Grid Down: A Strike against America – An EMP Survival Story- Book One Read Online Free PDF

Dunne—a moderately wealthy middle-aged couple, known to Rob in Nyack as frequent Pro-Survival store customers, among his best. They didn’t have any children and continually lent out two of the five rooms in their cabin as classrooms.
    Brad and Ashlee Atkins, a thirty-something couple, took their seats, fresh from a swim in the river. Elliot arrived absent his wife, Reba. They were an elderly retired couple who had already been vacationing at their cabin weeks prior to the blackout. Reba was under the weather, Elliot explained, and she wouldn’t be attending the meeting.
    “Is she OK?” Mila asked him. “How bad is it?”
    “Just some cramping. A headache,” Elliot said.
    Mila stood up from the bench near him. “Elliot, why didn’t you tell me? I should see her.”
    Elliot scratched his abundant white hair, seeming befuddled. “I-I don’t know. We’re sure it’s just a passing thing.”
    “Let me examine her,” Mila said. “Before anything gets worse.”
    “Well. OK. If that’s what you want to do. I think she’s sleeping now.”
    As a nurse, Mila regularly did checkups and house calls, with no major illnesses to report thus far. But there was one problem: medical supplies were getting low, and their stock of IV bags, medical kits, and pain relievers all had expiration dates. They were managing, for the time being, but would need to stock up soon.
    “I’ll go see her now,” Mila said, walking off toward Elliot’s cabin, not giving it a second thought, just as Rob took the stage.
    “Hello everyone,” he said, noticing her sudden exit. He looked at Elliot. “Is Reba OK?”
    Elliot nodded. “Yes, yes. That’s what I told her, but…”
    “We’ll get started anyway,” Rob said.
    “What’s on the agenda, anyway?” Carlos, a stocky bulldog of a man, asked. He rubbed his clean-shaven head in near frustration.
    “I won’t take too much of your time, Carlos,” Rob said. “I know you had guard duty last night.” He cleared his throat and began, looking down at his papers. “I took some notes from the latest emergency broadcasts and can share them if you haven’t heard any of this already.”
    The group was silent so Rob continued.
    “The entire country, it seems, is going through the same thing we are. No power, no fuel, and no way to communicate. We assumed this to be the case, but it gets worse. We’re going to have to make some tough decisions here about how to approach the next few months.”
    Brad raised his hand and spoke. “How much longer? Did they say?”
    “I’ll get to that,” Rob answered. “But first, there’s two main things to consider.” He raised a finger. “Number one, winter is near. The temperature has already started dropping. Ideally we’d all love to be in Florida right now, hunkering down on the beach, but that’s not within our ability. We do, however, need to consider a plan for the winter, whether it’s feasible to stay here, and if so, how we can survive.”
    “Well, heck, Rob,” Elliot said, speaking up. “Reba and I never expected to be here that long.”
    “I don’t think any of us did, but it’s clear from the latest reports that that the power grid won’t be fixed anytime soon, and we’re completely on our own up here. The government is not coming to our rescue.”
    “What about the city? This, uh, Operation Urban Breach mission,” Peter said. “Clearly they’ve gotten things under control by now.”
    “We don’t know that,” Brad said.
    “But we could freeze to death up here,” Peter said.
    Rob extended both hands in a calming gesture. “Please, everyone. Let me finish. Aside from the weather, we also have to consider additional security measures. Crime and anarchy are rampant. Complete cities have been taken over by gangs. The same could go for Nyack.”
    Rob’s sobering words had a chilling effect on the group. Judging by their expressions, it was not what they wanted to hear.
    “This isn’t to say there’s no hope,” Rob