by Mark Goodwin
Don stuck his thumbs in the front of his tactical vest. “If the virus shuts down the grid, that’s obviously bad news. But it’s not like having everyone’s accounts erased. The power companies can use generators long enough to wipe the computers and reinstall new software, right?”
Jack let his hand rest on the pistol at his hip. “I would think so. They should be able to fix that in a matter of weeks.”
Kate shook her head. “Not necessarily. Stuxnet, the virus used to take down Iran’s centrifuges, caused physical harm to the machinery. By attacking the PLCs, it caused the centrifuges to spin out of control and burn out the hardware. The centrifuges were useless after the exploit.
“We’re talking about high voltage equipment in this case. Transformers, reducing stations, all equipment which is vulnerable to a surge of enormous voltage. Just think about what would happen to your computer if it were struck by lightning. You wouldn’t have anything left to install new software on.”
Jack looked at Don. “Maybe she’s right. I know it’s bad out there, but if the grid goes dark, this will look like a day at the county fair compared to what’s coming.”
Don thought for a while.
Gavin pointed at the grocery store. “Even if the locusts don’t harm the hardware, I’m not sure Asheville and other small cities will survive another two weeks. Atlanta, Charlotte, New York, LA, those places may never be habitable again. The only reason DC is still standing is because the military is keeping the city on 16-hour lockdown. Places like this, they’re hanging on by a string.”
Deep furrows grew across Don’s forehead. “We can go check it out. But if it’s rough, we leave right away. We have some provisions. If we get into deeper trouble, we could end up going home empty-handed; or worse, not going home at all.”
“I think it’s the right move.” Kate turned to go back to the truck.
Fifteen minutes later, they were in the Biltmore Village. Kate called over the radio. “The commissary is on the left.”
Don replied, “We’ll keep driving past that church and take a left. We’ll park back behind the commissary and walk up with the cart.”
Kate heard a woman yelling. She turned to see a young girl with two small children trailing behind running in the middle of the road.
“Help! Stop them!” she cried.
Kate looked to see two young men in dark hoodies running with a loaded shopping cart, trying to cross the street between Jack’s van and the truck she was driving. “Not on my watch!”
She mashed the accelerator and closed the gap. The boys with the cart stopped short and tried to cut behind her. She threw the truck in reverse and backed up, lightly bumping one of the suspected thieves and knocking him to the pavement.
He jumped up from the road and slapped the rear of the truck. “What the heck, yo!”
Kate and Gavin both sprung from the truck, with weapons drawn.
“Hey, yo! We don’t want no problems.” The man put his hands up and backed away from the truck.
The other delinquent took off running, abandoning the cart and his friend.
“Yo, Joey! Wait up!” The one left behind stood, hands still up, looking at Kate with worried eyes.
“Go on, and don’t let me catch you around here again!” She motioned with her gun. The roughneck seized his opportunity and skedaddled, making haste to catch up with his less-than-loyal comrade.
The woman finally reached her lost cart. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” She motioned for her little boy and little girl to come stand by her side. “I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t come by.”
“Do you have a gun?” Kate asked.
“What? A gun? No.” The woman seemed confused by the question.
Kate pulled the extra 9mm magazines from the front of her vest. She handed the pistol to the woman along with the extra magazines. “It’s probably stolen. I took it off some pretty bad guys. So, if things ever get back to normal, you’ll want to get rid of it and buy yourself something else.”
The woman nodded and held the gun cautiously. She slipped it into her purse. “Thank you again. I wish I could repay you.”
“No need. Just take care of your family.”
Jack had backed up the van. He and Don stood watching from the side of the van. Jack called out, “Okay, we did our good deed for the day. Let’s get back to the mission.”
Hurriedly, Kate returned to the truck. Once inside, Gavin said, “I thought you liked that gun.”
“I did. But she needed it more than I do. I’ve got that .357 that Terry was using back at the cabin.”
“Less shot capacity, much slower reload time.” Gavin watched out the window.
“Yeah, but a lot more stopping power.” Kate followed Jack’s van to the parking lot of yet another ransacked shopping center. This one, however, had been much more upscale prior to the attacks. Everyone got out of the vehicles and huddled up.
Kate asked Don for his expert opinion. “What’s up with these hooligans stealing food from people? Everyone got the same $200 in emergency credits.”
Don replied, “If they can steal someone else’s food, they can use their money for drugs. With the ease of transfer, the emergency credits can buy heroine just the same as it buys pasta.
“Addicts have to eat the same as the rest of us. But once food is covered, they’re free to expend the remainder of their time and resources on getting high.
“The churches in Orlando provided handouts for the homeless. Some even did their laundry for them. Their intentions were good, but they dropped the ball on execution. They enabled the addicts to stay high. Now in the apocalypse, we have a glut of people who are used to living on handouts. Without the food from the churches, street addicts would have been forced into residential recovery programs in order to keep from starving.”
“Wouldn’t that have been terrible?” Gavin shook his head.
Jack added, “It’s hard to even say their intentions were good. The Bible says if a man will not work he should not eat. But most churches know better than the Bible these days.”
“If they wanted to make a difference they should have opened recovery programs.” Don removed his tactical vest. “But it’s easier to give someone a hot dog and walk away feeling like the Good Samaritan.”
“Some churches probably didn’t have the resources to open a facility like that,” Kate said.
“Then let them donate their time, money, and resources to larger Christian organizations that do,” Jack rebutted.
“I suppose you have a point.” Kate redirected the conversation to the mission at hand. “This FEMA tent is much smaller than the one at the mall. The commissary may have less of a selection.”
“The line is shorter and not as many people milling around. I’ll take that tradeoff any day.” Don clipped a concealed holster under his shirt.
Gavin helped Jack remove the cart from the back of the truck. “We’ll transfer $500 to each of your PayPal accounts.”
Kate took out her phone. “What’s the email address associated with your account, Don?”
He seemed hesitant to provide it.
“I’m not going to break into your account or anything.” Kate couldn’t figure out why he didn’t trust her.
“Okay.” He stepped forward and spoke softly as she entered it onto her phone. “It’s Don the cool cop at Gmail.”
Jack began cackling. “What? Don the cool cop? Are you kidding? That’s hilarious.”
“Okay, funny boy. Laugh it up.” Don waved his hands. “Don the cop was already taken. It was Mary’s idea. I never should have listened to her. But let’s just keep this amongst our little group of friends here.”
Jack’s face was turning red from laughter. “Oh, no, Mr. Cool Cop, this is going to be your new handle around Apple Blossom Acres.”
“Act like it doesn’t bother you, and he’ll let it die,” Kate advised, trying not to giggle.
“Nope! No way. I’ll never let this one go.” Jack place
d his tactical vest in the van and closed the door.
Don’s face looked like he’d just eaten a bad pickle. “Let’s get serious now so we can finish up and go home.”
“Yes sir, Officer Cool Cop.” Jack pushed the cart in the direction of the commissary.
“We’ll call you if we need help.” Don clipped the radio to his belt. “And don’t hesitate to give us a shout if you have any rough-looking characters lurking around back here.”
Kate tried to conceal her grin. “Okay, we’ll do.”
Time ticked by slowly, but the guys returned in less than an hour.
“You’re back already? What did you get?” Kate let her AK hang from the sling.
Jack pushed the cart. “Powdered milk, powdered eggs, powdered cheese, and military MREs.”
“You’re joking about the powdered cheese.” Gavin approached the cart.
“I wish I was.” Jack stopped by the tailgate of the Sierra. “Slim pickin’s in this tent.”
Don began loading boxes into the truck. “Low risk, low reward, but that’s just fine by me.”
Kate helped in transferring the cargo from the cart to the Sierra. She paused to read the ingredients in the powdered cheese. “What could you possibly use this for?”
Gavin took the can from her and inspected it. “Mac and cheese, you could make a quiche with the powdered eggs…”
“Gross!” Kate protested.
Gavin held the can back when she tried to snatch it from him. “Ah, don’t knock it until you try it. You could even make your famous cheese biscuits with it.”
Kate successfully wrestled the can back from Gavin and slid it in the truck. “Maybe it will be a good barter item for some real food at a later date.”
“That’s the spirit!” Jack handed her a case of MREs to place in the back.
With the supplies loaded into the bed of the truck, it was a tight fit to get the cart in. Kate dusted off her hands. “I don’t suppose anyone has seen a gas station open.”
“I asked the FEMA worker. He said the Department of Energy was going to start sending out tankers to the commissary locations, but that it would be capped at two gallons per person, per day.”
“Why even bother then?” Kate opened the door of the pickup.
“We’d use almost that much to make another trip out here to get it.” Jack headed for the door of the van.
Gavin added, “If six people came in the van, we’d get twelve gallons and use less than four on the round trip. If we netted eight gallons of gas, it could be a lifesaver when things get really bad.”
Kate had a hard time considering that things were not already really bad, but she knew Gavin was right. “Don, what do you think?”
“If the lights stay on long enough for us to come get more food, we can try to get gas as well. But I don’t think eight gallons is worth the security risk otherwise.” Don opened the passenger’s door to the van. “See y’all back at the ranch.”
“See you there.” Kate thought Don’s assessment sounded wise.
CHAPTER 6
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
“That’s not good.” Kate hit the brakes before barreling through the Waynesville intersection where the traffic signal had just gone out.
“That light went out this very second?” Gavin asked.
“It was green when Jack went through it.”
Gavin took a deep breath. “No, no, no. We needed to do so many things. I wanted to fill the buckets with water. We’ll have no pump. We only have about a week’s worth of firewood.”
“We have propane.” Kate looked both ways then pulled through.
“Yeah, but the thermostat is electric. We can’t use a gas furnace without electricity. Most everyone in the community has a chainsaw, but gas is in short supply. Cutting wood is no joke. That’s some seriously intense labor.”
“At least we can use the propane for cooking on the gas stove.”
He replied, “Until it runs out.”
Gavin was usually the one trying to calm Kate down. With him coming unglued, her anxiety level was rising fast. She couldn’t keep playing the calm one. “You’re frightening me, Gavin. I need you to tell me everything is going to be okay.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“That wasn’t convincing. You’re just saying that.”
“You told me to.”
Her heart began to race. “You think we won’t make it?”
He reached across the seat and put his hand on her leg. “We’ll get through this. It’s going to be unbelievably tough, but we will survive. And I mean that, from the bottom of my heart.”
She practiced her breathing routine. A slow deep breath in, hold it for four counts, a slow breath out. The paralyzing fear began to subside. “Hard is okay. I can handle hard, as long as it’s possible.”
She pulled in through the gate where Corey Cobb and his daughter, Annie, were still standing guard. Corey smiled and waved, oblivious to the new shade of horror about to befall his community and his home.
Kate followed Jack to his house and parked next to his work van. She quickly exited the truck. “Jack, see if your power is on.”
“Why?” He stepped out of the van. “What’s wrong?”
“The traffic light, after the overpass, it went dark right after you passed through it.”
Don was out and walked around the back of the van. “At least we had a successful supply run.”
Jack pressed the remote for his garage door. “Yep. It’s out. You think this is it?”
Kelly Russo came to the side door. “What’s it?”
Before he could answer, Rainey stuck her head out the door. “Dad, the lights are out in the house.”
Jack looked at Don. “Call Scott. I’m sure he’s figured out the power is out, but he probably doesn’t know why. He’ll want to come straight home when he hears this.”
Rainey held on to her mother’s arm. “Dad, what’s going on?”
Jack gave them a quick synopsis of the expected attack against the grid.
Kelly shook her head. “But this might not be it, right? We have power outages all the time. This is the mountains. A dead limb can drop on just the right line and take out half the county.”
Kate gave a counterfeit smile. “It’s possible.”
“But not likely.” Jack seemed to want to get on with reality. “Kelly, Rainey, I need you both to power off your phones. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to charge them again.”
“If we don’t have power, the cell towers won’t last long. What’s the point?” Rainey asked.
“Phones have other uses besides texts and calls. GPS for one thing. We may think of other important uses for them later.”
Kate said, “We need to let everyone know what’s happening.”
“We should unload the cargo first. You always want to stow away your life-saving commodities before you tell people the sky is falling in.” Gavin let down the tailgate.
Kate didn’t like the way he made light of the situation, but she took comfort knowing he wasn’t falling apart at the seams. “He’s right.”
Jack turned to go into his house. “I’ll open the garage manually from the inside.”
Once the door opened, Kelly and Rainey assisted Kate and the others with stacking the supplies in the garage.
“We need to get everyone in one place; tell them all together,” Jack said.
Kate passed a box from the van to Rainey. “Mr. Pritchard enjoys beating on that old pan. I’ll have him ring the bell. His yard is already set up as a meeting place.”
“Good idea,” Jack said.
Don returned to the group.
“What did Scott say?” inquired Kate.
�
��He’s on his way home.” Don assisted with the unloading efforts.
Half an hour later, the assembly had gathered in Pritchard’s backyard. This time, most everyone was present. Kate and Gavin stood side-by-side at the podium and explained what they believed had happened. The silence of shock and awe soon faded and the assembly began bombarding them with questions.
“How long will it take to get new transformers? What about solar? Couldn’t we still get power from a hydroelectric plant? Isn’t the government prepared for emergencies like this?”
Kate held up her hands. “Please. One at a time. But quickly, the source of the electricity isn’t the issue. The virus has likely disabled the transmission hardware. Getting new equipment could take years, even decades.”
Mrs. Dean stood up. “I was raised in Bryson City, down the road a piece. We didn’t have no electricity coming up. I was in my twenties before I had an indoor toilet. Folks in these mountains always did get by just fine without electricity. It’ll take some gettin’ used to, ‘specially for you young folk, but we’ll be alright. Don’t y’all fret none.”
Kate was mesmerized by the old widow’s words. The person she’d figured to be the most vulnerable out of the group had proven to be the most stalwart in spirit. Her encouragement transformed the mood of the entire gathering. Her example served to suddenly turn the tide in morale. Kate stuttered, not knowing what to add to Mrs. Dean’s wisdom. “Um, well, yes, we, we— can get through this.”
Pritchard held up his hand. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.”
Scott McDowell seemed to recognize that Kate and Gavin were out of things to say. He stepped forward to the podium, still wearing his deputy’s uniform. “Kate, Gavin, thank you for the analysis. Mr. Pritchard, Mrs. Dean, thank you for the courageous examples and revitalizing words. We can and we will get through this crisis. But, we’ll have to work together to do it. First and foremost, we need to upgrade our security. I’m going to need all able-bodied adult men to take part in keeping Apple Blossom Acres secure.
“The sheriff’s department is essentially non-existent from this point forward. We’re running on fumes so even if we wanted to work for free and had no families of our own to worry about, we’d have no way to respond to calls. The jail is running on a generator as of right now. It is also nearly tapped out. Once the generator gives out, the sheriff plans to release the inmates.”