Chaos Evolves: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (After the EMP Book 6) Read online

  Chaos Evolves

  Harley Tate

  Copyright © 2017 by Harley Tate. Cover and internal design © by Harley Tate. Cover image copyright © Deposit Photos, 2017.

  All rights reserved.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  The use of stock photo images in this e-book in no way imply that the models depicted personally endorse, condone, or engage in the fictional conduct depicted herein, expressly or by implication. The person(s) depicted are models and are used for illustrative purposes only.

  ISBN:

  Contents

  Chaos Evolves

  Thirty Days Without Power

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Day Thirty-One

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Day Thirty-Two

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Day Thirty-Three

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Day Thirty-Four

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Day Thirty-Nine

  Chapter 31

  Acknowledgments

  About Harley Tate

  Chaos Evolves

  A POST-APOCALYPTIC SURVIVAL THRILLER

  A month into the apocalypse, would you still be alive?

  Colt survived an emergency landing, a standoff with a rogue militia, and more than his share of bullets. With the threat of danger around every corner, leaving the city is his only choice. But with seven people relying on him, Colt discovers the forest is deadlier than the streets.

  If you lose everything, can you summon the strength to go on?

  As the city fades into the distance, Dani hopes her luck is changing. But a catastrophic accident turns everything upside down. Grief-stricken and desperate, she must summon the strength to carry on, even when the odds—and her friends—are stacked against her.

  The end of the world brings out the best and worst in all of us.

  Starvation, dehydration, and danger lurk behind every tree. If Colt, Dani, and the rest of their group can’t put tragedy behind them, it might be the end of their journey. With guilt and anguish tearing them apart, an unexpected visitor becomes their only hope.

  The EMP is only the beginning.

  Chaos Gains is book six in the After the EMP series, a post-apocalyptic thriller series following ordinary people trying to survive after a geomagnetic storm destroys the nation’s power grid.

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  Thirty Days Without Power

  Chapter One

  DANI

  250 Bellwether Street

  Eugene, Oregon

  8:00 a.m.

  “Naw, man. That SOB kept his stash under the counter. I know it.”

  Dani crouched behind a tipped-over rack of Funyuns and held her breath. The two men rooting through the convenience store were too busy looking for drugs to notice her so far. But kicking one empty can or stepping on an empty chip bag and she could be their runner-up target.

  She shifted her weight, hoping they would find whatever they were looking for and get the hell out. If she didn’t get back to the apartment soon, Colt would come looking. She didn’t need his worry.

  “There ain’t nothin’ here but some nudie mags, Carl. You done wasted my time.” The heavyset guy with a stained T-shirt and Ducks ball cap lumbered around the counter. He bent down with a grunt of effort and snatched up a Slim Jim. He tore it open with his teeth and spit the plastic wrapper on the floor. “Let’s git before the rain starts up again. I don’t wanna hike it home in the wet.”

  The guy named Carl banged around behind the counter, his stringy blond head popping up now and then to glance around like a chipmunk too far from his burrow. “Just give me a minute, will ya? I know it’s around here somewhere.”

  The fat guy grumbled and leaned against an empty cooler as he chomped on the meat stick. Even across the store, Dani could hear his teeth grinding together and lips smacking with greasy effort. She fought back a wave of nausea.

  Carl whooped and his fist shot up, a wrinkled plastic baggie in his hand. “I told you, Rocky. I told you!” He jumped up, beaming in delight. “It’s all here. Got to be fifteen dubs, man.”

  Dani swallowed down her disgust. Thanks to her mother’s vice, she knew more about the street than she ever wanted to know. If these two idiots were only after a few bags of pot, they were small time. Not a serious threat. Her shoulders eased as she sucked in a full breath.

  Carl made his way to Rocky, holding the bag in front of him like a kid with a full Christmas stocking. “See? Darlene will go ape-shit for this, won’t she?”

  Rocky shrugged. “Shit if I know man. Let’s go.” They left together, Carl with a bounce in his step and Rocky with a heavy swagger due more to his weight than his ego.

  Dani counted to five hundred after their shapes disappeared from view before moving. In the last five days, she’d run across three times as many rats as people, but that didn’t mean plenty of people weren’t out there. Most of the stores were ransacked—cleared out of beer and snacks and stupid stuff that used to hold value. Even the liquor store windows grimaced with broken shards of glass in front of empty shelves.

  Before the EMP, Dani often thought that living with her mother in this downtrodden, sad-sack part of town was the bottom of the barrel. She’d been wrong. Take the same area and flick off the lights and it only sank lower, right through the floor to the dark depths beyond.

  Now the sagging storefronts gaped like the maws of death and the only people still around roamed the streets without regard for the prior rule of law. It was every girl for herself.

  Dani tugged open her backpack and scooped up every unopened package of chips and cookies she could find, dumping Tastycake chocolate brownies and Hostess Sno Balls on top of chili cheese Fritos and bags of Takis. Would she ever see a piece of fresh fruit or a vegetable again? Not that they’d been high on her list of food choices, but she’d at least seen a salad in the school cafeteria five days a week.

  Would lettuce ever surface in the town of Eugene? Or would everyone be relegated to scrounging for canned peaches and green beans to ward off scurvy? Was scurvy even a thing or just something Gran used in the face of a plate full of broccoli? There was so much Dani didn’t know.

  She shook off the spiraling thoughts and tugged her bag up onto her shoulder. Colt had admonished her to look for more than just snacks, so she set to exploring the edges of the store. Bleach, batteries, and baby wipes. Those were the key items on her list.

  It didn’t take long to find the baby wipes; no one on this side of town gave a crap about kids. Dani shoved three containers into her bag and tried to fit a fourth, but it kept popping out the top. Darn it. She shuffled through th
e debris and broken shelves to the counter where Carl found the bag of pot. She tugged a white shopping bag with a bright red smiley face off the rack and fluffed it open.

  “Have a Nice Day,” it proclaimed on the other side.

  Yeah, right.

  She shoved the baby wipes into the bag and turned around. A display of candy caught her eye. Most of the chocolate was gone, but a bag of Werther’s Originals still hung from the metal post. Gran’s favorite candy. Dani reached for the bag as memories of Gran’s candy bowl filled her mind.

  She choked back a sudden sob.

  If only Gran had told her about the cancer, they could have done something about it before it was too late. She tore the bag open and pulled out a shiny foil-wrapped candy. Gran only let her have one on special occasions. A birthday. A good grade on a test. Dani unwrapped the hard little caramel and popped it into her mouth.

  Butter and sugar and the taste of Gran’s love. Emotion clogged her throat. She gagged and spit the candy on the floor. “Get it together, Dani. You don’t have time for this.”

  “Talkin’ to yourself? I heard that’s the first sign you’ve gone crazy.”

  Dani spun around. Oh, no. Her lips edged into a phony smile. “Hi, Skeeter.”

  “That’s all I get? The world goes to shit and all you can say is hi?” Skeeter slinked inside, all smarm and sleaze. His faded cords hung loose on his hips and the chain connecting a wallet to his belt jingled as he moved. He glided past the candy wrappers and crushed bags of chips like a snake in muddy water.

  Dani held out the bag. “Candy?”

  With bony fingers, Skeeter plucked the entire bag from Dani’s grip and fished a single candy out. He held it out to her like he’d done her a favor. “Where’s your mother? She owes me for a Q.”

  Dani’s eyes went wide as she took the candy. Skeeter gave her a quarter ounce? That cost two hundred dollars before. Now that the power went out, the price of heroin had to skyrocket. She couldn’t believe Skeeter would give up that much without payment. “You never front her that much.”

  Skeeter grinned, accentuating the hollows of his cheeks. “Your old lady made it worth my while, if you catch my drift.” He unwrapped one of the candies and popped it in his mouth as his eyes lingered in places they shouldn’t. “You ever consider following in your mother’s footsteps? With a body like that, you’d fetch a mint.”

  Dani backtracked until she bumped the display behind her.

  Skeeter laughed. “Don’t get all wide-eyed and skittish, girl. I ain’t gonna force ya. My clients like ’em able and willing.” He rolled his hips and sucked on the candy and Dani pressed her lips together. Skeeter had always been decent to her, despite pumping her mother full of drugs. But how would he react when he learned her mother had moved on to greener pastures?

  She played it off. “I think she’s on a bender.”

  “How about you try that again.”

  Dani hesitated. “What do you mean?”

  “No dealer in this ‘hood will give your momma another dime. She’s in hock to all of us.”

  “How bad?”

  “As bad as it gets.” Skeeter stepped close enough to reach out and stroke Dani’s hair. She forced her body still. “You and me, we have an understanding, but some of these other guys… Let’s just say they won’t be so accommodating. You tell Becky if she doesn’t pay up, her daughter’s gonna have to work it off. One way or another.”

  Dani swallowed. “I’ll tell her.”

  “Good.” Skeeter stepped back and shook the bag of Werther’s. “Thanks for the candy, babe. You’ve always been a sweetheart.”

  He sauntered from the store, leaving unease and fear in his wake. Dani couldn’t pay off all the dealers in the neighborhood. Nor could she tell them where to find her mother. No one would believe that her mother had wormed her way into the militia’s good graces.

  Dani shoved the single candy in her pocket and looked around. If she’d been on her own, now would be the time to leave town. But she wasn’t alone.

  Not only did she have Colt to think about, but the Wilkinses and the Harpers, too. If Harvey hadn’t dragged a dying Colt to safety, Dani would be sitting in a makeshift jail cell at the University of Oregon, waiting for the militia who controlled the area to decide her fate.

  If Melody hadn’t covered for her when the militia shot up Harvey’s house, she would be a pile of ash in the burned-out remains of the entire block. Dani owed them her life and Colt’s, too. Now, because they risked everything to save her and Colt, they were homeless and scared and unsure what to do.

  She couldn’t abandon them, no matter the danger.

  Everyone was hungry and dirty and exhausted. Melody almost died. Doug and Larkin and Colt killed more militia members than Dani could count. Even Will suffered. If it hadn’t been for Dani and Colt stumbling into their lives, none of this would have happened. She owed it to them to help.

  Dani grabbed her backpack and shopping bag and took a deep breath. No matter the risk, she had to keep scavenging. There were three more stores on her list to clear and she wouldn’t go home until she’d done it. No turning back. Not now. Not ever.

  Chapter Two

  MELODY

  489 Bellwether Street

  Eugene, Oregon

  8:30 a.m.

  “Come on, you stupid thing.” Melody wrestled the shower curtain to one side. The fresh rainwater sloshed and she bit back a curse. I can’t spill this. She took a calming breath and tried again, tugging the edge of the curtain toward the waiting two-liter bottle with both hands.

  The water rolled toward her like a rising tide and she struggled to keep the plastic steady. Water splashed over the edge and down into the bottle anchored between her feet. As it filled, she sucked in a much-needed breath of air.

  So far, so good. The first bottle filled and she pulled up on the plastic curtain to stop the flow. Only four more to go. The makeshift water collection station Colt rigged up on the edge of the patio had done the job. Now they had enough water for a few days.

  Melody pushed a greasy clump of hair off her face and pulled over the next bottle, filling it without so much as a spilled drop. The more she worked, the better she got, until at last, every bottle sat full and the plastic curtain held nothing more than a splash of water.

  She leaned back and exhaled. If only the sky would rain hot coffee and half-and-half. After screwing the caps on each bottle, she carted them into the apartment. Thanks to the rainy weather of the past few days and the trash full of empty bottles throughout the apartment building, they managed to collect almost ten gallons of water.

  It wasn’t close to enough.

  In the past, survival had always been an abstract concept for Melody. Even after the grid failed, with the National Guard carting in water and food, she hadn’t gone hungry. Sure, the pit toilet in the backyard stunk, but she’d been able to wash and eat and sleep in her own bed.

  Now, though, the horror of the future had truly set in. No water. No food. No shelter. Nothing they didn’t fight for or scrounge up from some rat-infested hole in the wall. She scratched her dirty scalp and frowned. Would it ever get better than this?

  “Staring at those bottles won’t turn them into coffee, honey.”

  Melody smiled as Gloria walked past her into the kitchen. “I’d settle for an ice-cold shower, to be honest.”

  Gloria poured herself a glass of water and motioned toward the empty patio. She eased into a chair opposite Gloria and focused on the horizon. Three miles away, Colonel Jarvis had electricity and hot water and enough rations to last for months.

  They didn’t have enough food for the day.

  The first pangs of hunger hit her stomach and Melody glanced back inside. Everyone was either gone or still sleeping. She and Gloria were alone.

  At over twice Melody’s age, Gloria Wilkins had seen her fair share of hardship, but this had to be the worst. She caught her former neighbor’s eye. “Do you regret it?”

  The wrinkles
deepened around Gloria’s mouth. “Leaving? After our house burned to the ground we didn’t have much choice.”

  “No. I meant all of it. Taking in Colt and Dani. Standing up to Jarvis.” Her voice cracked and Melody took a moment to swallow. “Everything.”

  “Not for a second. How can you even ask that after what those men tried to do?”

  Melody focused on a crumbling patch of stucco on the wall. She hadn’t been able to sleep since she killed that horrible man. Nightmares of what he wanted… the things he said…. She hugged herself even though she wasn’t cold. “If we hadn’t taken Colt and Dani in, none of that would have happened.”

  “Colt didn’t do those things. Jarvis and his militia did. Don’t blame the people helping us.”

  “I’m not.” Melody risked a glance at the older woman. She’d tried to keep the what-ifs at bay the last few days, but as every angry bruise faded to yellowed skin, she wondered. “I can’t help thinking: what if we’d minded our own business?”

  Gloria blew out a puff of breath. “It might have delayed everything a little, but sooner or later, the militia would have come for us.”

  “Why? We were following the rules.” As the last word slipped out, Lottie trotted up, hungry little eyes begging for breakfast. Melody frowned. “Okay, maybe not all the rules. But they wouldn’t have burned down our houses over Lottie.”