Preppers of the Apocalypse - Part 1: Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival (3 page)

When
he got to the town hall he opened the door a crack and slipped in, and then let
it shut softly behind him. The town hall could have housed a few hundred
people, but there were only fifty in there today. The power was out and dark
shadows sprang off the walls. The air was stuffy and smelled of sweat. Ash
moved into a patch of darkness at the back of the room and listened.

A
man was stood on stage talking at the crowd. Ash squinted and realised that it
was Kenny, the guy in the Knicks shirt who had come within inches of knocking
him out when he was leaving the mayor’s office. It seemed like he’d assumed
leadership in the meeting. Ash felt like leaving, but he had nowhere else he
could go.

“What
about Blackwater and Olton?” said Kenny from the stage.

A
man two rows in shouted back at him.

“We
sent the Adam’s brothers to Blackridge but they ain’t come back. Yellow Pete
trotted back into town on his horse a few hours ago. Says it’s the same in
Olton, ‘cept people are even more pissed than we are. One man got stabbed over
a hand crank radio.”

“What
about the military base?” said Kenny.

“No
one goes near there.”

“Then
maybe we ought to.”

The
man in row two folded his arms.

“I’m
not risking it. They’ve got itchy fingers and shoot on sight.”

Four
rows back on the opposite side, a man stood up. He was short and had a belly
that drooped over his belt. He wore a thick coat with a fur hood. He looked
like the kind of guy who was happiest sprawled out on his sofa with a six pack
next to him.

“We
need to be wary of the nuclear plant,” he said, in a voice more refined than
Ash expected. “If the power’s gone, the rods will need to be cooled. If they
aren’t, I wouldn’t like to be within a hundred miles of the place.”

Kenny
paced the stage.

“I
don’t understand what you mean. I’m not a scientist like you, Greeb.”

The
scientist named Greeb took his seat as if he had just realised that everyone in
the room was staring at him and he was uncomfortable with it. Once he was in
his seat, he carried on talking.

“Reactors
are usually in a state of controlled meltdown. Controlled being the key word
there. We need the nuclear rods to meltdown because that turns hot water into
stream, which then triggers the turbines and makes us a fresh batch of
electricity. The rods are kept from reaching dangerous meltdown levels by cold
water flow controlled by pumps. And guess what powers the pumps?”

Kenny
stopped pacing.

“Electricity.”

“Correct,”
said Greeb.

“So
what happens if the rods aren’t cooled?”

“The
plant goes into full meltdown, and anyone in the surrounding areas dies of
radioactive poisoning.”

Kenny
folded his arms. He stared out at everyone in the room. He stood tall with his
shoulders straight, and Ash could tell that this was a man who was scared of
nobody.

“We
need to go check out the plant,” he said. “I’m not giving up Pasture lightly,
but I’m not waiting here for some toxic wind to blow my way. We gotta know for
sure if they managed to cool down the plant or not.”

There
were some murmurings in the room, and a lot of the forty men and women in the
room turned to the partners with worried faces. They started to chatter amongst
each other, but Ash couldn’t pick out any of the words.

Kenny
stomped his feet. The echoed of his boots silenced the room.

“We
got any volunteers?” he said. “Anyone who wants to do this fine town a
service?”

Ash
decided it was time he left. Maybe with everyone here, in the town hall, a car
might be left unguarded. He could get in it, start driving and get home by
morning.

No,
he
thought.
I can’t do that. I can’t steal from them again. I’ve already taken
enough.

He
walked out of the shadows and to the back door of the hall. As he opened it a
ray of sunlight crept in. As he went to step through the door he tripped and
fell into it, and the noise of his fall made every person in the room turn
around to see him.

“Mr.
Hobbes,” said Kenny from the front of the room. “Everyone’s favourite salesman.
Glad you could join us.”

The
stares of the people in the hall were so angry that they smouldered, and Ash
worried they made the room a fire risk. He had no doubt in his mind that most
of them would love to tear him to pieces. He looked at the door and the
sunlight beyond it and thought about running away, but where would he go?

“Grab
hold of him,” said Kenny.

Footsteps
echoed across the wooden floor of the hall, and then seconds later he felt arms
take hold of his shoulders and pull him back.

Chapter 4

Ash
tried to shrug away from the grip on his shoulders, but when he turned he saw
that the man holding him had two feet in height and an inch of muscle on him.
Ash stopped struggling. At the end of the room, Kenny jumped off the stage and
landed on the floor. He walked across the hall with the thud of his tan hide
cowboy boots echoing against the walls.

Everyone
in the hall stared at him now. There didn’t look to be a single sympathetic
face among them, and Ash wished he was far away. He wished that he’d never even
heard of Pasture Down, that he’d never gotten into his car and begun a lonely
journey that had taken him to a place hundreds of miles away from home and had
left him stranded there.

“Listen,”
he said as Kenny approached him. “I just want to leave this place and go home.
My car’s dead, and I need to get back to my wife.”

“Your
car isn’t going anywhere again,” said a voice across the hall. It was Greeb,
the man who sounded like a scientist but looked like he lived in a trailer. “I
saw your motor. Pretty fancy.”

“Unfortunately
it’s part of a trend in cars that started back when glam-rock and mullets were
popular. Too many vehicles these days rely on engine management computers.
That’s good when things are normal, but it means that whatever fried the power
did the same to the electronics in your shiny car.”

“In
any case,” said Kenny, who looked bored of the conversation, “I don’t give a
damn about your wife or the rest of your family. Did you give a shit about ours
when you screwed us over?”

“My
wife’s in trouble,” said Ash.

“We’re
all in trouble.”

The
worst thing was that Ash knew Kenny was right. There wasn’t a single reason why
anyone in this town should care about Ash’s troubles. He was just a stranger
passing through, but all the people in this room had invested their lives in
the town. He looked around and saw men who probably worked farms on the
outskirts, women who owned business on the high street. Their lives had been
flipped around, and Ash was begging for help as if he was the most important
person there.

“Listen
Mr. Hobbes,” said Kenny, practically spitting the word ‘mister’, “I’d love to
kill you. And I’m saying that in front of a whole bunch of witnesses. That’s
just how I feel. Thing is, I can’t. I got other things to think about, and I’m
not a killer. I don’t ever want to see your face again, so I’m gonna do this;
I’ll give you one of my old rides so that you can get your lying ass out of
Pasture and never come back.”

Ash
almost broke into a smile, but had to remind himself that he was still the most
hated person in the room.

“Okay,”
he said, trying not to betray emotion.

“There’s
a condition,” said Kenny.

“What
is it?”

“You
gotta drive to the nuclear plant and see what’s happening.”

“What
if it’s in meltdown?” said Ash.

Greeb
shifted in his seat. “Then you’ll get radioactive poising and, depending on the
level of exposure, become sick and possibly die.”

“You’ll
be our warning system,” said Kenny. “If you come back sick as a dog, we know
we’ll have to haul ass.”

Ash
thought about it. The last thing he wanted to do was drive to the nuclear
plant, because in the circumstances it seemed like a suicidal thing to do. He
remembered once seeing pictures of Hiroshima after the bomb had hit, and the
images had stayed with him for months. Did he really have a choice, though?
There was no other way for him to get out of town, and it would take him weeks
to walk the two hundred miles that separated him from Georgia. He couldn’t just
abandon her.

“Okay,”
he said.

An
idea hit him. He could agree to go to the plant. Kenny would set him up with a
car, but as soon as Ash left Pasture Down he could hit the road and gun the
engine, and if he got far enough out of town before they realised what he was
doing, they would never catch him.

“Then
we got a deal,” said Kenny. “I’ll give you my old Chevy. But I want someone to
go with you. Your cheating ass lied to me once and I’m not going to let you do
it again.”

The
town hall door opened behind them. Daylight streamed in and chased away the
darkness. Ash turned and squinted in the light, and he saw Tony Shore in the
doorframe. He’d never been gladder to see a guy in a hunting jacket holding a
rifle.

“I’ll
go with him,” Tony said.

***

Outside
on the street, they got the car ready for the trip. The nuclear plant was over
twenty five miles out of town, and Tony insisted that they take his pick-up
truck rather than Kenny’s Chevy. Tony’s pick-up was a red Toyota Hilux. It must
have been at least thirty years old, but he had paid an almost obsessive level
of attention to the red paint job and metal framework. Sat in the afternoon sun,
it was so red that it gleamed. It looked like it had rolled straight off the
lot.

“Check
the liquids,” said Tony.

“’Scuse
me?” said Ash.

“Pop
the bonnet and make sure it’s got enough oil. Last thing we need is to break
down.”

Ash
lifted the bonnet and hooked the latch to make it stand on its own. He didn’t
want to have to ask Tony questions and seem like he was completely helpless, so
through trial and error he found and checked the coolant, oil and brake fluid.
As he worked slowly on the basic car maintenance, he imagined his dad stood
over his shoulder and shaking his head.

You
know this stuff, Ash. Or you knew it. Why’d you let yourself forget?

“Brake
fluid needs topping up,” he said, feeling proud of himself. He moved away from
the bonnet.

“There’s
some in the back,” said Tony as he crouched against a rear tire and checked how
worn it was. “I like to be prepared for anything.  Any situation can happen,
even the most unlikely. Whoever thought an EMP would go off?”

“My
dad did,” said Ash.

“Was
he a prepper?”

“He
wouldn’t go to the shop for milk without having an alternative route in case he
hit trouble.”

“That
reminds me. The route to the plant. We’ve got two choices, and I want you to
think carefully before you answer me. One route is on the 54 out of town. Takes
around twenty minutes on a good day. The other is over a rocky plain that
stretches far outside of Pasture Down. It’s full of boulders and pits where
they dig for lime.”

“Seems
obvious,” says Ash. “We take the road.”

“You
need to get your survival skills tuned. Didn’t your prepper Pa teach you
anything?”

“He
did, but I didn’t listen.”

“Think
about it. The first thing some people will do when they realise the power is
never coming back is leave town. Add to that the fact that some folks would
have been driving on the road when their car died, and I’d hazard that the
simple route is blocked by fancy cars with fried electric circuits.”

Ash
topped up the brake fluid and then screwed the cap back onto the bottle. Tony
stood away from the tire and folded his arms. Ash handed him the brake fluid.

“I
ain’t your butler. Put it in on the back.”

The
rear of the pick-up was full of enough gear to survive four Armageddons. It
seemed like the entire space was crammed with whatever Tony thought he might
need at some point in his life; a big box of strike-anywhere matches with white
phosphorus tips, a box stuffed with curled up maps, piles of energy bars and
military rations that he had procured from somewhere. There was duct tape,
rope, knives and so much more stuff that Ash was surprised that the vehicle
could still run under the weight of it.

“You
came prepared, didn’t you?”

“I
saw this coming.”

“The
EMP, or whatever it is?”

“Not
the EMP, as such, but something. Anything. Some kind of disaster. I’ve always
thought it was heading our way. You should see my ranch.”

“Are
you a prepper too?”

Tony
laughed. “You don’t know the half of it. It’s more than likely you’ll need to
see it, because there’s no way you’re getting home without supplies.”

***

As
they left Pasture Down and hit the rocky wilderness that led to the plant, the
sun was beginning to sink in the sky. Ash kept the window down while Tony
drove, and the breeze slapped his face at sixty miles per hour and practically
glued open his eyelids. The horizon seemed uniformly bland; just an expanse of
yellow rocks with weeds poking through here and there. Ash knew that there were
farms on the outskirts of the town, but it didn’t look like anything could grow
out here in the wilderness.

“Is
family important you, Ash?” said Tony. He didn’t take his eyes away from the
windscreen.

“Course
it is.”

“Me
too. Nothing more important than the people who love you and depend on you.”

“Yeah.”

“So
imagine how I felt when I had to explain to my wife that I’d lost all our
savings to a shady salesman. Tell me, Ash. How does mirror seem when you stare
into it? You like what you see?”

Ash
felt the blood start to rush to his face. He felt like grabbing the door handle
and then diving out of the car. If it wasn’t for the fact that he’d probably
knock himself unconscious, he’d have done it.

“Pull
over,” he said.

“The
plant’s a few miles away yet. Look.”

“That’s
not why I want you to pull over.”

“You
can’t keep running Ash. You need me today. If I go back to town and tell them
you bailed on me, you’ll have half the population chasing you outta Pasture
Down with pitchforks.”

“Fine,
just shut up then. Please.”

“Sooner
or later you’re going to have to face up to things.”

“Thought
you were supposed to be gone by now, anyway? What about your family in
Greenock?”

“We’re
getting more stuff together and then heading to the ranch. Don’t think we’ll be
coming back to Pasture.”

“What,
never?”

“Think
about it, Ash. If this was a power shortage, you’d expect out it to be back on
by now. Even if not, surely somebody would have come to see us? But we’ve seen
nobody. No-one from the power company, the army, the police. This isn’t just a
power cut.”

“Then
what is it? I’ve heard lots of theories, but nothing that’s clear cut.”

“Definitely
an emp. An attack. By who, I don’t know. How far it goes, I have no idea.”

“Pull
up,” said Ash.

The
power station was in front of them now. A giant cylinder chimney stretched a
hundred feet into the sky. Usually it would have had plumes of white steam
rising from the top and discolouring the air, but there was nothing coming from
it today.

Ash
grabbed a pair of binoculars from beside his feet and scanned the power plant
boundaries. A chain-link fence ran around the perimeter, and there was a guard
booth at the entrance next to a two-lane road that let cars move in and out of
the facility. There was nobody there now, and no signs of movement anywhere.
Ash moved his head and looked at every inch of the plant, until he saw a white
sign strapped to part of the fence. Something was painted on it in red.