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  WWIV – In The Beginning

  e a lake

  Copyright © 2014 e a lake

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations are entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form whatsoever without written permission of the author.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is Book One in the WWIV series. Watch for more e a lake novels in the coming months.

  Partial Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  WWIV - In the Beginning

  I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

  -Albert Einstein

  Chapter 1

  If my wife is already dead, then I should Get the Heck out of Dodge. But, that’s the problem. I have no idea if she’s dead or alive. I haven’t heard from her for 18 days –18 very long days and nights. Thus, I have no idea whether she’s alive or not. That’s an issue.

  If I stay here much longer, I’m a goner. Not gonna make it. Plain and simple. Staying here has only one outcome, my eventual early, untimely demise. Changing locations is a necessity. My new destination is set. It’s just – well, tricky. Yeah, let’s just call it tricky. That’s like calling a slash to the jugular vein a minor scrape, but that’s how clear my mind is right now, how clear it’s been for the last 18 days…hell, 18 months.

  My two children – Rita, 8, and Dustin, 6 – are at my wife’s parents’ house just outside Milwaukee. That much I know for a fact. While that’s not ideal, it’s doable. At least I know they are safe there with Ray and Margaret, the in-laws. Sharon, my missing spouse, is somewhere between home and Milwaukee. At least I think so. At least she’s supposed to be. Thus, problem one: How long do I wait for her here in our quaint suburb just east of downtown St. Paul?

  Eighteen days ago the lights went out. Let’s call that problem two. Not a big deal, right? Power goes out all the time, even in large cities. But this was different. No power, no radio, no running cars, no nothing. This is anything but usual. I simply got out of bed 18 days ago and nothing worked. The clocks were out, the coffee maker didn’t work, the garage door wouldn’t go up, and my stupid Durango wouldn’t even make a clicking sound. That was a huge problem. Then and still today.

  Problem 3 – and this is a biggie. Civil unrest is making its way out from St. Paul (and Minneapolis for that matter). A lot of poor people with very little to start with now have exactly nothing left: No food, no water, no sanitation, no protection, no medical care… nothing. As those essential services dry up and disappear, folks start wandering out of the city looking for more. So quiet little Mayberry is starting to turn into not so quiet, huge Crapsville quick. Real quick.

  I need to get myself out of the way of the meandering hoard that is about to overtake my suburb. And soon. Now comes problem 4.

  We – the little woman and me – always talked about where we would “bug out” to when the going got tough. I think we’ve all done that after watching some doom and gloom ‘end of the world’ movie, right? Yeah, we all have. We – Sharon and I – always said we’d go to my parents’ shack up in the middle of nowhere in Northern Wisconsin; up on lake Superior in the center part of the state. Far away from any problems that might try and follow. It’s a good plan, sort of. What I really want to do now, though, is to find my children, and my wife. They’re all I can think of lately.

  But, and this is a big one, there are no working cars. None, zip, zero. Trust me, I’ve looked around. My next-door know-it-all neighbor, Ted, says whatever happened 18 days ago wiped out all of our electronics. He’s some sort of engineer, so he should know. I had always heard that some cars and trucks, the ones without computers on board, would be spared. But I haven’t found a single one that works. Maybe I just haven’t found one old enough. Maybe, like my wife always says, I just haven’t really looked yet. Maybe.

  Here’s my plan. I’m going to wait one more full day. It’s Tuesday, mid-afternoon. If she doesn’t show up by first light Thursday morning, I am out of here. Well, both me and Buddy, the family lab. I’m going to hook my tow behind kid carrier on my mountain bike, stock it with everything I need, and me and the Budster will hit the road. We’ve got over 300 miles to cover, and if we stay at it I figure we can do that in four days.

  If I’m lucky, and I tend to be, Monday morning I will wake up at my in-laws home in Milwaukee. There, I will finally be reunited with my family. There, we can pontificate as much as we like until our government gets back up and running. Because right now, they are not doing much that I can tell.

  As long as I find my family, I’ll be content. No matter what the future may hold.

  Chapter 2