Zero Power (Book 1): It Began

by Max Lockwood

  When Clara could see what the commotion was about, she stopped, frozen, gaping with widened eyes.

  Tessa. Her sister, who had barely left the house through the front door in roughly ten years, was actually outside, surrounded by people, and they didn’t seem to be an angry mob.

  Clara just watched the impossible sight before taking tentative steps forward to hear.

  Near the wreckage, Tessa stood on top of a car. She was shouting incoherently with a group of people gathered around her, but the people seemed to be listening to her, murmuring among themselves.

  Clara ran toward Tessa then, thinking her sister was causing a scene. As she neared, though, she realized that Tessa was giving a speech. And the murmurs around the crowd were far from those of discontent. As she got closer, her sister's voice grew clearer through the noisy crowd.

  "God's plan included the EMP," she was telling her audience, "the weapon that took away life as we knew it. We are being tested on how we deal with it. But we! We will not fail! We cannot fail!"

  Tessa was saying more, but it was lost to Clara. The crowd seemed to believe in what she was saying, cheering her on. Tessa, who hadn't talked to more than a handful of people in ten years, was taking full advantage, and working a desperate crowd, like Clara had never seen a seasoned politician do.

  She was shocked as Tessa's every word was worshiped by her new followers. She had heard of none of this, and she wondered if her sister even believed in what she was saying. But the crowd seemed to, and that was all that mattered.

  Clara wondered how she'd managed to brainwash them so quickly, and what this new development would mean for their future.

  ABOUT MAX LOCKWOOD

  Max Lockwood writes suspenseful, post-apocalyptic thriller and dystopian fiction while living in New York.

  Growing up with parents who were peppers and always planning for the worst, but hoping for the best, got him interested in writing in the first place. “What would happen if the world were to change?” is something he asked himself his whole life. Until one day he decided to put it down on paper.

  His stories will have you reading on the edge of your seats…you have been warned!

  Sign up for Max’s mailing list and find out about his latest releases, giveaways, and more. Click here!

  For more information, be sure to check out the links below!

  MaxLockwoodAuthor

  max@maxlockwood.com

  ALSO BY MAX LOCKWOOD

  Zero Power Series

  It Began (Book 1)

  Trying To Survive (Book 2)

  They Invaded (Book 3)—Coming Soon!

  EXCERPT FROM TRYING TO SURVIVE

  CHAPTER ONE

  Clara wasn’t sure how long she stood there just staring.

  She was still in the square, watching her sister interacting with the crowd. All she could do was stand there and stare at the unbelievable display in front of her. Tessa, who was outside, was standing on a car in the ruined street and shouting something to those gathered around her. The people in the crowd was shouting and overall agreeing with everything she said like it wasn’t all crazy.

  Clara couldn’t entirely blame them. It was a human thing when something didn’t make sense, they'd cling to the closest thing that could stabilize them. Tessa was that for these people, in this situation, and whatever it was she was talking about. It was hard to believe rational people, and this many at that, would even listen to her. But of course, the situation was extreme, so Clara could understand how it wasn’t hard for them to swallow Tessa's message.

  She must have zoned out for a while because the next thing she knew was she was watching Tessa's band of followers dispersing.

  They moved quietly, which was a surprise compared to how rowdy they were just moments before. There were a lot of people in the area and none of them seemed to mind that it was growing dark out, even though there was a curfew and patrols were likely already going around. If she'd gotten here this late, she never would have guessed what happened. She got another surprise as she watched them walk away. There were more of them than she'd originally thought, and there were a lot to begin with. It made her a little anxious, this many people in one place so late. She froze when some of them passed nearby.

  Then Clara came to her senses. As strange as the whole thing was, they couldn’t be out here. Clara was supposed to be out on patrol and the sun was already going down. Pretty soon it would be dark, and Clara was having second thoughts about staying out all night on patrol after the stunt Tessa just pulled. As much as she would love to keep the town safe, her sister came first. And besides, she had already caused more than enough damage for the one night. She firmed her jaw.

  What the hell.

  Her eyes cut to her sister, who still stood on top of the car, even without a crowd to speak to. She didn’t look like she had any intention of moving soon, instead, watching her followers as they left. Clara narrowed her eyes in irritation. Just when she'd thought things were slowing down into something almost normal, and this happens.

  Just what was her sister planning?

  Clara was a little leery of the dispersing crowd, so she waited until most of them were gone or not paying attention. She moved forward cautiously to get to her sister. They had to get home and fast. She knew how quickly and easily a gathering could go south. Everyone seemed more or less calm as they walked, but there was no way to say whether they would all go home, as they were supposed to. Not to mention the opportunists that would see the distraction and use it. If an incident happened—well, another one for her—they could not get caught in the middle of it.

  "Tessa," she hissed when she was close enough, running cautious eyes around the square. Her sister didn’t seem to notice her, and she frowned, irritation growing. "Tessa, get down from there," she said quietly, but firmly.

  It took a few seconds, and although her sister didn’t look down at her, she did as she was told. When Clara finally caught a good look at her face, she noticed Tessa had a dreamy look, almost dazed, and it only made her frown more. When she didn’t move fast enough, Clara took her arm and marched them both back home.

  There were still quite a few people around. Clara was suddenly very grateful she'd thought to hide the gun, thinking of what would have happened if someone else saw it on her, though she still held the bat. She cursed when she realized it was still on her and wondered where they could dump it. She didn’t think taking it home would be a good idea, but it would be worse to leave some stranger with a possible weapon.

  She never liked being the center of attention. As far as she knew, neither did her sister. But what the hell had she just seen, then? Tessa had looked borderline deranged while addressing the crowd, and she ate up the attention about as much as the crowd ate up her words.

  Clara was starting to think it was never going to go away, this feeling that she didn’t know the woman she called her sister. Too much had changed, and Tessa was always acting however she pleased. Clara could not read her, or her intentions. Were the times where she acted lucid growing fewer or was Clara just noticing it more because of the situation?

  And everything had been going… well, not quite as normal as they hoped, but it was the closest it had been since the EMP attack and the power went out. Clara had felt so optimistic, maybe for the first time in years, but that was gone now. Still, she wondered how the evening turned into such a disaster. She hurt someone, and her sister was out of the house and inciting people to do… whatever it was she was planning on doing.

  It took some time, but they made it back to the safety of the house, and Clara breathed in relief that they weren’t caught outside.

  She let them both inside and locked the door after a last quick glance around outside. She closed her eyes, hands pressed against the door and took a few seconds to breathe. Then she turned around to face her sister. Tessa just stood there behind her, not even looking at her. There was only one candle in the room this time, but it was enough to see by, and Clara could
see the dreamy look that was still there on her sister's face.

  Clara sighed, feeling exasperated, but not knowing what to do about it. She rubbed her forehead in frustration, wondering how she let things get away from her, so out of hand, so quickly. Had she actually believed she was in any kind of control, even briefly? Because that was laughable now.

  "Tessa," she said, trying to stay calm, her frustration bleeding into her voice, along with her exhaustion. "You mustn't do that again. You shouldn’t leave the house, especially not after dark. It's no longer safe out there and it would be bad if you got caught by any of the cops out on patrol. Neither should you do what you did today again. It could have been dangerous. And you don’t realize how your actions will affect the community."

  She opened her eyes to look at her sister, who was now looking back at her. Her face was back to looking blank, but her dark eyes were intense. The look in those eyes made Clara's heart beat a little faster, but she held her chin up and straightened her back.

  Tessa was good at that, making people wary of her with just a look, especially with how she could look at you. This time, however, Clara could tell it was by intent. Tessa was a little taller than her, but she knew, in that moment, that her sister was looking down on her in every sense of the word. She would have been angry, but she couldn’t claim it didn’t get to her.

  She refused to be intimidated by her sister, though. Tessa may be older, but Clara had been the acting adult for years now, and she refused to be cowed.

  "You can't keep doing this, Tess. Your 'predictions' aside, you're feeding them lies—you never predicted the apocalypse, it was just a coincidence. What do you think is going to happen when those people realize you don’t actually know anything?"

  And really, there was no way she could. Clara felt a little annoyed with herself, how easily she believed in her sister so quickly in the face of tragedy. Because she was looking for some sort of answer, and Tessa had plenty. They were bleak and horrifying, but they were answers in a world that was falling apart and Clara had almost lost herself in the horror. The past few hours had been jarring, though, and she was ready to come back to her senses.

  There was no way her sister could see the future, no matter how much she insisted she did. It wasn’t practical. She was just good at taking advantage of situations, and she had almost constant nightmares that could easily translate to disasters like the one they were currently facing. As for most of what she said, it was the same thing she'd been saying for years, it just happened to fit the current situation. That didn’t mean anything.

  Tessa was good at being realistic in their current situation. A lot of what she said about their new lives wasn’t a lie. But there was no way she could know everything like she claimed to. She wasn’t any more in control of their lives than Clara was, though she might want to be. It would explain why she acted the way she did.

  Tessa's eyes were narrowed, and under her usual disarrayed hair, they looked almost dangerous. A shiver went through Clara's body before she could quell it, but she only firmed her jaw and met her sister's gaze head on.

  Then, Tessa laughed. It was a low sound, not loud and exuberant, but Clara still felt her eyes go wide because her sister didn’t laugh often. She grinned, but nothing about the look, or the laugh, had been happy. Actually, Clara felt the sudden urge to take a step backward. She didn’t because she didn’t want her sister to think she was backing down, but a big part of it was because she knew the door was right behind her—there was nowhere for her to go.

  "You're really funny, Clara," she murmured, almost sounding amused. "You don’t have to pretend, you know. It's pretty obvious you're just jealous because for once, I'm the one being worshipped."

  Clara's jaw dropped for a moment, the surprise winning out over whatever weariness she'd felt. Suddenly, she was the one feeling amused, darkly so. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised.

  She rolled her eyes, wondering where her sister got these ideas. Clara barely had any friends, the one person she could count on was Cooper. She gave up on her dreams to look after her family because someone needed to. Whatever Tessa thought about Clara's life, it was far from perfect. Clara couldn’t remember the many times she'd wished to run away, change places with someone else, but the option was never open to her. If she could, she'd let her sister take her place instead. She didn’t want the responsibility thrust upon her; someone had to bear it and she just happened to conveniently be the only mentally sound person in the house.

  But then she realized how it must feel for Tessa, always being put second best. Their circumstances weren’t the best, but Tessa wasn’t to blame any more than Clara was. Life dealt them a bad hand and they were all affected by it. But Tessa was more or less pushed to the background by pretty much everyone. If she'd had friends, Clara wouldn’t know, but she knew no one looked for her sister at the hospital, or later when she confined herself at home. Tessa hardly talked to anyone. Clara didn’t think she even had hobbies, even though she wondered what her sister did at home all day. Of the two of them, Tessa had been more the social flower. Clara had to go out because of work, but she still lived a relatively normal life, something Tessa could no longer have because of her condition and her nightmares.

  It was just a bad situation for everyone involved.

  Clara sighed, feeling almost bad for Tessa. As much as she dealt with daily, so did her sister. It was just hard to remember when Tessa acted the way she did, so unapologetic and unashamed of herself, even when she was doing and saying all the wrong things. She didn’t realize there was anything wrong with how she acted; she sure as hell didn’t want to change, and Clara was just going to have to find a way to deal with it. There was never much of a choice, to begin with.

  "Look, Tessa, it's late. I'm tired, and you probably are too, so why don’t you go up to bed?"

  For a moment, neither of them moved. Their gazes held, Clara no longer feeling hostile, Tessa now looking cautious. She thought her sister would stay to argue some more, and Clara braced for it, even as tired as she suddenly felt with the whole situation. But the moment passed, and Tessa turned around to go upstairs.

  "This isn’t over, Tessa, not even close. We'll talk more about this later," she called to her sister's back, insistently, but she didn’t get a reply. Nor did she expect one. Tessa didn’t even pause, hesitate, or in some way to acknowledge she had heard. It irritated her, but Clara didn’t want to start another argument, so she let it go.

  Clara was left alone and feeling exhausted again from the events of the past few hours, she leaned back against the door, and rested her head back against it. The sound of steps on the stairs made her open her eyes and look up. It was Cooper coming down the stairs. She managed a small smile for him, but it slipped almost immediately.

  "Hey, Cooper," she murmured.

  She remembered wanting to have him with her when she was outside, and seeing him now made her feel slightly better, but not enough. Not after the night she just had. He noticed something was wrong, his expression shifting to one of concern as he hurried closer to her.

  "Clara, are you okay?"

  She sighed and pushed off the door and met him at the bottom of the stairs. She couldn’t exactly say she was okay. The recent issue with Tessa aside, there was the other problem. One that wouldn’t go away so easily, and yet she didn’t want to have to think about it just yet. She thought back to almost shooting that woman, the one trying to rob a store, and shivered. It felt like it had happened so long ago, yet she knew it couldn’t have been more than a couple hours ago, if even that.

  She considered telling Cooper. He was the only person she ever talked to about her problems, he encouraged her to do it, and she'd come to find speaking to someone did help a little bit, at least better than bottling everything inside. She wasn’t sure how he would react, and she was worried about it, but was it something she should keep to herself when it might come back to bite them all?

  But… she didn’t want him to worry.
And really, she just wanted to forget that even happened in the first place. Besides, there was nothing he could do and she didn’t want to give him one more thing to worry about. So, she decided against telling him and gave him another approximation of a smile.

  Instead, she told him about Tessa.

  "Did you notice when my sister left the house? I don’t think I've seen her out the front door in the past ten years, and I found her in the town square."

  His eyebrows jumped up in surprise. "I honestly didn’t notice. She disappeared and I assumed she was in her room like usual. What was she doing in the town square?"

  Clara rolled her eyes again. "I have no idea what she was doing, really. But she was there, and she got on top of this car, and she was talking to a crowd of people."

  "What was she saying?"

  "I didn’t hear a lot of it, but what I did hear makes no sense. The worst thing is, they were eating it all up, and she was reveling in the attention. I don’t think she even realizes she could so easily make us a target. Or herself, for that matter."

  The words themselves sounded urgent, but there was no urgency in her voice. Tessa wasn’t just going to change because Clara wanted it to happen, and she was hardly qualified to do anything about it. They would have to put up with this, as if everything else wasn’t more than enough.

  Cooper put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him gratefully. She'd slept well the night before, and earlier that day, but she felt she could stand to sleep some more. She let Cooper guide her up the stairs and back to her room.

  "You'll feel better once you've had some sleep," he promised.