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

by Mike Kraus

  “Nope. Not at all.”

  Chapter 10

  The Waters’ Homestead

  Ellisville, VA

  After cleaning out the burned egg and scorched toast from behind the stove where they had inexplicably fallen—both boys had no idea how it could have happened, or so they professed—Dianne turned her attention back to the snow.

  “All righty, kids. Listen up.” Mark, Jacob and Josie were all seated on the living room couch while Dianne paced back and forth in front of the back door. “Since we obviously can’t get weather reports anymore and I’m about as good of a meteorologist as I am a circus ringmaster, we need to treat this storm as seriously as possible.

  “The heating elements in the solar panels will keep them clear of the worst ice and snow, but we’ll need to keep an eye on them and we need to get the rest of them installed as soon as this snow clears. Thankfully we got the bulk of the veggies in, but I want Jacob to help me go through the gardens and clear out any we missed. We’ll dump them straight into the freezer and should be able to salvage them.”

  “What about me and Mark?” Josie kicked her legs against the couch impatiently. Dianne turned and smiled at her.

  “You and your brother are going to have quite the assignment. While Jacob and I are taking care of the garden and the vegetables and the animals, you and Mark are going to get the basement cleared out and ready for us to set up the aquaponics.”

  “We’re going to do it in the basement?” Mark asked. “Why not in one of the barns like you were talking about before?” Dianne’s original plan had been to set up the aquaponics in one of their outbuildings. Due to complications with running power for the lights and with the onset of the early snow, though, she was glad she had changed her mind.

  “Running lines is going to be a hassle and I’d rather not have to make trips back and forth in the snow and cold. Besides, having everything here in the house is going to make things easier overall.” Dianne sighed and shook her head. “It’s already getting a bit cramped in here, though. Maybe we should think about doing it in an outbuilding after all.”

  “What about the passageway from the basement?” Mark asked the question meekly, knowing that he wasn’t supposed to bring up the subject. Dianne, however, wasn’t upset, mostly because she had forgotten about the years-old project that had never been completed.

  “The passageway?” Dianne rubbed her chin. “It’s been ages since I thought about that. Though as I recall we told you not to talk about it, didn’t we?” Mark started to defend himself when Dianne laughed and shook her head. “Relax, Mark. I’m joking. If there was ever a time for everyone in this family to learn about the passageway it would be now.”

  Started as a project a few months after purchasing the house, the passageway was a pet project entirely of Rick’s creation. Obsessed with the idea of houses with secret passages since he was a child, shortly after moving in Rick had created a detailed design for a passage that would lead from the basement of the house to a shed out in the woods. Dianne had initially been against the underground tunnel, but eventually relented once she saw how much it meant to Rick. When she tried to get an answer from him as to what practical purpose it would serve, his response was always the same. He would smile, shrug and say “No reason, just for fun.”

  Rick’s shifting work responsibilities and the growth of their children meant that there was far less time that he could devote to the tunnel project than he had initially hoped. While the length of the tunnel had been dug and partially shored up, the structural supports necessary to ensure it would never collapse had never been put in place. As Rick’s free time completely evaporated he finally gave up on the project, sealing off the hatch in the basement so that their children wouldn’t inadvertently wander into the passage and hurt themselves.

  Forgoing checking the gardens and animals for the moment, Dianne headed for the basement as her three children ran ahead of her. Downstairs, Jacob and Josie ran around the room, shouting about what objects in the room could be connected to the secret passage.

  “Maybe if you pull one of these books!”

  “No, you have to turn the lights on and off just right!”

  “What about the bricks on the wall over there? Maybe one of those will open it!”

  Dianne laughed as she headed over to the bookcase and stood on her toes to feel around on the top. Her hand fell on a set of keys and she grabbed them before stepping towards the center of the room. “All right!” Dianne clapped her hands to get the attention of her younger children. “You two, over there by Mark.” When all three children were standing together, Dianne adopted a serious expression and tone.

  “I want you three to listen very carefully. This tunnel isn’t a game. It’s not a toy. It’s not a place to play. Unless I tell you explicitly that you can go down into it, you’re to all stay out, is that clear?”

  “Even me?” Mark asked.

  “Even you. It’s been a couple years since anybody’s been down in the tunnel and for all I know it’s partially or fully collapsed. Even if it hasn’t there’s no telling what kind of condition it’s in. Everybody understand me?”

  A chorus of “yes, ma’ams” were half-heartedly mumbled and Dianne nodded. “Good. Now let’s open it up and see what condition it’s in.” Dianne turned around and pointed to a large rug in the center of the floor. It was a thick piece of carpeting that was covered in stains and tears. The bookcase rested on a corner of it, several boxes were stacked across the back section and an old couch and rocking chair sat in the middle.

  “Mark, help me lift that bookcase back. Jacob, pull the carpet out from underneath.”

  Working together, it only took the four a few minutes to clear off all of the objects resting on the carpet. When they were done, Dianne had Mark and Jacob roll the carpet up into a corner and duct-tape it so it wouldn’t unroll.

  In the middle of the room, beneath the carpet, was a wide wooden trapdoor. Metal bands held the wood together and three thick metal hinges were on the side of the door closest to the back wall of the room. Two large swinging handles and a thick latch and padlock were installed on the opposite side from the hinges, though they were inset into the door itself so that they didn’t form bulges that would be visible or tangible through the carpet.

  Dianne knelt down, unlocked the padlock and removed it, then motioned for Mark to stand next to her. “Lift on three, all right? One, two, three!” Mark and Dianne pulled at the trapdoor for a few seconds, grunting as they tried to move the wood from where it had sat untouched for so long. The wood groaned in protest as it scraped against the concrete floor of the basement into which it was set until, finally, it came loose.

  The door wasn’t all that heavy and once it was free of the floor it rotated back smoothly, the hinges giving a slight squeak as rust and dirt were rubbed away. Dianne and Mark carefully leaned the door against the couch and Dianne turned to Jacob. “Grab a couple of flashlights from upstairs, would you?” Jacob nodded and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He was back less than thirty seconds later, excitement written all over his face.

  Dianne took one of the flashlights and switched it on before glancing at Jacob. “Give the other one to your brother. You and Josie stay behind him. Mark, you keep back behind me, okay?” Mark nodded in response.

  “Hey.” Jacob nudged Mark and whispered as Dianne peered into the hole in the floor of the basement. “How did you know about this place? Did Mom and Dad tell you about it?”

  Mark shook his head. “Nope. I walked down here one time years ago when Dad left the basement door unlocked by accident. He and Mom made me promise never to tell you or Josie.” Mark shrugged. “I guess they didn’t want you two trying to break in and get hurt or something.”

  “Mark?” Dianne was halfway down the stairs, her body no longer visible.

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  “Grab your flashlight and come down after me, okay? These steps seem pretty solid so far and I could use the extra
light.”

  Mark grinned as he turned on his flashlight while Jacob and Josie grunted in despair. “Can we come too, Mom?”

  “Give us a couple minutes to make sure it’s safe first. Mark—watch the ceiling on the third stair. A bit of the wood collapsed. We’ll need to shore that up.”

  Mark stepped cautiously down into the hold, looking at the edges as he went. The sides were covered in dust and cobwebs but instead of being bare dirt they were lined with thick planks. The stairs were wooden as well, though they gave merely the hint of a creak as he stepped on them even after years of disuse. Each step he took downward drew him farther into the darkness beyond, filling his mind with far more exciting thoughts than were worthy of the underground chamber.

  “Oh boy.” Dianne’s voice came from in front of Mark.

  “What is it?”

  Dianne turned around and shone her light at Mark’s feet. His landed on her chest and face and she smiled broadly at him. “Jackpot.”

  Chapter 11

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  The next two hours of travel went along with very little in the way of conversation. While Rick was concerned with paying attention to their surroundings and ensuring that they didn’t run into any of the men who were looking for them, Jane was still frightened by what had happened and didn’t know what to say to Rick.

  The journey towards where Rick thought Nellis was located was slow and ponderous. The Strip and the areas directly to its east had been hit hardest by the earthquake. Every time Rick thought that they were making progress they had to double back, take a different route and find a way around or through a collapsed building or other large obstacle. Over the course of the two hours they continued hearing the rumble of the diesel engine traveling back and forth and while neither of them commented on it, they both knew what it meant.

  When the pair was working to climb through a narrow gap between a partially collapsed bridge linking two buildings together and a group of tractor-trailers parked underneath, they heard a sound that finally caused Rick to break the silence.

  “Hey, hold up.” Rick turned his head, trying to pinpoint the direction of the noise.

  “It’s just the engine.” Jane gave him a confused look.

  “No.” Rick shook his head. “It’s two engines.”

  “What?” Jane’s face went from a calculated calm back to panic. She began turning her head, and after a few seconds realized that the distant rumble she had been hearing had turned into two separate noises. The old one that they had heard for the last two hours was still present, but there was a deeper, throatier rumble behind it that was distinct and separate from the first.

  “I guess they put out the fire.” Rick sighed. “Not that I expected that whole thing to really stop them, but I was hoping we’d be farther away by now.”

  “What do you want to do?” Jane looked around nervously, half-expecting their pursuers to appear out of nowhere.

  Rick gave Jane a careful once-over as he helped her stand up after their crawl. “You’re looking weak and I could use a rest, too. Let’s find someplace here to hole up in for the night. Maybe they’ll be finished searching by morning and we can carry on then.”

  “Hey!” Jane put her hands on her hips and scowled at Rick. “I’m not weak.”

  Rick smiled and nodded. “Sorry, didn’t mean it like that.”

  “And the fact that I’m deliriously tired, feel like I’m about to fall over and might throw up at any moment means absolutely nothing.” Jane returned Rick’s smile and he chuckled.

  “Fair enough. Let’s find someplace to hide out and rest.”

  With the sound of the diesel engines not far away, Rick and Jane soon found themselves creeping quietly through yet another hotel attached to a half-destroyed casino. The building was in slightly worse shape than the one in which they had been previously when they eluded the men. In spite of the risks Rick wanted to head up to the third floor in case the men started searching buildings nearby.

  When they got to the third floor via the fire escape staircase, Rick took the lead through the hallway that felt ever so slightly uneven. He guided them to the end of the building and into a room that had a view of the Strip through grimy, dust-covered windows. The room was large, with two beds, a desk, a few chairs and a mini-fridge with a white piece of paper wrapped around it that had the logo for the hotel printed on the side. Rick took off his gun bag and backpack and put them on the bed farthest from the door.

  “Think they’ll mind?” Jane paused in front of the mini-fridge and pointed at it before kneeling down to open it. Though the fridge was no longer cold on the inside, there were a few bottles of water, sports drinks, small bottles of alcohol and a variety of fruit and candy bars. A few pieces of fruit looked too unappetizing to eat, but Rick grabbed a candy bar, a bottle of water and a banana before easing his aching body onto a chair at the opposite end of the room from the door.

  “Good grief.” Rick sighed after taking a few bites from the banana. “I had no idea how much I missed fresh fruit.”

  Jane was already through with her banana and on to sniffing suspiciously at an apple with a few brown spots on it. “I wish this thing was still edible.”

  “Eh. It’s probably fine.” Rick tore open the candy bar wrapper and ate it in two bites before guzzling the entire bottle of water. With his hunger momentarily satiated he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the urge to sleep growing stronger with each passing second. Before he could nod off, though, he heard a faint rumble that steadily grew louder. He jumped up out of his seat and reduced the brightness of his lantern, then set it on the floor under the table.

  The windows of the hotel, like the window of the back of the casino, were covered in dirt and dust, but Rick could still see the Humvee rolling along on the street as it wove its way through the wreckage of cars and other debris that littered its path. Following a hundred feet behind the lead vehicle was the second Humvee, its engine running roughly and its paint on the front section blackened from the Molotov Rick had thrown. While the first vehicle had a gunner sitting on the turret, the second vehicle did not, and Rick wondered if the mechanisms on the turret or the gun had been damaged enough that it simply couldn’t support a gunner.

  “Do you think they’ll spot us?” Jane watched through the window next to Rick, crouching on the floor and keeping her body out of sight of the window.

  “Nah. They can’t search every room in every building and we’re doing what they probably least expect. We should stay here till it gets dark. If we go when it’s night then it’ll be cooler and we’ll be able to slip away more easily.”

  “Do you mind if I close my eyes for a few minutes?” Jane looked back at the bed nearest the door with a longing look in her eyes.

  “Nah. Go for it. I’ll stay up and listen for any sign of trouble.”

  Jane nodded and crawled into the bed and under the covers. Within moments she was fast asleep, leaving Rick crouched at the window. He looked out at the once-glamorous Strip and the destruction that reigned in its wake and wondered about the thousands of people who were undoubtedly staying and working in all of the buildings when the event happened. The stretch of destroyed cars along the strip was awe-inspiring, but that would have undoubtedly paled in comparison to the shaking and rumbling from an earthquake.

  Thousands—tens of thousands—of screaming voices as buildings swayed and fires raged across the city, people trying to get to their homes and loved ones and out of the city as fast as they could. Where did they all go, anyway? Rick had avoided looking for anyone who might have died—his experience in Los Angeles made him not want to repeat the experience of seeing hundreds of charred corpses laid out on the roads. He was sure that many people had to have perished in their vehicles and have been trapped in some of the collapsed buildings, but unless he and Jane had somehow missed seeing thousands of corpses lying about, he wasn’t sure what would have happened to them.

  Rick’s imagini
ngs of the fate of the people who had been in the city weighed heavily on his mind as he eased back into his chair at the back of the room. He reached for his gun case and unzipped it, placing the shotgun across his legs before tucking the case and the hunting rifle beneath the bed. He stared at Jane for a few long moments, watching her back slowly rise and fall with each breath she took. As he watched her he couldn’t help but think about his wife and children once again.

  It felt like he hadn’t seen his family in ages. Without a way to contact them the only thing he could do was keep pushing eastward and pray they were safe. He had complete faith in Dianne’s ability to take care of herself and the kids, but what he had seen since the event started shook him to his bones. Hopefully, he thought, they’ve avoided the worst of it. Hopefully.

  Chapter 12

  The Day of the Event

  Three hours ago, the noise and lights of the Las Vegas Strip overwhelmed the intensity of even the sun itself. As the city woke up for yet another day, the unusual heat of the season had no effect on the workers and visitors to the famous location. Thousands poured out of their hotel rooms, heading for air conditioned buildings to eat, spend their money and engage in activities of varying moral standards. Three hours ago it was just another day in Sin City.

  The fires were the first to tear the city apart, spreading through the streets faster than anyone could have imagined. Bumper-to-bumper traffic on nearly every main road didn’t help the situation and contributed to the tortuously painful deaths of thousands. As emergency services tried—and failed—to respond to the fires, they quickly spread from the vehicles to buildings, catching homes and businesses ablaze.

  In places that were spared from the fires due to their distance from the streets and vehicles, survivors gathered and waited for some word about what to do next. Less than an hour after the fires began, however, the initial survivors would be the next to fall. Earthquakes—small at first, merely rumbles beneath the ground that were dismissed as figments of the imagination—shook the city. At first the buildings merely swayed, but as the rumblings grew louder and more fierce, more people realized that the quakes weren’t some sort of side effect of the fires as some had hoped and expressed.