Edge of Fear: An EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival Prepper Series (American Fallout Book 3) Alex Gunwick (free reads .txt) 📖

best days of Luke’s entire life. Sierra was so happy her daddy was there with her for her birthday. She looked at him as if he’d hung the moon and the stars. He wished she were still that same little girl. He wished she’d never grown up.

One of the hardest days of his life was when he had to say goodbye to them at the airport a few days later. Liz had to physically pry Sierra off him. Her wiry little arms dug into his neck.

“Don’t go!” She sobbed.

He understood how she felt. He didn’t want to let her go either. To let her go seemed like a kind of death. A piece of him stayed behind that day, and on the plane ride back to Afghanistan, he grieved a terrible loss. Part of him would always long for that weekend at the cabin.

Could that same, sweet little girl have run off into the woods with Derek? Luke wished he could believe such an irresponsible, selfish action was unthinkable for Sierra. But the more he considered it, the likelier it seemed. If he were truly honest with himself, it seemed like exactly the sort of thing she would do.

It was hard to reconcile the sweet, intelligent little girl Sierra had been back then with the shallow, self-involved teenager she had become. Somewhere along the way, she’d stopped asked thoughtful questions. She’d become obsessed with popularity and celebrity gossip. Once she got her hands on her first smartphone, nothing was ever the same.

As she got older, she hated coming to the cabin. She spent most of her time with her face glued to her phone as she complained about the spotty cell service. It broke his and Liz’s hearts to see their daughter’s transition. But he hadn’t given up on her. He was convinced she’d become his smart, good-natured daughter once again now that technology was out of the picture. Of course, he had to find her first. And when he did find her, he was going to chew her out something fierce.

He stopped at a large, downed tree. He’d ranged far into the woods, but he hadn’t been able to find any more of the faint, Sierra-sized footsteps he’d found near the cabin. He had no idea where to look next.

Sierra’s eyes flickered open. She lifted her chin off her chest with a loud groan. Her neck ached fiercely. The muscles had gone tight at the back from being slumped forward all night. She instinctively tried to reach up to rub at the soreness before she remembered her hands were bound behind her. Her shoulders throbbed with the strain, and her butt hurt from the sustained pressure of the hard metal chair. In fact, as she further examined the sensations in her body, she found every part of her was sore.

She yelled for Derek as loud as her weakened state would allow. Her shrill voice hurt her ears as it echoed off the bare concrete walls of her little prison.

“You bastard. I have to pee. Like, really, really bad. Please, don’t make me pee myself.”

A groan came from somewhere deeper in the bunker. Footsteps approached. Derek came around to face her as he rubbed the sleep from his baggy eyes.

“Good morning. Sleep well?” He smiled at her, amused.

“What do you think?” She spat the words at him with all the venom she could muster.

“Yeah, guess not. Sorry again about all this.” He rubbed the back of his neck and turned away sheepishly.

“Oh, screw you. Can you please untie me? I’m serious, I really have to pee. Like, now.”

“All right. I’ll untie you. But only to pee. You won’t try any funny business, right? Because I don’t want to hurt you. But I also can’t let you go yet.”

“I promise, no funny business. But seriously, you need to hurry. We’re well past emergency status here.”

“Okay, okay, I’m going.” He moved around to the back of the chair to work on the knot binding her wrists.

She glanced at the door. Could she make it out the door and lose him in the woods before he caught her? Probably not. He was far stronger than she was. And faster. She’d never be able to outrun him, especially with his military training. Her father wasn’t even on active duty anymore, and he could run circles around her. Derek was in peak physical condition, no doubt. He would be on her before she even made it to the door. He was also unpredictable. He’d been relatively polite up to this point, but she worried how he would react to a failed escape attempt.

Even so, as soon as he freed one of her hands, she slapped him hard across the face.

“What the hell, woman? You said no funny business.”

“Oh, please. That’s a fraction of what you deserve, asshole. Keeping me tied up here all night. You’re lucky it was my hands you untied first. Otherwise, your crotch would be mighty sore right now.”

“Fine, fine. Fair enough. But no more, okay? Otherwise, I’ll tie you back up and you can sit here in your pee.”

“Fine.”

Derek led her through the narrow entryway, and they emerged into a large, circular room with a high ceiling.

She gazed around open-mouthed, shocked that such a large structure could be hidden so deep underground. Several hallways branched off in different directions, and a number of tables filled with ancient-looking electronics—radios, monitors, and a lot of other things she didn’t recognize. Shelves lined the walls around the outside of the room, filled with dusty bags and boxes of varying sizes.

She walked over to a large radio on one table and reached for it, but Derek stopped her with a shout.

“Don’t touch anything. In fact, don’t look at anything, either. You said you had to pee. So, let’s go.”

“Fine! You know, you don’t have to be so grumpy.”

“Come on.”

He led her down one of the narrow, circular hallways. Lockers lined the walls on both sides of the passage. She wanted desperately to look