Now that the traffic was at least crawling, Mitch realized he needed to look for an exit so he could find a bathroom. Out in the country, he could stop nearly anywhere along the side of the road if there wasn’t a convenient gas station or store. Here, even if he managed to get off the expressway, he would have to sit through stoplights to get to a store or restaurant that had both public restrooms and adequate parking. Then he would have to fight his way back the same way and merge into the traffic all over again. He couldn’t wait until he reached Slidell though, as he had no way of knowing how long that would take with so many drivers delayed by the accident. He nudged his way back into the right lane at the first opportunity and stayed there until he saw the billboard for a popular fast-food chain. It would cost him another half hour, but he figured he could get some breakfast while he was there and maybe by then the congestion would have cleared.
Sitting at the first stoplight off the exit, Mitch looked at his watch—nearly 8 a.m. already. He had dropped his mom and dad off at the airport at just before 6:00, and their flight was supposed to leave at 6:50. They were probably landing in Houston by now, and would soon make their connection on to Denver. His mom said she would call as soon as they were on the ground, and he expected to hear from her any minute. He turned down the music so he wouldn’t miss his ringtone and stared at the traffic light, willing it to switch from red to green. Like everything else to do with driving in the city, Mitch hated the red lights—especially the ones that took forever to change. He was fast losing his patience when he noticed it suddenly blink and go completely off. When it flashed back on a couple of times it was still red, and then it went out completely.
It took him a moment to realize it, but the radio in the truck went silent at the same time the traffic light blinked off. In the absence of the music, the engine seemed quieter than normal too, although at idle it was so quiet anyway it was hard to be sure it was running. He took his foot off the brake to inch forward and make sure, but nothing happened, not even when he gently tapped the accelerator. The engine had apparently gone dead, but that was a ridiculous idea considering the F-150 was literally brand new. His father had just traded for it less than two weeks ago. Mitch tried restarting it, expecting immediate results, but there was nothing—no sound of the motor turning over or even the click of the starter relay. Then he noticed that the digital indicators on the dash were out just like the radio. It appeared that the vehicle’s electrical system had completely failed, and he had no idea what could cause that unless it was something to do with the battery.
Nervous at the thought of being stalled in all that traffic, Mitch glanced at the light again, certain it would be green by now and surprised that people behind him weren’t already blasting their horns for him to get out of the way. But the light wasn’t green or red; it was still simply out, and no one around him seemed to be moving either. The truck still wouldn’t start when he tried it again, so Mitch pulled the hood latch under the dash and opened his door. As he stepped down from the cab and walked to the front of the truck, he was so focused on figuring out what was wrong with his dad’s truck that at first he didn’t notice the other drivers exiting their vehicles as well. He lifted the hood and looked for loose wires or other clues like smoke, but didn’t see or smell anything unusual under there. He tugged on the battery cable connections to make sure they were still tight, but they seemed fine. He was sure it was an electrical problem but he couldn’t find anything obviously amiss. By the time he’d checked everything he knew to look for, he finally noticed that many of the other people stopped in the street around him seemed to be having problems too.
A cab driver on the other side of the intersection slammed his hood shut and kicked his front tire as he cursed his stalled car. An exasperated woman standing behind the open car door of her SUV was pressing on her phone and shaking it as if she were trying to get it to work. The middle-aged man who’d been at the wheel of the Lexus sedan behind Mitch was walking towards him now, not to yell at him for blocking the road, but with a look of bewilderment on his face.
“Is yours dead too?” he asked.
“Yeah. Nothing’s working, not even the instrument panel, it’s like the battery just died.”
“Mine too. I wonder what in the heck is going on? How could so many people have the same problem at once?” The man was taking in the scene around the intersection, where most of the nearby vehicles were sitting still, with their hoods up. Mitch noticed that people were coming out of nearby businesses too and gathering on the sidewalks. It was then that he noticed that none of those buildings had lights visible through their windows, nor were any outside signs lit. The power was apparently off, and that explained the traffic light going out, but what did that have to do with his truck and all these other stalled vehicles in the street?
He was about to reply that it didn’t make any sense when the sound of a tremendous explosion from somewhere in the near distance caused him to flinch in surprise. The nearest buildings on that side of the street blocked the view in the direction from which the blast had seemed to come, but people across the street were pointing that way and screaming about a plane crash.
“It just flew straight into the ground!” one woman yelled.
Those that had seen it were all pointing to the west, which Mitch knew was the direction to the airport. Before he could give it further thought there was more yelling about another one and Mitch had just enough time to catch a glimpse of a jumbo jet in the skies to the north of them that appeared to be losing altitude at an alarming rate.
“It’s going down in the lake!” someone screamed.
Mitch knew the vast expanse of Lake Pontchartrain lay in that direction, but the buildings and elevated roadway hid any view of the water from where he stood. He stood mesmerized as the plane headed nearly straight down until it was lost from sight beyond the elevated I-610 Expressway he’d been traveling earlier. There was no doubt it crashed into the water somewhere far out in the lake, and he suddenly remembered he was waiting on a call from his mother and that he’d left his cell phone on the seat of the truck. He quickly jerked the door open and grabbed it. His mom should have called by now, and he might have missed her while he was standing outside the truck. But when he checked to see if there had been an incoming call, all he saw was a dead screen. The phone didn’t light up when he pressed the home button to wake it, and even when he tried to restart it nothing happened. Now he was really confused. What could possibly knock out the power and cause vehicles and phones to go dead at the same time? And did it whatever it was also cause those two planes to crash?
The thought made him sick with worry over his mom and dad, but he reminded himself their plane was hundreds of miles away approaching Houston, if it not already on the ground, which it probably was. Mitch checked his watch again, noting that the minute hand showed that it was now almost 10 minutes after 8:00. At least the watch was working. It was an old-school analog model rather than the high-tech digital variety most people wore, if they wore one at all in an age of smart phones in every pocket or purse.
Looking at the scene around him again, Mitch saw that many of the stranded commuters were virtually in a state of panic. Most had abandoned their stalled vehicles and were walking or running to the nearby buildings. He heard one man yelling something about a terrorist attack and saw the effect it had on the crowd. No doubt the sight of airplanes falling from the sky brought back memories of television footage Mitch had seen many years after that terrible day, when he was old enough to understand. But how could terrorists cause all of these cars and trucks to suddenly go dead? There had to be a reasonable explanation for it, and Mitch was determined to stay calm and try to figure it out. He spotted the man he’d first talked to from the car behind him and walked across the street to where he was standing on the sidewalk with his own phone in hand, apparently trying to get his to work again too. Mitch knew the man was as baffled as everyone else, but at least he was probably from around here and Mitch
was so out of his element that talking to a local seemed like the best thing he could do at the moment.
Two
April Gibbs opened her eyes and was instantly wide-awake at the sight of sunlight streaming through her bedroom window. She jumped up in disbelief, furious because she had to be at work by 8:30 and it had to be after 8:00 already. Where was David and why didn’t he wake her up at seven like he was supposed to? She stormed out of the bedroom calling his name but got no response. He wasn’t in the apartment and looking out the front window, she saw that her car wasn’t parked out front either.
April went back to the bedroom for her phone, yanking it free of the charger before heading to the bathroom. She was going to call David Greene and let him have it. How could anyone nearly 20-years-old be so irresponsible? And why had she been stupid enough to have a child with him? David had to be at work this morning too, and it was nearly a two-hour drive from Hattiesburg to New Orleans. He had her car because once again, his “classic” Mustang wasn’t running, but he had promised to be home with their daughter no later than seven.
April pressed the home button on her phone to wake it up. When nothing happened she assumed it had powered down, even though she never turned it off intentionally. She knew it had a full charge because it had been plugged in all night. But try as she might, she couldn’t get the display to come on. She tried rebooting it to no avail. Then she shook it vigorously and tapped it hard against the heel of her palm. Nothing seemed to jar it back to life. Great! Now I’m not only going to be late for work, I can’t even call in and let Vanessa know!
April flipped the switch to the bathroom light but nothing happened. The light didn’t come on. Really? Could so many different little things really conspire against her in one freakin’ morning? She made her way to the kitchen to get a bulb out of the cabinet over the sink and was surprised to discover that the light in there wasn’t working either. It didn’t seem possible that two bulbs in two separate rooms could burn out simultaneously, so she began to suspect something else was up even before she confirmed it by glancing at the digital clock on the stove and seeing that it too was out. She opened the fridge and found it dark inside. So, the power went out overnight. That could explain why her phone was dead. She had run it nearly down the night before playing music, so if the charger wasn’t getting power while she slept the battery could have completely drained before morning. Now she had no way to charge it, since she didn’t even have her car and the 12-volt charger she always kept in the console. She would have to catch a cab to get to work, but without the phone she couldn’t even call one. She and David didn’t have a landline in the little apartment because they didn’t see a need for it and couldn’t afford another utility bill anyway.
It made no sense that the power would go out in perfectly good weather, so April figured it wasn’t storm related, but probably some kind of maintenance issue. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. She had to get to work and now. Whenever David finally got back he was going to have to take Kimberly to daycare before he could go to his own job. She should have known better than to let him take her car out of town on a work night, but there hadn’t been much of a choice. David’s parents had been keeping Kimberly for the weekend, and she had been unable to go and pick her up Monday morning, her normal day off, because a coworker called in sick and she had a class to attend that evening. So Kimberly got an extra night with her grandma and grandpa and David got a Monday night road trip in April’s car. If she knew David, he’d probably gone out to look up some of his old high school buddies as soon as Kimberly was put to bed. That would explain why he’d slept in and neglected to even call her, much less make it back to New Orleans before she had to leave for work. He was going to get a piece of her mind when she got home tonight, that was for sure. April had about enough of David Greene already, and she doubted they were going to make it much longer. Knowing this made her glad they hadn’t officially tied the knot. They’d planned to at one time, but the longer they were together the less it seemed like a good idea. He had come into her life at a vulnerable time, shortly after she lost her mother after already losing her father a few years before. David had been kind and caring then, and they seemed to have a lot in common until they actually started living together. But he was immature and not ready for the responsibilities of fatherhood. April figured she would end up raising Kimberly alone, and she was prepared to do it if that was the way it worked out.
She finished dressing and went back to the kitchen to leave a note for him. She desperately needed a cup of coffee, but of course, the coffee maker was useless too and it would have to wait until she got to work. She locked the door and descended the steps to the sidewalk to get around the railing separating their half of the converted duplex from the neighbor’s. Mrs. Landry was an elderly widow who was usually home, and always up early, so April didn’t hesitate to knock on her door to ask if she could use her landline. She needed to call a cab and she needed to do it soon. She was already going to be late, and she couldn’t afford to get fired. Mrs. Landry was hard of hearing, so April pounded louder to get her to the door.
“It’s not working, sweetie,” the elderly woman said when she finally opened it and heard April’s request. “I tried to call my sister, Julie in Slidell to see if their power was out on the North Shore too, and I couldn’t get a dial tone. The power and the phone lines are both out, so it seems.”
“Well rats! I don’t know how I’m going to get to work then. David’s got my car and he was supposed to be back early this morning with Kimberly, but I haven’t seen or heard from him.”
“He may have a problem with the car, sweetie. Look over there across the street at Jennifer’s house. I heard her slamming doors earlier and looked out to see that she couldn’t seem to get her car started. The hood’s been up for half an hour and she’s gone back inside. And I haven’t seen any cars drive by since the power went off.”
That kind of coincidence didn’t mean much to April, but she was curious to know when the blackout happened. “You mean it went off sometime after you got up this morning?”
“Oh yes, dear. It was just a few minutes before eight. It hasn’t been all that long.”
“That’s odd,” April said. “I figured it happened right after I went to bed, because my iPhone was completely dead when I got up. But if the power was still on all night, it should have gotten a full charge long before it went out.”
“I don’t know much about those things, but I do know that it’s unusual for the old-fashioned telephones like mine to go out. That never happens in a power outage.”
“I’m going to walk over there and see what’s going on with Jennifer’s car and see if she knows anything about all this. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”
April was beyond frustrated and getting worried too. On the one hand, she was upset thinking David had stayed out late and overslept this morning, but now she wondered if his being late was somehow related to what was going on here. Either way, she was stranded with no way to get to work and she couldn’t call him to check on Kimberly.
She didn’t really know Jennifer, but the 30-something divorcee that lived alone in the house across the street always seemed friendly enough, waving whenever she saw April pushing Kimberly along the sidewalk in her stroller. When she came to the door, Jennifer seemed glad to see her, as if she thought April might have some answers. When April told her she was just as baffled as everyone else, Jennifer walked out to the white Buick with her to show her what it was doing. The interior lights still came on when she opened the door, but turning the key did nothing. The starter didn’t spin and April didn’t even hear the small humming sound that David had told her was the fuel pump when she asked him about it in her own car.
“I’ve never had a problem with this car since I’ve owned it,” Jennifer said. “It’s always been serviced at the dealership where I bought it and it’s still under warranty. I would call them to come pick it up, but there’s no way to call. I
guess I’ll just have to wait until the power and phones come back on.”
April heard what she was saying, but she was busy scanning what she could see of the rest of the neighborhood at the same time. Something seemed really weird, and it took her a minute to realize that it was the quiet. She had never heard the city so quiet. The background noise of traffic that could normally be heard from every direction was gone. The underlying hum of other unseen machinery and power lines and who knew what else was missing too. Those sounds were all replaced by the voices of people talking or calling out to each other, the opening and closing of doors and birdcalls and squirrel chatter from the branches overhead that shaded the street. Something really strange was going on, and April was beginning to sense it was more than just a power outage, especially when she learned that Jennifer’s cell phone was as dead as her own.
“It was working when I got up at my usual time around 6:30. I had my coffee while I was reading for a few minutes, and it was still working the last time I looked at it before I went to get a shower before work. The lights went out while I was in there, and when I came out to dry off, I discovered the phone was dead too. That was before I even tried to start the car. What could make our cell phones go out like that?”
“I don’t know,” April said, “but I’m going to take a walk around the block and ask around. There’s got to be someone who might know.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I’d go with you but I’d probably just slow you down. Please tell me if you find out anything though.”
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