Survive the Chaos (Small Town EMP Book 1)

by Grace Hamilton

  Malachi’s father rushed forward at that, wrapping his arms around his son. “It’s okay. God will protect us.”

  “Dad, something really bad is happening,” Malachi said, his voice raspy.

  Savannah hugged herself, wishing her dad was there with them. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she felt terrified. What was happening?

  “The world’s gone mad!” Jim Loveridge said, as if answering her question. But it was the same question she saw on everyone’s faces—everyone’s but his, really. “This is what we’ve been preaching about. This is what we’ve been trying to warn people about,” he continued, stepping back with his hands on Malachi’s shoulders as he looked into his son’s eyes.

  One of the men who traveled with the family dropped to his knees and began to pray outside the tent. Another one followed suit. Jim turned to look at them, praising them for turning to God in their time of need, and Savannah took advantage of the moment to step up beside Malachi.

  “What is he talking about?” Savannah asked in a hushed voice.

  “It’s the end times,” he said, his eyes going wide with what almost looked like excitement.

  “What?” she asked.

  This can’t be happening. This is a nightmare, not real life. Before she could give voice to her thoughts, however, Jim Loveridge walked towards her, took her hands in his, and smiled.

  “This was predicted in the Bible. Society will fall,” he told her calmly. “Chaos will ensue. It’s time for us to go home.”

  “What do you mean, society will fall?” Savannah asked, looking beyond him to Malachi. He’d seemed so normal, but this… this wasn’t normal.

  “Famine, food shortages, lawlessness, it’s all raining down upon us,” Jim Loveridge said, looking up at the sky.

  Savannah felt a sudden rush of doubt and fear. It was time for her to go. She didn’t know these people all that well, and they seemed a little too excited about impending doom. If it was what they were predicting, she wanted to be with her dad. The last thing she wanted was to be with a group of strangers who seemed excited about the idea of the Bible predicting chaos.

  “I need to go home,” she whispered.

  “No! You can’t! It isn’t safe,” Jim said, a little too loudly. He looked at his wife, and Savannah saw the woman was nodding, her mouth set in a firm line.

  “But, my dad—” Savannah began.

  “We’ll take you home in the morning, when it’s daylight,” Malachi’s mother said firmly.

  Her husband agreed. “Tonight, we pack up. We’ll set out on foot tomorrow.”

  Savannah looked between them and Malachi, who seemed stunned. “Where will you go?” she asked.

  “Home,” Jim replied simply.

  “Where’s home?”

  “Salt Lake City,” Malachi answered. “That’s where I was born.”

  “You’re going to walk to Salt Lake City?” she asked incredulously.

  Jim smiled. “It’s the only way. We’ll escort you back to your father in the morning.”

  She shook her head, unable to process the thought of walking that far. “Thank you,” she muttered, not happy to be stuck overnight, but not exactly looking forward to walking through the town where it did appear that people had lost their minds. Hopefully, her father would understand her being out overnight—maybe he wouldn’t even be back till morning himself, she reminded herself, if he’d also gotten stuck somewhere because of that meeting he’d headed off to.

  “Thank you for trying to help out earlier,” Jim said, motioning toward where Eli lay.

  Savannah nodded, trying not to look at the covered body. “I’m so sorry for your family’s loss.”

  “God has a plan. We can’t know that plan, but we can accept it,” he said, his tone weirdly serene.

  Savannah nodded again. She couldn’t have been so calm about it, but knew some people felt that way. Everyone had to deal with the loss of loved ones in their own way. “Thank you for letting me stay,” Savannah said with a smile she didn’t feel.

  “Of course. Malachi, take her over to the trailer and talk with Gretchen. She’ll get her set up with a cot in the kitchen tent,” Jim said.

  Immediately, Malachi took Savannah’s hand and turned to face her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you home. I know you must be worried about your dad.”

  “It’s okay,” she said, her voice going tight. “Your family is probably right. It isn’t safe out there right now.”

  He ushered her away from his family, back toward the smaller tent. “We set up cots in the kitchen tent area after everyone goes home. We keep extra on hand in case anyone needs a place to stay for the night,” he explained.

  “Does that happen often?” she asked.

  He let out a long sigh. “It does. My family has fed and sheltered many homeless people during our travels. We tend to collect people, as my mother would say. Gretchen is one of them, like her boyfriend Tim. They might as well be family in a lot of ways.”

  “That’s amazing. Your family is so generous,” she told him, some of her doubt from earlier draining away with a reminder of how kind-hearted this family seemed to be.

  “Thank you. We like to do it.”

  “Malachi, the farm we’re staying at…” Savannah began, thinking of it only now, “they have a lot of horses and even a few donkeys. Maybe the owner would be willing to let your family have a couple. You have so far to go. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a couple horses?”

  Malachi stopped walking. She could barely see his face in the dark shadows of the trees they were now standing in, but she sensed his excitement when he squeezed her hand. “That would be amazing. Maybe we can find a cart or a wagon like they used in the old days. I know I saw one in someone’s yard on the other side of town,” he said.

  Savannah smiled, happy enough just to have brought him some joy on such a horrible night.

  6

  Savannah couldn’t help feeling anxious as she walked with Malachi a few feet in front of his parents in the bright morning light. She’d wanted to run home to see her father as soon as the sun had come up, and did even now, but the revivalists had taken their sweet time packing things they wanted to take with them. Eli had been buried the night before, while she’d slept, and so the morning had been dedicated to planning. They’d talked about taking down the tents, but Jim had decided to leave them up for anyone seeking shelter. The tents were far too big and cumbersome to carry home, he’d pointed out. After what had felt like forever, once they had packed up as much as they could carry, the group of ten or so people had finally set out for the farm where Savannah had been staying with her father.

  “Are you sure you’re going to walk all that way?” Savannah whispered.

  “We have to. We can’t stay here and live in a tent,” he replied.

  “But you’ve been living in tents,” she pointed out—reasonably, she thought.

  Malachi laughed. “No, we’ve had our motorhomes, with water and electricity and beds. We haven’t actually been living in the tents.”

  “What if it isn’t what your dad said? What if this is some kind of freak accident and things will be back to normal in a day or two?” she questioned, still not ready to believe the world was ending. “Then you’ll have to walk back here to retrieve everything.”

  And, truly, even the way Malachi’s family was acting didn’t seem all that real. She’d certainly seen her fair share of wacko religious groups, as well as all the crazy Facebook posts about an apocalypse just around the corner. They were always disproven, though. It seemed like there was always someone claiming the end of the world was going to happen on a specific day, and then the day would come and go with the world completely unchanged. Granted, this did feel different and unlike all those doomsday warnings, but there’d been nothing to indicate things were about to get turned upside down last night. It had just happened. The fact that Malachi’s family was embracing it almost felt stranger than the event itself.

  Malachi simply l
ooked at her, however, his eyes not nearly as bright and full of life as they’d been the day before when he’d come to meet her. “I believe my father,” he said firmly.

  “Okay,” she murmured.

  They continued walking in relative silence until they found themselves near the gas station where the man had been killed last night. Savannah couldn’t help but stare at the scene, suddenly afraid to even pass it by.

  “We need to keep going,” Jim said in a soft voice, he and the rest of the group having overtaken the two teens on the road.

  Malachi took her hand. “I’ll be with you.”

  She nodded, walking behind two of the men that were a part of the group. Soon enough, the band of revivalists were past the dreaded gas station that looked unchanged from the night before, heading on down the middle of the road through town and passing the creamery as they walked around a few cars stalled in the road. It felt like she was walking through a ghost town. Everything had gone completely still and quiet. If there were people around, they were staying hidden.

  When they were able to leave the town behind, she let out her breath and gripped Malachi’s hand tighter in a quick ‘thank you’—soon, they were at the head of the group again, her RV feeling within reach.

  “Up there!” she called out as soon as she saw the fifth-wheel in the distance.

  “Be careful,” Jim advised her.

  She had to fight the urge to run towards her home on wheels. “We can cut through the pasture!” she hollered, easily sliding between the two strings of barbed-wire that were stretched along the roadway to keep the horses in.

  Malachi kept her hand in his and the group walked through the pasture behind them. Savannah’s eyes scanned the area, her heart sinking. She should have known it when he hadn’t come running to greet her, but she’d put off accepting it.

  “He’s not here,” she whispered, slowing her walk as she reached the RV and looked around for her father’s truck.

  “How do you know?” Malachi asked.

  “His truck isn’t here,” she said, willing herself not to cry. Where was he?

  “It could have stalled like the others,” Malachi offered.

  The small group approached the trailer with Savannah in the lead. She tried to open the door, only to find it locked. Trying to tell herself that that meant he was still sleeping inside, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her key, fumbling with the lock before finally flinging the door open.

  “Dad?” she called out, knowing he wasn’t going to answer.

  “Maybe he’s looking for you?” Malachi suggested when it became apparent he wasn’t there.

  “Oh, he’s going to be so mad,” she groaned, going inside the trailer to make absolutely sure he wasn’t inside.

  Malachi and his family waited outside while she searched the small space, looking for a note or any signs he’d been there at all since they’d stepped outside together the night before.

  “Could he be at the house?” Malachi offered when she stood in the doorway of the trailer, her spirit crushed.

  “Yes! Let’s go find him!”

  The group started toward the sprawling farmhouse that had been built at the turn of the century and added onto over the decades. Savannah scanned the area as they approached, noticing the barn doors were wide open. That wasn’t normal.

  “Hold up!” Jim called out.

  Savannah stopped walking, turning to look at Malachi’s father. He was staring towards the carport… where she could see a body lying on the ground. Her first thought was that it was her father lying there, and she couldn’t move. Her voice got lost somewhere in the giant lump lodged in her throat.

  “Stay here and let my dad check,” Malachi said, moving to stand in front of her, blocking her view of the body lying next to a tractor.

  She blinked, and she thought she nodded, but she couldn’t be positive. Ignoring Malachi’s impulse to protect her, she stepped to the side, watching Malachi’s father. It felt like an eternity as Jim walked up to the man, squatted beside him, and reached out to check for a pulse. Jim took a few more seconds before standing and coming towards where she and his son stood.

  She knew she was holding her breath, but couldn’t seem to force her lungs to expand. Jim’s face told her it was bad. His lips were pressed into a thin line, his eyes sad and overly gentle.

  “How old is your father?” Jim asked her.

  What? She hadn’t expected that. “Forty-four?” she said, a question mark on the end of her word.

  A sigh left the man’s throat, and a look of relief crossed his face. “It’s not your father,” Jim said confidently.

  “It’s not?” she squeaked.

  “No. The man over there is much older—I’d say in his late sixties.”

  “Oh,” she said weakly. The fact that it wasn’t her father was a relief, but to think…

  “Who is it?” Malachi asked.

  “The farmer. Bob Little,” she said quietly.

  Malachi’s mother moved to hug Jim. “What happened?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid he was shot,” he replied.

  Savannah wilted, leaning against Malachi for support. Then she turned around to look at the barn, realization dawning as she started moving towards the building.

  “Where are you going?” Malachi asked.

  “The horses!” she cried out, picking up her speed.

  She burst into the barn, her heart sinking as she realized her fear had been correct. Staring at the empty stalls, the doors all left open, she could only shake her head.

  “Where are they?” Malachi asked from behind her.

  “Gone. They’re all gone.”

  There was a silence in the barn as they all processed what had happened. The lingering scent of horses and manure hung thick in the air. Straw lay scattered about the floor in front of each of the empty stalls.

  “Someone stole the horses,” Jim said, stating the obvious. “In these times, they’re going to be valuable enough that people will kill for them.”

  “I’m sorry,” Savannah said, looking back at Tonya and then Jim.

  Jim reached out to grab her hand, holding it between his hands and looking her in the eye. “It isn’t your fault. This is all God’s plan. We have to accept it. We can’t know what our future holds, but God does. We’ll walk. Moses walked. Jesus walked. His followers walked for hundreds of miles. We can walk.”

  Savannah had no idea how the man could be so calm, so easy, but was glad he wasn’t as devastated as she was. He almost sounded excited about his long journey. The man could be so normal one second, and then, the next, he said or did something that triggered her defenses.

  “I’m so sorry. I had hoped to talk Mr. Little into giving you a couple horses.”

  Jim smiled. “We’re in good health. God will provide. We should get going while the weather holds.”

  “Right now?” Savannah gasped.

  “There is nothing holding us here. The sooner we get home, the better.”

  Before she could think what to say, Malachi grabbed her hand. “Come with us!” he suggested.

  “I can’t! My dad... I can’t leave!” Savannah had near shouted in desperation, panicked at the very idea of leaving him behind. But they couldn’t leave her here alone, could they?

  Jim and Tonya Loveridge exchanged a look. “Sweetie, it isn’t safe for you here. We can’t leave you here in good faith. We’ll take care of you.”

  She shook her head, staring among the three Loveridges. “I’m not leaving. I can’t leave. My father is out there. He’s probably looking for me right now,” she protested.

  “We can’t leave you,” Malachi said softly.

  “I’m not leaving,” she said, holding her chin up and putting her hands on her hips.

  She couldn’t understand why they thought they were suddenly in charge of her. She wasn’t an orphan. Her father was out there somewhere. He was probably furious with her for worrying him. She wouldn’t worry him more by walking away now.


  Malachi looked at his parents. “Can we stay here a day or two until her father returns?”

  His question took her by surprise—she’d hoped they’d stay, but thought it would be the adults who insisted, not him. He cared about her! He really cared, and didn’t want to leave her alone. And, what a relief that she hadn’t had to ask; she didn’t think she could have gotten up the courage. Savannah looked at Malachi’s parents, hoping they would agree. She wasn’t going to go with them. She couldn’t.

  “You could stay in the house,” she suggested. “Bob didn’t have any family around. This might all be better in a day or two, too. Then, you could take your tents and your campers. You won’t have to leave anything behind and come back for it,” she pointed out.

  She could see their hesitation and looked to Malachi, silently pleading with him to convince his parents it was a good plan.

  “Let us talk about this,” Jim answered them, a slight scowl on his face. “Your mother and I need a minute.”

  Malachi grabbed her hand and led her out of the barn, giving his parents some privacy. She looked around the farm, wondering if whoever had stolen the horses would still be nearby. They would have left the area, right? The worry was one more reason to hope the Loveridges would stay, at least until her dad returned.

  She and Malachi walked around the area in front of the barn before passing by the other adults, who’d set to burying the farmer, and heading for the house. “We should wait for my parents,” Malachi whispered.

  “We’re only going in the house,” Savannah promised. “I need to see if Dad’s inside, or maybe he left a note.”

  Malachi shook his head nervously, but followed her to the front door that was partially open. She knocked, feeling a little ridiculous considering that the man who lived in the house was lying dead outside.

  “There could be someone in here! The someone who killed him,” Malachi hissed.

  “Then the horses would be here,” she pointed out, pushing the door further open. “Hello!” she called out, stepping inside.

  The living room with the worn couch and the old recliner looked just as it had every time she’d come over to visit or to give the man the rent for the week. It looked completely normal. They kept moving, turning left to go through an archway that led into the old kitchen.