Grid Attack (Cyber War #2) by Emerson Hawk

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 1 - Anthony
     
    There are times in a mans life where he wishes he would have made different choices. Better choices.
     
    Right now was one of those times for me. If I had listened to Katherine when she said for us to leave, it would have been much easier than to try to leave now.
     
    By now, we were sure that most of the roads were probably blocked or guarded by people who didn’t have any qualms about taking a life for food or anything else for that matter.
     
    The National Guard had been called out and apparently were trying to help people. But there were some others who were using the situation to kill and loot from people.
     
    We had been watchful for the last couple of weeks, trying to lay low and hide away in our home. For the most part, no one knew we were there. And if there was any major looting going on, they chose not to come to our house.
     
    Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that our home was a huge brick house set up high and there was no real easy way to loot the place without being noticed easily.
     
    It had gotten pretty cold over the last week, and we figured people didn’t care to be out in the cold. We thought that maybe that kept people closer to their own location instead of venturing out too far and finding us.
     
    We could smell wood smoke through the area so we knew that other’s had held up in their homes as well, probably sharing with their neighbors. It wouldn’t last, though.
     
    Two weeks ago, some men who were dressed to look like military came around and shot anyone who answered doors. Maybe they had gotten enough supplies through that method, but we knew we wouldn’t be safe here for much longer. We knew they would probably be back to take whatever they wanted and we didn’t have enough people to fend them all off if there was more than a few.
     
    Kat was right. We should have packed up what we could and left. Now we had no choice. It was just a matter of figuring out how to get out of the city with what we could and not get shot in the process.
     
    I found Kat upstairs digging through some boxes, frantically looking for something.
     
    “Babe? Whatchya doin?” I asked her.
     
    She rubbed her face with her hands and then put her hands on her hips.
     
    “I’m trying to find the maps!” she said, flustered. “I had put some maps of the state away in case we ever needed them. I was going to toss them, but I just couldn’t, even though we never used them.”
     
    I decided to help her look through some boxes when I spotted what looked like a small magazine box on the book shelf. Walking over, I pulled it out, and it was full of folded paper maps.
     
    “Is this what you’re looking for?” I asked, with a bit of a smirk.
     
    She softly punched me in the arm. “Now why couldn’t you have come up and done that an hour ago?” she said, with a slight smile.
     
    She went through the maps and found the one for Missouri.
     
    “Got it, woot!” she said and kissed me on the cheek as she took her candle and went downstairs.
     
    We pulled the map open and began to look at the different routes out of town. Carl, Kat and I followed the roads with our fingers, talking about ways to get through and places to turn around if we needed. Damn, I missed having a maps app right now.
     
    We figured if we could get across the Missouri river, we would have a much better chance of getting free from marauders. We just had to decide if we wanted to take side roads or main roads.
     
    “Carl, see if you can get anyone on the radio talking about the roads. Even if it isn’t in our area. If we can find out what other’s are doing, it will only help us.”
     
    The local radio bands had all finally went silent so the only real contact we had now was Carl’s portable HAM radio.
     
    He pulled out his radio and sat on the recliner, trying to find anyone talking about roads. There was all kinds of chatter about everything including