“I vote for a girl,” Caitlin chimed in.
“Me too,” Amy replied.
“No, a boy,” Frankie called out and then ducked Brenda.
“What about you, Ryland? Do you want a brother or a sister?” Megan asked.
Ryland appeared to contemplate his answer. “So long as I’m the big brother, it doesn’t matter because the baby will be able to do everything when they grow up because I’m going to teach them.”
Willow hugged Ryland, murmuring something in his ear that no one else could hear.
As the group finished their dinner, Tara and Rosie got up to clear the table and get the dishes started. Bryan jumped up to help while Brenda went to help Willow up the stairs with Ryland following behind. Evan remained where he was staring off into space.
Megan watched concerned about how he was doing. He’d been silent through most of dinner and had barely touched his food. He startled when Tara placed her hands on his shoulders before slowly relaxing against her. She said something to him before taking his hand and tugging him to a stand and leading him upstairs. It would be a long while before he was back to his old self, if that ever happened.
Sitting back watching the activity around her, Megan marveled at how far they’d come. When she’d first met them, she’d been fighting to save her daughter’s life and only today, they fought to save a power station. When she’d first arrived on the mountain, it was her versus the world but in a little more than a year that mentality had grown to include everyone in the lodge. While they might not be related, they were all her family and now more than ever, she knew that when push came to shove, she would do what it takes to keep them safe, even against international espionage.
She looked down at the ring Wyatt had given her and smiled. A little piece of Garrett would live on in the ring he’d made. Giving it a quick kiss, she whispered her thanks to the young man who didn’t live to see Wyatt give it to her.
If other countries were looking to make sure that the US didn’t come back from the brink of destruction, she knew they had done the right thing by saving the power station. Who knows? Maybe in a year’s time, they would have electricity back and be well on their way back to civilization. As the room emptied out and everyone headed off to bed, Megan looked around at the darkened room now lit only by the glow of the wood stove. She saw Wyatt walk into the bedroom and stood up to follow. As she crossed the room, she noticed the light switch on the wall and smiled.
Should they ever get the power back on, Megan knew that she would miss these moments of quiet for it was one thing to wish for a return to modern conveniences and a whole other to accept all the bad that would eventually come with it. That was a thought for another day for tomorrow, there were still chores to be done, gardens to be planted, and they would need to plan a hunting trip in the next couple of days.
While the world might have gone dark, it didn’t mean that everyone stopped living; there was still too much to live for starting with that man sitting on the side of the bed waiting for her.
How did she get so lucky?
END OF ‘DARK DESTRUCTION’
EMP Lodge Series Book Four
Book Five of the EMP Lodge Series, Dark Redemption,
will be out October 2017.
You can pre-order Dark Redemption at www.GraceHamiltonBooks.com
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for purchasing and reading my book! My readers mean the world to me and without you I wouldn't be able to write these stories. If you enjoyed this book, please remember to leave a review on the book's Amazon page--I read every single one of them!
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Grace Hamilton is the prepper pen-name for a bad-ass, survivalist momma-bear of four kids, and wife to a wonderful husband. After being stuck in a mountain cabin for six days following a flash flood, she decided she never wanted to feel so powerless or have to send her kids to bed hungry again. Now she lives the prepper lifestyle and knows that if SHTF or TEOTWAWKI happens, she’ll be ready to help protect and provide for her family.
Combine this survivalist mentality with a vivid imagination (as well as a slightly unhealthy day dreaming habit) and you get a prepper fiction author. Grace spends her days thinking about the worst possible survival situations that a person could be thrown into, then throwing her characters into these nightmares while trying to figure out "What SHOULD you do in this situation?"
It’s her wish that through her characters, you will get to experience what life will be like and essentially learn from their mistakes and experiences, so that you too can survive!
You can also follow Grace on Facebook and GraceHamiltonBooks.com
BLURB
Three months after life as she knows it was decimated, Megan Wolford has only one goal: protect her daughter, Caitlin, at any cost. When a mysterious illness strikes Caitlin down, Megan is forced to forage for medical supplies at a remote lodge. The last thing she wants is help from her fellow survivors when so many in her life have let her down—but soon she'll find herself with no other option.
Ex-Navy SEAL Wyatt Morris is doing everything he can to hold his family together after the tragic death of his prepper Dad, so when Megan enters their lands, he is mistrustful at first despite feeling drawn to her. He won't turn away an ill child though--no matter how deadly the world has become. But the arrival of another stranger named Kyle soon gives them all a new reason to be suspicious. Wyatt knows he’ll have to forge alliances in order to keep his family safe, but trusting the wrong person could be a deadly mistake.
When Megan and Wyatt discover her daughter’s illness may be linked to Kyle’s arrival, it sets off a race to discover the truth before it’s too late to save Caitlin—and the rest of the Morris clan. Can they work together for survival . . . and something more?
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EXTRACT
Megan Wolford stumbled over a rock and nearly dropped her daughter before she quickly regained her footing. The sight of a log cabin through the trees had given her a boost of adrenaline and she found she was practically running through the damp forest despite her heavy burden.
She had fallen several times, bruising her knees and twisting her ankle. Her arms had deep cuts from tree branches that showed no mercy. There wasn’t exactly a trail to follow, which meant she was cutting through the heart of the forest and its unforgiving terrain. She was making her own way, as usual, which always seemed to be far harder than it had to be.
“Caitlin, hold on, baby. Hold on,” she whispered to the lifeless seven-year-old in her arms.
Megan was doing her best not to panic, but Caitlin had collapsed a couple miles back and she had been carrying the sleeping child ever since. Carrying her where she didn’t know, but now that she saw what appeared to be a hunting lodge of some sort in front of her, she had a destination in mind. She had a goal.
It gave her something to focus on other than the agony that was tearing through her entire body. Another tree branch slapped her in the face, making her wince in pain. Her physical discomfort was nothing compared to the emotional anguish she felt at the thought of losing her daughter. Caitlin was the only thing she had left in this world. She couldn’t lose her.
Her arms were burning and her lungs felt like they would collapse, but nothing would stop her from getting her daughter to what she hoped would be medicine. Without it, Megan knew her only child would die.
She didn’t have a clue what had made her so sick, but Caitlin was gravely ill. In the past twenty-four hours, her daughter went from bubbly and energetic to lethargic and weak. Megan had left their most recent camp in the hopes of finding something to help her. They’d walked through one small town yesterday and found nothing. Every single place she checked had been emptied already forcing them to travel for miles.
She was afraid to walk through the city streets overrun with looters. Megan knew it wasn’t safe for her and definitely not for
Caitlin. It wasn’t as if she could leave her daughter alone while she went on a scavenging mission. She had to do it with Caitlin or not all. Common sense told her she didn’t have the strength to fight off the hundreds and thousands of other people vying for the same basic supplies. Instead, she had decided to head out of town in the hopes of finding clinics, stores, and homes in more rural areas that weren’t as likely to be quite so dangerous.
Megan took long strides, slightly shifting her daughter, as she kept moving forward. Her sweaty hands were making it difficult for her to hold on to Caitlin. Gripping her hands together under her daughter’s backside, Megan pressed on.
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GRACE HAMILTON’S BOOKS
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
EMP Lodge
Copyright
Dark Destruction
Blurb
Thank you
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
Epilogue
End of ‘Dark Destruction’
Thank You!
Sneak Peek
Grace Hamilton’s Books
Dark Destruction (EMP Lodge Series Book 4) Page 19