Survive the Aftermath (Small Town EMP Book 2) Read online

  “I can’t get that crap we saw on that drive out of my head,” he confessed. “All that information. It was hard to take in, and I don’t even understand most of it. Thank God Nash is here. That kid is smart. I hate not being able to know what’s happening. I’ve never been one of those people who can put my head in the sand and hope for the best, but now I’m just confused.”

  Amanda’s soft laugh washed over him. “You’re a journalist. By nature, you have to dig. You have to know the how and the why.”

  “I do! It’s how I work, Amanda. I need to know what’s coming. I thrive on information. I hate that I can’t make heads or tails of that gibberish we saw. It looked like the ravings of a mad man planning for world domination through a series of computer programs and viruses. Is that what you got out of it?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “In a nutshell, yes, but maybe we’re wrong. Maybe it really is the ravings of some crazy guy with too much money and too much computer know-how.”

  “Savannah said Zander claimed there was a group of people doing this,” he reminded her.

  She sighed. “I don’t know what to think about any of it. It’s overwhelming, but what can we do about it right this very minute? Nash is going over it and looking for anything that might help us or give us an edge, but we’re not the ones in control. I know that’s a hard pill to swallow—trust me, I get it. I don’t like it, either. But we have to focus on the right now.”

  “It isn’t about a lack of control, but more about why? Why would anyone want to do this? I need to know the end game,” he admitted, standing up to pace. “The stories I used to cover about various wars and scandals all had an end game. The people were doing what they did because they wanted something. What do these people want—the earth in general?” he demanded. His voice had raised with the frustration, but he couldn’t let it go.

  “They’re crazy, Austin, in the literal sense of the word. You just can’t let them drive you crazy,” Amanda answered, reasonably enough to make him scowl at her logic as she went on. “They clearly have big egos. You can’t ever apply reason and logic to irrational, egotistical fanatics,” she said.

  He shook his head, running a hand over his stubbled jaw before looking back at her. “The entire world is being affected by their schemes. Who does that? Who wants to destroy an entire world? What, there are like seven billion people on the planet, and we have a couple hundred rich, arrogant jerks who decide their way is the only way? I don’t get it. I can’t get my head around it. It is insane!” he said, his voice rising more as he gave voice to his thoughts.

  He’d been unable to think of practically anything else since they’d opened the files on the USB drive. Austin, along with Amanda, Nash, and Ennis, had decided it was best to keep the information to themselves until they knew what to do with it. He didn’t want Savannah worrying any more than necessary. And Tonya Loveridge, for one, was barely hanging on and certainly didn’t need any more stress. As the leader of the revivalists, she’d have been the logical one to share the information with, but all of them knew she wasn’t up to shouldering more information.

  “Nash said he was working it out,” Amanda said in a low, soothing voice. “Let’s give him some time to try and make sense of it all.”

  “We have a single laptop, and we’re somehow supposed to be able to use it to bring them down and fix everything. Or at least make it more bearable. Really? How? I’m guessing the whiz kid isn’t that smart. I don’t know much, if anything, about computers, satellites, or digital technology in general, Amanda—I’m a journalist, not a scientist. This stuff wasn’t supposed to come down to me.”

  Amanda stood up and caught his arm, forcing him to face her before she answered. “Austin, relax. Let’s take this one day at a time. Let’s focus on what we do have, rather than what we don’t. There’s enough food to last a few months, assuming everyone stays. The water supply, that could get a little tricky, but we’ll figure something out. We have a roof over our heads and, unlike the rest of the world, we still have electricity from the solar panels during the day, and the turbine as back-up, too,” she reminded him. “We’ll start rationing and thinking about the future. I think that will help bring you some peace. You need a plan, and now we have one for the short-term. We’re okay for now.”

  He smirked. “I used to make so much fun of my brother for spending all that money on the house. One year for Christmas, I gave him a hat made from tin foil. It was pretty funny then, but I guess he’s probably the one laughing now.”

  Amanda’s soft laugh filled the area. “If it had been my brother building a house like this, I probably would have done the same thing.”

  With that, Amanda tugged Austin back to their rock and they sat in silence, listening to the trees rustling in the slight breeze high overhead. He remained silent beside her, thinking they both needed a bit of peace after the productive, if stressful, conversation they’d just had. Above them, a variety of birds were singing their songs as they flew from branch to branch, happy as they could be and not caring a bit that the world was in serious turmoil. Their world was completely unaffected. Austin envied them.

  As more moments passed, Austin felt himself calming down and finally just appreciating the peace of the forest. It was nice to have company that didn’t require conversation. There was an easy comfort between him and Amanda that allowed them to be near each other without feeling like they had to fill the silence.

  Part of his problem lately was that he didn’t get enough silence—in his mind, anyway. He’d been thinking a lot about everything he’d seen and heard since the day the world had gone dark. When he’d been looking for Savannah, he hadn’t had a lot of time to really think about the why behind the darkness. Since he’d had to confront Zander and had gotten her back, it was all he could think about.

  “It feels like a cult,” Austin finally blurted out, speaking the thought he’d found himself circling back to. Again.

  “What? The revivalists? I thought we already established they’re okay,” Amanda replied, her face twisted with confusion.

  He shook his head. “No, not them. I don’t think they’re a cult. A little different, but I don’t think they’re marrying twelve-year-olds to old men or drinking the blood of virgins. I’m talking about these egomaniacs who created this disaster.”

  “You think they’re a cult?” she asked, clearly not following his line of thought.

  “Think about it. They’ve devised this plan to destroy everyone’s belief system. They’re stripping everything away, leaving the human race almost helpless. Because we’re not all completely mindless, insipid fools, they’ve propagated civil wars, destroying the populous that wants to try and stay strong, to think for themselves. Then, we have these savior guys, the wealthy elite who know better than all of us, ready to swoop in and save the day. They have their rules that all must follow or face death,” he explained, his brain moving fast as he compared the facts to his research on other established cults. This was the first time he’d gotten a chance to speak any of these thoughts aloud, and they made more and more sense as he did.

  “Now you’re kind of creeping me out,” Amanda muttered.

  “Think about it, Amanda! They want to be the supreme rulers. They think they have all the answers. They’re rewriting the laws, beliefs, and trying to control human nature. They didn’t like what they saw and decided to change it by eradicating the population like the people were nothing more than a cancer on the earth!”

  Amanda put one of her small hands on his thigh, instantly calming him with her touch. “I know it seems bad when you think about it like that, but let’s worry about our little corner of the world. They’re out there, and we’re right here.”

  What she said made sense, but thinking of all that evil out there, trying to change the world and come down on them… it was hard to ignore. “Is it worth it?” he finally asked, half to himself.

  “Is what worth it?” Amanda asked.

  “Surviving.”


  Her eyes went wide, and then she slapped his arm—hard. “Don’t even talk like that! Of course, it’s worth it. Don’t pretend you’re the type to give up. I’m not, and I’m not going to let you give up.”

  He shrugged. “Are we supposed to live up here forever? What kind of life is that? I have a teenage daughter. Is this our future? I have to be honest, Amanda; I’m not looking forward to living in that house with all those people for the rest of my days. I love my brother, but I don’t think I can live with him.”

  She studied his expression, and he didn’t look away. “Did you walk across the country only to turn around and walk back home, wherever that is?”

  “Maybe. I do have a house.”

  “You have no way of knowing if that house is still standing or if the area where you lived is safe. Look what happened at my place,” she reminded him. “The world we knew is gone. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can start thinking about the future. You can’t go back. None of us can.”

  He closed his eyes. She was right. Going home wasn’t an option. He looked through the trees, listening to the sounds beyond his little piece of quiet on the rock. He had to rethink things and decide what to do. He felt as if there was a clock on things, knowing winter would make it difficult to travel.

  “Doesn’t it feel like we’re giving up in a way anyway?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I don’t think we’re giving up. We’re making sure we can survive until something changes.”

  “What if it doesn’t change?” he asked, meeting her eyes again.

  “Austin, you are getting way ahead of yourself. It’s only been a few weeks—”

  “Months, Amanda, it’s been almost two months since everything went to hell in a handbasket,” he retorted.

  “Okay, fine, months, but that doesn’t mean this is the forever future. We cannot be the only ones out here who are sane and ready to survive. I know all about the prepping movement. I know guys who had HAM radios, and some of them belonged to their own militia-type groups. We are not the only ones ready to rage against the machine. Let’s focus on today and tomorrow. We have that information to comb through. Maybe there is some secret code word that will change everything. Crazier things have happened,” she pointed out, and he couldn’t argue with her.

  “We’ll figure this out,” she added seriously, her tone full of hope.

  “One way or another, I’m not going to have my little girl living forever in a house with men I don’t know, and one young man who I know she has a serious crush on—and vice versa,” he snarled.

  Amanda chuckled. “Savannah is a smart girl. We talked about building cabins. Savannah will have her space, and the men from the revivalist group don’t seem to be a threat. They’re nice enough, and most are older,” she said.

  Austin shook his head. “It feels like a commune.”

  “Communes don’t have to be a bad thing.”

  Austin stared back at her, frowning. How could a commune be a good thing, after the world they’d known before? How could they settle for something like this little corner of a forest being their whole world? He shook his head, looking away from her. Maybe he was being unrealistic.

  “I don’t like the idea of her living with a boyfriend, even if I am right here,” he complained.

  Amanda laughed outright. “You’re being a protective daddy. Fight that battle another day. The living situation is more like living in the same apartment building. We’ll all keep an eye on her.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said dryly.

  She laughed again. “You’re freaking out over something that hasn’t happened. You took on a crazed gunman without thinking twice and this is what keeps you up at night?”

  He shrugged. “I can’t help it. She’s my little girl.”

  “I love how protective you are, but you are stressing yourself out over nothing. Don’t make a problem that isn’t there,” she advised him.

  He let out a long breath, knowing she was right once again. He had to let go a little. Savannah was a smart girl and knew how to protect herself. “I tend to be overprotective,” he admitted. “It’s something Savannah and I have been butting heads over for too long. I’ll back off, but that doesn’t mean I’m totally sold on the idea of staying here indefinitely.”

  Amanda smiled. “Good enough. Now, come with me, okay? I want to do a little exploring and see if we can find a natural spring. With this hillside, there has to be a winter run-off. We’ll look for the greenest, lushest part of the forest. We can do a little digging and I bet we’ll find water. We can follow it up the hillside and find the source,” she said, and with more enthusiasm than he felt for anything at the moment.

  Still, he nodded, sliding off the rock and wiping off his butt before he knelt to help her re-collect the moss she’d gathered and press it into pockets within her cargo pants. His leg twinged when he stood back up, but he managed to keep from showing it; the limb had healed, but tended to be a little sore now and again. This was one of those times. He wasn’t looking forward to climbing the steep, rocky terrain, but Amanda was right about one thing. He needed to get his mind off things and stop dwelling on problems he couldn’t solve, or else he was going to drive himself crazy.

  2

  Savannah walked upstairs to the room she shared with Amanda, Bonnie, and Gretchen. They’d all agreed to give the single bed in the room to Bonnie. She was still grieving the loss of her husband, Bill, and she was the oldest of the four of them. It seemed right for her to have the bed.

  “Hi,” she said when she saw Gretchen reading in one of the chairs in the corner of the room. Although the woman was in her thirties, Savannah felt closer to her than any of the other women in the home—her calmness was comfortable, and friendly.

  “Savannah,” she greeted her with a friendly smile, setting her book down in her lap.

  “What are you reading?” she asked.

  Gretchen held up the book to show her the cover, which displayed a picture of a woman eating a handful of berries. “This is a book on the wild edibles in the Rocky Mountains. I’m brushing up on the plants that are new to me, different than what we had in the Appalachians.”

  “My uncle had that book?” Savannah asked.

  Gretchen smiled bigger, her freckled cheeks dimpling. “He did. He has an entire library filled with books on surviving off the grid and in the wild. Your uncle is a smart man. I had a bunch of these books on my Kindle. Fat lot of good that does me now,” she joked.

  “I’d like to go with you if you go out foraging,” Savannah volunteered.

  “I’d like that. I’m hoping to get Tonya to go, too. She needs to get some fresh air and sunlight.”

  Savannah glanced back out the door, down the hall, but saw no sign of the other woman. “Have you spoken to her today?”

  Gretchen shook her head, her face creasing with the worry that Savannah herself felt. “No, I tried to take her some breakfast, but she’s been holed up in that room unwilling to come out. Malachi said she was sleeping. I worry she’s sleeping too much. I saw her yesterday and she looked extremely pale; the weight loss is really showing.”

  Savannah nodded, having sought Gretchen out just for this purpose—to talk about Tonya. She’d gotten an idea and wasn’t sure if it was a good one, but she was confident Gretchen would know. “Listen, I was thinking… What if we had a service outside, like you guys used to do with the tents and stuff?” Savannah offered. She’d hesitated to bring it up, but couldn’t imagine what else might do Tonya more good, and Malachi was so worried about her. So was she, truth be told.

  Gretchen’s eyes drifted back to the door, thoughtful, but her voice sounded hopeful when she spoke. “That’s a great idea. We can put down some blankets under the trees and Malachi can give a sermon.”

  Savannah smiled, relieved that Gretchen liked the idea. “I think he’d like that.”

  “Maybe some of the others would like to join us?” Gretchen suggested. “Make it more like old times
with a good group of us.”

  “I wouldn’t count on my dad attending. He’s not the religious type,” Savannah admitted.

  Gretchen shrugged, smiling again now. “It isn’t about religion; it’s about celebrating the fact that we’re alive and worshipping our Maker.”

  She didn’t think she could sell that to her dad, but that was okay. This wasn’t about him. “Do you think we could do it tomorrow?”

  “I think that would be perfect,” Gretchen replied. “How about we plan for that, and tell Tonya at dinner once we’ve got it more settled?”

  Savannah grinned, excited to have a good reason to talk to Malachi. “I’m going to go find Malachi and tell him. That will give him plenty of time to put together a sermon.” If anything would get him to talk to her openly, it would be the subject of finding a way to help his mom out. She felt thrilled that they were under the same roof, but he was still convinced she was no good for him. This was the perfect way to show him she wasn’t so bad.

  Sure, Savannah knew he’d been reluctant to spend a lot of time hanging out with her, but this would be something else. With that in mind, she took a quick look in the mirror, brushing her hair to a shine before tucking her tank top into her shorts. The shorts were approved by her father, which meant they practically went to her knees, but at least they were fairly clean. She longed for the days when she had a wardrobe to actually choose from. Now, she had a pair of pants or the shorts—and that was it.

  “Have fun!” Gretchen called out as Savannah practically bounced from the room.

  She headed downstairs where she found Wendell sitting on the leather couch beside her uncle. They were in a heated conversation about the Denver Broncos. It seemed silly to be talking about football, but she guessed maybe it made them feel normal. Whatever got them by.

  “Have you seen Malachi?” she asked.

  Wendell looked up at her. “He went outside with a couple of the other ones.”