No Ordinary Day
A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller
Harley Tate
Copyright © 2021 by Harley Tate. Cover and internal design © by Harley Tate. Cover image copyright © Deposit Photos and NeoStock, 2021.
All rights reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The use of stock photo images in this e-book in no way imply that the models depicted personally endorse, condone, or engage in the fictional conduct depicted herein, expressly or by implication. The person(s) depicted are models and are used for illustrative purposes only.
Contents
No Ordinary Day
1. Emma
2. John
3. Emma
4. Holly
5. John
6. Emma
7. John
8. Emma
9. Emma
10. Holly
11. Emma
12. John
13. Emma
14. Emma
15. John
16. Emma
17. John
18. Emma
19. John
20. Emma
21. John
22. Emma
23. John
24. Emma
25. John
26. Emma
27. John
Also by Harley Tate
Acknowledgments
About Harley Tate
No Ordinary Day
A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller
If the power grid collapses, will you be prepared?
Emma bides her time as a temporary lab tech, counting the days until she stands up before Congress to testify against her former employer. When the power goes out during a ride down the elevator for lunch, a handsome stranger offers to help.
When the odds are stacked against you, what will you do to survive?
John might appear like an average good guy, but underneath, he’s a seasoned killer. Hired to snuff out an unsuspecting whistleblower, he’s more than prepared to handle a little blackout.
As society crumbles, everyone is put to the test.
With limited communication and chaos unfolding outside, Emma and John forge a tenuous alliance. Will the pair survive the end of the world as we know it, or will nothing stand in the way of a hitman’s mission?
The EMP is only the beginning.
No Ordinary Day is book one in the No Ordinary Day series, a post-apocalyptic thriller series following ordinary people struggling to survive when an EMP plunges the United States into chaos.
Subscribe to Harley’s newsletter to receive updates about new releases, free content, and more.
www.harleytate.com/subscribe
Chapter One
Emma
“It’s going to be another scorcher today folks, with temperatures easily reaching the low nineties and humidity not far behind. Hope you have an air-conditioned spot to relax this afternoon.”
Emma blew out a puff of breath and stared at the weather forecaster’s perfect teeth as he smiled. Air-conditioning. The one good thing about her current employment situation. That and it paid the rent, if not much else.
She stepped into the shower as the news turned to traffic, the rush of water drowning out the list of accidents slowing the eighth-most congested city in the world. “It’s only for a little while longer.” She said the words out loud as she shampooed, fingers running through the tangles a hard night’s sleep always brought.
For the past few months, every night dragged on, the minutes ticking over one by one as she replayed her first phone call with the Department of Justice. If she hadn’t picked up that phone, if Zach and Gloria hadn’t convinced her it was the right thing to do…
Her thoughts trailed off along with the water as she turned off the shower and reached for a towel, but the news wouldn’t let her off that easy.
“Agricultural powerhouse CropForward, who employs over 20,000 workers here in Georgia alone, is about to be in the hot seat. Whistleblowers claim the company is burying bad results in safety trials of a new seed line called Seeds of the Future, where almost all company energy has been focused for years. Brett?”
Emma dried her hair as a reporter held one hand up to his ear, waiting for his turn to speak. As the feed caught up, he nodded. “That’s right, Monica. I’m standing here, outside CropForward’s Atlanta offices, where sources say management has been hard at work preparing to set the record straight.”
Right. Emma rubbed the towel hard across her skin as the reporter continued.
“Ever since a handful of whistleblowers came forward, alleging alarming results with the animal trials of CropForward’s signature line of genetically modified super-seeds, the company has closed ranks. A CropForward spokesperson told us the upcoming Congressional hearings will expose these claims as nothing more than baseless attacks from disgruntled former employees.”
Emma closed her eyes. The easy thing to do would be to walk away. Tell someone in DOJ that she was wrong, it was all a misunderstanding, and the science was sound. But if she refused to testify, she would drop off the radar and the focus would zero in on Zach and Gloria. It might help Emma in the short term, but it wouldn’t solve anything.
Not now.
The news droned on as Emma tugged on pants, a blouse, and a sweater. The lab she temped in maintained a strict sixty-eight degrees in stark contrast to the outside air. She froze indoors for eight hours a day and sweated the rest. But it was a job in a lab using at least a few of her skills. She hadn’t been completely blacklisted yet.
As she hurried to grab her laptop bag and slip on her shoes, an up-close image of the sun, surface rippling and popping like lava from a volcano, filled the screen. She clicked the television off. Whatever NASA had discovered could wait. She couldn’t be late. This might be the only job she would have for a good, long while. She needed to keep it.
Throwing the door open, she rushed into the already warm and sticky morning air. Another scorcher is right. As she locked the front door to her apartment, the back of her neck pricked like someone was watching. She glanced to her left. Strange. No one there. She frowned at herself.
The feeling of being watched had been all too common lately. Everyone from the mail carrier to the secretary to the head researcher at her temp job; she’d caught them all staring. Were they trying to figure out if she was crazy or just had a
