Reclaiming The Homestead: An EMP Survival story (BEYOND THE GRID Book 3) Read online

  Reclaiming The Homestead

  Beyond The Grid Book 3

  Connor McCoy

  Copyright © 2019 by Connor McCoy

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  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 One

  Jacob Avery watched the trees. They were not very big and did not seem to hide any assailants, but Jacob would take no chances with his family. He had kept them away from State Road 215 for that reason. They journeyed close enough to the road that he, his wife or either of his two children could view it with their binoculars, but he vowed to go no closer.

  They passed another tree without incident. The trees and foliage were thinning out, opening up to a wide field that exposed a red car in the grass. The vehicle had gone off the road. As the Averys approached, they spotted no sign of the driver or any of the vehicle’s passengers. They must have disembarked and fled down the road.

  At least Jacob hoped they had escaped. He feared a more gruesome revelation—that the driver and any passengers in the car did not survive, that their bodies lay in the car in a frozen state of death.

  Thankfully, they passed the car without such a discovery.

  “I think…we’re getting…close.”

  That was his son’s voice. Jacob noted that his nine-year-old was out of breath. They had been hiking across sloping land for a while. The effort was no doubt draining what little energy they had left, after walking all the way out here. Jacob wanted to find more level ground, but to hike any lower would take them out of view of the road. Plus, they would have to climb back up once they found their truck.

  Jacob shivered in spite of the warm air. He didn’t like to think about missing their vehicle. He had voiced such a worry just a few minutes ago, only to have his wife Domino urge him to keep such concerns to himself.

  I don’t blame her. The sooner we find the truck, the sooner we can turn around and go back home. They had spent almost a week away from their homestead, and Jacob wanted to get his family back under their roof as soon as possible.

  The slight moan of his teenage daughter turned his head. Jubilee walked with slightly bent legs. She was fighting perhaps the greatest amount of fatigue of all four of them.

  Jacob flicked away sweat from the top of his head. His short cut hair made it easy for sweat to escape. “Maybe we should take a break,” he said.

  Jubilee’s face tightened. “I’m okay.” She knew he was trying to accommodate her. “I can go a little more. We’re almost there, aren’t we?”

  More stalled vehicles appeared on the horizon, so they should be close. Domino had recalled how she had driven off the road at the same time as many other drivers. Their truck should be not too far from a mess of other stopped cars and trucks.

  That moment must have been terrifying. Jacob imagined what it felt like for his family. Domino, Brandon and Jubilee all were in that truck, with Domino behind the wheel. In an instant, the electronics had cut out. The engine had died. Domino was driving a vehicle and then suddenly had lost control. She had turned the wheel and stomped the brakes hard to bring the truck to a stop and avoid a fatal collision.

  She had succeeded, as had many other motorists on State Road 215. But when they emerged from their vehicles, they were stepping out into a whole new world. All of their electronics were fried. They would not be able to call for help, access their Wi-Fi, turn on a television, or drive a motor vehicle again.

  How did it happen? How did the electromagnetic pulse occur? Was it the sun, or did a nuclear war finally break out? It was an answer they might never find out. News about increased solar activity had clogged the airwaves for the past year, including worries from various talking heads and politicians that an EMP could destroy the country’s electrical infrastructure. It seemed that in the past week the government had been taking the situation seriously, but it clearly was too late to stop the calamity.

  Jacob wondered if it was providence or just sheer luck that he had chosen to live off the grid with his wife and children. Their homestead was nestled in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the northwestern part of Virginia. He grew his own crops and maintained livestock, and also drew his own water from a well. He never had intended to be a survivalist, and yet his farm would provide a place where he and his family could survive, even as society broke down around them.

  Of course, he had to take crucial steps to secure his family. That was the whole point of hiking out here to his truck.

  “Dad!” Brandon pointed to the slope just ahead. “There it is!”

  Jacob’s son had nailed it. A black pickup truck laid on the side of a narrow slope. The tire tracks down the hill still contained dirt from where the tires had dug into the ground when Domino had pushed hard on the brakes.

  “Mom made a nice landing,” Brandon said as they closed in on their vehicle.

  Domino rubbed her hand in Brandon’s hair. “Thanks.”

  Jacob picked up his pace. “Hold on. Let me just check around here first.”

  It was painful to think about, but he imagined there might be someone lurking behind the truck, or perhaps just an animal. The events of the past few days had heightened his instincts. He was on alert for dangers anywhere.

  His family hung back until Jacob orbited the truck. The grounds were empty. Jacob conducted a wider search, but it was clear the slope was empty of humans and animal predators. He beckoned them to approach the truck.

  “You know what would be funny?” Brandon was the first to the driver’s side door. “We walked all this way and we find out we lost the keys to the truck.”

  Domino groaned. “Sweetie, please don’t joke about that.”

  Jacob patted his pants pockets. “I don’t know. I think Brandon may have a point. Oh, no!” He groped his shirt, then his bag.

  “Jacob Avery, don’t you dare!” Domino raised her hand as if to slap him.

  Even though the dirty blonde-haired woman was fairly thin, the years of homestead life had hardened her into a dynamo. A slap from Domino could sting for over an hour if she wanted.

  Jacob pulled out the keys from his left pocket before Domino could say or do anything more. “Well, how about that?” He winked at Brandon. “I just found them.”

  Father and son exchanged a laugh while Jubilee moaned. “I feel your pain,” Domino said to her daughter.

  “It’s no big deal,” Brandon said, “he just could have broken in.” The boy coiled his fingers into the shape of a pistol. “Bang! Shatter the window.”

  “One gunshot’s not going to make a window fall apart.” Jubilee waved her hands. “That only happens in the movies.”

  Jacob unlocked the truck. “Brandon, go around to the passenger side. I’ll unlock it. You can open the door.”

  Brandon obeyed. Soon the Avery men had opened both the driver and passe
nger side doors. Brandon, seated in the front passenger seat, flipped open the glove compartment and fished out their papers.

  “Perfect.” Jacob took them and looked them over, one by one. He had hoped to find their personal papers so they could remove them. He didn’t want a scavenger to come along, raid the truck, and find the Averys’ personal residence listed on the truck’s registration.

  “Vehicle registration, driver’s insurance cards, oh, hey now.” He held up a small bank envelope with a bank deposit slip and a twenty-dollar bill sticking out. “Well, thank God we came back here, or someone might have broken into our bank account.”

  Jacob laughed. Domino did as well, though she also winced. “Yeah, with what?” she asked, “Tearing out the bank computers to get to our money? Good luck!”

  Jacob kept chuckling. It was silly. Their checking and saving accounts were, in reality, nothing more than numbers stored on a computer. It was as if their money never had existed in the first place and it took the EMP to confirm it.

  Jacob ran his hand across the steering wheel. The leather felt slightly worn, especially on the underside, where he had gripped the wheel the tightest. He had bought this truck about three years ago. It still had plenty of life left in it.

  He released the wheel with a sigh. He would in all likelihood never drive this vehicle again. He did not possess the resources or the parts to replace its fried electronics. The truck would remain out here for years until society got back on its feet and started to clean up the mess left by the EMP, if such a rebuild was possible at all. Jacob wondered if roadsides like this one would remain littered with stalled vehicles for years, even decades to come.

  And the bodies.

  Jacob shuddered. Some people had not been fortunate enough to make it to a safe stop when their vehicles lost power. They would have slammed into a tree, a telephone pole, or another vehicle. Jacob doubted they ever understood what had happened to the world just before they left it. Those bodies would stay on the road, unburied, their remains left to decay and to be picked at by animals.

  “Jay?”

  Jacob turned his head. Domino looked at him, her arms folded. “Someone looked deep in thought.” She chuckled. “Like you lost a lover.”

  Jacob’s cheeks burned. “Well, I guess a truck is kind of like a guy’s first love. Although, in your case, I’d say you got to me first.”

  Domino’s smile grew. “Good answer. So, what’s on your mind?”

  “I was just thinking how I’ll probably never drive this truck or maybe any truck ever again. I never thought a few days ago that it’d be the last time.” Jacob leaned against the side of the driver’s seat. “There were a lot of ‘last times’ that happened last week.”

  Domino nodded her head. “I know. God, it’s tough when you think about it.”

  Jacob reached for her. “Yeah.” He held her loosely.

  A soft breeze brushed against them. They stood there, the silence only broken when the pair overheard Brandon and Jubilee whispering.

  “What are Mom and Dad doing?” Brandon asked.

  “Sssh. They’re having a moment,” Jubilee replied.

  “A moment? Oh, that kind of a moment!” Brandon quickly hushed up.

  Domino looked up at Jacob’s face. “I think the kids are a little too idle,” she whispered. “What do you think?”

  Jacob pulled away. “Maybe we all could stand to get busy. We still have a lot of supplies in the truck. We can’t afford to leave anything critical behind. I think we should strip the truck for whatever we can bring with us.” He looked at the land from which they had come. “It might slow our trip home, but I think we can take the risk.”

  Brandon set down the remaining sack on the ground. The pile of supplies had grown as large as it was going to get. The truck bed was empty except for the emergency power generator that Jacob had placed there. Jacob and the family also had stripped out everything from the back seats.

  They had placed “get-home bags” in the bed of the truck in case their vehicle stalled and they had to venture home on foot. They had taken those bags with them upon leaving the truck and still had them on their backs upon returning to the truck. However, the truck bed still contained a number of other supplies, mostly camping gear, intended for the Averys in case they had to flee their home for a location farther away. Jacob also had hidden some money away inside the truck’s back seat, which Brandon found funny, since his dad had mentioned that people probably weren’t taking cash any longer.

  Jacob stood over the pile of gear with a satisfied smile. “What should we cart back home? I’m sure we don’t need all of this.”

  Jubilee picked up an old empty gas can. “I don’t think we need this.”

  “There’s not even any gas in it,” Brandon said with a laugh.

  “That’s true.” Jacob scratched the back of his neck. “We have a ton of gas containers at home anyway. If we don’t absolutely need it, it’s better to let it…”

  Jacob stopped speaking.

  “Dad?” Brandon asked.

  Jacob jogged up to the vehicle. “There’s still gas in there.” He looked underneath the chassis. “No spills. No leaks. Looks like the gas tanks weren’t damaged in the sudden stop.”

  He spun around to face his family. “We could siphon the gas out of here! We’ll drain the truck for as much as we can. We can bring it home and use it if I’m ever able to rig up a generator. We also might also need it to barter. Someone out there might have a working generator or even a car.”

  “Wait, a car?” Jubilee asked, “I thought they all stopped working.”

  “Anything with modern electronics would go kaput, but older cars that don’t have electronic chips could have survived the pulse and still work,” Jacob replied. “They’re not very common, but God knows, we might run into someone who does have one, and those cars need fuel to run.”

  “Remember the truck Mister Cowell escaped in?” Brandon asked.

  Domino folded her arms. “Don’t remind me.”

  “Yeah, Cowell’s benefactor knew what might happen and built his vehicle without those electronics, but he’s the big exception,” Jacob said.

  The sour looks on his family’s faces revealed they did not relish thinking of their encounter with Alexander Cowell. Jacob couldn’t blame them. That day had started with a man trespassing on the Avery land and accidently shooting Jubilee in the arm with an arrow.

  After running off the idiot shooter, Jacob had fled his house in the truck, with Jubilee and his family, with Cowell in pursuit. Cowell was a zealous social worker who saw the Averys’ lifestyle as detrimental to the Avery children. He had been a major pain in the ass, and that day had been no different.

  Cowell had followed them, even after the EMP had shut down all the vehicles. Not able to seek hospital care for Jubilee, the Averys had hiked to the small town of Trapp, right up to the home of Doctor Sam, known affectionately as “Doc Sam.” The Averys and Cowell had taken refuge in Doc Sam’s home, but Cowell betrayed Sam’s trust by stealing two cans of gas from Sam’s garage. Cowell had joined up with men driving a working delivery truck and, thanks to the truck, Cowell had made his getaway. The only comfort Jacob took was Cowell was unlikely to ever cross paths with them again.

  Jacob let his family’s displeased looks fade until he spoke up again. “I think we have a tube in the truck we can channel the gas with.”

  “And rags!” Brandon interrupted his father. “I saw some dirty ones in the bed. We can stuff them around the tube.”

  “Good! Good!” Jacob grinned. “You remember all that.”

  It was gratifying to hear his children retain the tips and skills he taught them. They would need every one of them to survive.

  Jacob let the tube go. “Almost there.”

  He coughed as he allowed Brandon to cling to the tube. The pair successfully had run the tube into the truck’s gas tank. Jacob then blew into the tube to create the pressure needed to force the gas into the can. As of now, the
can was more than half full.

  But right now, Domino’s sour expression caught Jacob’s attention. “Stop it before it gets all the way to the cap,” Jacob said to his son, his eyes fixed on his wife. He left his son to wrap up the chore.

  Domino leaned against the truck, her eyes to the sky. “What’s on your mind? I hope it wasn’t something I said.”

  The lady sighed. “It still burns me up, the whole thing with Cowell stealing Doc Sam’s gas. Sam took him in. He fed him, he gave him shelter when everything around us was going to Hell. My God! I knew Cowell was a snake, but…” She clutched her arms against her chest. “I didn’t think he’d be that much of an asshole!”

  Jacob shifted closer to his wife. “I’m sure it’s eating you up a lot. You really grew to like the Doc.”

  Domino turned away. “He…he was somebody who I thought a father should be like. He was kind, funny, warm, caring, and strong. To steal from him, it’s so sick, it’s so unforgivable…”

  “I know.” Jacob slid his hand over Domino’s shoulder.

  “Cowell will find his destiny, wherever that is. We gave Sam the honor he deserved. I think the best thing to do is live more honorably than the Alex Cowells of this world.”

  Domino shifted, facing Jacob again. “You’re right. Ugh! Who wants to think of Cowell again, right?”

  Jacob smiled. “Besides, I think you made Doc Sam very happy in those last few days. From what you told me, having you and the kids there brought him some joy.”

  Domino leaned into Jacob. Their journey had had its share of happiness and heartbreak. While they had enjoyed Doc Sam’s company, the older man also had fallen in battle against a small band of raiders, men from the town of Middleburg, who wanted to steal Sam’s medical supplies and anything else that was useful. Sam had helped to save their lives. They wouldn’t forget his kindness or his bravery.