EMP Catastrophe | Book 2 | Erupting Danger Hamilton, Grace (ebook reader color screen txt) 📖

He left the shed and continued to take stock of the fence. In the distance, the log sides of the hotel looked golden-blonde in the sunlight. The hotel appeared smaller from this angle, and Matthew finally realized how large the property actually was. When he’d bought the hotel, the acreage had just been numbers and a calculated cost. He never really had a full grasp of how much land they’d purchased. He’d known, logically, but he hadn’t known in the way that showed experience.

Thus, it would be easy for anyone to slink onto the property. That morning, he had thought Kathleen a bit paranoid and seeing things. Yet now that he realized that anyone could sneak on and off without them noticing, it suddenly made him worried.

He couldn’t hear birdsong anymore. The buzzing bugs had gone momentarily silent. A chill ran up his spine. Who knew what kind of people were moving around the property undetected? Who knew who might be watching him right now?

It made more sense that Kathleen had seen someone. It scared him that she hadn’t said that person had left. His skin began to crawl. He began to walk faster, looking over his shoulder. He couldn’t shake the notion that the hotel had a target painted on it and that soon people would be arriving to take it from them. He forced himself to finish his rounds and then made a beeline back toward the hotel. David and Jade were surveying a portion of land near the house. When David saw him, he raised his hand in hello.

As Matthew got closer to the hotel, the feeling of being watched faded. He saw that the root cellar door against the foundation of the house had been thrown wide open. The excited voices of his children floated up from inside it. Yet the fear that had haunted him from his outing made him imagine that their excitement was actually shouts for help. He ran up to the cellar and shouted inside, “Allison? Patton? Are you okay?”

Scuffles. Loud footsteps on a ladder. Allison’s head popped up out of the door. Dirt was streaked across her cheeks, but it seemed that the life was back in her eyes. “Dad,” she said, “you won’t believe what we found.”

“Actual buried treasure?” he asked.

She grinned. “Even better.” She looked past him and said, “Grandpa, you’re gonna love this.”

David shared her smile. “I can’t wait.”

Matthew eased into the cellar, descending the ladder steps carefully. David followed him. When Matthew was fully inside, he blinked in the dim light of the room and his mouth opened in surprise. A long workbench filled the room. Old open plastic containers full of different sized nails and bits had been lined up on one side of the bench. On the other side were hammers, a measuring tape, and screwdrivers. Hand saws, axes, and bigger hammers were perched on hooks along the wall. An awl and plane sat in one corner next to a pile of scrap wood.

“What the…” Matthew trailed off.

“Whoever owned this place before must’ve been a woodworker,” Patton said, as he unrolled a set of blueprints. He looked thrilled, as if his chore had truly turned into finding gold.

David gasped beside Matthew. He pushed past and went to the bench and began inspecting other items. “Wow,” David said, “this is amazing. There’s a tumbler here so we can collect our used bullet shells and clean them to reuse them. I think if I can figure out some of this equipment, we’ll be able to make our own bullets even.”

Matthew came closer and peered at the items on the workbench. “Don’t you need gunpowder, though?” he asked. “I don’t know much about making bullets, but wouldn’t that be dangerous to have?”

David frowned. “I don’t see gunpower either.” He looked around and his frown melted away. “Look, though, there’s rock salt over there.”

Matthew followed his line of sight and saw the bags propped up against the wall. “What does that mean?” he asked. “That we’ll be able to keep our driveway ice-free during the winter?”

“No,” David said, looking excited. “We can use rock salt in the shotgun cartridges. It will ruin the gun in the long run, but if we pack the salt in carefully, it will work in a pinch or in an emergency. It will be great for defending ourselves when our actual bullets run out.”

Matthew’s elation at their find suddenly disappeared. He hadn’t quite realized that bullets were a finite resource. It wasn’t like he could go down to the store and pick up more. His mood darkened when he thought of all the things that he’d once counted on that would soon be useless. Soon, he’d have a gun that couldn’t shoot. He’d have a toilet that wouldn’t flush. He’d have a refrigerator that wouldn’t cool. All these appliances. Suddenly useless.

He took a deep breath and tried not to feel overwhelmed. Patton watched him with a pinched expression on his face. “Dad?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

Matthew plastered a smile on his face. “Of course I am. Patton, this is better than buried treasure. Better than dead things. Better than insects.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Patton said, and turned back to uncover what else the cellar had in store for them.

9

Kathleen remembered the moment she saw the man watching the hotel from the tree line.

Nightmares had left her tossing and turning until she finally got up to get a drink of water. She had paused to look out the window and marvel at the bright shine of stars and moonlight lighting up the hotel property. It had been so long since she’d taken the time to enjoy the night sky, and now that there wasn’t any electricity drowning out the natural light, the whole world seemed transformed. It was then that she saw movement along the property’s edge.

Terror had rushed through her and had left her paralyzed. She’d stood there, gripping an empty