Chaos Comes: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (After the EMP Book 4)
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She looked around her. They were in a residential neighborhood. From the looks of the quiet, shuttered houses, the army had already cleared this sector. That meant they weren’t safe. No one would help them here.
Wrapping her arm around Colt’s waist, Dani helped him walk.
They made it another twenty feet until he fell, face first, onto the sidewalk. Dani slammed her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming.
She crouched beside him, yanking on his arm. “Colt! Colt, you have to get up!”
It was no use. Colt was unconscious.
She kneeled on the ground and smacked his face, her open palm as loud as a gunshot in the silence. Colt didn’t move. Dani didn’t know what to do. She bent closer to his ear. “Colt, please. You have to get up.” She tugged on his arm again. Nothing.
Dragging herself up, she approached the nearest house, a little bungalow with bright yellow paint and daisies out front. She took the front steps two at a time and knocked on the door. “Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? My friend needs help. Hello?”
She leaned back to look at the second story, but not a single curtain moved. Crap. She tried the next house, another two-story with a rocking chair on the front porch and a welcome sign by the door. No answer.
The next and the next and the next were the same. Either the street was abandoned, or no one was willing to help. No one would take the chance.
Dani ran back to Colt. She beat on his back. “Wake up! You can’t freaking quit on me. Everyone else in my life has quit on me. You’re not going to, do you hear me?” Her words turned to sobs. “Please, just get up.”
The sound of a car engine filtered through the houses and Dani lurched to her feet. She grabbed Colt by the arms and tugged. He moved an inch. She pulled again, but it was no use.
Two hundred pounds of dead weight were impossible to move. After all they had been through. After everything they survived that night, they would be captured.
She thought about the soldier in the bathroom and her hands went to her neck.
“Hey!”
Dani spun around, her eyes wide with the fear at what might be coming. An older man stood across the street. He waved. “Are you with him?” He pointed at Colt.
“Yes.” She hesitated, but what choice did she have? She had to trust him. She looked at Colt. “He’s unconscious. I can’t move him.”
The man crossed the street and bent to check Colt’s pulse. “He’s still alive. Let’s flip him over. I’ll grab one arm, you grab the other. We can drag him into my cellar.” The engine noise increased as the man flipped Colt onto his back. “We need to hurry.”
With the stranger helping, Dani managed to pull Colt across the road and into the side yard between two buildings. As they eased into the shadows, headlights lit up the street.
“Hurry. Down here.” The man motioned to a pair of open storm doors. He went first, holding up Colt’s torso, and Dani picked up Colt’s feet. Her head disappeared below the opening as the headlights lit up the house.
The second the lights disappeared, the stranger reached up and shut the cellar doors.
DAY TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY
COLT
Basement, Location Unknown
Eugene, Oregon
9:00 p.m.
Colt groaned and twisted onto his side, but pain in his arm forced him back. His hands rubbed over soft sheets and he blinked. Where am I?
The last thing he remembered was trudging through the night with Dani at his side, every step more painful than the last. He tried to sit up and a familiar voice spoke up.
“Hey, stranger.”
Colt opened his eyes and a pretty young girl came into focus. Light brown hair cut short in a pixie style, bright brown eyes open wide. A smile that would light up the darkest room. “Dani?”
She smiled even wider. “Hey, Colt.”
He struggled to sit up. They were in a bedroom with a pair of twin beds and a small nightstand between them. A little lantern lit up the space. “Where are we?”
“Mr. Wilkins’ basement.”
“And that would be where?”
She exhaled. “Inside the army’s cleared zone. We’ve been safe so far, but it’s touch and go. Now that you’re awake, we can talk about options.”
Colt shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
Dani smiled again. “You’ve been asleep for almost two days.”
Damn. Colt glanced down at his arm. The bandage had been changed. He pulled back the covers to reveal a clean T-shirt, shorts, and a leg free of duct tape. A fresh bandage covered the knife wound. “Who’s helping us?”
“They call themselves the Resistance.” She almost giggled. “If you think you can walk, you can see for yourself. It’s just about time for the nightly meeting.”
Colt twisted in the bed and reached for a pair of folded-up pants. He slid them up over his tender ankle and bandaged leg and managed to stand without collapsing. Dani helped him to the door. “You’re sure they’re trustworthy?”
She nodded. “Come on. You’ll see.”
Together, they hobbled out into a basement living room. Six people turned and stood at the sound of their approach. Colt took in their faces. A pair of men in their early thirties. A woman of fifty, maybe older. A young man who couldn’t have been much older than Dani.
Colt paused at a woman holding a little brown and gray dog. “Melody?”
“Hi, Colt.”
Dani glanced up at him. “You know each other?”
Colt rubbed the back of his neck. “We met on the street after the ambush. She was nice enough to talk to me. She told me the truth about the army’s activity here.”
Melody nodded. “It’s good to see you up on your feet.” She held one hand out to the man standing beside her. “This is Harvey Wilkins. It’s his house we’re in.”
Colt turned to the man and paused. He was older, maybe mid-sixties, with thinning gray hair and a patient expression. Something in Colt’s memory caught and he tried to place it. “I’m sorry, have we met?”
“Only in passing. I own a book shop across from the sporting goods store.”
The memory clicked. “You were there when the ambush happened. I saw you standing across the street, watching.”
Harvey held out his hand. “Yes, that was me. When I saw you in the street here, I knew you were one of the good guys. I helped Danielle get you inside.”
Colt glanced at her and mouthed, Danielle?
She shrugged, smiling. It seemed like so much had happened since he’d been unconscious. “Thank you all for helping us. I don’t know what we would have done without your generosity.”
Harvey nodded. “You’re welcome, but it’s not all altruistic. We’re hoping once you’re well, that you can help us.”
“With the army?”
“Yes. We have to do something. They’re still clearing sectors of town, but it won’t be long before they’ve finished. Then what will happen? Work camps? Raids? They won’t let us stay in our homes forever.” Harvey glanced around at the group of people assembled. “We won’t let them take everything from us. It isn’t right.”
Colt turned to Dani. He’d always thought that if something like this happened, he would disappear, turn into a nomad and live in the backcountry all on his own. No one to care about but himself, no hard choices.
But she changed him. He didn’t want to leave her here and set off with nothing but a pack and his wits. He wanted to protect her, keep her safe, watch her grow into the adult he knew she could be. Colt reached out and took her hand.
She squeezed.
“Going up against a group like this won’t be easy. They’re well-trained, follow orders, heavily armed. They won’t go down without a fight.”
“We know. That’s why we need your help.”
Colt didn’t know what to say. How could this little group of civilians ever hope to go against an organized militia? Colt could help, but not enough.
The boy cl
ose to Dani’s age spoke up. “Grandad, it’s about time. Can I turn it on?’
“Sure, Will.” The boy rushed to the coffee table and kneeled in front of it. A little radio sat on the tabletop with a cord running up the wall. At first Colt thought it was power, but when he saw the kid crank a lever on the side of the radio, he realized it was an antenna.
Will twisted a knob and leaned back, waiting. All of the locals went back to their spots in chairs and the couch. Dani tugged on Colt’s hand. They walked over and Colt sat in an overstuffed chair, Dani on the arm.
The radio crackled to life. “Good evening. The time is nine thirty Pacific Standard, and it has been twenty-one days since the United States power grid failed. My name is Walter Sloane.”
Colt stared at the radio. The pilot from the plane? It can’t be.
“I’m broadcasting again this evening to give everyone listening hope. Although we are facing the toughest ordeal our country has had to face in over a generation, we will survive. Everyone listening tonight has the ability to weather this storm.
“Wherever you are, start preparing. Stop looking for the government or the military or anyone else to help you. The best person to help right now is you. Look around you. Find friends and neighbors you can trust. People who want to beat these odds. Don’t let adversity stop you.”
Colt leaned back in the chair. The voice was indeed that of Walter Sloane, the pilot who emergency-landed the 747 that brought him to Eugene, Oregon. He’d made it. Wherever he was broadcasting from, the man had survived.
Walter kept speaking about the future, how to prepare, what needed to be done to survive. The more he talked, the more Colt knew the man was right. This wasn’t a time to go off on his own. Even if he could convince Dani to come with him, how long would they last out there in the wild? A year? More? At some point, they would have to stop running. They would need to settle down.
Colt had been around enough; he’d experienced enough of life to know he could survive without a wife or a lover or even friends. He glanced at Dani. She was only fifteen. All of that was still ahead of her. He couldn’t ask her to give it all up.
Not if he didn’t have to. Colt turned back to the radio.
“Assemble the basics. Water. Food. Shelter. But go beyond that. Find a favorite book. A treasured necklace. A picture your kid made before the world fell apart. Make it your talisman. Hold onto it. Remember our life the way it was before.
“Not the video games and the 24/7 news and the never-ending quest for escape. But the little things. The simpler things we can all get back to. That’s how you’ll stay human. That’s how you’ll survive.
“This great country of ours will rebuild. This isn’t the end of us and it isn’t the end of you. Have faith. Until tomorrow, this is Walter Sloane, saying goodnight and good luck.”
The radio fell silent and Colt looked up. Harvey sat in a chair opposite Colt, watching him.
“How long has Walter been broadcasting?”
Harvey glanced at the radio. “Only a few days. Why?”
“He was the pilot who landed my plane.”
Everyone in the room turned to look at Colt. Will, the teenager, spoke up. “You know him?”
Colt nodded. “Last I saw of him, he was headed to Sacramento to find his wife and daughter.”
“Even with the antenna, I don’t think we could get a Sacramento signal here.”
Colt thought it over. “He must have made it out and come this way.”
Dani leaned close. “Do you really think he’s right? Can we get through this?”
“If we can find enough like-minded people, then yes, I think we can.” Colt turned back to Harvey. “If you really want to stop Colonel Jarvis and his men, I’ll help. It won’t be easy. Hell, we might be signing our death warrants. But if you all want to take a stand, I’ll stand beside you.”
Melody spoke up. “Why? Why help us?”
“For one, you helped me. You could have left me in the street to die, but you risked your safety to bring me here and take care of me. Two, you’ve kept Dani safe.”
He paused, choosing his next words carefully. “But more importantly, you’re all willing to fight. It’s easy to surrender. It’s harder than hell to fight back.”
Harvey stood and closed the distance between them. He held out his hand and smiled. “Welcome to the Resistance.”
Thank you for reading book four in the After the EMP series!
Book Five will be coming to Amazon soon!
Looking for more After the EMP right now? You can find the rest of the series on Amazon.
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If you were hundreds of miles from home when the world ended, how would you protect your family?
Walter started his day like any other by boarding a commercial jet, ready to fly the first leg of his international journey. Halfway to Seattle, he witnesses the unthinkable: the total loss of power as far as he can see.
Hundreds of miles from home, he’ll do whatever it takes to get back to his wife and teenage daughter. Landing the plane is only the beginning.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you for reading Chaos Comes, book four in the After the EMP saga. I hoped you enjoyed reading Colt and Dani’s story of finding each other and bonding despite the struggles they faced.
A huge thank you to all of my readers who are on this journey with me. Your words of encouragement humble and amaze me every day.
If you enjoyed this book and have a moment, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Every one helps new readers discover my work and helps me keep writing the stories you want to read.
I’ll be back with another installment in the After the EMP saga soon.
Until next time,
Harley
ABOUT HARLEY TATE
When the world as we know it falls apart, how far will you go to survive?
Harley Tate writes edge-of-your-seat post-apocalyptic fiction exploring what happens when ordinary people are faced with impossible choices.
Harley’s first series, After the EMP, follows ordinary people attempting to survive in a world without power. When the nation’s power grid is wrecked, it doesn’t take long for society to fall apart. The end of life as we know it brings out the best and worst in all of us.
The apocalypse is only the beginning.
Contact Harley directly at:
www.harleytate.com
harley@harleytate.com
Table of Contents
Copyright
Table of Contents
Chaos Comes
DAY SIXTEEN WITHOUT POWER
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
DAY SEVENTEEN
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
DAY EIGHTEEN
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
DAY NINETEEN
Chapter 29
DAY TWENTY-ONE
Chapter 30
Acknowledgments
About Harley Tate
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