Kindle Edition
Category:
Young Adult/Teen
Type: Fiction
Copyright: May 11, 2015
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
An adventurous escape from danger for a group of teens in a quickly deteriorating society.
The whole world has been turned upside down by terrorist attacks and no one is safe. Running from the only home she has ever known and leaving her parents behind, Bess and her brother, Blake, are escaping the danger close at hand to brave the unknown dangers of the world. They are guided by a young stranger who knows first hand where the danger is coming from and are laving town with every supply they can get their hands on and Blake's unbelieving girlfriend, Darla. Bess is just hoping to make it to safety before things get too bad to travel and Blake is hoping to get there with Darla whatever it takes.
Excerpt
Chapter One:
I remember it like it was yesterday, and it wasn’t so very long ago, really. I was sitting there in the front seat of Mom’s car on another hot miserable day just a few weeks from the end of the school year. It was even more exciting than usual to me this year since I was graduating from high school and getting ready for college at last. Leaving in the fall meant leaving my parents behind to deal with what looked like a cold and loveless marriage and my younger brother to deal with what looked like a hot and over sexed relationship with his girlfriend, Darla. Blake, that younger brother of mine, was sitting in the back seat complaining about his phone being on the fritz and him not being able to text that girlfriend. Never mind that the power was out all over town with every red light between school and home a nightmare traffic jam. I couldn’t wait to leave for college.
We finally got close to our neighborhood and it occurred to me that I wasn’t going to be able to work on my history paper without power on and it was a relief in a way. But I did need to do the blasted thing, maybe the power would be on soon. This was probably just one of those deals where it was going to be out for a few hours until the power company compensated for every building in the area running the air conditioner at full blast. It was hot! It was Friday, though, so I had a little time.
Out of the car the whole neighborhood seemed eerily quiet without the usual whir of cooling systems and the racket of tv’s and stereos running behind every window. Mom fired up the grill outside to cook some burgers, a great choice with an electric stove inside. Dad wasn’t going to be home for hours because of a meeting across town or something so we didn’t bother waiting. Mom even pulled a carton of ice cream out of the freezer to eat since the power showed no signs of coming on again anytime soon. I took a cool shower and tucked myself into bed hoping that the power would be on in the morning.
When the sun came peeking into my room I rolled over and groaned. It was still hot. The clock next to my bed was dark, the night light out in the hall was dark, and the sound of cooled air forced through the vents was missing. Crap. No power yet? This was going to be a long day.
Another cold shower rinsed off the nights sweat and I got dressed in shorts and a tank top before heading outside to try and find a breeze in the shade. Mom was gone already, probably off to the farmers market or something. Dad was gone to who knows where, too. He was around less and less these days. Next door Ralph came out in a pair of shorts and some sneakers, tugging a shirt on as he walked.
“Hey! Bess!” he yelled over to me, “Want to go for a drive? It’s too boring to just sit at home and sweat.”
“Where are you going?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure it even mattered. Riding in Ralph’s truck with the air running full blast sounded just about perfect.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe down the interstate. There could be some places with electricity a few miles out. Who knows? So, what do you say?”
“Sounds good to me. Let me grab my bag.” I ran through the front door and picked up my purse while yelling to Blake that I was going out. I didn’t hear an answer, but hadn’t really expected one. Back outside I climbed into the passenger seat of Ralph’s truck and closed the door just as he turned the motor over. I got buckled up with a smile on my face as the trucks cool air hit me.
Driving out of the neighborhood we saw windows open in every house we passed, people trying to keep cool overnight. In front of one house there was a van running in the drive way, a man climbing out of the side door. The rest of his family could be seen still asleep spread out inside.
“Huh, I guess some people can’t take a little heat,” said Ralph.
“Well, here we are heading out just to cool off.”
“Yeah. Hey, see what’s on the radio. Maybe there is something about what malls are open or something.”
“Sure,” I reached for the knob, expecting the usual music but not much in the way of electricity updates. Out of all of Ralph’s preset stations nothing was happening. Not even static. I started to try the search button and wasn’t getting anything either. Nothing at all!
“Holy crap! Are all those stations local? Why aren’t we getting anything?” Ralph was starting to get a little worked up.
“Maybe some are local, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of signal boost to get the rest to us. And that might be local, too. Who knows how far this power outage goes? It could be the whole state! I think the bigger the outage the longer it takes to come back up, and this looks like it’s going to take a little while. Let’s just enjoy the cool ride, but I will check the AM stations, just in case.”
“Don’t bother. Those stations suck.”
“Okay. Hey, is your gas light on?”
“Yeah. I need to get gas.”
“Where?” I asked, with a sinking feeling.
“The gas station, dummy.” Ralph looked over at me like I had lost some IQ points and kept driving.
“”Ralph, you need electricity to pump gas.”
“What? Seriously? Oh, crap. We were going to just make it to the station! We won’t make it back home! Crap!”
“Well turn around and let’s get as close to home as we can. That’s a long walk and it’s going to be getting hot soon.”
“You mean hotter. It’s already hot.”
“Whatever, turn this thing around. Every mile it goes is one I don’t have to walk.” I fought of the urge to smack Ralph on the head, didn’t he know you needed power at a gas station?
It was pretty sweltering by the time we had walked back to the outskirts of town and I was feeling pretty irritated, but tried to keep it to myself. Ralph had been trying to be nice, he was just an idiot, apparently. Though I could have noticed the gas light sooner, maybe. There was an old pickup truck heading our way down a side road, the faded blue paint looking cool under the bright sun. The driver slowed down and leaned out the window to look us over.
“You kids need a ride?” the man asked. His sandy brown hair was going white and his skin was overly tan like he was maybe a farmer. The truck, though looking old, ran quietly, the heat of the motor making me feel even hotter.
“No thanks.” I answered, feeling a little awkward. Ralph gave me a glare.
“I wouldn’t mind a ride. Come on, Bess, It’s getting hotter by the second.”
“I know, but we are almost home.” I was hoping he would understand my look and keep quiet. You were never supposed to take rides from strangers, didn’t he know that?
“Almost home?! Ha! We have miles yet! If he can get us closer we should take the ride. Come on,” he said, heading for the passenger door.
“Here now, son. I can’t take you and leave your friend here alone. You wouldn’t want something to happen to her out here alone, would you?”
“Well, no. I mean, no sir. I wouldn’t. But, what could happen?” Ralph asked, obviously frustrated.
“Hopefully, nothing, but I wouldn’t count on it. People get crazy when things get rough and with the power out… who knows?”
“It’ll be back up soon. It’s just a brown out, or maybe a black out,” Ralph protested.
“Haven’t you heard yet? It’s burning over there. The power will be out for days, maybe weeks.”
“Burning over where?” I asked.
“The power plant. It’s a county over but I heard it on my radio earlier. I have a short range radio at home and they are talking about it. The whole county is out of power, and so are several neighboring counties. This is going to take good long time to fix and some people are going to take advantage of the situation in all kinds of bad ways. So, maybe you should just stay with your friend and make sure she gets home okay.” He waved out the window and started to pull away. Ralph looked dejected, but started walking with me again.
“Sorry, Ralph.”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t mean to make the whole day worse.”
“I know. But he seemed harmless enough. I think we would have been fine.”
“Maybe. But I didn’t want to chance it, okay? Jeez, Ralph.”
“Sorry. I’m just hot. And tired.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have taken the truck out without any gas in it!” I yelled at him, finally out of patience. Maybe it was my choice to turn down the offered ride, but he got us stranded outside of town in the first place.
We had been walking in silence for a half hour or so when another truck drove towards us from the direction of town. The truck slowed as it got near and a man leaned out of the passenger window towards us.
“You kids better get back home. It’s not safe out here today. Some idiots set fire to the mall a little while ago. And that after some one blowing up the power station… Well, best to get on back home.” He nodded at us authoritatively and was getting ready to pull his head back in his window while I stood there frozen in shock.
“Wait!” Ralph yelled. “What do you mean blew up? I thought it was just a fire!”
“Explosions cause fires. So yeah, the power station is on fire. But it was blown up, some kind of bomb or something. I don’t know. It’s hard to get any information about anything right now. But I know the mall is on fire, someone started that early this morning, and I know it was set and not an accident because accidental fires don’t start in six places. People are showing their bad sides and it isn’t safe to be out. Hell, it may not be safe anywhere, but it will be safer at home than on the roads.” The man waved a casual farewell to us and the truck sped away. I could see into the back now and saw that it was packed full of personal belongings. The people in the truck were leaving town. My stomach tightened up, my heart was thudding in my chest. What was going on? I turned and looked at Ralph as we trudged on homeward, he was intent on the road, but his face was troubled.
Another half hour in the heat and the tree line showed the start of a driveway to one side. We were getting near town at last. Just as I took a deep sigh of relief a car pulled out of the drive ahead of me and turned to head towards town. The car stopped suddenly ahead and sat waiting, the break lights lit up. The skin all over my body got chills in spite of the heat.
“What do you think they are up to?” I asked Ralph.
“Waiting to tell us to get home I would imagine. If I hear one more time how dangerous it is out here…” Ralph never finished his sentence. I turned back just in time to see two big burly guys step out of the trees and grab him. One man hooked an arm around his neck while the other one came around and grabbed his arms, a rope already in his hands to tie Ralph up. I was too stunned to even scream at first, after a few seconds I turned to call to the car ahead for help. Men were climbing out of the back seat of the car, their faces showing grim smiles, their eyes lit up in pleasure. They were in on it! Before I could fully register that they were not going to help us one of the men had grabbed me by my arms.
I wasn’t going without a fight, though. I squirmed and kicked my legs as hard as I could. With all that thrashing around I managed to clip one of the goons in the chin with my elbow. It didn’t hurt him much, but it did make him mad. The last thing I saw was his arm cocked back with a fist aiming at my face. The big jerk.
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