Cascadia Rising: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Adventure (The Unraveling Book 2) by Kevin Craver

Author:Kevin Craver [Craver, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fallen Sky Media
Published: 2024-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 33

NEWPORT, WASHINGTON / OLDTOWN, IDAHO

The crotchety proprietor of the sporting goods store on the Idaho side of North State Avenue set the plastic milk crate of ammunition in front of Jed with a jingling thud.

“This’s all we can spare for youse guys an’ gals,” said the man, whose gruff demeanor and long white beard made him appear to be the reincarnation of Gabby Hayes. “Hop’fully we’ll have more for ya next time—Idaho’s also exportin’ revolution to southern Cascadia through Moscow-Pullman, and to Oregon—dagnabit, I mean Pacifica—through Lewiston-Clarkston.”

Jed sifted through the various calibers—some boxed, others in ziplock bags—under the watchful eye of a man who looked like he’d be more at home cooking beans for a camp of nineteenth-century prospectors than being a poor man’s arsenal of democracy. The small store felt like a sweatbox in the July heat; Jed wrinkled his nose and wondered if the funk—a pungent blend of chewing tobacco, body odor, cooked food, and other aromas he couldn’t place—was what the old days smelled like before the luxuries of air conditioning and daily showers.

“We’ll take anything we can get. Thanks,” Jed said and picked up the crate.

The man smiled, his tobacco-stained dentures having replaced teeth that had rotted out long ago. “You can thank me by kickin’ your governor’s sorry ass. She an’ her ilk, an’ all their shitty ideas, ruined a perfectly good state.”

Jed stepped into the scorching mid-morning sun beaming down from a cloudless summer sky. “Honey, did you remember to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk?” Autumn teased from the curb.

“Wise ass,” he shot back before the duo crossed the street demarcating Oldtown, Idaho, from Newport, Washington. The twin towns, nestled in Kaniksu’s southern tip, were a vital supply pipeline for the Cascadian resistance on top of what they pirated from federal forces—their remote location, and their leaders’ wise decision at the start of the collapse to seal themselves off, had spared them from the H7N9 pandemic. Partisans milled about openly, thanks to the no-fly zone imposed by Idaho after Olympia’s failed attempt to kill Alexandra Chase.

A faded and tattered American flag dangled from a pole in front of a shuttered McDonald’s; Independence Day had come and gone the day before with the subdued observation with which one would commemorate the birthday of a departed family member. Several days earlier, the seceded states of Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, plus the Florida Panhandle—the rest of the Sunshine State was nothing but living bandits and dead bodies—had banded together to form the Free States of America. The dark blue flag of Cascadia, a more and more common sight in Newport and other safe havens, flew from an adjoining building.

Jed and Autumn strolled to the parking lot of a former Safeway turned food distribution center where their unit, the First Chewelah Irregulars, had temporarily set up camp. In the two months since mustering after their hometown’s liberation, they came to specialize in striking small convoys that dared to travel

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