Chasing the Dark: The Demon Inside

by A. P. Texan

  “Okay Mr. Montey, I’ll Pack up and get out of your hair. Thank you so much for letting me stay here and read. These books have been extremely helpful.”

  “Write me down a list of everything you want to take and you can square it up with me later. If you are right and this is the new normal than I wish you the best of luck and hope you stay safe.”

  With tears in her eyes, she gives Montey a big hug, she knows this is probably the last time she will see the 60-something gentleman who has become a friend to her over these last few months. ” Montey, this is probably going to be the last time you see me. After reading these books I know this is an EMP, everything fits. From what I’ve read this country was not prepared for this. No backups, no hardening of infrastructure. If the experts are correct, we are looking at a minimum of fifteen months without power and most likely a 90% die off. Jeremiah and I are going to leave in the morning for my dad in Texas. He is kind of a prepper and will get us through this. We just got to get to him.”

  “Here, if you need to get to Texas maybe this will help.” Montey walked behind the counter and spins the combination dial on his safe. He pulls out a Chrome colored pistol, a revolver with about a four-inch barrel and Brown wooden grips. Turning back to her he hands her the pistol and a box of 25 rounds of hollow point ammunition for it. “This is a 357 Magnum and will put anything short of a bear down for good. Have you ever shot a gun before?”

  “Montey, I just told you my Dad is kind of a prepper. Besides I don’t need your gun he gave Jeremiah and I a shotgun when we moved into the apartment. You keep it, you'll need it here.”

  “Stephanie, you take this pistol, and you use it to stay safe and get back to your father you hear me. I am not taking no for an answer now take it and get out of here.”

  “Yes, sir I will.” She puts the gun into her backpack then gives Montey another quick hug.” Thank you, Montey You’re a great friend. She breaks the hug turns and heads out into the growing darkness in a hurry to get back to the apartment.

  As she is walking home, she notices the lack of people on the street. All of the people that were out milling around on the street earlier today are now gone. It is strange how we have become so accustomed to artificial light that as the sun begins to go down and dusk settles into night people feel they need to be inside where it is safe. Even here in the sleepy college town of Stillwater everyone disappears with the Dark.

  Five minutes from home now she picks up her pace. She is anxious to get back to the comfort of home, the dark starting to press in on her; she wants to see Jeremiah and, most importantly she is starving.

  The apartment building is coming into view and she can see in the dying light Jeremiah's little Honda sitting in front and someone sitting on the trunk reading a book by flashlight.

  “Babe, is that you?”

  “Oh hey”, he jumps down off the car and walks over to her and gives her a big hug. “How did it go at the Bookend?”

  “Great, Montey was a huge help. He told me exactly where to look and what to look for and then he just let me take the books I wanted.” She slipped the bag off her back and unzipped it just a little, “He also gave me this” exposing the chrome firearm.

  “Wow, that’s great. Okay let’s go inside and figure out where to go from here.”

  After a dinner of Ramen noodles and sandwiches, using up the last of their lunch meat they decide it is time to try to make plans.

  Stephanie starts the planning, “Tonight while it is dark, we need to gather some supplies and first thing in the morning we need to hit the road. We have a long walk. Math has never been my strongest subject but, looking at a map at the bookstore and after reading a few books on survival I would say we have about 12 days to 2 weeks of walking.”

  “Yeah, my calculations are about the same. We are going to have to travel light or we will get worn out to quick and we will never make it.”

  “I read a couple survival and bushcraft manuals by a guy named Dave Canterbury and he has a philosophy of the 10 Cs of survivability. If we stick to those items and keep a couple of his books, I think we can do this.” Stephanie says

  “Ok so what are these 10 C’s?”

  “I can’t remember off the top of my head let me grab the book.” She reaches in her bag and finds a copy of Dave’s book “The Pathfinder System: Survivability for the common man.”

  “Here we go they are: A Cutting Tool, Combustion Device, Cover, Container, Cordage, Cotton Bandannas, Cargo Tape, Compass, Cloth Sail Needle, and Candling Device. He goes into detail what each of those is. For example: Cover is anything that provides cover from the elements. Cloths are even considered part of the Cover. But mostly he means something like a tarp or a tent.” She explains

  “Alright, so what should we do. Just go shoplift at Wal-Mart. It isn’t like we have any money or anything.” Jeremiah says kind of exasperated and Stephanie can tell he is starting to get a little mentally and emotionally fatigued.

  Stephanie gets on her knees in front of him and takes both of his hands in hers. She looks him directly in the eye and lets him know in no uncertain terms what is going to happen. “Jeremiah Sweety, I know your tired and I know your mentally and emotionally tired, but we got to think about what to do from here. I have to get home to my Dad, and I want you to come with me. If we have to go loot a store to get what we need to survive then that’s exactly what we are going to do. I understand you probably want to see your family and hopefully we will but, for right now we are going to pack some bags get some gear and get out of Stillwater. We have 250 miles of walking to do and the quicker we can start that the better off we will be.” standing up and looking at him she continued with her lecture. “I am going to get some paper and a pen, and we will sit down and go through this book together and see what we have and what we need to find. I want to get this done tonight so we can start walking tomorrow but if we don’t that’s fine, we can delay one more day.”

  “I love you, and I want to be with you forever.” Says Jerimiah, “If this is what you want, I’m in 100%. The research I got from the library at school was mostly technical jargon on exactly how an EMP happens and how the Pulse knocks out the electronics. I think your books are better suited for what we need. Your right we need a plan so let’s get some paper, figure out what we need to do and go from there.” He gets up finds a notebook and a pen and starts making notes as Stephanie Looks through the survival books and starts naming off supplies, they will need.

  Over the next hour they plan and make lists and then they are out the door. Their plan is to go to the Wal-Mart where Jon got the stuff for coffee, and the Academy Sports about another half mile down the road. It makes the most sense for the types of things they are looking for.

  0130 12 September 2021

  Euless Texas

  I’m driving the Kubota with Sandy; Elizabeth is driving the Kawasaki with Charles riding shot gun cradling the AR. He is wearing my Chest rig with the 6 full mags and put the other 2 mags in his go bag. I also gave him the radio that Sandy had earlier so we could talk between rigs. The girls are in the back seat both looking tired and scared. As we pull out onto Commerce street to head back to Keller, Eddie takes off the opposite direction on his motorcycle loaded down with his ruck sack and web gear.

  As we leave the neighborhood, we see the gas station on the corner of Hwy 183 and Westpark Way. QuikTrip, affectionately known as QT, the building is dark, and I don’t see any cars in the parking lot.

  Activating my PTT, I call Charles in the other side by side, “Hey Buddy, let’s pull into the QT and see if we can get some more food and water.”

  “Alright, how do you want to work it?”

  “Let’s go around back, I’ll go in first and clear it then the ladies can come in and help me scavenge. You stay out by the rigs and pull overwatch.” I say in reply

  “Alright sounds like a plan.”

  I pull the Kubota into the parking lot and around to the back door, Good no cars here either. However, I
do see the glass busted out of the back door. I pull up and exit my UTV,” Okay, everyone here is the plan. I am going to go in and clear the place. As you can see looters have already been here or still are. After I clear it all the ladies will go inside to help me gather anything useful. Concentrate mostly on food and drink. Charles is going to stay here and pull overwatch. Charles your primary job is to protect the ladies, Secondary is the rigs and the gear. Everyone clear on the plan?”

  “Yes” I hear them all say pretty much together.

  I pull a flashlight out of my bag as well as a half a dozen chem lights. Unholstering the Sig I keep the safety on and walk up to the door careful not to make any unnecessary noise on the broken glass. The door opens smoothly making little noise and I step into the dark convenience store. If I’m being honest, I am truly going to miss the convenience of QT, literally everything I need under one roof. The only thing better than QT would be Buc-ee’s. Anyways I digress. At a half crouch I make my way around the store checking up and down the aisles most of the junk food is gone as is all the beer and wine. That’s fine we aren’t here for that anyways. I then head to the Area where the restrooms and storage are. As I step into the men’s restroom my nose is assaulted by a strange yet familiar smell. It is the combination of copper, crap, and urine, the smell of death. It is familiar to me because of what happened earlier in the night. As my mind registers the smell, the images of what happened begin to flash through my mind. I shake my head trying to get the blood and brains out of my memory. I did what had to be done, I need to come to terms with that or it is going to continue to haunt me.

  Searching the restroom, I don’t see anything or anyone in the area around the sink or urinals so it must be in one of the stalls. I push open the first stall door, empty. Second door, empty. With a little apprehension I carefully open the last door, this is the large handicap stall. There shoved between the wall and the toilet one hand still resting on the handicap handrail is a QT employee. His red polo shirt torn open from multiple gunshots. Name tag, Ted Kurkowski Since 2011, Covered in a sheen of dried blood. Poor guy didn’t stand a chance. I step over and close his haunting eyes when, I notice his pants are still down around his ankles. Must have just been doing his business, when someone decided he needed to die. This is the tragedy of our new world.

  I close the stall door and lock it then slide under effectively locking the body in. Hopefully this will bring him some peace. Searching the rest of the store I see nothing else to worry about. I take out the chem lights activating them one by one as I walk around scattering them about the store. Then head back out the door holstering the 1911.

  “We’re clear, if you need to use the restroom I would do it now, there should be water pressure still. However, don’t go in the men’s room.” As I say this I turn and walk back in going around the counter were the nicotine is kept. I begin to fill up QT bags with all the cigarettes and snuff I can. And head out to drop them off in the Kubota. After that I concentrate on anything we can eat or drink.

  The cooler behind the drink displays is still cold. And full. We fill up the trailers and cargo beds with as much as we can and get back on the road. As I’m driving, I’m munching on some Jacks Link Peppered Beef Jerky and sipping on a Coke. The cool breeze and the quiet sends me back into my thoughts the images again haunting my brain. A popular Five Finger Death Punch song pops into my head, Wrong side of Heaven, the lyrics hit me more now than ever.

  ‘I spoke to God today and she said that she's ashamed

  What have I become?

  What have I done?

  I spoke to the devil today and he swears he's not to blame

  And I understood cause I feel the same

  Arms wide open

  I stand alone

  I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone

  Right or wrong

  I can hardly tell

  I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell

  The wrong side of heaven and the righteous side,

  The righteous side of hell’

  I take a long drink from my Coke and pull out my smokes, light one and try to shake the thoughts from my head.

  Sandy Speaks up from the seat next to me, “Babe, you okay, you’ve been extremely quiet, I’m worried about you.”

  “Just trapped inside my own head, the weight of what’s going on is starting to get to me, the dumbasses earlier that I killed, threatening to kill Elizabeth and Ed, then in the restroom back there a QT employee was shot a half dozen times in the chest while he was taking a dump, who would do that to someone, and am I becoming that person, have I always been that person and have I just been able to keep it suppressed in a civil society, I don’t know. The line between right and wrong is starting to blur, and that line has been my guide most of my life.”

  “You are a good man; in fact, you are the best man I’ve ever known. A moral, and ethical beacon; who just wants to keep his family and friends safe in a very unsafe world.”

  “Aww, you’re so sweet babe, thank you, I’m so lucky to have you. You keep me balanced.” I say with emotion and sincerity

  The ride back to Keller is uneventful although I feel a little dread as we pass the County Maintenance Yard.

  0430 12 September 2021

  Keller Texas

  We pull up to the house everything is dark and quiet. Good, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary just the way I like it. However, I realize we don’t have enough space for everyone.

  “Crap, I didn’t think this through, we don’t have enough room for everyone here.” The irritation with myself clear in my voice

  “Chase, calm down, you are being way too hard on yourself nobody expects you to think of everything, so far you have done a great job. And we will figure out the arrangements.”

  “Thanks, well since we are back Bob can take his family back home, plus we have the empty house across the street it hasn’t been leased out yet. Let’s wake up Bob and get this figured out”

  “No need to wake me up, my watch doesn’t end for another 30 minutes or so.” Bob says as he comes walking out of the dark at the corner of the house

  “Nice to see you again Bob, Watches are a good idea, who’s your relief?”

  “Natalie, your Nephew and I have been rotating.” He reaches out to shake my hand “How was the trip, you cut it close on your 7-hour window.”

  As we are talking Sandy is getting the group organized to empty the trailers and get everything stored in the garage.

  “We ran into a couple… um … issues, they were handled and then on the way back we scavenged a QT. So, it took a little longer than necessary. Go ahead and go inside, tell Rusty, and Natalie the watches are covered. It is only a few more hours till daylight. Get some sleep. Charles, come over here.” I say.

  Charles comes over to where we are Standing and reaches out his hand to Bob. “Charles, you must be Bob, Dad was telling me about you on the way here”. Bob reaches out and they exchange a firm handshake. “Thanks for watching after my Grandma and Rusty”

  “My pleasure, your old man here is helping all of us, least we can do is contribute to the cause.”

  I interrupt their conversation,” Charles, take over guard duties. I’m going to take a quick power nap in the recliner, I’ll take over in an hour. Keep an eye on your watch and come wake me up.”

  “You got it, have a good nap old man” He says with a smirk on his face.

  With that I step in the house, sit in the recliner and quickly drift off into a deep sleep. But the images quickly appear. I am reliving the sequence of events from yesterday. The whole day is going through my mind as if watching a movie in fast forward. Except I’m not seeing it through my eyes, I am seeing it as another person, I am watching myself. Just as the movie is about to reach the shooting the screen shakes and goes dark.

  “Dad, Dad, DAD!!, Wake up!” Savannah is shaking my shoulder. “We decided to let you sleep a little longer, you looked like you needed it.”

  0800
12 September 2021

  Keller Texas

  “Coffee, I need coffee” I say as I open my eyes. “What time is it?”

  “It’s around eight and here is your coffee, sorry it is black we are out of creamer” Sandy answers as she comes walking into the living room.

  “Black is fine”, I say as I stand up and stretch,” How are we on water, I really need to wash down a bit”

  “Well, with what we brought home last night we probably have a week maybe two stored. For right now we still have decent pressure. Also, when we get to the farm, we will have the well.”

  “Good, I am going to get the fire pit going and heat up a big pot of water, we will set up the big tarp in the backyard and everyone can take turns going back there and washing up. This might be our last chance for a few days so let’s make the best of it.” With that I give my wife a big hug and Kiss and head for the backyard, “Oh, and thanks for letting me sleep, I needed it.”

  In the back yard I light up a smoke and go about getting a fire started in the fire pit. Knowing I need to conserve resources I decide not to use any charcoal lighter on it and instead grab a small stick of fatwood I keep with my fire stuff and a small flat piece of fencing lumber. I place the fencing lumber in the bottom of the fire pit and then start to take small shavings off the fat wood with a pocketknife. I get a nice one-inch pile of shavings and put the fatwood away grabbing a handful of small pencil lead size kindling. I carefully place this on top of the fatwood shavings then grab some other kindling of gradually larger sizes. With my Bic lighter I light the fatwood and watch as the flames grow and start to ignite the kindling as the fire grows so does the amount and size of fuel, I add eventually putting on 3 one-inch thick pieces of split hickory. As those start to catch, I finally add three Larger pieces of split hickory.

  Letting the fire build I go back inside and find my large ten by twenty tarp and some heavy-duty zip ties. I set them to the side and grab the ten-by-ten canopy we use for picnics and some family camping trips and begin to set it up. The canopy will be close to the fire but not so close that it melts and then around that I will zip tie the tarp. This tarp will only cover 2 sides, so I need to find something else. But before I go in search, I throw another log on the fire. I want a really good bed of hot coals to get the water warmed up. Inside the garage I find a couple of old wool blankets. Back outside at the canopy I rig up the blankets. Not perfect but it will at least give people a little privacy to wash up.