Drought Warning: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (The Damaged Climate Series Book 2) Read online

  Drought Warning

  THE DAMAGED CLIMATE SERIES BOOK TWO

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  More Books by J.R.

  This book is a work of fiction and is for your personal enjoyment only. Any similarities to names, places, or events are coincidental. This book may not be resold or given away to another person. It may not be transmitted in any way without written permission from the author.

  Copyright © 2016 by J.R. Tate

  Cover art by J.R. Tate

  Book Description:

  Ryan Gibson has been reunited with his wife and son. Those lucky enough to have survived the tornadoes have made an old church cellar into a temporary refuge. The storms have tapered off, the temperatures are climbing, and the shift in the weather pattern is cause for concern. Everyone is wondering what Mother Nature has in store for them next. The unpredictable climate has everyone looking to the sky, all fearing that if they step away from the safe haven they have created, it will be an automatic death sentence.

  Their ultimate goal is to rebuild Harper Springs, but Ryan wonders how they are going to achieve their plans – with no precipitation falling and record-breaking heat, his worries are focused on the dwindling water supply and opportunity to grow crops. The surplus of non-perishable foods won’t last forever, pushing a sense of urgency to get the rebuilding going.

  With Cecilia’s parents still missing, Ryan sets off on a mission to get all of the family back together for good. Leaving Steve back in Harper Springs, he feels confident his new friend will take care of business as he and his father head toward Fox Lake.

  They learn that tornadoes aren’t the worst thing they can encounter – blazing wildfires, massive dirt walls, and dangerous thieves and looters threaten their survival. They get their first real look at how widespread the turmoil is, revealing a post-apocalyptic wasteland they may never be able to come back from.

  Chapter One

  Ryan Gibson stared out at the wasteland before him, and though it was reality he was living, he still couldn’t believe what was happening in the Harper Springs area. Replaying the last few weeks in his mind, a whirlwind of emotions clouded his better judgment. Storm after storm, Mother Nature’s continued dominance over the land was enough to make anyone want to walk out in the middle of it all and allow the tornado to suck them right up into the clouds and into oblivion.

  He was reunited with Cecilia and Ty. His father was okay and they were all getting medical attention. It was a church basement with no sterile area, but it was better than rotting away in the cellar back at his ranch.

  “Ryan? You okay?” His father joined him above ground, both of them staying close to the shelter. The storms had gotten even more unpredictable and intense, and if you found yourself even just a few feet away from a safe place, the odds were against you that you’d make it.

  Glancing at his father, he ducked his head and ran his boot through some mud. “How’s Ty?” It came out in a whisper, but his father heard the question. He had spent most of the morning waiting in line for his son’s turn. With most of the medical staff presumed dead, triaging the injured wasn’t an exact science. And with one doctor, things weren’t moving quickly.

  “Doctor is still looking at him. I, uh...” Darryl wiped the back of his neck with a towel and bit his bottom lip. “It doesn’t look good, Ryan.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe you ought to go down there and talk to Cecilia.”

  Ryan nodded and adjusted his baseball cap. As usual, his father wasn’t a man of many words, and that was fine. Taking a deep breath, he went down the stairs, joining Cecilia, who was at Ty’s bedside. He adjusted the lantern, brightening the room around them. With no electricity, without the use of gas and kerosene lamps, it would be pitch-black all the time.

  “Where’s the doctor?” Ryan asked, forcing a smile so Ty wouldn’t worry.

  “He’s over there finishing up with that woman. She got impaled on a fence post. It must be hard having to prioritize all of this,” Cecilia replied, wiping her nose with a tissue. Her face was red and swollen, her worry for her son written all over her expression. “He mentioned looking at your leg again after he was finished with Ty. It looks like it’s bleeding again. Your jeans are soaked.”

  In the midst of the chaos, his injured leg had been put on the back burner. It ached and burned, but he didn’t notice that the stitches that Steve and the nurse had worked on had busted open, nor did he care at the moment.

  The mention of impalement made Ryan think of Mrs. McElroy and the way she had died in her car. It was a punch to his gut and he couldn’t bring himself to look over at the woman. The shelter looked like a scene from the old west. With no technology working and limited staff, they had backtracked to old school care. Some injuries might have been better left untouched.

  “I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” the doctor said as he approached them. “I have looked over your son and...” He cut himself off and adjusted his glasses. Motioning them away from Ty’s bed with a wave of his hand, he double checked to make sure they were out of earshot and continued. “Your son is going to lose that arm. I’m sorry to give you the bad news, but with the bone protruding and with as long as it’s gone without care, the infection has spread through his elbow and will continue if I don’t do something about it.”

  Ryan closed his eyes and tried to pretend this was all just a nightmare. “How can you do that with what you have here?” He spread his arms, motioning at the disaster of scattered supplies everywhere. “You mention infection. How are you going to keep things clean for the amputation?”

  “I have some IV’s I was able to salvage from my office. Thankfully, we kept a lot of supplies in our basement. There are antibiotics and saline, and...”

  “What about pain, doctor?” Cecilia cut him off, holding her hand up between them. “Is this going to hurt him?”

  “We have pain medications as well. Everything is obviously limited, but your son is top of the list for what we have. I can dose him up enough with a sedative to allow him to sleep, amputate the arm, and manage the pain immediately, getting ahead of it before we can’t control it.”

  Ryan folded his arms across his chest and tried to digest everything. It was happening too fast. Funny how that worked – getting help seemed to take an eternity, and now that they were at that point, he wanted everything to slow down.

  “You mentioned you had antibiotics, right?” Ryan asked, glancing over his shoulder at Ty. The kid was oblivious to what was about to happen.

  “We do, yes.”

  “Then can’t you treat the current infection with them? Why not hook him up to an IV and see?”

  “Because I’m certain it’s already in his blood
stream, which means it’s going to spread faster. As soon as I can wipe out the initial site of infection, we can control the rest with medication. But if I just treat it without fixing the problem, we will run out of the antibiotics fast, and then what? It’s like putting a small patch on a gaping hole. It’ll work for a little while, but it won’t long term, not to mention resetting the bone. I just don’t have the resources here to do it.”

  “And his head?” Cecilia asked, her brow furrowed.

  “He has a concussion, but so much time has passed that it’s the least of his medical problems. Without scans, I can’t pinpoint if he has any brain damage, but with the way he is responding and how alert he is, I’d say he’ll be fine.” The doctor adjusted his glasses again and clutched a clipboard. “I’ll give you two a minute to talk. Having a limb amputated is tough, but I just don’t see another option in these conditions.” He walked away, leaving Cecilia and Ryan alone.

  “My baby is going to lose his arm.” Cecilia’s voice shook. “He’s too young to lose his arm, Ryan.”

  “I know. But it’s better than the alternative. Look around us. Nothing is sanitary. Do we really want him running around with a bone sticking out of his arm? I hate that he’s gone this long with it that way.”

  “I know, hon. At least we’re alive and together.”

  Ryan hugged her and she held on tighter than she had in a long time. Walking to the edge of Ty’s bed, he leaned over and ruffled the child’s hair. “Hey, kiddo. The doctor is about to come do something that will help you feel better, okay? You’re going to take a nap and you won’t feel anything. Mommy and I will be right here. We won’t leave you.”

  “Okay, daddy. What about grandpa? Is he here too?”

  Ryan smiled. His father and Ty had really bonded well when he was gone. “He’s here too, Ty. We’re all here. I love you, kiddo.”

  “I love you too.”

  Cecilia kissed him on the forehead and they backed away, allowing the doctor space to begin his work. It probably wouldn’t be the best idea to watch, but Ryan didn’t want to leave him ever again.

  “I just thought about something,” Ryan said, clutching Cecilia’s hand.

  “What?”

  “How’s he going to take it when he wakes up and learns his arm is gone? What in the hell are we going to say to him?” Ryan sat in a chair and buried his face in his hands.

  “We’ll think of something, Ryan.”

  “Or we won’t. I don’t know what the hell to think, anymore.” His instincts were telling him the worst was yet to come.

  The doctor took Ty behind what looked like a shower curtain, shielding his procedure from others. Ryan was thankful for that but he also wanted to see what was happening with his son. There were other people in the respite area, so privacy was out the window. He just wanted to make sure that Ty really wasn’t in pain and everything would go okay. They had several lanterns set up to give the doctor enough light to see what he was doing.

  Cecilia held Ryan’s hand and closed her eyes. Tears gathered on her eyelashes and he wished she could at least be by Ty’s side. In a real hospital when things were normal, they wouldn’t allow her in the room during surgery. They had to accept the fact that right now, this was the new normal, even if the only thing that separated the operating room from everything was a thin curtain. Sanitary issues concerned Ryan, but Ty was hooked up to an IV that would help prevent infection and hopefully kill what was already inside his body.

  Darryl joined them, his eyes darting toward the curtain and back to Ryan. “They say how long it’d take?”

  “No. Since he doesn’t have that much equipment, I’d say a while,” Ryan replied, squeezing Cecilia’s hand.

  “The doctor is back there alone?”

  “There’s a nurse too. But it’s only them.”

  “After they’re done with Ty, they should look at your leg, son. It’s...”

  Ryan held his hand up and cut his dad off. “My leg is fine, dammit. I wish people would stop talking about my leg. Ty needs the doctor. These other people need medical attention.” Ryan spread his arms, motioning at other people waiting on the doctor.

  Darryl arched his eyebrow and looked at the floor. “I’m just thinking about you too, Ryan. I know your mind is on your family, but what good will you be if your injury gets out of hand? You have to remember, a minor cut could be an issue right now until more supplies and help come.”

  “I thought you said no one was coming,” Ryan spat back, his temper flaring. His father didn’t deserve it, but Ryan couldn’t control it. He was exhausted, hungry, and most of all, heartbroken that his child was losing his arm. All because he couldn’t protect him from the weather. He’d never get over the guilt he felt.

  “It hasn’t stormed since we all got back here. That’s a plus. Maybe it’ll be enough of a break for someone to get through.”

  Ryan clenched his jaw and stared at the curtain as if keeping his eyes trained on it would give him x-ray vision. It was so quiet, which he had to think was a good thing. If Ty wasn’t making any noise, the sedative was working and he wasn’t hurting.

  “I want to find my parents,” Cecilia said, her eyes wide, her voice shaking as she stood up. Pacing, she smoothed her hands through her hair and stretched out, wincing. “Ouch, I forgot about my rib.”

  “Sit down, babe.” Ryan motioned to the chair next to him. “I want to find your parents too. We’ll find them.”

  “What if they’re not alive?”

  “One thing at a time, Cecilia. Let’s get Ty better and then we’ll find your parents.”

  She shook her head and bit her bottom lip. “You didn’t answer my question. Ryan, please...” She ducked her head as the tears flowed from the corners of her eyes. “Wouldn’t they have been able to make it here? What if they got killed by those pathetic looters?” She pointed toward Doug who was across the shelter and out of earshot.

  “There are way too many what-if’s to be thinking about right now. Your dad was way better prepared than we were. He had his cellar stocked up for months of isolation. They could just be held up there, scared to leave like we were.”

  “I want them here with us, Ryan. We all need to be together. People are dying. This is like what the church always said – the end of the world and all of the stuff that Revelations talks about.”

  Ryan reached out and guided her back to the chair. “This is not Revelations. This was just a bad weather system that crippled us, but we’ll come back from it.”

  “How come no one has come, Ryan? It’s been so long. Your dad is right. No one is coming.”

  Ryan didn’t know what to say. Cecilia had always been so calm and positive in times of crisis, but today she was having no part of being chipper. He couldn’t blame her. How could someone be in good spirits when people were dead all around them? People they knew from the grocery store, people from Ty’s baseball team, and not to mention Mrs. McElroy, the first person he found dead that he was close to.

  “As soon as we hear something about Ty, I’ll get one of the horses from the rescue team and go to Fox Lake. I’ll bring your parents back here.”

  “I don’t want something to happen to you, Ryan.”

  “I went and got Ty and my dad. I can do the same for your folks.”

  Cecilia wiped her nose with a tissue. “That wasn’t as far. You rode what, twelve miles back to our house? Fox Lake is about sixty miles away. What if a storm comes and you’re out there?”

  “I made it on foot for days when I was trying to find you. I can do it again, Cecilia. I’m going to have to. There are still a lot of people out there who need us. People who are afraid to go anywhere. And besides, my dad said it hasn’t stormed since we got here, and that’s been several hours. That’s a record.”

  “No clouds in the sky, but it sure is hot out there. I’d say it’s well over one-hundred degrees,” Darryl replied.

  “I don’t know what to do, Ryan.” A few more tears fell down her cheek and she wiped them
away with the back of her hand. “I don’t want to get separated again. But I want to know if my parents are okay. What in the hell are we going to do?”

  “Like I said a few minutes ago. One step at a time. Let’s get Ty healthy and we’ll go from there. Everything else is out of our hands.”

  Chapter Two

  Ryan went up to ground level to get some fresh air. Cecilia promised to get him if the doctor came out with any news. Things felt like they were taking forever, and the little patience he had left was almost gone.

  A dusty haze was at eye-level, offering an eerie feel to all of the demolished structures around them. Most people were down in the cellar, afraid to come out in fear of another storm popping up out of nowhere. After outrunning them on multiple occasions, Ryan felt confident he could do it again, but still had to remain cautious. One wrong decision or hesitation and they’d be taking him to the other cellar that was serving as the Harper Springs morgue.

  His father was right – it was hot. Hours ago the heat was dangerous for storms forming, but this was a different kind of heat. It was lacking in humidity and like a furnace bearing down on him. No moisture meant that the chances of a storm were minimal, but lack of moisture also meant that any standing water would evaporate fast. They could use a few days without rain. The river was full and it drained into the area lakes. But like everyone knew, you always respect the water supply, even if it is over capacity. Prolific rain showers came and went like bluebonnets in the spring with no knowledge of when the next cloudburst would come around again.

  It’d be a nice break to not have any weather, but with the limited and dwindling resources, fear of drought was forefront with Ryan. His mind was going in a million different directions. He had to take his own advice – one step at a time. Right now, his focus should be on Ty. And he couldn’t forget Cecilia’s parents. A part of him still could not accept the fact that the entire world was cut off. If things didn’t improve in the Harper Springs area, they’d have to set out on horseback or on foot and leave. That would be the only way to get a clear picture of how things were playing out away from home. None of this seemed real.