On the 21st March, 2018, the world shut down. Everything which used a conventional power source simply died, causing the world to grind to a halt. Two years later, ALICIA ORTIZ, a young Spanish woman, finds herself waking up in this powerless world with no memories of who she is. All she has is an I.D. card from a science facility somewhere in Spain. As she tries to come to grips with her situation, she meets JONAS TENNANT, a mysterious man with a gruff exterior but a heart of gold. Alicia soon learns that she is in Ireland and that the world has become a dangerous wasteland where fear of attack is constant and hope of survival is minimal.

Alicia desires to get back to Spain, hoping to find not just answers about herself but also the power outages. Jonas agrees to accompany her due to a desire to find answers as well. Together, the two decide to search for answers, not just about who Alicia is but what has caused the outages. This journey leads them from Ireland through England, France and Spain, and along the way, they witness how a lack of power has affected different societies and different people. Together, they must overcome political power struggles, cities fallen to gang warfare and the dangers of nature in an isolated and unhelpful world. But will the journey leave them with the answers they seek? And if they get those answers, will they wish they never had?

Blackout is available on Amazon in ebook and paperback editions. Click on the cover above to visit the Amazon Store to buy your copy.

As a sample, I have decided to give you chapter one of this novel below. Should you enjoy it, please click on the link above to be taken to the Amazon store.

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Prologue

For decades, Hollywood had attempted to tell stories and predict how the end of the world would come about and what the post-apocalyptic landscape would look like afterwards. Some told of how the world would be conquered by fearsome aliens or sentient robots. Some portrayed ours as a world on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe which teetered on the edge, dependant on the decisions of a few powerful men. Some thought the world would be a barren, inhospitable landscape, with deserts and ruins as far as the eye could see. Some saw a world where the sea levels would rise to inescapable levels, flooding the earth and washing out all life completely. All thought the end would come with a bang; with something so dramatic, people would talk about it with horror and fear forever more should they live to talk about it at all.

The truth was that when the apocalypse did finally occur, most people didn’t even realise it.

On the 21^st of March, in the year 2018, everything shut down. At 4:16 pm, everything simply ceased to operate. There was no panic. People just thought it was a simple power outage caused by a minor accident. Televisions stopped broadcasting. Computers crashed and never booted up again, as people lost access to the internet. Phone lines were completely dead. There was no way to communicate with others and no way to spread the word on how widespread the outages were. And in their blissful ignorance, everyone simply tried to continue on as best they could. Everyone was coming up with their own reasons for the power outage; some idiots cutting a power line, routine maintenance, a glitch on some circuit. But everyone agreed it would only last a little while. Nothing to worry about. Sure, it was annoying. But these things rarely lasted more than a day. Two at most.

Then someone decided that it might be a good idea to run to a shop and get some supplies, just in case. But when they put their keys into the ignition, they found that the engines in their cars were dead as well. Everyone’s cars were refusing to start up. These people though, the ones who had been at home all safe and snug when the outages hit, were the lucky ones. They just found themselves trapped in their houses. For others, this began a nightmare which would never end. Hospitals found that even their backup reserves were empty, and patients who had been relying on the mechanical natures of medical centres found themselves desperately begging for their lives. The rich and powerful found that their accounts which had once contained millions upon millions were wiped out in a matter of seconds, completely inaccessible in any way. Not that this would matter in the long run, of course; with no power, the state of the economy became a minor priority, and as the days spread into weeks, the idea of buying goods instead of simply looting them in a bid for self-survival became absurd.

People who had been driving along on their way home from work now found their engines powering down, and although some were able to slam on the handbrakes in time, others were travelling at such speeds that, as every car cut out at once, collisions and pile ups were inevitable. Countless people died as cars slammed into each other or veered violently off the road, the occupants simply unable to react quickly enough to the unexpected events unfolding. Aeroplanes dropped from the sky like raging missiles, killing not only every single passenger who had to plummet to a horrible crushing death, but also anyone unfortunate enough to be located underneath them as they landed. Some simply ended up in fields or in the middle of large bodies of water. Others tore through residential or urban areas, destroying indiscriminately.

In the days and weeks which followed the outages, stories spread from one corner of the remaining population zones to the others. As months went by, weary travellers passed through areas, telling their tales of the horrors they had witnessed and the destruction which lay behind them. Some sought comfort in waiting for rescues that never came before inevitably having to accept the fate they had been dealt. Others decided to go exploring and leave their homes and families in hope of finding somewhere better, but these people were never heard of again. They never returned and it was impossible to send messages forward or back except in the most archaic of ways. Most just realised the world had died and were powerless to do anything but sit back and watch as society and civilization crumbled at their feet in a blaze of chaotic flames.

There were no warnings as to the death and there were no explanations either. People had no choice but to accept that the apocalypse had started and ended in a split second.

At 4:16 p.m, on 21^st March 2018, everything stopped. Everything.

Chapter One

A bright light engulfed Alicia Ortiz as a cold shiver ran down her spine. She felt sweat dripping from every pore of her skin and her body being squeezed tightly. The bright light gave way to a sheer and unforgiving darkness and she felt herself screaming at the top of her lungs. No noise came out from her mouth though. Instead, the empty space which surrounded her in every direction seemed to be sucking all the air from her lungs. She felt as if she was going to be crushed into nothingness as her arms and legs constricted and she curled herself up into a tiny ball.

And then, the darkness disappeared as well. She remained still for a few seconds, unable to tell which way was up and which was down. Slowly, she began to realise she was rather cold and damp, and that her face was planted solidly into the ground. Mud squelched up around her, forming a mask though which oxygen was having a hard time reaching her mouth and nose. She felt her airways getting tight, restricting and desperately begging her to let them breath again. None of this was really registering completely though. It was if her mind was a computer, slowly rebooting after suffering a system crash. The information was being inputted but no response was coming. And then the reality of her situation hit her hard.

She placed her hands on the ground and quickly pushed herself upward, digging her face from the mud and gasping for a massive intake of air. She coughed and spluttered, forcing large chunks of dirt and grass from her throat before realising that her arms were too weak to sustain her. She fell back down to the ground, turning her face sideways so as to allow her to lie there, quietly, without fear of suffocation. Her breathing was heavy and she inhaled quickly and repetitively, in shock. She felt as if her limbs weighed a tonne and she had used up all of her energy just pushing herself up the once. So she just stayed there on the ground, trying to figure out what had happened. Trying to piece together why she was now lying in a field with grass surrounding her and mud seeping into every nook and cranny of her being.

Alicia couldn’t remember a thing. Her memories only seemed to cover the most immediate facts of where she now found herself, stretching back only seconds. Before that, there was darkness and light and then it was if her brain simply would not acknowledge that anything existed prior. She was left to rely on the little things to make some basic deductions. She was wearing a labcoat which stretched down to her knees. It had been white at some stage but it now simply was washed through with the brown stains of the landscape beneath her. She had a blue shirt and dark navy pants on as well, and they were as filthy as the coat. She could feel something sticking into her located in her trouser pocket and she had to summon all her might to lift a hand and reach inside. There were two objects. a small bronze key with no identifying marks and which served no purpose to her at this time. And a far more helpful identification card.

A young girl in her late twenties, long and dark hair tied back into a neat pony tail, glasses, and darker skin looked back at her, no sign of a smile at all. She presumed it was her; sitting up, albeit very slowly and painfully, she ran her hand through her hair, pulling the dirt away in lumps. She rubbed her eyes which were still struggling to focus and looked at the card. Beside her picture were four simple words. “Alicia Ortiz. Los Infernos”. There was a logo above her name, a black triangle with fire coming from the top of it, surrounded by a scientific diagram of an atom, but she couldn’t remember what it represented. Nor could she remember what “Los Infernos” was. And that was all that the card could offer by way of help. At least she knew her name now.

She clutched the card and key tightly as she started to look around, searching for any signs of life. The field itself was extensive and seemed to stretch quite a distance in every direction. The grass was about three foot high, looking like it had been left unattended for years. A little way off, a tractor sat at a tilted angle. It had once been painted a lovely royal blue but large portions of it were now rusting over, and one of the large wheels was missing. A crow sat atop it and its shrill cry was the only noise to pierce the silence. In the distance, she could see a large group of houses, all close together to form an estate of some kind. Smoke rose from one of the chimneys.

As tough as it was to move and as sore as she felt, she knew she could not just stay sitting there in the field. With no memory and no idea where she was, she had to find someone that could help her. Slowly, she put one foot on the ground and used her arms to push herself up.  She stumbled at first, her balance threatening to give out on her but once she was stable, she started walking towards the houses. She had to push her way through the long grass and it certainly made her trek more difficult. She dared not think of what lived in the grass either; she simply had to keep moving towards the houses in the distance.

She was not too sure what she had expected to find as she exited the field. She had hoped for someone with a nice warm place to sit and relax, some food to fight off her hunger and some explanations as to why she had awoken in the middle of a field. That would have been nice but she did not think she would be that lucky. However, if she thought she would find a thriving community or society nearby, she was in for a disappointment. At the edge of the field stood a road and it was here she started to realise something bad had happened. Cars were left abandoned not only in the middle of the road but at the sides as well. Some had been left in the surrounding ditches, one was wrapped around a tree and they all had their windows smashed and shattered. A lot of them had graffiti sprayed onto them as well, crude and vile images along with words she could not understand. To her disgust and horror, some had skeletons inside them as well, especially the ones which seemed to have crashed, people in the front seat with no chance of escape and no sign of rescue.

The closer she grew to the buildings, the more wreck and ruin she witnessed. She walked to the stone gates either side of a small road running into the area and slumped against it, her head trying to comprehend what she was seeing. Doors had been kicked in, and only a few were still on hinges. All the windows either had holes in them from thrown objects being hurled at them, or lay completely shattered beneath their frames. Some cars still remained on the roads and in the driveways, but they too had been stripped down and abandoned. Some houses had weeds and plants growing up, in and through them, and some had signs of fire plastered on their exteriors, black char marks serving as a frame into the dark interiors. There was absolutely no sign of life. If anyone had lived in this estate, Alicia thought to herself, they had long since moved on.

Except there was one house which stood out from the others. The one which had smoke billowing out of the chimney, shooting off into the sky. She pushed away from the walls of the gate and started moving towards it, her legs in agony. It was not that the building was that far away but it felt like miles to her and if not for the desire to find answers, Alicia thought she may just have lay down on the ground and closed her eyes.

Weeds had overgrown most of the drive way and garden and the car in the driveway was only a shell of what it had once been, even the doors missing from this one. She walked by it and approached the front door, placing her hand lightly against it. She was not sure whether to knock or just push in. She opened it slightly and poked her head inside.

“Hello?” she said, just about above a whisper. She walked into the house as the door creaked loudly. She thought she heard some voices coming from a room in front of her at the end of the hall, but they stopped suddenly when the door made its noise. She repeated herself and started moving towards where the voices had been coming from. “Hello? Is someone there? I need help. Hello?”

She reached the door and pushed it open, revealing a sitting room area. A fireplace opposite was lit and the warmth immediately encapsulated her. She walked over without a second thought and knelt down in front of the flames, sticking her hands out to warm up. She looked around the room but other than a rotten old sofa, it had been stripped bare and there was nothing of even the remotest worth left. She looked back to the fire and studied the flames, trying to will her mind to come up with any piece of relevant information from her past. Anything that would help her remember who she was.

She was so busy thinking that she did not hear the second door in the room open. It was not until she heard the footsteps that she spun around and found herself face to face with two extremely large, burly men. She could not help but let a little scream out in shock. Both of them were filthy, their faces covered in black dirt. They both had large beards and their clothes were old and torn, unwashed and worn to death over the years. They both stank as well and Alicia had to resist the urge not to retch at the smell. Worse still, they both had big smiles on their faces, and their eyes betrayed the thoughts they were having.

She started to back away from them and they let her circle towards the door they had entered, playing with her like a cat chasing a mouse. They did not know who this girl was. They did not care. She was foolish enough to enter their house. And that was one of the worst mistakes she possibly could have made in this region.

Alicia turned and ran out the door. She could hear the two men laughing and their feet running, giving chase. She ran though one room and into another, closing the wooden door behind her and throwing her back up against it. They started beating on it, kicking the wooden blockade hard and Alicia was struggling to keep them out. She threw a look around the room for a weapon to defend herself with, but she could not see anything. She was in the remains of a kitchen; there was a sink and a fridge with its door hanging loose, but that was it. Drawers had been pulled out and smashed up, spaces were left where utilities such as cookers had probably once been. But there was no weapons of any sort, no implements which could hold the two men off. They just kept pounding on the door. Banging and shaking it.

Eventually she could hold them off no longer. One of the kicks knocked her over and she fell hard to the ground as the two men finally caused the door to break into multiple pieces and crumble, giving them access to the kitchen. She started crawling away on her hands and knees, but it was no use. One of the men bent over and grabbed her by the ankle, pulling her back. She lay on the ground looking up at them, all manner of thoughts running through her head as to what was about to happen next. As she sat there, using her hands to pull back away from them, trying to escape their clutch, she started to panic; her breathing grew heavy once more and she could feel tears starting to stream down her cheeks

A loud bang echoed through the ruins of the house, as debris shattered from the wall beside them. Alicia flinched and turned away from the noise, covering her head for protection and curling up into the smallest size possible. After a few moments, she turned back to survey the scene, keeping as much of her head cover as was possible and only peaking a look when she thought it was safe. The two men had turned their backs to her now, staring through the door they had entered, back into the previous room.

“That was a warning shot. Next time, I’ll blow your heads off.” The voice came from behind the corner blocking her view of whatever was happening inside the room. The two attacking men looked at each other and she saw one of them was smiling. The other was furious at being interrupted. He nodded into the room and the two walked away from her, out of sight. She dared to sit up now when suddenly she started hearing some weird noises. Thuds and grunts. There was a whelp of pain and another large thud as it sounded like someone fell to the ground. And then, silence.

Alicia felt her curiosity piquing again and she started to move towards the doorway, crawling through the dust and shattered pieces of glass which adorned the floor. She slowly moved her head around so that she could see what had happened. Her eyes opened in amazement as she took in the image in front of her.

A third man stood over the crumpled bodies of those who had been chasing her. He was tall enough and well built, his brown hair short and his face covered with some stubble. He wore a longer leather duster, the coat fitting him perfectly and hanging down to just below his knees. Underneath it, he had a dirty red shirt and denim jeans which had holes at the knees and looked well worn out. He also held a gun in his right hand, a common pistol that looked cheap enough, and it was now pointing down at one of her assailants, the man staring down at him with an angry look on his face.

He lifted his head and looked directly at Alicia. For a few moments, their eyes met. A few moments after that, Alicia had pulled back and was starting to stand up, looking to run away from the guy who had just single handedly taken out two others. She was terrified and wanted to run as far away as possible, hopefully in the search of a normal person.

She heard the man shout out from behind her and she could tell he was following her, but she dared not stop. She made her way towards a back door and out into the garden, but it was surrounded by massive walls on all side. She had inadvertently trapped herself. She ran to a far corner and looked round, searching for any means of climbing over, but there was no way out. The man in the long coat followed her, walking through the doors into the garden and stating to stride across to her. She leaned back against the wall, shaking. He closed in on her quickly and she closed her eyes, slumping down to the ground and turning her head away.

After a few seconds, when she realised that whoever the man was, he had not done anything to hurt her, she opened her eyes. He was kneeling down right in front of her now, looking directly into her eyes. She stared back and for a few moments, they just looked at each other, speechless.

Out of the corner of her eye, Alicia saw movement coming from the house. One of the men had managed to get back to his feet and was now pulling himself towards them, using a wall and the door frame to stay vertical. He was wielding a knife in his hand and when he saw that her saviour had his back turned, he started to run at them, weapon raised. Alicia let out a scream and pointed at him, unable to articulate quickly enough what was happening. Her scream, though, was warning enough. The man who had saved her spun round and drew his gun, pointed it and aimed it, pulling the trigger. The attacker was flung back as the bullet pierced his chest and entered his heart, killing him instantly.

The gun still smouldering in his hand, the man who had rescued her stood up and looked at the dead body. His back was turned, but he seemed somewhat stunned that the knife had come so close to being plunged into his back. She thought for a moment that he seemed angry that he was caught with his guard down. He moved the back of his long coat to one side and slid the gun into the back of his pants, letting it sit snugly.  He walked over to the body and started rummaging through the pockets, searching for something. He found nothing though, and started to move back towards the house. Alicia stood up and followed.

She entered just in time to see her second assailant flee out through a window and scarper away across the overgrown lawn, fleeing for his life and abandoning any notion of saving his friend. In his haste, the man had left a brown rucksack behind, and this was now being rummaged through as well by the man with the gun, with a lot more success. A big smile spread across his face as he opened it to find three metal tins with no wrappers but still sealed tightly. He closed the bag again and threw it over his shoulder before moving towards the doorway to leave.

Alicia ran up to him and touched him on the shoulder. He stopped and turned, looking at him.

“Thank you,” she said. “I do not know what would have happened had you not come by when you did. My name is Alicia.” As she talked, she saw a weird look in his eye, as if he could not understand a single word she was saying. He watched, bemused, as she repeated herself, before shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. She sighed and could feel herself getting frustrated, before putting her hand on her chest, and slowly saying her name again. “Al-ici-a”.

“Oh! Jonas.” He replied, mimicking her actions. She smiled and he followed suit as well, before the awkward silence fell again. The man looked around and nodded towards the door, signalling for her to follow him. Without waiting for an answer of any sort, he walked out of the building and started making his way up the driveway, striding away from her. She needed to know where she was and why the world seemed to have gone to hell, at least here. She needed to know if he could help her. She needed to know who she was. There was so much she needed to know. And right now, her only source of knowledge was heading away from her.

It hurt her legs to give chase, but she had to follow him; she ran to catch up to the man. Jonas. He had called himself Jonas.

“Hey, stop for a second, would you?” Alicia ran in front of the man, and bent over, putting her hands on her knees and panting. Standing up straight, and pushing her labcoat back as she placed her hands on her hips, she tilted her head to take a look at his face. Close up and without fear of being attacked again, she was able to take a better look at him now. He wasn’t old; mid-twenties by her estimations. He had a few cuts on his face and a scar running down his forehead. His eyes were a deep yet piercing blue; she felt a shiver run down her spine as he stared right through her. She realised he also wore fingerless leather gloves; she realised this as he put his hand on her arm and shoved her out of the way. Not too forcefully. Although he was big enough, he wasn’t hugely muscular and thus powerful. Alicia imagined the gun was all the muscle he needed.

As he strode past her and continued walking down the path, Alicia decided she was going to follow him until she got some decent answers. If he wasn’t going to stop, she would just have to question him on the go. She threw every question in her head at him, trying to figure out where she was and why everything was the way it was. But try as she might, he just kept walking, silently, throwing her the odd puzzled look. After a few minutes of trying, she resigned herself to quietly following after him, until he reached a house at the corner of the street. Pushing some big metal gates at the bottom of the driveway open, he started heading towards the front door. Alicia stared at it for a moment; the exterior was in ruins just like every other house around, the windows smashed, the door hanging from the frame. The man went in regardless, and Alicia thought it would be safer to stick with him for now.

Inside, the man walked through another door into what used to be the living room area. In the center, an old mattress lay on the dusty floor, a blanket askew on top of it. In the corners of the rooms stood monuments to a previous life. A TV with the screen shattered, a DVD player and a games console still hooked up underneath the inches of dirt which looked like it had been building for years. Other devices, like telephones and a computer, lay on the floor. Picture frames contained images of a smiling family staring back at Alicia. A teenager hugged his parents on a sunny day. A happy image in the decay of their house. Unlike the other house, this one had not been looted to the same extent. It had not be stripped bare.

“Is…was that you?” Alicia continued looking at the picture, as the man moved to a couch against the wall. He took the rucksack from his shoulder and put it in his lap as he sat down. Before opening it up, he produced a knife from the inside of his jacket and proceeded to carve the top of one of the tin cans up, revealing what was inside. He held it up to his nose and recoiled at the smell, before looking at it a second time and shrugging. He placed the knife down beside him, took off his gloves and dug his fingers into the can. He pulled them back out and scooped the orange contents into his mouth. After swallowing some, he offered her the can.

Alicia took it and peered inside. It was baked beans in an old tomato sauce and she could feel her stomach churning at the smell. She wondered how old the can was. Regardless, she was starving and she took a handful of the food, gulping it down rapidly. She thanked him. They took it in turns eating out of the can, using their fingers to get as much of the beans and sauce as possible, and when it was nearly empty, Jonas leaned his head back and poured the remaining contents down his throat. He tossed the can across the room into a corner and sat back, looking at Alicia again.

Alicia felt her eyes starting to give up on the idea of maintaining a brave facade and slowly they started leaking tears down her cheeks. She leaned back in the sofa, the situation just absorbing her and threatening to rip her sanity apart. Jonas was uncomfortable and did not know what to do. He could not understand a word she said as she cried and he reckoned that even if he did speak whatever language she was talking, he would still struggle among the sobbing. He placed a reluctant arm around her shoulder but still tried to maintain a reasonable distance from her. She had no such qualms though, as she threw herself against his chest and the weeping degenerating into full out bawling.

Finally, he spoke.

“I’m going to bring you to Spencer. Maybe he’ll know what to do with you.”

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Blackout is available on Amazon in ebook and paperback editions. Click on the cover above to visit the Amazon Store to buy your copy.