Neighborhood Watch Series

E. E. Isherwood presents Books 1-3 of the Neighborhood Watch series.

One second was all it took to erase Frank's dreams. New home. New car. New retirement. Stolen by the EMP. It gets worse. Frank's neighbors failed to prepare at all, so it falls on him to keep them alive. He starts easy: stockpile food, water, and guns. Disaster lessons he'd picked up reading books about the end of the world.

After the EMP, Frank controls one street. A whole city surrounds him. Frank gets his people through the critical first days of the EMP disaster, but he knows his next choice could determine their fate months or even years down the road . . . Search for help using their bikes? Ally with strangers two blocks over? Turtle up and hunker down for the long haul? He discovers another option inside his neighbor's garage: an ancient hot rod, immune to the effects of an EMP, is there for the taking.

After the EMP, the land rush is on. Food. Supplies. People. It will all be claimed. Frank survived one expedition out into the world, but he'll need to do it many more times if he wants his people to survive. He starts by searching for another of the rare working vehicles still on the road. More cars mean more supplies. Every trip out comes with risks. He soon finds abandoned military roadblocks, competing bands of survivors, and average people getting ever more desperate.

Frank has been able to guide his neighborhood watch along a narrow path between order and chaos, but most of his problems have been caused by people. Now, as the clouds darken over the Gulf of Mexico, Mother Nature is going to take a crack at him. The arrival of the storm has only one benefit; Frank can travel the empty roads and get things done. Using his newest off-road vehicle, a Mercedes Unimog 416, he probes North Pointe to find some missing allies. He also discovers new enemies in a troubled trailer park.

Frank's problems grow exponentially with each sunrise. After the storm passes and the water recedes, every flooded house must be reoccupied by its owners, leaving endless opportunities for criminals to sneak in. Squatters appear everywhere. Chaos builds upon chaos. And, guess what? There are no police cars, fire trucks, or FEMA trailers coming to the rescue . . . The prize called survival will go to whatever subdivision can pull itself together first.

Day 7. Factions of survivors are already forming around the Fort Myers area and not everyone is keen on Frank's style of diplomatic cooperation. Some have witnessed the earlier assaults on Clownfish Cove and have studied the group's weaknesses. Frank and his people have been fortifying their subdivision since the earlier attacks, trying to fix the biggest problems, but will it be enough?

In a powerless world with society in full-on collapse, the appearance of an aerial drone does nothing to comfort Frank and his crew. The voice behind it knows many things about Frank's people, but he also shares critical details about the enemies surrounding Clownfish Cove. Details that could give them huge advantages . . .But can Frank trust him?

The last few days have seen nothing but tension between Frank and the person operating aerial drones throughout his neighborhood watch area. He can't trust a thing the man says, but when one of Frank's people gets captured, the mysterious operator claims to know here he is. All Frank has to do is go meet with him in the middle of the night. While he waits for the big meeting, Frank gets caught up in a spiraling tangle of webs that involve people high up in the government. Very high up . . .

It's been a long couple of weeks since the power shut off, and life is only getting harder. Much harder. A quiet resignation has set in. The power is not coming back anytime soon. The last holdouts of shelter-in-place are emerging from their doomed homes to find they've missed the boat on prepping for THE END. Desperation follows. And the world itself seems broken. Cities burn and throw their ash high into the atmosphere, painting the sky red. Libraries are torched. Food stores totally looted. Homes invaded. Every abandoned car has been picked clean.

Frank has read all the books about the end of the world . . . but books can't pull the trigger. He's tried to keep the peace. He's tried to talk his way out of tight spots. And yet he still ended up with a body count fit for a warlord. And it's only getting worse. Frank's problem, and the problem of everyone on Clownfish Cove, is that words can't fill the stomachs of the hungry city around them. The area controlled by the neighborhood watch is the only place not tearing itself to shreds. It is the only place with food, fresh water, and a bit of hope.