OUTLIVE THE DARKNESS A Powerless World Book Four Jack Hunt Direct Response Publishing Copyright © 2021 by Jack Hunt All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to an online retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work. OUTLIVE THE DARKNESS: A Powerless World Book Four is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. For my Family Also by Jack Hunt Click here to receive special offers, bonus content, and news about new Jack Hunt’s books. Sign up for the newsletter. If you haven’t joined Jack Hunt’s Private Facebook Group you can request to join by clicking here now. A Powerless World series Escape the Breakdown Survive the Lawless Defend the Homestead Outlive the Darkness Outlaws of the Midwest series Chaos Erupts Panic Ensues Havoc Endures The Cyber Apocalypse series As Our World Ends As Our World Falls As Our World Burns The Agora Virus series Phobia Anxiety Strain The War Buds series War Buds 1 War Buds 2 War Buds 3 Camp Zero series State of Panic State of Shock State of Decay Renegades series The Renegades The Renegades Book 2: Aftermath The Renegades Book 3: Fortress The Renegades Book 4: Colony The Renegades Book 5: United The Wild Ones Duology The Wild Ones Book 1 The Wild Ones Book 2 The EMP Survival series Days of Panic Days of Chaos Days of Danger Days of Terror Against All Odds Duology As We Fall As We Break The Amygdala Syndrome Duology Unstable Unhinged Survival Rules series Rules of Survival Rules of Conflict Rules of Darkness Rules of Engagement Lone Survivor series All That Remains All That Survives All That Escapes All That Rises Mavericks series Mavericks: Hunters Moon Time Agents series Killing Time Single Novels Blackout Defiant Darkest Hour Final Impact The Year Without Summer The Last Storm The Last Magician The Lookout Class of 1989 Out of the Wild Contents Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 A Plea Readers Team About the Author Prologue Humboldt County, California Four months after the event Freedom. He could almost taste it. John Boone stood at the door of his eight-by-ten cell, watching through a thin vertical pane as hands on the clock ticked over. His eyes flitted between correctional officers as they hurried to prepare the transfer of thirty prisoners from Humboldt Correctional Facility to North Kern State Prison. Transfers occurred for all manner of reasons. If inmates were near the end of their sentence, they might be moved to a prison that was closer to where they would live after release. Sometimes the conditions were better elsewhere. Other times it was due to overpopulation. This time they’d been told two reasons: to curb the spread of sickness and because the generators were needed elsewhere. The transfer had been planned for some time. He’d heard the rumors that state was expediting the release of inmates ever since the power grid went down four months ago, but it was when an officer banged on his door and told him to pack up his things that he knew the situation had gotten worse. They didn’t release folks like him. Violent offenders, that is. Only those who were deemed nonviolent or had serious medical conditions. “I’m being released?” he’d asked. “In your dreams,” Dustin Parish replied. Boone had seen inmates leave. The lucky few. He learned that it was only those who had served a lengthy sentence, posed a low risk of reoffending, and were vulnerable to the sickness that had spread for over a year. It didn’t matter to him. He was getting out one way or another, and he knew who would help. He locked eyes with Parish, a correctional officer who had dodged a bullet that year after Humboldt County arrested a fellow deputy for smuggling contraband into the facility. He wasn’t the first to do it. What the drug task force had gotten wrong was that Deputy Jameson hadn’t acted alone. Parish was in on it but because Jameson hadn’t squealed, he had gotten away scot-free. They might not have known his involvement but Boone did and he’d planned to use that to his advantage. Boone turned and dropped down to do thirty push-ups. It was routine. It kept his body fit and his mind active after years inside for armed robbery. A year ago he’d been transferred out of state back to his hometown to serve out the remainder of his sentence. That’s why it bothered him that they were talking about transferring him back to state. The muscles on his back rippled, the huge tattoo of a cross looked as if it was alive with each dip. His belief in God wasn’t the healthiest. It almost bordered upon an obsession. While others shared their faith, did good to others, quoted the New Testament, and talked about love and forgiveness, he was much more partial to the Old. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. There was substance to that. None of this namby-pamby business. Forgiveness? That was for pussies. The God he served was a God of vengeance, ready to strike down upon the heads of those that stepped out of line. Now that he could get behind. Boone heard the steel flap on the door clank against it. That familiar sound that drove men mad. “Boone. Let’s go.” “Sixteen more to go.” “Get your ass up now.” “Fifteen, fourteen.” “Don’t make us come in there.” “Is that a promise? Twelve, eleven.” Hernández acted all tough but he knew his place.
