Anthony Newman - American Survivor

Cobie had her .380 gripped tightly and was shivering at the sound of the animals as one after another answered the call of the wild. She was having second thoughts about living in the woods as Cloe, and she got into bed that night.

“Mom supper was great, and I’ve finished my homework, so is it okay if I watch some TV?”

“Oops, Cloe, remember my comments about living like pioneers. Well, pioneers didn’t have TVs. Don’t worry. I’ll rig up my cell phone as a hotspot, and we can watch TV through the internet until we figure out how to have a real TV.”

“Mom, we’ve been studying solar cells in science class. We could get some solar cells and a battery-powered TV. We’ll need solar cells to charge our cell phones anyway.”

Cobie turned the radio on, and to her dismay every one of the stations had the president talking about a crisis with China. She turned it off, but Cloe turned it back on and said, “Mom that sounds serious. I think we need to pay attention because the president said we could soon be at war with China. War with China could mean nukes, and nukes mean the world could get all… err… fouled up.”

The president’s speech only lasted half an hour, and then Cloe found a station with pop music and they listened to it as they played scrabble the rest of the night until bedtime. Cobie gave Cloe the bedroom that she had cleaned and slept on the couch with both of them bundled up in their own sleeping bags to ward off the cold. The kerosene heater would heat up the entire cabin, but Cobie was afraid they would die from carbon monoxide poisoning as they slept.

Cobie woke up before dawn and lit the heater so the cabin would be warm for Cloe’s bath. Then she started a fire in the wood-burning kitchen stove to heat water for their baths. The stove boiled the water and warmed the kitchen quickly, so she woke her daughter and told her to bathe before the water got cold. Cloe stripped down, jumped in the tub, and suddenly realized the room wasn’t as warm as she was used to when she got out of the tub.

“Mom, I’m freezing it’s frigging cold in here.”

“Watch your mouth young lady, but you are correct. I think we need to move bath time to just before bed, so we don’t freeze. The cabin will be nice and warm then,” she laughed as she dreaded the cold room.

They drove into town that morning, and Cobie dropped her daughter off at school and headed to work. The sales had doubled this week due to the ongoing threat of war. All of the preppers were buying supplies, solar cells, water purification tablets, aluminum bags for Faraday Cage protection for electronics from EMP radiation, and emergency food rations. Cobie hid one of the lower priced solar cell kits and one of the Faraday bags. She called her friend Joan and had her purchase them for her. Cobie also purchased some water purification tablets and made a mental note to buy some unscented bleach on the way home. She would treat the water from the creek until they could get the well working.

Cobie had a long line of customers in the camping department when the store manager made an announcement over the PA, “The store is closing in five minutes. The president has just announced that we are at war with North Korea, Iran, and China and could face immediate nuclear attack. Store employes, please stay at your stations until all customers have left the store.”

Cobie grabbed her solar cell kit, a couple of walkie-talkies and batteries, and an emergency radio. She then took a bag full of MREs and grabbed a half dozen boxes of .22 LR for Cloe’s pistol as she ran out the back door of Cobb’s Outfitters on her way to her Jeep. She placed the electronics in the aluminum bag and drove off the lot. She raced through the streets and around traffic jams by driving through people’s yards and down sidewalks.

She arrived at Cloe’s school and walked to the front door, which was locked. She pounded on the door until the Vice-Principle came to the door.

“Lady, we are on lockdown until the crisis is over. Your kid will be safer here than at home.”

Cobie drew her .380 shot a bullet through the glass beside the man. The glass exploded into the building, and the sound frightened the man.

Cobie said, “You will die here and now if you don’t bring my daughter to me now.”

The Vice-Principle screamed, “Jim, get Cloe Simms. Now!”

A minute later Cloe came running to the door and left with her mother as the Vice-Principle yelled, “I’m calling the police. You will go to jail!”

Cloe looked at her mom and saw rage and fear on her face and asked, “Mom, what’s wrong? You scared the crap out of Mr. Jenkins.”

“I’ll explain in a few minutes. We have to head for the cabin now. The country is under attack,” Cobie’s face was red and was focused on saving her daughter’s life.

Cloe turned the radio on and heard the Emergency Broadcast System blaring out warnings. Then abruptly only static could be heard, and then the radio stopped making any sound at all. Several cars stalled ahead of them, and then a truck barreled through the intersection ahead and t-boned a minivan full of people. The streets erupted into chaos with injured people falling out of their wrecked cars and others looking at their dead iPhones. There was an explosion a few miles away. Suddenly there was a roar, and a jet slammed into the school they had just left, and another jet hammered into Cobb’s Outfitters.

Cloe hit her dazed mom on the shoulder and said, “Mom our Jeep is still running, let’s go home now before this gets ugly.”

Cobie shook her head, floored the gas peddle, and popped the clutch squealing tires as she flew around the stalled cars. She cut through the median and ran through a chain link fence to get on Dead Indian Road on her way to the cabin. She saw two more vehicles heading out of town and noticed one was an old Ford pickup and the one behind her was an old Bronco. She didn’t make the connection then but thanked her father several times later for buying the old Jeep for her.

They were soon on the ridge overlooking the hill where their cabin was located. Cobie parked the Jeep and started to get out when Cloe said, “Mom, we have to hide the Jeep. All of the new cars died when the planes crashed. There was a solar flare or an EMP blast nearby. We studied them last year, and since we are at war with China, my bet is an EMP. Everyone will try to steal our Jeep.”

“Great idea,” Cobie replied as she picked a spot to drive the jeep into the woods and down the hill a bit to a flat place to leave the vehicle out of sight from the old road.

“Grab that bag while I carry the rest of my stuff. We need to hunker down and hide until we know what dangers lurk out in the world. Baby girl, I watched that Doomsday show on TV last year, and the world could get real mean if we have lost all power and the food in stores run out. There will be riots and people killing each other so they can feed their families.”

They walked down the hillside to the cabin, and Bennie greeted them on the back deck. Cloe ran inside and turned the radio on to catch any news on the crashed airplanes and find out if there were any survivors at the school and store. The radio didn’t come on at all, so Cloe checked her phone, and it was dead.

“Mom, my phone is dead, check yours,”

Cobie pulled her phone from her back pocket, and the screen was dark and would not power up, “I think those people at the store were right; we’ve been nuked. Hey, grab that shiny bag by the front door and bring it to me in the kitchen.”

Cloe took the emergency radio out of the bag and set it on the table while Cloe read the directions. Cobie turned it on, and nothing happened until Cloe started turning the hand crank and they heard static. Cloe turned the tuner knob to the frequency marked E-Broadcast and heard someone talking.