The Breakdown: A suspense/thriller fiction by John Lawrence

http://www.amazon.com/The-Breakdown-ebook/dp/B0089YLWEW
 
I have written for you a story about what I hope are many things that strike us all deeply, if we were to be honest with ourselves.  The Breakdown is not an instruction manual for preppers, although it may appeal to them.  Neither is it a check-off list hidden in prose of things to do or not do during a social collapse, although it addresses those topics throughout the story.  The Breakdown is, however, a story of tribulation faced by one resourceful young mother when all her regular and dependable earmarks of daily life are abrubptly taken away. 
When her husband and children are stranded on the east coast as the breakdown begins, everything changes for Grace Meyers.  Global political and financial crises have given rise to many failures domestically, and finally the power grid and infrastructure collapse completely.  A systemic wave of panic sets in, and looting and crime take over.  In her secure Iowa farmhouse, alone and scared, the young mother finds herself facing a wide an unimaginable variety of challenges.  Her basal human needs are provided for; she has food and water and a secure home.  But the dark side of society springs on her, and she now faces men who hunger for her stored food supplies as well as her body.  A different set of hungers overwhelm her as well, for the months pass by agonizingly slowly as she awaits the return of her husband and children.  She yearns for her town to be normal, her life to be complete, and her other needs to be fulfilled.  Admitting to herself that her life has changed forever, she immerses herself in her own survival and well-being.
In their long trek home, Robert Meyers and his children slowly grow nearer their destination.  Kindness shown to a stranger turns into an attack, and Robert and Grace's 8 year old daughter is kidnapped.  The very nature of the collapse has made one particular type of crime much easier to perpetrate and there are those, even in dark times of survival, continuing to commit evil against others.
Against the weather, the distance, their own needs and without knowing the other's fate, Robert and Grace are both working fervently at reuniting their family.  The climax will have you gasp in surprise, as it should.  The pages will turn quickly, as I have been told they do.  Remembering the way things used to be, and without the resources everyone is so accustomed to and that we all now take for granted, I have painted for you a picture of what could happen.  I believe that The Breakdown will, as mentioned, strike us all deeply.