The Pulse

by Scott B. Williams

  “That’s freaky! What was it?”

  “People are sayin’ it was something like the Aurora Borealis, you know, the Northern Lights. They say it messed up electronic signals somehow.”

  “I didn’t think it was possible to see that from New Orleans,” Casey said.

  “I don’t know. All the geeks and Star Wars nerds are talking about it. I heard some of them this morning. They’re all excited about it, saying it was caused by the sun or something from outer space.”

  “Great. So when exactly can we expect AT&T and all the rest of the cell companies to get their signals fixed? There’s no telling how many texts I’ve missed this morning. And now the power is out in Dinwiddie Hall. Or do you think it’s all over campus?”

  “I don’t know. I was just heading over to the library to find out if the lights are still on there when you asked. I sure hope so. I’ve got a ton of research to do.”

  “Well, thanks,” Casey said. “I guess I freaked out for no reason over being late for Anthro.”

  Casey walked back out to the sidewalk and glanced back at St. Charles Avenue out front. The entire street was still like one big parking lot. No vehicles were moving, not even the streetcar that was still stopped on the tracks right where it had been when she had entered the campus. Most of the cars in the street had their hoods raised now, their owners standing around looking helpless. Casey wondered if the strange power outage had anything to do with all these apparently stalled cars, but she couldn’t think of any reason why it would.

  She turned and walked down the shaded sidewalks of Gibson Quad. Its park-like expanse was crowded with groups of students talking about the power outage and the strange lights during the night. Looking at the other surrounding buildings, she realized that the power probably was out all over campus. No one was in class, it seemed.

  She decided to keep walking to the breezeway at the other end of the complex and see if PJ’s Coffee was open. She knew Jessica had a nine o’clock class and would normally be stopping by there about this time to get her morning caffeine fix first. Casey thought Jessica might have seen the lights if she and Joey had been out that late, but when she got there, despite her hopes that it would somehow not have been affected, PJ’s was closed. She sat on a park bench across the breezeway and opened her backpack to get out her MacBook. Usually, on the rare days she had time to stop for a vanilla latte, she would sit in the café and check her e-mail or post something to her Facebook wall. She didn’t really expect the campus WiFi to be working with everything else shut down the way it was, but the laptop was fully charged and she could think of no reason why it shouldn’t come out of hibernation when she opened it up. She pushed the power button repeatedly with no effect, and then noticed that the little green light that indicated that the battery was charged was not lit. It was just one more WTF moment in a morning that seemed to hold no end of new surprises.

  “Hey, Casey!”

  She looked up to see Grant Dyer walking her way at a brisk pace. His wavy blond hair was even more disheveled than usual this morning, and he looked as if he hadn’t slept all night. But like every other time he was near, she felt something come over her that was hard to describe, something between nervousness and excitement. She had met him only last semester, when she went on a field trip for extra credit in a freshman cultural anthropology class. A graduate student, he had been assisting her professor on a visit to an ancient Native American village site near the mouth of the Mississippi River. From the first day she met him she had experienced the same reaction when he spoke to her. Today was no different, and as she turned to greet him she felt herself blush a little.

  “Hi, Grant! I didn’t see you in Dinwiddie Hall, but I was late getting there. I guess you left when the lights went out, huh?”

  “Yeah, I wondered where you were this morning, Casey. I figured there was no use hanging around when I saw the whole building was shut down.”

  “I overslept. My roommate was supposed to give me a wake-up call, but of course I didn’t know the cell phones were going to go out. Did you see those lights last night that everyone is talking about?”

  “Oh, yeah, I saw them, Casey. You mean you missed them? It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. It was amazing. I had just walked out of the House of Blues with my friend Jeff and was about to go home. We just stood there in the parking lot tripping out. The whole sky lit up; then it just glowed, and waves of colored light ripped across the city like some kind of explosion, but there was no sound. It was just an eerie, silent, flashing light show. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “What was it? Do you know?”

  “No one knows for sure. But I’m hearing a lot of talk that it could have been some kind of mega solar flare. It disrupted every kind of radio communication, and no one seems to know how extensive the disruption was, because there’s no way to get any news.”

  “My TV was out too. I didn’t check the radio, though. But now my MacBook won’t even power up. What’s up with that? I know the battery was charged because it was plugged in all night before the power went off.”

  “Weird! I don’t have mine with me, but it should come on, even it you can’t get online.” Grant took his cell phone out of his pocket as he looked at Casey’s laptop to verify that there was no way to turn it on. “Hey, my phone’s completely dead now. Not only does it not have a signal, it won’t even come on.”

  Casey reached for her iPhone and discovered that it was likewise shut down and would not come back on.

  “This must have just happened at the same time as the electrical shutdown a little while ago. Wow! What kind of force would it take to do that?”

  “Did you see all the stalled cars out on St. Charles?” Casey asked. “It looked like they had stopped just about the time I turned onto the street this morning on my way here. That would have been about the same time the lights went out, according to what everyone in Dinwiddie Hall said.”

  “No, I haven’t been back off campus. If cars have gone dead because of this, then it was definitely worse than I thought. And the fact that our phones and your computer are stone dead confirms it.”

  “How can the power going out affect things that were not plugged in?” Casey asked. “And what does any of that have to do with causing cars to stop?”

  “Because it’s much more than just a power outage, Casey. First it was radio and satellite signals right when those lights flashed. Then the electricity went out this morning. That must have been a separate event. If it shut down cars, then it was one hell of a strong electromagnetic pulse that must have fried the computers in them.”

  “I still don’t see what that has to do with cars. Surely most of them don’t have computers in them?”

  “I don’t mean regular computers like your laptop… just the little ‘black boxes’ that control the ignition and other things that keep the engine running. Without those devices, most cars won’t even start.”

  “Oh. I’m really stupid when it comes to cars, I guess.”

  “You’re not stupid, Casey. I don’t know that much about them either. I don’t even own a car. I just read about that somewhere. Oh, and there was some documentary I saw about how the police were experimenting with some kind of pulse device on their cruisers that could be used to shut down the engine of a vehicle they’re chasing. It worked on the same principle.”

  “I guess my car probably won’t start, then.”

  “I don’t know. What is it? What year is it?”

  “It’s an ’03 Camry. Why?”

  “If it were an older car—no fancy electronics—it might still run. At least that’s what I read. But yours is much too new.”

  “I tried to get Dad to buy me an old Volkswagen Beetle, but he insisted I needed something newer and ‘more reliable.’ So much for that, huh?”

  “Who could have known this would happen? We still don’t know the full extent of it. This could be a lot bigger than we think. It could have affected the whole country,
or even the entire planet.”

  “I didn’t know the sun could do all this. Has it happened before?”

  “Maybe it has, just not since people have had electricity. It wouldn’t have mattered before that.”

  “Is this dangerous?” Casey asked. “I mean, can’t the sun, like, burn up the planet or something?

  “No, I don’t think so,” Grant laughed. “I should say, not right now anyway. Of course it will eventually, when it expands and burns up every planet in our solar system, as scientists say all stars do, but that’s a few million years down the road, I believe.”

  “That’s comforting. So, what are we supposed to do now? No electricity, no cell phones, no WiFi…how do we find out how bad this is?”

  “All we can do is go have a look around. Hey, since we can’t go to class, do you want to go see what we can find out?”

  “Sure, I guess so,” Casey tried to sound nonchalant, hoping Grant couldn’t tell there was nothing she would rather do than hang out with him for a while. “Where will we go?”

  “I don’t know, maybe off campus a bit, see if the power is out in other parts of the city. You’ve got a bike, right?”

  “Yeah, it’s locked up over in front of Dinwiddie Hall.” Casey knew Grant had one. She had passed him in her car a couple of times far from campus, flying down city streets, weaving in and out of traffic like a New York bike messenger. Looking at him, anyone could immediately see that he was in great shape. “I won’t be able to keep up with you, though, on my heavy mountain bike.”

  “We don’t have to go fast,” Grant said. “I won’t run off and leave you, I promise.”

  “Hey, can we just go by my apartment first and at least check my car? We won’t know for sure that it won’t start unless we try it.”

  “Sure thing; it won’t hurt to try. Where do you live?

  “It’s not far. Over on Webster Street just a couple of blocks this side of Magazine.”

  Grant walked with her back to where she’d left her bike, and then she pushed it along as they walked to get his where he’d left it near the library. When they rode off the campus together and turned onto St. Charles, there were so many people standing and walking in the road and on the sidewalks that they had to slow to a near-walking pace to avoid hitting them. Stalled vehicles were still blocking the lanes everywhere, most with their hoods up and their frustrated owners talking with each other and wondering what to do next.

  “These cars haven’t moved since I came by on the way to class,” Casey told Grant.

  “This is unbelievable,” he said, as he scanned both ways at the first cross street they came to. There’s not a moving car in sight. Good thing we have bicycles.”

  “Yeah, I never drive my car to campus anyway. It would be too crazy trying to park. But when I have to get around town, it’s nice to have it—especially since I can’t ride insane miles on a bike like you do.”

  “I just like riding, especially since the weather’s so good here most of the time. And when I’m here during the semesters, I rarely leave the city anyway, there’s just no time. Grad school’s like that.”

  “I can imagine,” Casey said.

  They turned onto Calhoun Street, dropped a couple of blocks down from St. Charles to avoid the snarl of cars and people, and soon reached Webster Street, where Casey lived. Six blocks farther on, Casey pointed out her car parked on the street near the stairs that led up to her apartment. They pulled the bikes up beside it and Casey dismounted and rummaged through her backpack for her keys. When she found them she looked at Grant with a shrug.

  “You might as well try it, at least,” he said.

  Casey first tried the electronic door opener on her key, but nothing happened when she pushed the button. She had to use the key itself and manually unlock the door. When she slid behind the wheel and turned the ignition switch, it had no effect whatsoever; there was not even the click of the starter relay.

  “I guess we won’t be cruising around town in this,” she said, almost apologetically.

  “Yeah, too bad you didn’t get that VW Bug you wanted. I’ll bet it would still run.”

  Just as he said it, as if to prove his point, they heard the sound of an engine winding out and saw a dilapidated diesel work truck weaving its way up the street around the stalled cars and their stranded drivers. It looked to be a relic from the ’60s, if not older.

  “Nothing electronic under the hood,” Grant answered when Casey gave him a questioning look. “People with old vehicles like that are in luck, but the problem is, the roads are so clogged up with all the new ones that they likely won’t be able to go anywhere. We’re better off with our bikes.”

  “I suppose, as long as we don’t need to go far. Hey, I need to see if my roommate Jessica came home. Do you want to come up to my apartment with me to check? Then we can go ride around some if you want.”

  “Sure. There’s certainly no hurry. Not much else I can do anyway.”

  Casey was grateful for this unexpected turn of events that gave her an opportunity to hang out with Grant. She hoped it didn’t show in her body language because she was embarrassed for him to know that it mattered to her. She led the way up the stairs and unlocked the door. “It’s going to be hot in here without the AC, but at least it’s not summer yet.”

  “Yeah, it’s actually pretty pleasant today. Usually when the power goes out down here, it’s because of a hurricane, and in hurricane season, it’s always hot.”

  “I want to hear more about what it was like here after Katrina, if you ever have time to tell me about it.”

  “Sure, I’ll be glad to, but we got out ahead of the worst of it and didn’t come back for a long time.”

  “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to lose your home and everything in it.”

  Grant just shrugged and said that wasn’t the worst part of it. He said that growing up the way he did he was used to being uprooted and moved to new places. As a result of that lifestyle, he said, he didn’t have a lot of possessions that he was attached to, like most people did. The worst part was that all his close friends had moved out of New Orleans and even out of the state after they were displaced and none had come back. He was essentially alone on campus, and though he had new acquaintances in his graduate classes, none of them were people he spent time outside of class with. He promised to tell her more about Katrina soon, and said that what he learned in the aftermath of that storm might come in handy considering what had apparently happened now.

  It was obvious that Jessica was not in the apartment, and Casey could see no sign that she’d been back. She told Grant that she must still be at her boyfriend’s place or else had gone straight to campus from there without coming by the apartment.

  “What about yours?” Grant asked.

  “My what?”

  “Boyfriend, significant other, or whatever.”

  “No, I’m afraid not. I haven’t really dated since I started classes here. I just didn’t need the drama with all the work I have to do. I thought I would end up with my high school sweetheart, but he dumped me when he went to LSU.”

  “That was a dumb move on his part, I’d say.”

  Casey blushed. “Thanks, but it happens to everyone, I think. That’s why I haven’t bothered again for now.”

  “I know what you mean. I keep myself free too these days. If not, I couldn’t do all the traveling I do between semesters.”

  Casey started to say something but reconsidered. She was lost in thought for a moment but suddenly changed the subject. “If we can’t get the news on TV or the radio, and cell phones are not working either, how are we supposed to find out more about what happened to cause this? How will we know if other places outside the city are affected?”

  “We won’t know anything by staying here… unless someone makes it here from areas that were not damaged. I don’t know, but if it was what I think it was, and it was caused by whatever caused that light display last night, I can’t imagine that it only a
ffected our region. And if it was more widespread, how would anyone send a message here or get here? This could be a very serious situation, worse than any hurricane.”

  “Well, I don’t see how it could be worse than a hurricane. I mean, no one is getting hurt because the power’s off and the phones don’t work. It’s not like there’s wind blowing houses apart or flood waters filling the streets. How can it be that bad?”

  “Think about it for a minute, Casey. Think about all the people in the hospital, for instance, depending on machines that run on electricity to keep them alive. Think about people that need to get to the hospital, but now can’t. Think about all the stores that will have to stay closed and can’t sell food or anything else. What will everyone do when they can’t get anything?” Grant paused for a minute. “You can be sure people are getting hurt or dying because of this.” He suddenly got quiet. “You don’t even want to think about all the people who must have been flying in jets and other airplanes when this pulse or whatever it was suddenly hit.”

  “What would it do to an airplane? If they stopped like all these cars did, couldn’t the pilots still glide them down or something? I’ve seen them do that in movies.”

  “Maybe some types of small planes; not big jumbo jets, from what I understand. They don’t glide well at all, and there are not many places they could safely land. Besides, big airliners are even more dependent on computer controls than cars are. They can’t navigate without all that stuff to tell them where they are, how high they are flying, and how fast they are going. I think they would all crash if all that went out. At least that’s what I read somewhere.”

  “Oh my God, if this had happened just a couple of days later, my dad could have been in a crash!”

  “Is he flying somewhere then?”

  “He’s supposed to be coming back here from St. Thomas on Thursday. But he couldn’t have been on a plane today, because he’s out in the ocean with my Uncle Larry on a sailboat. What would this do to a sailboat?” Casey suddenly looked frightened. “What if their GPS went out? How will they find their way back to land?”