Family Survival Read online

  Family Survival:

  A Family’s Apocalypse

  Apocalypse: A Family’s Survival Story

  by

  A J Newman

  ✼

  This book is dedicated to Patsy, my beautiful wife of thirty-four years who assists with everything from Beta reading to censor duties. She enables me to write, golf, and enjoy my life with her and our mob of Shih Tzu’s.

  Thanks to my friend Cliff Deane who is also a Beta reader.

  NOTE: My good friend Cliff Deane has three Post-Apocalyptic novels on Amazon. If you like military Post-Apocalyptic novels, you’ll love these books.

  Vigilante: Into the Darkness

  Vigilante: Into the Fray

  Vigilante: The Pale Horse

  Vigilante: No Quarter

  ✼

  Copyright © 2017 Anthony J Newman. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. All events, names characters, and places are the product of the author’s imagination or are used as a fictitious event. That means that I thought up this whole book from my imagination and nothing in it is true.

  NOTE: My good friend Cliff Deane has four great Post-Apocalyptic novels on Amazon. If you like Post-Apocalyptic novels, you’ll love these books.

  Vigilante: Into the Darkness Vigilante: Into the Fray

  Vigilante: The Pale Horse Vigilante: No Quarter

  These books are available at Amazon:

  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XG1XPQM

  Please visit Cliff’s FaceBook page:

  https://www.facebook.com/mustangpublishingllc

  ✼

  Books by A J Newman

  Alien Apocalypse:

  The Virus Surviving (Oct 2017)

  A Family’s Apocalypse Series:

  Cities on Fire – Family Survival

  After the Solar Flare - a Post-Apocalyptic series:

  Alone in the Apocalypse Adventures in the Apocalypse*

  After the EMP series:

  The Day America Died New Beginnings The Day America Died

  Old Enemies The Day America Died Frozen Apocalypse

  “The Adventures of John Harris” - a Post-Apocalyptic America series:

  Surviving Hell in the Homeland Tyranny in the Homeland

  Revenge in the Homeland...Apocalypse in the Homeland John Returns

  “A Samantha Jones Murder Mystery Thriller series:

  Where the Girls Are Buried Who Killed the Girls?

  Books by A J Newman and Cliff Deane

  Terror in the USA: Virus: Strain of Islam

  These books are available at Amazon:

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

  To contact the Author, please leave comments @:

  www.facebook.com/newmananthonyj Facebook page.

  ✼

  Prologue

  Most of my novels have a strong central character who is the hero of the story. This book tells the story of a family who has to deal with a world that has fallen apart and survive in its ashes. The Karr family is the “hero” in this tale, and together they can overcome all odds to help each other live through the horrible events that occur during an apocalypse.

  Family doesn’t always mean blood kin. The Karr family grows as time goes on and with each new member, it grows stronger.

  This is a series about how the Karr family survives and meets the challenges thrown at them during the early days of the Apocalypse. There have been nuclear and EMP attacks on the USA and most of the world. The Apocalypse has caught the world by surprise. Cities and countries are on fire. The USA has been reduced to burned-out cities, the grid is down, and society has reverted backward 150 years. Food and drinkable water are scarce. The US Government is no longer able to help or protect its citizens. Millions are dying.

  In “Cities on Fire,” the Karr family survived the first week of the apocalypse, and all arrived at the family bugout location. During that week, they experience the best and the worst of what mankind has to offer when the shit hits the fan.

  In “Family Survival,” several members of the Karr family have been arrested as looters and sent to a FEMA camp. The rest of the Karr family fights off the hordes of starving people who are flooding out of the large cities. One of the Family members travels to the FEMA camp to rescue her Mom and son and has to fight her way there and back. To make things worse a crooked Senator and Sheriff want to take the family’s crops, weapons, and land.

  What would you do to survive?

  The Karr family has a mixture of old school preppers, conservatives, and liberals that make for an interesting blend of personalities, opinions, and sometimes even volatility. They are able to hate the sin but always love the sinner who disagrees with them. They have each other’s backs through thick and thin.

  AJ Newman

  Character List

  Josephine Karr – She is a Policewoman, Bill’s wife and mother to Will, Missy, and Jake.

  Bill Karr – He is a Nurse and Josephine’s husband. He is the liberal in the family.

  Will Karr – He is the oldest at 16. He has been trained in prepping by his Papaw Bob.

  Missy Karr – She is 15 and a tomboy.

  Jake Karr – He is 12 and a couch potato.

  Bob Karr – Bill’s father and is a widower. He is a retired Army Officer and very conservative.

  Jane Carter – Josephine’s mother. She is a nurse and works with Bill at the local hospital.

  Maddie O’Berg – The Senator’s daughter. The girl who helps Jane and the Kids and joins the Karr Family.

  Walt Long – Jo’s partner who loves her and wants her to leave Bill and marry him. They got too close, and Jo backed away. He is an ex-Army MP.

  Barry O’Berg – US Senator from Tennessee. Crooked politician and power hungry man who wants to build his empire from the ashes.

  Jim Dickerson – A farmer east of Lebanon who becomes a leader in the resistance against the Senator.

  Jack Fulkerson – Ex-Army man who lives in the area and joins Bob’s team.

  Joan Gregory – One of Maddie’s teachers who becomes one of the Karr family.

  ✼

  Family Survival:

  A Family’s Apocalypse

  by

  A J Newman

  ✼

  Chapter 1

  Day 8 – And We’re Here to Help You!

  Jane woke up before the others, looked at Bob lying in her arms, and wondered what he would think if he knew, she was the person dressed in black killing the assholes around the Horseshoe. She looked over to Will and Maddie’s bunk and made eye contact with Maddie. She was awake and Will was snuggled up against her back with his arms around her. Maddie smiled and waved at Jane.

  “Good morning Mamma Jane.”

  “Good morning children,” she said with a laugh and then added, “I guess we’ll find out what they have in store than us.”

  “Anything beats breaking rocks out in the hot sun like you see in the old westerns,” replied Maddie.

  Will was also awake with his arm around Maddie with Maddie’s head was on his other arm. He hugged her and wondered what was going through her mind as he prayed that she would love him as much as he loved her. He said an extra prayer that they would all get back home safely and that everyone in the Horseshoe was safe.

  The past week was a blur in Will’s mind as he sorted through the events. They had walked hundreds of miles to safety, killed several men, saved the lives of several of his family, and met the woman of his dreams. The good outweighed the bad.

  They lay peacefully in their slumber for a few minutes before they were blasted out of their bunks at 5:00 sharp by bugles and then the announcer told them to shit, shower and shave by 5:30 when breakfast would be served.

  After breakfast, they fou
nd out what recreation the Army had in store for them. They were forced to line up outside by a group of parked semi-trailers and handed shovels, rakes and hoes as they passed by the end of the trailers. They were then led out to a huge garden that covered 50 acres, and they were given assignments. The men were given the task of digging a shallow drainage ditch around the whole garden while the women were told to hoe the weeds between the neat rows of the garden. The work started at 6:30 and the guards gave some direction; however, a few trusted prisoners were actually leading the effort. They reminded everyone that they were growing the food that they needed to survive this winter.

  Bob had given instructions to them to cozy up to their fellow workers and get as much information as possible about the camp and the surrounding area. A young lady started talking to Will, and he pumped her for information. She had been through Cherokee many times before the lights went out and was from Kentucky. Will was talking with her while he assembled a map of the area in his mind.

  “Will, do you have a girl?”

  “No,” he said, then caught himself and replied, “Well yes, but it’s a weird story.”

  “So maybe you have a girl, or maybe you don’t have a girl.”

  Maddie had been working toward Will and the girl since she spotted him talking to her. She overheard the conversation and walked between the two of them and said, “Will has a girl, and it’s me. Will I’m so sorry about being mean to you. You are mine, and I’ll be better to you.”

  Maddie led him away from the girl holding Will’s hand. Will pulled her to a stop away from the young woman and said, “Maddie, what was that about. I still care about you, but I know I must move on. She was a sweet girl….”

  “Will, I know that I’ve been driving you crazy, but seeing you with her made me very jealous, and I finally realized how much I care for you. I want to be your girlfriend and see where we go from there. Please don’t be mad at me, after all, we’ve only known each other for a week.”

  Will replied, “Maddie I have only known you for a few days but fell in love with you right after we met. Don’t say anything you don’t mean.” Will said as he snuck a kiss and then walked off to get back to work.

  They worked without a break until 11:30 when they were marched past a series of tubs of water that had soap and towels beside them. There was a bit of shuffling of people as the men and women tried to find their mates.

  Bob found Jane first and they helped Will find Maddie and then got back in line for chow. The meal was a scoop of beans, two hot dogs, a slice of bread, and water. They were famished and didn’t talk much as they stuffed the food in their mouths. They finished early and went outside to mill around with the others as they waited to go back to their jobs.

  Will saw a young guard and said, “Aren’t you from Lexington?”

  “Yes, do I know you?”

  “Yes, you pitched against Louisville Male during the regionals. I hit a home run in the eight, but y’all beat us 5-1.”

  “Yes, I remember that. You spoiled my no-hitter.”

  “When did you join the Army?”

  “Earlier this year, I tore my arm up, dropped out of college, and joined the Army. Why are you here?”

  “My family was searching for some clothing, and the Blackman Troops thought we were looters.”

  “They say everyone is a looter. The truth is that FEMA needs people to grow these crops or the nation will starve.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. We are farmers and were growing crops on over 150 acres. Those idiots are hurting the farming effort. We were growing a hundred times the food we needed to survive. We planned to trade food for gas, oil, and labor once the crops came in. There were less than 30 people actually farming, and there are thousands here. How many of these gardens are there?”

  “There are ten of them planned for here, and there are only ten FEMA camps like this one around the country. Most of them were burned to the ground by the swarms of people who left the cities to find food. Blackman Troops killed hundreds of thousands of them but there were just too many, and they overwhelmed FEMA and the Military. The government is holed up under a mountain, and the cities have burned to the ground. There are millions of people still on the road. The Major is afraid they will over run this camp.”

  “Wow, what does he plan to do?”

  “There will be too many to fight. We’ll probably retreat to a safer place and start over. The river protects us from the north, and we’re off the beaten path, so perhaps we’ll survive here.”

  The Sergeant of the Guards was making his rounds, so they cut the conversation short. Will gave the others the highlights and said, “We need to escape before this camp is overrun by walkers from the north.”

  Bob replied, “I have a plan, and if it works we’ll be on the road in two to three days. Now here are my plans.

  ***

  There were no volunteers, so Jo packed her Bugout Bag, extra ammunition, and food for her trip; she only took one bag of dog food since Max would find his food on the way. Cherokee was only 160 miles from Dixon Springs, and she was taking Bob’s old pickup with an extra 20 gallons of gas. She also brought several boxes of trade goods to help buy anything else she needed along the way.

  She planned to drive straight through, hide the truck close to the camp and figure out how to free her family from FEMA. She told her husband to watch over Jake and Missy and left at sundown.

  ***

  It was the end of the day, and the prisoners were walking back to their tents when Will saw Maddie up ahead. She was talking with a guard and was looking very mad.

  “Keep your hands to your damn self,” Maddie said to the guard.

  The guard grabbed her butt and said, “You’ll do what I say when I say.”

  Will flew through the air, tackled the guard, knocked him down, and said, “If you touch my wife again I’ll kill you.

  The guard raised his rifle, but Will was faster and grabbed the barrel, yanked it from the man’s hands and threw it across the courtyard. The guard pulled his pistol and tried to point it at Will when Will’s right foot whipped out and kicked it from his hands.

  Will was hit on the head from behind by two more guards, and he fell to the floor.

  The Sergeant of the guards yelled, “Don’t hurt him.”

  A young lady yelled, “He was only defending his wife. The guard assaulted her, and I’m going to tell my Dad.”

  She was the young lady that had been flirting with Will earlier that morning. By now, Maddie was in tears and had fallen to the ground beside Will. She had Will’s head on her lap and inspected the gash on the back of his head. He was awake but groggy. Maddie looked up at the woman and thanked her for speaking up.

  The guards pulled her away and took Will to the medics, but allowed Maddie to follow them to the waiting room. Will was lightheaded, but the medic told Maddie that he should be okay in a day or two.

  ***

  Sergeant Hines, “What happened and why did that young man attack an armed guard?”

  “Major, Private Wells was making advances toward the boy’s wife, and the boy jumped Wells.”

  “You are telling me that a young unarmed man took away the Privates weapons and beat the hell out of him single-handedly.”

  “Sir, I was there. The Private grabbed the girl’s ass. Her husband leaped through the air and tackled the Private. The Private tried to shoot the boy with his rifle. The boy took the rifle from him and threw it across the courtyard, and the Private then drew his pistol. The boy turned and kicked the gun away. That’s when Privates Malloy and Martin knocked the boy down with a butt stroke to the head.”

  “That’s exactly what my daughter saw. What do we do?”

  “Court-martial Wells and give a medal to the boy. His name is Will Karr.”

  “I agree on the court-martial, but we can’t give the boy a medal even if he did us a favor. That asshole was a ticking time bomb. Do whatever it takes to get rid of him. Send him on a one-man mission to California
to ask for more troops.”

  “Will do.”

  “Make sure the boy is getting the best medical aid we have to offer. My daughter has taken an interest in the couple. Oh, if you see her out mingling with the prisoners, please send her butt back to my tent.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now another topic; have there been any significant findings from your scouting squads or our internal spy network?”

  “Sir, nothing promising from the scouts, but there are two different prisoners in the camp that were taken away from thriving communities. Jake Simpson and Bob Karr both are the doomsday prepper types. Simpson led a band down from Indianapolis and started farming in mid-Alabama close to Birmingham. Bob Karr lives in a small farming community and has fields planted and developed a good security force.”

  “How did you get the detail?

  “We identified several targets and bugged their bunks. Oh, the young man who beat up Wells is Karr’s son or grandson. He knew one of our guards before the shit hit the fan and opened up to him. That’s why I was close by when Wells got out of line.”

  “What a small world.”

  “How many men and woman do we have in our band?”

  “Four men counting us and three women counting your daughter. There are two children.”