Wandering Highway: A Desperate Journey Home

by Ike Warren

  “Yeah, the sun’s heat this time of year kicks off a lot of scattered showers.” The old man said. After a few moments the front door behind them swung open and Ellie appeared carrying several plastic containers and Allan stepped forward to help her hand the food over to the old man.

  “I thank you kindly for the food Miss Ellie.” Mr. Rodriguez said.

  “You’re just welcome. Anytime.” Ellie replied and she looked up as the sound of rain could be heard hitting the trees above them. “You all better hurry before you get wet.”

  The old man hunched over to cover his food from the rain and he darted off across the road. Allan noted how quick the old man was on his feet, even in his worn out looking sandals. Jennifer and Allan turned and rushed towards the truck but the sky opened up on them and the rain began to come down hard. They reached the truck and opened the doors, and then Jennifer stopped.

  “Samantha forgot her backpack.” She said. The rain was coming down harder and she grabbed the backpack and ran towards Ellie’s front porch to give it to her daughter. By the time she made it back to the truck she was soaking wet and beads of water were gathered at the tips of the hair on her forehead and were making the long journey down her face.

  “You’re soaked.” Allan said but he instantly realized the absurdity of his comment. Jennifer said nothing as she wiped the water from her forehead with the palm of her hand.

  Allan reached down and inserted the GPS plug into the power outlet on the dash. The little black screen on the GPS lit up and the words Loading Map Data flashed across the screen. For such an advanced piece of technology the GPS unit always took especially long to power up, and this time was no different. Allan looked back and saw Ellie and Samantha still standing under the cover of the front porch, waiting to wave them off.

  “Let’s go honey.” Jennifer said.

  “I want to plug the address into the GPS first.” Allan replied. Finally the GPS unit reached the main menu and Allan yanked it from the windshield holster and began pushing icons on the touch screen.

  “You don’t remember how to get to the Grapevine Mills Mall?” Asked Jennifer.

  “I do, but you know how I like to see where we’re at and how far we’ve got to go to get there.”

  “Why didn’t you have that entered in before we left?”

  “And have that annoying electronic voice nagging at me all the way to your mother’s house saying, ‘Recalculating Route’ each time I passed the street that it wanted me to turn down? No thanks.”

  Jennifer impatiently turned and looked back at her mother and Samantha and waved to them to indicate that everything was alright. Allan got the address of the mall plugged in and the unit replied, “Calculating Route”.

  He reached forward and snapped the GPS unit back to the windshield holster and read the information on the screen. “Exactly 70 miles to the mall. We should arrive at 1:00.”

  “Exactly what I told my mom ten minutes ago and I didn’t need a GPS to do it.” Jennifer huffed.

  “Don’t get irritated with me or I won’t take you shopping.” Allan warned with a half grin.

  “Okay, I’ll be nice.” Jennifer smiled and Allan put the truck in gear and drove off.

  Chapter 2: The Blast

  They drove down Interstate 30 headed west towards Dallas. The traffic was thick as they drove across Lake Ray Hubbard just west of the city of Rockwall. Allan was focused intently on the traffic on the interstate as driving to Dallas always made him nervous, especially when driving in the rain.

  “So what were you watching on the TV this morning?” Jennifer asked.

  “I was just watching the news. I don’t remember what it was about.” Allan replied.

  “Well whatever it was you were sure fixated on it and it had Samantha pretty worked up.”

  Allan remembered the manic news reporter talking about his fried electronics. “Oh, it was some news about some power disruptions over in Europe somewhere.” He said.

  “What caused it?”

  “What caused what?” Allan asked with his focus still clearly on the traffic on the road and not on the conversation with his wife.

  “What caused the power outages?” She asked, sensing that her husband was only half listening to her just like he was doing earlier in the day while sitting in front of the TV.

  “They didn't really know. Some kind of electrostatic discharge. They said it might have been a solar storm or something. Whatever it was it really knocked out a lot of systems, which is probably why the news was just guessing as to what happened.”

  “Were they able to restore the power?”

  “This rain is really picking up.” Allan changed the subject, ignoring Jennifer’s question. He reached for the windshield wiper control and turned it to its maximum setting. Jennifer took the queue to stop talking and to help him keep an eye on the road. The truck’s wipers flicked across the windshield frantically but the rain was coming down faster than they could wipe it away. To Allan’s relief the traffic in front of them slowed to a crawl.

  “There goes your estimated 1 hour drive time to get to Grapevine.” Allan spoke up over the roar of the rain that slammed against the truck. “Sorry for cutting you off back there. The rain and traffic make me nervous.” He apologized.

  “Looks like you’re still nervous.” Jennifer teased and Allan looked down and found that his hands had a death grip on the steering wheel. He relaxed his grip and Jennifer reached over and patted his knee, “It’s alright honey. Better to be nervous than to plow through the rain like an idiot and have a wreck.” She said and Allan smiled back at her.

  “Can a solar storm really cause power disruptions like that?” Jennifer asked.

  “I don’t know.” Allan said as he pushed the power button on the radio to turn it on and it immediately tuned to an AM news talk station where two men appeared to be having a debate.

  “... that our modern society has been using microchips since around the 1970’s and only really becoming predominant in the 1990’s. Since then, there has not been a major solar event to really test the theories on how a major solar storm would actually impact our electronic devices. We became aware of the effects of solar geomagnetic storms on terrestrial communications when a solar flare on August 4, 1972 knocked out long-distance telephone communication across Illinois. There was also solar flare that caused a geomagnetic storm on March 13, 1989 that was so powerful that it melted parts of a transformer in New Jersey.” Said one of the radio voices.

  “Well from my understanding solar flares can really only impact the Earth satellites and the electrical grid, and that anything not tied directly into the grid will be safe. But we are hearing that not only was the power knocked out in Europe, but even handheld electronics have been affected. Does that rule out a solar flare Harvey?" Another voice asked.

  "That's the part that troubles me. I'm waiting for an official government response, but when you start hearing about handheld electronics, those that are not connected to the electrical grid, it makes me wonder if this event is something else."

  "What type of event are you referring to?"

  "Possibly some kind of attack? Perhaps some sort of electromagnetic bomb. We are quite aware that western society is hated by much of the underdeveloped world. We've worried ourselves over dirty nuclear bombs for years, but what we have not focused on, a type of attack that can be just as destructive to our way of life, is an EMP attack."

  “Remember Harvey, we don’t want to get our audience all worked up.” A voice said with nervous laughter. “We are just speculating. There have been no reports whatsoever of an attack of any kind. Just to be clear on that. Anyways, could you explain to our listeners, and to myself for that matter, what an EMP is, and what it does?"

  “An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse, which is a form of electromagnetic radiation. The rapidly changing electric fields created by an EMP are known to disrupt electrical and electronic systems by producing damaging currents and voltage surges.” Harvey Re
plied.

  The sound of shuffling papers could be heard in the background and a third voice spoke into the microphone, "If I could just interject for a moment, I have a report here published by NASA in June of 2010 that says, ‘Scientists believe that a major solar flare could damage everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, and to everyday items such as home computers, iPods and sat-navs. Due to our heavy reliance on electronic devices, which are sensitive to magnetic energy, a major solar storm could leave a multi-billion dollar damage bill.’ What this report is saying is that NASA has known about this sort of thing for a long time. In fact they estimated that if a solar flare was big enough it could cause of $1 to $2 trillion dollars in damage to critical infrastructure and it could take four to ten years to fully recover. To put that into context, Hurricane Katrina caused $80 to $125 billion worth of damage. That’s billions, with a ‘B’. Here we’re talking about trillions, with a ‘T’ worth of damage that could be caused by a major solar flare."

  Jennifer reached over and pushed the power button on the radio to turn it off. “Ugh, it’s all so mind numbing. How can anyone listen to that?” She said.

  “Some people like that kind of stuff.” Allan replied.

  Jennifer looked over at Allan, “Some people like you? I saw how when you turned the radio on it went straight to your pre-programmed AM news station.” She teased.

  “So I like to listen to the news to understand the world around me sometimes.” Allan explained. He cleared his throat, preparing to counter her argument by changing the subject, “I still don’t understand why we have to drive all the way to Grapevine, in the rain, to get maternity and baby clothes. Don’t they have that stuff back in Greenville?”

  Jennifer looked over at Allan and grinned, “Oh come on babe, they have some great deals in Grapevine, and besides, you should be happy that we get to spend the day together.”

  “You’re right. I couldn’t think of anything else to do with my Saturday.” He replied sarcastically. He looked over to catch his wife’s response to his joke and found that Jennifer was no longer grinning.

  “Babe, you don’t want to spend time with me?” She asked with a frown.

  “Of course I do. I was just kidding. Just like you were kidding me about my AM news station.”

  “Good, because I’m really excited. Today is going to be great. It’s Saturday, it’s storming outside, and we’re going on a shopping spree…”

  “Uh, we’re going to get some maternity and baby clothes and that’s it. It’s not a shopping spree.” Allan interrupted.

  Jennifer grinned wide, reached her hand out, and began patting Allan’s knee again, “Sure babe, you go ahead and tell yourself that.” Allan grinned too, knowing that a shopping trip with Jennifer always turned into spending and buying more than initially planned and he had fully anticipated that even before they had left the house that morning.

  The heavy rain eased up as they drove down highway 635 but traffic was still going slow due to rain accumulation on the road surface. As they approached the towering bridges of the High Five Interchange where highway 635 crossed under interstate 75, traffic slowed to a crawl and finally the cars in front of them came to a complete stop. The stoppage in traffic parked their truck alongside one of the tall bridge support pillars that had been painted in a light emerald green with the Star of Texas appearing in bright yellow at the very top.

  “A $260 million dollar bridge interchange and traffic is still a problem here.” Allan griped.

  They inched forward and Jennifer gazed out the window at another bridge pillar. This one was painted a burnt auburn color with the same yellow star engraved at the top. “Well, at least it’s pretty.” Jennifer commented. Allan glared at her.

  Bridges are just pieces of infrastructure used to move traffic from point A to point B and when a bridge can’t perform that basic function there’s a problem, but here’s my wife and the only thing she has to say is that it’s pretty. Allan thought as he looked out the window and peered up at the giant support column. With its yellow accent stripes along with all the other bridge pillars in the vicinity painted in what he would describe as a warm desert pallet he had to admit that it was truly an impressive site to behold, despite its ongoing traffic congestion issues.

  “Yes, it is pretty.” He agreed with Jennifer and at that moment the cars in front of them pulled ahead and resumed to normal speed as if the bridge itself had approved of their favorable comments.

  When they reached the city limits of Coppell, the last city before reaching Grapevine, they began to see large jumbo jets flying low in the sky as they approached DFW airport. Jennifer looked up as one passed over the highway and in the distance she could see two more jumbo jets flying behind it, one just a few miles away making its final approach and another just a faint dot in the distance behind that one.

  “I wish Samantha was with us, she’d love to see the airplanes.” She said.

  Allan’s forehead wrinkled as he looked up at the airplane that was passing directly over them. “Yes, she would. She always gets excited whenever she sees airplanes.” He commented.

  They arrived at the Grapevine Mills Mall and Allan parked the truck in a parking spot close to one of the main entrances that was marked Reserved For Expectant Mothers. Getting to park close to the stores that had those signs was one of the perks of Jennifer’s pregnancy that he especially enjoyed. They stepped out of the truck and Allan pushed the remote on his keychain to lock the truck doors and he listened as the truck horn beeped two times to indicate that the truck was locked. He looked up and was glad to see that the cloud covered sky that had been so dark earlier now looked to be clearing up a little. He looked over at Jennifer who was checking her clothes for damp spots from her run in the rain back at Ellie’s house.

  “Is my butt wet?” She asked turning around to give Allan a look.

  “Nope, all dry in the back.”

  “Good, only my shoulders are a little damp, but they should dry up pretty quick once we get to moving around inside.” Jennifer smiled.

  They entered the mall and the first store that Jennifer headed towards was a Kirkland’s home décor shop. They went inside and Jennifer began pointing out various picture frames and paintings that she thought would look nice in their house. Allan looked on, following from behind and he teased, “This stuff doesn’t look like maternity clothes.”

  Jennifer stopped at a large picture frame with the letters FAMILY engraved into the face of it and she took it off the wall and turned it over to check the price tag.

  “Nope. I’d have to say that is definitely not maternity clothes.” Allan commented.

  “Oh stop it. Don’t you think that this would look nice in our entryway?” Jennifer asked.

  A bright white flash could be seen outside in the mall through the front doors of the Kirkland’s store.

  Jennifer and Allan turned to look. “I guess they are taking pictures outside.” Allan said. “I hope they aren’t doing one of those singing audition things again.”

  Allan remembered that the last time they had come to Grapevine Mills Mall they were having a big American Idol type event for one of the local country music radio stations. Hundreds of people had filled the mall hallways and one by one, wanna-be country music singers filled the mall with the acoustics of out-of-tune songs. After every singer, each of the three judges sitting at a table would speak into their microphones offering constructive criticism. Then, as the contestant stepped off stage there would be camera flashes where the photographer of the event would try to sell them an 8x10 keepsake of their big moment for $39.99. Allan found the whole event to be annoying as hell, not only because of the awful singing by a majority of the contestants, but because it made it nearly impossible to pass through the large crowd of people to get from one side of the mall to the other. He dreaded having to go through it all again if that’s what was indeed going on outside.

  “I di
dn’t see a crowd when we came in.” Jennifer said.

  Suddenly there was another bright flash outside and the lights throughout the store began to flicker on and off. Allan and Jennifer looked up at each other just as the store went completely dark. There was a loud buzzing noise in the air and Allan was reminded of his childhood at his grandparent’s cattle farm where there was a high voltage utility line that ran across his grandfather’s property. Whenever he stood directly underneath the power lines he could hear the crackling static electricity emit off of them, just like he was hearing now. Allan looked out into the main corridor of the mall but he saw that the only light entering the building was the dim light from the cloud covered sky outside. The sound of frightened children could be heard inside the store.

  “That’s odd.” He said, “The emergency lights should have kicked on already.”

  A Kirkland’s employee could be heard in the darkness. “There has been a power failure. Everyone please remain calm and carefully exit the store.”

  As soon as the words were spoken the sound of glass breaking against the floor could be heard in another part of the store.

  “So sorry!” said a young woman’s voice within the darkness.

  “Ah, dammit!” Came gruff masculine voice near them as the sound of something heavy and metallic crashed to the ground. Allan and Jennifer put their arms out in front of them and felt around in the blackness of the store, slowly inching their way towards the exit. Someone lit a lighter in front of them and everyone followed the dim light that it emitted. Outside in the mall corridor hundreds of people were making their way toward the main exits. Allan was now really regretting coming to the mall that day, on a Saturday no less, the busiest day of the week for area malls. The sea of people converging at the main exits caused everyone around them to be at a near standstill as they waited for the line of bodies in front of them to inch forward.

  Suddenly a loud booming sound erupted outside.