Preppers of the Apocalypse - Part 1: Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Read Online Free PDF Page B

on the basic car maintenance, he imagined his dad stood
over his shoulder and shaking his head.
     
    You
know this stuff, Ash. Or you knew it. Why’d you let yourself forget?
     
    “Brake
fluid needs topping up,” he said, feeling proud of himself. He moved away from
the bonnet.
     
    “There’s
some in the back,” said Tony as he crouched against a rear tire and checked how
worn it was. “I like to be prepared for anything.  Any situation can happen,
even the most unlikely. Whoever thought an EMP would go off?”
     
    “My
dad did,” said Ash.
     
    “Was
he a prepper?”
     
    “He
wouldn’t go to the shop for milk without having an alternative route in case he
hit trouble.”
     
    “That
reminds me. The route to the plant. We’ve got two choices, and I want you to
think carefully before you answer me. One route is on the 54 out of town. Takes
around twenty minutes on a good day. The other is over a rocky plain that
stretches far outside of Pasture Down. It’s full of boulders and pits where
they dig for lime.”
     
    “Seems
obvious,” says Ash. “We take the road.”
     
    “You
need to get your survival skills tuned. Didn’t your prepper Pa teach you
anything?”
     
    “He
did, but I didn’t listen.”
     
    “Think
about it. The first thing some people will do when they realise the power is
never coming back is leave town. Add to that the fact that some folks would
have been driving on the road when their car died, and I’d hazard that the
simple route is blocked by fancy cars with fried electric circuits.”
     
    Ash
topped up the brake fluid and then screwed the cap back onto the bottle. Tony
stood away from the tire and folded his arms. Ash handed him the brake fluid.
     
    “I
ain’t your butler. Put it in on the back.”
     
    The
rear of the pick-up was full of enough gear to survive four Armageddons. It
seemed like the entire space was crammed with whatever Tony thought he might
need at some point in his life; a big box of strike-anywhere matches with white
phosphorus tips, a box stuffed with curled up maps, piles of energy bars and
military rations that he had procured from somewhere. There was duct tape,
rope, knives and so much more stuff that Ash was surprised that the vehicle
could still run under the weight of it.
     
    “You
came prepared, didn’t you?”
     
    “I
saw this coming.”
     
    “The
EMP, or whatever it is?”
     
    “Not
the EMP, as such, but something. Anything. Some kind of disaster. I’ve always
thought it was heading our way. You should see my ranch.”
     
    “Are
you a prepper too?”
     
    Tony
laughed. “You don’t know the half of it. It’s more than likely you’ll need to
see it, because there’s no way you’re getting home without supplies.”
     
    ***
     
    As
they left Pasture Down and hit the rocky wilderness that led to the plant, the
sun was beginning to sink in the sky. Ash kept the window down while Tony
drove, and the breeze slapped his face at sixty miles per hour and practically
glued open his eyelids. The horizon seemed uniformly bland; just an expanse of
yellow rocks with weeds poking through here and there. Ash knew that there were
farms on the outskirts of the town, but it didn’t look like anything could grow
out here in the wilderness.
     
    “Is
family important you, Ash?” said Tony. He didn’t take his eyes away from the
windscreen.
     
    “Course
it is.”
     
    “Me
too. Nothing more important than the people who love you and depend on you.”
     
    “Yeah.”
     
    “So
imagine how I felt when I had to explain to my wife that I’d lost all our
savings to a shady salesman. Tell me, Ash. How does mirror seem when you stare
into it? You like what you see?”
     
    Ash
felt the blood start to rush to his face. He felt like grabbing the door handle
and then diving out of the car. If it wasn’t for the fact that he’d probably
knock himself unconscious, he’d have done it.
     
    “Pull
over,” he said.
     
    “The
plant’s a few