The Gathering Storm: Book 2 of the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series: (Surviving the Fall Series - Book 2)

by Mike Kraus

  Jim’s bright smile vanished and the happiness from his voice evaporated. “Do you not know what’s going on? I thought I saw your truck in town last week, right after all this… mess happened.”

  “We’ve been staying at home for the most part. I heard some things on the television, but I think the power must be out everywhere.”

  Jim pulled one leg off of his bike before rolling it up next to the wreckage of a vehicle. He leaned the motorcycle against the wreckage and pulled off his other glove. “Dianne, things are very bad. I have a shortwave transmitter in my house and was listening to some emergency broadcasts that were going out before my generator ran out of gas.”

  Dianne slung her rifle over her shoulder as she glanced around. “How bad is it? Things were getting pretty wild in town last week, but I would have thought that by now…”

  Jim shook his head. “No, nothing’s gotten better. Maybe you heard on the TV, but this is world-wide. Everyone’s affected. I heard that it was some kind of computer super virus, but I don’t know enough about that sort of thing to decipher a lot of what I heard.” He looked over at Dianne’s truck and nodded at it. “Are you and your husband and kids doing okay? Do you need anything?”

  Dianne shook her head. “We’re okay.” She thought about telling him about Rick being in California but decided it was best to keep that information to herself for the time being. “Trying to lay low, mostly, until things get better.”

  Jim shook his head. “That’s a good idea, but I don’t know when—or if—things are going to get any better.”

  “It’s awful.” Dianne looked around again. “How are you doing, Jim? Are you heading to stay with family?”

  Jim looked down at his motorcycle and gear and laughed. “I wish! No, they’re too far to reach. I’m heading to one of the federal shelters, up north near D.C.”

  “Federal shelters?” Dianne furrowed her brow. “The feds are erecting shelters now?”

  “Yep.” Jim nodded. “The states don’t have the capacity to do much right now so the feds are trying to set up shelters for people. I don’t know the details but they’re providing food and a bed. I’m not equipped to hold out here for very long so I think my best bet is to get there and hope for the best.”

  “Is that where everyone else in town went?”

  Jim shrugged. “I’m not sure. After the insanity in town last week I’ve been hiding out in my house trying to figure out what to do. I would assume that most folks around here have left, unless they’re like your family in which case I bet they’re holed up on their property waiting for everything to blow over.”

  Dianne shook her head. “Damn. I guess I didn’t know it was getting that bad.”

  “I think, based on what I’ve heard and what’s going on, that things aren’t going to get better anytime soon.” Jim started putting his gloves back on. “You all take care, though, okay? If you have the fuel, you should think about heading up north, too. The shelters are going to fill up fast, I suspect.”

  Dianne smiled and stepped back from the motorcycle as Jim stepped back on. “Thanks, I appreciate the information. Take care of yourself, okay? Be safe on the roads out there.”

  Jim nodded and slid his helmet back on, then turned to wave at the children standing behind Dianne. “Take care, you three! You too, Mrs. Waters! I hope to see you again soon!”

  Mark, Jacob and Josie all waved goodbye as their teacher pulled away, weaving in and out of the wrecked cars as he made his way to the highway and started heading north. Dianne and her children stood and watched him drive away for a couple of minutes in silence before a chorus of frustrated clucks from the chickens pulled Dianne out of her thoughts and back to reality.

  “All right, kids! Back in the truck. Let’s get home.”

  “Mom?” Josie took Dianne’s hand as the four walked back to the truck and climbed inside.

  “What’s up, sweetie?”

  “Is Mr. Sandberg going to come back soon?”

  “I’m not sure about that. I hope so, though. He’s a very nice person.”

  “And a good teacher, too!”

  Dianne smiled at Josie and started up the truck. “I’m sure Mr. Sandberg will be fine and I hope he’ll come back soon. For now, though, let’s worry about getting all this stuff home and unloaded, okay?”

  As Dianne slowly backed up through the tangled mess of cars on the road, she said a silent prayer for Jim Sandberg on his journey. Traveling nearly three hundred miles in the hopes of finding shelter wasn’t something she would wish on anyone and she was enormously grateful for the fact that they had enough supplies to last for a long time at their home.

  The other related thought that she kept trying to push out of her mind was back yet again as she thought about Jim riding across the state. Dianne’s hands clenched the steering wheel as she fought back a tear. I don’t know where you are, Rick. But you’ve got to make it back. Please make it back.

  Chapter 15

  US Government Facility

  Five days before the event

  Air Force One is in the air, rising to meet a fuel tanker for a midair refueling. The computer systems inside Air Force One have been sealed off from the outside world, and the only access is through a single laptop at the back of the plane. Disconnected from any of the plane’s systems or any other computers on the aircraft, the laptop is the only means of communication into and out of Air Force One.

  A group of men in suits sit huddled around the computer screen as they watch a streaming broadcast of BBC News. A reporter stands in front of an office building where individuals are pouring out onto the street, each of them carrying a nondescript white box filled with their personal possessions. The President emerges from his private office into the room with the others and takes a seat near the edge.

  “Turn the volume up, dammit.” He growls and one of his aides hops up and turns the volume up. The voice of the woman is warbled as it comes through the tinny speakers, but even with the distortion it’s clear that she is panicked despite her best attempts to remain calm.

  “Recapping our top story today, the FTSE had fallen sharply on reports that oil giant BP has suffered catastrophic losses in the Arctic, Russian and South Pacific exploratory platforms. Losses suffered by the company as well as damages are expected to be in the trillions of dollars. As you can see behind me, BP isn’t the only one to suffer today as US-based technology giant Computech Incorporated has laid off ninety percent of its workforce in a move that industry experts describe as ‘unprecedented, without merit and absolutely mind-boggling.’ The exact reason for the layoffs has yet to be publicly disclosed, but—”

  The President jabs his finger at the screen and turns to Dr. Evans, who is flipping through a three-ring binder on the other side of the small room. “Evans! What do you make of this?”

  Dr. Evans glances over at the screen. “Damocles is experimenting, sir. It’s testing its new environments and learning about the systems involved.”

  “Why the hell would it be tanking companies and getting people fired?”

  Dr. Evans looks over his glasses at the President, then glances at the rest of the people crowded around the laptop, all of whom are staring at him. “Sir, Damocles was designed as a learning weapon. It targets for maximum destruction in all areas. Economic destruction certainly counts. The oil platforms are likely its first test of the effects of physical destruction combined with economic destruction.”

  “Christ.” The President looks at the laptop again. “How bad is this going to get before we have some sort of countermeasure?”

  “I’m working as quickly as I can, sir. The sooner we get on the ground and I can confer with my colleagues the sooner we can see if it’s even possible to create a countermeasure.”

  “’Possible to create?’ Are you telling me we might not be able to fight this thing?”

  Dr. Evans puts down his pencil and shakes his head. “Mr. President, what I’m telling you is that you unleashed a superweapon. It has
no safeguards. It has no backdoors. It has no magic button that we can press to shut it down. Creating a countermeasure before Damocles decides to start killing people isn’t likely to happen.”

  “Assure me again, General.” The President looks at a man seated to his left. “Are the nukes safe?”

  “They were air-gapped within minutes of receiving word that Damocles was breached, sir. The only connection into the bunkers is through land-line telephone. Those are isolated and the codes have already been updated.”

  Dr. Evans shakes his head and laughs. “You think changing codes is enough? If there aren’t human beings involved in every single step of the chain, face to face, then Damocles can squeeze into the middle.”

  Silence—aside from the noise of the television broadcast—persists for nearly a full minute before the President responds. “General, make it happen.”

  “Sir! Our first and second strike capabilities will be crippled beyond belief!”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck, General.” The President stands up from his seat. “We are not going to be the ones who let this thing launch a nuke. Not happening.” The President turns to an aide as he leaves the room and barks at her. “I need the British Prime Minister on a secure line as soon as we touch down. After that I want the Chinese PM and the Russian President on a conference call. Maybe the two of them will start bitching at each other again after I break the news to them.”

  The President leaves the room and the sound of the news broadcast once again reigns. All except for Dr. Evans are glued to the screen, watching the dramatic events unfold before them in real time. Dr. Evans, though, sits alone with a pencil and paper as he scribbles out line after line of ideas, theories and code to test once he is on the ground.

  Hope is fading fast, though not all rays have been extinguished. Not yet.

  Chapter 16

  The Strip

  Las Vegas, NV

  “No wonder he said to stay away.” Rick sat at a table inside a nearby restaurant on the Strip that had suffered only minor damage. Behind the glass windows and only partially shattered door the air was easier to breathe and he was able to focus enough to try and come up with a plan.

  “Can’t we just go across?”

  “I think we’ll have to. It looks like the fires are all up and down the road. If we try and go around it could take several hours, depending on how far they’ve spread.”

  “Why didn’t we see all of this before we got there?”

  Rick shrugged. “The wind’s been changing all day, keeping the smoke mostly away from us. With so many tall buildings between us and the road I’m not all that surprised. Still, I wish we had known.”

  “It can’t be that bad on the other side of the road. It’s not all that bad on this side.”

  Rick shook his head. “It looks like the eastern side took the brunt of whatever tore this place up. The fires are a lot bigger over there than they are here.” He sighed and stood up and pressed his nose up against the window. “I think our best bet is to head between those two buildings, right over there. There’s a gap in the burned out cars on the highway right in front of that median, then we can climb over that truck and get in between those buildings. We’ll just have to hope that the fires back behind those buildings have died down enough to make it easy to get through.”

  “All right. Let’s do it.”

  Rick raised an eyebrow and looked over at Jane. She, like he, was covered in soot and her face was black except around her lips where she had been gulping water ever since they came into the restaurant. She had been going strong since they started off earlier that morning and Rick was starting to worry about her ability to last much longer in the heat and smoke.

  “Are you sure? You passed out yesterday from heatstroke. We might need to rest here for a while, at least until the sun goes down a bit.”

  “I’d rather get through all of this first, then take a break on the other side.”

  Rick nodded. “Fair enough. Let’s check around in the back and see if we can put some makeshift masks together first. Might help with the smoke and dust.”

  Ten minutes later both Rick and Jane had found an apron, soaked it with water and cut it off so that they could tie it around their head and have it cover their mouth and nose without impeding their movement. After confirming one last time that Jane was feeling up to moving out, Rick opened the door to the restaurant and headed out into the street.

  The wind was kicking up even harder than before and they walked slowly across the road, heading towards the raging fires and thick clouds of smoke on the eastern side of the Strip. The noise from the wind was loud enough that Rick didn’t hear the roar of engines at first, and when he did they were already halfway across the road and standing in between the tall palm trees and wide planters in the median.

  “Get down!” The sound of the vehicles instantly reminded Rick of Los Angeles and he fell flat on the ground and crawled behind one of the planters. Jane followed his lead and they sat crouched on the grass, waiting to see the source of the noise.

  The roar of a pair of diesel engines thrummed through the air and Jane peeked up over the planter. She broke out into a smile and turned to Rick, nearly shouting over the sound of the wind and engines. “It’s the army guys! The ones from the convoy! Look, it’s their trucks!”

  Rick stood up next to Jane and squinted, desperately trying to confirm what she said. He could see a pair of Humvees slowly heading south down the Strip towards them, but the longer he looked at them the more his stomach began to twist.

  “Come on!” Jane started to walk out from the median and into the road. “Let’s go get them to pick us up!”

  “No!” Rick grabbed the canvas bag Jane was carrying on her shoulder and jerked her back, sending her tumbling to the ground. He crouched down next to her and hissed into her ear. “No, stay down!”

  “What the hell, Rick?” Jane’s face was a mixture of confusion and anger.

  “Those are the army Humvees, but they’re sure as hell not manned by soldiers in uniform!”

  Rick and Jane raised their heads slightly above the planter and he pointed at the lead Humvee. “Look at the guy on the machine gun. He’s not wearing a uniform! And the driver doesn’t have one on either!”

  Jane gulped loudly and sank back down behind the planter, sitting down on the grass and scooting as far away from the road as possible. “Who are they, then?”

  Rick continued to watch the vehicles moving closer and shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re whoever was shooting at the bus when we flipped over. I sure as hell don’t like the look of them, though.”

  As if on cue, the two Humvees picked up speed and raced down the road before skidding to a stop just in front of the restaurant that Rick and Jane were in only moments before. The pair scooted further behind the trees and planters in the median and Rick laid out on his stomach, watching the vehicles from behind a small gap in between one of the palm trees and one of the planters.

  Two men jumped out of the lead Humvee and they were soon joined by three more from the other vehicle. The gunners stayed in their positions, slowly rotating the turrets around as they scanned the road. The five men standing near their vehicles all carried rifles of various types and calibers and each had a bandanna wrapped around their faces and wore thick plastic goggles and hats to shield their eyes and heads.

  “Let’s check this place out, then head to the Bellagio! Maybe they left the vault door open!” The voice came from one of the three men who hopped out of the second vehicle.

  “You idiot.” Another man punched the first one in the arm and pointed at the smoldering ruins of the Bellagio hotel. “Do you really think we can get down into the basement? I told you the Strip was a waste of time. We need to stick to the smaller hotels, not these ones! The earthquake tore these apart!”

  Earthquake? Rick frowned. What earthquake are they talking about?

  “Yeah, yeah. Fine. Let’s find some food then we’ll head out aga
in. How about you two check down the road a block and let us know what you find down in the steakhouse. We’ll look here and meet up with you.”

  “Fine.”

  Rick stiffened as the five men split up, with two of them walking farther south down the road on foot while the first three went into the restaurant. With the way the two men walking south were going, it was only a matter of time before they were able to see Rick and Jane lying in the median.

  Great, he thought. What the hell are we supposed to do now?

  Author’s Notes

  May 25, 2017

  Welcome to the end of book 2 of Surviving the Fall! I really hope you enjoyed it, and I really appreciate you taking the time to read it. After the fast-paced action sequences of book 1 to set stage for the world of Surviving the Fall I knew I would need to dial it back (just a tad, at least in Rick’s case, the poor guy) and start developing the characters and world some more. Things are going to be getting REALLY crazy here soon, both for Rick and for Dianne. If you could see the outlines and notes I have for later down in the story you’d be shocked at what these two are going to go through.

  At first when I started writing Surviving the Fall I thought that I would enjoy writing Rick’s perspective more. The reality of it, though, is that I enjoy writing Dianne’s sections WAY more. I’m still trying to figure out exactly why, but I have some theories. I’m used to writing the crazy conspiracy-theory action and adventure sequences (like those that made up pretty much the entirety of Final Dawn) but I’m really enjoying writing about the more down to earth stuff that’s occupying Dianne’s time. I’m trying to put a really authentic feel to it and I hope that comes through. As a father to three children (two boys and a girl, but my oldest is only six) I’m thinking a lot about my own wife and children as I put Dianne, Mark, Jacob and Josie through everything they go through.