Free The End Boxset: Postapocalyptic Visions of an Unstoppable Collapse by BJ Knights Page B

have done more, or done better, or what everyone was going to say about him the next day. If he was going to get suspended. If his mother was going to find out. If Tina Carridine liked him.
     
    “Oh shit,” Tobias said, stopping dead in his tracks.
    Brian's daydreaming ceased. “What?” he asked. Tobias didn't respond. When Brian looked ahead, he could completely understand why. In front of them sat the blue junk car. At first Brian thought, maybe there is more than one. Tobias verbalized this sentiment, “Do you—do you think this is the same car?” he asked, slightly panicked. They both knew that it was, but didn't want to admit it.
    “Let's go back the other way,” Tobias continued. Brian knew then that his earlier suspicions about Tobias were right. They were lost.
     
     

Chapter 2: Jeremy’s Journey
     
    Jeremy Rafelson didn't get far before his truck failed. This had little to do with a supposed EMP attack, but instead with a blown radiator hose. Something so stupid and preventable, that he should have easily been able to avoid it. He had spent precious hours trying to fix it, but nothing would work. He needed a replacement hose. If he had a cell phone, the problem could have easily been fixed. All he would have to do was to call for a tow truck. But Jeremy didn’t have a cell phone. Why a man would put so much focus on stocking the necessities without considering purchasing a cell phone was a paradox in itself.
     
    The world ran on cell phones. Instant communication at their fingertips at all times. Not Jeremy. He didn’t believe in them. It was an irrational belief about being tracked by the powers that be that fueled his paranoia. After being relentlessly hassled by Linda to purchase a cell phone as to be a part of the 21 st Century, Jeremy complied. He purchased a “pay as you go phone,” which disappointed Linda greatly. “You’re such a cheapskate,” she would say. After they split up he threw his phone in the garbage and never got another one. It was now, however, when he desperately needed it.
     
    His truck broke down in the middle of nowhere, outside Charleston, West Virginia.  Even leaving the night before, after receiving an alert to evacuate the city from his disaster preparation group, he failed to get out in time.  It shamed him to think that he had been meticulously planning for a disaster for so long, that when the time came, he was taken slightly off guard. He did, however, have the necessary supplies on-hand for his travels. There was no way he could have taken everything he had packed into his truck, but he took what was necessary for survival. He carried a “bug-out” bag on his back that weighed about sixty pounds. This was a tolerable weight, for foot travel, though Jeremy would take a bag that weighed nothing if he could.
     
    He had his best pair of hiking boots on, broken-in and ready to go. All the elements were there for travel, but as Jeremy looked at his map, he couldn't comprehend the distance at which he was going to need to travel. His destination was Tennessee, particularly the Great Smokey Mountains. He knew of a cabin there. Somewhere he could lie low, if need be. Wherever he ended up, primary essentials would be the same: food, water, and shelter. That would be his focus.
     
    Some things Jeremy just couldn't get out of his mind. He had recently come to a realization about his pepper group, but would still ask the same questions that would lead to the same conclusion. He couldn't understand why they didn't work together as a team to evacuate the city together. That's what they would have done if this was the military. If they were like the soldiers Jeremy knew in his platoon, no man would have been left behind. They could have all worked together. This was the point in Jeremy's line of thinking that provided a simple fact about the prepper group: they were about self-preservation. Rob, the speaker of the group, was every bit about ensuring his family's