6:00 Hours: A Dystopian Novel Read Online Free

wait. Rachel spent the rest of the afternoon sifting through news stories about the weather and warnings. Communication and power had been knocked out in several places. The media reported flooding and property damage from wind and hail.
    Maybe this is as bad as it will get, Rachel thought. It can’t rain forever.
    The skies took on Rachel’s challenge, though they did waver slightly during the morning. Rachel anxiously checked her messages, but the only responses were from people who had already left the area completely, and urged her to do the same. Rachel considered taking off while she could still drive and going for a hotel, but when she called the few hotels within the region she planned on heading towards, they said they were all full or had shut their doors.
    “There’s a hurricane coming.” one clerk said. “It may not be official yet, but that hardly means it’s safe.”
    Rachel knew everyone was thinking of the Taylorville typhoon nineteen years ago. It had been raining off and on pretty heavily for a week, but the government told residents there was nothing to worry about. Some especially paranoid people left, clogging up the freeways for a few hours, but most just chuckled and boarded up their homes. On the ninth day of rain, a typhoon was spotted close to shore. Before anyone could be warned, wind and waves had battered Taylorville to bits. Countless homes were flooded up to the second floor, destroying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of belongings. Hundreds of people were killed, thousands injured.
    “What happened to the warnings? Why weren’t we evacuated?”
    Those were just a few of the questions the government had to field for the next month. People had been depending on the system to keep them safe, to tell them when disaster was imminent. The climate had altered beyond the technology and the government had been exposed as being nearly as ignorant as everyone else about what kind of weather the next day would bring.
    “Take this tragedy as a lesson,” the leading climatologist told the nation. “Your survival depends on your own ability to prepare for anything, regardless of what the government does or does not tell you. The weather cannot be predicted as accurately as in the past. Do not trust the forecast wholeheartedly. Do not trust a little rain. It could be brewing to something catastrophic.”
    People on the coasts took notice. There was almost a second Industrial Revolution as people surged inland into the cities and suburbs. The coasts became nearly exclusively resort-oriented, except for people who had no other means of making a living besides the sea or working at the luxury hotels. It proved that even in the face of ocean storms, people were still willing to risk them for a hot beach and fresh seafood. Since they were a capital family through and through, Rachel was surprised she had found even a small number of people living nearby at all. It was starting to look like her only option would be to just start driving and not stop until she was safe.
    After the second night of no answered messages and undrivable conditions, Rachel felt a little like a stray cat who the family didn’t want to put out in the rain, but definitely didn’t want to welcome either. She ate with them at the table, but only from her own stockpile, and Rachel could tell Mark and Tara were very careful about bringing out supplies so Rachel couldn’t see where they kept everything. Rachel didn’t take it personally; keeping your stockpile a secret from anyone but your family had been one of the prioritized Tips To Remember during the prepping campaigns.
    “Unless you plan on having that person in your stockpile, do not let them know where it is,” the pamphlets urged. “Someone may seem trustworthy, but desperate times change people. Don’t give them the opportunity or means to do something you’ll both regret.”
    Mark and Tara had clearly taken all those tips to heart, and had trained their