The Ruin - Solar Crash Book 3: (A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Series) Page 2

  What had happened with the Latin Kings at the Washington Park Zoo was still almost impossible for Len to comprehend, but even that wasn’t as unbelievable as Harrison rescuing him had been. He couldn’t even begin to repay his neighbor for everything he’d done for him, from dragging him away from his burning home in Chicago to literally pulling him out of a tiger’s den in Michigan City. Len didn’t want to say it out loud—he didn’t even really like thinking it—but he was certain he wouldn’t have made it this far without Harrison. The man was quite literally his hero.

  As Len returned to Harrison with as many dry sticks for a fire as he could find, he was amazed to see the headway his friend had made with the animal. The deer was strung up from a nearby tree by its hind legs, each hoof cut off at the knuckle. Harrison was now leaning over the animal, pulling its guts out in one smooth motion. Len fought the urge to gag as he watched Harrison toss the animal’s innards over to one side. He wasn’t an idiot—he knew this was how food got to the plate—but it certainly put into perspective his venison sausages in that fancy restaurant.

  “Ah, great,” Harrison rubbed his bloody hands on his pants as he turned around to see Len and the firewood. “Do you want to get a fire going while I finish preparing her? Use the Dakota fire hole method I taught you in Chicago.”

  “Right,” Len nodded, thinking back to when they’d been at Harrison’s home in Chicago and what he was talking about.

  “The two-hole method,” Harrison added, noticing the slightly confused expression Len was wearing. “Dig the main fire pit and then a tunnel to a second hole for the smoke to release. We’ll need less wood that way and it’ll keep the fire hotter with less smoke to attract any unwanted attention.”

  “Got it,” Len nodded more confidently this time, remembering the lesson Harrison had taught him. “No problem.”

  Relishing that he had an important job to do, Len set down the firewood and licked his finger to determine the direction of the wind. He really wanted to impress Harrison and wanted the man to see Len as someone he could rely on, not just someone he was helping to get by. Once Len knew which way the wind was blowing, he set to work on the main fire pit. Thankfully Harrison had had the foresight to pack a small spade in his rucksack so Len retrieved that and started digging. He made sure the wind would be blowing back across the main hole, something Harrison had told him would help with oxygen getting to the flames.

  While he dug, Len couldn’t help but watch Harrison and the skill and precision with which the man was skinning the deer. The tip of his knife worked quickly, showing more agility than Len would’ve thought possible if he didn’t know the things Harrison was capable of. At one point Harrison picked the deer up and flipped it around before reattaching it to the tree. From the sight of the animal Len knew it had to weigh a lot and he watched in awe as Harrison flung it around so easily, the beast reattached to the tree before Len could even think to help.

  Getting back to the fire, Len had just about finished digging. The main fire pit was large and deep, plenty big enough for them to cook a large amount of the deer at once. From this main fire pit Len had dug a small tunnel through to a smaller hole he’d made about a foot away, connecting the two by pushing his arm down through the tunnel. This would give the fire more oxygen and hopefully allow the meat to cook at a faster rate.

  Now all he had to do was light it. Thankfully Harrison had packed several lighters and Len was able to get the kindling going easily, not forced to start the fire by hand. While Len worked, Harrison tugged the skin of the deer down over where its head used to be, the animal decapitated when Len wasn’t paying attention. It was a strange sight, almost like the deer had been turned inside out—Len found it crazy to think that just an hour ago the deer had been equally alive as him and Harrison.

  “What do you think?” Harrison asked as he stepped away from the animal, holding a perfect deerskin rug in his hands. “This wouldn’t look too shabby in my bunker, eh?”

  Len stared at the deerskin that Harrison grasped in his hands. It was remarkable what a good job the man had done, the skin of the animal so cleanly removed it truly could be a centerpiece in someone’s living room. “Are you going to keep that?” Len asked, certain the skin could come in handy somehow.

  “No, no,” Harrison shook his head. “It would need to be properly dried and treated, and we don’t have the time or the equipment for that. In a perfect world I would, but in a perfect world I’d also hang this deer for a good week to rest the meat before eating. We just don’t have the luxuries of a perfect world anymore, my friend.”

  Len shook his head to himself and poked at the fire a bit more. Harrison was right. There were so many things they didn’t have anymore, but currently he felt like they had it a lot better than the average person. He wondered what James and Amy were doing for food and whether they were surviving. He was certain they wouldn’t be having meals as extravagant as he was, even if the venison wasn’t properly rested like Harrison said.

  “At least we’ve got this, though,” Len spoke eventually, voicing his thoughts about them having more than most. “The fire looks good to me; do you need anything else done?”

  “You could see if there’s a water source nearby,” Harrison glanced around the area. “If this deer was here then I think there should be. We’re getting a little low.”

  “No problem,” Len nodded and walked over to where their rucksacks were. Diving inside he withdrew the extra water canteens they both carried and the purifier from Harrison’s bag. This was yet another thing that Len couldn’t thank Harrison enough for; the thought of purifying water wouldn’t have even occurred to him if he’d been traveling alone.

  By the time Len returned to the small campsite, Harrison had the meat butchered and sizzling above the fire. Len had managed to find a small pond about half a mile away and he’d refilled the canisters there with the purifier. The water still wasn’t perfectly clear but he knew all the bacteria would’ve been removed and that was the main thing. A slightly odd taste was an acceptable price to pay.

  “That smells incredible,” Len inhaled deeply as he sat down beside Harrison, the deerskin beneath them like a blanket.

  “Thanks,” Harrison nodded as he took some water from Len, unscrewing the lid and gulping down a few mouthfuls. “It shouldn’t take much longer. You’ve built a good fire here.”

  Len didn’t say anything, but felt his cheeks redden slightly as he stood back up to fetch the metal pans the two of them ate from. He felt slightly stupid acting this way around another grown man, but he wasn’t about to deny that he was learning from Harrison and he was definitely not an expert in any of what they were doing. Even something as simple as building a fire was probably something Len would’ve struggled with a week ago, and if you added that to firing a gun and a bow and arrow he was pretty impressed by how much he’d already changed.

  When the meat was finally cooked and Harrison filled their plates, Len’s stomach instantly rumbled. There was a lot of food to eat but before it had been served he hadn’t realized how hungry he was. The packaged food he and Harrison had been surviving on so far wasn’t that bad, but the smell and promise of real meat was mouth-watering. From the very first bite Len was certain no food could live up to the standard of that meal.

  ***

  “Come on,” Harrison forced himself to his feet and started filling in the holes Len had dug for the fire. “We can’t waste this energy. We need to get going.”

  Len couldn’t help but groan. All he wanted to do at that moment was lie back and close his eyes, his stomach more full than it had been in weeks. The venison Harrison had shot, skinned, and cooked was by far the most succulent thing Len had ever eaten, the meat tender and moist and yet rich and full of flavor. He could barely compare it to the venison sausages he’d had previously; to do so would be an insult to the meal he’d just eaten.

  Harrison was right though. It was unlikely the two of them would eat that well again for a while and Len knew t
hey needed to make the most of the extra calories while they had them. Hopefully they could cover several more miles before darkness fell and even keep going during the night for a bit if they could. Although Len wasn’t ever going to complain about that meal, he knew it had stopped them on their journey for long enough.

  “All right,” Len joined Harrison on his feet and started walking around the small area where they’d sat, hiding as much evidence of their presence as he could. It was slightly futile when the carcass of a dead deer still hung from a tree, but Len knew it was the correct thing to do.

  Once the two of them were ready, Len secured the bow and quiver of arrows over his shoulder in a similar fashion to how Harrison was cradling the A3. He might have been reluctant about Harrison bringing the sniper rifle at first, but Len was happy for it now. As they started walking, he felt not only full and content, but also like there was real hope for the future of their journey. Harrison was a valuable asset, but the more time Len spent with him the more he became confident in his own abilities as well. There was little doubt left in his mind now: Len was going to reach his family.

  Chapter 3

  It was actually surprising how much difference the meal had made to Len’s physical and mental state. As they continued to walk along the interstate, he found each and every step easier than any he’d taken since he’d left O’Riley’s pub several days ago. His body had been battered and bruised along the way and he’d faced scenarios he would’ve never even dreamed of, but now continuing the journey with a full stomach and a strong pair of legs beneath him, he felt like anything was possible. It wasn’t until a dreadful smell assaulted his nostrils that Len was brought back to the present and the realization that the world had collapsed around them.

  “What is that?” He pulled the collar of his shirt up over his nose and made a disgusted face, looking to Harrison for some kind of explanation. His partner nodded forward to the burnt wreckage of a car just ahead of them, bringing Len’s attention to the human arm hanging out of the driver side window.

  As they walked closer, the smell intensified and Len grimaced, realizing he smelt rotting human flesh. Everything inside of him told Len not to look into the car as they walked past, but he was unable to stop himself from glancing inside the vehicle. The sight inside almost made him throw up the large meal they had just eaten, the image of the two dead passengers instantly ingrained in his mind.

  The skin of both the driver and his companion was stretched taut over their faces and exposed arms, glistening in the light from the sun. They looked almost wax-like as their eyes stared forward, their facial expressions distorted by the state of their skin. Len couldn’t understand what would’ve killed them and left them trapped in their vehicle like this, the car not showing any obvious signs of damage or offering an explanation.

  “What was that?” Len finally spoke as they put the scene behind them, forcing himself not to look back again.

  “I don’t know,” Harrison shook his head. “It has to be related to the disaster, though. And I have a feeling that’s not the only incident like it that we’ll see.”

  Focusing on the road ahead of them, Len noticed that there were more and more cars up ahead, each of them looking like they just stopped working randomly. He understood that the majority of cars these days had some sort of electrical control system and knew that was probably why his and many others had stopped working. But why the people had been trapped inside was a mystery to him, a mystery he realized he didn’t want to know the answer to.

  As they walked through the vehicles, Len saw more and more people frozen in the same state as the first two men. He realized after a while that the way their skin looked reminded him of someone he’d once seen on the beach. An old woman who had clearly spent too much of her life tanning—naturally and with the aid of modern equipment. Her skin looked like leather, hard and wrinkled after too much exposure to heat. Every person that he passed who was trapped in a vehicle looked the same way, the unrelenting power of the sun cooking them alive where they sat.

  Once again Len found himself increasingly thankful that Amy had given up driving. There was very little chance that she and James had been in a car when everything happened and that gave him hope that they were safe somewhere. When he had left Chicago he still had hope that the smaller towns weren’t as badly affected as his city had been, but now he knew that wouldn’t be true. South Haven had likely been hit just the same as Chicago, and Len could only hope that Amy and James hadn’t been caught in the middle of it.

  “How much longer do you think this will last?” Len asked Harrison absentmindedly, his thoughts spiraling toward a world that never regained power; that never regained civilization.

  “Honestly?” Harrison asked with a serious tone to his voice, looking over at Len and waiting for a prompt to continue. “This is bad, Len. I think we’ll be looking at years before things return to how they were, if things can ever truly be the same.”

  Len was stunned into silence for a moment. Years. He had a hard time believing that would be the case, but after everything he had already learned from Harrison—and everything else the man must surely know—he found it very hard not to trust the old man. It had only been a matter of days since things began but as everything they had already witnessed ran through Len’s mind he knew that the prepper was probably right. If the government hadn’t sent any aid yet, then that meant they were really struggling too. Chicago would definitely be one of the first cities to receive it and from what he’d seen of Chicago, it wasn’t going to be saved any time soon.

  “Parts of the country will bounce back quicker than others,” Harrison continued, echoing what Len had been thinking. “But there are probably people alive right now who’ll never experience power again. We can’t even be sure if it’s just the US. An EMP this powerful could’ve pushed the whole world back into the Dark Ages.”

  Len didn’t have the will to keep up the conversation with Harrison and so the two of them fell back into silence very quickly. But while the air between them was quiet, Len’s mind was working overtime trying to imagine what other effects the solar storm would have had. Communication was down. Transportation too. Humanity had been stripped down to its basest level and only those with true resilience and grit would be able to survive it. For the millionth time Len thanked his lucky stars that Harrison had found him.

  “Hmm…”

  Another couple of hours passed before either of them spoke again and then it was only Harrison’s pondering that broke the silence. Len looked across at his companion to see Harrison surveying a road sign up ahead, marking the next town they were going to come across.

  “What?”

  “I don’t know if going through here is the best idea,” Harrison deliberated, running a hand through his gray beard as he thought.

  “Why not?” Len asked, reading the sign and noting that Union Pier was only a few miles away.

  “I think we’re better off avoiding the towns if we can; you haven’t forgotten what happened in Michigan City already, have you?”

  Len grimaced. It would take more than a few hours of walking to make him forget what had happened back there, the terrifying sight of the gang members with shaven heads surely a feature of his nightmares for years to come. Union Pier didn’t sound like it was as big as Michigan City though and Len could tell it was the most direct route for them to travel.

  “Hardly,” Len replied, “this doesn’t look like a big place though. How much extra time would it take for us to go around?”

  Harrison plucked a map out of a side pocket on his rucksack, consulting it for a moment. “It’d only add another hour,” he muttered, “but you’re right—it doesn’t look like a very big place.”

  “I’m all for avoiding the bigger cities,” Len spoke quickly, “but not the smaller ones if it’ll eat through our day. Why don’t we get closer and see what it’s like?”

  “All right,” Harrison nodded after a pause, replacing the map in his rucksack
and taking a swig from his water canteen. “Follow my lead, though. If anything does seem off, I’d rather you didn’t get captured again.”

  Len forced a smile at Harrison’s remark, not yet comfortable joking about what had happened to him. He didn’t feel nervous about traveling through Union Pier though. They hadn’t seen any sign of the Latin Kings since they escaped the zoo and Len found it difficult to believe they would be spread this far away from Chicago, despite what Harrison had previously said about their reach. Hopefully they could move through Union Pier undetected and save them delaying any further on their journey. South Haven—and for Harrison, Canada—was still a long way away.

  The first signs of the small town crept up on them quickly, a few newly built houses scattered along the road. Both Harrison and Len regarded them carefully, watching for the slightest bit of movement in any of the windows. Len didn’t see anything, but Harrison withdrew his Glock from the holster at his waist, reluctant to take any chances.