The Wrath of Yellowstone (Preppers Fiction): The Wrath of Yellowstone Trilogy Boxed Set (Preppers Fiction, Apocalyptic Fiction, Survival, Travel Fiction Book 4)

by Montgomery, Frank

  Chapter 10

  Three weeks passed and Chad was still chained up. He was occasionally set free, but only to shovel snow when the container became blocked in, or to move supplies around. He considered ending his life numerous times during the past three weeks but the opportunity had not yet presented itself. He had completely given up hope on Lynn and he accepted the fact that she had likely been killed by the elements after she ran away. But why had she run away? How could she have possibly thought she would survive? These were questions Chad asked himself every night before he went to sleep. He literally had nothing, his family was gone, his friends were dead and his old life was never coming back. He knew that once supplies got low enough, Touma would kill him and then move on to another location with his men.

  “How are you brother?” Touma asked in his usual tone.

  “I need water”

  “Yes, we are unfortunately running low right now so I can’t help you”

  “Would you just get it over already?”

  “What are you talking about friend?”

  “Just kill me, I’ve got nothing”

  “Kill you? You’re more of a coward than I thought”

  Touma picked up his handgun and cocked it. He approached Chad and pointed the gun at his forehead. It was about 3 inches away from his face and he starred directly into the chamber. He could feel the sweat dripping down his forehead as he watched Touma’s finger slide down to the trigger.

  “You want this friend? You want to die so you can be with your wife ya?”

  “Just do it!” Chad yelled

  Touma’s finger slowly began to pull the trigger, Chad closed his eyes and his entire life flashed before him; the first time he had met Lynn, the day of their wedding, the birth of their children, moving into their first home in Fortuna, the sound of his tractor as he worked the fields, that tractor was so loud. Chad could hear the annoying hum of it ever so vividly in his mind. Chad saw a flash and the humming quickly turned into a ring and then, to nothing. The trigger had been pulled, but he was still breathing. He was temporarily deaf and he looked up at Touma, who was laughing hysterically. Chad began to get dizzy, his eyes lost focus and he suddenly fainted.

  Chapter 11

  When Chad awoke he was exactly where he was when he had passed out. Touma and his men were asleep and Chad was surprisingly excited to be alive. Chad learned that sometimes it takes a near death experience to make you appreciate your life. He was not about to quit, his circumstances were dire but he was determined to pull through.

  Just then Chad heard a light tap on the rear container wall. He put his head right up to the wall and listened intently.

  Tap, tap……….tap, tap, tap………….tap, tap……………..tap………tap, tap, tap.

  This continued for about five minutes. Chad couldn’t figure out if it was Morse code or not, either way he didn’t understand Morse code even if it was. He began to tap back,

  Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…………tap, tap, tap, BANG.

  Chad slammed his first onto the wall as hard as he possibly could, as if to say to whoever was outside,

  HELP ME RIGHT NOW!

  Chad’s noisy actions had woken up Touma and his men, and they were not happy to say the least.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Touma asked in an aggravated tone.

  “I’m sorry, I had a nightmare and I just flailed around a bit”

  “Probably had a nightmare about me killing you, ya friend?”

  “Something like that”

  “You’re a coward. I should have just ended your pathetic life, but I figured firing a blank round at your face would be just as entertaining as watching your head explode, plus it’s a lot less messy too”

  “You’re a sick bastard”

  “And you’re a worthless peasant”

  “Just let me go back to sleep”

  “No friend, you’ve got some shoveling to do. There was a massive storm last night and it’s going to take you a while to dig out the container door, so get to it!”

  Touma released Chad from the handcuffs and handed him a shovel. Chad grabbed it and headed toward the container door. It took him about 10 minutes to even get the door open because the snow was piled up about 8 feet high on the other side. He slowly dug his way out and then began shoveling a path so that the large container door could swing fully open. It was bitterly cold out and Chad was shivering more than he ever had. The wind was loud and fierce. Just then he heard a soft, familiar voice and it sounded like sweet music to his ears,

  “Chad, over here!”

  It was Lynn. She was around the corner of the container and she was showing a bright smile. Chad wondered how she could have possibly survived out there. He wanted to run over and hug her, but he knew that Touma might come out at any moment. Lynn was trying to signal something to him with her hands. She was frantically pointing at the container and then back at Chad. She looked very nervous and she had a strange look in her eyes, one that Chad was completely unfamiliar with. He could only assume that she was trying to tell him to get Touma to come outside, so that’s what he did.

  “Hey asshole, come help me shovel”

  “What’s that friend?” Touma said, grabbing a shotgun and heading outside.

  “I said come help me you lazy asshole”

  Touma stepped outside, slammed the container door and pointed his shotgun at Chad’s chest.

  “Say something now friend”

  “STAY AWAY FROM HIM!” Lynn screamed.

  “Oh my, look who’s back from the dead,” Touma muttered under his breath as he slowly walked towards Lynn. Chad ran over and jumped in front of her, he was not about to let Touma hurt her again. Touma lifted up his gun and aimed it at Chad’s face.

  “Thanks for making it easy, I can kill two birds with one stone now”

  “Burn in hell you sick little bastard!” Lynn screeched.

  “I am going to enjoy this. You’re both so…. so damn…… agh…..ugh”

  Touma was suddenly unable to speak, blood began sputtering out of his mouth as he attempted to form words. His vocabulary had been instantly reduced to primitive grunts and groans. He dropped his gun and fell to his knees, as he turned around he saw Todd standing proudly on top of the container. He could feel a sharp pain in his neck and as he reached back to investigate, he realized that Todd had thrown a thick knife at him. The knife was lodged deeply into the back on Touma’s neck. He remained on his knees, evidently unable to do anything else.

  Lynn couldn’t resist, she pushed Chad out of the way and kicked Touma directly in the face, causing him to fall onto his back. When he hit the ground the knife was forced even deeper into his neck until it came out through his throat. He was now spitting up whole mouthfuls of blood and the life seemed to be fading from his eyes. Chad approached him, looked down, locked eyes with him and spoke boldly,

  “Nothing has ever brought me more joy than this. I could do the civilized thing and put you out of your misery, but I’d rather watch you suffer.”

  Chad knew that if he pulled the knife out that Touma would bleed out almost immediately, but he didn’t want to give him the luxury of a quick death. He leaned down, picked up Touma’s shotgun and then walked towards the container door. It was so windy out that none of Touma’s men could hear what was going on outside.

  “Okay, Lynn, Todd, hide around the side of the container and once everyone runs out here, get inside the container as fast as you can.” Chad had a plan and he was taking control of the situation.

  “Why is everyone going to run out here?” Todd asked curiously as he and Lynn did as they were told.

  Chad aimed the shotgun at one of the snowmobiles that was about 20 feet away. He shot and hit the snowmobiles fuel tank, causing a huge explosion. He then ran around the side of the container to join Todd and his wife. Just as expected, all of Touma’s men came running outside, unable to ignore the large explosion that had just occurred. Once they were outside, Chad, Lynn and Todd s
curried inside the container and locked the door. They had won. Or so they thought.

  Chapter 12

  There was only one person that didn’t exit the container, Touma’s son. He was sitting on one of the generators with a terrified look in his eyes. Lynn glared at the boy, he wouldn’t look her in the eyes. This boy had taken the life of her son and she was going to make him pay. Outside the container, Touma’s men were incessantly banging on the door and begging to be let inside.

  “Your father is dead now and the earth is a better place,” Lynn whispered to the boy. He didn’t make eye contact with her and he showed no emotion.

  “Jesus Lynn, take it easy” Todd said in an attempt to calm her down.

  “This little fucker killed my son! Don’t tell me to calm down!”

  “Both of you calm down. How in God’s name are you both still alive?” Chad chimed in.

  “I eventually managed to dig myself out of that snow cave after you left me for dead”

  “I had to find my wife Todd, I had no other choice. I had planned to be back before you even woke up”

  “Ya well you weren’t man and I nearly died. Also, your welcome for saving Lynn”

  “Thank you, I’m forever grateful for that. How did you two manage to meet up?”

  “After I dug myself out I spent the next day looking for the container. Once it started getting dark I knew I had to head back into town to find shelter. On my way into town I saw Lynn roaming through the snow and we began searching for shelter. We found a small convenience store that was somewhat still intact, with a few people living inside of it. We told them our story and they let us stay for a few weeks. Once we came up with a plan and regained some of our energy, we headed back to save you. I actually can’t take too much credit for the plan, Lynn came up with the whole thing herself, didn’t you Lynn?”

  Todd and Chad both looked to Lynn for a response. She was now standing behind Touma’s son with one hand on his jaw and one hand on his forehead. The boy had tears running down his face but he wasn’t making a single noise. Lynn had changed, something deep inside of her had snapped when she witnessed her children die. She wanted only to have revenge on those who had hurt her, and Touma’s son had definitely hurt her more than anyone. Todd and Chad watched helplessly, knowing full well that Lynn could not be stopped. She tightly gripped the boy’s head and twisted it around until the sound of his snapping neck filled the container. Nobody spoke a word.

  Chapter 13

  After a few hours the knocking on the container door had stopped. Chad opened the door to see if everyone had succumbed to the elements. There was nothing outside except for Touma’s frozen body and the remains of his snowmobile, everyone else must have taken their snowmobiles and headed elsewhere. Chad worried that the men would return with a vengeance, so he decided that it was time to leave. He entered the container and announced his plan,

  “I say that we head back into town and move into that convenience store that the two of you were staying in”

  “I don’t know, they were running pretty low on supplies”

  “Well I mean, we’re currently running pretty low on supplies as well”

  “Your right man. Lynn what do you think?”

  “It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care what we do.” Lynn appeared to be numb to the world.

  “Lynn honey, I know things are tough right now, but we’re going to get through this. We’ve come this far and right now we just have to try to remain positive.

  “Chad this isn’t going to end. We’re going to be stuck in winter for the rest of our lives. We have no long-term plan and we are going to die if we don’t figure one out very soon.”

  “My long term plan is day to day survival! There’s nothing else we can do, there’s no escape at all. The entire world is a snowball and there’s nothing we can do about it!”

  “I can think of one place that’s probably not too cold right now,” Lynn said smugly.

  “Where?” Chad asked eagerly.

  “Yellowstone.” She said with a smile.

  She had a point. Yellowstone had a large amount of heat coming off of it. Perhaps if they could return to Wyoming and get within a safe distance of the volcanic crater, they could find a temperate region that was a little bit more habitable.

  “As counterintuitive as that may seem, you might be right honey. If we can gather a group of people up and head back towards Yellowstone, we might be able to build some kind of a permanent shelter there.”

  “Man don’t you think that sounds a little bit dangerous?” Todd asked skeptically.

  “No more dangerous than what we’re doing right now. The Yellowstone volcano just released thousands of years worth of pressure. Another eruption is totally impossible right now, so the only real threat is the lava. But if we stay a safe distance away we will be totally fine. The worst part of the blast is over; we’ve got nothing to lose by heading back to Yellowstone now. The temperature is surely a hell of a lot warmer and more survivable there than it is anywhere else on the planet.”

  Todd nodded in agreement.

  Chapter 14

  Early the next day they grabbed some weapons, left the container and headed to the convenience store that Todd and Lynn had been staying at. As the container faded away into the distance, they all felt relieved and they hoped that all of the painful memories associated with that container would eventually fade away as well. When they got to the convenience store, a woman named Trina promptly let them inside. Trina was short and chubby with thick brown hair and a lazy eye. Lynn talked to Trina for a while and she learned that they had recently acquired more food and water from some other local stores that had been abandoned. Trina told Lynn that she and her friends could eat dinner and stay the night, but in the morning they would have to leave because there were not enough supplies for “out of town” people. Lynn proposed the idea of traveling back to Yellowstone with as many people as possible to start up a new community in a warmer region, but Trina denied the offer. She told Lynn that she had a solid community of over 12 people inside the convenience store and that she wasn’t about to risk losing her location.

  When Lynn told Todd and Chad that they were only permitted to stay for one night and that nobody else would be joining them on their quest back to Yellowstone, they were livid.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” Chad said to Lynn and Todd with an intense look in his eyes. Once they got outside, he began speaking.

  “We’re taking everything they’ve got”

  “What are you talking about?” Lynn asked.

  “I mean during the night we are going to hold these bastards at gunpoint, tie them up and take as much shit as we can carry”

  “I agree Chad, survival of the fittest,” Todd said.

  “There are no shortage of abandoned cars around here, I doubt most of them have been started, which means the ash probably hasn’t ruined their engines. The ash levels have dropped significantly so I’m hoping we can drive a car back to Yellowstone. Todd I know you are able to hotwire vehicles, so this could be your time to shine”

  “Man I haven’t done that since high school, I’m not even sure I remember how”

  “Well you better get your thinking cap on because we need a vehicle!”

  “Alright, alright. I’ll go see what I can do.”

  Within twenty minutes Todd had returned with an old Ford Windstar van. Chad quickly removed the back seats so that there would be more room for storage. Once the van was ready to go, Todd parked it about a block away from the convenience store and they headed back inside to have dinner with Trina’s group.

  Chapter 15

  When night fell, everyone in the convenience store was soon asleep. Due to the cold weather, everyone was forced to sleep close together in order to create more warmth. Chad got up slowly and woke Lynn and Todd up. He crept over to his bag and grabbed his shotgun. He blasted a shot into the ceiling of the convenience store, pointed his gun at the people laying on the ground and started y
elling,

  “Everyone stay where you are, don’t fucking move or I’ll blow your brains out! Todd, get the van. Lynn start moving supplies out front.”

  Chad was barking orders and Lynn liked how he was yet again taking control of the situation, ensuring her continued survival.

  “You can’t do this. You can’t leave us here with nothing, we’ll be dead in days!” Trina screamed.

  “You had your fucking chance to align with us, now shut your mouth and stay where you are” Chad snapped.

  Within minutes Todd was out front with the van and Chad ordered him and Lynn to start packing it up with every ounce of food and water that Trina had in the building. There was a man lying next to Trina who began trying to reason with Chad. He was older and he looked wise and peaceful. He was bald and he wore thick square glasses. He spoke softly and slowly,

  “Buddy, let us come with you please. We can really be a big help”

  “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Phil”

  “How could you be a help besides helping us eat and drink all the food and water that we have left, Phil?”

  “I’ve been a carpenter for 20 years and I know you plan on building some stuff back in Wyoming, Trina told me.”