EMP Disaster | Book 1 | Emerging Chaos, page 1
part #1 of EMP Disaster Series
EMP Disaster
Emerging Chaos
Enduring Chaos
Breaking Chaos
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2021
Copyright © 2021 Relay Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Grace Hamilton is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Post-Apocalyptic projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.
www.relaypub.com
Blurb
No power. No lights. A world in chaos…
When a Coronal Mass Ejection causes an EMP catastrophe that shuts down power worldwide, Melanie Pearson must embark on a dangerous journey to reunite with her husband and daughter. But to earn a spot in a secure fortress along the way, she agrees to help her boss find his own son first. And it quickly becomes clear she may have made a deal with the devil himself…
Meanwhile, her husband Mark vows to do whatever he can to protect their daughter Shona. There’s no way to turn the power back on, and their home town of Knoxville is quickly descending into chaos. His only goal is to find a way to get his family to safety.
As they struggle to come together, this fractured family must face off against a society gone mad. And when even greater tragedy strikes, they will need to find a new way to survive. But what is the cost of survival in a world on the brink of collapse?
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
End of Emerging Chaos
Thank you
Make an Author’s Day
About Grace Hamilton
Sneak Peek: Enduring Chaos
Sneak Peek: Endless Winter
Also By Grace Hamilton
1
His voice always preceded him, like the storm surge of a hurricane, a deep rumbling sound that hit just the right resonance to carry all the way down the hall and into the break room. Melanie Pearson was grateful for this. It meant she had time to brace herself for his arrival. And when Hurricane Derrick entered a room, it always brought trouble. Fortunately, it was a long walk from his big upstairs office at the back of the building to the break room where they’d had the Christmas party, and she’d left the door open.
“Sounds like a storm’s brewing,” Lizzy said. Currently, Melanie’s best friend was on her hands and knees, an open trash bag on the ground beside her. Melanie heard the soft clatter of plastic cups, as her friend dug party residue out from under the table.
“What does he possibly have to complain about now?” Melanie grumbled. She had a plastic grocery store bag in her left hand, and as she worked her way down the long counter, she picked up debris and tossed it into the bag. “We volunteered to clean up after the party on our own time.”
“Well, he didn’t have to have the party in the first place, let’s not forget,” Lizzy said, imitating Derrick’s voice as she strained to reach a corner where someone had dropped a paper plate with globs of red and green cake frosting still on it. “He’s just keeping the Platt family tradition alive.”
“Not without making sure we all know he resents it,” Melanie added.
The break room at Beaton’s Food Factory was a big, dingy space with ugly gray carpet that was frayed in spots, a big plastic table in the middle, a chipped counter, and a bulletin board covered in outdated information. Still, the employees had made a valiant effort to spruce up the place for the Christmas party. Red and green curled streamers hung down from the drop ceiling, a small Christmas tree stood at an angle in the corner, drooping with mismatched ornaments, and there’d been plenty to eat and drink, some of it halfway delicious.
Derrick’s voice had stopped somewhere down the hall, diverting into one of the offices along the way, where the boss seemed to be chewing someone out about “deadlines.” Good. Maybe he would forget about them long enough that they could finish cleaning and get out of there. Indeed, Melanie heard said office door close, the boss’s voice becoming muffled. Poor soul. Someone was really getting it now.
“Let’s pick up the pace,” Lizzy said. She was done under the table and folding up the stained paper tablecloths now. “There’s still time to get away without seeing his face again.”
But Melanie was trying to scrub away the dried residue of a sloppy casserole. “These people are such pigs,” she said. “How do you get this much of a dish onto the counter? Was it intentional?”
“Was it the ham and cheese casserole?” Lizzy asked. “The one Helen made. It was pretty good.”
“I can’t tell,” Melanie replied. “It dried like concrete, though.” She had to set down the rag and use the side of a metal fork to get some of it up. Even then, it was like chipping away old paint, and in the process, she left a small but notable scratch on the plastic countertop. Not that anyone would notice. She swept the crumbs into the bag, then turned to head back the other way.
When she did, she was startled by the person standing in the open doorway, totally silent and suddenly there. She hadn’t heard him approach. Nathan Platt, the boss’s son, was a gawky teen, awkward in his own body. He was wearing an oversized, faded t-shirt covered in comic book characters, and his pants were a bit too short, showing off his mismatched socks. His black hair mostly stuck straight up in a big, crooked poof, which accentuated a long, lean face, a somewhat prominent nose, and pointy chin.
Still, despite his awkward appearance, Nathan couldn’t have been more different from his father. At first, he was staring up at the streamers, which were dancing in the current from the air conditioner. However, he seemed to realize Melanie was looking at him after a couple of seconds, and he turned and gave her a big, earnest smile.
“I could…I could help clean, if you want,” he said.
“Are you actually offering to clean?” Lizzy said. “Do teens do that?”
“Yeah, it’s kind of boring out there,” he said. “I don’t have anything else to do.”
Melanie beckoned him, and he came trotting toward her. She held out the damp rag. “If you wouldn’t mind, finish wiping down the counter for me. I’m going to work on removing the streamers.”
He took the rag from her like she’d offered him a new toy for Christmas. “What do I do? Is there a trick to it?”
“No, just wipe in big circles until the whole counter is clean,” she said. “Can you do that?”
“Of course. Whatever you say.” He went to work, bent over the counter with a serious expression on his face. Again, Melanie marveled that this was Derrick’s kid.
She went to retrieve a small stepladder from the corner and used it to begin pulling the colored streamers down from the ceiling.
“So tell me, Nathan,” she said, as she reached up to grab the torn end of a loose green streamer. “Are you looking forward to Christmas?”
He paused in his work for a second, staring at the wall, and his serious expression seemed to dissolve into something sad. “I don’t know. I guess I should be. It’s a break from school, so that’s something.” And then he went back to his work.
“Does your family have plans?” Melanie asked. She wadded up the streamer and stuffed it into the bag. “A big dinner maybe?”
“Probably,” he said. “Or maybe just takeout of some kind, if any restaurants are open.” He glanced at her and attempted a smile. She could tell he was really struggling to make it stick.
For Melanie, it all hit a little close to home. Maybe home life wasn’t something he wanted to talk about. She tried to think of some other subject, anything to keep him engaged. Working in silence was uncomfortable. Lizzy was sweeping up crumbs from the table and filled in the conversation.
“What about Christmas presents?” she asked. “Every kid looks forward to presents. What are you hoping for? I don’t even know what fifteen-year-olds are into these days. Some app I’ve never heard of, probably, but you can’t put an app under the tree. Or maybe you can. I don’t know.”
“I don’t care about presents, really,” Nathan said, and Melanie noted he was slinging the rag just a little too hard onto the countertop. “I don’t want anything, to be honest. I mean, whatever…”
He bent over the sink, frowning deeply. An innocent attempt to enga
“Okay, I’ll be honest. I’m not looking forward to Christmas at all,” he said, as he resumed wiping a part of the counter that had already been thoroughly cleaned. “It’s going to be super uncomfortable. Mom and Dad got into a huge fight about some dumb thing Dad is doing, and everything is uncomfortable right now. I wish I had somewhere else to go over the break—school or camp or just about anywhere else.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Melanie said. “Do we need to…?” She was going to offer to change the subject, but she became aware then of the imposing form filling the doorway.
Somehow, Derrick Platt had managed to approach the end of the hallway without being heard, which was a rarity. He stood there now in his short-sleeved shirt and red tie, his thumbs hooked under his black leather belt. He was tall like his son, but that was where the similarities ended. With his jowly face, thick neck, and watery eyes, he looked a bit like a human-bulldog hybrid. A beer gut strained at the buttons of his shirt and hung over the top of a shiny brass belt buckle. His hair was slicked back with too much product, shiny and greasy in equal measure, which made his big ears seem even more prominent.
When he frowned, as he did now, creases ran from the corners of his mouth, framing his little bump of a chin. “Why don’t you ladies leave my boy alone and get back to work?” he said, in that rumbly voice of his.
“We never stopped working,” Lizzy pointed out. Melanie’s best friend was dwarfed beside the boss. Small, thin, with blondish hair tied back in a loose ponytail, she had a round face, bright blue eyes, and was prone to easy smiles. “Look at this.” She held up the big bag of trash in her right hand.
“I’m just helping out so the work will get done faster,” Nathan said. “Nobody forced me to do anything.”
“Yeah, well, this is not your job,” Derrick replied. “Why don’t you go back upstairs to my office and play a video game or something?”
“I played plenty of video games,” Nathan replied, bending over his work even more intensely. “I’ve got my phone with me, but it gets boring after a while just being up there by myself.”
“He’s not hurting anything,” Lizzy said.
“I didn’t say he was,” Derrick replied, “but I want him to stay out of the way. Nathan, get back upstairs. Now.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
“Why does it matter?” Nathan replied. “I’m not bothering anybody.”
“You’re bothering me. Get upstairs. Now!” Derrick barked the final word. It hit just the right note to make Melanie’s ears hurt.
Nathan screwed up his face in a hateful scowl and flung the dirty rag into the sink. “Fine, Dad. Whatever! I’m actually doing something productive, but I’ll just go back up there and sit and do nothing.”
The poor kid seemed on the verge of tears, but Derrick was unmoved. He stepped to one side and motioned his son through the door. Nathan, his lower lip jutting out so far he could have tripped on it, stormed across the room and passed through the door without looking at his father. When he was gone, Derrick stepped back into the doorway and shook his head, as if to say, Kids these days.
“Do me a favor and don’t humor him,” Derrick said to Melanie and Lizzy, giving them a stern gaze. “He knows he’s not supposed to be wandering around the building.”
“Whatever you say,” Melanie replied, then ripped down another streamer and jammed it into the bag. Just go away and let us finish up. Oh, how badly she wanted to say it, but she bit her tongue.
“All right then,” Derrick said. “Finish up in here. This is taking too long.”
And with that, he sniffed loudly, turned, and left, his footfalls heavy as he worked his way back down the hall. The whole thing put Melanie in a foul mood. A kid dreading Christmas, not looking forward to presents, not wanting to go home. Oh, yes, she could relate to it all, and it sent her into a dark place. Lizzy must have noticed, because she rose suddenly and snapped her fingers.
“Chop, chop, Mel,” she said. “You heard the high overlord. Let’s get this done. You’re spacing out.”
“Sorry,” Melanie replied. She stepped down from the ladder and moved it over a few feet. “Our boss is such a jerk.”
“Yeah, maybe we should check on the kid before we leave the office today,” Lizzy said, tying the trash bag shut. “Just to make sure he’s okay.”
“Definitely,” Melanie said, as she pulled down the last streamer. She turned to survey their handiwork. The room was mostly clean. They’d managed to fill an entire thirty-gallon trash bag and two smaller grocery bags with the detritus of the Christmas party. “Looks like we’re about done here. What do you say?’
“I say, let’s get the heck out of Beaton’s and go home,” Lizzy replied.
And then, as if the building had heard and wanted to acknowledge her words, the lights went out. Suddenly, the break room was plunged into darkness. Melanie heard voices from down the hall reacting to the sudden darkness. The air conditioner wound down and came to a stop, and then everything went utterly still.
“Well, that’s weird,” Lizzy muttered. “Did we forget to pay the electric bill?”
“There’s not an actual storm brewing outside, is there?” Melanie asked. The closest window was through an open doorway in the reception area, and she could see sunlight shining on the wall. It wasn’t a cloudy day.
Just then, a harsh alarm began to blare throughout the building, as the backup generator kicked in. Security lights in the hallway awoke, casting red light over the walls and floor. They were meant to guide people out of the building in case of an emergency. Melanie felt the first flutter of unease.
“What the heck is going on?” she muttered.
She heard a low rumbling sound then. It trembled in the floor beneath her feet. It continued for a few seconds, then ended in a loud, low clank, as of metal hitting metal.
“I’m pretty sure those were the automated fire doors,” Lizzy said. “You know they close and lock in an emergency, right?”
The alarm was still squawking, making it hard to hear Lizzy. Melanie set the small bag of trash down on the table.
“Could there be a fire on the factory floor?” she wondered.
“I don’t smell burning snack cakes, so I’m guessing no,” Lizzy said. “Believe me, with my asthma, I’m real sensitive to smoke.”
Melanie looked down the hallway. People were poking their heads out of doors, but the harsh red light made it all look ominous. Derrick appeared at the end of the hallway, glaring at everyone in sight, as if every worker were personally to blame for the problem. He cupped his hands on either side of his mouth and began to shout loud enough to be heard over the alarm. With the timbre of his voice, this didn’t seem to take much effort.
“Ladies and gentlemen, everyone sit tight,” he trumpeted. “We’ve had a bit of a power outage here, but we’ll get it all sorted out. Just finish up whatever you were working on. There’s no reason to panic.”
A white-haired gentleman in overalls stepped out into the hallway. “Is power out in the whole area, or is it just us?” Stan Lipton was a shipping manager, and also had a more contentious and prickly relationship with the boss than most people—quite an accomplishment.
“Just finish up whatever you were working on, Stan,” Derrick said. “The problem will sort itself out soon enough.”
“So you don’t know, or you’re not going to tell us?” Stan replied.
“Stan, this isn’t question and answer time. Get back to work. I’ll figure out how to shut off this damned alarm.” And with that, Derrick turned and disappeared around the corner.
