Neighborhood Watch: After the EMP

by EE Isherwood

  I focused back on Kaira. “So, did Levar find you, or did you find him?”

  “He found me, of course. I’d walked quite a ways from my work, but I have to admit I got a little lost. He saw me wandering on a random street just before dark last night, and we hunkered down until first light.”

  “We went through the woods,” Levar continued. “We came out behind your house, which is how we got around those fellas at the roadblock. Luke found us just as he and the others ran to help you, so we were able to protect the kids while we caught our breaths.”

  “I’m so glad to hear it,” I said, happy to have the couple back on our street. “But what the heck are the rest of you guys doing out here? I told you to be ready to run, not arm up and expose yourselves to danger. I was very specific, and I even used my serious voice.”

  “We talked it over,” Luke laughed. “And decided we’re the neighborhood watch, not the neighborhood runaways. We figured it would help you out if those men on the roadblock saw we stood behind our leader, no matter what.”

  “And the kids?” I pressed.

  “Don’t worry, Frank. Before Levar came back, Ty and Rainey were going to watch over Daisy and the twins. They had orders to run into the woods if any shooting broke out, just like you said. We simply took your plan and made it better, so no one got left behind, especially not you.”

  My reasoning for chasing my friends away was to keep them safe, as inviting them to tangle with six armed men seemed like a bad idea. My gut still told me they would have been better off hanging back and waiting to see how things played out, but I also had pride in their dedication to the idea of a neighborhood watch. I’d been leaning toward extreme caution, but maybe bold would serve us better. Rather than hiding in foxholes, we had to be out there at our borders making it clear we were not easy targets to be walked over. Perhaps Luke and the others had inadvertently convinced Zen we were better off as allies than enemies.

  “Well, I’m not going to say I’m happy you didn’t listen to me, but I can see why you guys did it.”

  “Your instructions were to focus on keeping the kids safe,” Luke replied. “We talked it over and decided the best way to do that in the long-term is to make sure you stay alive. Your skills are what have kept us going over the past day.”

  “Yeah, but—” I tried to say.

  “Come on, Frank, admit it,” Carmen interjected, “you’re glad we covered your six.”

  The more I thought about it, the more I privately admired what my friends had become. Their creative interpretation of my suggestions didn’t mean they were reckless or disobedient, but instead meant they were operating as a team. A team I’d been actively encouraging since I’d first come out on my driveway the day before. My heightened concern for their safety had given them the chance to voluntarily put themselves in danger. It was a huge leap of trust I might not have asked of them for quite some time.

  “Yeah, okay,” I said in a you-got-me voice. “I’m glad to know we’re all looking out for each other. This is the unity we’re going to need to survive whatever these coming days bring to us.”

  For the next couple of minutes, we walked back toward our houses like conquering heroes. The mood was light, and Penny, Carmen, and Ben alternately asked Levar and Kaira questions about their journey.

  Luke, however, stuck close to me. Unlike the others, he held his shotgun with purpose and kept watch over our friends. When he saw me looking at him, he flashed a quick head nod, indicating he’d seen me.

  It was one more feather in the cap of our neighborhood watch.

  We all gathered between Luke’s house and Trevor’s. Ty and Rainey arrived with the twins, plus little Daisy. Luke finally let his guard down to hug his children, but then he turned to Levar as if he had an exciting story to tell.

  “You should have seen Frank go after those two jerks who’d stolen your stuff. He was like a pitbull on steroids. He walked into Trevor’s home and yanked him right onto the front lawn.”

  “No shit?” Levar mused.

  “It wasn’t quite like that,” I answered.

  “It was exactly like that,” Luke insisted. “He got them to reveal what they’d taken, then he freaking made them go put it all back. He even made them hang the TV back on your wall.”

  “But it doesn’t even work,” Levar laughed.

  I shrugged.

  “Thanks for that, Frank,” Levar continued. “I know none of those things are worth much right this second, but I’m glad they’re back in my house. More importantly, it helps to know we had people looking out for our property while we were gone. I can’t say enough how grateful we are.”

  Kaira hugged her husband as she leaned against him.

  “It was a team effort,” I replied.

  Penny stepped closer.

  “Just accept that you played a part in our success, Frank. We’re all trying to thank you for helping us.”

  “You’re welcome,” I finally said. “But I’m not going to rest on my laurels. We’ve won this one, but now we’ve got to get everyone back to work. All these cars are now free for us to move to the roadblock. Those kids should start fishing again. We need to post guards…”

  A few of them groaned with good-natured disappointment.

  “Seriously, folks. I’m honored that I was able to introduce myself over the past twenty-four hours, and that I haven’t let you down. Likewise, I’d like to get to know all of you guys even better than I do today. I’m glad Levar and Kaira are back, and I’m thankful all our kids are home safe, including our new friends Alex and Z.”

  The twins blushed at the call-out.

  “But I’m getting back to work because there are no breaks in the apocalypse. If the power doesn’t come back on, and society shits its pants, the only people we’ll be able to count on to survive are those standing right here on this street. We did good this morning, but we’ll face new challenges tomorrow. That means we have to prepare. Are you guys ready?”

  My words got everyone excited.

  “I’ve got to head home and get something, then we’ll get back to moving cars, okay?”

  “Sure, Frank,” Luke replied. “We’ll all be waiting for you.”

  I turned to walk away, but then stopped, intending to reply. However, Luke seemed to recognize what he’d said.

  “We’ll move a car or two before you return,” he clarified.

  “Good man,” I chuckled.

  We all separated to do our tasks. Mine took me back into my home, which I’d barely visited in the past day. The garage was mostly empty, ready to become the hub of our new neighborhood watch. My front room was full of tiny glass shards, and several walls had small holes punched through by Trevor’s bullets. What little furniture I had seemed unharmed.

  I wasn’t concerned about anything inside.

  My reason for being there was out on my patio table.

  “There you are,” I said with relief.

  I pushed the useless CD player out of the way and swooped up the pile of books I’d brought home from the library. The stack was about a foot tall, with ten or so novels in the collection. When I checked them out, I’d almost put some back, since I figured it would be a stretch to read so many books in the two weeks before they were due back. At the time, I knew the moving truck was soon to arrive, and it would have brought more than two-week’s worth of labor for me. However, being retired meant I didn’t have to care about those deadlines anymore, so I ended up taking them all.

  I was glad I did.

  Each story could have clues about how to survive the apocalypse I was stuck inside, but the ironic thing was I’d never had less free time to read them. Even while I drove my trucks, I could listen to books on tape. Now, there were no digital crutches.

  “Thank God I didn’t buy an e-reader,” I mused as I went inside.

  I could have put a thousand novels on an e-reader, but I preferred to hold a real book, smell the pages, and admire the cover. Things that I’d been doing my whole life.
If I’d committed to digital format, I might now have a thousand books lost forever. Losing that much knowledge in one strike would have been devastating.

  As it was, I had a small trove of knowledge to tap. Later, I might return to the library and see about getting more.

  “You’re coming with me,” I said to the novels.

  My destination was the gun lockers. I placed the stack inside the first one, then locked it back up. There was no question I needed to protect them just as I would any other weapon in our inventory.

  Those books could hold the key to our neighborhood’s survival.

  ###

  To Be Continued in Neighborhood Watch, Book 2

  If you enjoyed this story, I’d be grateful if you could take sixty seconds and leave a review on Amazon. I believe you can even do it without writing anything, just click a star rating. So easy!

  Reviews are what fuels the success of any book on Amazon. The more reviews, the more people see it. When more people see it, it sells better. A movie producer happens to stroll by and sees how great it is…and soon there’s a movie.

  That’s the dream anyway.

  Whatever you do from here, thank you for being a reader.

  This book is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Neighborhood Watch (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds)

  are Copyright (c) 2021 by E.E. Isherwood

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of E.E. Isherwood

  Version 1.0

  Cover by Covers by Christian

  Author Notes

  Written July 27, 2021

  I’m the kind of person who sits on his back patio and thinks through what I would do if the world went sideways.

  What if the power went out in the whole city?

  What if it started raining and didn’t stop for a month?

  What if the dregs of a Mad Max movie came plowing up our street?

  When I write books about the end of the world, I try to make my characters closer to the average dudes and dudettes of the world, rather than a Rambo-type swinging chainsaws and driving tanks. This is because I’m interested in what you and I would do in a disaster, based on those conversations on the back patio, and maybe a few books we’ve read on the subject, rather than all-knowing survivalists who already have all the answers.

  This means I would make mistakes. I would tie a knot the wrong way. I would walk by a certain type of motor that only aircraft mechanics who did tours in a certain province of Afghanistan would recognize, unaware of its importance. I would absolutely call someone “hey you” during a disaster, because I’d forgotten their name.

  These are things I would do on a normal day.

  But if you’ve ever been in a real emergency situation, one where lives are truly on the line, you’ll know some people rise to the top, despite their mistakes, imperfections, and knowledge gaps. Some people seem extra confident and competent as they confront the problem, while others fade into the background. That’s the spirit I tried to capture with characters and situations like you find in Neighborhood Watch.

  If the EMP comes to your block, I’m not saying use Frank Douglas and his neighbors as the model for your disaster planning, but you can’t go wrong by focusing on the basics. Water. Food. Shelter. Security. In book 2, he and his friends will be working on several of those at the same time…

  …and they’ll be fine as long as everyone else remains as calm as them.

  I’m sure that will happen…

  Thank you for taking the time to read this book. I hope you’ll check out some of my others while you wait for book 2 of this series.

  EE

  E.E. Isherwood’s other books

  Minus America – What would happen if everyone in the US vanished in a flash? Every trucker. Every housewife. Every police officer. How would you survive in an empty land? Who would come to take it? Five books.

  Impact (co-written with Mike Kraus) – A post-apocalyptic thriller about an asteroid slamming across the heartland of America. Six books.

  End Days (co-written with Craig Martelle) – A post-apocalyptic adventure about a father and son on opposite ends of a continent ravaged by a failed science experiment. Soon to be five books.

  Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse – A teen boy must keep his great-grandma alive to find the cure to the zombie plague, but what if the only people immune are those over 100? Seven book box set.

  Amazon – amazon.com/author/eeisherwood

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  My web page – www.eeisherwood.com