State of Panic: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (3 page)

“
T
ake
the Scout II and get them back home. I’ll take the others.”

“But your vehicle has a computer chip.” Dan replied.

“Not the K5 Blazer.”

What occurred next was organized chaos. Dan started shouting names and pointing to his van while Murphy went and retrieved a secondary truck from a garage. I dived into the back of Murphy’s truck along with Luke, Billy, Corey, three others and Shaw. The rest went in Dan’s. They were all from out of town. There were no goodbyes or pats on the back. Just blank stares and a sense of urgency.

A sense of dread crept over us. It was only made worse by the fact that none of us seemed to know what was happening. In the distance black smoke rose in the air from the crash. The only thing mentioned by Murphy was EMP, the rest of the time he was talking to Shaw. We tore out of there leaving a plume of dust in our wake. As the truck rumbled along the road each of us stared behind, occasionally looking up into the sky wondering if it was going to rain planes.

“I’ve heard of this before. My old man used to talk about terrorists attacking. This is probably one of those biochemical attacks.”

“Shut the hell up. It’s the power that’s gone out,” Corey replied.

“That’s how it all begins. Power goes down and then a deadly toxin gets released into the air. No one can get out. Hell, look at all the cars we’ve passed in the last three minutes.” Murphy ended up having to go off road due to vehicles clogging up the highway. People were standing outside of the vehicles looking lost and aimless. Others were holding their phones out as if trying to get reception. The few vehicles that didn’t have computer chips kept moving.

“The power is down,” Billy shouted to a guy on the hard shoulder as we left the road.

Mount Pleasant was south, a good two hours from Naples. We had been traveling on I-90 before Murphy came off the road. While he tried to stay close so that he didn’t get lost, I was pretty damn sure he could find a needle in a haystack. The guy knew his way around just by the sun and stars. As we bumped up and down and clung to the sides, I had a feeling that any minute now one of us would be thrown out the back.

“You want to slow down?”

Murphy wasn’t listening. I slid forward. “You got kids, Murphy?”

“A daughter.”

I frowned looking at his hand. There was no ring on his finger. “You divorced?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s your kid’s name?”

“Ally.”

“Ally Murphy?”

He nodded not taking his eyes off the road ahead.

I couldn’t believe it. I knew of Ally. I’d seen her around school. I had no idea that was his kid. Then again I didn’t pay much attention to anyone when I did attend.

“What street does she live on?”

“Fairview Avenue.”

“West side. Nice area.”

“And you?”

“Just take a seat.”

I was about to say something when the truck bounced and I hit my head. I groaned. Billy found it amusing but then anything was amusing to that schmuck.

“So who do you think’s behind it?” Corey asked Shaw.

“No idea.” She was looking down at her phone and checking reception.

“It’s got to be ISIS or one of those Middle Eastern countries. All the shit that’s going on right now is down to them.”

“Maybe not. Hell, it could be our people,” Luke said.

“America attacks America? Get out of here, Penn.”

“Why not? We have our fair share of radicals. Hell, I’ve always thought that if this world went to hell, our government would be behind it.”

Corey snorted. “Yeah, I’m with you on that.”

The truth was it was hard to tell what was going on but whatever had occurred was serious. Certainly the look of concern on Dan’s face when he returned was real.

“Listen, all we know right now is that some idiot has probably turned off a switch and screwed up the power grid. Remember when that big outage happened on the East Coast? No one was shouting about a terror attack then.”

“Um. We didn’t have planes dropping out of the sky.”

“One plane. The guy probably dropped his coffee.”

“You think that’s funny?” Corey yelled at him.

“A little too early?” Billy replied

Corey grabbed hold of him and I dived across to try and intervene. That’s when I felt the fist hit me in the side of the face. I had moved too soon and took the full brunt of Corey’s right hook. It was like being hit full force with a sledgehammer. Darkness crept in at the corners of my eyes. I blinked hard.

“Holy crap,” Billy started laughing. “Thanks, Frost.”

Shaw intervened before it spiraled out of control any further. Huddled in the back of the truck, wind whipped at our faces. We passed through several towns on the way. Pandemonium had already set in as people began looting stores. I’d always imagined how America would react to a real disaster but seeing it was another thing entirely. One town we passed through seemed empty. Storefronts were already closed and metal shutters covered the fronts. The next wasn’t as lucky. We saw two guys outside brawling over what appeared to be a case of water. The next town a few of the stores had flames coming out of caved-in windows.

“What the hell?” I muttered. Feeling chilled by the air I pulled myself up and slid forward. “Murphy, what did Dan mean by we are under attack?”

He glanced at me in his rearview mirror and exhaled hard.

“Multiple cities in different states all over the country have been hit.”

“By what?”

He glanced again at me.

“We’re not sure yet but the grid is down.”

“How did he find that out if there’s no power?”

“I don’t know. Maybe word got out before the power went completely down.”

I slumped back in my seat and swallowed hard. I looked over to Shaw who was riding shotgun. She stared out without saying a word. How many people had died? What cities had been hit? Questions spun through my mind.

As we saw signs for our hometown I began to feel a little more at ease. I don’t know why, as it was about to be completely shrouded in darkness in a matter of an hour. As the truck veered off the main highway and made its way down Front Street, our eyes scanned the stores for trouble. I expected to see people looting but it was reasonably calm.

“Okay, listen up, we will drop you off at your homes. If in the event that you have any problem, I’m going to be down at City Hall seeing if there is anything I can do to help. You got that?”

Murphy dropped off the three kids one by one. We watched them run up to their darkened houses. By now the sun was beginning to wane. When I jumped out at the end of Silver Street, I glanced back at Murphy. We had spent the last four weeks together and whether I wanted to admit it or not, all of us guys had begun to feel a sense of safety around him.

“Remember, Sam. City Hall. Seven o’clock.”

I nodded and strolled up the driveway to the house. Inside it was dark even though the sun hadn’t completely set. I turned back momentarily as Murphy pulled away. Billy stuck his finger up at me. The guy still saw all of this as one big joke. He only lived ten doors down. Luke was one street over on Maple Drive and Corey a few blocks down from that.

“Jodi? Brett?”

I didn’t refer to them as dad or mom, it was too strange. When I was younger I tried the whole mom and dad thing but after family number four I gave up.

In the silence of the home, there was no reply. I slung my bag down and went into the bathroom and turned on the taps. Water was still working. It was freezing cold but at least it was still flowing. I filled up the sink in front of me and stripped down. My body felt grimy and I badly needed a shave. After I had tossed some water and soap under my pits and cleared the forest around my chin, I looked at my scalp. I had a month’s worth of growth. It was still short and dark. I tossed the razor into the sink and decided to leave it.

I ambled into my bedroom and slipped into a pair of black jeans and a white T-shirt. I pulled on a hoodie and my green bomber jacket and began to feel more like myself. I dug around inside a drawer for cigarettes but there were none. I tried the next. They had been cleared out. I took a seat on the edge of my bed and I blew out my cheeks as I tugged my boots on.

“Brett?” I called out again. There was no answer.

Wandering into the kitchen, I spotted a note on the table. Scribbled in blue ink was a message from Jodi.

S
am
,

We are at the Robertsons’ home on Pearl Street. If you’ve returned please come over there. The address is 483.

Love Jodi

I
paced the kitchen
, got myself a drink and fished around in the fridge. It was stocked with food, food that would eventually go off if the power didn’t come on soon. I grabbed up my bag and threw in some fruit and a couple of cans of food and then searched around in the drawers for some flashlights and batteries. I glanced at the clock, it was a little after five.

I was heading out the door when I was spotted by one of my old skinhead pals. Bryan Catz.

“Well, shit on me, Frost. Don’t tell me they released you early?”

Bryan Catz wore a green bomber jacket, tight jeans and black boots that went up his knees. His bald head sported a spider web that covered the back portion. He had a cigarette sticking out of his mouth and he was with three others.

“What the fuck happened to your head?”

He ran a hand over it and the others started laughing. “You need to shave that shit off.”

“I just got back.”

“Where you heading now?”

“Check in with my old man.”

“Screw that. C’mon. The rally begins tonight.”

I pulled back from him. “Rally?”

“Haven’t you heard?”

“What?”

“Look around you. This is it, man.”

“What do you mean?”

He studied me as if I was from another planet. He slipped his arm around my shoulders and took a hard pull on his cigarette.

“You remember us talking about that missile that hit Germany?”

The United States had set up an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe. Russia and China had kicked up a fuss about its proximity to their countries. The U.S. reassured them that it was to stop Iranian missiles. Russia didn’t see it that way and said that it was no different than if they set up one in Cuba. It had turned into a heated political exchange that some were saying would no doubt lead to the next world war.

That only seemed even more real when at some point that system had malfunctioned and several missiles had been fired and hit Germany. Several thousand people were killed causing uproar worldwide. Even though the USA tried backpedaling, it was useless, they had just hit a hornets’ nest that had been quietly buzzing. It had occurred a few weeks before I was sent to Camp Zero. The airwaves were filled with talk of retaliation. That if it didn’t come from Germany, there was a good chance that Russia would strike.

“Our brothers hit back.”

I frowned trying to make sense of what he was saying. “You? What do you mean?”

“Well, not us directly. Our kind. White power.” He leaned in all excited. “Seems they had their hands on nuke bombs from the Cold War. Fucking amazing.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“There were 84 suitcase nuke bombs that went missing in the Cold War. Let’s just say they weren’t really missing. They exchanged hands. Each suitcase had a one-kiloton nuclear warhead inside. We are talking about wiping a city off the map, obliterating the power grid and taking out military and satellite defenses.”

“Why the hell would they do that?”

“We are taking this country back. This is what it has always been about. We are going to purge this land, every city and every town until all that remains is white power.” He began walking with me, gripping my shoulder and talking as though I was still one of them. But everything about what he was saying only disgusted me. Killing innocents? This wasn’t just about striking back at blacks or Jews as most assumed white power was about. It was about defeating anyone that stood in their path. It didn’t matter if you were white, or any other color of the rainbow. It was about control for power.

“All this time they have been looking at the Middle East and we have been right under their nose slowly gaining ground, just waiting for the right time to strike. This is it. This is our time, brother.”

I wanted to tell him that he wasn’t my brother but I’d seen what they had done to those who opposed them. I had seen how they had stomped to death those who turned coat. One guy even earned his red laces by stomping to death another who had chosen to hand his in. Turning your back was deemed an act of cowardice; a lack of commitment to the cause and it wasn’t tolerated. Sure, there were some that would do nothing to you but not the ones in this town. They were nutcases.

“There’s supposed to be over two hundred and forty of us here for the rally.”

“To celebrate?” I said trying to act as though I was on the same page as him.

“No, you idiot. We are taking this town.” He then tapped me on the shoulder and with his arm still around me pulled my chin up in the direction of the town. I glanced away from him into the distance. Flames flickered up into the early night sky.

“See. We’ve already begun.”

I
had to think fast
. They would expect me to go along with them and join in whatever crazy plan they had in store for the evening.

“You hear that? No cops. Come on, we’ll be late,” he said pulling on me.

In the distance, no siren could be heard. All the cop cars would have had computer chips, fire trucks as well.

“I’ll meet you there. I have to check in with my father.”

He scowled. “Your father? You’ve never referred to him as your father.”

“I meant Brett.”

He studied my face for a moment and I felt a trickle of sweat go down my back. He grabbed hold of my head. “Don’t be fucking late.” Then he blew smoke in my face and started laughing. I chuckled a little trying to pretend as though I thought he was funny. They walked away occasionally looking back. One of them kicked over a trash can and bags of trash scattered. Another grabbed one and slammed it against a parked car.

They pumped the air with fists and shouted at people passing by. Neighbors ran inside and closed their doors. I watched as they ran up and kicked in a few doors and scared some of the neighbors. They would have never done this before but there were no police around to stop them. Where were the police? My eyes drifted back to the orange and yellow tongues of fire licking at the darkening sky.

I put my other arm through the strap of my bag and took a shortcut through an alley that led down between two houses. It took me over a small creek and up a grass-covered embankment. I came out behind a 7-Eleven.

I hadn’t made it a few yards down the road when I saw another group of skinheads in the distance. I didn’t recognize them as anyone that I knew. I figured they were up for the rally. They were crowded around something on the ground. As they pulled back I saw it. If I hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have believed it. One of them was finishing assaulting a person on the street with a hammer. The others jeered and kicked the victim who was motionless.

I wanted to scream but found myself frozen with shock. Unable to believe what I had witnessed, horror turned into fear and my pulse began to race. Ducking down between cars and scrambling across the ground, I stayed low so they wouldn’t see me. It wasn’t as though they would have attacked me. I was one of them, at least if they went by appearances, but they were strangers and they might not have been as lenient as Bryan Catz was. I peered over the trunk of a car. They’d moved on from the victim. He was no longer moving. A puddle of blood pooled around his head. They strolled up the high street singing punk songs as though they had done no wrong.

I sure as hell didn’t sign up for that. Moving quickly out of the parking lot and over to Pearl Street, I found house 483. Peering around nervously, I banged on the door and someone peered out of the curtain. I heard a chain slide across, multiple locks pull back and then it opened.

Jodi immediately grabbed me and held me tight.

“You’re back?”

“Yeah. Yeah.” I looked around panting and breathing hard. I was in the hallway of the Robertsons’. I’d only met them a few times when Jodi had invited them over for supper. They were your typical family. Bill and Rachel Robertson had two small children under the age of nine. Apparently Jodi knew them from way back in the day when she used to go to school with Rachel.

“Have you seen what it’s like out there?” I said thumbing over my shoulder.

“No. We’ve been here since the power went out. Bill has a generator.”

I glanced at the lights that were on.

“Turn them off.”

“What?”

“Turn off the lights.” I began rushing around flipping them off. “If they see them on they will show up here.”

“Who will? Sam, you are scaring me.”

As I hurried to shut off the lights, Brett stopped me.

“Son, what’s going on?”

I was still breathing hard from running. The image of the guy getting his head smashed in with a hammer was stuck in my mind. The words of Bryan Catz rang in my ears. It all seemed surreal.

“Do you need a drink?”

“I’ll get him a drink.”

“No. I’m serious. You’ve got to turn these lights out.”

Bill Robertson got up from his seat and stood in front of me. “You are scaring my children, Sam. Stop.”

“Do any of you know what has happened?”

Brett came closer. “Yeah, there was talk of terrorist attacks before the blackout. Several cities have been hit with explosives or something like that.”

“It’s a nuclear attack.”

“What are you on about?” Brett’s brow knit together.

I ran my hand over my stubbled head.

“You know the group that I was hanging out with before I went away? They are part of a larger network. White supremacists. A massive organization that is spread across the United States. Whoever runs that organization must have had some strong connections as they are the ones responsible for this. Now by the looks of it, the explosions were only the beginning. In nearly every city and state of America they are gearing up to take control of what remains of towns and cities that haven’t been affected by the strikes.”

“Nuclear strikes? How?”

“Suitcase bombs. I’d heard them talking about it but I just thought it was, you know… a joke. In the Cold War—”

I was in mid-sentence when the window smashed. A large rock missed Bill’s face by inches and came to rest near my feet. It was followed by someone shouting.

“Come on out.”

“Shit. They’re here.” They had seen the lights on in the house. It was only a matter of time before the chaos kicked off. With zero power they would be looking for anyone who was running a generator.

“What the hell is going on?” Bill was a large man and not the kind of guy that would have been intimidated by anyone. When another rock came through the window and hit his daughter in the back, he was beyond pissed.

“Little fuckers.” He stormed towards the front door.

“No. Don’t open that.”

I rushed forward but it was too late. The second the door swung wide, another brick came flying and hit him full force in the face. Bill fell back on the ground, his face a bloody mess. Outside, there was jeering and shouts.

“Lock the door,” I screamed.

Brett scrambled to the door and shouldered it like an NFL player. I dragged out an armchair and rammed it against the door, then returned to the living room. Rachel was screaming. Her kids were crying. Staying low to the ground I approached an open window. I shouted to the guys outside.

“Back off. I’m dealing with this.”

There were a few seconds before they replied. “Sam?”

I recognized the voice as Tommy Black. He’d been one of two people who had initially got me involved in the group. He was a good guy, at least he appeared that way to me.

“Tommy. I’m handling this.”

“What the fuck are you doing in there, Frost?” another voice shouted. I peered out through the thin white drapes.

Markus Wainright stood outside with Tommy and three other skinheads I didn’t know. I’d met him on a number of occasions. He was considered a leader among our group. The group that ran out of Mount Pleasant consisted of about thirty individuals of varying ages. There had been talks of a rally being held months ago. I just thought they were talking shit. Back then very little had been shared with us. We were considered foot soldiers. Whatever the hell that meant. All we had been told was to get ready for something big. It was going to be a landmark for white supremacists everywhere. They had said it would make Middle Eastern terrorist attacks look like child’s play. I thought they were kidding.

All of them were armed with baseball bats, thick two-by-fours and large knives. That was one thing about the group. They were into inflicting pain, not just shooting people. In the distance behind them I could see even more taking to the streets. Large flashlights were being shone around the streets and anyone who was out was attacked. Several kicked in doors that had lights on. Others tossed Molotov cocktails and set cars on fire.

“Just leave it with me,” I hollered.

“The hell I will. That isn’t your house.”

“Give me a minute.”

I looked over my shoulder to Brett. I indicated for him to go out the back. He shook his head. He was stubborn.

The heated conversation came back to me in that moment. My mind drifted to the day before being hauled away to Camp Zero.

B
rett followed
me into my room and closed the door. I had never seen him angry. His approach was very different to other foster parents I had. The previous wouldn’t think twice about taking out a belt and unleashing hell on my rear end. I still had the scars to prove it.

No, Brett was smart. He got inside my head and used reverse psychology. He believed that my problem was a lack of love, and that any time someone showed care, I shut down or had a violent outburst.

He wasn’t wrong. Then again, he hadn’t spent the last years being bounced around from family to family.

I was packing a bag when he came in. Lt. Scot Murphy was in the other room with Dan. It was like an intervention for a drug user. They had shown up and were planning on taking me in. They had given me the option to go pack a few things and leave with them quietly or they would take me by force. At first I thought it was joke, some kind of prank, but they were dead serious.

Of course I didn’t plan on sticking around so I ran into my room and started stuffing a duffel bag with some of my personal belongings.

That’s when Brett entered.

“Sam, we are trying to help. This isn’t you. The shaved head, the tattoo, the swastika on the wall. It’s all just a front.”

“Oh yeah, what the fuck do you know?”

“I know that beneath all that, you just want someone to actually give a shit about you.”

I looked back at him blankly.

“I know that you have been through hell with previous foster parents but we aren’t like that.”

“You know how many times I’ve heard that?”

“It’s true.”

“Oh, and you think sending me away to some shithole in the middle of the wilderness is going to fix me?”

“These guys know what they are doing. They have worked with hundreds of kids just like you.”

I slammed my bag down and got up in his face. “Just like me? What am I, some freak of nature to you?” I paused staring into his dark eyes. “Why did you choose me? Why not a black kid?”

“Do you think the color of your skin matters to us?”

“Well, doesn’t it?”

He never backed down. He remained poised and looked into my eyes. “Son.”

“I’m not your son. I’m your paycheck.”

“You’re not a paycheck, Sam.”

I turned away and continued stuffing clothes into my bag.

“Sam.”

As he grabbed hold of my arm and spun me around, I nearly said a word that I had never uttered before. I didn’t even know where it came from. In the heat of the moment it nearly came out.

“Get off me you…” I paused in mid-sentence. It was then that I realized that I had overstepped a line.

“Go on. Say it.”

“Screw you, Brett.”

I pushed past him with my bag, and slammed the door open. Jodi had tears in her eyes. I had nearly made it to the door when Murphy stepped in front of me.

“I guess we have to do this the hard way.”

A
nother rock came
through the window sending shards of glass across the room. I knew if they came in they would kill Jodi and Brett and no doubt myself included. I scrambled across the floor.

“You need to get out of here. Head to City Hall, Murphy will be there.” I glanced up at the clock, it was a little after six thirty. If nothing had happened to him he would be there.

Brett screwed up his face. “I’m not leaving you here.”

“They won’t touch me. They see me as one of them.”

“But you’re not.”

I hesitated before I replied. “I know. Just go.”

Brett clasped Jodi’s hand and led her out the back door. Bill’s face was covered in blood; Rachel held a towel to it. I felt bad for the guy. Both of their children were crying and looked terrified. Once I saw they had safely made it out back I went into the kitchen and looked around for anything that I could use to defend myself. There was a knife rack on the counter. I grabbed the largest one and tucked it into the back of my jeans.

“You better bring them out now, Frost, or we’re coming in.”

What I did next was probably the most idiotic thing I could have done. I went over to the wall and smashed the side of my head against it twice until it created a cut above my eye and blood began to trickle down. I staggered over to the front door and began pulling the armchair back just as they began to smash against it with bats.

“Hold on, I’m opening up.”

I dragged the chair away from the front door, yanked it open then fell back on the ground as though I was struggling to catch my breath. The first person I came face-to-face with was Markus.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“They overpowered me.”

“Where are the others?”

“It was just me. I thought I would do this one myself. I saw the light and thought we could use the generator.”

“You fucking idiot.” Markus pushed me out of the way.

“Where did they go?”

“Out the back. They’re long gone.”

“Not for long they won’t. We are all over this town now. Right, guys, grab whatever you can and haul that generator out of here.” He then proceeded to smash everything in sight with a bat that had nails coming out of it. Photo frames that held memories scattered across the room. One of them brought in a small red gasoline can and started splashing the walls and furniture.

“That’s it. Soak it real good. Without any power we are going to need some light, especially if we have to track these little rats down.”

By rats he was referring to anyone who wasn’t a skinhead. It was a term they had used multiple times in the past.

Right then Tommy Black came in. He was a heavyset guy with tattoos all over his arms and body modifications that made him look as though he had horns under his skin.