EMP Catastrophe by Hamilton, Grace (best ebook reader for pc .txt) 📕

“Thinking you saw something isn’t the same as seeing something,” David said and turned back to walk toward the hotel. “This is why we needed Jade. I was scared of this very thing happening. We’re not prepared, no matter how much you think we are.”

Matthew swallowed hard. Shame colored his cheeks a bright red. As they walked back to the hotel, he studied the ground, but didn’t really see it because he was so lost in his thoughts. David was right. He should have been certain of what he saw before shooting. He was jumping at shadows and as a result he’d wasted precious resources and probably scared the rest of his family. He didn’t want to think about what might have happened if he’d shot a person who turned out to be harmless.

He stumbled and looked down at what had made him trip. It was a smooth, oblong rock, but it wasn’t the striations or the color that caught his attention. It was the note tied around it.

14

Max walked the interstate all through the night, trying to put as much space between him and Chicago as possible. Without the glaring lights highlighting the road, headlights from traveling cars flashing across the asphalt, or house lights streaming from homes tucked along the mountain, he could actually see a lot. It must have been one of those things he never noticed was gone, he thought. Stolen by electricity and living in a civilization dependent on artificial light. Only now was he realizing the extent of his built-in survival skills that had evolved to keep him alive. He felt as though he were connecting with a truer version of himself after all this time.

Yet, at the same time, he had to outrun so many things: the guard, the prison, his own past. His eyes burned from exhaustion. His legs ached from exertion. Every time he considered stopping for a rest, he imagined Eric bearing down on him with hatred glowing in his eyes. Max had turned a kind man into a harder, wiser one. Eric would never be kind to an inmate again, and Max blamed himself for that.

Walking down the interstate was a nightmare all on its own. The eerie silence made Max hear things, and yet when an actual sound cut through the air, it never failed to chill him to the bone. At one point, he heard a loud scream echo from a long way off. Max froze in place at the agonized cry, horrified that whatever had caused the sound might come for him next. He couldn’t stop. If he stopped, he’d be vulnerable. Exposed. So he wove between the bumper-to-bumper cars and tried to imagine how the world had come to a standstill. Where had everyone gone?

Maybe he had lost his mind. Maybe he was actually in solitary confinement and this was his way of coping with being alone. Maybe his imagination was playing out the fantasy of being free. He didn’t know. All he knew was that he had to keep going.

Night transformed into day. Max kept plodding along. Each step was torture. The chaos seemed never-ending. Once he tried to stop and rest, but everything made him nervous. He jumped at the chirping crickets and even the sparse rustling of leaves from the groves of trees along the highway. Soon enough, daylight began to sink into evening again, and Max knew that if he didn’t stop his body would collapse with or without his consent. He desperately needed rest and to recharge, but he didn’t know where to go. Sleeping on the pavement felt like he would be too exposed. He worried a stranger would stumble upon him and take his precious resources. Heading off of an exit felt too precarious. Who knew what waited below? What if he got off and then could never get back on again?

Finally, he started to test the car doors as he walked. Most of them were locked, but then he tested the passenger door to a Subaru and heard the click as it opened. He nearly cried in relief.

The car had been abandoned. CDs from the ’90s filled the back seat, as if a case had been jostled at some point and spilled the contents into the car. He clambered into the back seat and collapsed on the leather. With a final thought, he yanked off the driver’s car seat cover and balled it up under his head as a terrible pillow. He refused to take his backpack off.

Sleep overtook him immediately. He was thrust into deep dreams he couldn’t escape, first a lecture from Kathleen about his future, then Eric furiously trying to yank him away from her. The yanking on his boots felt so real. He twisted, trying to escape, and then felt as though he were balanced on the edge of a precipice, terrified he would go over.

He woke with a start to discover that someone was actually yanking on his boots. He fought back and slid halfway into the footwell of the backseat. Whoever held his feet tightened their grip. Disoriented, Max let out a muffled curse and tried to kick out and pull back. Gasping, he scrambled for the door handle near his face. He hoped he could kick off his assailant and escape through the opposite door. If only he could get his bearings. If only he could think straight, but it was so hard being pulled out of such a deep sleep so suddenly.

The hand on his boots grabbed his pant leg and with one sharp tug, pulled Max out of the Subaru.

He landed hard on the pavement in a bundle of limbs. Blinking furiously up into the evening sky, he felt his heart begin to race. A smirking Colin towered over him. Max’s dread was like the ocean and kept trying to drown him in waves. How had Colin found him? More importantly, how had Colin gotten out of prison?

Four other men