Ashes of the World: A Post-Apocalyptic Story (The World Burns Book 2)

by Boyd Craven III

  Copyright © 2015 Boyd Craven III

  Ashes of the World

  By Boyd Craven

  All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 -

  Chapter 2-

  Chapter 3 –

  Chapter 4 -

  Chapter 5 -

  Chapter 6 –

  Chapter 7 -

  Chapter 8 -

  Chapter 9 -

  Chapter 10 –

  Chapter 1 -

  “Do you think there’s going to be anymore raiders?” Asked Lisa.

  “Everyone we found out there was dead, how many were in that group?”

  “You know, I never really got a good look at everyone,” said Weston

  “Yeah, we spent most of our time avoiding people. Things in town got absolutely crazy after that EMP,” said Bobby.

  “That’s what I don’t understand. You guys keep saying EMP. How do you know for sure that’s what actually happened?” Sandra asked them.

  “Weston called me, he said that the police department had gotten an alert, he was rushing home when one the bombs went off in space,” Lisa said looking back and forth between both of her sons for confirmation.

  “Yes, that part was really scary. It was like a dream or a nightmare.”

  “When Weston called me I thought he was kidding but I was close to Mom’s house anyway, so I went over there to check on things when the lights went out,” said Bobby.

  “So are we at war? Are we being invaded? Who did this to us?” Blake asked.

  “I don’t know. The news on the radio, well you know it’s all rumor, but they think it was Iran working with ISIS. They think the missiles were launched off of freighters. The last I heard, the ships that launched the missiles were sunk.”

  “What you mean the ships? Plural, more than one?” Duncan said, his voice worried.

  “There was a launch on Virginia’s coastline, about a hundred miles out. A second ship that I heard about was off of the coast of California,” Weston answered.

  “Sandra, Duncan, you two seem to know more about this than I do, where do we go from here? What should we expect? I mean, I’ve read all the end of the world books, is it really going to be like One Second After?”

  “Yes, it really could be that bad, but what we ran into yesterday was probably one of the bigger groups we will see. But they were stupid, disorganized. All it would take is someone with a little bit of military training, to really put the hurt on us. We really have to look at beefing up our defenses even more,” Duncan told them.

  “Dad, did you talk to the Cayhill’s about staying here with us?”

  “Yeah… Well… Lisa was so surprised and happy that’s when she…”

  “Ha ha, just remember you’re not married yet,” Sandra told him and both of the Cayhill boys were smiling, Lisa was slightly pink in the face, but that made them laugh.

  “I’m not speaking for the entire family here, but you guys are further ahead than anyone I’ve seen out there since we went on the run. If it’s okay with you… I mean, we can help, we can work and we can really contribute. We just don’t have anywhere else to go,” said Weston, looking sheepish.

  “Well, it’s up to you guys. We really could use the extra hands around here, the gardens are coming in and we just don’t have enough hands to put away all the food right now. If any of you guys can help with that…”

  “I can help out with that. I spent years canning and putting away food with my Mom and grandmother,” said Lisa.

  “Well, let’s see how it goes then. For now let’s show you three where you’ll be staying.”

  The Cayhill family had seen much of the Homestead, but now Blake was showing them some of the things they hadn’t. He went into detail more on where the traps were and then they showed them the basement and how the Homestead still had power. Bobby never quit smiling, he thought the whole setup was brilliant and he had no idea that people could really live this way out in the hills. Blake told them about his blog and how that was one of the ways he made had made money. He was living the life, writing about it, sometimes publishing the occasional book. Not needing much in the way of material things, he was contented. He explained to them that with his laptop and his air card he could have been able to get on the internet, until the EMP happened.

  Seeing the scrap lumber in the barn, they figured they had enough to put up a couple of dividers in the basement to give them some privacy. Over the next few days that’s exactly what they did. They went through and rechecked all their traps. One of the things that really worried Duncan was all of their traps and warning systems were in place on the approach from the lane. If someone were to try to sneak in across the hills out back, they couldn’t defend themselves from all angles yet and they were left wide open.

  One other thing that became very apparent rather quickly was the food situation. Their dried goods, stuff such as flour, rice, and spices were being used out an even faster rate than before. Lisa was a tremendous help in the kitchen and if they had a couple of more canners the amount of time it can take would’ve been cut in half.

  Both sides of the propane burner in Blake’s house were always full. The third afternoon the Cayhill’s were there, Weston was out back and shot a young doe. Everyone delighted in the deer and they all debated about whether to smoke it or freeze it. Lisa came to the rescue, and suggested they can it. There was no shortage of the ball jars in the barn. And she mentioned that a lot of the canned goods from Blake’s grandparents were probably stored in that root cellar.

  “I just wish we knew how safe it was out there now. That food truck…” Blake let the words trail off as he considered the possibilities.

  “Food truck?” Chorused both the Cayhill boys.

  Chapter 2-

  Everyone knew that winter was coming, and the rush was on for putting the food away. Blake had told them how bad the roads getting in and out of the Homestead were in the wintertime, and they’ll finally decided that they wanted to risk it. That’s how they ended up loading up Blake’s truck and covered trailer, and the men set off down the lane, only to stop and retrieve the two trucks from the Raiders.

  Sandra was unhappy about being left behind while the men went out to play, as she put it, and Lisa wasn’t happy about being left behind either. Sandra argued that she was the one with the most recent combat experience and she should be the one to go. Blake disagreed, he told her that was the reason why she needed to stay. They needed her to protect the Homestead. Blake didn’t tell her, but he was thinking of all the people here, he was the most expendable.

  Lisa knew that what she was doing was really important though, putting the food away. She pretty much taken over the food storage when she saw how bad that Blake really was, and teased him about teaching others through his blog. The Ball Blue Book was her canning bible, and she had it memorized. It dispelled many of the old wives tales he’d been taught to be true.

  That’s how Duncan and Blake gave a furious Sandra and Lisa a hug goodbye and drove down the lane towards town. Weston and Bobby drove the trucks from the raiders, and Duncan rode shotgun with Weston who was in the middle truck. That way if anything happened, there was at least one person around who could show them where the food truck was, and how to get back to the homestead. Duncan had coached all of the guys on just letting the trucks coast, knowing that even the son of an idling motor would be loud in this new still world.

  They pulled out of the lane, and broke every traffic law in the world and coasted their way toward the Walmart truck was parked on the s
ide of the road. Blake pulled out a pair of bolt cutters and a new padlock with a new key he had in the barn. Duncan watched as Blake cut the lock in the Walmart truck and rolled up the door. Blake put the new lock on the floor by the back of the door and crawled inside.

  “You guys… You’re never going to believe this…”

  The truck was only about three quarters of the way full, and the driver had a hand Jack in there to move pallets around. Over half of the truck was filled with food that would last a long time without refrigeration. Since it was their main priority, Blake lined up the camping gear along one side wall as he pulled pallets of food to the end of the truck. Bobby and Weston took turns watching the road in all directions as Blake’s was quickly filled with food until the bed of the truck almost rubbed in the wheel wells. The trailer wasn’t a whole lot better, but they figured they could get the truck at least to the end of the lane and unload half of it and come back for the rest. Duncan spent most of his time between the day cab and the roof of the semi-trailer, scanning in all directions. He couldn’t do much physically with his shoulder still healing. With two of them, sometimes three loading full time, it didn’t take long until all of the pickup trucks were loaded beyond capacity.

  “Do you really think just locking it up and leaving it here is safe? Should we maybe post a guard here to make sure no one else gets into it?” Asked Bobby.

  “No, we need you and everyone we have to drive. We’ll put this lock on that Blake found, and pray to God that no one saw us unloading it and gets the same idea. That’s why we drove all three trucks to the trailer at once. A very conspicuous proposition, but we were able to get over half of the food, weren’t we?” Asked Duncan.

  “We’re a little over halfway. And we didn’t grab much of the hunting gear, except for some warm weather stuff for the girls,” said Blake, who hopped off the end of the truck and put the new lock in place, pocketing the key.

  “How much food is that?” Weston asked Duncan.

  “It is not enough for the entire winter, but it’s a really good start. If your Mom and Blake here keep the food coming in the way it has been, we should be all right. I want to finish unloading the truck, soon as we can. That means at least one more trip.”

  “Well, let’s get moving,” said Blake, moving to his own rig.

  They didn’t see anyone the entire trip back to Holloway Lane, and it was decided to unhitch the trailer and try to take what was up with that up first with the other truck following with both of the Cayhill boys. That meant one truck, one survivor, and a ton of food was left unprotected. Duncan knew his daughter would be furious. That’s why he elected to stay behind and guard the trailer. It only delayed the inevitable, but it would give them some time to sit and reflect. Duncan waved goodbye to the other three men and watched as their tail lights slowly disappeared into the darkening gloom of the day.

  Sandra was the first to hear the motor rolling up the lane, she warily got her long gun out and set up in position. In this new world of quiet and solitude, sound traveled a long way. One thing she did notice, was with the quiet, came the sounds of nature that she had missed before. She put her scope on the point of the lane where the first vehicle would enter the property. She smiled in relief when she recognized both trucks. Sandra had become concerned when she didn’t see the truck her father was driving.

  She could hardly wait until one of the trucks pulled up next to her position and stopped. Her hiding, positioning and camouflage made it all but impossible for anyone to know she was there. She checked the bed of the trucks, to make sure that they hadn’t picked up any passengers or become unwilling hostages. She determined everything to be okay, and broke cover and approached Blake’s truck. He rolled down the window.

  “Blake, where’s my Dad? What happened with the trailer?” Sandra asked.

  “Hey girl, I missed you. Your Dad is guarding the trailer. We found so much stuff that we couldn’t get all of it. We are overloaded and there were a couple of spots we worried that we wouldn’t even be able to get the trucks up,” Blake told her.

  “Well, get in and we will rush to the house and get these unloaded as quickly as possible.”

  Lisa stopped what she was doing in the kitchen long enough to rush out and help them unload as much as she could. When her egg timer went off, she rushed back into the kitchen and arrived a moment later.

  “I did take one of the canners off the stove to cool so I can crack the lid. Next one will be due in another twenty minutes, how much more is there?”

  Bobby answered for the rest of them, “There’s another truck and an overloaded trailer full.”

  “You know, it would be smart to send both trucks back down to split the load and then all three drive back up if you’re worried about getting stuck in the lane,” Sandra said, and then smiled when Blake’s jaw dropped open.

  “Pure genius!” Blake told her, smiling.

  They didn’t spend a lot of time getting all of the boxes and bags put up properly. They just started piling it around the inside walls in the main room of the house. It literally turned into a bucket brigade, except with food. The unloading took about forty minutes. Blake and Weston tried to argue, but Sandra insisted on riding back down with them. The Cayhill boys just shrugged their shoulders and started their truck, making their way to the lane to let Blake and Sandra have a moment alone.

  Blake looked deep into the eyes of the fiery woman. Her gaze was equal amounts of concern, and happiness. She was glad they all made it back safe and every ounce of food insured one less day of hunger.

  “I was really worried. We need to hurry, so we don’t leave my Dad with those supplies out there and alone. Hurry up, or I’ll start driving myself.”

  But both got in and started going down the lane a little bit slower than the others and not wanting to catch up with them in a potentially tight spot. Tense minutes passed, but they were all soon reunited. Since Duncan had the bad arm still, Weston and Bobby were already unloading as much of the trailer is they could into the empty truck.

  “How’s it going?”

  “It’s been quiet, real quiet,” Duncan told them. “Do you think we should unload the entire trailer and just let the trucks handle the weight, or should we split it up between all three?”

  “I’d like to not get stuck. That’s kind of my plan at this point.”

  “Some planner you are,” Sandra smiled and poked him in the ribs.

  “Hey! Watch it! I am carrying stuff here.”

  “Just having a little fun, there’s very little of it nowadays.”

  Duncan smiled. He always trusted his daughter to do the right thing when it came time for marriage. A short time he’d been staying with Blake, he really came to admire the solitary man who had soon become something of a tribal leader. He knew Blake didn’t have any military or combat experience, but what he did have was practical knowledge on how to live and how to survive without anyone else’s help or input. He was a thoughtful person, a good listener, and he could see his daughter was falling head over heels in love with him

  Duncan kept mostly quiet, letting the others do the heavy lifting and occasionally moving some of the smaller bags with his one good arm. He knew the first trip would’ve been the smoothest. It was the next trip to finish unloading the truck that really bugged him and really worried him. Nonetheless if there was at least that much food left, they really needed to get to it. There were six of them at the Homestead now, and that little extra cushion of food would go a long way in easing his fears of a slow starvation in the coming winter months.

  The trip back to the homestead went just as smooth as it had the first time and they were soon unloading the packages once again. They were all drenched in sweat by the time they got unloaded and moved all the trucks behind the barn.

  “I can’t believe it went that smoothly,” Sandra told her father, giving him a hard hug before sitting him down to check on his arm.

  “Dad, you tore this open again. You weren’t supposed to-�
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  “I wasn’t. It must have been wrestling with that truck.”

  “It’s starting to get red around the edges. Lisa?” She called.

  “Yes?”

  “Can you take a look at my Dad’s shoulder? Does this look…”

  “Maybe a little. It’s going to be red around the edges as it heals.”

  “Wait, you know what a healing gunshot looks like?”

  “Sure. I worked at a vet’s office off and on until I went to college. Stupid hunters would accidentally catch their beagles with bird shot from time to time.”

  “I’m no dog,” Duncan was indignant, “I’m a man of God,” he said with a snuff, even though the poking and prodding had made him wince more than once.

  “You might be,” Lisa told him, but she was smiling.

  Something in her expression soon had Duncan smiling back and she laid one hand across his cheek before turning and heading into the house.

  “Are we going to get the rest out of the truck tonight?” Bobby asked no one in particular.

  “I don’t know. I’m pretty bushed, to be honest.”

  “Oh no you don’t,” Sandra told him, “you’ve got canning duty tonight.”

  “Canning duty is better than unloading trucks. Hey, can I ask you something?” He led her towards the barn and some privacy.

  “Sure.”

  In the shadow of the barn, she took in his expression and knew something was bugging him.

  “What is it?” She asked him after he hadn’t started to talk.

  “When you were in the Army… the killing. Did you ever have to… you know?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “I’m having a hard time sleeping. I keep having nightmares.”

  “I think we are all having nightmares, Blake.”

  “No, I mean, the guys I killed. The quad guys, the ones who shot your Dad. The massacre on the hill. It bugs me. It really does.”

  “That’s why I love you.”

  “Why? Because I can’t hardly sleep at night?” His voice was strained but she knew he was talking about something else.