by Ryan Casey
World Without Power
Ryan Casey
Higher Bank Books
Contents
Bonus Content
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
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
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Chapter One
Harlan Williams held his breath as the helicopter started to rise, and he wondered whether this was finally the end of his nightmare.
The evening sun was low in the spring sky. It cast an orange hue, a redness to the clouds that teased a pleasant day tomorrow. And as he looked at that sky, Harlan found himself smiling. Because for the first time in so long, there was optimism. There was hope.
There was a chance of a future. A real future.
And he was going to be a part of it.
He looked at the trees as the helicopter rose further off the ground. Trees that he had cocooned himself within for so many months. He felt a strange reaction, looking down at them as they passed them by. In a way, he’d miss the comfort they provided. He’d miss the times they had his back when rival groups were chasing him, only for him to hide behind those trees to avoid being caught. He’d miss the nights he slept curled up underneath the shelter of their branches, so grateful for them easing the rainfall.
It’d been a long few months. Winter had been nigh-on impossible.
But he was still here.
He’d made it this far.
And now he was in a helicopter, ready to face whatever lay ahead.
The rotors were deafening. So much so, they made him wince. He wasn’t used to such loud, abrasive sounds, not anymore. He was used to hearing the breeze, the birdsong, and the sounds of nature.
He always used to think he liked the sounds of nature.
But make no mistake about it: he’d never been happier than he was right now, listening to this deafening cacophony of man-made noise.
The smells, too. The smells seemed unnatural. Such a change to the crispness of a frosty morning, or the smell of damp bark deep in the forest. Metal. Engine fuel. Man-made elements. It made him realise just how much he’d taken human intervention for granted back in the world the way it used to be. But then, surely that was the same case for everyone. It was human nature to take things for granted. And no matter how much of a novelty going back to a power-fuelled world was going to be, at least for a little while… it wouldn’t be long before humans slipped back into their old habits.
This time, they just had to hope they wouldn’t get too destructive.
They had to do everything they could to avoid getting themselves into this mess all over again.
But Harlan wasn’t sure. It was in human nature to strive, to want to go a step further, to never settle for what it had. The entire capitalist system ran on that.
And Harlan wasn’t anti-capitalist. He was a former banker, after all. He didn’t see capitalism as this all-encompassing evil that so many others did. In a sense, capitalism had got humanity to the lengths it’d got to singlehandedly—the lengths where the total destruction of its own kind was possible. Which other species could say it held its own fate in its hands in such a united, suicidal way?
He felt someone squeeze his hand.
When he looked to his left, he saw Laura.
Laura still made his heart melt whenever he looked into her chocolate brown eyes. She still made his heart skip a beat when she gave that slightly crooked smile. Harlan loved her; there was no doubt about that.
The amazing thing about Laura? The amazing thing about Harlan’s feelings for her?
He didn’t even know her before the EMP struck.
It made him wonder, sometimes. Made him wonder if he could go back to the pre-EMP world, drifting in and out of senseless relationships, no real direction beyond work… and never meet Laura. Would he? Would he choose to pass on all the pain he’d experienced if it meant he’d never meet the woman who was no doubt the love of his life?
No.
He’d take the pain.
Laura was worth every damned second of pain he’d been through.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Harlan thought about what Laura had asked. What was wrong with him? This was supposed to be a great moment. This was supposed to be the moment where everything ended.
If that was the case, why did he feel so nervous?
He squeezed Laura’s hand back. Half-smiled. “I just don’t want to count my chickens until we’re actually out of this mess.”
Laura let go of Harlan’s hand. She raised her arms, gestured outside the helicopter windows. “Look around, love. We’re already out of it.”
Harlan looked out of the windows. He looked at the trees, way below them now. He looked at nearby villages and towns that had long ago been emptied, after looters took control of them, only to eventually run out of supplies and resort to either finding other things to eat or just eating each other.
He looked at this beautiful, peaceful land from above, and he hoped that it would find its feet again, someday. He hoped that it would bounce back. That it would find its way in the world. He hoped he could walk on British soil again. A reformed Britain. A recovered Britain.
And as much as it didn’t look likely right now, Harlan couldn’t help feeling optimistic.
This was just a first step.
Britain would rebuild.
It’d been through worse in its history, for sure.
It would find its way again.
And if it didn’t… its legacy would live on through its people.
Through its survivors.
“Oh, that’s so sad.”
Harlan didn’t know what Laura was referring to. Not at first.
Then he saw them.
There were people on the ground. People approaching the helicopter departure site. They were far away now, but Harlan could see that they were waving.
“Do you think they’ll find another way out of here?” Laura asked.
Harlan swallowed a lump in his throat. “I hope so.”
He looked at Laura then. Looked right into her eyes. And despite
all his trepidation, all his nerves, he was ready to accept now. He was ready to believe now.
He took her hand, kissed it, then together they looked into the pink skies ahead.
“To the new world,” Harlan said.
“To the new world.”
The helicopter disappeared into the clouds.
Chapter Two
When Mike opened his eyes, he still felt that sickening sense of dread deep inside that he might just die today.
It was a familiar feeling. A feeling that had grown to become a natural survival instinct with living in a post-EMP world. And like hypnic jerks and other natural phenomena, it wasn’t going to be easy to snap out of such reactivity.
Even though he’d been living in a paradise over the last two months.
Okay. Maybe paradise was excessive. But compared to the world out there—the world of surviving in the streets, sleeping with one eye open, never quite sure whether you were going to wake up… yeah, compared to all of those things, paradise didn’t seem too over the top after all.
But he’d never stop feeling that sense of alarm, right upon waking.
He’d never stop feeling that momentary fear.
He turned over in bed. Looked at the curtains. The sun was peeking through. Another gorgeous day, by the looks of things.
Winter had ended as suddenly and abruptly as it started. One day, the snow just stopped, the clouds parted, and the heat turned up a notch. It felt like they’d moved seamlessly from winter to summer.
Not that Mike was complaining. Winter was a hell he didn’t want to think too much about. And he’d had it good, surviving at the Grey Lodge mental health facility with Claire and her people.
A knot in his stomach when he thought back to them. It seemed a whole lifetime ago.
He’d never forget Claire or the kindness she’d showed. He’d always remember her. He’d never forget how close he’d got to her when he was in his darkest hour.
He got out of bed. Looked around his room. It wasn’t exactly massive—three by three metres. But it was enough room for a single bed, enough room for a wardrobe, and enough room for a little desk area, where he could read one of the books from down the library in his spare time.
Oh. And there was power here.
Mike didn’t know the full details of how this place ran. Just that the group who ran this place—United Nations peacekeepers—had delivered a hefty supply of generators. They were to be used sparingly, and people here were encouraged to stay in touch with surviving without power in case they needed to in the future again. They’d told Mike about what’d happened in the outside world—about how one EMP attack led to another, and how the whole world had ended up affected. And how even they had been cut off from the rest of society. Most of them had left. But some of them had remained, and they helped instil an order in this place that so many others were missing. It was the citizens that mostly ran it now. But there was the sense that everyone was pulling in the same direction.
They had a home. That was the main thing.
It wasn’t perfect, of course. They still had to hunt for food. But there were a lot of skilled, adept people here. They were cultivating crops; the farm yard was expanding.
It was perfect.
Or at least it was as perfect as it could be.
For the one hundred and seventy-nine people living here, anyway.
It might sound a lot, but in truth, it was painfully few. They often went out scouting to see if they could find other groups of people, but it was remarkable just how many people were dead—or simply reluctant to trust somebody new offering bold promises. And it was always a risk because people weren’t so trusting out there. They’d lost people. Suffered casualties. That was just the nature of this wild west of a world now.
Mike understood it. He got it.
But one thing was for sure.
He wouldn’t trade what he had now for anything.
As he walked out of his room, he felt fear creep up the back of his neck.
It was the thought of the world outside. The thought of being forced back out into it, somehow. Because what he had here was good. What they all had here was good.
He didn’t want it to go away.
He didn’t want it to end.
But he couldn’t shake that niggling feeling that something was going to take all of this away from him, and he wasn’t going to be able to do a thing about it.
He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath.
He shouldn’t think that way. He couldn’t.
He just had to do what he could.
He stepped out of his room.
The second he walked outside, he saw Alison standing there.
She’d put a little weight back on in the two months since getting here, which was good for her. She’d lost a lot in the wild. They all had.
She had a scar down her face that she’d got from a conflict back in the days she’d been travelling with his daughter, Holly.
But Mike couldn’t deny the way he felt when he looked at her.
He couldn’t deny the feelings rising in his body.
“Where are you sneaking off to?” she said. “Just I was kind of coming to arrest you right then.”
Mike raised his hands. “Hey. You said I’d be under arrest when the world was back to normal. We might be living in a nice little community, but this isn’t exactly the normal I was talking about.”
Alison tilted her head. “Thanks for that. Can I speak with you about something?”
Mike and Alison walked down the corridor. This place, it was supposed to be a place to house homeless people, but construction had never quite been finished. The living quarters were small flats and apartments. There was a rehabilitative element to the location—the nearby working farm, things like that. The peacekeepers and early residents had stepped in and taken it for themselves, finishing some construction and making it something of a safe haven.
There were a few vehicles, too. But fuel was in short supply. They used them sparingly, mostly because they weren’t in the best shape, either. The old VW that Gina had saved them in two months ago’d had its day.
But still. What they had here, it was special.
They’d had their moments. They’d had their run-ins.
But mostly, what they had was good.
They were settled. The world outside was settled, at least in their immediate surroundings anyway.
They had to appreciate that as much as they could.
“What’s getting to you?” Mike asked as they stepped outside into the warm, bright morning air.
“It’s Holly, actually.”
Mike stopped. Narrowed his eyes. “Is everything okay with her?”
Alison lowered her head. “It’s not so much her I’m worried about as… well, you know what’s bothering her. You know what’s been bothering her ever since we got here. I just worry she’s going to do something stupid. Get herself hurt.”
Mike swallowed a lump in his throat. “Emma.”
Alison nodded. “Emma.”
Emma had been with Holly when Mike reunited with his daughter. She’d gone after Holly to try and help her when she’d gone back for Mike.
Only she’d disappeared.
Totally disappeared.
Holly had been beating herself up about it ever since.
“You don’t think she’d actually try to go outside, do you?” Mike asked. “To… to find her?”
Alison shrugged. “That’s what I’m worried about. I mean… I’m not saying she isn’t capable of surviving out there. We’ve all proven we’re capable of that. But at the same time, I get the feeling she needs closure. And if she doesn’t get her closure, well… I just worry it’s going to tip her over the edge.”
Mike swallowed a bitter lump in his throat as he reached the edge of the fields, the greenhouses already filled with people tending to the crops. “She’s a tough girl.”
“You didn’t see her like I saw her.”
Mike didn’t like
it when Alison spoke about her time with Holly alone. They didn’t really go into it. Kept things cryptic. He didn’t know what went down, not exactly.
But he knew whatever happened had driven a serious wedge in Alison and Holly’s relationship.
And he knew that the memories of whatever she had done would stick with her.
Forever.
“Just keep an eye on her,” Alison said. “For all our sakes.”
Mike nodded at her. And as she looked into his eyes, that long silence dragging on between them, he went to lean in towards her; lean in to kiss her, to end the tension that had been brewing between them for so long.
But then he heard footsteps to his right.
He looked around. Saw Kelsie walking along, Arya on a lead in her hand.
Only there was something wrong.
Kelsie was crying.
“She hit me,” Kelsie said.
Mike frowned. “Arya? How can she hit you? She’s a dog, chick.”
“Not Arya,” Kelsie said, sobbing. “Holly. Holly hit me.”
Chapter Three
Mike sat opposite Holly, in her room, and felt grateful that domestic matters were the biggest issues at hand now.
But in a way, they were the most difficult matters of all. Mostly because the landscape of the EMP-struck world had drastically altered the domestic matters.
It was late morning. The sun was beaming through Holly’s window, which was closed shut, making this room clammy and stuffy. Whereas a lot of people here had customised their rooms to reflect their personality in some way, Holly’s was different. It was blank. There wasn’t much in here. It was as if she didn’t want to reveal any more aspects of her personality than she had to.