EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival by Hunt, James (acx book reading .TXT) 📗

Eventually, Mrs. Riker stopped at the storage cooler where they kept all their dried goods. It was there she saw Cole, who she knew was Sarah’s biological father, pacing back and forth in front of the big cooler area. It wasn’t until Nancy looked inside the cooler and she saw what was missing that she understood the crisis at hand.

“Oh my God,” Sarah said.

This morning the cooler had been stocked full of provisions. Wheat, grains, canned foods, and the rest of the MRE rations stored at the facility. But now, the storage area was only half full of what it had been earlier today.

“What the hell happened?” Sarah asked. “Were we robbed?”

Mrs. Riker was staring at Cole, and Nancy could see the anger radiating off of her. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Because apparently guarding the food doesn’t necessarily mean guarding it all of the time.”

“I was gone for a couple minutes,” Cole said. “I was helping Rachel with something.”

Mrs. Riker shook her head, disgusted, and it took Sarah and Nancy a moment to realize what that “something” really meant.

“Eww, Dad, what the hell?” Sarah asked.

“Hey, don’t use that kind of language,” Cole answered, but his parental chops didn’t provide him with a leg to stand on.

“How much is gone?” Nancy asked.

“Almost half,” Mrs. Riker answered.

“It would have taken more than one person to do this,” Sarah said. “Unless you were gone for like an hour, in which case, more gross, Dad.”

“Look, they couldn’t have gotten far,” Cole said. “All we have to do is search everyone’s portable, get the food back, and then we’ll be good to go. It’s not like there are a lot of hiding places at the facility. And we have a key to get into every room we need to.”

“I don’t like the idea of intruding on people’s privacy,” Mrs. Riker said. “But we need to recover the food quickly before we miss our chance to get it back.”

Mrs. Riker rubbed her forehead, and Nancy could tell that she was stressed. But who wouldn’t be under the current circumstances?

“The faster we get this done, the easier it will be to control the damage,” Mrs. Riker said.

“I’m sure it’s going to be fine—” Cole stopped when he saw the daggers in Mrs. Riker’s eyes boring into him. He didn’t dare move save for the one step he took backward.

“I don’t think you understand how thin the line is that we’re walking here,” Mrs. Riker said. “We have double the amount of people we had when this food storage was here. Food is our stability. If that disappears, then so does people’s civility.”

“We should start knocking on doors,” Nancy said. “I think I might have an idea of where we start.”

“Who?” Sarah asked.

“The Percy’s,” Nancy answered. “This has their fingerprints all over it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Sarah said. “They made a deal with us. And we still have the numbers against them if they were to try anything aggressive.”

“Trust me when I tell you that those people are capable of anything,” Nancy said. “They will do whatever it takes to save their own skin.”

“We will get to the Percy’s eventually,” Mrs. Riker said. “Right now, it’s important for us to remain calm and not to cause panic.”

“Well, we’re going to have to tell people we’re looking for when we search their things, right?” Sarah said. “So how do you tell them that half of our food is missing without causing a panic?”

“We try to do it all once,” Mrs. Riker answered. “Each of us can take a section of the facility, and by the time people realize what’s happening, hopefully, we’ll have found the food by then.”

“And if we don’t find the food?” Nancy asked.

“We will cross that bridge when we come to it,” Mrs. Riker answered.

Once assignments were divvied out, the four of them begin their search of the facility. But before Nancy started searching her own area, she made a pit stop to speak to Abe and explained what happened.

Abe’s eyes widened. “Half?”

“Yeah,” Nancy answered. “You hear anything down here? Or see somebody come by?”

Abe shook his head. “I guess I fell asleep on duty.”

If Abe hadn’t seen anybody come through, then either he had been asleep, or the thieves had entered through the back door where she would come through to see Abe.

“What is it?” Abe asked. “You look worried.”

“None of this makes any sense,” Nancy answered. “For somebody to steal that much food, you would think they were going to leave with it. But that amount of food would require a huge wagon and several people to transport it.”

“And?” Abe asked.

“My point is that it would be difficult to hide,” Nancy answered. “Anyone with half a brain would realize that. If their goal were to steal food, it would have made more sense to steal a little bit at a time, try to keep it under the radar. And it wasn’t like people weren’t being fed here on a timely and regular basis. Whoever did this wanted to make a statement.”

“Do you have an idea of who it might be?” he asked.

Nancy nodded. But she hadn’t been tasked with searching the Percy’s belongings. But she would bet her life that those people had something to do this. She just needed to prove it.

10

There wasn’t much conversation on the road with Jackson. But Ben didn’t mind the silence. Both men were frustrated with one another.

The horses trotted at a leisurely pace through the woods. It had been Ben’s suggestion that they stay off the main highways as much as possible. Ben did not want to run into a scenario where they found themselves in a fight and outmanned.

“Are we getting close?” Jackson asked.

“It should only be another few miles,” Ben answered. “So long as we stay on this path, we should run right into it.”

“Okay then.” Jackson nodded. “I don’t like the idea of us going