American Revenant: Hometown Exodus by John L. Davis IV

 
    1
    “We have to get to the river, it’s
our only chance.”
                    “Getting to the river is one thing.  What
are we going to do when we get there?  Stand at the riverbank and wait for the
Freak Squad to get us?”
                    The six people seated around the table
looked back and forth between the two speakers.  For the past few days these
same people had listened to and participated in the same debate.  ‘Where to
go?’  The same passionate words and heated responses used over and over to
little effect.  The group still stood at a stalemate.
                    “Listen, we’ve all said the same damn things
so many times none of it matters.  Only thing that matters now is that we get
away from town.”  Mike Phillips stated what most were thinking.  Time was being
wasted on so much discussion.  “Tam is right, getting to and on the river would
be a great way to be safe, at least for a while.  Jack is also right.  We have
no idea what to do once we get to the river.  We have twenty people here and
only one of us actually owns a boat.  My sixteen-foot jon-boat isn’t going to
hold even half that.  So, get to the river, then what?  We get some plan, and
then move on it.  Either way, we have to get out of town, and in a hurry.”
                    Everyone sat in silence for a moment,
looking around the table, from face to face, hoping someone had the idea that
would fix their current dilemma.
                    “Steal some boats,” Rick Tillerman said.
                    Rick suddenly felt very uncomfortable when
all eyes looked to him.  Everyone had an opinion, some for, others against
stealing boats.  The main argument against being, “Hell no, we aren’t going to
start stealing!” 
                    “Listen guys,” Rick began, “it may seem
illegal and immoral or whatever case you want to make against it, but stealing
has already become a viable way to survive.  I’m not saying we go in and take
something someone is using.  But if we can find some boats, preferably a couple
of pontoon boats that no one has laid claim to, then we take them and push out
on the river that way.” 
                    In less than two weeks the entire world had
gone crazy.  A sudden and unexpected plague of unknown origin had killed off
hundreds of thousands of people.  Every nation had to decide what to do with
the dead and a sickness that had no cure.  The CDC was overwhelmed within days
of the first outbreak.  Cities began to burn as panic spread just as fast as
the sickness.  Violence and fear spread to suburban areas and small towns.  In
less than one week anarchy ruled over most of the United States.
                    Every nation around the world was affected
just as severely.  The fear that controlled the hearts of men also controlled
nuclear arsenals.  When it was evident that each nation was brutally affected
by the sickness world leaders began to point fingers at one another.  It was
not long before someone reached for “the button” that would send nuclear
devices around the world. 
                    Whether through intent or accident a nuclear
weapon was detonated above the U.S.  The explosion sent out a massive
Electromagnetic Pulse that destroyed virtually all but the most heavily
shielded electronic devices. 
                    A diseased world had suddenly become a dark
one.
                    This is the world that for two weeks the
group of people seated around the table had been living in.  Some of these
people would have been called “preppers” or “survivalists” at one time.  Now
they were the few that had a chance of fighting back against a world that
actively wanted them dead. 
    Not one of these survival oriented
people would have ever seriously entertained the idea that out of