The Gathering Storm: Book 2 of the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series: (Surviving the Fall Series - Book 2)

by Mike Kraus

  “Nothing, kiddo; everything’s clear and safe.” Dianne took the rifle from his hands, ejected the magazine and cleared the chamber before nodding at him approvingly. “Well done. How’re the other two?”

  “They’re fine. Jacob’s reading, Josie’s drawing.”

  “Thanks for taking care of them. Did you see or hear anyone?”

  “Nope.” Mark’s forehead furrowed. “Why’d you want me to be quiet a minute ago?”

  Dianne leaned Mark’s rifle up against the wall next to the door and locked up the back door as she answered. “I want to try and keep things as quiet as we can for the next few days, just in case that fire at the Carson’s place wasn’t an accident. That means no shouting and no playing or working outside unless we absolutely have to.”

  “Probably shouldn’t run the generator or have a fire either, right?”

  Dianne smiled and patted Mark on the back. “Good job. That’s exactly right. Let’s keep things quiet for a few days, okay? Oh, by the way, after dinner can you help me get your dad’s night vision cameras set up? I think we’ve got enough juice in the batteries to run a couple of those, right?”

  Mark nodded. “I think so. They just need the router to be working and you can view their feeds from your phone or tablet.”

  “Cool. Help me out with that after dinner. Speaking of which, I’m going to get your rifle put away in the case above the fridge. Can you tell your brother and sister to come down? I’ll put some soup on to heat up.” Mark nodded and ran back up the stairs. Dianne picked his rifle back up and took one last look out through the back door before closing the curtains across the door and walking into the kitchen.

  Mounted above the refrigerator, the long horizontal cabinet was accessed by a five-digit combination lock. Dianne and Rick were the only ones that knew the combination but as Dianne put away the rifle Mark had been using, she decided that he would need to know the code as well. She was confident in his maturity when it came to the gun, but she didn’t want Jacob and Josie to have free access to it. While Josie had shown appropriate levels of respect and care when it came to firearms, Jacob was still careless enough in his day-to-day life that Dianne felt nervous about leaving a rifle out for him to potentially pick up.

  After locking Mark’s gun and a couple of spare magazines away in the cabinet, Dianne pulled her rifle off of her back and laid it out on top of the refrigerator, keeping it up out of the way while she started on dinner. She thought about turning on the generator out behind the house to make the night’s meal slightly easier to prepare but she didn’t want to have the noise attract any undue attention. Plenty of charge in the batteries to keep the freezer and fridge on tonight and the hotplate shouldn’t take up much juice, either.

  As Mark, Jacob and Josie came down the stairs, Dianne was opening a large container of canned New England Clam Chowder and dumping it into a saucepan. “Hon, would you get out some crackers and get everyone’s drinks ready? I think we’ve got some apples you can slice, too.”

  “Sure, mom.” Mark and Dianne worked together to get the meal prepared while Jacob and Josie set the table. After everything was laid out and they started eating, Dianne grabbed her notebook and pen and began sketching on the paper in between bites of food.

  “What’s that, mom?” Josie craned her head in curiosity as she tried to see the pages.

  “Well,” Dianne said, “I’m trying to come up with some ideas for how to make sure all of us and our house and animals can stay safe.”

  “Oh.” Josie took another bite of soup as she contemplated her mother’s response. “Safe from what?”

  “Good question. We need to stay warm with the weather getting colder and we need to make sure that if any bad people try to hurt the house or our animals we can keep them away.”

  “Oh.” The answer seemed to satisfy Josie, but Jacob spoke up next.

  “What kind of bad people, mom? Did they burn down the house with Mr. and Mrs. Carsons?”

  “No, Jacob. The Carsons weren’t there.”

  “But some bad guys burned down their house? What if they come here? Do you think they were, like, from—”

  “Ooookay!” Dianne stood up and smiled, speaking over Jacob. “Lots of questions, but we’ll get to them tomorrow, okay? There are no bad people here at the house and we’re going to keep it that way. Now Jacob and Josie, I want you two to clear the table and rinse the bowls out. Once you’re done you can go to the living room and read or play quietly before bed, okay?”

  A pair of resigned voices grumbled “yes, ma’am” as they got up from the table, moving as slowly as they possibly could. Mark moved over one seat and looked over his mother’s shoulder as she continued jotting notes down on her paper.

  “Barbed wire?” Mark raised an eyebrow as he read from the page.

  “Just an idea.” Dianne shrugged. “We have the fence running around the property but it won’t stop anyone from coming in. I think we have a few spools of barbed wire, still. Might be enough to deter people from coming in through the front near the driveway. It won’t keep people out but maybe they’ll think twice.”

  Mark waited until his brother and sister were out of the room before whispering his next question. “Do you really think someone burned down their house?”

  Dianne sighed. “I’m not really sure. I don’t think so, but after what we saw in town I don’t want to take any chances. I think we need to be extra careful for the next few days, especially at night. I’ll really need your help with this, okay?”

  Dianne could tell that Mark was feeling excited about his new role in the ongoing crisis, which helped to reduce the stress of the situation. “Sure thing. What do you want me to do?”

  “Help me get those cameras hooked up tonight to start. Mostly I need you to watch over your brother and sister and make sure you’re paying attention to what’s going on around you. Remember what your dad and I taught you about that, okay?”

  Mark nodded and Dianne smiled and ruffled his hair as she stood up. “You’re a good kid, kid. Now c’mon; let’s go get the cameras hooked up.”

  While Jacob and Josie played in the living room, Mark located the few pieces of equipment that they would need to have powered on to make the cameras on the outside of the house function properly. Rick had installed a pair of night vision cameras on each of the four corners of the house, near the roof, about a month before leaving on his trip.

  The impetus for installing the cameras had been a pack of coyotes that had been in the area, howling away for several nights in a row as they started roaming closer to the Waters’ home. When combined with several spotlights and speakers set up throughout the property, Rick had intended on scaring away any of the animals if they started sniffing around the farm at night, but before he could get everything hooked up the howls had stopped. The cameras were installed and wired but lacking power and neither Mark nor Dianne knew whether the spotlights and speakers were functional.

  After Dianne and Mark got the power cables for the cameras that were running through the attic plugged in, Mark got the network router online as well. After a few minutes of waiting for both the cameras and the router to power up, Mark powered up a tablet computer from Rick’s office and opened a security camera application on the device. It took another half hour of fiddling with cables and settings on the tablet, router and cameras but by the time the sun was starting to set the first image popped up on the tablet and Dianne grinned. “Nice work!”

  Mark continued with the setup of the other cameras and before too long he handed the tablet to Dianne. “Here you go, mom. You can push this button to cycle through the cameras and this button changes them from regular video to night vision.”

  “Well done. This is perfect. Is there a way to make a motion alert on the tablet?”

  “Yep!” Mark took the tablet back and showed Dianne how to work the more intricate functions of the app. When everything was said and done Dianne nodded with satisfaction. “Can you set up one of the other tablet
s around here with this same thing? I think your dad has another one in his office somewhere. I’d like to keep one in the bedroom and one downstairs in the kitchen or living room.”

  “Sure, I just need to find it.”

  Dianne nodded. “I’ll help you with that tomorrow. I think this’ll be perfect for tonight. Why don’t you head back downstairs and find something to do. Maybe we can look for the spotlights and speakers tomorrow and see how much work those would be to get hooked up.”

  Mark nodded and headed downstairs while Dianne flipped through the views of the different cameras on the app. Being able to see the entirety of the outside of the house at a glance made her feel much more at ease. As the night drew on she kept the tablet close to her, glancing at it every few minutes while she worked on preparing the next day’s meals and getting a few things cleaned up around the house.

  After her children were in bed, Dianne laid on her side and stared at the tablet as she tried to get to sleep. There was no sign of movement anywhere outside but she still felt uneasy despite that fact. She turned over to look at the ceiling and felt the space in the bed next to her. Instead of feeling Rick, though, she felt the cold steel of her rifle tucked just underneath the blanket and sighed, then closed her eyes and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

  Chapter 9

  US Government Facility

  Six days before the event

  The President of the United States is not having a good day. It has been forty-eight hours since the advanced cyber-warfare system codenamed ‘DAMOCLES’ was compromised and he has been briefed on the situation by the Joint Chiefs and the head project managers from the NSA who developed the covert application.

  The President paces around the conference room table as he listens to the project managers describe the details on what Damocles is capable of before he interrupts them by picking up a lamp and throwing it at the wall. “Will one of you shit-stains kindly explain to me just how the hell Damocles was available for long enough for an intruder to get their hands on it? Why wasn’t it air gapped to begin with? Jesus f—”

  “Sir?” A secretary peeks her head in through the door of the conference room.

  “What is it?” The President roars at her as he storms back to his seat. He grips the back of the chair with both hands, turning his fingertips and knuckles white.

  “Michael Evans is here, sir.”

  “Evans? Who the devil is Evans?”

  “The security expert you wanted to see, sir.”

  “Oh. Right.” The President frowns. “Send him in.”

  A man with disheveled hair, wrinkled shirt, stained khakis and a jacket with leather elbow patches hurries into the room. In his hand is a leather case that he places on the table before sitting down in the closest chair.

  “Sorry I’m late, Mr. President.”

  “We expected you two hours ago. Where’ve you been?” The President barks in response. Evans, however, barely pays him any mind as he opens his leather case and pulls out several thick stacks of paper. He stands up and begins hurrying around the conference table, dropping a stack of paper in front of each person as he begins to talk.

  “Sorry, the printer ran out of ink when we got to the last few copies. Some of you might have to share.”

  “What’s this?” A man in a military uniform that appears to have a composition breakdown of seventy-five percent cloth and twenty-five percent medals starts thumbing through the stack of papers before passing it to the man to his left.

  “This, I’m sorry to say, is an analysis that I just finished running earlier this morning on the effects of Damocles.”

  A murmur passes across the table as the Generals whisper with one another. The one who asked the initial question speaks up again, looking at the President as he does. “I’m sorry, but who are you exactly? I was under the impression that Damocles knowledge was classified at the highest levels.”

  The President lets out a smirk as he answers before Evans can. “Dr. Michael Evans is the one who came up with the original theories that brought Damocles into existence. You would know him better as ‘Dr. Howard Chu,’ an alias he went by to protect his standing in the academic community after we bought everything related to Damocles a few years ago.”

  “You… you’re Dr. Chu?” The man’s eyes widen and Dr. Evans nods humbly.

  “Yes, sir, I am.” He glances down at a copy of the papers he passed around the table. “Now, if you’ll direct your attention to page thirty, I can give you a summary on what to expect now that Damocles is in the wild.”

  Everyone in the room turns to page thirty and Dr. Evans continues. “Thank you. “Now as you can see from the charts on the page, wide-scale attacks are most likely not going to begin for another forty-eight to seventy-two hours. At this point, whoever infiltrated the Damocles system most likely doesn’t realize that they were infected with the weapon when they downloaded the source code. If they are working to study and/or weaponized it for their own benefits, as I’m certain they are, then Damocles is learning a hundred times more about them than they are about it.”

  “Damocles infected them when they stole it?” The same general speaks again and the President answers before Dr. Evans can.

  “Damn straight. That’s part of why it’s so dangerous. It learns from every interaction it has, be it with a system or a human, isn’t that right, Evans?”

  “Indeed, Mr. President.” Dr. Evans pushes his glasses up on his nose and sighs. “Unfortunately, due to Damocles not being completely air gapped as I recommended, page thirty-five lays out the worst-case scenario for what’s going to take place over the next week. When I say worst-case scenario, though, you should know that I mean that this is the most likely scenario.”

  Pages are turned across the table before a series of slight gasps are heard. “This can’t be true.” Another man in uniform speaks next, his face contorted in horror. “Is this some kind of a joke, sir?”

  The President shakes his head grimly. “I’m afraid not. Evans?”

  Dr. Evans clears his throat and tugs nervously at his collar. “Gentlemen, what you see before you is what Damocles was designed to do.”

  “Surely our military systems are hardened against this!” A woman a few seats down nearly shouts and Dr. Evans shakes his head.

  “I’m afraid not. Again, if my suggestions had been heeded then we would have had—”

  “Evans.” The President speaks gruffly, glaring at Dr. Evans. “Stick to what we can do now that it’s out in the wild. A lot of people screwed up and I’ll personally make sure their heads are on spikes before it’s all said and done. But we need options right now. Suggestions?”

  Dr. Evans eases back into his chair and runs his hands through his hair, then takes his glasses off and rubs the lenses with the bottom of his shirt. He says nothing for a moment as he stares across the room at a satellite map of the country. When he finally puts his glasses back on he takes a deep breath and turns back to the President.

  “Pray, Mr. President. That’s the only thing to do at this point. Pray.”

  Chapter 10

  The Waters’ Homestead

  Ellisville, VA

  Nearly a week after setting up the security cameras, Dianne and her children fell into an uneasy routine around their home. With no signs of anyone on or near their property during the day or evening, Dianne began to relax her vigilance with watching the cameras and started focusing more on getting the house and property set up for a long-term stay.

  Two days of work with Mark in a small clearing out behind the house yielded a fifty percent increase in power availability thanks to the installation of several new solar panels as well as two more batteries that Dianne had found in a box in the basement. There was enough power to keep the deep freezer, refrigerator, cameras, a few lights and a small space heater all running at once during the day. When night rolled around the batteries provided enough power to keep the freezer, refrigerator and cameras running, but Dianne restricted the use of lights
and the space heater.

  Once the solar panels were set up and hooked up to the house, Dianne started replenishing the stock of firewood outside the house while Mark worked on collecting and cataloguing pieces of a potential greenhouse and aquaponics setup in one of the barns. Jacob and Josie, meanwhile, were tasked with working in the vegetable gardens and the small field where they collected potatoes, corn, squash and other vegetables. After stacking what they collected into paper bags, Jacob and Josie carted them back up to the house and took them down into the basement for Dianne to help sort through at a later point in time.

  As Dianne stood up from helping Mark carry a large box full of rubber tubing out of a room in the barn, she realized that she hadn’t noticed the additional weight on her back for the last couple of hours. In addition to keeping her pistol tucked into her waistband Dianne also made a point of carrying her rifle on her back anytime she was outside. At first the weapon had been bulky and uncomfortable, but after a few days of work she started to not notice it as much until—finally—it felt almost natural to be carrying it. That realization bothered her more than she cared to admit, but she pushed it from her mind and refocused on the task at hand.

  “Do you really think we can grow stuff down in the basement?” Mark scratched his head as he looked at the organized chaos of the supplies laid out on the floor of the barn.

  Dianne nodded. “I do, yeah. These LED grow lights barely consume any power and there are enough of them here to fill almost the entire barn. I want to keep things confined to the house at first, though, especially as the weather gets colder.”

  “How much do you want to grow?”

  Dianne shrugged. “As much as we can. I think having some fresh greens all winter long will make things easier on everybody.”