EMP Catastrophe - Hamilton, Grace (best books to read for beginners txt) 📗

bottle of water, and listening to the rapid thump of her heart. For a moment, she wondered if the man could be a deer or even a rabbit, but then the grasses shifted again. Moonlight illuminated a clear shape. It was a man.

She couldn’t see much else of him. Just the bow-legged stance and a face obscured by shadows. He’d paced along the tree line, but he never actually crossed onto the property. Kathleen didn’t know what he was waiting for. Was he looking for someone? Jade, perhaps?

She considered waking Matthew up, but from the deep rumble of his snores, she knew he was fast asleep. He needed his rest for what was to come. She’d bitten her lip and decided that she would wait, watch, and sound an alarm if the man took one step closer. She had to keep her family safe, and if this was the best way to do it, so be it.

Kathleen didn’t know how long she stood next to the window. All she knew was that her world became a smear of time where the stars were suddenly replaced with a rose-pink dawn. As the sun crested the mountains, the man slipped away into the woods and didn’t return. Then, suddenly, Matthew had his hands on her shoulders and was asking if she’d been awake all night. Blearily, she realized that was the truth.

He promised he would look into what she’d seen. She believed him, even though she harbored a startling worry that he might proclaim her crazy and dismiss her. Exhaustion pulled at her when he finally left to go downstairs. That exhaustion turned into relief when she saw him walk out the front door and head toward the trees.

She hated how she felt so awkward around Matthew now. In some dark corner of her mind, she knew that she wasn’t the woman he had fallen in love with anymore. If he knew what she had done…he wouldn’t love her anymore. She had lost so much just to get back home; she didn’t think she could survive losing her husband.

She sat on the bed and then lay down. Her eyes fluttered closed. She would bury these feelings. She would box up the memories of what she had been through and never let them out. When sleep came, it was fitful. When she woke back up again, she realized hardly any time had passed at all.

Walking back to the window, she watched as Matthew left the house again and headed toward the property line. Allison and Patton stepped off the porch and around to the other side of the house. David and Jade walked slowly by and pointed to various parts of the property as if surveying something. And still the sensation of feeling unsafe lingered inside of Kathleen. The tight knot of anxiety inside her wouldn’t loosen.

If she stayed in this room any longer, she might explode. The outside world was full of dangers she couldn’t anticipate. Her skin felt too tight. She started to think that there might be something lurking in the closet. When she went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, all she could see was Andrew Lang’s face. With a shudder, she dressed and went downstairs, determined not to isolate herself anymore. Even those few simple tasks felt monumental, like they’d taken most of her energy to accomplish.

Downstairs, the hotel was quiet. With everyone outside doing chores to keep the hotel safe, the place seemed suspended in time, waiting for the next onslaught of life to happen. She maneuvered down to the kitchen and was relieved to hear soft humming coming from it. The clanking of appliances, glass jars hitting a countertop, and the soft shuffle of feet moving across a tiled floor also filled her ears.

Taking a deep breath, she walked inside and saw her mother-in-law moving around the kitchen with ease. A fire was lit on the propane stove and a stainless-steel pot was on top of that. She peered inside it and saw four mason jars in a shallow layer of water.

“Water bath canning,” Ruth said as an explanation. “I’m trying a new method. Who knows if it will work?”

A pad of paper sat on the counter. Ruth picked up a pencil and ticked something off on it. Kathleen gazed at the cut-up tomatoes and spices. “Are you making salsa?” she asked.

Ruth looked somewhat bashful. “I wasn’t sure what else to do with the tomatoes,” she said. “They weren’t going to last another day.” Ruth’s face relaxed into a soft smile. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

Kathleen suddenly felt defensive. The question made her seem as though she were ill, or perhaps as if she might fly off the handle at a moment’s notice. “I’m fine,” she said tightly. “Where is everyone?”

“Matt is out checking the property line,” Ruth said, pulling out more mason jars and trying to find their corresponding lids. “Allison and Patton are inventorying other useful goods that they might find around the hotel. David and Jade are searching for a good spot to set up a composting toilet. I’m making an inventory of our food. Feel like lending me a hand?”

Kathleen forced herself to give a thin-lipped smile. “Of course. I need to pull my weight.”

“Eat first,” Ruth said, handing her the last banana on the counter.

Kathleen studied the fruit for a moment, feeling lost, until her stomach growled. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until then. She peeled it apart to find the fruit sweet, if somewhat mushy. As she ate, she looked at what else Ruth had laid out, but her attention was caught by the drying meat in one corner of the kitchen. She let out a soft noise of surprise and got closer to it. Strips of meat hung from hooks and twine along angled poles of wood. Other strips were draped over the poles so that they could easily be smoked. The meat looked good and surprisingly free of rot.

“All Patton’s idea,” Ruth said