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

  The Gathering

  storm

  Surviving the Fall Series

  Book 2

  By

  Mike Kraus

  © 2017 Mike Kraus

  www.MikeKrausBooks.com

  [email protected]

  www.facebook.com/MikeKrausBooks

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Author’s Notes

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  Special Thanks

  This book wouldn’t be possible without the help and support of my amazing beta reading team.

  Thank you to Richard, Glenda, Julie, Minnie, Shari, Randy, Teresa, Marlys & Kellie for your awesome feedback during the beta reading process!

  Preface

  In the late morning hours on a particularly warm day in Autumn, the world as we know it came to a stop. Every internet-connected device was attacked with an intelligent, adaptive virus that not only caused the devices to stop functioning, but also turned many of them into weapons. Cars with advanced computer systems began leaking fuel which then caught fire thanks to the malfunction and shorting out of their control systems. Cellphone networks began to die and phones began overheating as their batteries were first shorted out and then detonated, turning them into miniature bombs. Aircraft, power plants, manufacturing facilities—anything that had a computer that could connect to the internet was vulnerable and those vulnerabilities were fully exploited.

  As the effects of the mysterious disaster begin to take hold, Rick Waters has barely escaped from Los Angeles after a vicious street gang guns down two people he met in cold blood and then nearly kills him as well. Rick’s goal? To make it back to his home in Virginia and reunite with his wife and three children.

  Meanwhile, at their family homestead, Dianne Waters is grappling with her own set of problems. After watching her family car explode before her eyes, Dianne takes her children with her into the nearby small town in an old truck to visit the grocery store. What she finds is a full-on riot as people are fighting tooth and nail for any scrap they can get and she barely makes it back to their home after a run-in with a couple of miscreants trying to break into her vehicle.

  Rick and Dianne have both seen the first stages of society’s breakdown, but what they have yet to encounter will test them beyond their limits….

  Chapter 1

  Somewhere between Los Angeles and Las Vegas

  Rick Waters had slept in a car exactly twice before in his life. The first time was in the back of a camper van during an ill-advised trip to the beach that was cut short as three people caught a stomach bug. The second time was when he was so sleepy on a road trip that his body shut itself down for a few hours while his wife, Dianne, was driving them up north to visit her parents near D.C. In both cases the vehicles were relatively clean (at least at first, in the camper van scenario) and comfortable.

  Sleeping in a car that smelled like a cross between body odor, cheap body spray and various pharmaceuticals was not, however, a pleasant experience. Nevertheless, though, Rick had been forced to crawl into the back seat of the SUV and sleep for a few hours after driving for the entire day. Although he was more alert when he woke up, he wondered if he would ever get the impossible combination of smells out of his clothing.

  After leaving Los Angeles, Rick had taken a jaunt to the north until he reached interstate fifteen. From I-15 he planned to drive straight into Las Vegas where he hoped he could find more reliable and solid transportation back to Virginia. Despite what he had seen and heard so far, Rick wasn’t convinced that there was no way to get back home without walking or driving.

  There’s got to be some planes left in the sky. Maybe military flights are still going in and out. I could go to Nellis, see if I can talk someone into letting me on board. Rick knew in the back of his mind that the idea was foolhardy, but he also figured that between Phoenix and Las Vegas, the latter would be more likely to have transportation available. Big money still means something. Now all I need to do is figure out how to get myself included in whatever that something is.

  While he was driving along Rick was also playing with the radio constantly as he tried to get some sort of update on what was going on. Information was still hard to come by, though, and all he could pick up was static for most of the trip between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. With the gear he scavenged from the sporting goods store he avoided straying from the highway except when absolutely necessary due to blockages from destroyed vehicles. With enough food to last for a few days but no water, he knew he would need to find a source before continuing much farther—especially when the SUV started running low on fuel.

  Salvation came in the form of a vending machine that he tipped over at a rest area along the highway. The reinforced plastic front didn’t break from the impact but the lock at the back did, and he quickly stuffed as many bottles of water as he could into his backpack while throwing the rest into the back of the car.

  With immediate food and water needs taken care of, Rick was feeling upbeat about his progress when the speakers in the car crackled to life and a long series of tones blared over the radio. After the tones finished, a mechanical-sounding voice came next with an announcement that was far too calm for the information it contained.

  Attention. Attention. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. We have been informed that a massive cyber attack has taken place against civilian and military assets both in the United States and abroad. Details about the attack are not yet known. Civilians should shelter in place until further instructions are given by federal, state or local authorities. Under no circumstances should any vehicles attempt to be driven, nor should electronic devices be operated. Local law enforcement personnel should remain at their posts. State police and military assets have been directed to areas that are most impacted. More information to follow.

  The same tones that came before the message repeated before the message played again. Rick turned down the volume on the radio and shook his head. “Well I guess it’s real, huh?”

  He drove along contemplating the possible sources of what had happened when he noticed that the wreckage of cars on the highway was starting to thin out. Vehicles that had formerly been in his way were pushed off to the side of the road leaving black scars across the road. They were piled up on both the shoulder to the right and in the leftmost lane, leaving two lanes open and clear for driving.

  “What the…” Rick was confused by the sudden change when he realized that he had just crossed the California/Nevada border and was closing in on Las Vegas. “Did the state clear the vehicles off the road? May
be for emergency services to get through… but still that would take some mammoth equipment working exceptionally quickly.” Rick frowned. “It has to be the military doing it. But why?”

  Rick’s answer came twenty minutes after hitting the border, when he was halfway between Primm and Las Vegas. Large columns of red smoke soared into the sky on the road ahead of him. As he approached, he saw that there were several school buses lined up on the side of the road just on the outskirts of the town. Multiple military Humvees were arranged in front of the buses and there were a few dozen soldiers milling around along with several dozen people clothed in plain clothes.

  As Rick approached, the soldiers nearest him on the road held up their hands and he saw a few others readying their weapons. He slowed the SUV and rolled down the windows, then stopped a few dozen feet from the blockade. Four soldiers approached him, two on each side of the car, and one on the driver’s side shouted at him.

  “Turn off your vehicle and step out of the car!”

  Rick felt his heart racing in his chest as he turned off the ignition. There were no guns pointed directly at him that he could see, but he felt extremely nervous about the situation nonetheless.

  “What’s going on?” Rick asked as he stepped slowly out of the SUV.

  The soldier stepped forward and eyed Rick up and down, visibly relaxing as he saw that Rick wasn’t posing a threat. He glanced at the SUV and then raised a hand in the air as he shouted at the soldiers back at the blockade. “Older model! Not a threat!” The soldier then turned to Rick and addressed him.

  “Sorry about this, sir. We’re evacuating civilians from the city to Nellis.”

  “Why’s that?”

  The soldier shrugged. “It’s orders for now, sir. Are you aware of what’s going on?”

  Rick chuckled. “Yeah you could say that. I barely made it out of Los Angeles with my life.”

  The soldier nodded sympathetically. “I understand, sir. Before we take you to Nellis you’ll have to leave your car behind. Security reasons.”

  Rick sighed. “Yeah, that’s fine. It’s almost out of gas anyway.”

  “Do you have any weapons on you, sir? You’ll need to discard those as well.”

  Rick hesitated, then glanced at his bags in the front seat of the SUV. “You guys are confiscating all weapons? Why?”

  “Base rules, sir. If you’re concerned about your safety I can assure you that you’ll be fine.”

  “Ugh.” Rick scratched his head. “I think I’d rather just continue on my own. I’m not trying to reach Las Vegas anyway. I’m trying to make it home to Virginia.”

  The soldier shook his head. “I’m afraid driving through is out of the question, sir.”

  “How come?”

  “There’s been some bad gang activity, sir. Orders are to not let any civilians through without loading them into the buses and providing an escort. If you’re trying to get back home quickly, I can tell you that we’re trying to get transport planes up and running to get civilians like yourself where they need to go.”

  “Really?” Rick nodded. “How long until the transports get moving?”

  “Sorry, sir. I don’t have that kind of info.” The soldier’s patience appeared to be wearing thin as he sighed and motioned at Rick’s gear in the passenger seat of the SUV. “Come on, sir. Unless you want to turn around and head back to L.A. I suggest you grab your gear. We’ll do a quick search then get you on the—wait… what the hell?”

  The soldier stopped talking to Rick and stepped a few paces toward the rear of the SUV. He shouted at the other soldiers with him and they ran past Rick’s SUV out on the road. One of them held up a bullhorn and shouted into it. “Stop your vehicle! Stop your vehicle now!”

  Behind Rick, farther down the road, a car was blazing down the highway so fast and erratically that Rick was surprised they had managed to avoid flipping over. As the vehicle approached the blockade, Rick ran to the passenger side of his SUV and grabbed his bags before slipping away towards the horde of people clustered around the school buses. By the time he nearly got there, most of the soldiers were out on the road with their weapons raised as they shouted at each other about the car that was approaching.

  The car initially seemed to slow down, but at the last second it made one last turn and veered off of the road and into the sand and scrub on the side. The vehicle lurched and flipped through the air sending pieces of plastic and glass flying everywhere. The soldiers scrambled to avoid the twisting mass of the car while shouting at the civilians standing near the buses.

  “Get on now! Let’s move! Get these people out of here!”

  Rick jumped up through an open rear door on the back of the last bus in line and took a seat in the rear. He tucked the rifle case underneath his seat and turned around to watch out the back window. Flames were erupting from the overturned car as the soldiers ran back and forth with fire extinguishers, trying to put out the blaze and rescue whomever was in the car. Rick turned back and shook his head, wondering what on earth he had just gotten himself into.

  Out of the frying pan, into the fire I guess.

  Chapter 2

  The Waters’ Homestead

  Ellisville, VA

  Dianne was naturally an early riser, but the morning following the “very bad day,” as her daughter put it, was one on which she got up extra early. Before the sun had even cracked over the horizon she was puttering in the kitchen making coffee and setting out breakfast for when her three children got up. She went to the TV in the living room and switched it on, but there was nothing playing except for digital static. She set the TV to automatically switch channels every few seconds and started going through the house and taking notes on what appliances they would be able to run off of the solar panels and which ones they’d have to do without until the power grid was restored. If it ever gets restored.

  Dianne sighed and tried to push such thoughts out of her head, but it was difficult given what she had seen and heard the day before. If things were really as bad as the newscasts predicted and what she saw in their small town the day before, she wasn’t sure if power or normal life would be returning anytime soon.

  As Dianne sat at the living room table drinking coffee and listening to the TV static from the other room she started making a mental list of the things she needed to do to get the house, the property, the children and herself ready for whatever might come next.

  Living in the country for years had brought about certain benefits when it came to raising her children in terms of enabling them to be largely self-sufficient, at least when it came to Mark and Jacob. At thirteen and ten respectively they routinely carried out chores both inside and outside the house on the homestead and had been taught the basics of survival and preparedness. Much of the teaching had been theoretical rather than practical due to Rick’s hectic schedule with his company, but Dianne felt confident that her children would be able to slip into their new roles and duties after a good nights’ sleep.

  The first task would be to take stock of all the animals and make sure they were fed and that their pens and any equipment associated with them was in good shape. “I’ll get Mark and Jacob to take care of that, and Josie can stay with me here in the house.” Dianne muttered to herself as she jotted down notes on a three by five card.

  “Once we get a list of things that need fixing and take stock of everything here we’ll go check on the neighbors. I hope Tina and Sarah’s families are okay.” The two closest neighbors to the Waters were a pair of older families that Rick and Dianne had met shortly after moving in. With as much emphasis as Dianne kept on the kids pursuing their education and Rick’s work at his company they hadn’t had time to make too many friends elsewhere except for the children and parents that Dianne, Mark, Jacob and Josie saw each week at the after-school programs.

  “I sure hope they weren’t traveling.” Dianne shook her head, remembering how Tina and her husband liked to spontaneously go on trips cross-country. “Sarah and Jason should be hom
e, though. We’ll check on them first and see if they need anything.” Sarah and Jason Statler were in their sixties and Dianne had helped them take care of their house and property two years prior when Jason nearly died from a heart attack.

  “Once we check on them we need to get back here and start working on getting the solar panels switched on. Hm.” Dianne tapped at her teeth with the pen and tried to remember how far Rick had gotten into the project. Both she and Rick had taken an online course in basic and intermediate electronic maintenance targeted towards owners of complex solar panel setups, but it had been a while since she read anything on the subject. “Gotta find my notes. It should come back to me. I hope.”

  Once the solar panels were hooked up they would need to ensure that only the more critical appliances were running off of the power since there was a somewhat limited battery supply in the basement.

  Rick’s work at his company afforded him the luxury to test some of their prototype products including advanced batteries designed for in-home usage for long-term storage of power generated from solar or other power sources. The “whole house” batteries wouldn’t be able to power the entire house, but as long as she was able to get enough solar panels hooked up and working, she figured they could easily run the refrigerator, deep freezer and a few other devices like a window air conditioner, a few lights and even a space heater if required.

  “Won’t need the A/C for a while.” Dianne crossed the item off her list and wrote in a note about splitting firewood in below it. The winter was forecast to be mild but she wasn’t about to take chances when it came to the preparation.

  Rick had purchased a bulk load of feed for the animals a month prior that would easily last for two years and Dianne felt confident that they were set in that department. As far as food for her and the children she knew from the prior day’s quick stocktaking that they would be fine for around six months—maybe eight if she stretched it—which was good, but not good enough considering that they were at the end of the growing season.