Surviving the Blackout: A Post Apocalyptic EMP Thriller (Surviving the EMP Book 4)

by Ryan Casey

  Jack looked at the anger and the sadness in her eyes and he felt it. He didn’t want to give up on anyone. But he was thinking rationally. He was thinking about why Susan might’ve led them out here.

  If it wasn’t a trap, maybe she was trying to help them.

  And if she was trying to help them… maybe they should listen.

  But then he thought of something else.

  His dying son, Wayne, lying there on the ground.

  Holding his hand.

  And then in his last moment, making Jack promise something.

  That he would look after his people.

  It didn’t matter whether Emma used to be one of Logan’s people.

  She was one of them now.

  “I’m not saying we give up,” Jack said. “I’m just saying we need to be careful. That’s all.”

  He walked further past the group, over towards the trees.

  “Then what do you suggest we do?”

  Jack looked back at that derelict town.

  Then he looked around at the woods ahead.

  “We find Susan,” he said. “She can’t have got far. Come on.”

  The rest of the group followed.

  Jack led the way.

  He searched the ground for tracks. Scanned every inch of it for a trail.

  It was a long time before he found a trace.

  He crouched down. Lifted the white material and studied it in the fading light.

  Candice leaned over his shoulder. Nymeria and Villain were close by.

  Jack held out that little torn piece of Susan’s dress and then he stuffed it into his pocket.

  He looked at the woods ahead, a pathway of opportunity opening up before him.

  “She’s close,” he said.

  The branches rustled in the wind, and Jack couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Emma woke to the sound of footsteps.

  She was disoriented for a few seconds. Didn’t know where she was, why it was so dark, why her throat was so dry. Her head ached. Her heart pounded. She felt sick, on the verge of throwing up.

  And then it dawned on her. The tent. Matthew. The test.

  She was still trapped.

  She still hadn’t worked her way out of this.

  But those footsteps.

  She felt hands on her arms and her wrists came free.

  “Come on,” a voice she didn’t recognise said. “On your feet.”

  She stood. Prepared herself for whatever was next. She didn’t know what to expect, only that she was desperate for food, gasping for water.

  And she was so close to breaking.

  So close to just asking.

  But…

  She staggered out of the tent and something unexpected happened.

  The sack over her head was removed.

  It would be lying to say light hit her eyes. Everywhere, there was darkness. The trees cut through the perfect ceiling of stars. All around her, she saw tents. People sitting outside them. Some of them eating. Some of them sharpening tools.

  Most of them looking right at her.

  She looked around. She didn’t recognise the man behind her. Didn’t think she’d seen him before.

  Matthew was nowhere to be seen.

  And in a weird way… she wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She kind of wanted him to be there. Because she believed she could get through to him.

  She believed she could get close enough to him.

  And then she believed she could carry out her revenge.

  A shove, right in the middle of her back. “Walk.”

  “Where are—”

  “Walk.”

  She wanted to ask. Wanted to press him for more information. She didn’t like how this felt, especially after the last time she’d been dragged off to the woods in the dark.

  She didn’t know what to expect.

  And that scared her.

  But she had to stick to her goal. She had to stay strong.

  She had to brace herself for whatever was ahead.

  She walked into the woods. The man kept on pushing her forward. There was no support to the way he moved her. Just coldness, now. And that unsettled her. Were they onto her in some way? Matthew already let on that someone had taken the opportunity to try and kill him once they were set free. So he was surely wise to these kinds of attempts.

  But no. She hadn’t shown any signs she was going to betray him.

  He said he understood her hesitation.

  He even said she reminded him of his daughter.

  She could use that to her advantage.

  She had to use that to her advantage.

  She walked further into the night. For the first time in a long time, she actually felt cold. Specks of rain trickled down onto her bare legs, her feet crunching along the hard ground, her skin blistered and torn.

  She wanted to ask where she was going. She wanted to ask where this man was taking her.

  But she kept her shaking lips sealed.

  Emma wasn’t sure how much longer it was before the man stopped her.

  They were by a stream. Water was flowing freely.

  Matthew was on the other side of it.

  He was staring into the water, his hand inside it. He looked like he was focusing on something, the light of the moon reflecting against his face.

  He looked up when Emma arrived.

  She tried to smile.

  But then she regretted it, right away, when he stared at her, unblinking, unemotional.

  Like a different man completely.

  Suddenly Emma realised the man behind her was gone. He had disappeared. It was just her and Matthew, alone in the woods, alone by this stream.

  “I come here often at night,” Matthew said. “When I can’t sleep. Which is pretty much every night.”

  Emma stood still. She didn’t move.

  “Why are you standing there like an idiot? Come over here and have some water. You must be thirsty.”

  Emma wasn’t sure whether this was some kind of trap or not. She didn’t move.

  But that water was so inviting.

  “Seriously,” Matthew said. “No tricks. You’re bound to be thirsty. Come on. Drink with me. Please.”

  It was the “please” that did it. It didn’t sound so much like a command as a request.

  And as uncomfortable as it made her feel, she took her chance and walked over towards him.

  She stopped by the side of the stream. Sat right beside Matthew, a few feet from him.

  He looked at her. That coolness to his face again, now. “Go on,” he said. “Help yourself.”

  She looked down at the stream and she hesitated a few more seconds before finally cupping her hands and gulping as much of it down as she could.

  The water was so icy, so fresh. She kept on gulping it down, unable to help herself now, taking the chance to freshen her face up while she could.

  “See?” Matthew said. “Don’t get fresher than that, do you?”

  She glanced over at him. And as he smiled at her, as much as she knew she should hate him, she couldn’t help smiling back.

  “Keep going, for me,” he said. “Don’t feel like you have to stop out of politeness. Drinking water when you’re thirsty doesn’t mean you’re weak. You’re just listening to your body, that’s all.”

  She turned to the stream and went to gulp down some more water when she saw something in the moonlight.

  There was a sharp rock, right in her eyeline.

  It was just the right size for her to grab.

  And she was confident if she acted fast, she could use it to stab Matthew right in the neck.

  “Something holding you back?”

  She looked at him. The way he was smiling. Did he know? Could this be the test? She didn’t know. All that time locked away and she wasn’t thinking straight.

  “Why…” she said.

  “Why what?”

  “Why did you bring me out here
?”

  Matthew looked ahead, over at the woods. “To be honest with you, I don’t really know. I suppose I… get lonely. Spending time with people who carry out such acts of violence on a daily basis, that can get to you. It’s nice to have a break. Nice to spend time with someone less… invested in what we do here. Does that make sense, or am I just blabbering?”

  Emma considered his words. Did they add up? Kind of.

  She couldn’t stop her eyes drifting to that sharp rock.

  Couldn’t stop thinking about the opportunity she had.

  But there was something else she needed to know.

  She drank more of that water, her hands getting closer and closer to the rock.

  “My friends,” she said. “I know they’re… I know they’re in the past. I know there’s no going back. But I need to know what you did to them. For… for peace. For closure.”

  Matthew studied her as she crouched there, hands in the stream, so close to that rock. He looked right into her eyes. “The leader?”

  Emma frowned. “No. The—”

  “You mean the leader,” he said. “Not the old fool pretending to be leader. The actual leader. The one with the dog. And the others. The woman. The girls. The cat, sweet thing. Those are the ones you mean. Right?”

  Emma didn’t want to reveal any more of her emotions. But reluctantly, she nodded. “I just need to know. I am strong. But my past is still important to—”

  “They didn’t die in the attack. We didn’t capture them after the attack. They must’ve got away. So I assume they are okay, every one of them. At least they didn’t suffer anything at our hands.”

  Emma was stunned by Matthew’s bluntness. She moved her hands away from that rock, just a little. “Really?”

  He smiled at her. “Really.”

  She looked back at that rock. If her friends were still out there, maybe they would come for her. Unless they thought she was already gone.

  Whatever the case… they were out there.

  Which meant she had a chance to get away.

  She had to find them.

  She had to eliminate the threat.

  And this was her chance.

  She moved her hands around the stream some more.

  She reached in, touched that rock with her fingertips.

  And then she lifted it and pulled it to her side, as swiftly as she could.

  She looked back at him and smiled again, sensing she was his weakness. “Thank you. For not hurting them.”

  Matthew nodded. “I understand why you asked. I understand why you’re concerned. We all have friends. We all have people we care about.”

  She edged the rock around, just slightly. Waited for her moment. “I am strong.”

  “Good,” Matthew said.

  He glanced down at her hand.

  “I also understand why you’re thinking about lifting that rock and ramming it into my throat right now. But I have to admit, I am disappointed, after everything we’ve worked towards.”

  Emma froze. The world around her blurred into the background as fear overtook her.

  There were just her and Matthew.

  That rock in hand.

  That knowing look in his eyes.

  There was no other choice.

  She lifted the rock and swung it towards him.

  He grabbed her wrist out of thin air.

  And then he tightened his grip around it, smile on his face.

  But not the same smile he used to have.

  Something more sinister, now.

  The way he looked at other people.

  “Big mistake, Emma.”

  His grip tightened around her wrist.

  “I didn’t tell you what happened.”

  She crouched there. Her grip on the rock loosened. It fell to the ground. “Happened to who?”

  Matthew’s smile widened. “To the last one who failed.”

  A pause. Silence.

  And then he grabbed the bottom of her arm with his other hand.

  The next thing she knew, she felt pressure.

  And then she felt a crack.

  And then there was nothing but total agony and darkness.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Jack walked into the night and still there was no trace of Susan.

  The group was tiring. The journey felt in vain. He’d lost all sense of direction. He couldn’t find his way back to Heathwaite’s if he wanted to.

  He was stranded. Lost. All of them were.

  But all that mattered was finding Susan, because she was their key to finding Emma.

  He still felt unsure about all this. He was losing faith in this journey. And in the back of his mind at all times, as much as he didn’t want to think this way, he couldn’t help feeling like this was a sign. Susan had sent them a sign that they should get away. She had left them for a reason.

  They hadn’t been captured at that town, so that made Jack doubt if it was a trap at all.

  Even if he did get the sense that someone was watching, all the time.

  “Any trace?”

  It was Candice who spoke. She walked alongside Jack, even though Jack felt very alone in all of this. It was like he’d fallen into a leadership role again rather than chosen it.

  He was afraid about making the wrong call, just like in the past.

  Jack shook his head. “It’s hard in the dark. Not seen any footprints that match for about an hour. I can’t be sure we’re heading in the right direction.”

  Candice sighed. “Maybe you’re right about all this, you know?”

  “Right about what?”

  “This journey being in vain. Perhaps… perhaps Susan was trying to send us a message. Trying to keep us away from Matthew’s group for a reason.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Matthew has Emma, and God knows who else. As long as a single one of our people is with his group, we don’t stop.”

  “But maybe…”

  She stopped speaking.

  “What?” Jack asked.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “No, it does. What were you going to say?”

  She glanced at him. “It’s just… maybe it’s time you made a decision nobody likes. That’s what leadership is about, right? It’s not always about making the popular decisions. But it’s about making the right decisions. The pragmatic decisions.”

  Jack looked back at Hazel, Bella, and the animals. Then at Candice. “Just where do you stand, Candice?”

  “What?”

  “You have a habit of whispering stuff in my ear. Stuff that goes against the rest of the group. If you’re so sure about the way forward, why don’t you lead the way?”

  She took a deep breath and she smiled. “Because I’m not a leader. But you are. And you need to embrace that. It won’t make you popular. But it might just keep people you care about alive.”

  He stopped, then. Looked back at the rest of his people once more. He felt that urge growing. The urge to give up the search. The urge to just walk away. They had a chance for a fresh start. A chance for a new beginning. They could take it, right now.

  But then he shook his head and looked right at Candice. “We keep going until we find Susan. If we don’t find Susan, we keep going until we find Emma. And if we don’t find Emma… we keep going until we find Matthew. Because he can’t get away with what he did. He doesn’t deserve it. The world will be a safer place without people like him in it.”

  Candice opened her mouth, like she was going to suggest otherwise.

  And then she just nodded and smiled. “If that’s what you think’s right, then I’m right behind you.”

  Jack nodded back at her.

  He walked further into the night. He figured there was going to be a point where they had to stop for a rest, but he didn’t want to concede any ground or let Susan get any further away from them—if she was even in this direction at all.

  He was about to suggest a quick break when he noticed something right ahead.

  A piece of whi
te cloth.

  He moved towards it. Pulled it off that tree branch. There was a stream right nearby.

  In the water, he swore he saw blood.

  Villain went to lick at the water, as did Nymeria.

  But something didn’t feel right about this place.

  “Come on,” Jack said. “Let’s keep…”

  He stopped, then.

  Because he saw her right ahead.

  Susan was standing there on the other side of the stream.

  She stared at Jack with a look of regret in her eyes.

  “Susan?”

  She didn’t say anything. Not at first.

  He took a step towards her. “What—”

  “I tried to warn you,” she said, shaking her head. “I tried to stop you. I tried to help you. You shouldn’t have come here. I’m sorry.”

  He stood there, stared at her, discomfort creeping through his body, the sense he was being watched peaking.

  “What’re you talking about?”

  That’s when he heard the footsteps.

  The rustling in the trees, all around.

  Jack turned.

  Movement in the trees.

  Figures emerging from nowhere.

  All around them.

  And then from directly behind, Jack heard a voice.

  “Hello,” the voice said. That familiar voice. The one he’d last heard at the campsite.

  He looked around and he saw Matthew standing there, smile on his face.

  “Good to see you again,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “It’s Jack, isn’t it? Pleasure to finally meet you up close and personal. Sorry we had to interrupt our first meeting. We had things to do. Alas, we can finish what we started right here, right?”

  Jack listened to Matthew’s words and he wasn’t sure how he’d allowed himself to fall so deeply into this trap. It was dark. All around, they were surrounded by Matthew’s people. Some of them had guns. Others had knives.

  There was no getting away.

  They were trapped.

  “I mean, it’s nice of you to come visit. I was thinking you’d appreciate how lucky you were last time and make the most of the fact you survived. But I suppose we were destined to meet again, weren’t we? Isn’t that always the way with leaders when they let emotions control them? They just won’t give up. And before they know it, they lose everything. Human attachment. The greatest weakness of all. A cancer.”