Free Hunger (The Hunger Series Book 1) by Jeremiah Knight Page A

once more, she made up her own mind, following Jakob down the stairs.
    “We don’t have much time,” Peter said.
    The door was hit again. This time, the distinct sound of cracking wood merged with the wall shaking like a rattle. Peter and Ella leaned into the hall. There was a hairline crack at the center of the door, but it was still in one piece, still dead-bolted and barricaded with a thick hardwood plank. But it wouldn’t last. She’d seen stronger blockades fall to a continued barrage. The Stalker leading the attack was always the largest male, but when he didn’t have any luck, he’d call in help from the real hunters—the females. Working together, the female Stalkers would make short work of the door. She was almost out of time.
    Ella took Peter’s arm in her hand. “You’ll protect your daughter?”
    Peter looked her in the eyes, and she saw that same, deep earnest gaze she’d fallen in and out of love with for decades.
    “No one is going to die here today,” he said. “But you have to listen to me. Go. Now .”
    She kissed his cheek and ran for the basement door. To her surprise, he ran in the opposite direction, heading upstairs. She felt herself pulled back, wanting to help. To fight. She’d stood her ground so often and fought her way across the country... She was unaccustomed to letting someone else fight her battles. But she knew this was a losing fight. If Peter had an ace up his sleeve, she had to let him play it.
    The front door shook again, the sound of it chasing her around the basement door. She nearly shouted in surprise as Jakob’s face emerged from the dark stairwell below her. Anne was behind him, lower on the stairs. Behind her was a metal door with a metal wheel, like something from a submarine.
    “Dad’s upstairs?” Jakob asked. When Ella nodded, he lifted his wrist and started a countdown. “He’ll be down in forty-five seconds.”
    The boy moved past Anne, spun the wheel and opened the metal door to absolute darkness. To Ella’s surprise and relief, he flipped the light switch, illuminating the space beyond. “Let’s go,” he said, waving them on.
    “Won’t that exhaust the battery?” Ella asked, pointing at the light.
    “Doesn’t matter,” he said and stepped onto the basement’s concrete floor.
    She followed Jakob into the basement. Her eyes went wide. The space was massive, at least twice the footprint of the house above, constructed beneath the concrete barricade outside. The walls were lined with shelves covered in canned goods, dehydrated food and various supplies. Enough for two people to live for years. And it all looked untouched. In the past two years, neither father nor son had eaten anything but what the biodome had provided. The more she observed Jakob, the more she saw his father in him. Confident. Disciplined. Compassionate.
    Jakob hurried across the broad open space, moving past cots and crates, heading for the back of the room. He held Anne’s hand, whispering to her. Ella couldn’t make out the words, but the tone was calm and consoling.
    Just like his father.
    From upstairs, she heard the front door crack again. “Should I close this?”
    “Leave it open,” Jakob said. “Dad will be here in twenty seconds. And hurry up.”
    Another impact set her in motion. The frequency of attacks on the front door was increasing, and the hits were harder. The females had joined the assault. Twenty seconds might be too long. C’mon Pete, hurry up.
    Ella rushed across the room, running past shelves intercut by large barrels. She passed the first few without a second glance. Then she noticed the label: ammonium nitrate . Then she noticed the wires connecting all the barrels. Her run slowed to a jog, and then to a stop. “Holy shit, is this...?”
    A shotgun blast made her jump.
    A second blast, along with Jakob’s shouted, “C’mon!” spurred her onward.
    When she reached the far end of the room, she found Jakob lifting a garage door. A garage door in