Prepper's Apocalypse | Book 1 | Prepper's Apocalypse
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Prepper’s
Apocalypse
Book 1
Prepper Post-Apocalyptic Survival Fiction
by
AJ Newman
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Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to Patsy, my beautiful wife of thirty-six years. She assists with everything from Beta reading to censor duties. She enables me to write, golf, and enjoy my life with her and our mob of Shih Tzu’s.
Thanks to Patsy, Cheryl, Brenda Jim, Richard C, Richard S.and Wes, who are Beta Readers for this novel. They gave many suggestions that helped improve the cover and readability of my book.
Thanks to Sabrina Jean at Fasttrackediting for proofreading and editing this novel.
Thanks to WMHCheryl at http://wmhcheryl.com/services-for-authors/ for the great final proofreading and suggestions on improving the accuracy and helping me to tell a better story.
Thanks to Christian at Covers by Christian for the fantastic cover.
AJ Newman
Copyright © 2020 Anthony J Newman. All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. All events, names, characters, and places are the author’s imagination or are used as a fictitious event. That means I thought up this whole book from my imagination, and nothing in it is true.
All rights reserved. None of this publication may be copied or reproduced without prior written permission from the publisher.
As they say on TV, don’t try anything you read in this novel. It’s all fiction and stuff I made up to entertain you. Buy some survival books if you want to learn how to survive in the apocalypse.
Published by Newalk LLC.
Henderson, Kentucky
Table of Contents
Key Characters
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
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Books by AJ Newman
About the Author
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Key Characters
Tom Clark – Tom is a rancher in southwestern Oregon. He learned how to survive but lacked most social skills and has a hard-wired fear of cities and outsiders. His wife died two years before the apocalypse, and he still grieves for her.
Bessie Clark – Tom’s feisty grandma. They call her Granny B. She is an ex-Army nurse and has seen combat in the Middle East. She is a strong woman who is the leader of her family and moral compass. Her soft side and homespun humor offset her iron-will for her family to survive.
Jackie Clark – Tom’s twin sister and best friend. She shares many of Tom’s skills and traits but did develop adequate social skills. She is Tom’s best friend and keeps him sane in a crazy world.
Samantha “Sam” Hale – A young mother trying to escape her drug lord boyfriend when the EMP blasts rocked the world. She grows fond of Tom.
Brenda Stover – A rich young lady with a daughter in a failed marriage who loses her husband to gangs on the way home. She’s used to getting her way but learns she’s not a princess in the apocalypse.
Rick Grimes – Brenda’s brother and welcome addition to the Clark group. He adds his military experience and firepower to a group always facing anarchy.
Kate Walker – A local girl caught trying to survive during the chaos surrounding her. Her uncle dies, and she is wounded during a gunfight. She’s a tough young woman and does what it takes to survive.
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Chapter 1
The Pacific Ocean – United flight 4242 - Hawaii to San Francisco
The white-hot flash of light had been reflected from the jet’s wing and blinded Tom for a few seconds. His eyes watered and wouldn’t focus as they recovered from the blast of light. The 957’s jet engines' constant droning had almost lulled him to sleep when brilliant light glared in his eyes. Tom blinked several times and then leaned over his sleeping grandma to look out the passenger window to see the bright light coming from behind the plane. He thought they were heading east, so the sun should be at the aircraft’s front and not behind it. His heart pounded as it dawned on him; the sun wasn’t responsible for the light. Tom feared the worst and knew he had to protect his sister and grandmother from the worst possible happenings.
The speaker crackled, and the pilot’s friendly voice blared out over the intercom. “I’m turning the plane north so you can see what I think is a volcanic explosion behind us. This is a once in a lifetime occurrence. I’ll bring the plane around in a minute and head south so the passengers on the other side can also see this momentous event.”
Most of the passengers were now awake. The whispers and murmurs were deafening as everyone in the cabin wondered what had happened. Bessie Clark, Granny B, as family and friends called her, rubbed her sleep-filled eyes. “What in tarnation is goin’ on? I’m old and need my beauty sleep!”
Tom shook his head, and his voice was strained. “Granny B, I don’t have a clue. There’s a bright light behind us, and the pilot thinks it’s a volcano erupting. We've been flying for about an hour and a half …oh, crap. Isn’t Hawaii the only island behind us? Maybe a ship exploded.”
Tom’s sister, Jackie, climbed onto his lap to peer out the window, shoving Granny B out of the way. Jackie gasped and stopped breathing. The plane leveled off from the sweeping turn, and they saw a ball of light in the sky that changed from a hot white to a simmering yellow. It glowed just like the sun for a few brief seconds, and they only caught glimpses of the light because it hurt their eyes. Then abruptly, the light disappeared, and the sky was dark again. The passengers on the opposite side of the plane groaned because they’d missed the sight. The voices were now loud, angry, and scared. The fear of people facing the unknown filled the air.
Tears trickled down Jackie’s cheeks. Her memories of fun on the islands with her relatives soared through her mind. She winced and then whispered, her voice rising as she spoke. “Granny B, that wasn’t a volcano! I’m scared for our kin back on the islands. Tom, could that have been some sorta bomb?”
Tom noticed a scent in the air he had never smelled before. His eyes squinted, and he took short breaths into his nostrils until his shoulders snapped back and his head lifted. Fear was not something he’d been used to at the ranch. “I don’t know, but I hope whatever happened is behind us. Jack and June are alone at the ranch, and I’m worried how they’ll handle things if the shit just hit the fan.”
Tom then thought, I’m overreacting. Grandpa preached TSHTF so much that I see shit hit the fan situations where they don’t exist. There’s an explanation, and it won’t be the end of the world. Damn, I’ll never be as good at this as my grandpa.
Tom was a good-looking twenty-eight-year-old widower who was athletic and socially awkward. Tom had been a good husband and made a good living raising cattle and goats up in the mountains above Ashland, Oregon. His rugged good looks and awe shucks charm belied his shyness. He worked hard to be outgoing but was a homebody and hated leaving the comfort of the ranch. He was over six-feet tall and towered over Jackie, his twin sister. He called her little sister,
and she called him big brother. She was his best friend and confidant.
Tom just didn’t realize that his wife had thought he was boring and led a dull life. His wife tried to get him to go on vacations and get out in the world, but he was a homebody and loved being on his ranch with Granny B and Jackie. Tom didn’t know how much Gwen had begun to resent the lonely life on the ranch. Granny B had caught her flirting on the phone with another man the day before she died in a car crash going to meet the man. Granny B never told Tom because he worshiped his unfaithful wife.
Tom’s grandfather, Jonas Clark, had been one of those ‘Doomsday people’ since leaving the Army. He’d begun seriously prepping after he married Tom’s grandma when they got out of the service and moved back to his grandpa’s family ranch in Oregon. They’d met in Iraq and had been together until a few years ago when he died. Tom and Jackie’s parents had been killed in a car wreck when the twins were five-years-old. Jonas and Bessie raised them as their own. Tom had grown up tagging along with his grandpa and wanted to grow up to be half the man his grandfather was.
The only good thing that had happened to Tom in the last year was winning the Powerball Lottery. His share was only ten million dollars after taxes. He’d bought some toys and treated his family to an all-expense-paid trip to Hawaii, which had almost made him forget about Gwen. Even with a large amount of cash, he still lived in the large two-story ranch house his great-grandpa had built back in the late 1890s. Tom had fixed up the ranch and had bought some top-notch stock to improve his bloodlines, the Jeeps, and new ranch equipment. He also bought some gold and junk silver coins to bulk up their prepping but otherwise kept the bulk of the money in some wise investments.
Tom tapped his sister on the arm. “I just thought that this had better not be the apocalypse. I’ve only spent about a million dollars of the ten million I won. I guess the joke would be on me if there’s nine million left rotting in a bank just as worthless as toilet paper.”
Jackie took in a deep breath to steady her nerves and then wisecracked. “Toilet paper is worthless until you don’t have any. Remind me not to shake hands if the shit has hit the hand.”
Tom couldn’t help laughing at his sister’s crude but true joke. “Yep, shaking hands would be low on my list. We’ll just bump elbows like they did back in the twenties with that China virus.”
Jackie clung to her brother’s arm, laid her head on his shoulder, and tried to be brave. “I’m worried about the ranch and Jack and June.”
Tom thought about the ranch and what chores had to be done. “They’ll be okay for a month or so. Most of the cattle are up in the high country, and the darned goats are out in the eastern pasture. They both have plenty of grass and water.”
Tom cracked his knuckles and fidgeted with his lap belt until he couldn’t stand it any longer. He reached up and pushed the call button for the flight attendant. He looked up and down the aisle and didn’t see any of them in the passenger cabin. Tom searched his memory for anything that could have happened that made any sense. He thought, I never fully believed in all that apocalypse stuff Grandpa spouted. What if he was right after all? What would Grampa tell me? He knew all about nuclear bombs, EMPs, and bio-weapons and would know what to do. There wasn’t the classic mushroom cloud of an A-bomb or the look of a non-atomic explosion.
Then he remembered they had to be almost five to six hundred miles from Hawaii and thought, Maybe a ship did explode. That would explain the flash.
Jackie leaned over Tom, chatting away with Granny B about what could’ve happened. Jackie pushed the bomb theory. “It had to be a bomb because a volcano would have sent fire and smoke a mile high.”
Granny B thought it was a nuclear bomb. “No, it was a brilliant but short-lived flash. I saw plenty of them on TV back when I was a kid. A lot of those science fiction shows were about nuclear war.”
A minute later, another bright light lit up the cabin, but it came from the northeast and above them this time. The ball of glowing white had rays leaping out in all directions. Tom squinted his eyes and looked out the window at the terrifying object. He turned away, couldn’t see for a few seconds, and then had an image of the explosion burned in his vision. “That one was up in outer space. This is definitely serious. Grampa told us about nuclear EMP bursts, and these look exactly how he described them.”
The ladies argued over top of Tom and kept smothering him. He wrapped his arms around their necks and drew their faces to his. “Granny B, Jackie, please stop talking. I think it was a nuclear air blast meant to create a tremendous electromagnetic pulse. One of our enemies just neutralized our Pacific Fleet without damaging the fleet or the islands. I’ll bet the detonation was hundreds of miles up in the atmosphere. The second blast destroyed some of our military and communication satellites, plus all communications and the grid on the west coast. That’s why we saw them so bright.”
Granny B pinched Tom on the side, making him release them. “Okay, smarty pants. What makes you think that?”
“Ouch! That hurt. Well, first, Grampa warned us about EMP and Solar Flares, and I’ve read several of those Post-Apocalyptic books. Many of the authors feature EMP blasts because those explosions don’t kill people. It makes the story much better to see the billions of people fighting over scraps of bread when the grid is down. The vehicles don’t work, and most communication has been fried.”
“Yes, your grandpa spoke a lot about survival and prepping. I went along with him to keep the arguments down. Darn, I read some of those books back during Y2K. Heck, that’s thirty-eight years ago, and the thought still scares me. What can we do?”
Tom reached up again to push the call button. This time, a female flight attendant walked from the front of the plane but was stopped by dozens of passengers with questions. Tom turned his head and looked into the rear galley to see two flight attendants arguing in front of the restrooms. Tom’s family was seated next to the last row at the back of the plane, so he stood up and took a few steps toward the two women. One was crying.
“Ma’am, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Sir, please go back to your seat.”
Tom stood his ground as he glared at the frightened flight attendants. “Ladies, something bad just happened several hundred miles behind us, and another blast was above us. Do you know what happened?”
“Sir, we don’t have any information. The pilot will make an announcement as soon as he knows something.”
“Does the pilot have communication with the control tower?”
“Go sit down, or we’ll have to force you to go to your seat.”
Tom’s face slumped. “You’d better have a better explanation than that in a few minutes, or you’re going to have a riot on your hands.” Tom pointed to the dozens of passengers trying to hear what was said.
“Please sit down.”
Jackie and Tom had been inseparable growing up on the ranch and were still best friends. Jackie had dated but never had a serious relationship. She was a beautiful twenty-eight-year-old young woman who always slathered her face with sunblock. Jackie always wore her Dorfman Pacific or Stetson wide-brimmed hats to keep her face from looking like her weathered Granny B’s face. She was tall at five foot seven inches with short blonde hair and an athletic build.
Jackie had always been a tomboy and could play as rough as any of the boys in their school. Most of the boys were a bit put off by a girl who could tackle them and whip them in a fair fight. She worked hard around the ranch and was at home, feeding the cattle and helping new calves into the world. She’d left the ranch to attend college but had become so homesick she’d returned before the end of her freshman year. She’d continued her education online and read biology and history books in her spare time.
Jackie took the in-flight phone in front of her and used her credit card to start the call. Everything went well until just after the card was read. The phone had a tone at first, but there was only static on the speaker. She saw Tom turn toward her, pointed at the phon
e, and made a slashing motion across her neck. Tom turned to the flight attendants. “The phones are dead. The pilot had better give us an update now! This is bull crap.”
Tom tried his cell phone even though it was against the rules. The phone came on but didn’t receive a signal. He pointed to it and made the slashing motion across his neck. “Jackie, my cell phone reception is dead.”
“That could be because we’re in the middle of the ocean.”
The flight attendants rushed to the front of the plane, dodging requests to stop and answer questions. Several passengers got out of their seats and approached Tom. One large gray-haired man spoke above the others. “What did they say?”
“They said they didn’t know what happened, and the pilot would make an announcement soon. Check your in-flight phones to see if they’re working. Ours doesn’t. Something bad happened. Does anyone have a radio or other means to pick up radio or TV signals?”
A few women were now crying, along with several scared children. The gray-haired man said, “We’ll check with the other passengers. What’s your best guess?”
Tom didn’t want to just guess and alarm the others. “We need to wait for the pilot’s communication.”
The gray-haired man looked like a guy who was used to being in charge. “I’m Bill Todd, and I’m a cop in Medford, Oregon. I don’t know what happened, but whatever those blasts were wasn’t an isolated occurrence. I’m confident our country is under attack.”
Tom whispered. “That’s my guess also. Maybe EMP blasts? I’m Tom Clark from Ashland.”
“Damn, that was my guess. We must have been far enough away, or we’d have crashed by now. If some enemy nuked San Francisco, we wouldn’t have air traffic controllers to help us land. If there’s a place to land.”