EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival | Book 1 | Shelter In Place

by Hunt, James

  “I don’t know,” Susan said, still breathing heavily. “I’ve only had two so far. But it feels like there’s a really heavy pressure on my stomach. It hurts.” She turned toward Ben with concern in her eyes. “Is that bad?”

  Ben knew that none of this was good. Having a baby in the middle of the woods, miles away from any sort of medical facility would only complicate the delivery. But right now, Susan needed to hear some positive news.

  “Everything is going to be fine,” Ben said, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I’m going to keep you hear, and go get Liz—”

  “You’re leaving me?” Susan’s eyes widened, and she tightened her grip on Ben’s hand, clinging to it with desperate hope.

  Ben remained calm and steady. “I’m going to be right back. I’ll need Liz’s help with the baby.”

  Susan nodded and then let go of Ben’s hand. “Okay. Yeah.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Ben stood and then quickly returned to the riverbank, making mental notes of the surrounding landscape so he would be able to retrace his steps back to Susan without any problem.

  “Hey,” Ben said, jogging out of the thickness of the woods and toward Liz.

  “Did you find her?” Liz asked.

  Ben nodded. “Her water broke, and she’s started contractions. The baby is coming.”

  Liz exhaled, nodding. “We’ll need blankets.” She turned around, looking for anything they could use, but most of their supplies were nothing but food and water. It was all they could carry. And then she took off her shirt. “I’ll need yours too.”

  Ben removed his shirt, and then Liz walked over to the boys and collected their shirts as well. All of the clothes were dirty, but they would have to make it work.

  “Show me where she is,” Liz said.

  Once Ben and Liz gathered the boys, the four of them moved into the woods. When they reached Susan, Ben stopped the boys from getting to close.

  “Boys, I need you to wait here.” Ben pulled Connor and Tommy to the opposite side of the trunk while Liz walked around to Susan.

  “Why can’t we go with mommy?” Connor asked.

  “Because Mrs. Susie needs some help, and mommy needs to help her alone, okay?” Ben said.

  Both boys nodded and then collapsed onto the ground, Tommy pushing his little fingers in the dirt, while Connor rested his head against the bark of the tree and closed his eyes.

  Ben thought it best to give Susan some privacy, but the truth was Ben didn’t think he was in the right frame of mind to have “the talk” with his boys at the moment. His life was already stressful enough.

  Ben skirted around to join Susan and Liz, and found Susan in the middle of another contraction, gripping Liz’s hand hard.

  “Gah!” Susan relaxed, panting heavily to catch her breath as she leaned back.

  “You’re doing great, Susan,” Liz said, rubbing the young mother’s back, then she turned to Ben, lowering her voice so only he could hear. “Contractions are speeding up. The baby’s coming.”

  It had been a long time since Ben had delivered a child, but he had done it twice before on the job. Sometimes, they weren’t able to get the mother to the hospital before the baby came. But Ben didn’t have the luxury of possessing the equipment he normally had with him, and he knew that was going to make things more difficult.

  “Okay, Susan,” Ben said, positioning himself in front of Susan. “I’m going to check how far you might be dilated, and that’ll tell me how close the baby is coming, okay?”

  Susan nodded, breathing heavily as she held tight to Liz’s hand.

  Ben examined Susan and was surprised when he found the crown of the baby’s head. “Okay, Susan, I can see the head, so you need to push. Push now!”

  Susan took a few deep breaths and then bared down hard, her face reddening as she screamed.

  “That’s it, Susan, just keep going!” Ben shouted encouragement. “Almost there!”

  Susan’s screams reached a crescendo as her face grew so red it started to transform into a purplish tint. And with one final guttural cry, Ben caught the baby in his hands, holding it up for Susan to see.

  The baby was small, and screaming, and covered in slime and muck, the ambilocal chord still attached. “It’s a boy,” Ben said, swaddling the child in the shirts they had collected.

  Susan smiled and cried at the same time as Ben gently placed the child in her arms. “Hey, Charlie. How are you?”

  The baby cried and grunted, and the tears rolled down Susan’s face in thick streams as she smiled and cried and kissed her newborn. She looked up to Ben and Liz. “Is he okay? I-is he healthy?”

  Ben knew he couldn’t give a definitive answer on the child’s health, knowing that they lacked the proper equipment and tests to run, but from what he could see, and from his personal experience as a father, the boy looked fine.

  “I think so,” Ben answered.

  Susan groaned in relief and then returned the bulk of her attention to her son, kissing him and making sure he was safe and warm.

  Ben sat back, marveling at the miracle he had witnessed, and then looked to his wife, who smiled fondly down at the new child and his mother. The sight took him back to the moments where he had become a father for the second and third times, the first being a father to his step-daughter when he and Liz were married.

  Fatherhood had changed Ben. His life was no longer his own, and the decisions he made would affect more than himself. Being a father was the ultimate responsibility. Guiding a life, protecting it, nurturing it, and watching it grow… It was the greatest gift anyone could receive.

  Not that it wasn’t challenging.

  “I wish Kurt were here,” Susan said.

  Ben and Liz exchanged a glance, and Ben suddenly felt guilty for having witnessed the moment while Kurt was… not present.

  “Well, he’ll be excited to see his son when he comes back,” Liz said, hoping to offer Susan some form of encouragement.

  “Yeah,” Susan said, echoing Liz’s optimism. “He’s going to love meeting you.” She gently brushed her fingertip over the baby’s pink nose and then kissed him on the forehead. “My sweet boy.”

  It was a wonderful, precious moment, but it was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot.

  Everyone jumped, and the baby cried. Susan brought the child closer to her chest, placing her arms protectively around her son, while Liz did the same to Susan.

  “What was that?” Susan asked.

  Ben scanned the woods, rifle already in his hand, and poised to shoot.

  “Boys! Come to me, now!” Liz shouted, and Connor and Tommy dutifully sprinted around the tree trunk and collided into their mother.

  “How close was it?” Liz asked.

  “Close,” Ben said.

  “W-where are Nancy and Margaret?” Susan asked.

  Ben didn’t want to investigate the source of the gunshot, but he also knew that trying to move Susan now could be risky. The woman just had a baby, getting her to move quickly enough through the woods could put both her and the baby at risk. So if he couldn’t play defense, he would have to play offense.

  “Stay here, stay hidden, and stay quiet,” Ben said, looking to Susan and the baby. “Try to keep him quiet if you can.”

  Susan’s eyes were wide with terror, but behind the fear, there was a resiliency that Ben knew only mothers possessed.

  “I’ll be back,” Ben said.

  Ben hurried away from Susan and his family, once again finding himself heading toward danger in order to protect those he cared about. He wasn’t sure if the gunshot was from friend or foe, but until he was certain of who was in the woods with him, Ben remained alert.

  No other gunshots echoed after the initial blast, and the farther Ben moved, the more he wondered if the gunshot had been a misfire from someone, or someone hunting, or a warning shot to someone else who had gotten close to another group or person.

  But then, Ben heard crying.

  Ben eventually
saw people through the trees. The first person he saw was Lester Percy, rifle in hand. Ben stepped to the left, and Jane and Donny came into view, both of them also armed, staring at something ahead of them, but none of them had their weapons raised. But whatever it was, it was the source of the crying.

  Ben continued to step left until he saw Nancy hunched over a body on the ground. And it didn’t take Ben long to put a face to the dead figure. It was Margaret.

  Ben had a small window of opportunity here. He knew he could leave and never have to deal with these people again. They hadn’t seen him yet, and Ben could slink back the way he came, go to his family, and wait until Susan was ready to move again.

  But in doing so, he would have to live with the knowledge that he had left Nancy to an unknown and likely fatal fate, and Ben didn’t want that on his conscious.

  Ben kept the rifle’s stock tucked close against his shoulder and stared down the barrel, aiming for Lester Percy’s head.

  “Nancy!” Ben shouted, and his voice triggered everyone to jump. “You need to step away from there.”

  Lester and Donny searched the woods, trying to pinpoint Ben’s location, but the trees concealed him well.

  Nancy lifted her head, snot and tears dripping from her chin. “They killed her! They killed my mother!”

  Ben watched as Lester motioned for Donny to head into the woods to search for Ben. They didn’t have a lot of time.

  “I know, but you need to step away,” Ben said, keeping a bead on Lester and Jane, who remained close to Nancy. “There’s nothing else you can do for her now.”

  Nancy struggled with the decision to leave, even after everything she had gone through. But she eventually stood, and just before she turned away, Jane Percy grabbed the girl and put a gun to her head. She whimpered but didn’t resist. She wasn’t in the right state of mind to struggle.

  “Why don’t you come out and we can do this properly, Ben?” Jane shouted.

  “I don’t have a reason to come out,” Ben answered. “And you don’t have any reason to keep the girl.”

  “Oh, I think I do,” Jane said. “My family has killed her father and her mother. What’s stopping her from coming back and killing every last one of us for revenge?”

  “She’s a child,” Ben said, searching for where Donny had disappeared, finding him a few dozen yards to his left. He still hadn’t seen Ben yet. “She’s not going to cause any trouble for you.”

  Nancy whimpered something Ben couldn’t hear, and as Donny grew closer, Ben knew his window for getting the girl out was closing. He needed to act now and fast.

  Ben rounded the tree, rifle up, and moved closer toward Jane and Nancy, leaving Donny behind in the woods alone.

  NANCY KNEW SHE WAS VULNERABLE, but she couldn’t concentrate on anything except for one thing: the image of her mother’s death.

  It looked so real it was almost fake. And while Nancy had seen people killed in movies and on television, seeing it happen in person was different. It was more… violent.

  The gunshot, the sound of the bullet slicing through her mother’s skull, the scent of blood and gunpowder. Nancy wasn’t sure she would ever be able to smell or see anything but those images and scents ever again.

  Nancy was vaguely aware of Jane and Ben’s conversation, but she was too distraught to understand most of it. She just continued to look at her mother on the ground and the patches of black that was her blood that covered the leaves.

  Both of her parents were gone. She was utterly alone.

  The longer Nancy dwelled on that single thought, the angrier she became. The anger filled her, drowning her fear and confusion until it completely consumed her being. And then she slowly turned that anger onto Jane.

  Nancy had never been in a fight in her life. She didn’t know how to fight, or how strong she was, or how much it would hurt, but none of that mattered to her. The longer she thought about it, the less she cared about what might happen to her if she did fight.

  Jane was so distracted with Ben that she didn’t even see the punch coming. Nancy connected her fist against the side of Jane’s head, and the immediate blow caused Jane to stumble to the side, and she released Nancy in the process.

  Jane remained upright but was confused and stunned by the blow for a few seconds, and Nancy used that to capitalize on the situation. She bum-rushed Jane, tackling the woman to the ground. Once she was on top of her, Nancy brought her fists down hard and repeated the motion until a pair of hands were on her, pulling her off.

  “Let me go! Let me go!”

  Nancy was thrown hard to the side, and she rolled over rocks and twigs, scratching her face, arms, and legs. She stopped on her stomach, and then slowly pushed herself up, her body exhausted from the sudden expulsion of energy.

  She remained on the ground, disoriented from the fight, but acutely aware of the pain rippling through her body.

  Gunfire suddenly erupted, and Nancy was confident this would be how she would die. A bullet would catch her head like it had with her mother, or in her belly like it did with her father. She figured a bullet to the head would be best, seeing as how it would be quick, unlike her father’s slow demise. Either way, a bullet was better than burning. That much, she was certain.

  Accepting her fate, Nancy remained on the ground but was surprised when another pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her with surprising ease.

  “Run, Nancy! Go!”

  The excitement blinded Nancy, and for a while, she saw nothing but blurs of white light, though she saw snippets of Ben Riker flash between, and she stumbled forward, hoping the direction she picked was the right one.

  The first few steps were nothing more than a stumble, but as she gained ground, putting one foot in front of the other, she fell into a rhythm, moving faster until she was full-out sprinting.

  Nancy’s vision cleared, and she became acutely aware of her surroundings. She saw the individual rocks and leaves that scattered along the ground. She saw the raised indentations on the bark of the tree that formed unique patterns along the tree trunk. She had never seen the world so brilliantly, but she supposed everything looked sharper when pushed to the brink of death.

  Nancy finally stopped when she ran out of gas and then hunched forward with her hands on her knees. She took several deep breaths, her heart pounding.

  Sweat dripped from her forehead and into her eye, and Nancy wiped it away as she straightened. She glanced around, unsure of how far she had run, and where she had run to.

  But it was quiet here. Peaceful almost.

  Nancy looked up and saw the blue sky through the tree branches. She heard birds chirping, and somewhere in the distance the faint rushing of water down the stream. The wind rustled the leaves on the trees and the ground, branches gently swaying above her. She didn’t know why she had never noticed such things before.

  But then she heard quick footfalls behind her, and she quickly turned, the anger flooding back into her veins, washing away the small moment of peace she had found for herself out here.

  Nancy heard the person before she saw them, and adrenaline flooded her body as she readied herself for another fight. She had never thought of herself as someone who could fight, but then again, she never saw herself in a situation like this before.

  The footfalls grew louder until the person finally revealed himself, and she saw a very beleaguered Ben Riker standing in front of her.

  “You’re faster than you look,” Ben said, sucking wind.

  Nancy let down her guard, and all of a sudden, she returned to the puddle of mush she had been when she saw her mother get shot.

  “They’re gone,” Nancy said, her voice hoarse. “They’re both gone.”

  Ben’s expression softened. “I know.”

  “I don’t…” Nancy shrugged, unsure of what else to do.

  Ben remained quiet and then stepped closer. “Come with us. There’s plenty of space at the training facility. You’ll be safer there than anywhere else right no
w.”

  Nancy knew Mr. Riker was only trying to be nice. “I’m not of any use to you. I heard you talking to Mrs. Riker about it.”

  Ben blushed and then cleared his throat. “You made that gurney for your dad. And you even tried to pull him out against all the odds. You stuck around when your mother took off, and despite all of the nasty things she had said to you, when it mattered most, you showed up. I think you’re more useful than you let on.”

  Nancy’s eyes watered, but she didn’t cry. “You’re sure it’s all right?”

  “Do you think I would have run after you if it wasn’t?” Ben asked.

  Nancy nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Listen, we need to get moving,” Ben said. “Susan had her baby, and we need to get back.”

  “Oh.” Nancy knew it was good news, and realizing her reaction didn’t warrant such good news, she quickly recouped. “That’s… wonderful!” She forced her excitement, and it made her feel awkward, but Mr. Riker didn’t seem to notice. She followed him through the woods, unsure of what to do with her life now and what tomorrow might hold now that she was alone.

  20

  T he day grew warmer the farther they walked, and Ben slowed his pace to practically a crawl. He did his best not to get frustrated, but he was still on edge after the fight with the Percy family.

  Once the shooting had started and Ben managed to get Nancy out of there, he fell into a quick retreat and was thankful when the Percys didn’t pursue. He figured they had their hands full with Gray and they had gotten what they had wanted, which was Nancy and Ben gone.

  Ben glanced behind him, adjusting his grip on the pair of sticks they had used to create the gurney to carry Susan and her baby.

  It had been Nancy’s idea, and while it had taken some time to construct it, Ben knew Susan wouldn’t have been able to make the trip otherwise.

  Ben and Liz carried Susan, and Nancy kept hold of the boy’s hands. She did a good job with them as well, keeping them occupied when all they wanted to do was stop and rest.

  But carrying Susan quickly zapped what strength remained from Ben, and he frequently stopped for breaks, though he knew no else minded. Everyone was gassed. The long night had caught up with the group. Still, they had to keep pushing. They were so close to the facility.