sighs, diving back into his little corner of the world, remaining oblivious to the storm that is approaching.

  Chapter 6

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  “I never thought stale bread and water would taste so good.”

  “Anything’s better than prepackaged crap at this point.”

  Jane chuckled and nodded in agreement before taking another bite from her loaf of bread. A few minutes after the sound of the Humvee engines disappeared, the pair had found their way into a nearby kitchen. The smell of rotting food had nearly driven them away, but Rick had insisted they look through the storage shelves to see if anything was still good.

  Most of the food was meant to be heated up on a grill or in a pan instead of being cooked from scratch and had been kept in the freezer and fridge. When the power went out, the food spoiled quickly and all that was left were a few canned staples, bread and drinks. Rick packed a couple bottles of high-proof alcohol away in one of his bags along with more canned goods, but he and Jane took a few moments to sit down, eat and rest their feet.

  “Ready to go?” Rick stood up and brushed his hands on his pants. Jane nodded as she took another gulp from a bottle of water.

  “All set.” She stood up and followed Rick out of the kitchen.

  After exiting the main floor of the casino, Rick and Jane entered the lobby for the hotel proper. A side entrance to the hotel was caved in, though Rick could see a few shafts of light coming in through the debris. He climbed on the pile of rubble and peered through the crack, squinting in the bright sunlight as he tried to gauge how far back through the building they were.

  He was about to say something to Jane when he heard the low rumble of a diesel engine rapidly approaching. Outside, Rick could just make out the next building down the street. In the gap between the buildings was a clear patch of gravel and pavement and as he watched, he suddenly saw the blur of one of the Humvees tearing by.

  “Was that one of them?” Jane whispered fearfully behind Rick and he held up a hand, motioning for her to remain quiet. While he couldn’t see where the Humvee went from his vantage point, he heard it stop shortly down from the caved-in hotel entrance. The sound of car doors opening and closing followed, along with a group of voices talking.

  “Spread out and check the doors. We’re getting in there one way or another.”

  “Why don’t we just shoot the doors in with the turrets?”

  “Because we’ve barely got any ammo left. Besides, that only works in the movies, you idiot.”

  “I have a question. Why are we chasing after these guys, anyway?”

  “Because if they happen to run across the Army then they’ll tell them where they saw us. Then we’ll have to go somewhere else in the city. If you want to go do that and try to deal with the Sureños, then by all means be my guest.”

  The rest of the conversation grew muffled as the group of men moved down the length of the building and out of earshot. Rick stepped down from the pile of debris and rubbed his chin. “They’re still trying to find a way in. Doesn’t look like they’re going to give up anytime soon.”

  “Why not?”

  “They think we’re going to tell the Army about them and ruin their looting.” Rick sighed and closed his eyes. “All right. We need to move with a purpose at this point. No more stopping or walking. We have to run. Can you manage that?”

  Jane nodded. “It’s not hot in here at all. I’ll be fine.”

  “Good. We’ll head for the far back of the building and exit through whatever we find. If we hurry then we can beat them there and get out before they realize we’re gone.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Rick nodded and held the lantern up, searching the hotel lobby for which way to go next. A wide hallway proceeded toward the back of the building from the lobby, passing by elevators and large staircases leading upward into the hotel. While the hall didn’t extend for very far, Rick figured that there would be maintenance and staff-only rooms in the back that they could enter to get to the back of the building and continue onward.

  After proceeding down the hall, Rick found what he was looking for. A wide door with an opaque window and a “Staff Only” sign on it sat in a small recess in the wall at the end of the hall on the left side. Rick turned the handle and was surprised to find the door unlocked. He pushed it open, holding the lantern in front o
f him with his left hand while keeping his right hand resting on the pistol on his hip.

  What Rick had thought would be a small room turned out to be one of the many entrances to the hotel and casino’s maintenance, housekeeping and other facilities. Set into the perimeter of the building around the back half, multiple entrances allowed cleaning and other staff to quickly move about behind the scenes. A portion of the floor off to the side turned into a metal catwalk and Rick could make out the shape of industrial-grade washing machines a floor below, in the basement. Rows of metal racks filled with toilet paper, gallons of cleaners, spare mop heads, buckets and a myriad of other supplies were bolted to the floor and walls of the room for as far as he could see.

  “Wow.” Jane whispered behind Rick as she looked around. “This is amazing.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty cool seeing how it looks behind the scenes. I bet it would have been even more amazing while this place was running.” Rick stepped forward slowly, forgetting for a moment their commitment to moving quickly through the rest of the building. “It looks like a veritable maze up ahead. Let’s stick close together. Let me know if you spot a door leading out or anything else worth checking out.”

  Jane nodded and took a step closer to Rick as he started heading down through the large utility room. The room expanded and contracted as they went along, taking on the shape of the rooms outside of it. They passed by a new door leading back into the building often enough that they stopped opening them and looking out to see where they were. Some of the doors led to kitchens, others led to offices and some opened into hallways in the hotel.

  Each footstep the pair took echoed into the black abyss below them, though Rick’s lantern wasn’t powerful enough to get a clear view of much that was in the basement. It took the pair another twenty minutes of creeping through the utility area before they entered the true maintenance area of the building. Massive amounts of ductwork, cables and pipes entered through the room and each was labeled with a code that corresponded to its purpose, origination point and exit point from the room. The air smelled intensely of copper, though it was a welcome relief from the chemical scents that pervaded the utility areas.