One Family’s Struggle to Survive Nuclear War… fights an epic battle as he struggles to get home. Nothing will stop him from getting back to his family. As his resources run out, his resourcefulness kicks in. His family’s depending on him and he won’t let them down—even if it means leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.
Liz can’t believe they’re under attack. At first, it seems like things won’t be too bad. Yet within hours, it seems like the whole world’s gone crazy. With communication lines down, she’s unable to reach her husband, Luke. Getting her kids to their Bug Out Location won’t be easy, but she’s determined to make it. It’s well stocked and safely tucked away in a canyon. But as people begin to flee the cities, a new darkness spreads across America. Her struggle to survive rips apart her core values and forces her to examine what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a survivor.
American Fallout is a thrilling post-apocalyptic survival prepper EMP fiction series that makes you step back and ask: Could this happen tomorrow? What would happen if the world’s nuclear arsenal was unleashed? What would you do if it happened while you were away from home? And how would your family survive?
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This is book one of the American Fallout series and the main characters are Luke, a former Navy Seal, and his wife Liz. Luke is away on a business trip for his work as a private defence consultant when the unthinkable happens and a nuclear war begins. He is in San Jose, four hundred miles away from home and only has his experience and his bug out bag to help him get home to his wife and kids. Liz has to get herself and their lids to their bug out location hidden away in a canyon, but the world as she knew it quickly descends into chaos and anarchy, as everyone tries to flee the cities, communication lines don’t work and supplies start to be in short supply. He is stuck at the airport on his way home when news comes of the first bombs hitting New York City and Los Angeles and realises that panic and chaos will set in shortly. He texts his daughter Sierra, who is at college in Irvine, California, as well as his wife, to get them to bug out and that he is on his way. He rents a four wheel drive car and sets off, not bothering with insurance, because who is going to be around to check, if what has happened continues! Their family home is some forty miles outside of Los Angeles in Orange County, so he is hoping they are all safe. Their son Kyle is thirteen and with a sitter, so Liz needs to grab him first, whilst Sierra has her own apartment nearby. She doesn’t even realise what is happening until her flatmate tells her and they go up onto the roof to check it out. As they do, a text comes through to everyone’s phones declaring martial law!
Her dad being a prepper, she knows she was to get to their cabin in the mountains and blabs that to her friend and the couple of stoners already out on the roof. With the president’s message about martial law, she stays where she is and waits for a message from one of her parents! They are now in a state of WROL – Without Rule of Law – as one of Liz’s neighbours aptly calls it. They all have to set off for their cabin, Sierra from College, Liz and Kyle from their home and Luke from San Jose, but each fail to follow their initial plans as they practised monthly. Luke at least manages to get a car, until he gets carjacked and forced off the road. Sierra is far too trusting and ends up having an end of the world party that goes badly wrong for her, before finally trying to set off alone, only to be attacked and saved by a stranger, who she then trusts with their secret location! Duh! For a former Navy Seat, Luke sure is lackadaisical about his own surroundings and fails to be aware of what is around him until far too late. Ending up shot, mauled by a bear and so much more, even before he gets home. At the end of this book, some of them have made it to the cabin, but Luke is still far away and struggling. Sierra needs a kick up the backside for being so stupid, especially after two really dangerous situations, and then making friends with a stranger she meets near their cabin, leading to a dangerous attack. He is part of a large religious group led by a charismatic preacher, wanting to take them for everything they have, if they don’t willingly join their sect, which puts women’s rights backwards a few centuries. Lots of mistakes by many in this family, apart from young Kyle, who is desperate to take a role, but not allowed to by his mother. Their world has changed completely and they will need to take a lot more care with who they speak to or trust in this new and chaotic existence. They certainly aren’t perfect at following the rules they made as a family, nor using that military training and experience Luke has . I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.