EMP Catastrophe by Hamilton, Grace (books to read in your 20s female .txt) 📗

raving, but Matthew couldn’t take any chances. This was the safety of his mother and son. He’d do whatever it took to remove them from harm. After all he and David had gone through to get back home, he wouldn’t simply let things fall apart now.

Matthew followed David around the hotel and to a side door. David knelt in front of it and Matthew followed suit. David took his pack out and carefully unzipped the front pouch, pulling out Matthew’s car keys.

“Thank goodness we didn’t lose those,” Matthew said, taking the ring and flipping through the keys to find the hotel’s skeleton key. He unlocked the side door carefully even as the hotel’s blueprint unfolded in his mind.

“What should we do?” David asked.

Matthew knew that this side door would take him to a hallway that attached to the dining room. “I think I should sneak in and then take Samuel by surprise in the lobby. I’ll disarm him and get him out of our home,” Matthew said.

“He might shoot you,” David said. “Or your mother.”

“I have to take that chance,” Matthew said.

“He’s drunk, so he’ll be distracted,” David said in a rush. “We can ambush him, wrestle the gun away from him. He won’t know we’re coming. We just have to be careful. Samuel is a wild card. We have no idea what he might do.”

“I know, Dad,” Matthew said, handing the keys back to David.

“One of us can grab him from behind, get him on the floor somehow, and the other one can take the shotgun from him,” David continued, slipping the keys back into the backpack’s front pouch.

“I like the plan, Dad, but it’s going to be a one-man operation.” Matthew smiled sadly as David’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“Absolutely not,” David said. “You’re not doing this solo.”

“I have to,” Matthew countered. “You’re weak from the infection and we can’t risk you opening up the gunshot wound again. What if you trigger another heart attack? It’s not worth the risk.”

“This is when you have to risk everything!” David hissed, trying to keep his voice down. He pointed at the door. “That’s my wife in there, treating that trespasser like a guest while he’s treating her like she’s nothing! There is absolutely no way you are leaving me behind.”

“Dad,” Matthew said, laying a hand on David’s shoulder. “You wouldn’t send a wounded man into battle, would you?”

David fell silent, biting his lip. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“You have to admit, you’re too much at risk. Not only that, but you’re a liability. I know you hate hearing that, but if I had to give up my heart of gold, you have to acknowledge your limitations.”

David made an aggravated sound. “I don’t want you going in by yourself.”

“I know, but now isn’t the time for stupid heroics. I’ll need you to figure out another plan if something happens to me. Mom and Patton can’t be left alone. You’ll have to be the one to get them out if Samuel hurts me. You might have to go into town to find help, if it comes to it.”

David looked away and studied the door, as if it might hold the answers he wanted to hear. “Fine,” he admitted. “I can see I might be more of a hindrance in this situation.”

“One time only, though,” Matthew said. “You’ll live to fight another day when you’re all healed up.”

“You better believe it,” David said. “What should I do, then? While you’re going in on your own?”

“Find Patton, I suppose. If you hear a gunshot, follow behind me. Grab Mom and Patton and get them out of here.” Matthew slipped his bag off his shoulders and opened it up, being careful that the zipper didn’t make too much noise. “Keep everyone safe.” He pulled out Jade’s .45 and checked to make sure it was ready for use. He was going to save his mother and son if it was the last thing he did.

32

With a definitive nod and a good-luck clap on the back, David pushed open the door for Matthew and Matthew slipped inside. The hotel was silent in a different way than the quiet of the outside world. There was no wind, no crunching gravel underneath his boots, no huffed breath of David beside him. Matthew crept down the short hallway to the dining room and couldn’t imagine what his mother and Patton must have gone through with Samuel. He wondered how long the jerk had been here treating his mother like garbage.

He eased around the stack of unpacked boxes that stood up against the wall. His shoes made a soft shushing sound against the carpet and then a tap-tap when the carpet turned to hardwood floors. Three plates were on the large main table. The remains of a meal. He studied them for a moment, staying as silent as possible before walking around the tables and chairs. The gun felt warm in his hands, slick with his sweat.

Again, he couldn’t understand how his world had been turned upside down in the last few days. Before, he used to think if something apocalyptic like this happened, people would band together and see through the crisis with clasped hands. He thought the world would be full of compassion and understanding. He never expected to be shot at or see a man murdered. He never thought he’d willingly steal. Yet if he hadn’t committed such a crime, his father would most likely have died.

He’d met all kinds of people on this journey, people who’d made him see different shades of gray that he never even thought existed. He hoped that many of them found their way home again. Jordan from the sporting goods store. Shawn and his turtle-loving son. He wondered what had happened to Jade after he’d run her off and knew she would always be on his mind. He would always worry that she’d return to hurt him for abandoning her.

He’d done bad things in the name of good. He’d done good things that