Survivalist Reality Show: The Complete Series

by Grace Hamilton

  It had been risky to leave Geno and Tabitha with the van all night, knowing Damien and his men could patrol the area and find it, but with the powerful rifle, they’d been hopeful Geno could eliminate any threats—even the man who’d felt the need to come knock on a stranger’s door and make threats. No one knew who Damien was, but it had to be assumed he was dangerous.

  Regan half-worried that the van would be empty and that Tabitha and Geno would be seriously injured or worse.

  When she heard movement and the door unlocked, she stiffened, not sure what to expect. A second later, the door opened and Tabitha’s face peered out.

  Regan grinned. “Good morning, sunshine,” she said in a soft, sing-song voice, happy to see her friend alive and well.

  “There is no sun,” she grumbled.

  Regan chuckled. “Nope, not yet, which is a good thing.”

  “Where’s Wolf?” Tabitha asked, her voice rough from sleep.

  “He waited to make sure we weren’t being followed.”

  Tabitha pushed open both of the van doors, revealing Geno still lying on the floor of the van—his bulky body wedged up against boxes of supplies, the rifle next to his body. Regan stared at the tiny empty space where Tabitha must have been lying and cringed. That could not have been comfortable.

  “You guys moved everything around,” Heather said with disgust, seeing supplies piled into the front seats.

  “We had to sleep somewhere,” Geno growled.

  “Now I have to fix it all,” she said, shaking her head.

  “No, you don’t,” Tabitha said, stopping her. “I’ll move the things out of the front and get them settled again so we’re good to go.”

  Heather froze and looked at Tabitha before throwing her hands up. “Fine.”

  “We talked about how we’d move last night,” Regan told Tabitha, stepping ahead of Heather. “We’ve got room for a driver, a passenger, and one or two people in the back of the van. The rest of us will walk,” Regan explained.

  Tabitha groaned. “Seriously? What’s the point of the van?”

  “To transport our supplies. It’ll be a lot easier on the walkers if we don’t have to carry heavy packs,” Wolf said, emerging through the brush and trees.

  “We’re going to be separated?” Geno asked.

  “No. The driver of the van will drive slow, keeping an eye on things as we go. The van will go ahead, scouting the area, and if there is something dangerous, the driver will let us know,” Wolf explained.

  Tabitha shrugged. “Okay,” she said simply, already moving to clear the front seat of what she and Geno had moved in order to lie down.

  “Geno, you take the first driving shift. Keep an eye on gauges and whatnot. You’ll know if something is off. Dad, why don’t you ride shotgun with the rifle? I don’t want to carry that gun and draw any unwanted attention. We can hide the handguns under our shirts. Travis, Lily, you can take the first shift in the back of the van,” Wolf said, taking charge as usual.

  Geno climbed into the driver’s seat, started up the van and checked the gas level. They had one five-gallon jug of gas they had siphoned from the motor boat, but that was all they had. There was a half-tank in the van now and while they couldn’t say for sure what kind of mileage they would get, they were hoping it would be enough to get them to the reservation—assuming they could siphon more gas from somewhere along the way if they needed to.

  “How’s it running?” Wolf asked.

  Geno revved the engine. “Feels good. Sounds good. I think it’ll be okay. How far do you think?” he asked.

  Wolf shrugged. “It’s about forty-five miles, following the highway, but we need to stay off the main roads as much as possible. There are a few towns along the way that we can try and do some scavenging from.”

  “I think we should be able to get at least ten miles to the gallon with this thing. So, with what we have in the tank and what we have on standby, we should be okay on gas,” Geno offered.

  Wolf smiled. “Alright then, let’s move. Back up and we’ll wait over here. I’ll try and guide you around any rocks that might damage the van. You’ll need to leave the headlights off. I don’t want to attract attention,” Wolf instructed.

  “Got it.”

  RC climbed into the passenger seat while Travis and Lily got in the back. Heather was moving to close the van doors when Lily stopped her.

  “Never mind. I can’t,” she said, climbing out and holding her nose.

  “What’s wrong?” Wolf asked.

  “The smell of the gas will make me sick. I’ll walk.”

  “Me, too,” Travis said, never more than a few feet away from Lily.

  Regan looked at Wolf. “She’s probably right. With no ventilation, that’s probably not a good idea.”

  Tabitha nodded from the side. “That’s why we had that up-front overnight, by the open window.”

  Wolf groaned and looked up at the sky. “So, now we’re down to two seats in the van.”

  “It’ll be okay,” Regan assured him. “It isn’t going to make a difference if there are two people or four people in the van.”

  It took a moment, but then he nodded his head. “You’re right.”

  Heather shut the van doors and all of them moved to the side while Geno backed up and turned around to drive back down the overgrown road. Regan, Wolf, Travis, Lily, Fred, Tabitha, and Heather all walked behind the van, following it down the silent road.

  Geno stuck his head out. “All good?”

  “We’re good. You know where you’re going, right?” Wolf called out.

  Geno’s laughter filled the early morning air. “I’ve got my co-pilot guiding the way.”

  The group traveled at a slow pace, taking back roads as they went. They planned to keep near the coastline in case they should need to do any fishing. Regan hoped it didn’t get to that point, but they couldn’t go a week without food and still keep up their strength.

  “Shh,” Wolf said, coming to a stop.

  Regan looked up, kicking herself for getting lost in thought and not paying attention like Wolf. Her hand immediately moved to touch her weapon where it was concealed under her shirt. She’d been given the 380, which was much lighter than the Glock. The rest of the group stopped behind them as her eyes focused and she found herself facing a man and a woman who was carrying a baby. At their side was a young boy, maybe four years old, his hand in his mother’s free hand.

  They all stopped moving, each group staring at the other with a combination of shock and fear.

  “Hi,” Regan said in a soft voice that felt much louder on the quiet road in these early morning hours.

  “Hi,” the woman whispered.

  Regan automatically assumed the baby was sleeping. She couldn’t imagine trying to be stealthy with an infant. Her heart went out to them, whoever they were.

  “Are you escaping?” the young mother asked.

  Regan nodded her head. “We are. You?”

  The woman smiled, tucking her infant closer to her body. “We have a small boat. We’re hoping to get away without being noticed.”

  Wolf nodded his head. “I hope it’s hidden well.”

  The father stepped forward, his son’s hand now clutched in his own. “It is. We’re hoping to make it to an island or travel around the bay to find somewhere safer.”

  Regan pitied them and their situation. The stress the parents must have been under to keep their children safe and fed had to be tremendous.

  Tabitha stepped up beside Regan, nodding to the infant. “How old is your baby?” she asked.

  The woman smiled. “I don’t know for sure. She was born hours after the EMP. We were in the hospital when everything went dark. We kept waiting for the back-up generators to come on. They never did. It was terrible. So many people,” she shook her head, tears filling her eyes.

  “The machines,” her husband explained, resting his hand on his wife’s shoulder. “All the life support machines, they just stopped. There was so much grief, we
decided to leave shortly after she was born. It was too much. The doctors and nurses, they were helpless without their machines. The electronic locks, all if it. It was a horrible time.”

  Regan’s eyes widened as she got a better understanding of how devastating the EMP would have been for hospitals. She suddenly imagined surgeons being caught in a surgery with no lights, the instruments to keep their patients breathing shutting down while the patients were under anesthesia. She closed her eyes, imagining how much death must have occurred during those first hours after the EMP.

  “Good luck,” Tabitha said with a wave before catching up to the rest of the group, who’d started to walk on. No one had time to linger.

  Regan moved more slowly as she got back to the group, letting Wolf take the lead. It angered Regan to know this family was being pushed from their home and forced to survive out in the unknown. The image of the woman with the hollowed-out cheeks was one that would haunt her. She was likely starving in favor of feeding her children. At a loss for words, she looked to Tabitha, who kept glancing back at the family walking in the opposite direction. Regan knew the sight had to hit home for her, what with all Geno’s baby talk. That could be Tabitha’s future if they decided to have a baby.

  Regan and Tabitha exchanged a look before focusing on the road in front of them. The sun was rising quickly, stealing away their cover of darkness. The rural area seemed to stretch for miles ahead of them, with no real trees or other cover in sight. It was nerve-wracking to think they could get caught out here in the open. Wolf had promised there would be plenty of trees for cover and shade farther down the road, but it seemed hard to believe from where they were now.

  Once they got beyond the once sleepy little area that Heather and Travis had called home, they all breathed a sigh of relief. No one said it, but she knew they all felt it—the fear of being caught. Regan had been convinced they were going to be stopped by Damien and get into a shoot-out, with Damien’s men outgunning them.

  They trudged along, walking at a slow, steady pace, not wanting to overdo it and wear themselves out. No one wanted to risk heat stroke, either. The higher the sun rose in the sky, the hotter it got. Regan wanted to whine and complain, but kept her mouth shut. It wouldn’t do anyone any good. Still, it wasn’t long before everyone felt the effects of the heat and began to flag a little.

  “I think it’d be a good time to stop for some water and breakfast,” Heather suggested.

  Fred scoffed. “We’ve barely made it five miles. If we stop every few miles, it’s going to take us weeks to get there. We can push on a little more. During the great escape from the swamp, we walked most of the day before stopping.”

  Regan wanted to refute his claim, but kept her mouth shut. There was no need to stir the pot—and she was too hot to talk.

  “Well, I’m starving, and we need calories if we’re going to keep moving and not cramping up,” Heather replied in a stern tone.

  “I could use some water,” Regan chimed in, hoping to diffuse the situation and anxious about the idea of taking a small break. She didn’t remember it being quite so hot when they had left the swamp.

  “Geno!” Wolf hollered, and the brake lights on the van up ahead came on immediately.

  “What’s up?” Geno replied, his head popping out the window.

  “Breakfast,” Wolf replied.

  Geno drove another thirty feet and pulled off the highway. There wasn’t a lot of shade to be had in this particular area, but there was room for the van off the side of the road. Wolf promised it would get more treed the closer they got to the reservation. For now, they were stuck in what Regan was convinced was a smaller version of hell. The only difference was the moisture. There was plenty of that to go around.

  “I’ll grab the breakfast bars,” Fred said, opening the back of the van.

  His tall frame hunched over as he stepped inside the back of the van, looking around. Regan heard him cursing immediately and knew there was about to be another argument. She groaned aloud, dreading the complaints that were sure to be lobbed. This tension was exhausting.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, moving closer to the van and hoping to keep it from turning into an all-out battle.

  “Heather, did you move the tote that had the ready-to-eat food in it?” Fred asked, emerging from the back of the van with a jump, his hands on his hips as he glared at her.

  “I don’t think so. I moved a few of the larger totes to the corner behind the driver’s seat, but I didn’t see any labeled food,” she replied.

  Fred glared at the woman. “That’s because the tote wasn’t labeled.”

  “Well, I told you before—” Heather started.

  Lily jumped in. “I can grab it. Go take a break, Fred.”

  Fred moved out of the way, making room for Lily. With her size, she could stand up in the back of the van with no trouble, which made it far easier and more comfortable for her to dig around. Smiling, Regan felt proud of Lily for jumping in to help.

  “We’ll have to pull everything out,” Fred grumbled.

  “No, it’s fine. I can just move a few things around,” Lily said in a cheery voice.

  Observing her, Regan couldn’t help being surprised at how quickly Lily had read the situation. Surprised and grateful. Heather kept pushing the wrong buttons, and it was taking its toll on group dynamics. Lily seemed to sense it, though, and was making sure Heather and Travis weren’t kicked out of the group. Regan had to be impressed with her willingness to help out by running interference. They all were, it felt like.

  “Hey, Lily, can you grab one of the blankets so we can all sit and relax for a little bit?” Regan asked.

  “I’ll get it,” Travis said, climbing in to get the blanket while Lily worked to move totes out of the way.

  Regan grabbed one of the gallons of water that had been stored at the back of the van. “Heather, can you put in a couple of those purification tablets, so we can all fill our water bottles?”

  “Sure,” Heather said, grabbing a backpack and the jug of water.

  “I’ll spread out the blanket,” Tabitha volunteered.

  Wolf scanned the area, keeping watch before his eyes were drawn to Regan’s. She looked up to find him watching her with a small smile on his face. She raised one eyebrow in return. He looked like he had something on his mind.

  “What?” she asked.

  He gestured with his head, leading her a few feet away from the group. With Lily in the van and everyone else on the opposite side, they had a minute of privacy. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

  “You’re amazing,” he said in a low voice.

  She grinned. “I know, but can you be more specific?”

  “That, right there. That was the sign of a real leader. I’m glad to have you by my side as we go through this together. You’ve changed a lot these past few weeks.”

  “Is that good or bad?” she teased him.

  “Very good. I don’t think I could have done this without you. Things haven’t been easy, but with your help, things keep moving forward.”

  “Thank you. I’m afraid Fred is going to eat Heather before we ever make it back to the swamp, though” she muttered, her eyes darting back toward the group.

  He nodded. “He is pretty testy with her. I’ve never seen him so grumpy. Is it because of the whole organization thing? I thought everyone was over that.”

  Regan shrugged, frowning. “I don’t know. It’s strange. Maybe I’ll try to talk to him later. I think there’s something else bothering him and she’s just riding his last nerve. It could be the stress of walking so far, or maybe he feels like he’s getting pushed out for some reason, since organization was his thing back on the island. I don’t know. I’ll hang back a bit with him and see if he’ll tell me what’s eating at him so much.”

  “Good. Thank you. If he doesn’t talk to you, I’ll try. I don’t want to be dealing with this for the foreseeable future. That is not going t
o make for a happy home life,” he grumbled in a low voice.

  Regan gave him a quick kiss. “We’ll fix it. Growing pains. It will all work out.”

  “Got it!” Lily announced, emerging from the back of the van and holding up a box of Clif bars.

  “We better get over there,” Wolf said, sneaking another quick kiss.

  Lily passed the box of bars to Fred as Heather swirled the jug of water and announced it would be another five minutes before they could all have a refreshing drink. They hadn’t purified the water beforehand in case of some accident causing the water to spill—or, worst case scenario, it being taken from them. The purification tablets were too precious to risk losing.

  They spread out on the edges of the blanket, everyone eating their protein bars and knowing it would be their only meal until later in the afternoon.

  “Fred, do you want to drive?” Geno asked.

  “I’ll drive,” Lily joked.

  Everyone laughed. “It’s a great time to learn,” Regan pointed out, earning a glare from Wolf.

  “I’ll drive for a bit,” Fred said, handing the Beretta to Geno to carry.

  “Dad, you go ahead and ride shotgun,” Wolf said.

  RC shook his head. “I’m not an invalid.”

  “I know that, but you need to take care of yourself. You’re still recovering,” Wolf said a bit more quietly.

  “Recovering?” Tabitha asked, her gaze going to RC.

  “He had heat exhaustion yesterday.”

  Tabitha looked at RC. “Oh no. You ride today. We can’t risk you going down—you’re my favorite person here,” she added with a smile.

  “Hey,” Geno protested, earning a laugh from the group as a whole.

  RC smiled. “I’ll ride today. Thank you all for understanding. I promise I can pull my own weight. Yesterday was a little too much. I should have known better. Let it be a lesson to you all. I felt the symptoms and ignored them. It was stupid. That alone should have clued me into what was happening with my body.”