Take the Hit (Nuclear Survival: Northern Exposure Book 1) Read online

  Take the Hit

  Nuclear Survival: Northern Exposure Book One

  Harley Tate

  Copyright © 2019 by Harley Tate. Cover and internal design © by Harley Tate. Cover image copyright © Deposit Photos and Neo-Stock, 2019.

  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.

  Contents

  Take the Hit

  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 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Acknowledgments

  About Harley Tate

  Take the Hit

  Nuclear Survival: Northern Exposure Book One

  An imminent threat. A city in the dark.

  When a fellow hacker clues Midge Sinclair into an impending terror attack, every second matters. She must alert her sister, find her mother, and make it out of Chicago before a nuclear bomb tears the city apart. The only problem? She’s 30,000 feet in the air careening toward O’Hare in a powerless plane.

  Could you drop everything to save yourself?

  Danny Olsen spends his days learning to be a doctor and ignoring his father’s disapproval. When he flies back to college via a layover in Chicago, he never expects to meet a girl like Midge. She’s smart, quick on her feet, and the only person who can get him out of the airport alive.

  Two strangers on the run against impossible odds.

  With an EMP destroying the grid in Chicago, Midge and Danny race the clock to escape the city before a nuclear bomb turns downtown to ash. They’ll have to learn to trust each other if they want to make it out alive.

  The attack is only the beginning.

  Take the Hit is book one in Nuclear Survival: Northern Exposure, a post-apocalyptic thriller series following ordinary people struggling to survive after a nuclear attack on the Unites States plunges the nation into chaos.

  Subscribe to Harley’s newsletter and receive First Strike, the prequel to the Nuclear Survival saga, absolutely free.

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  Chapter One

  MIDGE

  Friday, 4:00 pm CST

  Plane en route to Chicago O’Hare International Airport

  Midge twisted in the narrow airplane seat and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She’d started the day typing away at the Charlotte Hack-A-Thon, trying to outsmart Baker, the teenage hacker seated next to her.

  They’d known each other since her first day at college when he’d weaseled into her computer and introduced himself while he sat three seats away in the back row. Sixteen and already a sophomore in college. She’d rolled her eyes and flipped him off in binary.

  Since then, he’d been the closest thing to an annoying little brother Midge had ever had. Usually his antics got him a punch in the arm and a good laugh, but when he showed her evidence of an imminent terror attack in the United States, everything went to shit.

  Baker cut and run, Midge’s sister wouldn’t leave Los Angeles, and Grant, that annoying guy from WelSoft, had detained her so long she’d almost missed her flight.

  Had she known the plane would be delayed by two hours, she might have been nicer to him. At least she gave Grant a fighting chance. If he played it smart, he’d get his family out of town ASAP.

  Midge glanced at the college kid sitting next to her on the plane. He’d introduced himself when they first sat down. A fake announcer voice filled her head.

  And now we have Danny, a pre-med student at the University of Colorado. He dresses like a surf bum, but don’t let the faded T-shirt fool you, folks. He’s loaded. Just take a look at that watch.

  She snorted at her own joke and turned toward the window. Charlotte grew smaller and smaller as the plane headed higher into the sky. Cars became ants, then specks, then nothing more than a memory as the clouds blotted out the earth below.

  I’ll make it. I have to. Midge leaned back and closed her eyes. The flight delay had wrecked her nerves. Every second that ticked by while they sat on the ground meant less time to save herself and her mother.

  When she’d finally tracked down a friend on the dark web, Baker’s worst fears had been confirmed. Twenty-five bombs headed to the biggest cities in America. Midge didn’t know when, but Texas—who she knew by his online handle TX3482—wouldn’t have told her to hide if it weren’t soon.

  In two hours, she would be on the ground in Chicago. With any luck, by the end of the day she would find her mother at a tiny cottage in Suttons Bay and they could ride out the worst together.

  If it comes to that.

  Midge swallowed and opened her eyes. Her seatmate might be a poser with shaggy hair that probably cost more than her computer to maintain, but he’d piqued her interest with his talk about World War II and a class on nuclear war.

  People weren’t her thing, strangers especially, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Until she could get back on the internet with a secure connection, Danny was the best source of information.

  She tried to smile. “Tell me more about that class. What did you learn?”

  Danny slipped a crinkled receipt in his book and turned to her. “What do you want to know?”

  “What happens when a nuclear bomb goes off?”

  “Depends on the size.”

  Midge ran through what she knew about the threat in her head. “How about the same as dropped on Hiroshima?” The dark web chatter claimed a bomb that size—ten to fifteen kilotons—only required a bowling ball-sized amount of highly enriched uranium. Even accounting for the mechanics of the bomb itself, an amount that small could easily fit inside a delivery van.

  Thanks to online shopping, white vans drove down streets in every city. A bomb could be hiding in plain sight and no one would give it a second glance. She shuddered while Danny tried to remember.

  At last, he answered, “It depends on whether the bomb detonated in the air or on the ground. If it was on the ground, then within half a mile of the blast everything would be vaporized. Buildings, trees, people. Even sidewalks and asphalt. Debris could pile up as high as thirty feet.”

  Midge blinked. “So everyone inside a half mile would die?”

  “Probably.” Danny grimaced. “In Hiroshima, people that close turned to ash. They crumbled to dust when rescuers touched them.”

  “And farther out?”

  “Within one to two miles of the blast, there would be severe damage to buildings. All the windows would be blown out, buildings would collapse, fires would start everywhere. Even telephone poles could be ripped out of the ground.”

  Midge tucked her hands inside her hoodie. “And the people?”

  “More would survive the initial
blast, but they’d be exposed to lethal levels of radiation. Within hours, they’d get headaches and nausea, followed by dizziness, hair loss, seizures, and spontaneous bleeding. They’d die within days.”

  A glob of spit lodged in her throat and Midge choked it down. “What about farther away? People would survive if they weren’t in the immediate area, right?”

  Danny scratched his head. “Yes and no. From what I remember, when a bomb detonates on the ground, all the tiny specks of matter that fly into the air are coated in radiation. Within an hour, those invisible particles start falling back to earth.”

  “Fallout.”

  “Exactly. If you’re outside when the bomb goes off, then you have to get underground as quickly as possible. In Hiroshima, people survived even really close into the blast site if they were underground and stayed there.”

  “How long did they have to hide?”

  “The first forty-eight hours are the most critical. After that, eighty percent of the radiation is gone.”

  Midge exhaled. Blast radius and fallout and radiation poisoning. It was so much to take in.

  But if she could get out of Chicago before the bomb, then she had a chance to make it. She thought about her sister, Lainey, in Los Angeles. Reporters went where the stories were. If her sister didn’t heed Midge’s warning, she’d be in the heart of the city smiling for the camera when the bomb blew it all to bits.

  The best Midge could hope for was that her sister would put her own life first. If she stayed in Los Angeles, then she had to find a place to hide and wait for the radiation to decay.

  “Have you ever looked into this kind of stuff?” Danny’s question jolted Midge out of her inner turmoil and she shook her head.

  “Not until recently.” As soon as the words slipped out, she cursed herself. The last thing she needed was to start a panic while climbing to thirty thousand feet.

  When it didn’t matter, Midge was great at retreating from the world and hiding behind her computer screen. A potential terrorist attack reared its ugly head and she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Figures. She tried to play it off. “I read an article last week about nuclear disarmament and it got me thinking.”

  “After that class last year, I read a lot about it online, too.” Danny picked up his tattered copy of The Road. “This brought it all back.”

  Midge pointed at the book. “Is it about survivors?”

  Danny shook his head. “Not really. It’s kind of confusing, to be honest.”

  “I thought you were pre-med.”

  He almost laughed at himself. “Doesn’t mean I can understand literary fiction.” He stretched his legs out in front of him. “But I do remember facts. In a real nuclear attack, people who hide inside right way and stay there would have a good chance of survival. Even if people get radiation on their clothes, if they come home, change, and take a shower, they can wash a lot of the radiation off. It really does work. They might get sick, but they won’t die.”

  She nodded silently as he continued to talk about ways to avoid the worst effects of the blast and what history told them about the after effects of radiation. Danny talked like it was all academic—an interesting lesson in the past that was great for entertaining girls on an airplane, but not useful in real life. How little he knew.

  A pang of guilt hit Midge, but she shoved it down. Telling him now wouldn’t get her anywhere. He’d either think she was crazy or freak out. Maybe even both. No, until she had a reason to trust Danny, Midge had to stay quiet and focus on getting into and then out of Chicago.

  The familiar ding sounded throughout the plane, alerting the passengers they could unbuckle, access their laptops, and connect to the plane’s Wi-Fi. Time to find out the latest.

  Midge gave her best smile. “I hope you don’t mind. I need to catch up on some classwork.”

  Hurt feelings flickered across Danny’s face, but he recovered quickly. “Yeah, of course. No problem.” He opened his book and Midge bent to pull out her laptop. As she sat back up, he spoke again. “Thanks for listening, by the way. No one ever wants to hear me talk about this kind of stuff.”

  She frowned, surprised by the admission. People weren’t in the habit of exposing their vulnerabilities to a girl dressed like a Clash groupie. She hoped the sincerity came through in her voice. “Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, it was really interesting.”

  He nodded, gave her a last smile, and went back to his book. Midge exhaled a small, silent breath of relief. Alone with her thoughts at last.

  Once her laptop booted up—and what a sweet sound that was—she immediately logged into the in-flight Wi-Fi and set up her VPN. She knew DemonSide cautioned her against getting online at all and Texas had told her to hide, but she needed more information.

  She glanced around at the other passengers on the plane. Businessmen with laptops of their own were all intent on PowerPoints and spreadsheets. A mom with two kids begged them to eat a carrot. Danny had his nose in the book.

  Midge chewed on her lip. Getting true anonymity on a plane was all but impossible, but she didn’t have a choice. She opened up a TOR window and the chat system where she’d be able to talk to Texas.

  Anxiety inched up and down her spine like a slowly creeping bug. The Wi-Fi crawled, so much slower than her wired-in fiber back in Charlotte. She tapped her foot up and down, hating every wasted second.

  At long last, the page loaded, and Texas’s handle glowed green. He was still online. Thank the stars.

  MFly: Latest?

  TX3482: Get off the Wi-Fi.

  MFly: No f’ing choice.

  TX3482: Didn’t take you for a skiddie.

  Midge’s mouth fell open. He was insulting her hacking skills? She didn’t have time to trade insults.

  MFly: Not funny. Help me out.

  TX3482: Heading to Sanctuary. Going dark.

  A sanctuary? If Texas thought the threat was bad enough to go dark and head somewhere safe, then it must be real and it must be happening soon. Too soon.

  She blinked at the screen, a million questions flooding her head. Where was it? Could she come? Was it open to non-hackers like her mom or her sister? She typed before she sent herself into a panic.

  MFly: Where is it?

  Three little dots wiggled in the chat window, confirming Texas was typing. Midge held her breath, desperately waiting. As the dots disappeared, the plane plunged into darkness.

  Shouts and screams echoed through the cabin. Danny shifted beside her, lit up by the light from her laptop.

  “What the—”

  His question died on his lips as the plane lurched, nose angling toward the ground. The kids across the plane began to cry as two strips of emergency lights illuminated the aisle. Someone in the row behind Midge screamed. Planes didn’t dive fifteen minutes into an ascent. They also didn’t lose power. Midge reached for the window shade and shoved it open. Clouds blew past at breakneck speed.

  Were they about to crash? She braced herself on the seat back in front of her just as the plane leveled back out. A woman in front of her thanked Jesus and Midge leaned back, heart thundering in her chest. She tried to slow the frantic beat. We aren’t in freefall. We won’t crash.

  When she managed to breathe without heaving, she checked her laptop. No Wi-Fi. Crap. Until she could get back online, Midge had no idea where to go if they managed to land without dying. If she made it to the ground, she had to reach back out to Texas as soon as possible. She slammed the computer shut and shoved it into her bag as another ding sounded from above.

  A voice came over the loudspeaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I’m sorry to say that there’s a massive power outage both here and on the ground. We’re not quite sure what’s caused it, but we’re lucky enough to be near O’Hare and are making preparations for an emergency landing.”

  A murmur rose up from the passengers, but the captain kept talking. “I warn you, it’s going to be rough. We’re mostly on our own up here. Please follow the flight att
endant’s directions. With any luck, everything will be okay.”

  “With any luck?” Danny turned to Midge. “That’s comforting.”

  She couldn’t even speak. Airplane captains weren’t supposed to say things like that. They were supposed to be confident and in control and fly the plane with one hand tied behind their backs. Her breath hitched in her throat again.

  A window opened in front of her and cast a shaft of light across the cabin, followed by another and another. Shouts and cries peppered the coach section and people began to talk over each other and get out of their seats. Midge loosened her seat belt and rose up enough to get a look at the back of the plane.

  A man three rows away jumped up, waving his phone in the air. “We’re going to die!” He struggled past his row-mates and into the aisle. “We’re all going to die!”

  A flight attendant rushed past Midge, running all the way from first class. “Sir, please. Sir, it’s okay. If you could please sit down.”

  “No! I’m not going to sit here and wait to die! We have to get out of here!” His tie flapped against his chest as he spun around, looking for something.

  Midge scrunched up her face. Where did he think he could go?

  As soon as the thought popped into her head, she saw it. The emergency exit sign. The small green sign hung from the ceiling at the rear of the plane before the bathrooms.

  “Oh, no.” Midge clenched her fists.

  The man took off, running toward the back of the plane.