Alone in the Apocalypse: Post-Apocalyptic America: After the Solar Flare Read online

  ✪

  After the Solar Flare

  “Alone in the Apocalypse”

  Post-Apocalyptic America Series

  A J Newman

  ✪

  Books by A J Newman

  “The Adventures of John Harris” - a post-apocalyptic America series:

  Surviving Hell in the Homeland

  Tyranny in the Homeland Revenge in the Homeland

  Apocalypse in the Homeland John Returns

  The Day America Died - a Zack Johnson Post-Apocalyptic series:

  New Beginnings

  Old Enemies

  Frozen Apocalypse

  “Grumpy Sam and Sammy” - A murder mystery series:

  Where the Girls Are Buried.

  Who Killed the Girls?

  After the Solar Flare - A Post-Apocalyptic series:

  Alone in the Apocalypse

  These books are available at Amazon:

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

  ✪

  Also from A. J Newman

  The Adventures of John Harris:

  This series of Post-Apocalyptic novels tells how John Harris leads a group of survivors through the chaos of a country that has fallen apart. Rogue US Government officials and a coalition of Third World Leaders have launched a major nuclear and EMP attack on all of the major powers and killed over 100 million Americans. The grid is down and water and food are scarce. The USA is in chaos with criminals and thugs attacking innocent citizens while the DHS is placing millions in relocation camps. John and his team fight back!

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

  ✪

  Also from A J Newman

  New Beginnings - Zack Johnson is stranded on the west coast when an EMP attack destroys the Grid. He must get home to find and protect his daughter. This is a tale about what he has to do to get home and survive. It’s also a story about the people he meets along the journey. Many are great people, but some are thugs that have to be dealt with.

  Old Enemies continues the story with Zack and his family encountering disease, attacks from enemies and friends and a dictator trying to take over the community that has been his home. Zack’s team also comes up with some hacks that improve life and put them on the way back to a more modern life style.

  Frozen Apocalypse has Zack and team starting over after being driven from their homes to a hideout in the woods near their home town. The USA was attacked with nuclear EMP weapons has no power and food is in short supply. The government has not helped and there is a power struggle between the forces of good and evil. It is now mid winter and while Zack and his friends prepared for survival many of their neighbors are cold and starving. The new mayor has taken control of the food supply and only doles it out to his supporters. What can Zack do?

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

  Also from A J Newman

  Murder Mystery Thrillers

  A teenage girl, her dog and foster Dad solve a series of kidnappings and murders of young girls. The teen girl is stalked by her mom’s boyfriend and almost killed by a high-ranking political figure. How are the two crimes linked? This unlikely trio solves the puzzle of “Where the Girls Are Buried.”

  In the next novel in the series, they solve “Who killed the Girls?” Was it the high ranking politician or was it his son? Who is behind the attacks on their families? Why don’t they want these crimes solved?

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HT84V6U

  ✪

  As usual, this book is dedicated to my many friends who think that I am bat shit crazy for believing that the Apocalypse is due any day now.

  The Apocalypse is coming. Will it be the result of a solar flare, EMP blast, or a failed economy?

  Those are the questions. It is on the way.

  This series portrays my vision of regular Americans, how they prepared for, and dealt with the issue of survival in a world gone mad.

  I am a prepper and will be prepared, will you?

  Thanks to my wife, Patsy, who keeps after me to write more books, so I can pay for my prepping, guns, golf and whiskey.

  Thanks to: Patsy Newman for beta reading and proofing.

  Thanks to: LTC Clifford T. Deane, US Army, Cavalry, (ret) for proofing, editing and his contributions to the accuracy of the military, jargon, tactics and color commentary.

  ✪

  Copyright © A J Newman. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. All events, names characters and places are the product of the author’s imagination or are used as a fictitious event. That means that this is all one big yarn that was written purely from my imagination and not a bit of it is true. It might come true in the future.

  ✪

  Prologue

  “A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is a large cloud of plasma containing an electro-magnetic field that is ejected from the Sun. The event releases super-heated particles travelling at immense speeds, and when those particles hit the Earth, they cause a geomagnetic storm, which is capable of wreaking havoc on electrical components.

  This novel proposes that a solar body striking the sun would result in a far more massive CME and could lead to an ELE (Extinction Level Event). Since the charged particles would take several days to travel from the sun to the Earth, mankind would have days to think about The End Of The World As We Know IT.

  “A CME from the recent major solar flare would take several days to reach Earth.” – quote from INQUISTR

  A massive CME hitting Earth would set civilization back 150 years. Kerosene lamps, wood cook stoves, and doctors without x-rays, modern medical devices or miracle medicines would become the norm.

  People with pace makers would drop like flies following a CME strike. Diabetics, heart patients and people living day to day with the help of some miracle drug will die during the first year.

  Many of the people on drugs for psychiatric reasons will become violent or suicidal when they run out of the drugs. Death, chaos and lawlessness would prevail.

  My series “After the Solar Flare” attempts to tell a story about how everyday normal people, in a world turned upside down, fight to survive.

  I hope you have as much fun reading this series as I did writing them. Thanks to my readers for allowing me to share my imagination with you and remember to recommend this series to your friends.

  If you like this novel, please post a review on Amazon.

  “Even during an Apocalypse, you should be nice to people except for those trying to kill you. Kill Zombies and the bad guys, but be nice to people.”

  A J Newman

  Main Character List

  Matt Jones – Divorced, high school chemistry teacher, became a prepper a few years back when he became disillusioned with the government, politics and the world in general.

  Patty Gale – She and her husband own the General store in Pinedale. She becomes friends with Matt and begins prepping. She becomes his love interest.

  Mary Williamson – Matt buys his new home from Mary. She and her husband were preppers. She becomes a good friend and confidant.

  Frank Williamson – Former NASA scientist who was part of a team that discovered a disaster was in the making. He was an extreme prepper. Dies before the story starts.

  George Gale – Patty’s husband is an alcoholic, abusive to Patty and a miserable person.

  Sam Nolin – Matt’s fellow teacher, mentor and prepper.

  Sheriff Bob Alton - Sheriff of Sublette County.

  ✪

  After the Solar Flare

  “Alone in the Apocalypse”
<
br />   ✪

  Passing a planetary system in the Pegasus Arm of our Milky Way Galaxy, a cold, rogue star hurtling toward the Black Hole in the galactic center ripped the three outer planets out of their orbits. Their star Alpha Omega was destroyed a million years ago. The planets were thus destined to travel billions of miles to their eventual fate.

  Chapter 1

  Matt Jones

  South America

  I’m Matt Jones, and this is my story about how I survived the Solar Event known as “The Flare” and the end of the world, as we knew it.

  I decided to write my story because it was mid-winter in northern South America and damned cold outside. The snow was knee high to a giraffe and I was bored. I was also out of whiskey, and my next batch of home brewed beer was two weeks from being ready to drink. Yeah, yeah, I know, the four P’s…Piss Poor Prior Planning on my part. I’m really not an alcoholic, but there isn’t much else to do on a snowy South American winter’s day. Well nothing, I should put in print anyway.

  I started writing about two years after The Flare and continued writing most every day since.

  Yes, a huge solar flare hit our world, and within the first year, 80% of the human population was gone from the face of the earth, leaving only bleached skeletal remains to witness their passing.

  I started calling the event “The Flare.” Some of us were ready for an apocalypse, others rose to the occasion, some preyed on others to survive but mostly people starved to death or killed each other.

  Riots, warfare, looting, gangs, rape and murder, all happened exactly as predicted. Pay attention, a teaching point comes now: Never underestimate what people will do to feed their loved ones or themselves.

  People taking anti-depressants, drug addicts, alcoholics and smokers went half-crazy several weeks into the event. Withdrawal from drugs and cigarettes is bad enough without a bunch of wackos running amok in your town because they can no longer get their chill pills.

  Disease from rotting bodies, poor hygiene, lack of sanitation, bad water, rats and so many more reasons took the biggest toll of all. Truth is, when people are dying by the billions, the ability to dispose of the bodies quickly becomes an impossibility, which, of course just exacerbates the disease problems.

  Oh, the horror didn’t stop there. Plagues of rats, spiders, ants, birds, and every manner of critters were terrifying…………damn, I hate spiders.

  About 90 percent of the civilized world was not prepared for TSHTF; however, many people in Africa, the Amazon and the Outback in Australia hardly noticed the disaster until civilization moved next door and it got very ugly. I’ll get into that later.

  I know it’s a damned ugly picture that I’m painting for you. I am thrilled that you have also survived the passing of humanity’s pitiful attempt at civilization if for no other reason than you may read, and hopefully pass on my ‘History of the Solar Event.’

  I chopped off my writing last month and the first part is titled, “Alone in the Apocalypse.” I just hope I can find a way to publish the darn thing since Amazon Kindle died along with the internet. Perhaps I can get a copier working and publish it myself. Then, again, maybe you’re reading my original manuscript and then you can pass it around. I hope you save it for future scholars.

  Okay, back to you. Again, if you are reading this, you survived. That is a major accomplishment. Pat yourself on the back.

  It’s probably a good thing you didn’t come looking for me when I was writing this, because I tend to shoot about half of the people that I meet.

  Okay, hold on, in my defense, they were all bad, well, most of them. They were thugs, government officials and thieves, and yeah, I do feel bad that a few were good people trying to do the best they could.

  Here comes a “yeah but”, I was just protecting what was mine. So, there you have it, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

  Yes, I know my writing is sloppy even though I wrote in my best cursive for the first seven chapters before I found an old typewriter. My typing is much better, but old typewriters don’t have spell check.

  It came as no big surprise to me that the office supply section of Lopez’s General Store didn’t have much stolen from it. I have plenty of paper, enough typewriter ribbons and boxes of those little thingies that let you put white stuff over the errors. I also have a real dictionary and thesaurus, but you know the biggest problem with those is that most of the time you don’t know, that you don’t know how to spell a word.

  My writing should improve greatly after chapter nine since I found several books on writing and literature at the local high school after I found refuge in a warmer climate. If you are a Grammar Nazi, go read War and Peace and pass this manuscript on to someone who appreciates a good story. My story.

  I chose the title “Alone in the Apocalypse” because I moved to Wyoming from Smyrna, Tennessee, alone, to get away from politics, work, political correctness and people.

  I will tell you a little about myself, since I am the hero of my own story. In addition, how I ended up in Wyoming before the shit hit the fan. That’s TSHTF abbreviated. I use it quite a bit.

  ***

  I was a high school Chemistry teacher at North High School in Nashville. The school was somewhat run down, but I liked teaching back then.

  I was married to Jane and we had two Springer Spaniels, Gus and Tina. We had a beautiful house in Rutherford County that I inherited from my parents who died in a plane crash. My parents left me the house, and a half interest of their auto repair shop. My brother, Buddy, got half the business and some cash. I also inherited Dad’s 1949 FI pickup and Buddy got mom’s 1967 Mustang.

  I hope I’m not moving too fast, but we have to get the character development stuff out of the way.

  I guess what I’m getting to is Jane and I had it made. The house was paid for. She was a realtor and I made a fair salary teaching at the high school. Of course, there was also the income from the auto repair business.

  It was amazing how quickly I started to hate teaching and how I began to detest that 30-mile drive to work on Highway 24 every day. Now, don’t get me wrong, my students were great but the school was filled with wannabe gangstas, spoiled brats and a lazy asshole administrative staff.

  Jane loved her job and apparently loved a fellow co-worker more than me. This realization came with the divorce papers about a year before the lights went out.

  She told me that we had grown apart, and didn’t want anything from me except the divorce. I received custody of Gus and Tina, the Springer Spaniels.

  She married her lover and moved to Brazil because of his new job as a construction manager north of Rio.

  I thought I was a good husband to my wife Jane, but found myself single and lost. I had been with Jane since college and now I was 36 years old and the target of half the divorced women with three kids in Tennessee. Yep, I was in play. The problem was, I did not want to be in play.

  Near Nashville, TN

  The few friends that I had were always trying to set me up with their sister, friend or neighbor. Yeah, I went on a few dates and found myself running like hell to get away from women with marriage on their mind after each first date. I stopped dating, worked out at the fitness club, and became a Prepper.

  I became a Prepper because Sam Nolin, a Physics teacher at the high school, bent my ear at lunch one day about the high probability of a major solar event happening in our lifetime.

  He told me about how a major solar flare would destroy the nation’s electric grid, ruin our electronic devices and even kill cars and planes. Sam also told me that North Korea could also cause the same damage with a couple of airburst nukes. I was sold.

  Sam laughed one day and said, “Matt, your old truck will be running when all of the new vehicles are dead on the side of the road. I bought a ’74 Chevy Suburban last week to be my Bugout vehicle.”

  I replied, “What’s a Bugout vehicle?”

  “It’s a vehicle that will run after an EMP blast or solar flare
destroys the electronics in the modern vehicles. You need it to get to your Bugout location and for transportation after the lights go out.”

  “Do you have a Bugout location?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where is it?”

  “The first rule of a Bugout location is that its location is a secret. You don’t want every Tom, Dick and Harry showing up to take your food.”

  I replied, “Oh.”

  I thought, oh shit. This could be serious.”

  Sam told me to go to the internet and look up “Carrington Event.” Numerous articles explained the danger and the effects of a coronal mass ejection or solar flare. Below are my favorites.

  “Carrington-class CME Narrowly Misses Earth

  May 2, 2014: Last month (April 8-11), scientists, government officials, emergency planners and others converged on Boulder, Colorado, for NOAA's Space Weather Workshop—an annual gathering to discuss the perils and probabilities of solar storms.

  The current solar cycle is weaker than usual, so you might expect a correspondingly low-key meeting. On the contrary, the halls and meeting rooms were abuzz with excitement about an intense solar storm that narrowly missed Earth.