The End of the World Series (Book 1): Survive The Collapse

by McDonald, Clyde

  Survive the Collapse

  A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller, The End of the World Series book 1

  Clyde McDonald

  Copyright © 2020 by Clyde McDonald

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  1. Jake

  2. Aby

  3. Jake

  4. Deron

  5. Aby

  6. Jake

  7. Aby

  8. Jake

  9. Aby

  10. Jake

  11. Aby

  12. Jake

  13. Aby

  14. Jake

  15. Aby

  16. Jake

  17. Aby

  18. Jake

  19. Deron

  20. Jake

  21. Aby

  22. Jake

  23. Aby

  24. Jake

  25. Aby

  About the Author

  One

  Jake

  He was stuck in traffic. Again. Pittsburg traffic is horrendous. Why do I still live here?

  He knew the answer to that, but frustration had a way of making him ask stupid questions like this one. He couldn’t just leave. Who would take care of his father, if he did? The old man had been sick for over a year, and his sister had too many kids to have time to be his nurse.

  Jake pulled into his parking spot tens of minutes later. This call center job was unquestionably awful, but at least managers were given decent parking spots. He put his SUV in park and walked into the building, straightening his mandatory tie. On the elevator ride up to the fifth floor, Jake scrolled through Instagram to see what his friends were up to. It was typically something more interesting than anything happening in his life. His suspicions were confirmed by the app. Marcus and Daniel had adopted another dog; Kianna had gone whitewater rafting with her girlfriends; and Cassidy and Alex just got back from their honeymoon in Belize.

  “Wish I had the money to go to Belize,” Jake grumbled to an otherwise empty elevator.

  If he did have the money to take such a trip, then he probably would not have spent it travelling to Belize. He had developed a sort of hobby out of emergency preparedness. He enjoyed learning about all the different types of gear and the improvements made in newer models. He even kept a little ‘go-bag’ in his car, but it didn’t have much in it. There was some rope, a Casio watch, a few knives, a fire starter, a machete, a lighter, a hatchet… That was pretty much it. He didn’t really have the resources to stock it as he liked. Money had been tight for a while. His pay wasn’t bad, but the benefits were terrible. Taking all this time off to take care of his father was taking a noticeable bite out of his paychecks. He didn’t blame his father, of course. None of this was his fault. It was this shitty company that treated their employees like robotic slaves rather than human beings.

  The elevator doors opened. Jake stepped out into the hallway and pocketed his phone.

  “Morning, Jim!” shouted one of the senior managers in a cheerful tone. He was a tall, balding man dressed in a suit much nicer than anything Jake owned.

  “My name’s still Jake, sir,” Jake corrected under his breath and waved back. He had given up on correcting the old man months ago. He either did not care or lacked the capacity to remember. Regardless, it was not worth the daily effort.

  Work proceeded as it did every morning. Jake arrived thirty minutes before those he supervised to ensure that everything was in working order. Computers were started and phones were tested. The other employees trickled in steadily around 8 o’clock. He helped a few new hires with some questions and placated two screaming callers before lunchtime rolled around. Escaping to the employee lounge with his leftover chicken parmesan, he had only partially reheated his food when the power cut out.

  Stupid cheap wiring. I wonder what the problem is now, Jake thought.

  He pulled out his phone and dug into the lukewarm meal. He wanted to send an email to his sister, but his phone wouldn’t turn on. What the hell? I know this thing was fully charged when I got in this morning.

  He finished eating his lunch in silence before wandering back out to the main office area. All of the other employees were speaking worriedly to one another, showing their phone screens to their neighbors.

  That’s a little odd, he thought. It had better not be something stupid, like that time everyone felt they needed to show each other the video of that one basketball player’s leg breaking. That was gross. He shuddered a little as the image involuntarily replayed in his mind.

  “What’s going on?” he asked Nancy, one of his more competent employees. “What’s everyone so concerned about on their phones? Did something bad happen?”

  “We don’t know,” she replied. “Everyone’s phones stopped working all at once. Someone thought a cell tower might be down, but that doesn’t explain why they won’t even power on.”

  Everyone’s phones stopped working? That’s not good.

  He strode over to the window and looked down at the streets. It was a foggy day, so the streetlights should have been on. They weren’t.

  He whirled around and broadcasted his voice to everyone in the room. “Does anyone have a working phone, laptop, or MP3? Anything wireless that still turns on? That still works?”

  The call center employees checked their other electronics, but all came up with dead devices. Even the little radio one person had no longer worked. They chattered even louder in light of this new information.

  This is very bad. Jake’s mind was racing.

  The only thing I know of that could have caused something like this is an EMP. If I’m right, then things are going to get very ugly very soon.

  He thought for a moment. It was possible that a power surge had affected this street alone. That doesn’t make any sense. Everything here is plugged into a surge protector. Even if that weren’t the case, how would a power surge have gotten to all of our phones? I know mine wasn’t plugged in.

  Perhaps the building had tripped a breaker, and they all passed a giant magnet on their way inside. Magnets messed up credit cards. Couldn’t they kill phones too? No, that’s just ridiculous. Where would the giant magnet come from? Where would it even have been for everyone on the floor to pass by it? He was avoiding the obvious, and willful ignorance definitely would not help him.

  He looked back at the other employees. They were still chatting amongst themselves in a gossipy tone rather than the alarm he felt they ought to feel. He sighed. They weren’t necessarily his friends, but most of them were good people. Their lives were likely going to be upended, and they didn’t deserve that.

  He threw on his jacket and walked to the center of the room.

  “You should all leave,” he announced. “Grab your things and get home as quickly as you can. Do not plan on returning to work tomorrow until you hear otherwise from management.” He grabbed his bag and walked across the room to the exit. The others simply stood in place, looking at him with a mix of confusion and concern – the sort of look you give the crazy person on the subway while they screamed about the end of the world. You never took those people seriously. You just watched them warily from a distance.

  Jake didn’t wait for anyone to follow. He knew how difficult it is to convince people of what they don’t want to believe. It would likely be hours before anyone else decided to leave too, and he didn’t have time for that. It was imperative that he ge
t home to his fiancée before she left for work. Society was about to break down, and they needed to get out of dodge. If he turned out to be wrong, then they could fire him. He was sick of this job, anyway.

  He started towards the elevator out of habit, then made a sharp left for the staircase. The elevator wouldn’t be working now. Jake flew down the steps three at a time. Once he had reached the bottom, he walked quickly to his car and turned the ignition key. Nothing happened. No stalling, no sputtering, no click of the engine failing to turn over.

  Even the cars? I didn’t expect these to be affected.

  Jake hadn’t had much time to think about his next move before another person exited the building. He looked up. It was Zach, another low-level manager for the call center. The two of them got into a heated argument over an issue with a client last year and hadn’t gotten along since. Zach had always been an aggressive person, but now that aggression was universally targeted towards Jake. This had resulted in a few small physical altercations, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Certainly nothing he wanted to go to the trouble of reporting.

  He watched as the man walked, irritated, over to his own car. His also failed to start. Upon realizing this, his expression went from annoyed to positively fuming. Jake could see him cursing to himself, slamming his hands against the steering wheel. Then he looked up and locked eyes with Jake.

  Oh shit.

  Jake grabbed his go-bag from the floor and stuffed his wallet and keys into it before getting out of the vehicle to face his enraged coworker. The man stalked towards him with his hands in fists.

  “Hey!” Zach roared at Jake.

  Jake slipped his hand into the bag, hiding the motion with the body of his SUV. His hands closed around his handgun – a Glock – and pulled it from the bag’s interior. As Zach barreled angrily toward him, he hid the gun just behind his back with his finger near the trigger.

  Two

  Aby

  Working the second shift had its advantages. She might not love waitressing, but at least city traffic was at a minimum by the time she needed to go to work. Her manager was nice, too. She was always very understanding when she had to call off from a shift to help Jake care for his father. Of all the people Aby had worked for, Mary was by far her favorite manager. She had even asked Aby to pick up a few extra hours before her shift today. Mary had said they were short staffed, but she wouldn’t be surprised if she was just trying to boost Aby’s paycheck.

  She stared out the window while waiting at a stop light. I certainly hope that I won’t need to call off from too many more shifts. I should talk to Mary about picking up more hours when I get into work. The wedding is going to be expensive enough, but tuition for vet school will be beyond insane.

  Jake had been extremely supportive of her decision to return to school to become a veterinarian. It hadn’t been too many years since she had graduated college, so she wasn’t worried about handling the course load. She did worry about how this decision would affect their plans to have children. They wanted three, with each baby spaced out by a couple of years before having the next. They had hoped to start trying shortly after they got married, but the combined expenses of the wedding and vet school would make it difficult to afford having a baby so soon. They had talked about it but hadn’t really come to any decisions on what to do.

  Aby had been so lost in thought that she almost didn’t notice her car shut off.

  What the heck? I just got this back from the shop! What is this hunk of junk doing now?

  She tried to brake, but they wouldn’t engage. She turned the ignition key frantically, trying to get the engine to restart. Even the parking brake was busted.

  This is bad, this is bad, this is very very bad. I can’t stop!

  She was slowing down, but the car in front of her was still growing closer at an alarming rate. Aby slammed on her brakes, but to no avail. She crashed directly into the rear of the car in front of her.

  Stunned, it took her a minute to emerge from her car. She jogged to the driver’s window of the vehicle she had hit. The driver was a portly man with thinning hair that he was clearly trying to disguise through an elaborate comb over. He struggled to undo his seat belt whilst also putting out his cigarette. He got out of the car after some time, glaring at her.

  “Hey, what the hell, lady?!” he screamed up into her face. Some spittle landed on Aby’s cheek.

  “I am so so sorry, sir! I’m not sure what happened. My car just died out of nowhere and the brakes—” she began.

  “I don’t give a damn! Look at what you’ve done to my car!” He gestured broadly at the vehicle. “This is a Shelby!” Fuming, the man unlocked his trunk and began rummaging around.

  Aby looked at his car, noting for the first time that it appeared to be some kind of vintage. She wasn’t incredibly interested in old cars and had no idea what a Shelby was, but it was clear that the driver took excellent care of it.

  “I’m very sorry, sir. We can exchange insurance information. I promise we’ll get things all taken care of. I truly didn’t mean to crash into your nice car,” Aby quickly said. The more she looked at the vehicle, the worse she felt about the situation. It must have taken him years to refurbish it.

  “Are you kidding me, girl? I see your car!” He jerked a thumb towards her old Toyota. “That thing is a piece of shit,” the driver barked as he continued searching in his trunk. “No way in hell can you afford to fix my baby!”

  Well I personally cannot, but that’s why I have car insurance… She wasn’t sure how to express this thought to the man without sounding condescending.

  Then the man pulled out a tire iron, brandishing it at her and growling.

  Oh shit, oh shit, oh SHIT!

  The man took a couple of practice swings before moving towards her.

  “Somebody help me!” she shouted.

  Aby searched frantically around her for others but saw no one else around them. The driver was drawing closer. She turned and sprinted for the alley across the street. She hoped to lose the man in the narrow streets until she could find a police officer.

  “You’d better run, you little shit!” the driver screamed as he lumbered in her direction, clutching his weapon in both hands.

  This is insane, Aby thought. I need to find someone. Anyone.

  She raced through the bricked alleys, taking turns at random and constantly looking behind to see if the pudgy man had followed. On the fifth turn, she realized she could no longer hear his footsteps. She slowed her pace and jogged towards the light of the street ahead. The scene laid out before her did nothing to calm her fears.

  All the cars in the road were stopped. No, not stopped, she thought. These weren’t even running.

  There were no lights on, no engines running, no horns honking. The street was heavy with vehicles returning to work from lunch, but not a single one moved. Their drivers fumbled in their cars with confused expressions. Each was clearly unsure of what had happened or how to proceed.

  Something is wrong. This isn’t normal. Aby fought back the panic rising in her chest.

  I need to get home before more weird things start to happen.

  She pulled out her worn phone to call Jake. He could pick her up, and they would go home together. He thought about things like this all the time. He would know what to do. Her plan felt feasible until she tried to turn on her phone. Every attempt to unlock the Android failed. The screen wouldn’t turn on at all.

  Dang. It must have busted in the crash.

  She jogged to the closest shop and poked her head through the door. There was a teenage girl working at the counter who stared unblinkingly at the scene outside. She fiddled absently with her hair while loudly chomping on a piece of gum.

  “Excuse me,” Aby interrupted politely. “Could I please use your phone? Mine isn’t working, and I need to call my fiancé to ask him to pick me up.”

  The girl didn’t even look at her. Nor did she pause in her gum chewing. She continued to stare out the window
when she said, “I’m sorry, ma’am. Our phones are out. Try the place next door.” Her voice had that valley girl accent, and Aby thought it sounded out of place in the middle of Pittsburg.

  “I will. Thank you,” she said and left the shop.

  She tried the deli next to the first shop and received the same response.

  “I’m really sorry, miss,” the grubby man behind the counter told her. “But our phones are out. Might wanna try the place next door.”

  She thanked him and left after buying a sandwich and a cookie. She hadn’t had time to eat before she left for work, and hunger made her irrational.

  The convenience store next to the deli gave a similar story and so did the drug store next to it. She even tried a few buildings across the street, hoping that their phone lines had not been affected by whatever was going on. Each establishment offered the same response: the phone lines were down. She had noticed that the lights were out in a few of the shops, but when she stopped to really look, it was clear that none of the buildings had electricity.

  The cars are one thing, but no one has power, either?

  She continued down the street in the general direction of her apartment, eating her Reuben as she walked. The man at the deli had kindly wrapped it in a way that made it easy to eat on the go.

  Other people were also walking along the street. Some didn’t even bother staying on the sidewalk. Most seemed aimless. Everyone appeared panicked to some degree. Aby had just noticed that her own fear had been causing her hands to shake as she ate. She threw away the sandwich wrapper and wiped her fingers on her jeans. Stuffing her hands into her armpits, she wondered what she ought to do about her car.