The Quell Read online

  THE

  QUELL

  SOLAR CRASH

  Book 6

  By

  E S Richards

  Mike Kraus

  © 2019 Muonic Press Inc

  www.muonic.com

  www.MikeKrausBooks.com

  [email protected]

  www.facebook.com/MikeKrausBooks

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  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

  Epilogue

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  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to my awesome beta team, without whom this book wouldn’t be possible.

  Chapter 1

  Sitting on the old camp bed, Amy remained still and quiet as she waited. She didn’t know how long she would have to wait, but she knew it was all she could do now. Her ears were ringing from the fight she had just had with Maggie. Even though the two of them had planned it, neither had held back and Amy could still taste blood in her mouth. Her right eyebrow was split open and the eye below it was starting to swell. Running her tongue along her teeth, she discovered that at least a couple of them were chipped too, probably the cause of the metallic taste in her mouth. On top of all of that, it was also harder than usual to breathe, her chest sore from the punches Maggie had landed there.

  All in all, the two of them had put on a great show and they had achieved what they had wanted from it. Both Amy and Maggie were still inside the tent, spared from the scavenging trip the other women had been taken on. Thinking back to yesterday’s hours of scavenging, Amy couldn’t believe both how lucky and unlucky she had been.

  She desperately wished that she had been part of the pair to walk into the house where Len, James, and Harrison hid. Amy fantasized about seeing her family constantly, despite the short amount of time they had been apart. James was her everything and it caused her more pain to be away from him than the injuries on her body did. Her relationship with Len was also growing in importance to her. Following their divorce Amy didn’t think she would ever have feelings for him again, but it was surprising how quickly wisps of them had started to return to her. Hopefully soon they would be reunited once more.

  That was the lucky thing. The fact that her family had been in the exact right town at the exact right moment had to be a one-in-a-hundred chance. If it was a marvel to Amy that they had managed to track her down, the plan they had devised was entirely something else. Already Amy felt indebted to Maggie for helping her to escape; she hoped that Maggie would get out too and be able to join them, along with the other women who remained in the tent.

  Amy knew, though—as cutthroat and selfish as it was—that she needed to focus on herself. Len and Harrison were already risking a great deal to free her from the labor camp she’d been kidnapped for, so Amy needed to make things as easy as possible for them from now on. Irritatingly though, there wasn’t a great deal more of the plan that she understood. Maggie had shared the details she had been privy to, and for the rest the pair of them just had to trust the men on the other side of the fence. And so there was very little for Amy to do except sit back and wait for something to happen.

  Her heart leapt in her chest as the sound of the tent being opened filled her ears only a few short minutes later. Sitting up slightly straighter, despite the pain it caused her, Amy focused on the entrance, waiting to see who would appear. Waiting to see if it was her family.

  “Play time, ladies.”

  The sneering voice of one of their male captors tormented her instead, as four burly men walked into the tent, each with his own sadistic swagger. They lined up about a foot apart, eyes darting from woman to woman while the ominous threat lingered in the air. Amy had no idea what was about to happen, but she could hazard a pretty good guess. Her mouth grew dry as she remembered what the woman with the broken leg had told her on her first day in the camp. That woman was still inside the tent now and as Amy glanced her way, her terrifying suspicions were almost confirmed.

  “I see we’ve got a few new faces today,” the same man smirked, looking to his fellow men and laughing slightly. “This should be fun.”

  “I call dibs on one of the newbies,” another man interjected quickly, a cruel look in his eye as he zeroed in first on Amy and then Maggie.

  Pulling her legs closer in to her chest, Amy tried to make her body look smaller, tried to protect herself in some way. She hated the way the men were looking at her. Like she was a piece of meat on a plate or a trophy trapped in a glass cabinet. But she was neither. She was much more available to the men than either of those things were and she was very, very aware of that fact.

  “You can’t just call dibs,” the third man argued, turning slightly to look at his companion. “That’s not fair.”

  “I only called one of them,” the man laughed, “you can have the other.”

  The third man pondered this statement for a second, taking a few steps forward so he was closer to the women. Thus far the four of them had remained by the entrance, blocking any way out with their large and imposing frames.

  “Hmm,” the third man continued, “I’m not sure actually. I think I might stick with my regular.”

  Amy winced as she then saw the man swing his head in the direction of the woman with the broken leg and wink at her. The woman had no reaction, her body remaining perfectly still as she mentally prepared herself for what was about to happen. It made Amy feel sick that this was going on; that this was already so easily accepted amongst the women. None of them even tried to stand up for themselves or fight back. Their fates had been well and truly accepted.

  Despite the pain running through Amy’s body from her fight with Maggie, she refused to let these men touch her. As the four of them fanned out and started making their way toward specific women in the tent, Amy prepared herself for another battle. She would rather die than let what she thought was about to happen, happen.

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  A peppering of explosions suddenly filled the air, echoing throughout the whole camp and stopping the men dead in their tracks. Amy kept her eyes locked on the man who was approaching her. He was almost close enough to reach out and touch her, which meant Amy was almost close enough to strike. But she didn’t have to. The sound of explosions distracted the men instantly, each spinning round to look to the next in confusion.

  “What was that?”

  “I don’t know, who’s still left out there?”

  “Only Brogan and Craig. Do you think it was one of them?”

  More explosions erupted from outside the tent as the men spoke, their interest in the women lost. It took Amy a few seconds to realize that the explosions were probably meant for her. It was too much of a coincidence for this to not be part of Len and Harrison’s plan, and that meant she was about to be rescued. Turning her attention back to the men, Amy
tried to remain calm and carefully think out her next move.

  “Can’t be,” one of the men finally replied after the second round of explosions had stopped. “We better get out there.”

  Abandoning their intentions for the women, the four men jogged back toward the entrance of the tent, just as a third round of explosions occurred. It forced them to quicken their pace, running out of the tent and leaving the entrance—to Amy’s sheer joy—open. She knew she had to act quickly now, but she also didn’t know what to do. Harrison and Len had undoubtedly planned things down to the letter; she didn’t want her actions to ruin any of that.

  “Is this it?” Maggie’s raspy voice came from beside Amy, her throat already showing severe bruising from where Amy’s hands had clasped it no more than an hour earlier.

  “I think so,” Amy nodded. “What do we do?”

  “I don’t know,” Maggie looked nervously from side to side, observing the other women in the tent. They all had their eyes focused on the entrance, the fact it remained open not lost on any of them. “Shall we make a run for it?”

  “Maybe,” Amy started to reply, her sentence cut short by the sound of gunfire outside. The explosions had become less frequent now, but the noise that replaced them was even worse. Whatever was happening outside was going to be dangerous; Amy didn’t want to run out there unless it was absolutely necessary. But then, she certainly didn’t want to stay in the tent and see what happened.

  “Okay,” she eventually continued, “let’s try and get out of here.”

  Walking slowly but assuredly, Amy and Maggie started weaving their way around the beds towards the entrance of the tent. The sound of gunfire outside remained sporadic but deadly, the dying cries of at least two men also filling the air. Amy prayed they were coming from a couple of the captors, perhaps even the man who had almost been beside her bed just a few minutes earlier. She wouldn’t even entertain the idea of Len, Harrison or James being injured. She trusted whatever plan they had come up with and knew they would be safe.

  “Hey!” A woman’s voice cried out from behind Amy and Maggie, the two of them almost at the entrance of the tent. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Both women spun around and quickly located the owner of the voice. It was a younger girl, perhaps in her early twenties, who wore a cast on one arm while the other was housed in a poorly made sling. If Amy had to guess she would say the arm in a cast had been broken long before everything happened, while the one in the sling looked to be a more recent injury.

  “We’re getting out of here,” Amy hissed back, mild annoyance present in her tone. She didn’t want to delay her escape at all, but she also didn’t want the women still inside the tent to alert the men to their actions. “Come if you want.”

  “Are you insane?” The girl argued back, pushing herself off her bed so she was standing to face Amy and Maggie. “You won’t make it two seconds out there. It’s better to just stay inside. At least in here we’re alive.”

  “Fine,” Amy huffed. “Stay then. But just because you are doesn’t mean we have to as well.”

  “No!” The girl shouted, her voice rising so loud Amy worried the men would be able to hear it outside. If even one of them returned to the tent their escape attempt could well be ruined. They needed to get out fast. Turning on their heels, Amy and Maggie jogged to the entrance of the tent, their minds focused on only one thing now.

  “You’ll never make it!” The girl’s voice carried over the dying gunfire to them as Amy and Maggie reached the entrance, only a few feet standing between them and the outside world.

  “Oh, shut up,” Amy looked back over her shoulder as another voice piped up, coming from the woman with the broken leg who comforted Amy on her first day. As the two of them locked eyes Amy smiled at the woman, thanking her with her gaze as the woman with the broken legs nodded and smiled back.

  “Go on,” the woman called, “get out of here! I’ll keep this one quiet.”

  Amy grinned, not waiting for any further instruction and looking instead to Maggie. She offered her companion a short nod and then inhaled a deep breath, taking a step forward and sliding through the entrance of the tent, passing the large chain that normally held it closed throughout the day. They had made it. The sound of gunfire had completely stopped now and as Amy found herself outside the tent, she took a few seconds to blink in the sunlight before she processed the bodies lying on the ground in front of her. Her vision was slightly blurred from leaving the dim tent and coming out into blinding sunlight, but she saw a figure running toward her. Her body tensed as it drew nearer, finally focusing long enough to ascertain who it was. Harrison. Her savior had come.

  Chapter 2

  Tilting the shattered piece of mirrored glass so it caught the sunlight, Harrison watched the ridge where he knew Len and James were hiding and waited. There wasn’t much else that he could do now except flash the signal and hope Len acted fast. Through his binoculars he had just seen four men entering the tent where they believed Amy was being kept. That left only two outside, odds that Harrison strongly preferred.

  After another few seconds, Harrison saw Len’s head pop up over the ridge, confirming that the signal had been raised. This was his time to act now and he had to move quickly. Pushing the glass fragment into his pocket, Harrison jogged forward from the shrubs he was hiding in and made his way toward the fence below the first guard tower. Not breaking his stride, Harrison slammed his shoulder into it, forcing the weak material to give way and allowing him to tumble into the camp.

  If everything was running on schedule, he had about a minute to find and silence the two men who remained out in the camp. Pumping his legs fast, Harrison ran toward one of the other two tents in the camp, knowing exactly where the other men were waiting after the watch he’d kept all morning. With the majority of them out with the rest of the women or searching for more, the camp was fairly unprotected at this time and Harrison was confident they would be able to enact their rescue mission successfully.

  As the first set of explosions sounded at the back of the camp, Harrison clutched his Glock in his hands as he inched along the outside of the tent where he knew the two men were. He frowned slightly as the first round of dynamite was lit, calculating it to be just a little bit early in his head. The men he now had to subdue were aware something was happening and it would make the element of surprise a little more difficult to achieve.

  Still, he stuck to his guns, knowing how important this mission was. Though Harrison had his own goals and his own family to reach, he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t try and reunite Len with Amy once more. It had been their shared objective ever since the two of them had left Chicago, and now that they had come so close, Harrison wouldn’t let himself give up.

  “What was that?”

  Harrison now stood just a fraction of an inch away from the entrance to the tent the two men sat in, both of them on either side of table which held a deck of cards and a couple of old bottles of beer. He remained still as he listened to the men talking inside, their voices clear in the silence after the explosions.

  “One of the bikes?” The second voice inside the tent replied, accompanied by the sound of a chair being pushed backwards. “Or maybe the truck is back?”

  “That didn’t sound like an engine to me,” the first voice replied, complemented again by the noise of a body rising from its chair. “Let’s go check it out.”

  Harrison rolled his shoulders back and widened his stance, preparing to strike just as Len lit the second roll of dynamite and flung it into the camp, filling the air with snapping explosions once more. There was no time to focus on the sound though as the first of the men exited the tent, running right into the path of Harrison. It was too close for the old prepper to raise his 9mm and shoot, so instead he swung it in an arc in front of him, smashing the metal into the man’s skull.

  The unconscious body crumpled to the ground in front of him, a sight not missed by either
Harrison or the other man who quickly leapt back into the tent, hiding his body from view. Two shots then quickly rang out and caused Harrison to drop to the ground, the surviving man firing blindly through the tent walls at where he believed Harrison stood.

  Try as he might, Harrison couldn’t stop the small smirk from creeping across his lips as he started to crawl on his belly to the entrance of the tent. He loved moments like this. His life was on the line but adrenaline pumped through his veins like a car racing around a track. He felt more alive than ever and his mind worked a million miles a minute to think of every next step and every action that could happen.

  He had realized immediately after the two shots that were fired through the side of the tent that the weapon the man had inside was a twelve-gauge shotgun. It was likely sawn-off due to the speed in which the man had picked it up to fire, a full size one being too heavy and awkward to wield in battle. What all of that meant, though, was that Harrison had time to strike while the man inside was forced to reload. He continued to shuffle toward the entrance, poking his head around the corner only slightly so he could quickly see what was happening inside.