At the end of book 1, Marvin, and his wife, Alexandra, have just fled Seattle on the way to their bug-out location in Pigeon Creek, Idaho, where Matt lives. They watch in the rear-view mirror of their car as their Seattle home is consumed by the flames of a nuclear blast, along with several other major American cities.

Meanwhile, back in Pigeon Creek, Samantha is helping Matt recover from a recent bear attack as they watch the world implode from the relative safety of a hospital bed. Will Marvin and Alexandra reach their bug-out location safely? Will Matt and Samantha be able to help them?

And thus, the story begins where it left off. I am proud to give you The Mad American: Day of Reckoning!

Book two of The Mad American is about transition. How do we transition from a world of law and order to a world of chaos and violence? I have to think that for most of us, the meek, the kind, the gentle, that it will be a difficult change, and that many of us will be unable to survive a society where the law of the jungle reigns supreme. In some cases it will happen quickly, perhaps even over night.

We are used to orderly transactions. We pull into the gas pump and if there’s a line, then we wait patiently for our turn. When the power is out for a few hours, then the streetlight remains dark, and everyone cooperates by treating it like a four-way stop. We know that if we take advantage of the system, there will be a price to pay. Perhaps a traffic ticket, or maybe even a more severe police response. Society has rules, and there is a price to pay for breaking them.

But imagine a world where you dial 911 and you get a busy signal, or worse yet, there is no dial tone and all communications are dead. That is a plausible scenario. What will happen then? What happens when the evil among us are no longer restrained? What happens when they are rewarded for killing, stealing, and destroying? Very few of us want that world, and many of us would not survive it.

And I wonder...what about me? What would I do in a situation where my family is starving and I have nothing to give them? Will I break into a store to feed my 10-year-old little girl, or will I let her slowly starve to death in my arms as we both die?

Of course, that’s part of the reason that I prep in the first place, so I won’t have to watch my family die, but that begs another question. In a lawless scenario, am I willing to kill a starving human being, a father like myself, because he’s breaking into my store room to feed his dying children? That’s a tough call, but one that would have to be made.

These are disquieting image, but they are the reality in this story, indeed, in most apocalyptic fiction. When people are faced with extreme societal change, they are forced to either adapt or die. But how does one adapt and survive while still maintaining human dignity, kindness, and respect for others? Is it even possible?

Those are some of the questions I hope to answer by writing this story. My characters will be thrust into intolerable chaos and mayhem. And they will answer the question: What is the price of my humanity?