Fallen Earth | Book 2 | Aftermath

by Morrow, Jason D.

  Alex believed her. He couldn’t think of a reason she would be lying, and she seemed sickened by the death that surrounded them. He counted five of them from Eastern Springs. Three of them were packing food into boxes.

  Alex didn’t consider this a total loss, however, because there was still the infirmary where they could get medicine for the people who needed it the most. He hadn’t had much hope for food anyway. And it seemed what the Eastern Springs group had been able to gather so far was minuscule compared to what a town would actually need.

  Alex should have thought about this. The prison got shipments almost every day, and oftentimes the shipment included food. Even if there was enough food here to feed an entire town, it would only be for a day or two. And what time would that buy them? What would any of this buy them? Even the medicine could potentially save someone’s life for a month or so. But maybe that was all they would need. He didn’t know why his mind defaulted to assuming this situation was permanent. At worst, power outages happened for a few days. In the worst of snowstorms or blizzards, it was possible to lose power for a week. He didn’t necessarily buy the story that some people were touting about the power outage being some massive attack. No one was sophisticated enough to perform such an attack. It just didn’t make any sense to Alex.

  His thoughts on the subject conflicted with each other. He ultimately decided that it didn’t matter and that they had to figure out how to take care of each other in the moment. Discussions of long-term survival were for a much larger group and perhaps even for different people.

  “I think you should split the food with us,” Trent said.

  Alex looked at him and shook his head. He noticed the anger in Trent’s face and raised a hand to try and calm him. “It doesn’t matter,” Alex said. “Look at it. What? Two days? Three?”

  “I’m glad to see you all aren’t going to fight us over it,” the woman said. “My name is Julie, and there’s something else I need to show you.”

  Alex didn’t like the way she said that. It had the undertones of something sinister, something they weren’t going to like.

  “What is it?”

  “Follow us,” Julie said.

  Alex looked back at the others to see if they wanted to comply, and when he got no objection, he got behind Julie and her group. They wound through two hallways, and Alex already had a sneaking suspicion where she was taking them.

  The door to Cell Block D was cracked open, and a body lay at the base of it. Julie kicked open the door and immediately cries could be heard from the other end of the hallway.

  Prisoners! Prisoners who had not been freed from their cells.

  Bryson swore, and Gwen looked at him with wide eyes.

  “I guess the power outage didn’t unlock these doors,” Julie said.

  Alex shook his head. “No, the power outage didn’t open the doors. That’s not how they work. I don’t know what happened here, but I do know the prisoners were going throughout the cell blocks unlocking different cells. They either didn’t get to this block, or they left them here on purpose.”

  “Well, there isn’t really much to show us then, is there?” Trent said. “It’s obvious what we have to do here.”

  “Yes,” Julie said. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. But we will have to be careful.”

  “We can’t free them,” Gwen said. “That’s not what you’re saying, is it?”

  “Of course not,” Julie said. “There are about twenty of them. We can’t just let them go, and we can’t just leave them in here to starve to death. That would be cruel.”

  Alex’s eyes squinted at Julie. “Then what exactly do you have in mind?”

  “Well, thankfully we have more people here now to help us,” Julie said. “Obviously, we have to execute them.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Sam wasn’t sure whether the mercenaries on the streets were creating more chaos or calming it. The rioters and looters still ran rampant through the streets despite the voice over the loudspeaker screaming for everyone to stay inside. Anyone the soldiers encountered close up, they subdued or chased away. They didn’t seem too violent yet, and they hadn’t killed anybody that Sam could tell, but he also wasn’t near them enough to see what they were trying to do. They were closing in on him, and he had a feeling that the moment they caught him, he would be their prisoner.

  Sam was convinced that this wasn’t the regular military. He thought it might be possible that it was a response task force specifically designed to take control in the event of an EMP, but in all of his hacking and research, he had never heard of such a program within the government. So, it probably wasn’t government because there would have been no real reason why the regular military wasn’t affected like everyone else. It wasn’t as though they kept their tanks and radio operations in Faraday cages.

  Sam understood the nature of EMPs and the fact that not everything electronic was going to be affected. For instance, if for some reason these tanks were stored underground, particularly under a large metal structure, then it was conceivable that they hadn’t been affected. It still didn’t make sense for the radios to work. He guessed that they could have had device to device connectivity instead of relying on a tower, but he doubted it. There was some sophisticated technology going on with their coordinated movements, and this did not act like a group affected by the lack of electricity. This was a group that seemed ready.

  These were the Horsemen.

  Sam slowly worked his way through various alleys, trying to find a chink in their armor—some kind of a break in their wall that they had created. So far he had found nothing, and getting to the hospital was unrealistic at this point. It had just been an idea because it seemed like a good place to lie low and blend in with the rest of the crowd. But there were other places he could go, so long as the soldiers didn’t have a good description of Sam. He didn’t think he had any distinguishing marks on him or a look about him that made him stand out over anyone else. His description matched that of hundreds of people within the same neighborhood. But if the soldiers did stop him, they would find a computer and a hard drive, and they would know they had their man. Sam wondered if he should stash the bag someplace safe while he hid away, but he could not imagine leaving that kind of information unprotected somewhere. There were looters all over the place, and a random backpack with a computer in it was a fine catch. Even without the disaster, in most places in Chicago you didn’t just leave a bag with valuable things in it. It would get stolen in a second. He thought about ditching the bag entirely and hoping the SD card survived the rest of his trip, but who knew how long he would be without a working computer?

  He felt desperate. Anxious. His fingers twitched and there was a shaking in his chest that he couldn’t calm.

  Sometimes he wished he had admitted to the murder. That way he would have been in prison and wouldn’t have had the time or resources to learn about all the things he had seen. He felt guilty about his brother being in prison instead of him. Henry didn’t deserve it.

  Sam had always been the straight-laced kid. The one who made decent grades and didn’t cause trouble. Henry had been known for never taking his books to class, being expelled from two schools for getting into knife fights, and for his complete disdain for authority.

  It was odd to think of Henry in that way. On the surface, he looked like a troubled kid who grew up to be a convicted killer. A typical story. But Sam knew Henry as a protector, someone with a deep love for the innocent. Henry was incredibly intelligent, yet no one ever knew it because his grades never reflected it. Sam wagered that Henry was smarter than he was, just in a different way. Henry didn’t know about computers and things like that, but he could read an article, a speech, or any information at all, and repeat it back to you verbatim. He understood complex scientific concepts—things that baffled most people. But at the same time, he had been an awful test-taker and sometimes got into fights. Granted, his fights were usually in defense of someone else. Someone weaker
than himself. That was what had happened to him in both knife fights.

  Henry had a love for knives and kept one on him, so he pulled it out. In the first fight, he disarmed the guy and put the knife to his throat, mostly just to show that the other guy had lost. But the school system didn’t see it that way. The second time was a similar situation, but in that instance, Henry had a knife pulled on him and he got the knife out of the guy’s hands and accidentally cut his attacker’s shoulder. It made him look like the bad guy. And since it was almost impossible for Henry to ignore someone weaker than himself getting picked on, he found himself in those kinds of situations a lot. But the schools had a zero-tolerance policy, and for those two situations, he was punished. After those situations, he lost all motivation to try in school. It didn’t help that he probably could have written half of the school textbooks, yet when he had to sit down and take a written test about any of the material, his mind would go blank. Conventional schools and conventional classrooms were not the settings for a person like Henry. School itself was not a setting for a person like Henry. Henry was a special kind of person and one who deserved a better life. Sure, on paper he looked like he needed to be in prison.

  But none of that was true.

  That knowledge ate away at Sam day after day. In the same way that he defended kids from bullies in school and was punished for it, Henry had defended Sam, the true killer, and was being punished for it for the rest of his life.

  He worried about Henry throughout this whole EMP attack. He worried about what had happened in the prisons. Were all of the inmates trapped inside? Had they all killed each other? If there was anyone who could take care of themselves it would be Henry, but even he could only do so much. There was a part of Sam that thought if the roles were reversed and he had been the one in prison, he would have been killed by now or the guards would have had to put special protections around him.

  That was part of why Sam had gone along with the lie for the last five years. Fear. He feared what would become of him if he were the one thrown into prison, even if it was only for a decade or so. Henry had thought the same thing and had taken the blame for him.

  Guilt weighed on Sam, but there was little to be done about it now. If all this cleared up and it turned out they both survived the ordeal, Sam would think about giving himself up, though he wasn’t sure the courts would hear him. Would there be an investigation? Would anyone believe him? On paper, society would rather have someone like Sam on the streets than someone like Henry. The judge would be perfectly comfortable keeping Henry in prison and letting Sam go free.

  The judge wouldn’t be more wrong. Sam had done more illegal activity in the last year than Henry had thought about doing his whole life.

  Sam clutched his bag in front of him as he sat in an alley, his head against the wall behind him. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm his nerves and ignore the sounds throughout the neighborhood.

  How long would it take before he no longer heard screaming? The sounds of people on loudspeakers shouting for everyone to get back indoors?

  He knew the Horsemen had been planning an EMP attack. He knew it was supposed to be widespread. So, worst-case scenario: the Horsemen had accomplished their goal and the world was in chaos.

  Even if it were only America and the rest of the world hadn’t been hit, the economic ramifications would be catastrophic. There would be a global depression at the very least. All of America would become a wild land, lawless and full of danger. The people who were now looting televisions and computers would soon be cutting people’s throats for bread and water. With no running water and no emergency response, Sam wondered if they weren’t already at that point.

  He felt sick at the thought. Life had changed forever, there was no question of that. Even if the country were able to make a full recovery in months or years, this was the kind of thing that would change the trajectory of people’s lives. People would live differently for generations. They would try to be more prepared for the future. Bunkers would become the new normal. People would become more self-sustaining and less reliant on their government. Where was their government now that everything was on fire?

  Unresponsive.

  Dead.

  Gone.

  The Horsemen, in a single stroke, had won.

  Sam’s eyes opened quickly when he heard a noise down the alley. He jumped to his feet when he saw a man walking toward him. His instinct was to run, but the man held a finger to his mouth as if to shush Sam and tiptoed toward him.

  “You running from those guys?” the man asked in a harsh whisper.

  Sam didn’t answer. Instead, he looked in all directions to see if the newcomer had any friends, then he hugged his bag and took a stance that would allow him to run off into a sprint if he needed to.

  “I sure am,” the man said. When he got closer, Sam saw that his clothes were old and dirty. He wasn’t sure, but the man might have been homeless.

  “I’m Elias,” the man said. He held out a hand when he approached Sam, but Sam didn’t reciprocate.

  “I don’t want to talk to you,” Sam said.

  “I get that,” Elias said, pulling his hand away. “These soldiers are surrounding the whole neighborhood. Did you see that?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said.

  “It’s like they are looking for someone,” Elias said. “I figured they were here to help at first, but they’re just ignoring looters and rioters.”

  Sam’s stomach churned. Him. They were looking for him. They had to have a picture or a description of him.

  “I don’t want to talk to you,” Sam repeated.

  Elias held up his hands. “I get it. I get it. We’re all scared. But we need to stick together if we’re going to make it through this.”

  Sam shook his head and knew his cheeks were getting red. “No. We aren’t going to make it through this if we stick together. Sticking together has nothing to do with anything. We need to get out of here. That’s it. That’s the only way we are going to survive.”

  “What if I told you I knew a way out of here where the soldiers wouldn’t see us?” Elias asked. “A tunnel.”

  Sam didn’t hesitate. “Then I would wonder why you hadn’t already left.”

  “Maybe I’m looking for something in return.”

  “I don’t have time for this.”

  “Oh really? What are your plans then? If you don’t have time for a proper escape, then I guess you’re going to take your chances with the soldiers? I suppose you could just stay in one of the buildings and hope they pass you by.”

  Sam stared at Elias and wasn’t sure what to say. Should he take the man up on his offer? What if he really did have a way out of the neighborhood?

  “What do you want in return for helping me?”

  “What’s in the bag?”

  “None of your business,” Sam said. “If it’s food and water you’re looking for, I only have enough for myself. Even then just for a day or two. So you’re not getting that.”

  Elias raised his eyebrows. “The bag seems pretty full to only have a day or two worth of water and food. What else do you have in there?”

  “Nothing that would be of value to you.”

  Sam was starting to wonder if this tunnel existed or if this guy was just playing around. If he wanted Sam’s bag, wouldn’t he just try to take it from him? Now was the time to take things from people. There were no cops to stop it. Perhaps Elias just wanted to get Sam where he was vulnerable and trusting before he stole his bag, but the bag would mean nothing to Elias. He might not realize it, but a computer was worthless now. At least, worthless to most individuals. Even if they were able to get into the encrypted files, they wouldn’t know how to run the program to sift through the vast amounts of information. And if they could do that, the average person wouldn’t be able to do anything with the information they had. Which was just about where Sam was in all of this. He had the information he needed, but he didn’t know what he would do with it. That all dep
ended on how successful the Horsemen’s operation was. The more successful it was, the less he could do with the information.

  Elias shifted gears quickly. “I don’t really care what’s in your bag anyway. I was just curious. But there is safety in numbers. I can take you through the tunnel. I just don’t want to go by myself.”

  “So that’s it? You’re just wanting an escort?”

  “If you knew the kind of people I’ve seen down there, you would want an escort too.”

  “What exactly are you worried about?” Sam asked. “Unless they are after you.”

  Elias smiled. “Maybe they are, but does that make any difference to you? If I’m offering you a way out, it shouldn’t matter.”

  Sam knew something was off about Elias. He felt like a little kid being offered candy from a strange man. But the rumbling sound of the tanks was getting closer, and the loudspeaker was sharp through the air, ringing in his ears, each increasing decibel a warning cry for him to get out of there by any means possible.

  “Fine,” Sam said. “But you stay in front of me.”

  Elias nodded, then motioned for Sam to follow him.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Prisoners banged on their doors and yelled in muffled tones. Alex hoped they couldn’t hear the conversation between him and Julie.

  “I think we need to hold off and think about this for a minute,” Alex said. He looked at Julie and her crew, then back at Gwen, Bryson, and Trent. “We didn’t come here to execute anybody.”

  “There are three choices,” Julie said. “We leave them to starve to death, which I don’t feel good about. We let them go and hope they don’t kill people. I don’t feel good about that either. Or”—she sighed when she said the last part—“we execute them to save them from a horrible death and save anyone they may encounter if they are let go.”

  Alex shook his head vigorously. “That’s insane. There has to be something else we can do.”