The End

by G. Michael Hopf

  “Oh my God,” he said to himself, unable to break his gaze into the mirror. The weight of everything that had happened over the past eight hours was unbelievable. It felt surreal. He reached over and grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and dried his face and hands. He then paced around the empty bathroom for a minute before he approached the mirror again. He bent over, grabbed the sides of the sink, and stared at his reflection again and said, “Brad, pull yourself together. Your country needs you. Be the leader you know you can be. You have a responsibility to lead this nation. Stop freaking out and pull it together.”

  He stood up straight, taking a final glance at himself, then left the bathroom. When he walked back into the briefing room, all conversation halted and everyone looked over to him.

  “General Griswald, I need you to coordinate a team to go retrieve my wife and my son’s body from St. Anthony’s hospital. Once they are secure, we shall leave.”

  “Yes, sir, but can we swear you in now?”

  “Not until your team gets my wife. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir.” Griswald turned to his aide and shot him a commanding look. The aide jumped up and left the room, followed by Agent Davis.

  “Please keep me briefed on my wife’s situation at all times. I have another request, General. Go find a judge and get me a Bible.”

  San Diego, California

  As soon as Jimmy made the turn into the Ralph’s parking lot, he and Gordon could see the crowd gathered outside and commotion erupting. As they drove closer, they could see people hauling items, pushing full shopping carts out of the store.

  “Looks like the word has gotten out,” Jimmy said aloud.

  “Yes it does,” Gordon replied, nodding his head in agreement. “Listen, I don’t feel safe leaving the one and only operational vehicle out in the open. Pull up over there and I’ll go see what I can get inside by myself,” Gordon told Jimmy, pointing over to an area in the parking lot that had few cars and few people.

  As he slowly weaved around parked cars toward the area Gordon indicated, Jimmy noticed many in the crowd looking and pointing at the truck. He felt uneasy and was now glad Gordon had given him the gun.

  “Make sure you park in a spot that you don’t have to back out of,” Gordon recommended, pointing to a spot next to a line of shopping carts.

  “Good idea,” Jimmy said as he took a left into the spot.

  “I don’t know how long I’ll be. With all this going on it might be hard to get what we need,” Gordon said while checking his cash and gun and grabbing his pack. He opened the truck door and stepped down. Before closing the door behind him, he bent over, looked into the car, and said, “Stay frosty, my friend.”

  “Stay frosty?” Jimmy asked.

  “It means stay alert,” Gordon said and shut the door. He grabbed a cart and started running toward the front of the store. People all around rushed in and out of the store. Some people were pushing full carts; others just were running out with arms full of groceries. He pushed his cart directly into the crowd and pushed his way through. After a minute of pushing and elbows he made it inside. He stopped, put on his headlamp, and headed for the canned food area.

  Inside, people were running all around, groceries were all over the floors, and people were yelling and screaming. Gordon ignored the commotion and went directly for the aisle he needed. Once he reached the canned food section, he saw that many of the shelves had been stripped, but not completely bare. Not wanting to waste any time, Gordon started to toss in whatever he could get his hands on.

  He made his way down the aisle and cleared what he could. His makeshift plan was to fill up the cart, go back to Jimmy at the car, leave the cart for Jimmy to unload, grab a new cart, and do it all over again. What was becoming more problematic every passing moment was the setting sun on the horizon. Gordon was getting a bit concerned for Jimmy outside by himself. He followed his plan and with no altercation he left the store and dropped off the cart.

  He grabbed a new cart and made his way back into the store, keeping aware of his surroundings as best he could in the semidarkness. He heard people falling into shelves and displays as they stumbled through the store with no light, tripping over loose cans and other items dropped by previous looters. He remembered judging people he’d seen on TV, looting stores after natural disasters. He felt a bit hypocritical, but this was a life-or-death situation.

  Four trips later, the truck was filling but the store had been all but stripped bare. The sun was very low on the horizon now and Gordon knew it was time to get home.

  “Well, I better start to like canned corn,” Jimmy said, looking at all the Ralph’s brand canned corn piled in the bed of his truck.

  “Not too much to choose from, buddy. Kind of slim pickings.”

  “What a mess,” Jimmy said, nodding toward the groups of people darting in and out of the store.

  Out of nowhere, someone rushed the truck on the driver’s side.

  “Help, please help me!” a man shouted. His shirt was bloody and he was sweating badly.

  “Whoa,” Jimmy said clearly shocked by the bloodied man knocking on his window.

  “Get away from the truck!” Gordon yelled.

  “Please help me, my wife; I need someone to take her to the hospital!” The man frantically banged on the hood and glass of the driver’s side of the truck.

  “Stop hitting my fucking truck, dude! Back off!” Jimmy yelled back.

  “Listen, back off!” Gordon yelled again.

  “I need your help, my wife is having a baby and she’s bleeding badly; I need someone to take her to the hospital.”

  “What should we do?” Jimmy asked Gordon.

  “Start the truck and leave. We can’t help him or his wife,” Gordon said firmly.

  “Please help me!” the man screamed. He was starting to get crazed and looked desperate.

  “Maybe we should help him,” Jimmy said to Gordon.

  Gordon pulled out his Sig and pointed it at the man, who immediately backed away.

  “I need help, please don’t shoot me!” the man said, backing away slowly.

  “Now start the truck and get the fuck out of here,” Gordon yelled in a commanding voice to Jimmy.

  Jimmy didn’t hesitate; he started the truck, put it into gear, and started to pull away. He looked at the man again and saw him just standing there, arms slumped forward, defeated.

  “Let’s move, Jimmy. It’s getting dark and we need to get back,” Gordon said.

  “Okay,” Jimmy responded. His heart was still racing from the incident with the man. He gripped the steering wheel tight as he maneuvered the truck through the people and cars in the lot.

  “What’s going to happen to us?” Jimmy asked Gordon as soon as they cleared the parking lot.

  “I don’t know, Jimbo. I don’t know. What I do know is that I plan on making sure my family survives.”

  “How long will the power be out? I just can’t believe that our government or the military are down. I’m sure they’ll help soon, don’t you think?”

  “Again, I don’t know if this is an isolated situation, but it sounds like it may not be. If this is a large-scale EMP attack, then more than likely the entire power grid in the U.S. is down. Just dealing with getting the power back up by itself is a huge issue. Now add insult to injury and have everything electrical from cars to phones to generators—everything is down, and how do you repair or replace those systems on the power grid? Jimmy, I fear we may be in for a long haul; we may not see the lights come on at all for a very, very long time. When they do, there’s a good chance the world we knew before will have been lost.” He turned away from Jimmy and stared out the window of the car. Everything looked the same, the mountains were still there, the roads, buildings, and houses, but nothing worked.

  “Do you have any type of plan?” Jimmy asked.

&
nbsp; “Yes and no. Was I really prepared for something like this, no. Do I have everything we need, no. Do I plan on getting it, yes,” Gordon said, turning back to his friend.

  “What do we need?”

  “Food, water, medicine, fuel, and ammo are our basic needs. Precious metals, gems, and cash for a short time will help us secure more of those needs. We have a very short window before all the food is gone,” Gordon said.

  “What about our neighbors?”

  “I haven’t figured that out yet, but we should all get together sometime tomorrow and attempt to have a community meeting. The truth is this: Not all of us are going to survive this. It will take three days, tops, and San Diego will be out of food. The water will start to dry up too. In about a week, we could start to see wandering bands of people looking for food in our neighborhood. We’ll have to secure our community, lock it down.”

  “Should we leave?” Jimmy asked with concern in his voice.

  “My gut says yes, but at the moment we have only one vehicle between us. We need to find more vehicles. Until we can put everything together, we should focus on food and water so our families don’t starve.”

  “Okay, just take the lead, Gordon, and tell me what needs to be done; you seem more ready for this than me.”

  “I wish I were more ready, but we have no choice but to go forage every day,” Gordon said. “How are we looking for gas?”

  “I have half a tank, it can last us tomorrow depending on how far we go, but we’ll need to get some more soon,” Jimmy said.

  “I agree. Once we off load all the food and divide it up, let’s make a plan.”

  “Sounds good,” Jimmy replied. He was feeling better knowing that he had Gordon as a friend. Gordon was taking charge, and Jimmy didn’t mind. This survival stuff was not up his alley. He didn’t know what lay ahead for all of them but he felt better knowing that they had an advantage.

  • • •

  “How long will they be gone?” Simone asked Samantha. Simone and Jimmy had known each other since high school. The love they felt for each other ran deep. She had short dark hair and was short. She had been raised in the Northeast and had the typical northeastern accent that accompanied her sweet but hyper personality. Simone was more on edge than usual because the blackout had stopped her from taking her and Jimmy’s son, Mason, to his doctor’s appointment. They had recently been informed that he had asthma.

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Samantha answered as she poured some lukewarm milk for Haley. Samantha was nervous, too, but didn’t want to show it. Simone, however, was visibly freaked out.

  “When will the government come and get this all straightened out? I’m sure this is only temporary,” Simone said aloud just to reassure herself. She was pacing in the ever-darkening kitchen.

  “I’m sure you’re right. Soon all of this will be over and we’ll be back to normal,” Samantha answered, even though she knew better. Everything that Gordon had told her made it sound as if the power might be out for months.

  “Mommy, can I have my milk?” Haley asked, walking into the kitchen.

  “Here, sweetie,” Samantha replied gently to Haley, handing her the cup she had just filled.

  Haley grabbed the milk and ran down the hall to the play room.

  Samantha watched as Haley ran on and was deeply saddened by what was happening. She was scared most for her children and what they might have to experience. She then thought of Simone and her son, Mason.

  “How has Mason been?” Samantha asked.

  “He’s okay. We’ve explained to him what he has and he kind of understands. We have been drilling into his head to make sure he has his inhaler wherever he goes.”

  “I’m so sorry for you all.”

  “I just feel better knowing what it is; the unknown is what scared me the most. At least now we can tackle it and move down a road of treatment.”

  “How has work been for Jimmy?” Samantha asked, almost ashamed by how mundane the question was.

  “Business has been up and we are hoping to secure a new contract with a large client soon. Jimmy has been working on it all month. He’s put a lot of time into it and has been working so many late nights to make sure it happens.”

  “That’s great,” Samantha replied. She could not stop thinking about Gordon. The small talk wasn’t helping her forget what was happening. She trusted Gordon above anyone else and knew he was a capable man. She was just feeling very insecure now and wanted him home.

  Her thoughts were broken by the flash of headlights cutting across the room. She and Simone looked at one another excitedly. They both jumped up and walked to the front door.

  Simone opened the door just as Gordon was walking up the path.

  “Hi, Gordon. Everything okay?” Simone asked.

  “Yes, we’re all good. The trip went well. I need to go and open the garage door.” Gordon walked briskly by Simone and Samantha. Even back at the house, he was certainly a man on a mission. He wanted to get the truck in the garage as soon as possible to get it unloaded.

  Gordon made his way into the garage, found the cord that disengaged the automatic garage door, and pulled it, releasing the lock. He lifted the door manually.

  Jimmy slowly drove the truck into the garage. Gordon stepped outside and looked both left and right to see if anyone had seen them. He couldn’t see much now that the sun had set and it was getting dark outside. The neighborhood seemed eerie and unnatural with no sounds or lights. After his quick scan of the neighborhood, he pushed the door back down.

  With the garage door shut, he turned to Jimmy and said, “Let’s get this unloaded.”

  Simone had come in the garage with a lantern that painted the garage with a yellow glow.

  Both Jimmy and Gordon wasted no time in unpacking the truck. The wives stood in the doorway to the garage. Gordon noticed Samantha and stopped for a brief moment to look at her. They made eye contact and Gordon smiled, then went back to work unloading.

  “Well, Simone, I hope you like lima beans and Spam!” Jimmy said jokingly as he stacked a case of Spam on top of the case of canned lima beans.

  “Was all of this necessary?” Simone asked, helping grab loose cans and items. “This is a lot of food. How long do you think the power outage will last?”

  Jimmy looked nervously to Gordon. Gordon stopped unloading and answered her question. “Simone, this could last a while. After we’re done unloading, I’ll explain what I think is going on.”

  Gordon went back to stacking when they heard a knock at the front door.

  “I doubt it’s the pizza guy,” Jimmy joked as he headed into the house.

  He opened the door slightly and peeked out. His neighbor Melissa stood on his porch holding her newborn baby.

  “Hi, Jimmy, I’m sorry to bother you, but have you seen Eric?”

  “Uh, no. Sorry, I just got home myself.”

  “I can’t reach him, my phone won’t work, and my car won’t start. I’m kind of freaked out,” Melissa explained intensely. She was rocking back and forth attempting to soothe her baby, who was making some noises.

  “Uh, come on in. I’m sorry, come on in,” Jimmy said, fully opening the door.

  “I don’t want to impose. Do you have a phone that works?” she asked.

  “No, sorry; our phones are down too. Now come on in.”

  “Maybe for a minute, thank you.”

  Stepping inside the foyer, she held her baby close. Just as Jimmy shut the door behind her, Samantha walked in from the garage.

  “Hi, Melissa! How are you doing?

  “Hi, Samantha. I’m fine; just haven’t heard from Eric since the power went out. It’s getting late and I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Come on in, sweetie,” Samantha said. She walked up to Melissa and put her arm around her and walked her down the
hall to the living room.

  Jimmy watched as the two ladies walked down the dim, candle-lit hallway before he proceeded back into the garage.

  “That’s it, all unloaded,” Gordon said, placing the last can of food on top of the stack.

  “Wow, that’s a lot of food,” Jimmy remarked, looking at everything they had brought back.

  “Not nearly enough, pal. We will definitely need to go back out tomorrow.”

  “How is that not enough food?” Simone asked, staring down the impressive stacks of food.

  “Let’s go inside, grab a drink, and I’ll explain.”

  They all marched into the house.

  • • •

  The group all gathered in the living room. Gordon sat down in a large cushioned chair in the corner. It wasn’t until then that he realized how sore and tired he was. He took a drink of the Knob Creek bourbon Simone had poured him and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, everyone was staring at him expectantly.

  Gordon sat up and said, “Well, I assume since everyone is looking at me, they want to know my thoughts on all of this?”

  Simone nodded, then said, “Yes, ’cause I’m kinda freaking out here.” There was a frantic tone to her voice.

  Jimmy reached over and touched Simone’s knee. She brushed his hand away and snapped, “Listen, I need to know what’s going on. Why all the food, what’s up?”

  “Just relax. He’ll explain,” Jimmy said, reaching back, squeezing her knee.

  “Don’t tell me to relax! Something is going on and it doesn’t sound good,” she shot back at Jimmy.

  Knowing their back and forth was not productive, Gordon interrupted, “Simone, you’re right, something has happened and it’s not good.”

  “Okay. I’m listening,” Simone said.

  “We must accept that our way of life has been altered, and prepare for a life without any of the luxuries of modern society, like electricity. I don’t know the extent of the problem or what is happening outside of our city, but I’m guessing it’s widespread.”