Our Survival: A Collection of Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thrillers

by Williams, Ron

  “No, we did not agree to Alexandra getting killed!” screamed Joe.

  He raised his pistol at Randall, but Randall drew his 1911 and aimed back. Each of Joe’s gang followed suit and took aim at Randall as well. Jane cocked her rifle and aimed at the back of Joe’s head.

  Just like that, Randall and Robert had found themselves in the middle of another Mexican standoff.

  “It wasn’t our fault!” Randall said. “It was her fault and her’s alone.”

  Robert, who was still standing behind the Hi-Lux, pulled his AR-15 from the seat and took aim at Joe as well. Since everyone else just had pistols, shotguns, or hunting rifles that needed to be re-chambered after each shot, he by far had the best firepower of anyone there.

  “Joe, I am telling you they are telling the truth!” said Duncan, the only one there without a gun.

  “Jane, make your way back here!” Robert shouted.

  “No, don’t move!” Joe yelled back. “Or I kill both of you and her!”

  “You shoot, and I blow out your brains!” said Jane.

  “Do you want the supplies or not?!” Randall asked. “We can still all walk away from here without a shot being fired.”

  “I want all of your supplies!” Joe said. “For the death of Alexandra I get all of it! That’s a very generous offer!”

  “Half and half like we agreed!” countered Randall.

  “Joe, please, he is telling the truth, Alexandra was crazy and you know it!” shouted Duncan. “You know full well she was crazy!”

  Everyone continued to stand there tensely with their guns aimed at one another.

  “I told you to shut up, Duncan!” said Joe. “All the supplies! All of it! Or else we gun all of your bastards down and you with them, Duncan! For all I know you’re one of them now!”

  Randall could see this was going nowhere. He analyzed the situation: his Colt may have been aimed directly at Joe’s face and likewise Joe’s gun was aimed at him, but even if he could get a shot off to kill Joe, Joe and all of his gang would fire at once and cut him in half in a hail of bullets. Jane would also be able to shoot Joe with her rifle, her standing behind him, but she would be gunned down by Joe’s people as well. Robert might be able to pick off a few of them with his AR, but due to the fact that they were outnumbered he’d most certainly be shot and killed too.

  Randall realized there was only one solution to this situation that didn’t involve all of them getting killed. To the surprise of everyone else there, he holstered his .45 in his gun belt, and then took off his gun belt and threw it in the back of the Hi-Lux where the rest of their guns were.

  “Alright,” said Randall. “You get half the supplies and you get me. You return Jane and let her and Robert move on.”

  “Randall, what the hell are you doing?!” Robert yelled.

  “This is the only way, Rob,” said Randall. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t do this, Rand!” said Jane.

  “If this is what it takes to get you two to safety and the supplies to our family, then so be it,” said Randall.

  “Wait a minute, you’re handing yourself over to us?” asked Joe, extremely surprised by this turn of events and lowering his weapon.

  “That’s right,” said Randall. “You take me and do whatever you want with me. But you let Jane and Robert go with our share of the supplies.”

  “Done,” said Joe, lowering his pistol a little bit more. “Alright, you step forward to us and the little girl goes to you.”

  Randall stepped forward to Joe. Two members of his gang immediately rushed forward, grabbed him by the arms, and pushed him down to the ground with their shotguns pressed against his back.

  Jane cautiously stepped over to Robert with her rifle still aimed at Joe.

  “Get in the car, Jane,” Robert ordered, his AR-15 still trained on Joe. “I’ve got you covered.”

  Jane stepped into the Hi-Lux.

  “Turn the engine one,” said Robert, still carefully aimed at Joe.

  Jane reached over to the ignition where the keys were and turned them to roar the engine to life. She then rolled down the window and aimed her rifle at Joe.

  “I’ve got you covered now,” she said.

  Robert looked at Randall, on the ground and taken captive.

  “Robert!” Randall called out.

  Randall managed to look up at Robert from his position on the ground. Then he said: “Don’t try and rescue me.”

  Robert said nothing. After a few more seconds, he sat back into the Hi-Lux with his AR-15 and closed the door. He pressed down on the engine and took off quickly down the road until they disappeared around the corner.

  Once they had gone, Joe turned to his gang and ordered them to retrieve the duffel bags. He then turned to Randall who was on the ground.

  “Stand up,” he ordered.

  Randall stood up, when Joe suddenly punched him hard in the gut and Randall fall back down with an “UMPH” and groaned in pain.

  Joe then raised his foot and brought it crashing down against Randall’s gut again. Randall emitted another groan. Duncan simply looked on helplessly.

  “You’re going to pay for what happened to Alexandra,” said Joe through clenched teeth.

  “How do you want to kill him?” one of the gang members asked.

  “Kill him?” Joe asked, and then grinned. “No, no, no. We’re not going to kill him. At least not yet. I have something better in store for him.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jane was in tears as Robert drove.

  “Randall’s dead, isn’t he?” she said.

  “We’ll rescue him,” said Robert. “We rescued Thomas, we can rescue him too.”

  “If he’s even alive by then,” Jane sobbed.

  A tear streamed down Robert’s cheek. That hadn’t happened in a long time.

  “Randall is a fighter,” he said. “He’ll keep himself alive like Thomas kept himself alive. And then we’re going to save him. I promise you.”

  * * *

  The Compound

  Butler stepped out of his office building with his Mini-14 rifle slung over his shoulder.

  Arranged in front of him were Gale, George, Mitchum, Jones, and one hundred of the Compound’s strongest and most eager militia members. They varied in age from 16 to 50 and around eighty percent of them were male. Behind them, the armada of vehicles were lined up and ready to go.

  Butler nodded in approval, and then began his speech: “As I’m sure my sons have told you already, we have identified the location of the Parkers. They’re on the northern end of Priest Lake in a private cabin. We’re going to meet up with some more folks on our side on the way up. Once we meet up with them, I’ll lay out our strategy to deliver them what they deserve and punish them for their sins! Tonight is the night that justice will be brought upon them! Only then will we have peace! For Gerald and Mike!”

  “For Gerald and Mike!” everyone exclaimed enthusiastically.

  * * *

  Butler and Gale led the convoy of ten vehicles down the dirt road on their way to the northern end of Priest Lake. The headlights of the vehicles shined so brightly in the darkness that they were visible through the trees and brush for hundreds of yards.

  Butler figured there would be around an hour’s worth of driving before they reached their destination.

  First, they stopped by Phil’s camp. He had eight other men with him waiting around a campfire.

  Butler and Gale brought their vehicle to a halt and the convoy stopped on the road behind them. They stepped out and walked over to the campfire.

  “Lewis Butler,” Butler extended his Yeti-like hand. “You must be Phil.”

  “That’s me,” said Phil, a little anxious.

  They shook hands.

  “You know Gale already,” said Butler. “Before we start, I want to say thank you. You’re risking your lives to help us bring these people to justice. I promise you, when this is over there will be a place for you and your families within the wal
ls of our Compound. Food, medicine, water, it’s all yours.”

  “And a house too, right?” asked Phil.

  “You’ll have a house alright. Who do you have with you here?”

  “All I managed to bring is eight guys, but we’re ready to fight if that’s what’s it’s gonna take to keep our families safe.”

  “And your families will be kept safe,” Butler guaranteed. “You’re doing the right thing.”

  Butler turned back to the convoy.

  “Everyone out, gather around!” he said.

  After a few minutes everyone climbed out of the SUV’s and trucks and gathered around the campfire. With over a hundred people there it was a large crowd in such a small camp.

  Butler stood in the center to address them.

  “Their cabin is just twenty to thirty minutes north of here,” he said. “It’s positioned against the lake, so if we surround them completely north of their immediate position, they have literally nowhere to run. I want us to separate into three groups of twenty each. My son Gale will lead the first group, Mitchum and Jones will lead the other two. All three groups close in at once from all sides. Simple but effective. They won’t even know what hit him. You guys ready?”

  Everyone in the circle either nodded in acknowledgment or made their agreement known verbally.

  * * *

  Robert and Jane drove down on the dirt road heading back to the cabin. They had swung around north of the cabin in an attempt to lose track of anyone in case they were followed. Now they were heading south on the primary road.

  Just then, they saw multiple headlights on the road ahead of them. Robert brought the Hi-Lux to a stop. The headlights that were in front of them came to a stop too.

  Sure enough, it was Butler’s convoy. There was maybe fifty yards between the convoy and Jane and Robert in their Hi-Lux.

  Gale was riding shotgun in the front vehicle in the convoy with Butler driving. He squinted to make out the truck that was in front of them.

  His eyes went wide as he realized, “That’s our Hi-Lux! That’s the Parkers!”

  Back in their Hi-Lux, Robert and Jane’s hearts were beating fast.

  “Is that them?” Jane asked. “The Compound?”

  “Yes,” said Robert under his breath. “We’re in for another fight.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Robert and Jane sat tensely in their Toyota Hi-Lux truck.

  Robert knew immediately where Butler and his militia were going… and he wasn’t going to let them take a step further without a fight.

  “Jane,” said Robert. “Grab one of the pistols in the back.”

  Jane took a moment before following her brother’s orders and reaching into the back of the Hi-Lux. Her hands fumbled around before retrieving Randall’s Beretta 92FS that he had left behind.

  “Now when I tell you to, I want you to get out of this car and run like hell for the cabin,” Robert continued, breathing slowly, knowing a gunfight was imminent. “Warn them to get into the other Hi-Lux and high tail it north to safety.”

  “What about you?” Jane asked.

  “I’ll hold them off for as long as I can,” said Robert. “Don’t worry, I’ll link up with you guys later. Just warn our family to get as far away from the cabin as possible and in the fastest amount of time.”

  Robert clicked the safety off of the AR-15 on his lap.

  * * *

  Butler sat in the driver’s seat of the lead vehicle, his steel gray eyes fixated on the Hi-Lux in front of them. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that it was amazing it wasn’t being bent.

  Riding shotgun, his son Gale said, “I only see two of them. We can take them out and continue onto the cabin. This doesn’t change anything.”

  “Dammit, son!” Butler grimaced through clenched teeth. “This sure as hell does change everything! We’ve lost the element of surprise! That was our whole advantage besides our numbers!”

  “We can take them out,” Gale insisted. “They won’t get far.”

  “All they gotta do is swing their truck around,” Butler countered.

  Gale performed a brass check on his Ruger Mini-14 carbine.

  “They aren’t that far away,” he said. “We can shoot out their tires and engine from here.”

  Butler said nothing.

  “It’s either that, or they get away and we can’t continue on with the surprise attack because they’ll be ready for us,” Gale continued. “They’ll warn the others to be ready for us.”

  “You know what?” Butler said, performing a brass check on his own Mini-14. “We didn’t come here just to turn around and go back, did we?”

  “What are you saying?” Gale asked, his finger itching on his carbine’s trigger.

  “I’m saying you’re right,” Butler decided. “We fight. Right now.”

  He opened the door to the truck and stepped out.

  * * *

  “NOW JANE!” Robert screamed, as Butler and Gale exited their truck. “RUN!”

  Jane flung open the door to the Hi-Lux and immediately began sprinting as fast as she could down the road with Randall’s Beretta. Before the EMP, she had been on her high school’s track team and she knew how to run over long distances. But now her running skills were about to be put to the ultimate test.

  The moment she leapt out of the vehicle, Robert swung the truck around to block the road.

  Butler and Gale began opening fire with their Mini-14s. Bullets crashed into the Hi-Lux and shattered windows! Robert ducked!

  “Run, Jane, run!” he yelled after his sister as she took off running down the road.

  With the Hi-Lux now blocking the length of the road, Robert stepped out behind the vehicle for cover and returned fire with his AR-15.

  Being a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and with plenty of combat experience under his belt, he was a more seasoned fighter and accurate shooter than either Butler or Gale.

  Both Butler and Gale dove for cover behind trees at the side of the road as Robert’s rounds only barely missed them. More of his bullets smashed into the lead convoy vehicle, shattering the windows and headlights, flattening the tires, and causing smoke to emit from the engine.

  Butler’s militia members began piling out of their vehicles down the convoy line.

  “Who the hell is firing?!” someone asked.

  “What’s the hold up?!” screamed another.

  “It’s the Parkers!” yelled back Butler over the gunfire. “There’s one or two of ‘em attempting to pin us down!”

  “What do we do?!” yelled Mitchum.

  “Take cover, dammit!” Butler yelled back.

  Robert continued firing his AR-15, pinning the entire convoy down, until the rifle clicked empty.

  “Dammit!” he swore to himself as he ejected the magazine, inserted a fresh one, and chambered a round before firing again.

  In the process, he began grabbing more weapons from the back of the Hi-Lux: Randall’s scoped Springfield M1A .308, Jane’s .30-30 Winchester lever action, and Duncan’s shotgun.

  Butler, Gale, and a few of the militia took advantage of the lull in Robert’s shooting to return fire.

  Bullets WHIZZED over Robert’s head. He promptly returned fire again with his AR-15, the bullets smacking Butler’s lead vehicle and one bullet catching a militia member in the leg, dropping him.

  Robert quit firing, set his AR-15 against the Hi-Lux, and lifted out Randall’s M1A. With the scope and the more powerful and heavier .308 bullets, he figured he’d have a better chance to pick off more targets.

  “He’s probably reloading, now’s our chance to rush him!” yelled Jones.

  Just then, a .308 bullet from the M1A struck Jones in the head, snapping it back and spraying blood and brain matter over the vehicle he was standing next to.

  Several of the militia members gaped in horror, watching Jones’ body fall down in what seemed to them like slow motion. Few if any of them had ever been in a gunfight before, and they were all woefully
unprepared.

  In fact, none of the militia other than Butler, Gale, and Mitchum were actually shooting back at Robert. Instead, they were diving for poor cover behind brush and trees on the side of the road or simply standing or sitting in shock.