Dark Days (Book 1): The Collapse

by Davis, James

  The next day everyone woke to the smell of fresh brewed coffee. Chris had gotten up early to make breakfast for them. Clay and Hank shuffled into the kitchen area and plopped down at the table, stretching and yawning.

  "So, what's for breakfast?" Clay asked as Chris set down two piping hot cups of coffee in front of his two brothers.

  "Powdered eggs, fried Spam and oatmeal." Chris replied.

  "That's what I'm talking about!" Ashley replied from behind them. Clay stuck his hand out to her and pulled her into his arms as soon as she put her hand in his. Karen walked in as Clay started kissing his wife's neck.

  "Get a room you two!" she said with a smile. Little footsteps charging into the kitchen got everyone's attention as Emma and Toby bounded around the corner at full speed. Ashley and Karen snatched them both up, hugging them tightly.

  "Are you guys hungry?" Karen asked, looking at the two kids. They both nodded and were set down in their high chairs. Chris finished frying the last few slices of Spam and started filling up plates and handing them out. They all discussed what they would be doing for the day as they ate.

  "I was thinking I should go out and do a little hunting this morning, powdered eggs and canned stew are gonna get real old real quick." Chris said, sipping his coffee.

  "Want one of us to come with?" Hank offered.

  "Nah, You couldn't keep up and I ain't carrying your old asses back." Chris replied.

  "Hey, screw you!" Hank shot back as Clay simply held up his middle finger.

  "Hank and I will start tilling up the ground in the back field for a garden. Ashley and Karen, you two can start unloading the truck and getting the camp set up outside." Clay said.

  "We should have the truck unloaded in plenty of time to make lunch so everyone meet back here by 12:30." Karen added. Chris pushed back from the table and stood from his chair

  "I'll be back in a few hours." he said, as he grabbed his rifle and his backpack and disappeared through the door.

  "Be careful out there!" Ashley called after him to no response.

  "You ready to get going?" Clay asked, shoving an entire slice of Spam into his mouth. Hank nodded as he stood up,

  "I'll meet you up top in 15 minutes, I've gotta take a shit." Karen rolled her eyes in disgust

  "Some of us are still eating you caveman!" Hank leaned down, planting a kiss on his wife's forehead, ruffled Toby's curly hair, and left the room.

  "I'm gonna head out and get started, we got a lot to do today." Clay said, before chugging the last of his coffee and rising from his chair. He kissed his wife and left the room to get dressed for the day.

  *****

  "Glad you could make it sweetheart" Clay said, tossing a shovel toward Hank.

  "Why didn't we have Chris do this digging shit?" he asked jamming his shovel into the ground and tossing a pile of dirt to the side. A shot rang out from somewhere in the distance and both of their gazes snapped toward the sound. Clay chuckled.

  "Because he's a better shot than you buddy, keep digging." Suddenly, a second shot sounded from the same direction, echoing a few times before finally fading away.

  "I wouldn’t have needed a second shot," Hank muttered, tossing another shovel of dirt to the side. Clay stopped digging and looked over at Hank.

  "You gonna dig or you gonna whine all morning?”

  "A little of both if that's okay with you."

  The sound of leaves rustling and twigs snapping signaled something approaching. Clay stopped digging and slammed his shovel into the ground causing it to stand upright and scanned the treeline.

  "Sounds like he's back already." Hank nodded, turning his attention to the direction of the commotion. The two men exchanged confused expressions as an empty handed Chris burst through the edge of the forest at a dead sprint.

  "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" He repeated between heavy breaths as he hightailed across the field. Hank and Clay readied their rifles, prepared to neutralize whatever threat was chasing Chris. A few seconds later a large red hog appeared from the same spot Chris had, squealing and grunting and screaming as it quickly covered the ground between it and Chris.

  "Who’s your lady friend?" Hank yelled as Clay doubled over in laughter. Chris made a beeline for the Suburban, grabbing the luggage rack on top and pulling himself onto the roof. He sat back attempting to catch his breath as the hog slammed into the side of the truck.

  "You should have told us you were bringing a plus one Chris, we would have cleared out." Clay taunted. Hank erupted in a fit of laughter.

  "Must be that Jessica girl he was telling us about." Hank added, practically in tears at this point.

  "Real funny guys. Y’all wanna shoot this thing so I can get off the damn truck?" Chris yelled as the beast repeatedly slammed into the side of his perch. Hank lifted his rifle, pointed it toward the hog, and peered through the scope

  "I guess we better save him,” he said. Clay nodded

  "Put one in its brain, I don't want that thing comin’ after us next." Hank squeezed the trigger and the hog's head exploded, splattering the side of the truck with blood and ending the commotion almost as abruptly as it started. The beast fell lifeless to the ground next to the vehicle. Chris hopped down and walked around the truck to the dead hog. A few seconds later Clay and Hank joined him.

  “So why wasn’t this thing dead after your first shot?” Clay asked with a curious look on his face.

  “The damn thing came out of nowhere. I barely turned in time to see it before it was on top of me. I fired twice thinking it would scare it off, but it just pissed it off even more.” Chris replied. Clay and Hank both chuckled then Clay said.

  “Alright, well let’s get this thing strung up so we can skin it out and have a good dinner tonight.” Hank said, grabbing one of the hog’s legs. Clay and Chris both grabbed a leg and the three of them carried it over to a large tree. Hank bent down over the hog and started making slices in the back legs to put the gambrel hooks through, then he attached a chain hoist to a limb that stuck straight out from the tree. Once he had the hoist secured to the limb he pulled the chain and hook down to hook to the gambrel end.

  “Ok, Chris start lifting this big bastard.” Hank said. Chris started pulling the chain that lifted the hoist hook and they all watched as the hog slowly lifted up from the ground. Once they had it all the way up where they wanted it they each pulled out a knife and started skinning it. Once they had all the skin removed Clay stepped over to the hog’s stomach and carefully sliced through the abdominal wall, being extremely careful not to cut through the bowels. None of them wanted to deal with that smell.

  A few minutes later Clay had the heart and liver removed and laying on the table next to him. He then dropped the rest of the guts into a large bucket. They would cook most of the guts to feed to the dogs and the heart and liver were a pretty tasty treat that all the guys enjoyed when it was cooked correctly. It took them over an hour to finish skinning and cutting the hog up but when they finished they had around 200 pounds of edible meat. Clay grabbed the largest roast they had cut from the hog and took it over to Ashley and Karen.

  “We’re having hog roast for dinner tonight!” Clay shouted as he held the large hunk of meat into the air. Ashley saw the hunk of meat and said.

  “Will you come grab the big stew pot and hang it on the tripod grill over the firepit? We’re going to cook that out here. Karen and I will get everything else we need.” A few minutes later Clay had stuck the big roast into a large cast iron stewpot and was busy getting a fire going in the pit. Chris and Hank walked up with armfuls of logs and set them down next to Clay. He started feeding the logs to the fire and before long Clay had a nice medium sized fire blazing.

  Karen and Ashley were peeling potatoes and slicing up carrots and onions to add to the roast. The meal was quickly coming together and everyone was in a great mood. Later that evening they all sat down around the campfire enjoying big bowls of the roast. Even the dogs were enjoying their part of the hog.

 
; “You ladies sure outdid yourselves this time! This roast is amazing!” Chris said.

  “Well thank you Chris.”

  “We appreciate that.” Ashley and Karen both replied. A slurping sound got everyone's attention and they turned to see Toby and Emma with their bowls turned up so they could drink the broth from the bowls. This got them all laughing. Ashley stood and took the bowls from the kids and made them both a second helping. Chris leaned forward for a refill as well and accidentally bumped Clay’s hand causing him to spill his own bowl into his lap. Clay let out a high-pitched yelp followed by a string of curses.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” Clay shouted as he fanned his hand over his crotch and jumped around the fire like a drunken Indian. Chris doubled over laughing as Clay wiped chunks of the stew off of his pants.

  “Yeah, laugh it up now. You won’t be laughing come morning, little brother.” Clay said as he stared over at him. Chris didn’t say a word. They all finished eating and sat there talking about what they would try to accomplish over the coming days. Emma and Toby were both asleep and Ashley and Karen both stood and said.

  “We’re going to lay these two down and get to bed ourselves. You guys coming?”

  “Yeah, I am babe. I’ll be right behind you.” Clay said, standing and grabbing the dirty dishes from the table.

  “Hey funny boy, grab the stew and bring it down with you. Don’t want the animals getting in to it.” Clay said to Chris.

  “I’ll get the dogs after they use the bathroom one more time.” Hank stated as he stood and stretched his back. 30 minutes later they were all down in the bunker climbing into their beds after a great first full day. They hoped that everything would stay running smoothly but they couldn’t be certain with the way the country was now. All they could do was hope for the best.

  Chapter 8

  Beams of sunlight peeked through the mangled blinds, making bits of dirt and dust visible in the beams as they danced across the sleeping woman’s face. Raina’s eyes cracked open only to slam back shut when a blinding beam of sunlight pierced her hung-over and bloodshot eyes. She ran a hand across her face, wiping the drool off her cheek before she flung the sheet off and ran to the bathroom to empty the contents of her stomach. Raina dry heaved several times, causing her already bad migraine to intensify with blinding pain.

  As she made her way back to the bed, she grabbed the pint of Jameson from the nightstand and tipped it back, taking in a long pull from the bottle, and gasping as the liquid fire raced down her throat. Her and some friends had been staying out all night drinking and breaking into stores, stealing any and everything they could get their hands on. They already had a nice stash of loot put up just in case the lights came back on. Raina didn’t think the lights would be coming back on anytime soon though.

  “Think about it, it’s been almost two days and we haven’t heard a word from the government about anything. If they were working on a plan to fix this shit storm they would have made some kind of announcement by now.” She had said to one of the guys at the party last night. The facts were that someone had set off multiple nuclear missiles that caused an EMP to take out the power grid and a lot of things that were electronic across the country.

  She didn’t know all the details but she was almost positive the news said North Korea or Russia attacked the U.S. with nuclear missiles or something. Raina did not give a fiddler's fuck about any of that shit right now, she just wanted to get over the hangover she currently had. She laid there for a while contemplating what she should do next. She knew she needed to find a spot outside of the city to stock up with supplies to ensure her survival. The city was getting worse and worse everyday with looting and people setting fire to homes and businesses. She stood up and made her way to the kitchen to get the jug of water she had on the table so she could take a quick whore’s bath.

  “Pits, tits, and slit!” She would always say, as she scrubbed and cleaned herself with a soapy rag. She had just finished rinsing out her hair when she heard someone pounding on the door. Quickly she wrapped her hair up in a towel and put on a long t-shirt before rushing to her nightstand. She reached inside the drawer and pulled out a small snub nose .38 that her father had given her before he died. She eased down the hallway and jumped as the door boomed again, startling her, almost causing her to drop the pistol.

  She took a deep breath and quickly peeked out of the peephole in the door. She could see a tall dark haired man, who was wearing a leather jacket and blue jeans. As the man turned to face the door, Raina smiled, she knew that face like the back of her hand. She flung open the door to see her brother Joe standing there. He stepped back, shocked as his little sister all but tackled him to the ground in her excitement.

  “Where the fuck have you been Joe!”

  “Nowhere good.” Joe said quickly extracting himself from his sister’s embrace.

  “Are you okay? Come inside.”

  “Me and the boys tried to strip this farm south of here the other night. Crazy old kook must have known we were eyeing his place cause he came out guns blazing.” Joe said as he paced back and forth on the dirty old carpet and recounted the events.

  “I barely escaped Rainy, I may have been the only one!”

  “Only one? Are you hurt?” She asked, frantically looking him over for wounds.

  “I'm fine,” he assured her taking a seat on a wobbly old kitchen chair.

  “It's the others you should be concerned about. Will, Chase, Martin...they are all dead. These guys came outta nowhere on horses and shit.”

  “Dammit Joe! You can't be getting yourself killed. You're all I’ve got now since Daddy died. I can't handle losing you too,” she said, clearly holding back tears.

  “I know Rainy,” Joe said, grabbing his sister and pulling her into a tight hug,

  “I'm not going anywhere. We just need somewhere outside of the city to ride this out. I passed a place on the way here, saw two guys open a shed with some kinda thumb scanner and then disappear with a whole family inside. There’s gotta be something in there. I think it’s the kind of place we need. Wouldn't be hard to take it either.” Raina scoffed as she shoved Joe away

  “Are you kidding me Joseph? You come here and tell me that you almost died, and now you wanna go strong-arm some family because they went into a little shed? Don't be an idiot!” she said with more than a hint of aggravation in her voice. Joe stepped back with his hands up,

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa Rainy, I was just trying to help us survive this shit storm. We're screwed if we can't find a decent place to ride this out.”

  “We can survive here, just like we always have. People just up and left whole houses full of food, water, money, jewelry. I've already got a nice stash. When the lights come back on we're gonna be loaded!” Joe grabbed a jug of water from the table and took a long swig, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he replied,

  “What if they don't come back on? The food will run out and I know what I'd do for my next meal. You think there aren't a hundred thousand people who'd do the same? It's only a matter of time.”

  “Look, Joe we can’t just go kill a random family and take over their shit! What if they have kids? What then Joe? Are you going to murder a child?” Raina said, inching closer to Joe’s face, jabbing him with her finger.

  “No, I’m not going to kill a kid. What do you think I am a monster? Obviously you keep the kids. You’ve always wanted to be a mother anyway right?”

  “Well yeah, I have, but I wanted to have my own kids, not kill someone and steal their children, you crazy bastard.”

  “Enough!” Joe screamed becoming visibly upset. Startled, Raina took a step back.

  “I came here to check on you and see if you wanted to help me start recruiting some people to go hit that place, not for you to belittle me like that piece of shit you called a father used to.”

  “I’m sorry Joe, I didn’t realize…I…look, go and take a look, a real look. See if there's even anything there besides just a shed. If we can
take it without anyone dying, I’m in.” Joe clapped his hands together as a grin crept onto his face.

  “You got it Rainy! I'll even take that little dipshit Theo with me.”

  “Joe, don't hurt anyone, and for God sake don't get yourself hurt.”

  “I’ll be fine sis, don’t you worry about that.” Joe said as he slipped his coat back on and headed for the door. Raina turned and headed back to her bedroom to get ready for the day. She had big plans for today. First she was going to her stash spot to gather up some things to sell or trade, then she was going to find some damn food. She hadn’t eaten since sometime yesterday. That got her thinking about the endless possibilities this new world could offer her. It was like someone hit the reset button, and she had every intention to make her life the way it should have already been. Raina finished getting dressed and stepped in front of her large mirror.

  “Damn you’re a sexy bitch!” She said to the woman in the mirror looking back at her. Raina was a beautiful young woman. She was 29 years old with long blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Her body was perfect. She had medium sized breasts and a large round ass that would drive most men insane. She was shaped like an hourglass and she used her looks to get anything she wanted before the lights went out. That would all change now.

  Gone were the friendly neighbors and upstanding citizens that would help their fellow man. Now those same men would grab a beautiful young woman like Raina and do whatever they wanted to her without having to worry about the consequences or repercussions of their actions. She was not going to be one of those women. No sir, she would fight back and kill anyone that tried that shit with her. She would not become a statistic.

  Raina made her way to the kitchen and started digging through her nearly bare pantry. She reached her hand to the very back of the pantry and felt around, her fingers gliding over a few cans and then over something furry and alive. Raina screamed and jumped back away from the pantry, looking for anything she could use as a weapon to fight off the monstrous beast hiding in her pantry.