Blackout: A Tale Of Survival In A Powerless World- Book 1 Read online

  “You don’t know my face.” I looked away from Jacob’s broad shoulders, back to Ludo. “What about Sylvester? He was the first one to arrive here, which means he most likely met my father. Can I talk to him?”

  He chuckled deep in his belly. “No one talks to Sylvester.”

  “Does this guy even exist?” I demanded. “Because everything you’ve told me leads up him being a fake figurehead holed up in a cabin that no one sees or talks to. Sounds like a load of shit to me.”

  “He exists. I’ve spoken to him.”

  “You just said—”

  “No one talks to Sylvester without good reason,” he rectified. “He’s the director of Camp Haven for a reason. Most days, we get along fine within the system that he built and laid out for us. Every once in a while, something goes wrong, as things are prone to do. That’s when we go to Sylvester, when we don’t know how to solve a problem on our own. He always has the answer. He also does weddings.”

  My coffee slipped, and I pushed away from the table to avoid a stain on my pants. “He does what now?”

  “Weddings,” Ludo said again. “No preacher men up here at Camp Haven. We have a chapel and all, but it’s more of a spiritual thing. If a couple wants to get married, they have to appeal to Sylvester. He reviews the case, decides whether or not the couple is fit for each other, and marries them in the cabin.”

  “Please tell me you realize how absurd that is,” I said. Jacob’s golden hair shone under the warm lights of the oil lamps as he shuffled through the line with his tray. “Who is this guy to decide whether or not two people are right for each other?”

  “You don’t understand how Camp Haven works yet,” Ludo replied. “We don’t have time for messy relationships, drama, or fights within the community. Everything, including personal relationships, must benefit the camp.” He looked over his shoulder to where Jacob tried to stop Jove from arguing with the woman serving the food for another scoop of scrambled eggs. “I’d keep that in mind if I were you, and I say that for your sake, not the camp’s.”

  “I didn’t ask for your impression of my relationship, and I sure as hell won’t ask this Sylvester guy for his blessing—”

  A metal tray piled high with sausage and bacon and not much else plunked to the table as someone sat down next to me. It was the guy from earlier, with bright green eyes and wavy black hair in need of a trim that curled around his ears. He commanded the attention of the room with his height. Even sitting down, his wiry figure towered over me. When he noticed my stare, he flashed me a blinding smile equivalent to the one he’d displayed earlier.

  “Morning, Ludo,” he said brightly. “I see you’ve welcomed one of our guests already. I’m Eirian, by the way.”

  His grip warmed my cold fingers as we shook hands. “Eirian. Is that…Welsh?”

  Eirian nodded. “Impressive deduction skills, Holmes.”

  “It’s Georgie, actually.”

  Specks of molten gold flickered in Eirian’s eyes when the light hit his irises just so. “Georgie. I like that.”

  “Did you finish unloading that caravan?” Ludo asked him, sweeping crumbs off the table and dusting his hands off over his tray.

  Eirian dug into his breakfast. “Yes, sir. I inventoried everything myself and put it all away. Quite a haul you had there.”

  “Thanks,” I bit back, unable to keep the edge out of my voice.

  “Don’t worry,” Eirian said. “We’re pretty well in stock for right now. Chances are, the stock workers will assign those clothes right back to you.” He turned to Ludo again. “There was a bunch of equipment in there that I wasn’t sure what to do with. Circuit boards and other little pieces. What should I—?”

  I pinned Eirian’s hand to the table before he could lift his fork again. “What did you do with them?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The radio parts,” I said. “That’s what that equipment was. I nearly got shot getting that stuff, so I swear if you tell me—”

  “I put it all in a storage room in DotCom,” Eirian interrupted, lifting his hand free of mine. Though the movement was gentle, his forearm flexed, lifting veins from his skin. “Can’t inventory things if I don’t know what they are, right? Are we keeping that stuff, Ludo, or should I pitch it?”

  Ludo must’ve seen the steam coming out of my ears because he answered quickly. “Keeping it. Georgie here has previous radio knowledge. She’s going to build a communications system for the camp.”

  “Wow,” Eirian said. “That’s new for us. Are we sure that’s something we want to start relying on?”

  “I’m willing to risk it,” Ludo replied. “I doubt another EMP blast is coming our way. What would be the point? The U.S. is already down for the count. We might as well take advantage of Georgie’s knowledge. Radios could save lives if we have an emergency.”

  “Agreed,” Eirian said. “Georgie, do you really have the knowledge to build an entire camp-wide communications system?

  “The knowledge, yes,” I said. “But I’ll need to borrow some manpower. The first order of business will be to build a signal tower for the camp, and I can’t do all the heavy lifting by myself.”

  “I volunteer.” Eirian raised his hand, realized he had a sausage in it, and lowered his appendage to finish the meat. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’d love to learn more about it. If you’re willing to teach me, of course.”

  “You’ve never seen a radio?” I asked, skeptical.

  “Eirian was born on a homestead,” Ludo explained. “This is all he knows. That’s why we keep him around. Best resource we got.”

  Eirian winked. “Ludo, you flatter me.”

  “Shut up, kid.”

  Genuine interest lifted one side of Eirian’s lips into a crooked but annoyingly attractive smile. “So what do you say, teach? Can I crash your radio party?”

  “Fine,” I said. “You can help.”

  “Help with what?” Jacob stood over Eirian’s shoulder, holding a tray full of food. He looked down expectantly at Eirian’s seat. “You’re sitting next to my fianceé.”

  Eirian beamed up at Jacob, oblivious to the implication of Jacob’s statement. “Congratulations! Did you know that she can build radios out of nothing?”

  “Yes,” Jacob said, straight-faced.

  Eirian cleared his throat, picking up on the rough vibes. He picked up his tray and stood up. “All righty, then. I’ve got things to do. Georgie, let me know when you need me.”

  “It’ll be a while,” Ludo told him. “We’ve got to get our newcomers settled in first.”

  “Whenever,” Eirian said, taking his startling smile out once again. He watched as Jacob took his seat and slid so close to me that our elbows knocked together. “I’ll be here.”

  As Eirian walked away, I shoved Jacob across the bench to free up some space between us. He’d broken up with me. There was no excuse for him to behave so possessively. Pippa, Jove, and Nita joined us at the table before he could protest. Jove and Pippa dove headfirst into their breakfasts—it had been hours since we’d last eaten a hot meal—but Nita was more interested in Ludo than her food.

  “So what’s next?” she asked him. “Now that we’ve all been inoculated for your survival camp, where do we go from here?”

  Ludo stretched, belched, and excused himself. “The first order of business will be assigning each of you to a bunk. As I was telling Georgie, we have women and men’s dormitories. It’s a bit like college—”

  “Hold on a minute,” Jacob said. “You expect me to split up from my family and sleep with a bunch of strangers? We just met you people.”

  Ludo regarded Jacob over the lip of his coffee mug. “We don’t do preferential treatment here, sir.”

  “My sister is pregnant, and my mother has twenty stitches in her leg,” Jacob argued. “I’m not going to let them sleep in a room full of other people.”

  “I’m fine with it,” Nita piped in. “Put me in a dorm.”

  “Easy,�
� Ludo said, grinning at Nita. “I like you.”

  “I agree with my son,” Jove said, his mouth so full of roasted potatoes that I strained to make out his words. “My family requires separate housing.”

  Ludo looked at Pippa, who leaned over the table at an extreme angle to compensate for her enormous belly. “I’ll see if I can pull a few strings for your sister and your mother. Just for the first few weeks though, until you adjust to the way we do things here. After that, you give up the room to the next person who needs it, understood?”

  “What about us?” Jacob asked, dropping his fork to clutch my hand. “Please, sir, we’re engaged. We haven’t slept apart in the last five years.”

  Ludo stood up, scraped his food scraps into a nearby compost bin, and stacked the tray on top for the kitchen staff to collect. “Engaged, are you? Where’s the ring?”

  “She lost it coming here,” Jacob said.

  Ludo looked down at me. I avoided his gaze. “All right, fine. I’ll get you a room with two double beds.”

  “There’s five of us,” Jacob said. “We’ll need an extra.”

  “Your mother’s staying in the med bay actually,” Nita said. “That gash in her leg is too big to move her right now.”

  “Two double beds,” Ludo repeated. He zipped up his thick winter jacket and pulled on a fleece hat. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to meet with the department heads to see who needs bodies. Meet me at DotCom after you finish your breakfast. We can talk about how each of you intends to contribute to Camp Haven.”

  As he walked off, Jove slid into his empty seat for no other reason than to mark his territory. “Righteous prick, isn’t he?”

  “I kinda like him,” Nita said. “He seems like a no-nonsense kind of guy, but he also cares about everyone in the camp.”

  Pippa missed her mouth, and a burnt potato landed on her stomach. “I don’t know. I get weird vibes from everyone here.”

  As they continued to discuss Ludo’s character, I pushed my empty tray away and nudged Jacob. “What the hell was that all about? With the ring?”

  He wiped up bacon grease and oatmeal from his tray with a clean biscuit. “What are you talking about?”

  “Telling Ludo that we’re engaged,” I said. “You broke up with me, Jacob, or did you forget?”

  “Gee, I’m sorry,” he replied, sounding not sorry at all. “I figured I was saving you from sleeping in a dorm full of fifty other people, but if you want to bunk with the masses, go right ahead.”

  “Maybe I will!”

  He slammed his spoon against the tray, sending a spoonful of oatmeal flying. “Damn it, Georgie! Why can’t you do things my way for once in your life? I’m trying to keep all of us together, for shit’s sake.”

  Nita leaned over the table. “Guys, you’re causing a scene.”

  Sure enough, heads turned in the Bistro. The camp residents clocked the spilled oatmeal on the table, as if they couldn’t believe Jacob had wasted food for his temper tantrum.

  I swallowed the frustration that rose in my throat and climbed out of the trap of the cafeteria table. With my tray in hand, I leaned over Jacob’s shoulder. “I’ll go along with this until we get our feet under us here, but make no mistake. We’re not together anymore. I’m sleeping with Pippa. You can share a bed with Jove.”

  I didn’t wait for him to reply. Instead, I followed Ludo’s lead and cleaned off my tray before stomping out into the cold again. The sun had risen high enough to peek over the trees. The sky was clear blue for miles. The air smelled crisp and clean. Snow would be on its way soon. I turned toward the cabin on the hill, made a frame with my index fingers and thumbs, and boxed the little house in my fake viewfinder. For a moment, I was twelve years old again. Dad had just put the finishing touches on the cabin, and we lit a fire in the new hearth to celebrate. At the age, I didn’t know what I was missing yet. It seemed like a gift, just the two of spending time together, but the reality was that my father, mentally ill, had hidden us away from the rest of the world.

  “Nice, isn’t it?” Eirian’s deep voice was soothing, even if it was interrupting my recollection. He had stripped off his thick jacket, leaving him in a tight-fitted white thermal that accentuated the lines of his torso. “I could stare at that view all day.”

  I dropped my hands to gaze up at the Rockies as they overlooked the camp. “Really? It doesn’t get old after a while? Don’t you ever wonder what’s on the other side?”

  Sweat beaded at his temples as he hefted part of a huge tree trunk over his shoulder. “Not really.”

  “What’s the tree for?”

  “Firewood,” he said. “We go through a ton of it here.”

  “Right.” I smacked my head. “Duh.”

  His laugh resonated like a low note on a perfectly tuned timpani. “Don’t worry about it. You’re probably exhausted. I can’t imagine what the ride was like out of the city. Smart thinking, by the way, finding a truck without electrical components to get up here. Was that your idea?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you have working radio parts,” he observed. “Sounds like you know a little bit more about this kind of thing that you let on.”

  “You could say that.”

  A couple workers passed by, carrying armloads of wood. Eirian fell into step behind them. “Well, I can’t wait to get started on the radios,” he called to me. “Make sure you tell Ludo to sign me up for that. Don’t let anyone take my job.”

  “I won’t!” I shouted back to him. Another grin, and he vanished amongst the other campers to continue his job. A smile tugged at my lips. Eirian was so light-hearted and carefree. It was a welcome break from the tension between me and the Masons.

  An enormous fire pit, which had been lit while we were eating breakfast, sat in the center of the main square of buildings, surrounded by a wide circle of hand-carved benches similar to the ones in the Bistro. Girl Scouts would jump for joy at the set up. It was perfect for roasting s’mores and telling ghost stories, though I doubted Camp Haven used the sitting area for such purposes. I settled down on one of the benches to wait for the Masons to finish their breakfast, kicking the toe of my boot into the hard dirt. The ground would freeze soon, and I wondered how Camp Haven stockpiled for the harsh winters in the mountains.

  Nita found me first, dusting biscuit crumbs off her fingers before winding a scarf around her neck and joining me at the fire pit. Her thigh pressed warmly against mine, her breath condensing in the chilly wind. “How are you holding up?”

  “As well as I can, I guess. You?”

  “Fine,” she said. “I don’t mind all of this. I grew up with eight brothers and sisters, so sharing everything I own isn’t anything new to me.”

  “I wouldn’t mind sleeping in the dorms either,” I told her. “It would be a relief, but Jacob—”

  “Yeah, I kind of sensed that the two of you were on the rocks,” she said. “Anything I can do to help?”

  I squeezed her hand. “Just keep being my friend.”

  “I can do that.” She tucked our conjoined hands into her coat pocket. “You and me are lucky though. We’re pretty much guaranteed to get jobs that we like. You have your radio stuff, and I’m a shoo-in for the med bay. Jax even let me suture Penny’s leg. I’ve never done anything like that before in my life. I have a feeling I’m going to get more experience here than I would at any hospital. Did you know that they make their own Penicillin here? It’s crazy!”

  Her enthusiasm brought a grin to my face. “I’m glad you’re fitting in.”

  “Me too,” she said. “I worry about the Masons though.”

  “Wait until Jove realizes that he has to pull his own weight,” I told her. “That’s going to be something to see.”

  As if on cue, the Masons burst forth from the Bistro doors and made a beeline for the fire pit. Jove’s stomach pressed against the buttons of his coat. Apparently, he’d gotten enough scrambled eggs to expand his waistline.

  “What now?” he thundered,
guiding Pippa to sit down beside us. Jacob remained standing, folding his arms across his chest and tucking his chin into his collar to fend off the wind. “Are we supposed to just sit out here in the damn cold?”

  “It’s not so bad by the fire, Mister Mason,” Nita said. “You should get off your feet and warm up.”

  “What I’d like is to find a damn room,” Jove rumbled. “Where is that giant buffoon that pretends he’s in charge? I’ve got a bone to pick with him.”

  “Right here.”

  Jove jumped, his great belly jiggling, as Ludo turned up right behind him. His bushy mustache did not entirely hide his smirk at Jove’s antics.

  “I’ve spoken to the head of residency,” Ludo went on. “And I have your room assignments. Nita, you’ll be in bunk thirty-nine in the women’s dorm. It’s pretty easy to find. They’re all numbered. If you drop by DotCom, someone there will give you what we call a bug bag. It’s a big canvas tote that can hold all of your belongings in case we need to evacuate the camp. Pick yours up and get comfortable in your bunk. Feel free to take a nap. I assume you guys didn’t sleep a wink in that truck last night. When you’re ready, report to med bay. Jax and Maddy are eager to get your training started. Clear?”

  “Yes, sir.” Nita saluted him then kissed my cheek. “Hang in there, buddy. I’ll check on you later.”

  If there was anything I envied about Nita in that moment, it was her ability to separate herself from our group and blend in effortlessly with the other campers. On the other hand, I was stuck with the Masons, who drew attention to themselves like strippers at a black tie affair.

  “As for the rest of you,” Ludo continued, “I had a few of our boys drop your bug bags off in your room. We’re heading there now. It’s a bit removed from the rest of the living space. For privacy and all that. You ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be,” Jove grumbled.

  We fell in step behind Ludo as he led us past the main square of the compound and the dormitories. Out here, there were smaller cottages and tents, built between fields for growing crops. Most of the dirt was barren, but a few late-blooming patches of winter squash decorated the area with vibrant oranges and yellows. As we walked, Ludo talked.