Shelter in Place Read online

  Shelter In Place

  Nuclear Survival: Western Strength Book Two

  Harley Tate

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

  Shelter In Place

  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

  Also by Harley Tate

  Acknowledgments

  About Harley Tate

  Shelter In Place

  Nuclear Survival: Western Strength Book Two

  A nuclear bomb destroys the heart of Los Angeles.

  A reporter, a cameraman, and golden retriever survived a nuclear explosion, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe. Out of food and out of options, they must leave the safety of their shelter and brave a ruined city if they want to live.

  No good deed goes unpunished.

  When Lainey broke into a TV station and jumped behind the news desk to warn about the impending attack, she thought she was doing the right thing. Not everyone agrees. Thanks to her recognizable face, radiation exposure will be the least of their worries on the streets of LA.

  Could you drop everything to save yourself?

  Confronted with the horrors of nuclear destruction, Lainey, Keith, and Bear are forced to flee. New-found allies might be their only saving grace. If they don’t choose their path wisely, they might never make it out of the city alive.

  The attack is only the beginning.

  Shelter In Place is book two in Nuclear Survival: Western Strength, a post-apocalyptic thriller series following ordinary people struggling to survive when a nuclear attack on the United States plunges the nation into chaos.

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

  www.harleytate.com/subscribe

  Chapter One

  LAINEY

  Closed Superior Courthouse

  Los Angeles, CA

  Tuesday, 2:00 p.m. PST

  The lantern flickered and Lainey shifted uncomfortably on the patterned carpet. “How many batteries do we have left?”

  Owen rifled through the bag behind him, pulling it up a moment later to show off the lack of contents. “None. This is the last set.”

  Already? Lainey thought about the flashlight parked in the junk drawer of her apartment. She hadn’t changed the batteries in years. “How can they be gone? It’s only been three days.”

  Owen turned the other way and plucked a spent AA battery off a heap beside the prosecutor’s table. “That’s what you get when you don’t have a very big budget. No-name batteries that barely last a few hours.”

  “Doesn’t help that they’re all expired, too,” Jerry added.

  Lainey’s gaze bounced from Jerry, to Owen, to Keith, finally resting on the curled-up form of Bear, the golden retriever. For three days, they had hidden inside a courtroom in the heart of the shuttered and abandoned Los Angeles Superior Court on Hollywood Boulevard. Their only food consisted of bottled water, energy drinks, and a pile of snack bars purchased in the minutes after the unthinkable happened.

  A feeble glow emitted from their only source of light—a small emergency lantern and a case of old batteries overlooked when the courthouse shut its doors. Lainey glanced at each man around the circle. Every one sported a new beard, dark under-eye circles, and sunken cheeks. Sheltering from radioactive fallout took its toll.

  “Who’s turn is it?” If they were going to run out of light, they might as well make the most of what was left.

  Keith grumbled beside her. “Pretty sure it’s mine, but I’m happy to let someone else go instead.”

  “Nonsense. I didn’t get off that easy and you aren’t either.” Lainey reached for the Gatorade bottle and shook it upside down. A coiled bit of snack wrapper fell out and she unrolled it, expectation catching her breath. She read the words printed in neat pencil. “First Car.”

  Seriously? She tossed the scrap on the floor in a huff. Why did Keith always get the softball questions? Ever since they came up with the game—taking turns answering anonymous prompts scribbled on bits of wrapper and tossed into an empty bottle—she’d been saddled with some of the worst. Most embarrassing trip on an airplane, worst date, first time you lied to your parents. Lainey had picked them all.

  First car? She shook her head. Hardly seems fair. Not that anything would ever be fair again.

  Keith’s face lit up in the dim light as he thought back to his younger days. He clapped his hands together. “A 1977 Pinto hatchback. Rusted-out blue paint job, ripped-up, puke-brown vinyl interior. A classic.”

  Jerry chuckled, “As long as nobody rear-ended you.”

  “Hey now,” Keith held up his hands, “voluntary recall, remember?”

  Owen pushed his glasses up his nose. “Why are you arguing about a car manufactured almost twenty years before I was born?”

  “Cue the sad trombone.” Keith picked another scrap of paper from the bottle. He grinned. “First fireable offense.” He pointed at Jerry. “Something tells me you had a few.”

  “Maybe.” Jerry peered up at the ceiling, thinking it over. “I was fifteen years old, working my first real job at the corner gas station. I told Mrs. Bellwether that if she didn’t like the way I pumped her gas, she could get out of her car and pump it herself.”

  Lainey arched a brow. “That doesn’t seem so bad.”

  “Mrs. Bellwether happened to be the boss’s wife.”

  Owen whistled. “That’s one way to lose a job.”

  “How about you?” asked Keith. “You ever been fired?”

  “Once in college.” Owen nodded. “I had this brutal advanced linear algebra class where the TA delighted in torturing us with super difficult problem sets. I stayed up all night working on one and fell asleep at my desk. When I woke up, I’d overslept and missed opening the coffee shop I worked at on the weekends. I ran the whole way there from my dorm, but when I got there, the boss was standing outside with my last paycheck in his hand.”

  “Ouch.”

  Owen ran a hand through his hair. “I switched over to engineering after that.”

  Jerry grabbed the bottle and shook out a wrapper. He unrolled it and held it arm’s length away, tilting it back-and-forth to read. “Best meal that cost under ten bucks.” He dropped the paper with a grin. “I know it’s not my turn, but I’ve got this one. My momma’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes every Sunday after church.” He licked his lips like he could taste it. “Bacon fat. That was the secret.”

  Owen recoiled. “You know that stuff is terrible for you, right? All the cholesterol and saturated fat?�
��

  “At this point, any food is good food.” Keith’s somber realization silenced everyone.

  They had passed the time over the past three days pushing the horror of what had happened out of their minds, but that one sentence brought it all back. They weren’t a group of friends hanging out on a lazy weekend. They were four people brought together by unfortunate circumstances, sheltering in place after a nuclear explosion.

  If it weren’t for Keith’s outrageous driving skills, Jerry’s garage-door expertise, and Owen’s navigation know-how, they would be suffering from radiation poisoning. Possibly dead or dying. Lainey tucked her feet as she adjusted position on the floor.

  What would LA look like when they finally left the courthouse? Would there even be an LA left? Or would it be crumbling and empty, devoid of living people and things? Thanks to a stop at UCLA’s library, they had a library book detailing the effects of nuclear war, and Lainey had read it cover to cover. She knew what would happen to those people outside when the fallout came back to earth. Visions of peeling skin and sores followed by fevers and vomiting and unrelenting dehydration filled her mind. She shivered.

  The lantern flickered again.

  “When that goes out—”

  “We’ll be in the dark.”

  “My phone’s almost dead.” Lainey reached for the rectangle of metal and glass beside her, but she didn’t turn it on.

  “Mine too,” Owen volunteered.

  “I’ve got a lighter.” Jerry held up a red, pocket-sized Bic.

  “Without something to burn, it won’t get us very far.” Keith ran a hand down Bear’s fur and the dog squirmed.

  “We could make a torch. There have to be some old newspapers or case files around here somewhere.”

  Keith plucked a wrapper off the ground. “We used the snack bar wrappers for this silly game, remember? We looked everywhere. Apart from the locker with the lantern and blankets, this place has been cleaned out.”

  “We’re almost out of food.” Owen glanced at the dwindling rations. “Water, too.”

  “Isn’t it too early to leave?” Jerry scratched at his new beard. “Didn’t the book say two weeks?”

  Lainey nodded. “For almost all of the radiation to be gone, yes. But it will be ninety percent gone in seventy-two hours. We’re past that, right?”

  Owen nodded. “I think we should take the chance.”

  Lainey hesitated. Could they really risk breathing in the outdoor air? Could she walk around outside with the threat of radiation landing on her skin?

  In the height of the cold war, families all across the Los Angeles landscape converted root cellars to bomb shelters, and enterprising companies advertised do-it-yourself bunkers in parking lots opposite car dealerships. People planned to stay underground for up to a year if nuclear bombs detonated back then. A whole year. Lainey squirmed.

  Over the course of three days trapped in a courthouse, her mind had played tricks on her, seeing shapes in the gloom and hearing things that weren’t there. Her right eyelid wouldn’t stop twitching. A year would drive her insane. She would never make it.

  The lantern light ebbed and wobbled, dimming almost to nothing. She focused on the little bulb inside. Not one of the new LEDs that lasted for twenty years, but rather a regular old incandescent sucking the life out of the last four batteries they could find.

  It flickered again, this time shutting off for a few seconds before managing to partially revive. Lainey reached for her phone.

  “Don’t turn it on.” Keith’s voice cut across her nerves. “You’ll need it when we leave.” Lainey’s finger hovered over the power button. He was right, but his words did nothing to ease the panic bubbling up inside her chest.

  The lantern dimmed, glowing barely more than a single match. Owen thwacked the bottom, trying in vain to eke out a few more minutes of light.

  “I say we take a vote.” Jerry’s voice warbled in the growing gloom. “All those who want to stay until the food and water completely run out, raise your hands.”

  Keith raised his hand. No one else.

  “All those who want to leave today, raise your hands.” Jerry and Owen both raised their hands. Lainey hesitated. She didn’t know what to do. They couldn’t stay in the windowless courtroom in the dark, but were they ready to leave?

  “I don’t—” As she began to speak, the lantern gave up. The courtroom plunged into darkness. Panic shot through Lainey, and her heart kicked into overdrive. She trembled as she picked up her phone.

  Bear whined. Keith made shushing noises to calm the dog down, but they did nothing to ease Lainey’s fear.

  A crackle sounded from across the room and Lainey sucked in a breath. Was it a rat? A stranger? Someone breaking into their little world?

  Jerry shifted beside her and she spooked, almost jumping up to run for the exit. This will never work. She couldn’t sit there in the complete darkness, ears pricked for every noise. She held the button on her phone until it powered on.

  The slim bit of artificial light calmed her nerves and Lainey exhaled. Keith appeared almost ghoulish in the blue light, but Lainey didn’t care. At least she could see. As the phone completed the start-up sequence, it beeped.

  One unread message.

  Lainey’s tongue caught against the roof of her mouth. Could it be her mom or her sister? She tapped the icon. The text window opened.

  A friendly reminder from your local pharmacy. Your monthly prescription is ready. Reply STOP to no longer receive these updates.

  Lainey choked on a sob. No more waiting. No more wondering what was happening in the world outside while they drove themselves mad in the dark. She turned her phone off and the remains of the light played tricks on her vision.

  With a deep breath to calm the tremors in her throat, Lainey made up her mind. She spoke to her friends although she couldn’t see them. “It’s been seventy-two hours. I vote to take a chance. I vote to leave.”

  Chapter Two

  KEITH

  Closed Superior Courthouse

  Los Angeles, CA

  Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. PST

  The stats from the library book kept rattling around in Keith’s head. Two weeks. That’s how long it took for radiation to dissipate. Yes, most of it fled within the first three days, but was that what they were going for? Most?

  “I don’t think we should make a decision right away.” Keith understood everyone’s concerns and desire to leave, but what about the alternative? “We talked about this when we first holed up in here. The plan was to stay as long as possible.”

  He ran his hand through Bear’s fur as the golden retriever tried to climb into his lap. The dog could sense the fear percolating in the room thanks to the lack of light and he didn’t like it. Keith didn’t blame him. They had been stuck inside the building with no access to the outside world. It had to be driving Bear crazy too.

  At first he’d refused to go to the bathroom, whining and pulling on his leash as Keith instructed him to go in a little room next door. But eventually nature won out and the dog went, immediately followed up by him clamoring for food and water.

  They didn’t have nearly enough. Keith had rationed him, doling out small batches of the cheap, gas station kibble along with ripped-in-half bottles of water. But they were almost out. The kibble would last until tomorrow morning if he slowed Bear’s intake even more, tonight if he didn’t.

  “How much water do we have left?” His voice sounded far away and foreign.

  “Six bottles.”

  “Energy drinks?”

  “Only three.”

  “What about snack bars?”

  “A handful.” Frustration laced Owen’s responses. “We have to leave before we run out. Who knows what it’s like out there. We don’t want to be starving if we have to plan on the fly or the city is in worse shape than we thought possible.”

  Keith still wasn’t sure. He ran his hand through Bear’s fur again. “What if we just wait another day?”

  So
meone shifted in the dark.

  “To be honest, and I don’t mean any disrespect, but I’m sick of smelling dog piss.” Jerry laughed through the words, diffusing their sting. “I’d like some sunshine on my skin and to see what we’re dealing with. Besides, Owen is right. We don’t want to wait until we’re starving. We need clear heads, not hungry bellies.”

  “Like I said before, I’ve got a solar charger.” Owen’s voice carried across the circle. “It’s not big, but as soon as we’re outside, we can use it to charge our small electronics. If there’s still cellular service anywhere, we can hop on and figure out what’s going on.”

  A hand fumbled against Keith’s knee. “I’m as worried as you are.” Lainey leaned closer, fingers digging into his pants as she spoke. “But Owen and Jerry are right. We have to take a chance. We have to see what’s out there. If my mom didn’t make it out of Chicago, she’s probably trapped in the city. I need to find her and learn what’s going on.” She hesitated. “I need to know if what we did made any difference.”

  Keith would never be comfortable with leaving the courthouse until two weeks had passed, but everyone else had a point. They needed to leave before they were impaired. He pressed his fingers to his eyes. “Okay. You’ve convinced me. I don’t like it, but we should leave.”

  A scuffling noise sounded and Owen’s voice carried from up high. He must have jumped up as soon as Keith agreed. “Same plan we hashed out, right? One person’s house at a time, assess the situation, and then move on?”