Rise of the Prepper: A Story of the Coming Collapse Read Online Free Page A

you again two days.”
                  “Copy that.”
                  Seth dropped the line and turned off the radio. He sat in his chair and rubbed his palms over his face, dragging them up to his scalp to comb through his hair. He looked at the setting sun as he organized what he learned.
                  This Superpox-99 was a complete mystery. Nobody knows how it got out and started spreading or where it came from. The only thing known about it was that it’s deadly, fast-acting and airborne. It had probably spread throughout the entire country already.
                  He thought about his family. He was worried about the safety of his mother and sister who were currently living in Upstate New York. At least the government let the prisoners out. His father might still have a shot at survival. At least, he wouldn’t have died in a prison surrounded by bars.
                  Seth felt anxious and worried for his family and he wanted badly to find them and keep them safe but he also had a responsibility to check what’s left of the Marshal Service. The Marshals needed men like him now more than ever.
                  His mind made up, Seth got up from his chair and climbed back down the ladder. The next morning, he got all his guns, ammo, and other weapons out, put them in a bag and loaded them onto the truck. He packed some necessities and a few clothes and locked the cabin.
                  Seth took one last look at the cabin as he drove away. An image of him together with his family when he was younger flashed in his mind. Ah, those were the good days.  
     

 
    Chapter Six: Prison Break
                  Amelia Dale stared at the ceiling of her cell. The light was on in the hallway but it was weak and her cell was dim. She could just barely tell apart the cracks on the wall from the cobwebs stuck to the corners of the ceiling in the darkness. She tried to close her eyes and block the agony and despair coming from her neighbors.
                  It had been two days since a guard came through the prison ward. The prisoners including her hadn’t eaten or drank anything during those two long days. Her stomach grumbled painfully as if to remind her of that fact.
                  She twisted to her side, facing the bars of her cell. In those two days, even the electricity had gone off, leaving only the generator running. In a few more days, even that will stop too. And then, what? And then, I’ll die. I’ll rot here in this jail cell together with the other prisoners. Our rotting flesh will stink and worms will eat us. The end.
                  After two days of starving in the darkness, Amelia had learned to not care anymore. She’d didn’t care whether she lived or died, whether there was any hope left in this godforsaken world.
                  At first, she had hope. When some big shot politicians talked about letting the minimum security prisoners go to make it easier to take care of those left, she thought she finally had a chance to get out of jail. But the entire plan went to shit at Talladega real quick.
                  Some small-time prisoners did get out but so did the really dangerous ones too. That’s when everything went to hell. Because they couldn’t control things anymore, the guards and everyone else bailed out. After the prison break, security at Talladega heightened. Guards patrolled the prison wards around the clock. And then suddenly, Amelia didn’t see them pass by through the bars of her cell anymore. Everything stopped. The patrols, the food, the water, the electricity. Everyone was gone and the remaining prisoners were left alone there to die.
                  Amelia could feel it again. A thought was creeping in through a corner of her mind, a thought that brought with it a hope so fleeting it was like fragile glass. I wish