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by Kyle Danvers

  The retreatants jumped back, and without hesitation, Ashley slammed on the gas once more and the gravel beneath the tires flung in all directions as the car roared to life and tore away.

  “Service before self. Service before self. Service before self,” Ashley repeated the words over and over out loud, like the kind of mantra they might’ve used in meditation had all this not happened, to keep herself level.

  Because what she was doing was insane. What sane person rushed to a plane crash after something as bizarre as this had happened?

  If she had half a mind for survival, she would’ve torn off back toward town, where there were sure to be law enforcement officials and grocery stores and guns that would keep her alive. Instead, she’d run off toward a wreckage site, totally unsure of what she might find or if she’d even be able to help.

  But if she saved even one life, it would be worth it.

  As she tore along the only gravel road that wound through the mountain pass, the towering flame from the airplane crash grew so large that eventually, it was all she could see. It took a solid twenty minutes of driving to arrive at the crash site. When she stepped out of her car, the heat from the flames blasted her.

  There was almost nothing left of the plane itself, or at least nothing recognizable. It’d all been burned, twisted in ways that suggested anyone who might’ve been on board couldn’t possibly have survived. Ashley stood watching the flames lick at the sky with a hand over her mouth in horror, unable to believe it.

  What appeared to be the cabin of the aircraft smoldered in one piece in the valley, charred black from the fire—without any bodies inside.

  But there was a body lying on the ground not far from it, at the top of a small hill, bathed in the light from the fire. Ashley’s heart leaped into her throat, and without hesitation she bolted down into the valley, paying no mind to the way her footing slipped out from beneath her as she moved.

  When she had solid ground again, she ran as fast as she could toward the survivor, her pulse pounding in her ears. They weren’t moving, weren’t showing any signs of life, but Ashley refused to believe they were dead if they’d gotten that far.

  She fell to her knees beside the body, hesitant to touch him for fear of doing more damage. She let out a gasp when she realized it was the captain, unmistakable thanks to the four stripes still visible on each of his shoulders. She would’ve recognized epaulets like that anywhere.

  He laid on his stomach with one arm underneath his chest, and his face turned toward her. His shirt was torn and scorched in places and his face was covered in dirt and soot.

  But he was breathing.

  6

  Shelby couldn’t hear anything.

  Panicked, she clawed at her ears until finally, a tinny ringing began somewhere deep inside. When her eyes stopped watering, she blinked through her tears to find Nate and Cass on hands and knees beside her. Cass’s lips were moving, and she was gesturing at her phone wildly, but Shelby couldn’t make out anything she said.

  “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!” Nate’s voice screeched in Shelby’s ears, forcing a howl out of her mouth. Everything hurt, light, sound, all of it. “Mom, can you hear me?!” he shouted as he crawled toward her and Shelby nodded, which hurt almost more than her son’s voice.

  Shelby couldn’t tell up from down, much less make any sense of what she’d experienced.

  “Are you okay?” Shelby asked.

  “I’m fine, but I don’t know what the hell’s going on,” Cass said. She was still gripping her phone, smashing the screen to try to make it do something. “My phone won’t turn on.”

  “Mine won’t either,” Nate said. So whatever it was, it’d taken out two cell phones in the house. That didn’t bode well for their chances. Shelby’s heart raced in her chest.

  Where the hell was Joel when she needed him most? Of course, something like this would happen while he was out of town, hundreds of miles away from them when she had no one else to go to for help.

  It struck Shelby that this was why she’d seen so many people rushing through town, taking everything they could from the gas stations and convenience stores along the way. Maybe they didn’t have any idea a blast like the one they’d seen was coming, but with a power outage this massive, they’d been right to be panicked—and prepared, unlike her.

  Shelby kicked herself mentally for not thinking to stop on her way home. Regardless, something awful had happened, something she didn’t have words for, and the kids needed her to be strong, to fill in for the role that Joel usually played.

  After all, they were two teenage kids who didn’t know their heads from a hole in the ground when it came to life without modern conveniences. Then again, Shelby wasn’t sure she did either. Survival and preparedness were Joel’s areas of expertise.

  “Mom? Are you all right?” Cass asked. She’d been talking to Shelby again, but Shelby hadn’t heard a word of it.

  “I’m fine, just a little dazed,” Shelby lied. If she couldn’t be strong, she’d have to fake it. She stared up at the sky, which was still rumbling.

  “What the hell was that?” Nate asked, staring up at the sky with her. It reflected in his glasses, and though he’d never admit it, Shelby saw fear as plain as the light above them on his face.

  “I have no idea,” Shelby admitted. There wasn’t any sense in trying to sugarcoat things. Even if she tried, they would see through her eventually anyway.

  The gun shoved into her pants pressed against Shelby’s back, reminding her that she still held onto some power, however dangerous. Minutes earlier she’d been ready to strangle Joel for bringing a gun into their house in the first place, but as she sat watching the sky in horrified awe, she realized it was the best thing she could’ve found.

  If the power didn’t come on, they’d need a way to protect themselves. But the power would come back. Pacific Energy themselves said they were aware of and working on the issue, according to the radio broadcast Shelby’d heard on the drive home, and they’d promised a restoration by midnight.

  But that was before the blast—and before their phones weren’t working.

  Worrying about what might happen wasn’t doing Shelby any good. Her time would be better spent preparing for spending a night in the dark.

  “Mom, I’m scared. What are we gonna do?” Cass asked.

  “We’re not going to do anything. It’s just a power outage,” Shelby said, though even she found that hard to believe. But wandering around the neighborhood while the power was out and the sky was on fire didn’t seem like a good idea either.

  “This is exactly the kind of whacko doomsday shit Dad’s always talking about,” Nate said, still staring up at the sky. He wasn’t wrong, but Shelby couldn’t say so. Her husband had spent far more time than she considered healthy reading about disaster preparedness, about how bad things might get after an attack on the country's power grid, but that wasn’t what this was. It couldn’t be.

  “No, it isn’t. Don’t jump to conclusions,” Shelby said.

  “Then how do you explain this?” Nate asked, jabbing a finger at the sky. Shelby couldn’t explain it. She couldn’t even wrap her head around it. The sky had never looked this way before, shimmering and wavy like the aurora borealis, and it’d also never pushed her to her knees.

  “The power will be back on tonight. They said so on the radio,” Shelby insisted. It was all she could do.

  “And what if it doesn’t? Are we just going to sit around here and wait to see what happens?” Cass asked. Shelby didn’t have an answer. Joel would know what to do, exactly where to go and how to get there—but Joel wasn’t home.

  Still, Cass had a point. Even if it was just a power outage, even if the power came back on within a few days, there was no telling how desperate people might get without necessities. A trip out of Los Angeles wouldn’t be without its issues, but it would almost certainly be safer than staying in the city.

  They could go to her parents’ vacation cabin in Del Valle
if it came to it. The drive was only about forty minutes—in regular traffic anyway—and while it wasn’t ideal, it was at least an option.

  “We’ll go to Grandpa’s cabin,” Shelby said, and Cass furrowed her eyebrows.

  “Grandpa’s cabin? Are you joking? They don’t have power out there even when there isn’t a blackout,” Cass said.

  “Settle down; it was just a thought. We have to stay calm. Maybe we won’t go there; I don’t know. As long as we think things through, we’ll be fine,” Shelby said, more to help herself get centered than to comfort the kids.

  “What about the neighbors? We should try to talk to them,” Nate said.

  “We don’t even know the neighbors. Why would they help us?” Cass asked, glaring at Nate—but it was the best idea Shelby had heard so far.

  “They’re probably just as confused and scared as we are. Strength in numbers, you know, all that good stuff,” Nate said with a shrug. “Maybe we could help each other.”

  Maybe Nate was right. It couldn’t hurt to try.

  “And they might have phones that work,” Shelby said. It was all she needed to convince herself. Shelby would knock on every door in the damn neighborhood if it got her to a phone that could reach Joel. She stood up and dusted off her clothes, determined not to panic.

  “If all three of our phones aren’t working, no one else’s are either,” Cass said, but Shelby ignored her.

  “Come with me, both of you,” Shelby ordered. She had no intention of going anywhere without her kids, of ever letting them out of her sight. They stood up reluctantly, first Cass and then Nate, who eyed Shelby.

  “Mom, I’m scared,” Nate said, and his face pierced Shelby’s heart. It was the first time he’d ever said something like that to her.

  He wasn’t the only one who was afraid. What if there had been some event that’d done significant damage? What if Joel never found his way back to them and they were on their own through whatever this was? They had nowhere to go, no one around that they knew.

  “There’s nothing to be scared of,” Shelby lied and patted his shoulder. From the way Nate looked at her, Shelby knew her son had seen right through her, and the anxiousness in her stomach twisted, threatening to make her hurl.

  After taking a series of deep breaths to try to clear her head, Shelby led the way back through the house, careful to dodge all the counters and furniture. The last thing she needed was an injury.

  When she stepped through the front door and out onto the screened front porch, her heart stopped in her chest. People were everywhere, pouring out onto the street from their houses, all of them staring and pointing at the sky. Some were crying, some were wide-eyed and terrified, and others were trying to hold their phones higher into the air to make them work.

  The hope Shelby had been trying to cling to evaporated.

  Joel had talked about the possibility of something like this happening for years, but Shelby had always accused him of being paranoid. She’d convinced herself nothing could happen to the United States on a national level like this, and yet there she stood, surrounded by people who not even an hour ago all probably thought the same thing.

  She wondered where Joel was, if he was okay or if somehow he’d gotten wrapped up in what happened in the sky. She would’ve given anything to redo their last moments together earlier that morning, before she’d accused him of picking up extra work just as an excuse to get away from her—and before he’d fired back that one of them had to make some money to pay for her lifestyle.

  Instead, she’d called him an asshole, and now she wasn’t sure when or if she’d see him again.

  “Mom, look, people are leaving,” Cass said, pointing at an SUV stuffed so full of supplies that Shelby couldn’t see into the windows. It barreled down their street, whipping up dust as it passed. Whoever they were, they were apparently in a hurry to get out. The idea of following the crowd never appealed to Shelby, but if their neighbors were fleeing, they must've had a good reason for it.

  And that meant at least some cars still worked. Maybe hers would too.

  “I really think we should go,” Cass said.

  “We’re not going anywhere until I’ve talked to your father,” Shelby said. As scared and tempted as she was, she couldn’t afford to make rash decisions. She needed to hear Joel’s voice, needed him to tell her what this was and how to handle it—because if there was anyone who could make sense of what they’d seen, it was Joel.

  But she also needed to be prepared. If they had to leave, they would almost certainly have to do it in a hurry, and she didn’t want to forget anything.

  “I’m going to go talk to some of the neighbors. I want you both to go in the house and pack whatever things you think you might need if we have to leave,” Shelby said.

  “Does that mean we’re going?” Cass asked.

  “I said if,” Shelby said and Cass sighed.

  “I don’t understand why we aren’t just going. I mean, look, half the neighborhood is already gone,” Cass said.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it you who said these people might wake up tomorrow and feel stupid for panicking when there was nothing wrong at all?” Shelby asked. It was more forceful than it needed to be, but Cass seemed to have gotten the message. Shelby wasn't in the mood to argue.

  “That’s what I thought. Now go in the house, get whatever you think you might want to want to bring with you, and meet me back down here in five minutes,” Shelby said.

  Nate stared at her wide-eyed until eventually Cass dragged him into the house. She hadn’t meant to take things out on either of them, but she needed a break, just a few moments to herself to breathe and think.

  Shelby feared she was losing herself and losing hold of reality. If she hadn’t been confronted at every angle by some aspect of this storm or power outage or whatever it was, she wouldn’t have believed it was real.

  It couldn’t be real. But if it wasn’t, why would Shelby's neighbors be scrambling to the comparative safety of the hills like scared insects? Panic swelled in Ashley’s chest, making it difficult to breathe.

  The phones weren’t going to work. She knew it without asking, so going door-to-door was a waste of time.

  In a rush of determination, Shelby stepped into the house and snatched her and Nate’s keys out of the bowl by the door. If either of their cars would start, the decision to leave or stay would be made for her.

  She dashed across the lawn to Nate’s Honda, tears stinging in her eyes, and flung the driver’s side door open. With a silent prayer, she sat in the driver’s seat, jammed the key into the ignition, and turned it harder than necessary.

  Nothing happened. No clicking sound of the engine trying to turn, no lights in the cabin, nothing.

  Swallowing the panic that bubbled at the back of her throat like bile, Shelby climbed out of Nate’s car and went to her Lexus parked just a few feet away. She stood staring at it for a moment, her eyes burning.

  If it didn’t start, they were stranded. And if Shelby and the kids found themselves stranded in the city in a massive blackout, if the power never came back on, she might soon have much bigger problems.

  What if looters made their way out to the suburbs? What if the gangs in town took the opportunity to expand their reach? If it weren’t just a power outage, if something much worse had happened, something unfathomable, there wouldn’t be any way to call the police or any of the other emergency services. People would be free to roam and do as they pleased—whatever they wanted.

  Shelby shook her head and her negative thoughts away. They were nothing more than noise, concocted by her chronic anxiety to keep her locked in a state of fear. Deep breathing helped, so she sucked down air through her nose and let it pour out of her mouth. The car keys jingled in her trembling hands.

  She raised them and tried to unlock the Lexus with the electronic fob. There was no response, and Shelby rolled her eyes. Of course it didn’t work. If their cell phones hadn’t survived the surge, what mad
e her think a fucking key fob would?

  When she turned the key in the lock and opened the door without being greeted by its familiar dinging sound, her breath caught in her throat. That wasn’t a good sign, but it didn’t mean anything in and of itself. It could’ve just been a fuse blown by the storm.

  Shelby climbed inside, desperate tears now falling openly down her face, slipped the key into the ignition, and turned it.

  There was no response.

  Shelby’s forehead fell against the steering wheel, hot tears streaking down her face as anxiety swallowed her.

  7

  Joel sat bolt upright.

  Everything around him was a whirl of fuzzy, amorphous shapes. He had no idea where he was, or where he was heading, but he was moving—fast.

  He blinked rapidly to clear his vision, pain ripping through his skull each time, until finally, the shape of a young person behind the wheel of a car came into focus.

  “Who are you?” Joel croaked, and the person in front of him screamed, slamming on the brakes and sending Joel crashing into the back of her seat. So they were in a car. How had that happened? The last thing Joel remembered was, well, a whole mess of nothing.

  “Oh my God, you’re alive,” the person said. She wore her dark hair in dreadlocks, each one held together at the end by a milky-colored bead, and the one arm of hers Joel could see was covered from shoulder to wrist in elaborate, colorful tattoos. Was she some sort of hippy who lived in the mountains?

  “Yeah, barely,” Joel said. He touched the back of his head with his useable hand and it came back shiny and sticky with his blood. Miraculously, he was alive, and he had no one to thank for that but himself—and this stranger.

  “Where are you taking me?” Joel asked.

  “I’m not sure,” the driver said, turning to reveal bright blue eyes shimmering with tears. Her septum was pierced, along with each of her eyebrows and pretty much every other part of her face. She looked like the kind of woman who would've wrinkled Joel’s nose if he’d crossed paths with her on the street. “I thought about taking you to a hospital or something, but given the state of things, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”