by Ike Hamill
“Okay, you see that button on the bottom?”
“Sure.”
The two round buttons were the same color as the elevator car, but they stood a little proud of the surface.
“The bottom one moves you up. Think of it like you’re telling the rest of the world to go down, so you’re going up.”
“Okay?”
“You hold that until you’re all the way up. It’s subtle, but you’ll feel when you get to the top. When the car is up there and locked, you’ll be able to activate the inner door. The outer door can only be opened from the inside up there. I’ll climb the stairs and get up there as fast as I can, but there’s nothing I can do to help you.”
“Okay?”
“This is important—no matter what you do, don’t let go of that button. The way the weight system works, getting the car moving is much harder than keeping it moving. If you let go, and the car stops, it will have to wait until enough power is generated to get it moving again. You won’t have any way of knowing how long that will be, and once you stop it’s really difficult to know how long it’s going to take to start again.”
“Okay?”
Liam was having a hard time believing that a simple elevator could be this complicated. Of course, Liam had known elevators since he was a little kid. They weren’t mysterious or frightening to him. Maybe Merle, having grown up in a tiny rural universe, found them to be inherently terrifying.
“Don’t let go. I’ll see you up there.”
“You don’t think it would be better if we stayed together?” Liam asked.
Merle shook his head slowly. Liam felt a chill run down his back.
Chapter 54: Brad
Romie steered with one hand as they crossed the bridge. With her other, she put her window down.
“Something about the air is better here,” she said.
Brad shook his head and realized that he had been nodding off.
“Kevin Burkhart is still up,” Brad said, pushing himself up in his seat.
“He’s a night owl when he doesn’t have class the next day.”
“Stop at his house. Let’s see what’s going on. Maybe there’s news on the line,” Brad said.
“Tomorrow. I’m tired.”
“Come on, Romie, what’s another couple of minutes.”
As her face moved, he could see her chewing up snide responses. She didn’t unleash any of them. With a quick jerk, they turned onto the road that led up to the school. Brad braced himself, but was still slung into the seatbelt when she slammed the vehicle to a stop.
“Make it quick,” she said.
Brad got out. He leaned back through the door before he closed it.
“Go home, if you want. I can walk.”
“I would never hear the end of it,” she said, looking straight ahead.
Brad circled around the back of the vehicle, just in case. Romie sometimes changed her mind in an instant. Kevin Burkhart didn’t bother with landscaping, but the mowers kept his lawn trimmed. The result was a tidy, but characterless lawn with a worn path right up the center. Brad paused on the stairs when he saw that the front door was standing open a couple of inches. There was music on inside.
“Kevin?” he called as he knocked. When he didn’t hear a response, he pushed the door open a bit more. Brad nearly jumped back when the figure came quickly down the stairs.
With the box in front of his face, Kevin didn’t even see Brad.
“Kevin?”
The man’s grip slipped and he dropped the box. When it turned over, clothes spilled out onto the wood floor.
“Jesus, Brad, you scared me.”
“What’s going on?”
“I’m grabbing the last of Mandy’s stuff. She went up to borrow one of the diesel vehicles so we can follow you up. Why are you back?”
Kevin Burkhart knelt to scoop the clothes back into the box. They had been neatly folded when they spilled. Now, he was balling them up hastily and cramming them in to make them fit.
“Romie,” Brad said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. “Wait, why are you guys leaving?”
“The thing,” Kevin said, pointing a finger up toward the ceiling. “In case it comes back, we wanted to be up with everyone else, you know?”
“Have you heard from Donnelly?”
“No. The communication went out with the thing. What’s going on up there?”
“First things first—what’s the thing?”
Kevin finished repacking the box and he started to rise.
“There was something that looked like lightning in the sky. It came with the sun two days ago and it took out all the power with it. I checked on your place—all the solar and wind power went out, and all the batteries went out too. We couldn’t use any of the electric vehicles of course. I thought maybe the diesel would be more reliable, you know?”
“Was it flickering? Did it look like sparks?” Brad asked, trying to verify that Kevin was talking about the same thing he had seen.
“Yeah.”
“A crack in the sky.”
“Sure,” Kevin said. “Not really a crack, but I suppose you might say it looked like that.”
“Electrical,” Brad muttered. “I thought so.”
“Anyway,” Kevin said. He bent to pick up the box again. “When the power came back, we got together our stuff and decided to try the trip. Is the power still on in Donnelly?”
“It was when we left. We caught your lightning between here and there though, so it might have left here and headed in that direction. I wouldn’t be so sure that it’s a great idea to head that way.”
“You guys are staying here then?”
“Romie is. I was… well, actually, I was going to head back to Donnelly, even though I just said it wasn’t a good idea.”
“What would you recommend we do then? Besides me and Mandy, there are a bunch of other families who were thinking about making the trip.”
“The storm shelter in the school is stocked?”
Kevin looked up and away as he thought about the question.
“Mostly. We’re about halfway done with the summer restocking of the perishable items. That’s mostly a precaution though, as you know. I’m sure that all the food is still fine. In years past, when we redistributed all the stored supplies, we’ve found very little spoilage.”
“Good,” Brad said. “I’d hate to have everyone head north and then get stopped when the vehicles give out halfway between here and there. You might not find good shelter on the road.”
Kevin nodded, setting down the box. “We better move fast if we want to catch everyone before they head out.”
Romie’s eyes flew open and she snorted while she gripped the wheel.
“Take your time, Brad. Nothing better to do than sit out here, when there’s a perfectly good…”
She trailed off as she noticed Kevin climbing into the back seat.
“Quick, Romie, get us over to the far parking lot of the school.”
She grumbled as she started the vehicle. “It’s right across the way. You could have walked there faster than me driving.”
She pulled away from the curb.
“Well, he could have walked faster. You’re limping like a pirate,” she said as she cut her eyes over at Brad.
“My leg is stiff from the ride. We want to catch Mandy before she comes back this way,” Brad said.
Romie took the turn fast and then jammed on the brakes as a family ran across the street ahead of them.
Kevin leaned out the back window and shouted, “Meet us at the auditorium. We have new information.”
“Okay,” Romie said as she turned into the parking lot. “Here we are.”
There were several vehicles lined up near the fuel tank. As Romie’s headlights swept across, Brad saw boxes and bags strapped to the top. People were getting ready to flee. It looked like maybe Romie was the only person of Gladstone who wanted to weather the emergency at home. He wondered if their information would change anyone’s min
d.
“Over there,” Kevin said, pointing.
They managed to cut off Mandy before she could pull away from the tanker. When they stopped, Kevin jumped out to go explain.
“Once we talk to everyone, I’m going to do whatever they decide,” Brad said.
“How do you mean?”
“The ribbon that we saw has already been through here. It might be on the move up to Donnelly. I’m going to recommend to these folks that they camp out in the storm shelter until we can be sure that it’s safe. If they decide to stay, I’ll stay here with them. If they want to go, then I’m going to tag along.”
Romie narrowed her eyes at him.
“I’ll be at home,” she said.
She put the vehicle into reverse and waited with her foot on the brake.
“You’re not even coming in for the discussion?” Brad asked.
“I’ll be at home.”
He took the hint and got out. When his door was shut, Romie backed away. Brad raised his hand against the light from the headlights. He caught a glimpse of her determination as she pulled away.
Over at the door to the school, Kevin was calling to the people in the parking lot and waving his arms over his head.
“Everyone—let’s hear the news from Brad before we make our final decision. In here.”
The people at their vehicles, filling their tanks before the exodus, seemed hesitant to abandon their plans.
“It will only take a second,” Brad said, figuring the lie wouldn’t matter. People began to huddle in their little groups. As he limped toward the school, Brad imagined the tiny debates going on. Some would advocate for leaving immediately before another power outage stranded them. Others would want all the information that they could get. Brad was a reliable source of information. It wasn’t surprising that people split up—one person stayed, fueling the vehicle, while the other moved toward the school to hear what Brad had to say.
Brad reached the auditorium as the overhead lights came on. He hadn’t been in the room since Janelle’s violin recital. The space was lovely—a wedge-shaped room that sloped down to a dark stage with tall curtains. The sound of Janelle’s concert hadn’t been lovely at all.
About a dozen people were gathered near the edge of the stage. Kevin was sitting there waving the people closer.
When Brad joined them, Kevin was relaying the little information he had. All eyes turned to Brad.
“I don’t know how much you guys got over the wire before the connection went down, so I’ll give you a quick summary of everything. We went up to Donnelly to witness a problem with water contamination, or so we thought. They have some water sources that will not boil and don’t freeze at the correct temperatures, so we thought that there was a contaminant. Frankly, these observations defied any explanation. With that and the other strange celestial observations recently, the decision was made to take shelter until it could be determined whether the environment was safe. Romie and I came back and Robby and the kids stayed up there.”
The group erupted with several questions.
Pam Fowler’s question won out.
“Should we be headed there? Do they have a safe shelter?”
“I don’t know. They were still investigating options when we left. I’m guessing that if they had a facility with clean water and supplies big enough for the whole community, like we have here, they would have chosen that.”
“So, you think we should stay here?” Kevin Burkhart asked.
“What about the lightning and the power outages?” someone asked.
Brad put up his hands to slow them down. “I’m not advocating anything—I’m just here to relay what I know. As far as the ribbon of lightning goes, I can tell you that it affected me and Romie more than a hundred miles northwest of here. It may be headed toward Donnelly. As far as I know, it’s what stranded us on the road for hours. We waited until sunset before we were able to get moving again.”
“It lasted until after sunset here,” Pam said.
“What do you plan to do?” Will Parnell asked Brad.
Brad exhaled, puffing out his cheeks.
“Honestly, I’m too tired to get back on the road. I’m going to go home and wait until morning. If the ribbon comes back, I’ll shelter here.”
“Yeah,” Kevin said, nodding and turning to Mandy. “That’s what I would prefer too, assuming you agree. I’m worried about having the ignition conk out halfway to Donnelly and getting stranded.”
“If the water up there is contaminated, do we want to go that way?” Will asked.
Will’s question sparked a couple of side conversations. A number of people were concerned about the state of the supplies in the high school, should they decide to shelter there. Brad learned that someone had reported a bad rash after being out in the flickering light of the ribbon. Someone else disputed the claim.
Brad told the group he was going to check on the shelter.
Kevin and Pam both tagged along.
“You said the electrical problems came with the lightning, and that came with the sun two days ago?” Brad asked.
“Yes,” Kevin said.
“Well, yes and no,” Pam said. She reached the door first. She held it open for Brad and Kevin to move through. “It did start after sunrise, but it’s not like it is moving strictly with the sun. We didn’t have power last night.”
“That’s true,” Kevin said. “The power has been out since it started, even at night.”
Brad grunted.
Kevin turned on the lights in the hall. The bulbs flickered and buzzed as they came to life. Pam seemed to hunch down at the noise, like she mistrusted the noisy lights.
“Take my arm, Brad,” Kevin said.
“Thank you. I found another cane, but I left it in the car and my hip and knee don’t do well after long trips. I feel like the Tin Man.”
With Kevin’s help, he moved faster. It was partly the stability and partly because his pride made him want to keep up with the younger man.
“Has anyone questioned whether our power outage is similar to what happens in the jungle beyond the Outpost?” Pam asked. She led the way over to the turn in the hall and waited there.
“I don’t know,” Brad said. “I don’t even know if they’re aware of the ribbon lightning and the power outage back in Donnelly. I haven’t been able to get off a message yet.”
“Oh. Right,” Pam said.
Brad let go of Kevin’s arm and grabbed the railing. There was a half flight of stairs that led down to the lower level in the center of the school. On another hallway, there was a half flight up to classrooms above. On the lower level, the townspeople had converted the locker rooms and basement into their storm shelter.
Kevin went ahead for the light switches.
Brad was struggling with the stairs.
“You need help?” Pam asked.
“No. Thank you. Earlier tonight, we were riding bicycles to get to the emergency car. That’s when I hadn’t linked the ribbon to the ignition problem. Of course, I’m just assuming that was the problem with our SUV. My legs were working fine then. I guess maybe the adrenaline…”
When he looked up, both Pam and Kevin were waiting for him to finish the short flight of stairs. Brad made an effort to straighten up and mask his limp as he crossed to them.
Kevin pushed open the door to the locker room and Brad went ahead.
“We barely get any radio coverage in here, so we have the link to the antenna on the roof.”
“That’s good, in case there’s any radiation coming off of that ribbon,” Brad said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Kevin said. “Maybe the electrical interference was caused by some kind of electromagnetic wave or something.”
Kevin was capable of teaching almost all high school subjects, aside from languages. His broad knowledge sometimes led him to careless presumptions. This time, Brad thought he was on the right track.
“Did anyone come here to see if the power was working earlie
r?”
Kevin and Pam looked at each other.
Brad moved between the rows of lockers and popped one of the doors open. He considered sitting on the wooden bench and then decided that it might be too difficult to get up if he did.
“Well, it wouldn’t, right?” Pam asked. “All the power storage units are across the field for safety. Even if this area was shielded…”
“I guess I meant did anyone try anything battery operated down here during the ribbon lightning.”
“We didn’t think to do it,” Kevin said. “So, no.”
“So then this place becomes as dark as a tomb if the electricity goes out again?”
“Yeah. True,” Kevin said.
“People could use candles,” Pam said. “Right?”
“I’m not sure that’s practical. We don’t have stores of candles around, and they would begin to mess with the air quality if we can’t run the fans,” Kevin said.
Brad leaned against the door of the open locker. It was stocked from bottom to top with jars of fruit. Others would have grains, vegetables, and dried meats. In the showers, they had barrels of drinking water. The community had only used the storm shelter a few times over the years. Occasionally, storms would come in off the coast and lash the town with high winds and flooding. Until the storm finished, people would shelter together. It was easier to keep power and heat functional in one central location.
When they weren’t using the shelter, it functioned as a community larder. People added food in the summer and pulled from last year’s food before it became too old to be safe.
“We could shelter in the school cafeteria,” Kevin said. “That has enough windows so we can see, and it’s a short walk to get to these supplies.”
“That doesn’t do us any good against the radiation though,” Pam said.
“We don’t know for sure that the locker room or basement has adequate protection either,” Kevin countered.
Pam turned up her hands and then let them flop back down.
“Truth is, we don’t know what’s going to work. I guess we just have to make our best guess,” Brad said. “Personally, I would feel safe in here from the ribbon, but I don’t like the idea of not having any lights or ventilation.”