Perfect Storm 2: Post Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (Perfect Storm Series), page 1
PERFECT STORM 2
BOBBY AKART
THANK YOU
Welcome to PERFECT STORM 2, the second installment in the Perfect Storm survival thriller series by Author Bobby Akart.
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PRAISE FOR BOBBY AKART AND PERFECT STORM
“Author Bobby Akart has done it again. I have read every book and series that he has written. It never ceases to amaze me how he comes up with new and creative ways to introduce characters and concepts that are fresh and engaging.”
“How long could you survive a collapse of society? The families in this new series are put to the test in this thrilling, nail biter.”
“You will fall in love with the characters immediately!”
“Bobby Akart continues to deliver the top thrillers of the year. Year after year after year!”
“Well written with characters that are so real, you are right there with them urging them on.”
“Once again this author has crafted a believable end of days scenario with compelling characters that I can't seem to put down.”
“Author Bobby Akart has put together another scorcher of a story in Perfect Storm.”
PERFECT STORM 2
by
Bobby Akart
OTHER WORKS BY AMAZON CHARTS TOP 25 AUTHOR BOBBY AKART
The Perfect Storm Series
Perfect Storm 1
Perfect Storm 2
Perfect Storm 3
Perfect Storm 4
Perfect Storm 5
Black Gold (a standalone terrorism thriller)
Nuclear Winter
First Strike
Armageddon
Whiteout
Devil Storm
Desolation
New Madrid (a standalone, disaster thriller)
Odessa (a Gunner Fox trilogy)
Odessa Reborn
Odessa Rising
Odessa Strikes
The Virus Hunters
Virus Hunters I
Virus Hunters II
Virus Hunters III
The Geostorm Series
The Shift
The Pulse
The Collapse
The Flood
The Tempest
The Pioneers
The Asteroid Series (A Gunner Fox trilogy)
Discovery
Diversion
Destruction
The Doomsday Series
Apocalypse
Haven
Anarchy
Minutemen
Civil War
The Yellowstone Series
Hellfire
Inferno
Fallout
Survival
The Lone Star Series
Axis of Evil
Beyond Borders
Lines in the Sand
Texas Strong
Fifth Column
Suicide Six
The Pandemic Series
Beginnings
The Innocents
Level 6
Quietus
The Blackout Series
36 Hours
Zero Hour
Turning Point
Shiloh Ranch
Hornet’s Nest
Devil’s Homecoming
The Boston Brahmin Series
The Loyal Nine
Cyber Attack
Martial Law
False Flag
The Mechanics
Choose Freedom
Patriot’s Farewell (standalone novel)
Black Friday (standalone novel)
Seeds of Liberty (Companion Guide)
The Prepping for Tomorrow Series
Cyber Warfare
EMP: Electromagnetic Pulse
Economic Collapse
Copyright Information
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
© 2022 Crown Publishers Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means including, but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the express written permission of Crown Publishers Inc.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Creating a novel that is both informative and entertaining requires a tremendous team effort. Writing is the easy part.
For their efforts in making the Perfect Storm series a reality, I would like to thank Hristo Argirov Kovatliev for his incredible artistic talents in creating my cover art. He and Dani collaborate (and conspire) to create the most incredible cover art in the publishing business. A huge hug of appreciation goes out to Pauline Nolet, the Professor, for her editorial prowess and patience in correcting this writer’s brain farts that happen more frequently with age. Thank you, Drew Avera, a United States Navy veteran, who has brought his talented formatting skills from a writer’s perspective to create multiple formats for reading my novels. A round of applause for Kevin Pierce, the beloved voice of the apocalypse, who brought my words to life in audio format.
Now, for the serious stuff. While the Perfect Storm series is based on scientifically plausible events, certain parts of the story have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes, and they’re not intended to reflect on any actual person or entity.
Accurately portraying the aftermath of a devastating perfect solar storm required countless hours of never-ending research and interviews with some of the brightest minds in the world of planetary science.
Once again, as I immersed myself in the science and history, source material and research flooded my inbox from around the globe. Without the assistance of many individuals and organizations, this story could not be told. Please allow me a moment to acknowledge a few of those institutions that without their tireless efforts and patience, the Perfect Storm series could not have been written.
Many thanks to the preeminent researchers and engineers who provided me assistance, tutelage, and scientific background at the following:
The Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado
The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California
The Haleakala Observatory, home to the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, in Maui
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Of course, a special thank you to the Team, my loyal friends who’ve always supported my work and provided me valuable insight from a reader’s perspective—Denise Keef, Joe Carey, Shirley Nicholson, Bennita Barnett, and Colt Payne.
Thanks, y’all, and Choose Freedom!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, BOBBY AKART
Author Bobby Akart delivers up-all-night thrillers to readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide. He has been ranked by Amazon as #25 on the Amazon Charts list of most popular, bestselling authors. He has achieved recognition as the #1 bestselling Horror Author, #1 bestselling Science Fiction Author, #5 bestselling Action & Adventure Author, #7 bestselling Historical Fiction Author and #10 on Amazon’s bestselling Thriller Author list.
His novel Yellowstone: Hellfire reached the Top 25 on the Amazon bestsellers list and earned him multiple Kindle All-Star awards for most pages read in a month and most pages read as an author. The Yellowstone series vaulted him to the #25 bestselling author on Amazon Charts, and the #1 bestselling science fiction author.
Since its release in November 2020, his standalone novel New Madrid Earthquake has been ranked #1 on Amazon Charts in multiple countries as a natural disaster thriller.
Mr. Akart is a graduate of the University of Tennessee after pursuing a dual major in economics and political science. He went on to obtain his master’s degree in business administration and his doctorate degree in law at Tennessee.
With over a million copies of his novels in print, Bobby Akart has provided his readers a diverse range of topics that are both informative and entertaining. His attention to detail and impeccable research has allowed him to capture the imagination of his readers through his fictional works and bring them valuable knowledge through his nonfiction books.
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DEDICATIONS
With the love and support of my wife, Dani, together with the unconditional love of Bullie and Boom, the princesses of the palace, I’m able to tell you these stories. It would be impossible for me to write without them in my heart.
This story was written during a difficult time in our lives. For my longtime readers, you know that our English bulldogs, Bullie and Boom, affectionately known in my stories as the princesses of the palace, are the center of our universe. At Christmas in 2021, Boom Chukka suffered a significant tear in her gastrointestinal tract caused by chewing a pressed rawhide bone.
Because of Dani’s watchful eye, she noticed Boom-Boom’s gums turn more and
Internal bleeding is nothing to be trifled with. Without urgent care, your fur babies can die within days, if not sooner.
We rushed Boom Chukka to our vets in Georgia. The entire team, led by Drs. Rambo and McNair, came to her rescue. By the early evening of New Year’s Eve, her packed cell volume (PCV) and hematocrit (HCT) fell below twenty percent, where thirty-five percent is normal. Thanks to a dog-to-dog blood transfusion from Dr. McNair’s dog, Liza, Boom-Boom was able to survive long enough to transport her to the University of Georgia Veterinary Hospital in Athens.
With the help of God watching over our entire family during this difficult time, Boom Chukka fought to live another day. As of this writing, Bullie and Boom are the ripe age of twelve years and eight months. However, they firmly believe they’re one-year-old pups.
I urge you to love those who are closest to you, including your four-legged, bestest pals.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
March 2022
For years, I’ve tackled the disaster thriller genre. As an author, the hardest part might be choosing how to destroy the Earth, therefore imperiling all of mankind. Look at all the options I’ve written about asteroids, nuclear electromagnetic pulse attacks, pandemics, earthquakes, volcanoes, bioterrorism, cyber warfare, pole shifts, etc.
However, in a class by itself is severe space weather. If its ominous name didn’t clue you in, severe space weather can cause some serious complications to life on our planet. Much like Earth-based weather, it’s uncontrollable. It also has the potential for massive destruction and disruption of modern technology. Imagine the collapse of power grids, radio blackouts, satellite interference or even destruction, and airline operations ceasing, all in less than a minute. Without electricity, how would you communicate with your family, call 9-1-1, get clean water, or keep food from spoiling? With a radio blackout, how would airplanes land safely? Massive solar flares have the potential to change life as we know it.
Now, if I haven’t gotten your attention, let’s take a look at the science and a little history, shall we?
Severe space weather is the result of large-scale eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun’s corona. Known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), these eruptions can create magnetic storms in the magnetosphere and Earth’s upper atmosphere, which can damage power lines, cause blackouts, and even dislocate Earth’s radiation belts, damaging satellites.
Thankfully, such magnetic storms are classified as low frequency, but high impact. To be an impactful magnetic storm, CMEs from the solar disk must be fast and massive, launched from near the center of the Sun, and directed toward Earth’s magnetic field. CMEs also need to have a strong magnetic field with the opposite orientation of Earth’s own magnetic field. Although classified as low frequency, when these conditions are met, CMEs are high-consequence occurrences. Here are some examples.
In recent history, the collapse of the Hydro-Quebec grid occurred in March 1989, leaving the province of Quebec without electricity for nine hours. The outage closed schools, businesses, public transportation and grounded flights at Dorval Airport. Citizens found themselves stuck in traffic on darkened roads without street signals, and many workers were stranded in office buildings, elevators and stairwells. The storm was felt in other parts of North America as well, with approximately two hundred solar-storm-related events reported, including the failure of a transformer at a New Jersey nuclear power plant.
Amazingly, the 1989 magnetic storm that struck Quebec pales in comparison to other magnetic storms in our history.
The strongest storm in recorded history to directly impact our planet came in September of 1859. The CME behind the Carrington Event, as it became known, was first seen by Richard Carrington, a British amateur astronomer. Nearly eighteen hours after it was observed, the powerful CME impacted the Earth’s magnetosphere, triggering a severe geomagnetic storm that disrupted telegraph networks around the world. The rare, fast-moving (CMEs normally impact Earth around thirty-six hours after being observed) CME hit the planet, and highly charged particles enveloped the Northern Hemisphere. Telegraph operators were electrocuted, and fires were ignited as flames traveled along the telegraph lines.
The 1921 Geomagnetic Storm, also known as the New York Railway Storm, included geomagnetically induced currents that would have been ten times more intense than those responsible for the 1989 Quebec solar storm. Taking place over several days in May 1921, the New York Railway Storm is widely considered the largest recorded in the twentieth century. It is this perfect solar storm event that forms the scientific basis for my book series.
WHAT IF FICTION BECOMES REALITY?
A word of caution when thinking about history and the timeline of events. It’s easy to dismiss any discussion of past catastrophes when one considers events like supervolcano eruptions taking place every seven hundred thousand years, as in the case of Yellowstone. Massive solar storms occur far more frequently. Let’s look at a recent event from just ten years ago.
On July 23, 2012, two CMEs erupted from an active patch of sunspots on the far side of the Sun, which is monitored by the Parker Solar Probe that circles the sun ahead of Earth in the same orbit. Emerging about fifteen minutes apart, the CMEs quickly merged into one massive shock wave of charged particles that washed over the probe’s sensors.
Behind the shock wave, this energy raced along at about 2,250 kilometers per second—five times their normal speed at Earth’s distance from the Sun—and the magnetic field strength there was more than ten times that normally seen at Earth’s orbit.
If pointed in our direction, such a combination would have produced the strongest geomagnetic storm to have struck Earth in history. It could have knocked out satellites and earthbound power grids, researchers say. Fortunately, the event, a prime example of a Perfect Storm, was directed into a region of space where the solar wind and the magnetic field had been weakened by a solar flare four days earlier.
While the flare occurred in Earth’s orbital plane, the solar matter missed us by the equivalent of nine days. Similar to the Carrington Event, the particles traveled from the Sun to the Earth in just seventeen hours. Had Earth been in the way at the time, the global damage toll would have crested the $10 trillion mark: the first fourteen-figure natural disaster in history. It was only luck that caused this perfect storm to miss us.
I add this example as a word of caution to us all. These severe solar storms happen with regular frequency. We dodged a powerful catastrophic solar flare in 2012. Next time, we might not be so lucky.
REAL-WORLD NEWS EXCERPTS
SOLAR STORM COULD SUPERCHARGE NORTHERN LIGHTS
AS FAR SOUTH AS NEW YORK
~ Space.com, April 14, 2022
It came from a dead sunspot.
After a dead sunspot hurled a ball of plasma, or superheated gas, toward Earth earlier this week, medium-sized auroras may stretch farther south than usual as Earth's atmosphere absorbs the material.
The genesis of the event was a "dead" sunspot called AR2987. More scientifically speaking, the sunspot had entered a quiescent period, and then unexpectedly erupted.
