The Solar Pulse (Book 1): Beyond The Pulse by Hawthorne Will

Author:Hawthorne, Will [Hawthorne, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Dystopian | EMP
Publisher: Will Hawthorne Books
Published: 2017-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Hum

The hallways of the building were quiet and empty in comparison to the streets outside, but that wasn’t exactly a difficult task compared to the events occurring outside.

We reached the door and followed the man inside, thanking him on the way in. Immediately we were greeted with a warmly familiar sight – literally. Candles were lit and spread about the room, and that subtle smell of homely comforts struck my nostrils. The room glowed with cosiness, and for that I was more than grateful.

Helen was still at the forefront of my mind, but I wanted to get to her apartment alive rather than Luke dragging me in a body bag.

At a breakfast table nearby, moving by candlelight, was a woman about the same age as our host. She was moving cards about on a table, in what I quickly recognised as solitaire.

We stood by the door. I didn’t want to move. Despite the fact that this was a strange situation to be in at first, the response in my mind was now dealing with it. This had been a weird night, and somebody was now welcoming us into their house in the midst of an explosion.

‘Do me a favour,’ the man said, pointing over at Luke. ‘Yeah, you, big fella.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Go and check at the window, see what’s happening out there.’

‘You got it.’

A smile rose to my face at the thought of how quickly the cooperative ones like us fell into these roles when important things were at stake.

While he did that, I couldn’t help but ask.

‘The light,’ I said, nodding at the man. ‘The torch. How did you do that?’

‘Do what?’

‘Everything electrical has gone out. How was it working?’

‘There’s a bit of a back story,’ he chuckled.

Luke looked out of the window on the other side of the room.

‘Everything’s all right out here,’ he said. ‘The fire’s pretty bad but nobody’s fighting. We’ll be all right as long as we’re on this side of the street.’

He turned away and crossed to us. The old lady didn’t say much – she simply carried on humming to herself and playing her card game.

‘So, you wanna enlighten us?’ I asked.

The man folded his arms and looked between us.

‘I’m a military man. Well, I was, but do you ever stop? I’ve been out of the forces for a while, obviously, but after all of the things I’ve seen it became pretty obvious that we’re always at risk of some catastrophe, regardless of what the government say. I was a lonely man, I’ll admit… I got deep into the prepper scene.’

‘I’m probably one of the only people you’d run into who knows what that is,’ I said, without a hint of cockiness.

‘You one?’

‘No, but my dad is. He taught me a few things when I was younger.

‘So you know, then. These are the kinds of situations where if you tell someone about it they look at you like you’ve got two heads. Yeah, I know I could be smarmy about it and say ‘I

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