Prepper Central: A Prepper Fiction Novel (Prepping - Together we will Survive Book 1)

by Evercroft, Chad

  ‘Okay. But you know. Maybe she has something for the pain. Wouldn’t you want something for the pain?’

  Marge shook her head. ‘Now I feel okay. It’s just when this pain shoots through my stomach that it gets unbearable.’

  ‘Can I do anything for you?’ I asked, unsure of how I could possibly be helpful.

  ‘Just you being here is enough, Jimmy.’

  Hours went by. Marge’s screams occurred more frequently as her contractions occurred a shorter duration apart. We finally decided that it was time to get Cindy on bored and move closer to holding our baby in our arms. Though a huge part of me was still drenched in the fear of fathering a newborn child, a part of me just couldn’t wait to see the new life that I’d helped to create.

  ‘Dad,’ I dragged his attention away from the crossword puzzle he was pretending to do.

  ‘Yup.’

  ‘Do you think you can radio Cindy in and have her come over to us?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ he replied, hurrying to his feet and reaching for the handheld two way radio that was positioned in the center of the coffee table.

  Dad fondled with the device a bit. ‘You’ve got to press that one.’

  ‘I know that Jimmy, just trying to hold it properly.’ He pressed the button. ‘Cindy. Cindy. It’s Chuck and Jimmy here.’

  Cindy didn’t respond. We waited for a few second before dad tuned in again. ‘Cindy, are you there?’

  A cold sweat of panic swept over me. ‘She’s probably in the shower,’ Marge replied calmly. ‘Why don’t you just run over there and get her.’

  Because Cindy lived on the other side of the Cul De Sac and I wanted to be with Marge, I asked dad to contact Stewart and have him send someone to get her. Stewart picked up straightaway and shared in our excitement about the baby before letting us know that he’d have someone over to Cindy immediately. Now it was just about playing the waiting game, something that none of us wanted to do. Marge’s screams were becoming unbearable- not only because of her screaming directly into my ears but also because with each scream, I felt as though her pain became mine. About ten minutes after we had placed the phone call to Stewart, a hard pounding was to be heard on our front door.

  ‘Cindy’s here!’ I exclaimed. Finally happy that my wife would find some relief from her pain even though we knew that it may take a few more hours before it was really time for the baby to be delivered.

  I was quick on my feet and to the door in a matter of seconds. I swung it open to see that the person I’d expected to see wasn’t the person standing in front of me.

  ‘Stewart,’ I said confused.

  ‘I’m sorry, Jimmy.’ A look of dread took hold of his face.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked. I was trying hard to push a worst case scenario so far back in my mind that there wouldn’t be a possibility for it to exist.

  ‘We can’t find Cindy,’ he whispered.

  Chapter 9

  The look on Stewart’s face said more than I was willing to decipher. I froze for a minute, trying hard to figure out the smartest course of action. I knew it was only a matter of time before Marge would want to know what’s going on and rather than having her worry about her doctor not showing up, I needed to come up with a solution that wouldn’t have her blood pressure soaring through the roof.

  ‘Oh. I think I know where she might me,’ I said confidently enough for Marge to believe it. ‘I’ll be back in a short while sweetie.’

  ‘Jimmy, where do you think you’re going?’ She snapped.

  ‘It won’t take long, I promise,’ I reassured her before stepping through the door and taking Stewart with me.

  This was potentially the worst thing that could have happened. If we didn’t find Cindy soon, either mom, dad, or I would have to deliver Marge’s baby. I couldn’t believe this was happening. It’s as though one unfortunate event just had to be accompanied by another.

  ‘What do you mean you can’t find her?’ I finally turned to Stewart. He couldn’t find the strength to look at me and instead, had his eyes focused on a random spot on the floor in front of him. ‘What do you mean you can’t find Cindy,’ I said, louder this time.

  ‘I mean that we’ve gone to her place and she’s not there.’

  ‘Then check somewhere else.’

  ‘Everyone in the neighborhood has been contacted and no one seems to know where she is, except,’ he paused.

  ‘Except,’ I prompted him to continue.

  Stewart let out a sigh and focused his eyes on mine. ‘They heard some screaming this morning and now it seems as though it might have been coming from Cindy.’

  ‘No,’ I shook my head. ‘No, it wasn’t coming from Cindy. I asked Derrick and he said…’ Then I remembered that the only thing Derrick said was that the screaming wasn’t coming from a boy. I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of Cindy being the victim. Why would I?

  ‘Unfortunately, I think that really is the case. We’d checked out the screaming and it seemed as though it was coming from over the wall but I guess.’

  My heart pounded faster and faster and I felt as though a panic attack- one worse than the one I felt when I heard that Marge was having contractions - was about to take control of my body. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Being able to blame someone for what had happened wouldn’t have helped and I knew that. But I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that no one bothered to look over the wall; the fact that no one seemed to have taken the screaming more seriously than it obviously was.

  ‘So what do we do now?’ I turned to Stewart whose anger and frustration was easy to see.

  ‘We get her back,’ he said matter-of-factly.

  ‘And how do we do that? Are we supposed to just trudge on into a community of people who can’t stand us? Are we just supposed to go over there expecting people to start talking? I guarantee you that no one’s going to say anything. You know just how many people we’ve turned away and the last thing we can expect is for them to help us.’

  ‘Well,’ Stewart answered boldly, ‘If they’re not willing to talk, we’re going to have to make them talk.’

  ‘That’ll just get us killed.’

  ‘We’re the ones with the guns Jimmy. They’ve all used up their ammo shooting each other and so I don’t think there’s much of a threat going over there.’

  Guns or no guns, I knew that our presence outside of our walls wouldn’t be appreciated. These people were hooligans. They were hooligans who had nothing to lose and so, they’d give their lives to see us fall.

  ‘And what if it takes us hours? What if it takes us days?’

  ‘Then that’s just how long it will take.’

  ‘Stewart,’ the frustration in my voice grew, ‘my wife is about to pop and there’s no one to deliver her baby.’

  ‘This isn’t only about your wife,’ Stewart replied, sounding less concerned about my statement than I appreciated, ‘this is about all of us. We’ve got one doctor in the group and so, we need to make sure that we get her back here. If anything happens to any one of us, we need to make sure that there’s a doctor here to help out. So, I’m sorry if you think that heading out of our perfect little society isn’t a great idea, but it’s something that we just have to do.’

  Understanding what Stewart was saying wasn’t hard. It was the tone of his voice made me feel as though I was being blamed for something.

  ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘But what should I tell her.’

  ‘I don’t know if anything you tell her will give her the comfort that we need at this time. I mean, being her husband, she’ll want you to stay with her.’

  Just when I was getting ready to head inside and shell out a world of bad news to my wife, Derrick came running toward us. ‘Jimmy. Jimmy,’ he panted.

  ‘What it is?’ I asked coldly.

  ‘You know that guy that you guys caught the other night. Well, he’s here. He’s right by the wall on the other side and he’s asking for you.’

  For a moment, my mi
nd flashed back to the man who Edward had shot in the shoulder. Could it have been him who took Cindy? If so, he’d surely be in for no good. After all, it had been a member of our group that was responsible for the injuries he sustained. However, Cindy was the one who patched him up. She was the reason he didn’t bleed out right in front of us.

  ‘Why is he asking for me?’

  ‘I don’t know. Here,’ he reached out his hand which held a crumpled up piece of paper, ‘he said I should give you this.’

  I retrieved the paper from Derricks arm. ‘What the hell is this supposed to be.’

  ‘I dunno,’ he answered.

  Stewart edged closer to me to get a good look at the paper as I opened it.

  House Number 3 Collingswood

  They took the nurse.

  ‘Derrick. What did you say this guy looked like?’

  ‘Well, he was short, like five foot four maybe five. I dunno. Young.’

  ‘That’s not a guy, Derrick,’ I snapped. ‘That’s a little boy. You mean that a little boy gave you this paper.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I mean,’ Derrick agreed. ‘The one you guys caught the other night.’

  A sense of relief swept over me and it was then that I knew accompanying Stewart and the crew wasn’t an option, it was a must. I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out a pen. Then, I carefully ripped off a corner of the paper Derrick had handed to me and wrote:

  I’ll be back in a few, don’t worry. I love you. Jimmy.

  I folded the paper, making it thick enough to be secured underneath my front door without being blown away by the wind. There was no doubt in my mind that Marge would be upset about me not being there with her. But, if Thomas really was who had handed this paper to Derrick, then I needed to be the one to speak with him. Marge would forgive me. She had to forgive me.

  ‘Let’s go,’ I turned to Stewart.

  I could tell that he was a little bit puzzled as I hadn’t fully shared my thoughts with him but there was no time to be wasted.

  ‘What’s that all about?’ Stewart latched his hand around my arm and pulled me back.

  ‘Come on Stewy. Let’s get the others. We’re gonna go retrieve our doctor now!’

  Chapter 10

  My first course of action was to get to the wall where Derrick had informed me that Thomas would be waiting. I propped up the ladder that had been positioned behind the house and carefully climbed my way up. Surely enough, when I pushed my head over to get a view of the other side, Thomas was waiting. His face was drenched in sweat and his hands trembled the same way they did, that night when he was unsure of his fate.

  ‘Hi,’ I yelled to him.

  Thomas turned around startled but was seemingly happy to see my face.

  ‘Sir,’ he whispered. ‘Did you get my note?’

  ‘I did. How do you know they took her?’

  ‘I can’t talk for long. I’m scared someone comes and finds me over here talking to you. It’s different when I’m just waiting here without you looking over because then they’ll think that I’m trying to break in, but if they see me talking to you, then that’s a whole different thing.’

  ‘Okay.’ I definitely understood what he was saying.

  ‘Will you meet me at that address? I can show you where they’re keeping her if you meet me there. But then, you’ll have to make sure to protect me afterward.’

  I knew that when I got back to the guys, they’d be concerned that this was all a setup. A part of me wondered if Thomas didn’t have something to do with all this. The look on his face was one of sincerity and at this moment I didn’t have much of an option to not believe him. I climbed down the ladder, folded it together and placed it back behind the house where I had found it.

  ‘Guys,’ we’ve got to go to that address. The kid will show us where to go from there.’

  The look on Stewart’s face, as expected, was one of mistrust. ‘How do you know we can trust this guy, Jimmy,’ he turned to me.

  ‘What other choice do we have?’ I replied sternly. ‘It’s the only lead we have so far and if we don’t listen to him, we could be driving through this entire town pointlessly for days on end.

  Stewart, Derrick and I made our way to the front of the Cul De Sac and waited by the Humvee that our new military friends had parked there earlier in the day. On the two way radio, Stewart got in contact with eight other guys, including Jonathan. These were the people who would accompany us out of the realms of our protected Cul De Sac and into the streets that have been ridden with danger. The guys who were manning the front entrance started to undo the barbed wire for us. Within a short period of time Timothy, Alex and Lewis- the guys who drove the Humvee, arrived. Following them, were two cars, one driven by Jonathan and another driven by a strong and mean looking Henry. Lewis stayed back, allowing enough room for Stewart and me in the Humvee. The urgency of the situation didn’t allow for me to revel in the moment of being in an actual Humvee; of people able to sit in there and feel as though I was a part of something greater. Instead, I pulled myself in in a manner that would make anyone believe it was something I did on a regular basis. Through the back window, I saw that Lewis accompanied Jonathan in the car. It was time to get going. Stewart took the paper with the address out of my hand and read it through the radio.

  Alex, who was driving, stepped on the gas and we were through the gates within the blink of an eye. At that moment, I couldn’t help but to think about Marge and what she must be going through. I wondered if she had found the note and what thoughts were going through her head at that time. Her not contacting me on the radio meant one of three things. The first was that she was too pissed to speak to me, the second that dad and mom had prevented her from doing so and the final, but most unlikely reason was that she actually understood.

  I looked to my left, observing the streets that were once peaceful and clean. Unfortunately, this was no longer the case as there was no one to care about the appearance of our community. There were piles of trash lining the sidewalks and people wandering around with no purpose. In the middle of the road, there was evidence that fires had been started in the form of what was once a mattress was now spring, a minimal amount of material and a whole bunch of ash. In the bushes, I’m certain I spotted a body, but turned around before I could really determine if this was true. It was sad to see just how ruined everything was. However, the real sadness would sink in only when we approached the areas where people had been residing. There were masses of people outdoors, still protesting though I’m not sure they knew what they were fighting for. And then, out of nowhere, a bottle smashed right into our windscreen. The people didn’t like us and they wanted us to know. Not for a minute did I think we would have been accepted with open arms. After all, the manner in which we rolled in, big vehicles, cars filled with gas- these people must have thought that we were trying to rub our wealth in their faces. Another object landed on the vehicle and then swarms of people started to surround us, screaming and banging as though their lives depended on it. I wanted to yell at them to stop, but this wouldn’t have helped the cause.

  ‘Turn here,’ Stewart said to Alex, looking at the address to make sure that he’d gotten it right.

  ‘Yeah, that’s the turn,’ I said to them both. I knew the street because I’d traveled along it quite a bit when I was heading to work.

  Alex did as he was told and made a left.

  ‘Now, we’ve just got to look for a 3. House number 3 it says,’ Stewart looked at me.

  ‘Yeah. House number three it is.’

  Adrenaline rushed through my body like the way water rushes through a busted fire hydrant. The Humvee slowed down in front of the house with the dark cast iron three on the right side of the entrance way. I knew that we’d arrived. The longer we waited, the more people came running toward us. Alex and Timothy pointed their guns through the window, showing the people that they really didn’t want to get any closer. Surely enough, the majority of them stepped back. I glanced at the
crowd and my heart broke as I spotted a few familiar faces. Though I couldn’t call them by name, I’d seen some of these people at their jobs- cashing checks at the bank, scanning groceries in the Supermarket and sitting behind a comfy desk in the bank. Now, they were all the same. There were no careers to define them. No cars or other fancy items to be proud of. They were just a group of people, fighting for survival. A group of people who had failed to prepare. A group of people who the government had failed.

  Out of nowhere, a bold figure approached the vehicle, only grabbing my attention because Alex and Timothy whipped around and aimed at him.

  ‘Stop,’ I yelled. ‘It’s him.’

  ‘Is that the boy,’ Stewart asked me.

  Alex and Timothy lowered their guns but still pierced Thomas with their eyes.

  ‘Stewart, if he joins us, we’ll have to take him back with us. These people are all watching and they’ll kill him if they know that he was cooperating with us.’

  ‘Jimmy,’ Stewart replied and I knew just what he was going to say, but I wasn’t having it.

  ‘We’re not going to fight about this Stewart. We’re not going to use him and then feed him to the wolves. That would make us murderers.

  ‘He’ll be on you then,’ Stewart settled.

  Timothy exited the vehicle and made room for Thomas to move in. –As soon as his foot had touched the ground he lifted his gun, pointing it from face to face in the crowd. Thomas squeezed past him, grabbed my hand and pulled himself up. Out of nowhere, a group of three men charged towards Timothy. One of them, a skinny, rough looking guy with a dirty face was the first to make it to Timothy. Spinning around, Timothy managed to get two shots off, causing the man in his full sprint to twitch his entire body as if he was wired with 4000 Volts. The force of his momentum slammed his now lifeless body into Timothy, whose face was struck with horror. The two of them fell to the ground, the dead man on top of Timothy. The two other men who had charged with the lifeless body on top of our friend now dragged and ripped on the clothes of their bleeding comrade, trying to move him off of the attacked. The crowd took this as their cue to swarm the vehicle. It must have been 40 people who were now closing in on the car, faces deeply engraved with anger and rage. It was as if these starving bodies were now seeing us as their prey. Stewart reached for his gun and I reached for mine. Alex was already busy pumping rounds into the crowd, seemingly smiling with every time his trigger finger set off a deadly bullet. I’d never fired my gun at a live target, but that day, I took a life, or two, or three; it was hard to tell. I watched as the man I had aimed at, fell to the ground. I watched as the life drained out of him, before his knees ever touched the crackling asphalt of the road. Timothy, still stunned by the impact of the man who had crashed into him, was now holding on to the rugged tire of the Humvee. He managed to pull himself to his feet, his M16 dangling from his shoulder. Shooting rounds at the people who were now grabbing for stones and other objects to launch towards the vehicle, he backed his way into the open door of the humvee.