Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story Read Online Free Page A

this caused him to slow down and the weaving started to add up mileage-wise. He was too close to empty and he was still miles out from the depot. There was no way he was going to make it all the way, so he found a spot down an overgrown lane where he could hide the Humvee. Hopefully no one would strip it down until he could get back to it. Mick flung his pack over his shoulder and set off on foot.
    Mick was tasting sweat dripping into his mouth as he finally reached the depot. Set up like the Lowell meeting spot, in a non-descript brick warehouse-type place, there were no other vehicles in the parking lot. He punched the key code into the door pad and walked into the gloom. Mick radioed out to report his new position.
     
    “Bad news, Private Buckner. We’ve now got the power grid going down in sections. Charge up everything you have and prepare to get your ass up here anyway you can, fuel pumps won’t be working long.”
     
    “Yes Sir,” Mick groaned.
     
    Major Morna’s voice boomed out of the radio again, “Gets better, be prepared for a full nationwide blackout within days. Weeks to months before we get the grid up and running again. Over and Out.”
     
    “Damn,” he cursed out loud. Then, with a deep breath, Mick started plugging in all the sets of 2-ways he could find. He also had a portable car charger with one outlet plug and a light. Once they were all charging up, he wandered outside to take a look around before the sun fully set.
     
    Lovely and lonely. The sky was colored with oranges, pinks and reds. But all was still. Since the night was going to be warm, Mick had no desire to sleep inside that gloomy, stuffy warehouse. He wasn’t even going to bother to put up a tent, he just rolled out his sleeping bag next to a boulder at the side of the parking lot. Used his pack as a pillow and tucked his pistol between layers of his sleeping bag. It was way too hot for him to get in there. Nature was sending out the last of the nice weather before autumn rains and chill set in. Mick was going to enjoy it because he had a feeling that this winter was going to be the hardest one he had ever lived through.
     
    Mick started running his travel plans through his head. If he could find a gas container tomorrow, he would fill it and walk back to the Humvee – drive back here and fill it up and go as far as he could in the Humvee. If the electric was out – then he couldn’t pump any gas from the reserve tank underground. He may as well start to walk from here. Perhaps he could find a motorcycle or even a mountain bike. As he drifted off making and rejecting plans, the last of the light played off of some flecks in the bolder above his head. This was called the granite state, must be some flecks of mica in there. Or quartz, wasn’t that part of it? As he thought this, it just felt right. Yeah, it had flecks of quartz all through it – that is why people liked to polish it up and use it in their new kitchens. And with these thoughts he drifted off to sleep.
     
    Mick was rested and felt excellent and alert the next morning. He figured it was because he slept outside. Strange that he could remember one of his dreams so well. In his dreams the electric was out, so he started walking northwest.
     
    He shook his head, dreams were strange, he knew he had to head out pretty much straight north. Still, it had seemed so real. He had passed a fence an hour into his walk with two horses, brown and grey, on the other side of this fence. He had put a rope around the neck of the brown one and stood on the fence to ease on its back. The he rode northwest and started to follow some railroad tracks.
     
    Dreams were strange, he had never been near a horse, he had no idea what to do with one. But the thought of riding instead of walking was nice. Must have been his brain doing some wishful thinking while he slept. Time to put the dreams and daydreams aside. He rolled up his sleeping bag and headed back inside. Flipping the light