Bøker av Ken Benton

Forty days. That's how long it's been since the largest solar storm ever observed, now referred to as Helios, decimated modern civilization and released a polarizing nervous disorder into the human population. For diurnals like Joel McConnell and his odd assortment of guests, it means an all-out effort at self-sufficient living and keeping the local nocturnal population from stealing everything they produce. With military law enforcement busy saving terrorized citizens from the cadaverous remains of large cities, rural suburbanites such as Joel's clan find they must fend for themselves and settle their own problems. Thanks in part to a cooperative trading post he established, which is starting to gain notoriety beyond their own neighborhood, Joel is managing to mostly keep peace. Until, he learns, he must make a daunting rescue attempt which leads him into the heart of what has become the darkest and most dangerous abyss in the entire south. A place many who escaped it refer to as the demon's dump. Most know it by its former name: Nashville.

Malcolm Carter and Ryan Boone, two New York City friends whose lives have been dominated by the financial markets, are about to exchange their charts and reports for guns and survival supplies-but not because they want to. When China and Japan decide it's time to dump U.S. Treasury Bonds, an economic nightmare plays out in America. The Federal Reserve watches helplessly as the dollar is decimated and the resulting food shortage spreads lawlessness across the land like a virus. Malcolm is a successful day trader who always needs to make one more score before he'll listen to Ryan and diversify some of his assets into real estate or gold. He figures an impressively-larger bank account might be the only way he can lure his Secret Service agent ex-wife back. Malcolm finally hits it big by aggressively shorting bonds when the market crashes, but waits too long to invest in tangibles. All that newfound money suddenly won't by him a bar of gold, a pint of beer, or a minute of Hannah's attention-especially when she's in the field chasing down a former counterfeiting gang. As luck would have it, Ryan turns out to be a closet doomsday prepper. The two of them attempt to escape the chaotic Big Apple and reach Ryan's land in West Virginia, supplied only by the contents of Ryan's bug-out bag. But it's not going to be an easy journey. Travelling has become difficult and dangerous. Malcolm learns he must redirect the same tenacity which helped him beat the markets towards staying alive on the road ...and, hopefully, finding Hannah.

Homeland Security Agent Harlan Welk is a man used to responding to our nation's most covert domestic threats. But even he must admit no one saw this one coming. When a new type of terrorist attack targets a growing psychological weakness among the American population, our enemies are revealed as becoming ever-more resourceful. Harlan is visiting his conspiracy-plagued cousin Avery in Houston during a heightened period of civil unrest. Just as the frazzled nerves of law enforcement and protesters come to a head, twelve African-American teenagers simultaneously commit "suicide by cop" in the twelve U.S. cities most vulnerable to racial tension. None of the victims are found to be in possession of a real weapon. As a result, mass rioting erupts across our once-great country, which intensifies until our society can no longer function. From information acquired in an unexpected romance, Harlan believes he can gather the evidence to fully expose the plot as having come from foreign-based terrorists-and by so doing, possibly reunite America under the cause of a common enemy. But he must get to Memphis so he can interrogate the lone surviving terrorist. Traveling is now difficult. He finds himself bugging out of the city with his cousin's family, facing a treacherous and uncertain path. Avery's outright distrust of all things government only adds to their plight. Harlan discovers he must not only survive the hazards of criminal opportunism on the road, but the contagion of civil strife within his own family. And time is not on his side! Ken Benton's latest survival story will, as always, take you on a wild ride and have you wondering if the story is prophetic when you watch the nightly news.

Eighty days post-Helios and things are looking hopeful. If you are a ruthless gangster trying to take control of the gasoline trade, things are looking hopeful. If you seek transportation and don't mind traveling in an antique coal-burning choo-choo or a creaking World War 2 plane, things are looking hopeful. If you are a former Supreme Court clerk and want your old job back in the first city to boast a rebuilt power-grid, things are looking hopeful. If you are Joel McConnell and want to surprise your girlfriend with a marriage proposal, complete with an impromptu honeymoon which happens to coincide with a speculative business opportunity, things are also looking hopeful. But only if you don't understand the cesspool of corruption you are about to be coerced into cooperating with. And if you are one of the ruthless gangsters who has decided Joel is a thorn in your side which needs to be removed, things are also looking hopeful-especially when he stumbles right into your trap.

They thought they could contain it. They were wrong. When the most dangerous virus ever observed escapes the lab and shortly transfers from the animal kingdom to mankind, a nightmare scenario unfolds across planet earth. Before authorities can react, millions are infected-and that's just the beginning. The mortality rate exceeds 80%. Leaders and elected officials soon learn the man-manipulated virus respects neither rank nor stature. The resulting chain reaction leads to a collapse of modern society-even in Colorado, where no cases of the killer strain have yet appeared. Clint Stonebreaker, a happily-married software engineer living in Denver, doesn't like watching the news. He especially doesn't let Jake, his wacky doomsday-prepping brother, watch it when he visits. But when chaos goes viral through the entire country, Clint and his wife Jenny are forced to acknowledge reality. They find themselves hitting the road with their gun-enthusiast neighbor to escape the deteriorating city. Their goal? Reaching Clint's hunting cabin in Southeastern Colorado and trying to make a homestead of it. They don't get far before running into a gauntlet of obstacles. Colorado seems to have become a giant sociological experiment, with dire consequences for making the wrong decisions. The spirit of American resolve is pitted against the ugly realty of criminal opportunism in every direction they turn. Ironically, Clint isn't sure which is worse: being forced to survive in the midst of civil unrest, or knowing he'll have to admit to Jake that he was right. Assuming he can find him...

Bad times may be coming. We all know that, right? But what are we doing about it to prepare? What can we do? We are not talking about localized natural disasters, which are temporary situations and relatively easy to recover from. These bad times, which may very well loom on the horizon as we speak, could render all the money in our bank accounts worthless. When the trucks stop rolling, there is no more food. Even if you have some stored up, how long will it last? The cities figure to become a pretty ugly place after a severe SHTF event. They will be unsafe, and crowds are extremely bad for survival situations. Rural homesteaders who know how to produce their own food and live self-sufficiently may suddenly find they are the new upper class in whatever is left of society. This book is for you city slickers who want to establish a reasonably secure bug-out and survival plan for your family now, while the grid is still up. When the S does HTF, you will have a place to go live and a way to get there, quickly and safely. It involves investing some of your soon-to-be-worthless dollars in a plot of rural land out in the sticks, and then getting it ready for homesteading in a manner that will not attract squatters. Allow Ken Benton to show you how to prepare a proper survival retreat. He will walk you through the steps of finding land, establishing a fresh water source, preparing for cabin-building, establishing temporary shelter, getting a head start on food production, stocking up on essentials, and protecting it all from both the elements and the eyes of anyone passing by. Ken will help you prep for bug-out day, and provide important tips for travelling after a SHTF event - giving you the best chance of arriving at your retreat intact. He will teach you how to then live off the land and be a happy, secure, rural survivor in a post-apocalyptic society.

Less than two days. That's all the notice America gets of a fast-approaching solar storm so unprecedented in scale it sets the geomagnetic scientists in a panic. Many citizens don't have the resources, or even the concern, to take preparatory measures for the overhyped-sounding warnings that life as they know it is about to be over. Joel McConnell, a self-made Washington DC businessman and survival hobbyist, is not one of those. But bugging out with his culture-loving girlfriend before the solar flare hits proves to be a too much of a challenge on such short notice. With the power grid suddenly destroyed, most modern electronics fried, and cities quickly descending into utter turmoil, they find the 500-mile journey to Joel's well-stocked rural retreat a maze littered with opportunistic criminals and increasing hostility. That isn't all. It soon becomes evident the sun storm did more than plunge the western world into darkness and civil unrest. It left something equally sinister behind. Something that feeds the human compulsion for disunity to such extremes it makes the recent political divisiveness in America look like harmonic brotherhood by comparison. With the effects worsening daily, Joel learns the highway is but one treacherous adversary he must defeat. Others can sprout where you least expect them.