Zero Hour: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Fiction Series (The Blackout Series Book 2) (12 page)

Madison immediately covered her mouth and began to cry. Colton held her while she let out her emotions for the third time that day.

“Maddie, let me take you home. I’ll come back and take care of this. I think you’ve had enough for one day.”

Madison cried for a moment longer and then slowly gathered herself. She wiped away her tears. “No, I’m fine,” she said. “I’ve got to hitch ’em up. It’s just hard, you know?”

“I do, darlin’,” said Colton. “Are you sure? I’m gonna have to bury her.”

“We’ll do it together,” replied Madison.

Colton gently cracked the single pane of glass at the rear entrance to the garage. He reached for the doorknob to enter the home, but turned to Madison one last time and shined the light near her face. There was a dead body on the other side of this door. She reassured him with a forced smile and a nod.

Colton opened the door, and the smell of death immediately filled his nostrils. Colton quickly pulled his tee shirt over his mouth and nose. He turned around and stopped Madison from entering the hallway.

After death, the rate of decay within the human body was generally split into two distinct processes. Initially, rigor mortis, or the stiffening of the body, set in about two to six hours after death. Rigor was part of the first stage of self-digestion, where the body’s enzymes went into a post-death meltdown. The process could be sped up by extreme heat and, likewise, slowed down by the cold.

The next stage was known as putrefaction, or decomposition, in which the body literally began the process of melting down. Bacteria and enzymes within the body broke down their host. The body became discolored—first turning green, then purple, and finally black. As the bacteria attacked the body, it created a putrid-smelling gas, which caused the body to bloat, the eyes to bulge out of their sockets, and the tongue to swell and protrude. Eventually, by day five, this gas had created enough internal pressure to release from the body’s orifices.

“Madison, you should go home.”

“My gosh, Colton. I had no idea.”

“I’ve got to get in there and open some windows.” Colton flashed his light toward an open Rubbermaid storage cabinet in the corner. It had a variety of yard-working tools, including goggles, gardening gloves, and allergy masks.
Perfect
.

Colton outfitted Madison and then himself. “Madison, listen to me,” he instructed. “Do not look at her body. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” she mumbled through her mask. Madison adjusted her goggles. “Let’s get it over with, please.”

They entered the home as the ambient daylight disappeared. Within five minutes, all of the ground-floor windows were raised and the patio doors were propped open as well. Colton rummaged through a utility closet in the laundry room and found a set of sheets. He quickly covered Mrs. Abercrombie, who appeared to be clutching her chest when she died.

For people with a heart ailment, tomorrow was not a given. For those who lived with a pacemaker, the EMP blast from the solar flare resulted in certain death. These small, electronically sophisticated devices were placed in the chest to help control abnormal heart rhythms. They emitted low-energy electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate. They were not made to withstand the incredible surge of energy created by an electromagnetic pulse.

The destruction of the pacemaker itself did not kill Mrs. Abercrombie. The combination of her slowed heart rate and the extreme heat wave they were experiencing probably made her weak, tired, and faint. She most likely lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack.

“Madison, would you mind finding a shovel? Then meet me in the backyard. Let’s give her a proper burial.”

An hour later, Colton and Madison were soaked in sweat, but Mrs. Abercrombie was provided a caring burial and eulogy by the Rymans. They both sat quietly for a moment before Madison broke the silence.

“Now what?”

Colton spotted a garden watering can placed under the drainpipe of the air-conditioning unit and decided to see if it contained water. It was half full and didn’t appear to be contaminated, so he poured some over his hands to wipe away the soil. Madison did the same.

Colton wasn’t stalling, but he wasn’t sure how Madison would react to his response. Colton had adopted a survival mind-set. His will to survive had become tantamount, which meant he removed emotions from his decision making. He needed to make sure Madison was thinking that way also.

“With her home vacant, it’s a prime target for others to rummage through,” replied Colton. “Mrs. Abercrombie has departed, but she can still help us survive.”

Madison looked at the grave and back towards the house. She was apparently wrestling with the notion of going through Mrs. Abercrombie’s belongings.

“You’re right,” said Madison. “I don’t like this, Colton. I don’t know if I can ever get used to taking other people’s things. But if we don’t, somebody else will, which might make them stronger and our family more vulnerable.”

“Unfortunately, that’s the way we have to look at it,” said Colton as he embraced Madison. “We’re doing this for Alex, and us.”

They entered the den and adjusted their eyes to the darkness. The opening of the windows helped ventilate the house, but the air remained barely breathable. Using their flashlights pointed toward the floor, they each went their separate ways. Madison was assigned the kitchen and pantry area while Colton started upstairs.

After opening the windows to allow further ventilation, Colton began to search the bedrooms. He emptied a basket full of books and filled it with medications and toiletries. There were several medical devices, including a blood pressure kit, an arm sling, and two mercury-in-glass thermometers.

In Mrs. Abercrombie’s bedroom, Colton paused to study the photographs of her deceased husband on the wall. He was a decorated Vietnam War veteran. The pictures showed him in his dress uniform, as well as various candid images with his platoon. A folded United States flag was respectfully placed on a small table under the wall display. Colton took it and muttered, “I’ll find a good spot for this, sir.”

On her dresser stood a vintage radio, which operated on vacuum tubes. Colton shined his light on the back and found an identification plate that read Emerson Model 126. He decided to give it a try. It worked! He scrolled through the dial and eventually found the AM band that was broadcasting the continuous loop of information disseminated by the government. He turned it off and set the flag next to it.

“Colton, was that a radio?” Madison asked in a loud whisper from downstairs.

“Yeah, an antique radio that still works,” he replied. “I’m almost done up here.”

He looked through her nightstand drawer and found a loaded handgun and a box of nine-millimeter bullets. He illuminated the weapon and studied it. He immediately went back to the images and studied one of Mr. Abercrombie’s photos. It was the same weapon. This was Mr. Abercrombie’s sidearm from his days in the service over forty years ago.
Thank you, sir
.

Colton and Madison finished going through the home and only took what they needed. In addition to the significant amount of canned vegetables, soups, and meats, Mrs. Abercrombie had a lot of baking ingredients and spices. Her kitchen cupboards were stocked like someone who only ate out once a month. As Colton and Madison left, they thanked Mrs. Abercrombie for adding a week’s worth of food to the Rymans’ survival pantry and said one more prayer for her.

Chapter 20

DAY SIX

11:00 a.m., September 14

Ryman Residence

Belle Meade, Tennessee

Colton stared down Harding Place, a usually busy thoroughfare that was now deserted. He contemplated whether people were hiding behind locked doors, occasionally peering through their curtains in fear of every unusual sound. Oddly, yet fortunately, he hadn’t heard gunfire the last few nights. With the darkness, came silence and sound carried easily now, Despite this new normal, except for the occasional raised voices and barking dogs, it was eerily quiet. In his gut, Colton felt things were about to change—for the worse.

As Americans began to accept the permanency of the loss of power, citizens around the country began to demand answers and protested to exhibit their displeasure. Shock and disbelief had been replaced with anger and frustration.

Alex had successfully found two ham radio operators who were broadcasting news from around the country. At first, people found their way to the FEMA and National Guard installations and protested. After a few days of ineffectual demands, the protestors realized demonstrations were not the answer. Their government had failed them, and they knew it.

The citizens began to take the recovery process into their own hands. Riots were breaking out in the large population areas, and looting was rampant. Most population centers in excess of ten thousand people became a war zone.

Nashville was no different, which accounted for the lack of a military presence in their neighborhood. Colton did not think the Guard had the personnel to enforce the President’s martial law directives, but he was concerned that the pounding on the front door could come at any time. In the name of fairness and equality, the government could sentence his family to death by taking their food. This weighed on him all the time.

“Hey, mister, I’d offer a penny for your thoughts, but a penny is truly worthless now, I suspect.” Madison laughed as she joined Colton on the sidewalk. She knocked him on the noggin. “Everything okay in there? Sounds hollow to me.”

“Ha-ha.” Colton laughed. He turned and hugged his wife a little tighter than normal. “You don’t seem concerned about this HPA meeting.”

“We’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” she responded. “I am glad the Kaplans and Youngs are going with us. So what were you thinking about?”

“Knock on wood, but the apocalypse has been too quiet.”

“I don’t know if I’d agree with that necessarily,” said Madison. “Let me see. We’ve buried three of our neighbors. We’ve been confronted by the HPA, resulting in an armed standoff. My husband and daughter sneak out of the house at night to rummage through the neighbors’ kitchen pantries. That doesn’t sound
quiet
to me.”

Colton laughed and looked for their escorts to the HPA meeting. Glancing at his watch, he realized it was still early, which also gave them a few more minutes to talk. With their newly acquired weapons, Colton needed to broach the subject of using them.

“I need to talk with you about something without Alex around,” started Colton. “We’ve tried to fly under the radar here, but that has never been our forte. Despite our best efforts, we’ll draw the attention of people with ill intent. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the fight will come to us.”

“I think you’ve done a great job of fortifying our home and setting up an around-the-clock patrol as part of our routine.”

“That’s only part of the issue,” continued Colton. “We have to be prepared to defend our family, with force if necessary. Where do we draw the line on violence?”

“
This far you may come and no farther
,” replied Madison, quoting Job. “The sea has its limits, and so should we.”

“Okay, but we should agree upon how far we’ll let someone push us before we decide that action, in the form of shooting at them, is appropriate. The time to decide is not in the heat of the moment.”

Colton turned to Madison and placed her hands on the Taurus tucked in his waistband. “Look at me. I’m carrying a gun, in the open, in the middle of Harding Place, and it doesn’t even seem abnormal.”

“It’s necessary now.”

“I agree,” replied Colton. “But how do we decide if it’s necessary to use it?”

Madison abruptly turned as she realized Alex was coming out of the house. She finished her thought. “Here’s what I think. Look at a gun as a car horn. You don’t use it out of anger to express displeasure with another’s actions. You use it to warn of the consequences of their actions. Someone shoots at us. We shoot back. If they point their gun at us, we may shoot first because we can’t take any chances. We live in a world without laws but are still governed by our morals and beliefs. But the operable word in that sentence now is
live
. We
live
, Colton, no matter what it requires us to do.”

Alex saw them and approached cautiously. “You guys look serious,” said Alex. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, honey,” replied Madison. “We are worried about you going to see the Holder boy again.”

“It’ll be fine. He’s harmless, and you guys will have your hands full with his stepdad. I should be worried about y’all.”

“Don’t take any chances, Alex,” said Colton. “I don’t trust those people. Holder is potentially dangerous. Jimmy sounds like a good kid, clearly the opposite of his stepdad. But tell him you can only stay for an hour, and then you have to come home. Got it?”

“Yes, Daddy,” she replied, and then gave them both a kiss on the cheek.

Colton was a positive influence in Alex’s life. He provided her a consistent presence and level demeanor. The emotions of an adolescent girl could result in ups and downs. Colton saw the effect this had on Alex and Madison’s relationship. Alex treated her mother differently. Their conversations were sometimes complicated by the delicate relationships that often existed between mothers and teenage daughters. Madison looked at Alex as an extension of herself. Alex, on the other hand, strived for individuality and independence.

Like any human relationship, there was compromise required. She and Colton agreed that if Madison were to fight Alex on every issue, there would never be peace. They learned the heated conflicts of one day would become insignificant the next. Madison sought to be the adult in the room and allowed Alex her voice, even if she didn’t agree with it at times.

Colton wondered if he could apply that same reasoning to the first time someone pointed a gun at him.

Chapter 21

DAY SIX