Authors: A. J. Newman
Surviving
Surviving
Post-Apocalyptic America
Book I
The Adventures of John Harris
A J Newman
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Copyright © 2013 Anthony J Newman. All rights reserved.
ISBN 0991233409
This book is a work of fiction. All events, names, characters and places are the product of the author’s imagination or are used as a fictitious event. The above means that the author made the whole thing up by himself and it is pure imagination.
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This book is dedicated to my beautiful wife of over thirty years.
Special thanks to Wes Newman and Kate Dennis for proof reading my work. This is my first attempt at writing a novel and perhaps it won’t be a historically significant read, but my aim was to entertain and get a few points across to the reader. If you like this book you will love the next three in the series, please recommend them to your friends.
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Books by A. J. Newman
“The Adventures of John Harris” a post-apocalyptic America series:
Surviving
Hell in the Homeland
Tyranny in the Homeland
Revenge in the Homeland
“Grumpy Sam and Sammy” - A murder mystery series:
Where the Girls are Buried.
Who killed the Girls?
These books are available at Amazon:
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“The Adventures of John Harris”
By
A J Newman
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Prologue
America is in a losing war with drug gangs, the flood of illegal immigrants in to our country and Islamic Terrorists such as ISIS across the world. The terrorists probably have numerous sleeper cells already established in our cities. Two nuclear EMP blasts would send us back to post-apocalyptic dark ages. We are also in decline thanks to the poor stewardship of our elected officials for the past 25 years. My story just takes what our enemies and our government are currently doing to destroy the USA and expands on these misdeeds. The bottom line is we end up with a disaster that is called many different names, some of them are TEOTWAWKI, TSHTF, SHTF, Collapse, End of days, and Armageddon, but the bottom line is that unless you are a prepper and have prepared, your world ends.
Surviving
is the first novel in a series of novels that tell how John Harris leads a group of survivors through the chaos of a country that has fallen apart. Rogue US Government officials and a coalition of Third World Leaders have launched a major nuclear and EMP attack on all of the major powers and killed over 200 million Americans. The EMP blasts have shut the grid down and the lights are out. Food and water are in short supply. Survival is in doubt. There is no electricity and all cars and trucks manufactured for the past 40 years won’t run due to the EMP blasts. The USA is in chaos with criminals and thugs attacking innocent citizens. John and his Team are the countries best bet for survival. They fight the gangs, drug lords and the corrupt Department of Homeland Security to bring stability and safety back to America.
I hope you have as much fun reading them as I did writing them.
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Chapter 1
John Harris
Mobile, Alabama
May 20, 2020
“Good Morning LA. I love the U…S…A”, the host told his morning audience. “How are all of my Prepper Buddies doing this fine day in Lower Alabama?"
He then added, “The President can kiss my redneck ass. Those bastards got their asses kicked in the midterm elections and they are trying to make your lives miserable! Yeah! I’m John Harris and I hope to have some fun today discussing how to start a fire without matches, lighters or other modern methods. Then we will move on to how to cook a rabbit on an open fire. We will begin with a bow and stick and end with flint and steel.”
He then introduced his son, Scott, and said, “Scott, tell you how to make and use the bow and drill to make a fire.”
“How to Survive,” was alone hour program on a local Mobile station that had been in production for three years. It was in syndication and played on 34 other radio stations, mainly in rural western and southern areas. It was very popular with the outdoors group and the “End of the World Preppers.” He just had to speak from the heart about things that he had learned in the Army and a life in the woods and swamps around the Mobile delta. He had a great sense of humor and connected with his guests and loyal audience.
He had built a small studio in the back of his business so he could start his mornings close to his work. Nothing real fancy, but he would start every morning at 7:00 am with his live show and fill the hour with a combination of survival information and redneck wisdom with a major dash of humor.
John got his start as the author of several “Prepper Books” dealing with everything from how to survive in the woods to what food to stockpile for TEOTWAWKI. His works so far are:
Surviving in the Woods
Surviving in the Big City
Surviving - Food
Surviving - Prepping
Surviving Big Government
Surviving After Using Your Concealed Carry
Weapon
Surviving our Socialist Governmen
t.
These books gave him the idea that he could actually write a series of novels about how terrorists had plotted against the USA and were trying to take over the entire world. He wrote under the name “Mac Norman” because he really doubted his ability to write and was worried about the response to his thoughts on society. He was currently writing his fourth book in a six book series, he hoped. The books were selling very well on Amazon, but not quite as well in print. However, they were making him a pile of money that had come in very handy.
While John was very proud of his work, he was concerned that some of his audiences were some wacky SOBs. What bothered him more was that some of his fiction readers thought that he was just as wacky as they were because of his fiction about overthrowing the government! That was the best reason for Mac Norman to exist. Only his close friends knew who Mac really was. He always reminded himself that this shit was just fiction and a way to make some money. While his day job earned him quite a bit of money, his “ex” got half of that for eight more years. His writing and radio show were paying for his toys and paid off most of his bills. Hell, he might be able to retire before he turned 90.
“Harris Body Shops” was the name of John’s auto body and custom paint business. His father, John senior, had started it back in the ’70’s with just the one shop in Mobile, but never had much ambition to expand beyond one shop. John took over the business when his Dad, retired at 65 years old. John senior went by “Buddy.” Buddy and Becky, John’s Mom, moved to Florida and were staying busy at a large retirement village. John was an only child, so there was no fight to see who took charge or any of that kind of nonsense. John did have to fire the shop foreman because he tried to boss John around and that’s something that didn’t sit well with John.
John’s best friend, Gus McCoy, managed the Mobile shop and JoAnne Henderson was the Office Manager. Gus and John had met in the service and had instantly bonded. John trusted him with his life and would give his life to protect Gus. JoAnne had worked for John’s Dad and they had become quite close over the years. John had heard rumors that JoAnne and his Dad had had a long running affair, but had never seen anything out of the way. However, the week after his Dad retired, JoAnne slipped up behind him after close of business and started massaging his neck and rubbing her rather large breasts on his back. He gracefully got out of that situation and let her know that he was all business.
John was 46 years old, 5’11" and 210 lbs. He had graying hair and not too ugly. John was in great shape; he had been to the health club for the last two years lifting weights and running five miles a day. This kept his mind off his personal life when not at work. He played a lot of golf, hunted and fished a lot more since Ann left him.
Ann divorced him because she said it was time to move on. They had been high school sweethearts and were madly in love until John became successful and she could afford the damn country clubs and high priced shit. She spent her day taking golf and tennis lessons and John spent too much time at work and with the guys to suit her. John had grease under his nails and she was eating snails and drinking champagne. She left over two years ago and John was just getting over her. There had been no woman in his life since she left. He still had contact with her since she still helped him with the “love scenes” and romantic crap in his books; he never had been too good at that stuff.
John and Anne only had one child, Scott, who was very close to both of his parents, but had a very tight bond with John. They shared the same passion for the outdoors, guns and prepping. Scott lived with John and worked at the shop.
Scott and Gus tried to fix him up with friends, but he just wasn't ready. A couple of blind dates to keep them off his back had ended in disaster. John was not a lady’s man like Steve; he just didn't have the confidence or the line of bullshit. Those ladies left thinking he was gay or just plain did not like women.
He had been in the Army Special Forces for two tours and then worked for the CIA for a couple of years, made enough money to help his Father’s business and quit. He owned four auto body shops and was slowly adding one every year or so. He had them in Jackson, MS, Montgomery and Muscle Shoals, AL and the home shop in Mobile. He was hoping to expand the business to Tennessee in the near future.