The Will To Survive Read online

  The Will To Survive

  A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller

  (The EMP Brothers Series Episode 2)

  Nick Williams

  © 2017

  Nick Williams Copyright © 2017

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews.

  Disclaimer

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter 1

  Dirt Road Outside The Compound - Night

  Randall Parker reloaded his Colt 1911 .45 in the passenger seat of the old Toyota Hi-Lux truck as his uncle Bruce pressed down on the gas pedal and they sped down the dirt road. His cousin Robert, Bruce’s son, was also in the truck with them.

  Randall’s father Marcus, cousin Jane, and Robert’s wife Claire were in the other Hi-Lux ahead of them with his younger brother Thomas, who they had just rescued from the Compound.

  Both trucks were stolen from the Compound’s fleet of old ‘80s Hi-Lux’s, Chevy Blazers, GMC Jimmys, and Ford Broncos that were still operational following the EMP that had gone off a month prior.

  While the rescue of Thomas itself had been miraculously successful, they were hardly out of the danger yet.

  Behind them were two sets of headlights from other vehicles coming fast for them. Every few seconds a gunshot would ring out from the leading vehicle and either strike their car or WHIZ past them or overhead.

  “Hang on!” yelled Bruce as another bullet whizzed right over them again.

  Though the dirt road was bumpy and filled with turns, Bruce never touched the brakes. They had to evade the Compound’s men quickly, or else they would catch up and there would no doubt be a large shootout that wouldn’t end well for either side.

  Randall had seen that Thomas had been severely beaten and bleeding and his fingers broken when they had rescued him, and he feared more for his brother’s life and well-being than he did the Compound’s men who were after them now.

  The Compound’s men were slowly catching up. Right when Bruce would swing the Hi-Lux around a curve in the road, the headlights of the leading enemy vehicle would only be a second or two behind, followed by the second vehicle soon after.

  These guys aren’t going to give up, Randall thought.

  Suddenly, Bruce slammed the breaks and the Hi-Lux came to a screeching halt

  Randall looked up and saw why: the Hi-Lux in front of them had also come to a halt because of a fallen tree that blocked half the road. Marcus, Jane, and Claire were piling out with their rifles, ready to make a stand.

  “Tree’s in the way!” yelled Marcus. “Get your guns out and fight!”

  “Out, out!” screamed Bruce as he quickly put the truck into park and hopped out, with Randall and Robert following him out shortly afterwards.

  Randall and Robert quickly retrieved their rifles, an M1A and AR-15 respectively, while everyone else lined up with guns aimed at the two pairs of headlights coming right for them…

  * * *

  Gale Butler was driving the leading Chevy Blazer chasing after the rescue party, his Ruger Mini-14 carbine on his lap.

  There were four other men in the Blazer with him, plus four more in the Ford Bronco trying to keep up behind them.

  As soon as the Compound had been attacked and Gale had seen the raiding party escaping in the stolen Hi-Lux’s with Thomas, he made no hesitation in climbing into one of the Blazers and firing it up to go after them.

  He didn’t need to call out for more men, as they simply piled into the car with him while he was gunning it down the main street of the Compound to engage the rescuers in pursuit. When another man had tried to climb in with no more available seats, Gale simply shouted at him to fire up another vehicle and follow them.

  Gale had launched the pursuit after Thomas’ rescuers largely on instinct and in the heat of the moment. He had no plan and only now he wanted to see to it that Thomas and all of the members of his rescue party would be dead in a hail of bullets.

  Thomas had killed his brother, Gerald, in a shootout, and now these people were trying to see to it that he avoided proper punishment. He and his father Lewis and brother George had tortured Thomas a few hours earlier for information on where he came from and who he was with, beating his face to a bloody pulp and breaking or dislocating several of his fingers under a chair, but that wasn’t good enough for Gale despite the satisfaction it had given him in watching it happen.

  It was to Gale’s surprise when both of the Hi-Lux’s came to a rapid stop. Finally, there would be a fight and these people would pay for their invasion of the Compound and the death of his brother.

  “Slam the breaks and turn around!” the man riding shotgun yelled at Gale.

  “No, we take them on!” Gale screamed back. “They’re not getting away with this! Ready your weapons!”

  The members of the rescue party were now piling out of the two trucks with rifles. Gale was still speeding towards them with his foot pressed hard on the gas. They were less than a hundred yards away and he was closing in fast.

  “They’ve got the drop on us!” another man in the backseat said. “Turn the damn car around or we’re all gonna take a lot of bullets!”

  “No!” Gale yelled.

  The man riding shotgun drew a pistol and held it to Gale’s head.

  “Turn the damn car around now! I won’t say it again!”

  Both of Gale’s feet immediately s
lammed on the brakes, not because of the gun that was being held to his head, but because he could see the rescue party members taking aim at them.

  The men arguing with him were right: the rescue party had gotten the drop on them.

  * * *

  Marcus fired first, squeezing off two quick shots with his AR right after Gale slammed the breaks in the lead vehicle.

  The rest of the group soon opened fire as well, the bright muzzle flashes illuminating each of their faces in the darkness: Marcus, Robert, and Claire each squeezed off shots with their ARs, Randall pumped heavy .308 rounds downrange with his M1A, Jane racked and fired her Winchester .30-30 as fast as she could, and Bruce’s .45 blasted away!

  With bullets either whizzing past them or slamming into the vehicle, Gale kept his head low as he quickly put the Blazer into reverse and slammed the gas pedal.

  Wheels spinning in the dirt, the Blazer began going in reverse as fast as it could, nearly hitting the Bronco behind them before it too spun into reverse.

  Two bullets smashed through the windshield and struck the man who had pointed the pistol at Gale in the chest, splattering blood over the glass.

  “Faster, faster!” another man in the rear seat yelled, ducking from the incoming fire.

  “Stay low!” another screamed over the shooting.

  More bullets smashed through the windshield and into the car or zipped right over it, but Gale and the rest of the men in the car kept their heads and shoulders low.

  Finally, Gale managed to swing the Blazer in reverse around the corner to evade the incoming fire.

  “Get out of the car, we try again! This time on foot through the trees where there’s cover!” said Gale, opening the door.

  “Are you crazy?! We just nearly got killed!” said one of the men.

  “Mike did get killed!” said another of the men, referencing the dead man in the shotgun seat.

  The Bronco didn’t even stick around. Its driver swung the car around and took off back down the road, headed for the safety of the Compound.

  It was a useless cause, Gale could see. His men were not prepared to fight. The best thing they could do at this point was head back to the Compound, meet up with this father, and decide what to do from there once daylight had hit.

  Without a word, Gale slammed the door shut, turned the Blazer around, and followed the retreating Bronco.

  The group was still shooting even after both the Blazer and the Bronco had disappeared behind the corner.

  “They’re pulling back!” Robert yelled over the gunfire. “Hold fire, don’t waste ammo!”

  The group ceased firing as both of the enemy vehicles disappeared around the corner. They waited for a few moments to make sure that the vehicles didn’t return again before lowering their weapons.

  “Is everybody alright?!” asked Bruce, swapping mags in his 1911.

  Everyone confirmed that they were indeed fine and not hit.

  Randall ran straight for the first Hi-Lux to find Thomas laying in the back. His face was beaten, bloodied, and barely recognizable, and his fingers each twisted.

  Though weak, Thomas was still conscious. He was strong and he was a fighter. Randall knew he would make it even if the recovery period would be long and painful.

  Thomas managed to get out two words to Randall: “Thank you.”

  Randall smiled and wanted to pat him on the shoulder, but didn’t for fear that it would exacerbate Thomas’ pain.

  “Let’s get this stupid log out of the way!” barked Marcus, running over to it. “Randall help me out with it!”

  “Claire, Jane, keep an eye out for more vehicles!” ordered Robert, as he and Bruce ran over to assist Marcus and Randall with moving the log.

  Chapter Two

  Eventually, the group managed to move the fallen log and climb back into the Hi-Lux’s.

  They made their way back to the lake cabin at Priest Lake but were extremely careful about the route they took just in case they were to be followed.

  As they were on a dirt road in the middle of the woods, they didn’t come across anybody else walking on the road, to Randall’s relief. The very fact that they had two trucks that were still working after the EMP attack meant that they were now extremely wealthy people. The overwhelming majority of vehicles were in no working condition at all, and only the older vehicles without computerized systems were still running. The only thing was, those kinds of vehicles were now rare…very rare. If they came across anybody desperate for a working car, there would be a fight.

  The group saw no indication that they were being followed. No headlights through the trees or down the road in front of them or behind them. Everyone blew a big sigh of relief.

  Dawn was breaking out and the sun shining over the north Idaho mountains when they finally made it back to the lake cabin.

  Randall’s grandparents Barry and Christine, his mother Susan, and his aunt and Bruce’s wife Angela stayed at the cabin to guard it and wait for them.

  Marcus and Robert got out first and quickly carried Thomas into the cabin.

  “Jane, keep an eye out for enemies!” ordered Robert.

  Her older brother of twelve years yelling orders at her was something that Jane didn’t exactly enjoy, but she understood the direness of the situation. Her trusty old lever action .30-30 hadn’t left her hands all night, and she didn’t suspect that it would for the rest of the day either if she was to be the de facto watchman of the group.

  Thomas was taken into the one of the bedrooms and laid on the bed. He was tended to by Christine, Susan, and Angela while the rest of the group met with Barry in the dining room to explain what had happened.

  “We’ve been up all night waiting for you,” said Barry, solemnly. “And we may be up for many more nights after this one. We’ve all got a target on our backs now. This is life-and-death.”

  At 78 years of age, his wisdom and experience made him the de facto leader of the group. He was somebody who everybody else looked up to and respected.

  “We made sure we weren’t followed,” said Robert.

  “Yeah, but just because you didn’t see anybody doesn’t mean you weren’t,” said Barry. “And we’ve got two of their trucks now, they’ll want ‘em back.”

  “Many other people will too,” Randall spoke up. “Those two Toyotas are among the very few vehicles that are in working condition. We’ve got to keep them hidden and use them sparingly.”

  “So what do we do then?” said Claire, sitting next to her husband Robert. “Wait here? Evacuate to somewhere else?”

  “This is a good location,” said Randall. “Access to water, good land and resources, secluded, and enough room for everybody. We leave, we’ll be exposed and we may not find anywhere better.”

  “We may not even be as secluded as you think,” said Bruce. “If we were followed, we could literally be attacked at any minute.”

  “Jane’s outside on patrol for now, she’ll alert us if she sees anyone or anything,” said Robert.

  “I didn’t see any headlights following us after we moved the log,” said Marcus. “But like dad said earlier, that doesn’t mean we’re truly safe.”

  “So I ask again, what do we do now?” said Claire, and the whole room fell silent.

  Finally, Barry broke the silence. “We shouldn’t leave this place yet. Our two priorities now need to be seeing to it that Thomas has a good recovery and that no one from the Compound finds out about this cabin. We’ll need more people on patrol and we must always be on our guard from now on.”

  “How are we doing on supplies?” asked Randall. “Food, water, medicine, clothes, fuel, ammo?”

  Since Randall had just arrived to the cabin the last day, he had no idea about the amount of provisions the group had.

  “We’ll worry about that later,” said Barry. “We have enough stuff to get by for now.”

  The tone of Barry’s voice communicated to Randall that they were running low and would need to be replenished soon. He had known his g
randfather long enough to know that was what he was really saying.

  Bruce went into one of the rooms and less than ten seconds later came back with a Remington 870 pump action shotgun. Bruce racked a 12 gauge round into the chamber and then rested it next to the front door.

  “Anybody tries to break in who we don’t like, nail them with a double-aught buckshot round from this,” said Bruce.

  “We’ll need more than just a shotgun at the door,” said Robert.