Wipeout | Book 3 | Empty Vault Read online

  EMPTY

  VAULT

  Wipeout Series

  Book 3

  By

  E.S. Richards

  Mike Kraus

  © 2020 Muonic Press Inc

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

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  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to my awesome beta team, without whom this book wouldn’t be nearly as great.

  Thank you!

  Wipeout Book 4

  Available Here

  Chapter 1

  Dante took one last look at his little boy as he slept, quietly closed Bowie’s bedroom door and walked into the kitchen, where his mother had just poured him a fresh mug of coffee.

  “Are you ready?” Meghan, smiled at her son as she asked the question.

  “I just hate leaving him behind. But I’ve got no choice right at the moment.” He took a sip of his coffee and shrugged. “At least he’s got you here to look after him.”

  “It’ll be alright you know.”

  “I know,” Dante nodded, “It just doesn’t feel right. We shouldn’t be locking ourselves in.”

  “Or locking everyone else out,” Meghan replied with a grimace. “I know it feels weird, but it is probably the most sensible decision. Everyone that lives here has one thing and one thing only on their minds—survival. They’re just doing what they think is right.”

  “It’s just so extreme,” Dante sighed. “What if it means Austin can’t get in?”

  They stared at each other. Neither had an answer.

  The people of Poughkeepsie were determined to outlast the disaster Trident had thrust upon them. That meant cutting themselves off from the rest of society. They didn’t want anyone else coming to them and soaking up their resources if they weren’t a part of the community from the beginning. Poughkeepsie was going to survive, but apparently it was going to do it alone.

  “I’m sure it won’t come to that.”

  Dante’s heart sank. Her tone of voice told him that even she didn’t believe what she was saying. Dante nodded. “Thanks for at least trying to make me feel better.”

  Austin was entirely alone and that worried him. The man was resilient, but they were living in unprecedented times and anything could happen. Despite it all though, Dante refused to give up hope. He knew Austin would come for him and Bowie and eventually they would be a family again.

  “Better get going,” Dante declared after a pause, downing the remaining contents of his coffee and setting the mug down on the counter. “I’ll see you later mom. Love you.”

  “Love you too, darling. Take care of yourself!”

  Dante walked out of the house, whispered another goodbye to his sleeping son and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He didn’t even bother with his car. He turned right at the end of the driveway and headed for the main road into the city and his job for the day.

  Throughout Poughkeepsie, men like him were all leaving their homes to go and do the same thing. Block off the main roads into the city and ensure that no one who didn’t belong could get in. The monumental decision had been made at a City Hall meeting a couple of nights ago. After the bridge was blown to pieces, the roads were the natural next step.

  Every able-bodied man who wanted to stay in Poughkeepsie and benefit from the tight-knit community had to pitch in and help. That included Dante. So, just like the rest of them, he walked toward the outskirts of the city and joined the group of men building blockades out of anything and everything they could find.

  “Morning, Dante,” Jeff Thatcher called across the street as Dante turned a corner. “How’re you doing?”

  “Hey Jeff,” Dante smiled at his long-time friend. “Not bad, man. How’re you?”

  “Pretty good,” Jeff grinned. “I’m excited to get these blockades up.”

  Dante’s smile faded and he dropped eye contact with Jeff, reluctant to let his friend know how he truly felt about what they were doing. It didn’t surprise him that Jeff was on board with the shut-in of Poughkeepsie. The fact he had stayed in the city all his life alluded to that already, few people choosing to set up a life so close and yet so cut off from New York unless they were of that mindset.

  Poughkeepsie used to be nothing more than a commuter city, filled with people who worked in New York during the week and chose to spend their weekends surrounded by woodland and nature rather than high-rise buildings and busy streets. That was why Dante’s parents had moved there2 originally. They had wanted to bring up their son away from the dangers of New York City, in a more peaceful community.

  Since then, the city had changed and the residents had become more and more averse to New York City itself. The transport links became less well managed and stores which catered to things the locals termed ‘big city living’ slowly lost business and were forced to relocate. They were replaced instead with hunting and camping stores, and gun shops. People in Poughkeepsie lived for the mountains and forests that lay just beyond the ridge and the wildlife that roamed through them. They were so prepared to do battle with the beasts, it was hardly a leap to now turn on their fellow man.

  “How long do you figure it’ll take?” Dante asked Jeff as they walked side by side, turning his focus to the more practical element of the matter.

  “For what? Building the barriers? Shouldn’t take too long. I don’t think it’ll be long before we’ve got people trying to knock them down, either. Those city-slickers in New York will come begging for refuge and salvation probably sooner rather than later.”

  “Mm,” Dante murmured in response, his thoughts with his husband and the many other city-slickers that he had relationships with. The couple had plenty of friends in the city and Dante worried about each of them as well. There was no telling how bad things were in the thick of it all. “Just a one-day job, then?”

  “I think so,” Jeff nodded as they neared the perimeter of the city. The number of men that joined them on the road increased as they all headed in the same direction. “We’ve got enough sets of arms here, shouldn’t take too long to get us all locked away.”

  Dante nodded, unsure what else he had to sa
y to Jeff that wouldn’t put him out one way or the other. He knew today was a day to keep his opinions to himself about Poughkeepsie. Emotions were high throughout the city and saying the wrong thing to the wrong person could easily wind up with him and his family on the wrong side of the walls. If Dante wanted to keep his son and his mother safe, then the first step to doing that was keeping his mouth shut.

  As he and Jeff joined the throngs of people crowded around the chosen point of Route 9 – the most direct road into the city from the south – they slowed to a halt and waited around for instructions. The new city limit was just beyond the cemetery, the point where there was decidedly only one path in.

  The road was wide, four lanes lined with trees and greenery on either side. A gas station sat just inside what they had declared as their new border. It was another useful resource that the men and women of Poughkeepsie would be keeping just for themselves.

  As far as Dante could see, there wasn’t much more for the days’ recruits to do. A large number of vehicles had already been driven to the point and parked haphazardly across the road. No other cars would be able to navigate through. Their job for the day was to plug the holes and try to arrange it so people couldn’t simply climb over the barrier.

  Spools of barbed wire and trucks full of metal from the scrap yard had been brought up. It became clear that no real instructions were going to be given. Everyone knew what the job was and they were expected to get it done, no questions asked.

  Jeff nudged Dante in the side with his elbow and grinned and Dante knew it was time that he jumped in and started to help. The sooner he started, the sooner he could get home to Bowie.

  The crucial part was ensuring the blockade reached high enough to deter people from trying to climb over it. Blocking the road was one thing, but if someone tried hard enough, they could navigate their way over the cars and scrap metal that was dumped between them.

  “This is never going to work,” Dante mumbled to himself. “We need to layer it.”

  “What’s that?”

  Dante turned and looked behind him. The imposing-looking man who stood there was huge, stacked with muscle and nearly seven feet tall. It had to have been him who had spoken.

  “What do you mean ‘we need to layer it?’” the man asked.

  “We’re never going to be able to stack things high enough to stop people climbing over,” Dante explained, reluctantly. He didn’t want the barriers up in the first place and now he was about to give advice on how to make them work better. He wished he could take his mumbled comment back. All the men around him stood and stared, waiting for him to go on. He had little choice, now.

  “So, we need to layer it,” he continued eventually. “Have one barrier of the cars and the scrap metal, then another fence or something a little bit further back. Then another and so on. If there are a higher number of walls that people have to get over, they’re less likely to be able to get through them all.”

  “Makes sense,” the man grunted. “Hey Kyle, you hear this?”

  “What?” a random man shouted back from somewhere further down the line of abandoned cars.

  Dante wanted to turn around and look in that direction, but he thought it was best to remain still. For the moment, he’d allow the big man in front of him to spread the word. As much as it pained him to help put the barrier up, perhaps it was just what was required of Dante to remain safe. With the little time he’d spent in Poughkeepsie, it wasn’t surprising he didn’t recognize many of the locals. But so long as they didn’t start to see him as an outsider, he should be okay.

  “This guy says we should be making loads of smaller barriers instead of just one big one.”

  “Yeah, why’s that?”

  “Harder to get over, makes sense when you think about it.”

  “I guess we could go back for more cars.”

  Dante cleared his throat. “I think a fence would work better,” he countered. “We need something that people can’t just climb over. Put up a fence, barbed wire over the top and scrap metal or whatever on our side, so if they do jump over, they get stuck in that. All we basically want is an unwinnable obstacle course.”

  A much larger number of people were listening to Dante speak now. When he finished, there were a few seconds of silence throughout the crowd before people started to agree with him.

  “Yeah, that make sense,” one man shouted from somewhere else.

  “Let’s build a fence.”

  “Yeah!”

  Within seconds the hoard of men had more purpose about them and Dante himself had achieved exactly the opposite of what he had set out to do that morning. People worked with more enthusiasm. A couple of trucks drove back into the city to gather more supplies and everyone else continued setting up the barriers.

  They worked long into the day, toiling under the hot sun. By late afternoon, Route 9 into and out of Poughkeepsie was entirely obstructed. The barriers stretched all the way across the road and well into the tree line. They only stopped when the environment became too difficult to navigate themselves. This wasn’t just a little warning for people to stay away, this was a clear and obvious message. Poughkeepsie didn’t want any visitors and they were willing to go to extreme lengths to keep people away.

  “Dante, my man!” Jeff’s voice broke out to Dante’s right, just as a firm hand came down on his shoulder. “That was brilliant today. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  Dante smiled awkwardly and shrugged the hand from his shoulder. “Ah, you know, just doing my part.”

  “I’m glad,” Jeff replied. “There were a few of the guys who didn’t really think your head was in this one. We know you’ve got your husband back in the city. They were saying you might not want the barriers to be put up, but you sure showed them today. It’s good to have you on board, pal.”

  Dante laughed awkwardly. “We’ve got to protect what we’ve got, don’t we? No point having all the resources if other people just come in and use them all.”

  “Exactly!” Jeff clapped him on the back again, grinning from ear to ear. “We’re more alike than I’d originally thought. You know, a few of us are getting together tonight for some drinks. Do you want to come along?”

  “Ah, I don’t know,” Dante responded, “I’ve got my little boy at home to look after.”

  “You’ve got your mom around, don’t you? Come on, take a night off. It’ll be fun. I won’t take no for an answer.”

  “Yeah, alright then,” Dante agreed, doing his best to hide his reluctance. “Where at?”

  “Just come over to my place, sometime around eight?”

  “Okay, great,” Dante smiled. “Thanks Jeff.”

  “No problem, pal. I’ll see you later.”

  “See you!” Dante waved to Jeff, smiled until the man was out of sight and then dropped his arms to his sides and scowled. It was bad enough the part he had played in their work today. Now he had to spend the evening surrounded by these small-minded men and try to keep his real opinions to himself. Dante knew it was a good thing that Jeff had warmed to him, but it certainly came at a price.

  As he entered his mother’s house, Dante found some solace in the fact he didn’t need to go to Jeff’s place until eight o’clock. He could still have dinner with his family and put his son to bed. If that was the best that could be made of the situation then so be it. Until he had to leave again, Dante was going to enjoy the time he did have with his son and be thankful that they were safe and together.

  Chapter 2

  “Pass me your bowl, Austin. I think this is just about ready now.”

  Samuel held his hand out for his bowl and waited for the words to click in Austin’s head for him to do as he’d asked. Samuel had thought that a decent night’s sleep might have improved Austin’s demeanor. But, Austin was just as melancholy and lost in his thoughts as he had been the night before. The rest did not improve his mood at all.

  After finding the bridge into Poughkeepsie destroyed, Samuel hadn’t really known
what to do. During their journey out of New York, Austin had been the guiding voice, the one making the decisions to get them to Poughkeepsie. They had gone as far as they could go and were still unable to reunite with his family. Austin had lost his enthusiasm and the tenacity that Samuel was used to. He acted instead like a disappointed puppy that had been left home alone for the first time.

  Austin moped around camp and now it seemed it was up to Samuel to take care of his friend and try to find a solution to their problems.

  The two men sat on a log about a mile back from the ruined bridge, just inside the tree line but close enough to see the road. They had set up their tents and camped overnight. No other option than to sleep nearby and try to come up with a plan in the morning. Now morning had come, but as Samuel served up the oatmeal from over the campfire, he was still no closer to any answers than he had been the night before. Austin seemed no better.

  “How did you sleep?”

  Austin grunted as Samuel handed him his metal bowl back and looked up at him instead of staring into the flames. “Huh? Oh, yeah alright. How about you?”

  “Wasn’t as bad as I expected,” Samuel replied with a half-smile. “Considering that’s the first night I’ve spent in a tent since I was a kid, I imagined a lot worse.”

  Austin grunted, back to staring into the flames, again. Samuel’s attempt at cheer fell on deaf ears and the two men ate their breakfast with just the sounds of the forest for company.

  The oatmeal had next to no taste, but Austin barely processed what he was eating as he shoveled it into his mouth and swallowed. He kept seeing the image of the desolate bridge in his head, the main road into the city destroyed and left in ruins. There was no doubt about whether it had been deliberate or not – there was no damage elsewhere and no evidence of a natural event. The way the asphalt was broken showed the tell-tale signs of a bomb being set off. The people of Poughkeepsie had destroyed the bridge and they had destroyed it for a reason.