The Fall of the Dragon: An Apocalyptic Survival Series

by Steven Kagey

  “Where are we going?” Evelyn asked. “And tell me what’s going on.”

  “First we’re going to get the kids from school,” he replied, then explained everything he knew. He told her his realizations of what was happening and what they needed to do as soon as possible.

  Evelyn broke down crying, thinking about how their world had just been affected. Although Brian tried to comfort her as much as he could, he was having a hard time not freaking out himself. Even though he had made preparations for such an event, deep in his mind he didn’t expect the day to ever come that he would need to use them.

  Brian and Evelyn arrived at the high school. He placed his Glock on the floorboard out of sight since they were on school property, still within reach of Evelyn in case she needed it.

  The office attendants were looking frazzled when Brian rushed in. They asked how they could help him.

  “I’m here to pick up Brenda and Brandon Williams. Is everything okay here at the school?

  “The power is out, and since it appears to be throughout the entire county we’re in lockdown mode,” the secretary told him. “School district policy is if anything strange happens we go into lockdown and no one leaves. We aren’t stopping parents or guardians from removing kids from the grounds. Since we’ve gotten reports that no one’s vehicles are working, we’re glad someone has a working car and can come claim their child.

  “Also, we now have four hundred teenagers who are freaking out that none of their cell phones are working and some of the teachers are at wit's end. Do you happen to know what’s going on with the power and electronics?”

  The principal came walking through the office. Brian grabbed her attention as he explained to the rest of the staff.

  “You need to call an assembly and get some books from the library explaining what an Electromagnetic Pulse is,” Brian said. “And any books on surviving the aftermath of an EMP.”

  “I know what an EMP is,” the principal snapped. “It’s only been an hour and the kids are scared enough without filling their heads with nonsense about the country being attacked by an EMP.”

  Firmly but politely, Brian said, “For being a school principal, you’re a certified idiot. If you know what the effects of an EMP are and you can’t see that is what’s happening, you’re definitely an idiot. It's better to freak the kids out now so they can leave mentally prepared and can pass that knowledge on to their parents, which may help them survive the upcoming hardships.”

  The principal did not appreciate being called an idiot and said, “Sir, you need to leave immediately.”

  Luckily Brenda and Brandon arrived at the office from their classrooms at that moment, and they headed out the door. After Brian left the room, the staff looked at each other, and a few of them quietly headed off to the library.

  When they arrived at the car, Brandon asked, “Is everything okay with our parents?”, confused why the Stewarts were picking them up in their grandparents’ car.

  “They’re fine,” Brian answered. “All the vehicles are dead except the older ones, so I took the Falcon to pick you, Evelyn, and Avery up.”

  Noting that Evelyn was sitting wide eyed in the passenger seat, Brian asked, “Are you okay?”

  “A man must have seen us drive in and he approached the car asking for a ride. When I told him we couldn’t give him one, he got agitated and started pounding his fist on the glass demanding we give him a ride. I was getting ready to reach for the pistol, then Beast started growling and clawing at the glass to get to the guy. I know Beast was protecting me, but I’ve never seen him that crazy before, showing teeth, snarling and biting at the glass.” With a forced laugh, she added, “Beast scared me more than the guy did.”

  Brian looked back at Beast. He was sitting there between the two kids panting like nothing had happened.

  “He must have sensed your fear and the hostility in the guy for him to react like that.”

  They reached the elementary school within a few minutes, passing quite a few stranded motorists trying to flag them down. Seeing everyone in the car look at him as he sped past Brian said, “Time is of the essence. We need to get to the house and batten down the hatches before the rest of the country figures out what’s going on and the looting and killing starts.”

  “Do you really believe everyone will start looting and killing?”

  “Yes, I do, Evelyn. Without a shadow of a doubt, it will start with people stealing stupid shit like televisions and other useless crap that used to be worth something, until they realize they’re going to run out of food. Then they’ll get real violent then.”

  Evelyn stared at him with an unconvinced look on her face.

  Trying a different approach, he said, “Think of all those starving children they show on T.V. Now picture Avery like that in a few weeks. What would you do to get her food?”

  Evelyn thought to herself for a few minutes and without looking over said, “Borrow, steal, kill.”

  Brian felt bad that he had to convince his wife she may have to kill someone to keep themselves fed, but was glad she saw the dire situation they were in.

  Brian left Evelyn, Beast, and the two kids in the car and ran in to get Avery. A security guard directed him to the administration office.

  “I’m here to pick up—”

  “All schools are on lockdown and students cannot leave the building for safety reasons,” the receptionist said, cutting him off.

  Brian looked at the three women. “Look! You know who I am, and you know who my daughter is, and it is for safety reasons I am here to pick her up.”

  The staff shook their heads and apologized but was adamant that no students would be able to leave until the principal gave the okay.

  “Neither you nor him,” Brian motioned to the security guard standing at the door, “are going to stop me from taking my daughter out of here.”

  “No students are allowed to leave,” the head clerk stated forcefully. “It is school policy and you will have to wait until they announce it is safe to dismiss students.”

  Brian nodded and raised his hands to concede defeat. “Okay, I will be waiting in the car.” He proceeded to walk out the door, and as he was squeezing past the security guard who was standing in the doorway he punched him in the throat. The guard crumpled to the floor gasping for air and holding his neck. The three women all screamed when Brian turned around to look at them, pointing his finger at them. “I told you I am taking my daughter out of here. He is going to be alright, but you need to get over here and help calm him down, or else he is going to pass out from the swelling in his throat. I am going to get my daughter, and I don’t expect a problem leaving when I get back. The world as you know it has ended, and the sooner you realize it, the better off you will be. You can try calling the cops if you want to. Let me know how that turns out for you.”

  He left and walked down the hall to Avery’s classroom.

  When Brian arrived at Avery’s class, she was confused and then embarrassed that her dad was in her classroom doorway.

  “Do you have a note from the office?” the teacher asked.

  “I did. I must have dropped it in the hallway,” Brian replied.

  Avery knew her dad was lying, and that meant this was serious.

  “You will need to get a note before I can release your daughter.”

  “Avery, grab your stuff and come on,” Brian said.

  The teacher tried to stop her from leaving. “I’m going to have to call security!”

  “I assume you’re talking about that fellow that stands around the front door?” Brian said. “He is currently indisposed after getting punched in the throat. You can call him if you need to, but my daughter and I are leaving.”

  Avery’s jaw dropped. She tried to analyze her dad to see if he’d actually punched someone. He was always non-confrontational, but he was never a pushover. She was worried; something was definitely wrong.

  When they walked by the office, she saw the security guard sitting
up against the counter in the office rubbing his throat, and everyone in the office started pointing at them as they passed. No one said anything or tried to stop them. When they got to the car that was not theirs, Avery saw her mom and Beast with Brandon and Brenda in the back seat. She could no longer deny that something was seriously wrong. She began rapid firing questions to her dad.

  He scooped her up and gave her a reassuring hug. “Everything is going to be fine. I will explain what is going on later.”

  Once Brian and Avery were in the car, Evelyn asked, “Was there any trouble?”

  “You could say that. It’s a shame that it was easier to get someone else’s kids out of school than it was to get my own daughter even with the staff knowing who I am.”

  Heading back to the house, Brian gave them all a quick rundown of what happened while trying to pick Avery up.

  “You had to punch someone, Uncle Brian?” Brenda exclaimed, and sat stunned as he nodded, looking at them in the rearview mirror.

  After the shock of hearing that her husband had to resort to physical violence simply to get their daughter out of school subsided, Evelyn said, “I tried the radio and heard from Craig and Dr. Hughes. They’re packing and preparing to head to the homestead. Craig was speaking weird at first, about things being in the hen house and getting the dog house ready. I kept asking what he was talking about until he just came out and said they were getting ready and then told me to read the book that was with the radio.” Evelyn laughed. “Then I understood he was trying to speak in code.”

  “Yes, we all need to learn the system Craig came up with, because other people can hear our transmissions.”

  “I understand,” Evelyn replied. “Craig and the Doc agreed to check in with us in a few hours.”

  Brian was relieved; everyone in their group was safe and heading for the homestead. They had so much to do and the sooner they could get started, the better.

  On the way back to Sean’s house they decided to swing by the local grocery store. The parking lot was full of cars and people standing around them, as well as a larger mob of people at the doors. Brian pulled up next to a couple standing by their car further out in the lot. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with the cars,” the man stated, “but when the power to the store went out they made everyone leave since they were unable to take credit cards or scan checks. Then they pulled lines of shopping carts in front of the doors and locked them.

  “So no one got to pay for their groceries?” Evelyn asked.

  “No,” the woman said. “Hey, how’d you get your car started?”

  “It’s an older car that doesn’t have any computer systems,” Brian answered simply.

  They were starting to gain the attention of the other shoppers in the lot along with some dirty looks, so Brian thanked the couple and drove off.

  They were well off on their food stocks, and it wasn’t a pressing issue to try and get a last minute shopping trip in, so they headed home. Brian swung by and dropped Evelyn, Avery, and Beast off before returning the car with Brandon and Brenda to Sean’s house.

  Chapter 11

  2 Hours After U.S. outage

  12:30 p.m. CST

  Cumberland County, Tennessee

  Sean and his family had a load of stuff ready to go when Brian and the kids returned. They loaded the car up with food, weapons, ammo, and other essential gear, and started ferrying the stuff to the homestead. They carried the food and weapons into the kitchen. The other gear was placed in the garage and workshop. After a few trips, Sean said they needed to get ahold of Craig to see if he could bring out his truck and move their travel trailer to the homestead. Brian had four concrete RV pads installed behind the house complete with electrical and sewer hook-ups for the families in the group, with one extra. The trailer pads were situated in a semi-circle behind the house, forming a central common area off the back porch, which would be useful for meetings, meal times, communication, and security.

  Sean called Craig on the radio. “Whisky-1 to Tango-1, come in Tango-1.

  “Go for Tango-1,” said Craig.

  “When you come out to deliver a load of wood, we need you to help to move the dog house, how do you copy?”

  Craig sighed audibly. “Tango-2 is a no-go, I repeat a no-go on leaving the hen house, but I will be out to help with the dog house shortly.”

  Sean looked at Brian. “What is wrong with that woman?”

  Brian threw up his hands. “I have no idea.”

  Brian was pleased with the code seeing it in real world use. The call sign for the husband in each family was the phonetic letter of their last name and then “1,” the wife would be “2,” oldest child “3” and so on. In actuality is was supposed to be age based, but Brian and Sean’s wives were older than them, so to make it more standard they told them they could be the “1” in their families. Not that it mattered. Neither woman cared, at the time they passed it off as “boys and their toys” when they were discussing the call signs for each household.

  Craig had come up with the other references in his code book. Craig’s house was the hen house, Sean’s house was the drug store, Brian’s homestead would be the market or the Alamo, and Doc Hughes’ house was called the pig pen. Travel trailers were dog houses, and any load of supplies would be called a load of wood. Once everyone knew the code, any use of an incorrect term would be a sign of duress meaning that individual required immediate assistance or the radio network was compromised.

  Apparently Craig’s wife Lillian was being her general pain in the ass self. Craig was lucky he was such a good friend, because anything less would not have been enough reason for Brian to put up with Lillian.

  Sean and Brian kept moving loads of their things while Christina and Sean’s parents, Daniel and Carol, were gathering and stacking the stuff to take out in the carport. Craig showed a few hours later, and Brian and Sean were anxious to find out what was going on with Lillian. Craig said that she didn’t want to leave the house because she expected the government would have the power back on soon and she didn’t understand what good it would do to move their stuff only to turn around to move it back the next day. Plus, she still had to go to work at the hospital, and their house was a lot closer than Brian’s house.

  “She said I am being paranoid about the power outage and being a grown man I should be ashamed of myself.” Craig sighed. “Right now the only thing I am ashamed of is marrying such a stupid person. She’s lucky she’s hot, because she doesn’t have any common sense going for her.”

  Brian laughed to himself. He did have to admit she was hot though.

  Men, Brian thought. We don’t always make the best choices when it comes to a beautiful woman.

  “I do have a small load of stuff I was able to sneak out of the house, and tomorrow while Lillian is at work I will start bringing the big loads over without her knowing.”

  Then Craig began telling the guys what he had seen in town and around the interstate on his way over. Christina, Daniel, and Carol soon stopped to listen to what Craig was describing.

  “The interstate is littered with cars, and herds of people came walking up to the convenience store at the exit ramp. It turned bad with over a thousand people standing around trying to buy food and drink, most of whom did not have any cash. I saw a lot of people drinking water out of the garden hose at the store, the pressure in the system must have gone out because it wasn’t long after that it looked like a riot broke out. I heard some glass shatter all the way over to my house. I had a long line of people start coming to my place once they saw that it was a garage.

  “After the first hundred people came up to see if their cars could be fixed and I got into an argument with half of them, I grabbed my chainsaw and went out and cut down the sign for the garage at the road. I hung up an out of business sign on the garage doors. I had my son David sitting inside the shop with a shotgun with orders to shoot anyone that wasn’t me, Lillian, or his sister, no ques
tions asked.

  “I suggest we get a move on and move the travel trailer so I can be back at my place before dark to make sure there aren’t any break-ins.”

  “Do you want me to come over and stay the night to put another set of eyes, ears, and gun on the property in case it gets bad?” Daniel asked.

  Craig thought about it for a second and then seemed relieved and thankful for the offer. “That would be great. I’m nervous about leaving my wife and kids there. If someone tried to break-in Lillian would probably try dialing 911 over and over on a phone that didn’t work until they’re all killed.”

  Chapter 12

  Saturday, September 21st

  Cumberland County, Tennessee

  Brian woke up confused what was going. It was dark, and there were no sounds, inside or outside of the house. Even living out in the country there were always man-made sounds around: the air conditioner, refrigerator, computer fans, TVs and radios. It was never truly quiet, not like it was right now. Brian felt Evelyn in the bed next to him, and his mind was trying to figure out what was wrong. He hadn’t heard that stupid rooster this morning.

  Good, he thought. Maybe a fox finally got him. Wait, no. I can’t have a fox eating any of my chickens. They are our life blood now and will likely be our main source of protein.

  Brian was fumbling for his flashlight to read the time on the watch on his nightstand as it came.

  Cock a doodle doodle do!

  Brian thought, God, I hate that rooster! One day, right in the face! And I am going to use the shotgun so that he disintegrates. I’m not even worried about eating him.

  He laughed at his thoughts.

  Well, I know it’s 5:30 now. I wonder if that rooster has a snooze button…

  Brian woke up a half hour later feeling a little more refreshed, quite surprised he had fallen back asleep with as much stuff that was racing through his mind about all the preparations they needed to make. He was mentally exhausted when his head had hit his pillow the previous night. Mentally coming to terms with the end of the world as you know it takes a lot out of you.