by Ellis, Tara
They ran, but it wasn’t fast enough. Before they could reach the other side, an explosion rocked the overpass, throwing Danny off balance and knocking her into Sam. Gasping, she watched as he sprawled on the pavement in front of her and the air around them filled with the black smoke.
Coughing, Danny pulled her T-shirt up over her face and lunged blindly for Sam. Dragging him to his feet, she then shoved him forward when he hesitated. “Move, Sam! Come on, the oil car went up.”
Eyes watering from the acrid fumes, Danny took Sam’s hand and led him through the maze of mangled vehicles. Thousands of cars going over sixty miles per hour and losing power at once had resulted in one massive domino effect of accidents. The ground shuddered again as another train car went up, compelling them to go even faster. Once clear of the oily smoke, Danny looked back at Sam but didn’t stop moving.
“Thanks,” he muttered, wiping at his running eyes and nose. His face was smeared with black soot and his teeth looked exceptionally white when he grinned at her. Sam pulled his hand out of her grasp and moved up to Danny’s side. “Guess I got my bell—”
A large man slammed into them both without warning.
“Hey!” Danny shouted as the stranger shoved them both roughly aside, causing a fresh wave of pain from her injured arm.
“Let him go,” Sam hissed, rubbing at his ribs. “People are starting to lose it, Danny.”
“Starting?” Danny retorted, throwing her hands up in the air.
“Give it a couple more days,” Sam said. “There’ll be plenty who will be willing to kill you for the bottle of water in your backpack. Actually, you should put it inside, so no one can see it.” He looked around nervously, as if he expected a homicidal water thief to appear at any moment.
Danny wanted to believe he was exaggerating, but then recalled the man who’d attacked her, just as the distinct sound of rapid gunfire erupted nearby, making her jump. The retort dying on her lips, she wordlessly slid her backpack off and removed the water bottle from the mesh side pocket with shaky hands. Once it was safely concealed, she began moving faster in spite of her rubbery legs. They’d been walking for two hours. It felt like days.
“There. That’s the exit we want.” Sam was holding the map out and pointing at the next green sign, announcing the Interstate 15 interchange.
Danny glanced at the older man, thankful again that he had ended up as her flight buddy. The carnage they’d seen so far was enough to rattle even her, but he appeared to be taking it all in stride. She knew his response could be deceptive and it might all catch up to him eventually, even if so far he’d been strictly fight and no flight. Attacking this head-on was the only way they were going to come out of it unscathed.
“Come on, Ally!”
The woman’s voice made Danny stop. She spotted her leaning against the burnt-out shell of a nearby car. She was holding a small child in her arms and yelling at a young girl sitting on the ground. “I know you’re tired, but we have to get to the hospital.”
While Danny had rendered some minor first aid to a few people along the way, she’d forced herself to move past the dead and dying. She’d trained enough for mass casualty incidents to know that realistically, there wasn’t anything she could do for anyone who needed something beyond basic intervention. The young girl in her mother’s arms, however, didn’t look that bad.
Danny moved around a car in between them and approached the mother. “You really should avoid going into the city. It’s too dangerous.”
“Do you know what happened? How else are we going to get help?” The woman looked at Danny with glazed eyes. “My phone doesn’t work.”
Danny shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, I don’t know, beyond nothing electronic works anymore and the city is basically falling apart. Did your daughter hit her head?” The little girl was awake and looked coherent.
“Yes. We were in an accident. I have to get her to the hospital.” The woman began to walk away.
“You should go home!” Danny called after her, knowing what they were about to face on the city streets.
The older girl gave Danny a pleading look before running after her mother and she knew it was a face that would likely haunt her dreams. Watching them walk away, she allowed herself to really see the landscape that surrounded them. Other people staggered along the road, many of them injured. Unmoving figures occupied too many mangled cars among the lingering smoke and debris. Beyond the cement ribbons of roadways, a thick haze had settled over the city, heralding the presence of countless fires.
The small stretch of storefronts they’d encountered was only a small piece of a much larger scene. The looters were already running freely and it didn’t appear that any emergency services were responding, including the police. Gunshots were becoming more frequent and as twilight loomed, a heavy foreboding permeated it all.
Danny turned back to the north and took a good look at the mountains in the distance. Now that they had a good line-of-sight of where they were headed, she was relieved to see the skies were clearer up ahead and the cars were spaced farther apart. However, it drove home another reality. “No one’s coming.”
Sam moved past her and kept walking, his sense of urgency never lacking. “I thought we already determined that.”
“No,” Danny pressed, her voice rising as she kept pace with him. “I mean beyond the city. Sam—” She grabbed his arm and forced him to stop and face her. “It’s been what, going on six hours since this all started? Salt Lake is a major city and it’s literally collapsing. Planes fell from the sky, trains derailed, buildings are on fire, and there are thousands of car wrecks. I’d guess tens of thousands of people are dead, yet there hasn’t been any sign of outside help.” She released her vise-like grip on Sam’s arm and pointed to the sky and then the distant mountains. “No helicopters, no incoming vehicles. There’s only one explanation for it.”
Sam didn’t look surprised by her observation and after hanging his head in acknowledgement, began walking again. “It’s further confirmation of a massive event. There hasn’t been a single plane fly overhead and I’m guessing it’s likely impacted our whole hemisphere to a certain degree.”
“You mentioned the world earlier,” Danny said, her anxiety growing again. She watched warily as two men passed them, and then wiped at the sweat on her forehead. It was a hot day, and the intense brightness that still lingered had given her a headache. She was slightly sunburned in spite of her dark complexion. She tried not to think about that.
“It’s all speculation at this point,” Sam said. “But I think it’s safe to assume that we’re on our own to get home.”
“You really think we’re going to have to walk all the way to Helena?” Danny tried to wrap her brain around the idea. “It’s got to be close to five hundred miles!”
“Personally, I’d prefer to find a good bike,” Sam answered. “We’d cover a lot more miles per day that way.”
“Sam!” Danny yelled.
Sam must have picked up on the hysteria in her voice because he finally stopped and actually met her eyes. Danny took a deep breath and tried to brace herself. “How about you let me in on your speculation and tell me what you think this is?”
“A gamma ray burst.”
Danny blinked. He’d mentioned something about that before, at the airport, but she had no idea what the man was talking about. “Okay, you said earlier this is something that originates in space?”
Sam nodded. “Do you know what a supernova is?”
“A, umm, star that explodes?”
“Right!” Sam seemed impressed. “Well, when either a giant supernova explodes or two binary stars collide, it can create a black hole. When that happens, under certain circumstances a gamma ray beam will burst out either side, basically cramming all of that energy into twin beams of energy that race across the universe.”
“The universe?” Danny struggled to comprehend how that would play out. “We’re in a galaxy, right? And there’s like, millions of gal
axies floating around in the universe.”
“Billions,” Sam corrected. “But yes. So you can imagine the likelihood of this small beam ever encountering the Earth. Unless one was born in our own galaxy. There were two such systems with the potential to do just that and both are around eight thousand light-years away. Close, by space standards.”
“And you think that’s what the light was? A gamma ray beam from a nearby supernova explosion?”
“Or binary star collision,” Sam said. “Yes. I think it’s the only rational explanation for everything that’s happened.”
“Gamma radiation,” Danny muttered. Her stomach grew cold and she tilted her head at Sam in an almost accusatory manner. “Wouldn’t that be lethal?”
“If I’m right, the impact was from the south, southeast,” Sam said in response, skirting the real question. “It wasn’t a direct hit over us by any means. If it was, we’d already be dead. The beam probably ripped right through the ozone layer and likely destroyed a large percentage of it. That allowed more of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun through, which is what burned us.” Although Sam’s Hispanic skin was darker than Danny’s, he was still sporting a mild burn. “The beam itself is composed primarily of gamma radiation and X-rays. Our atmosphere normally absorbs those types of radiation, but a close gamma ray would get through. The massive EMP was evidence of that.”
Danny looked above them with a new sense of horror.
“The implications of this are massive,” Sam said more gently. “So I think we need to focus on what we can control right now, which is getting north as fast as we can. And you know better than I do that you’re probably going to end up needing some antibiotics for that arm.”
Danny forced herself to move, following Sam though her vision was blurred by tears that she hadn’t allowed to fall yet. More gunshots rang out as she rubbed at her injured arm and wrestled with the fact that he was right.
“That’s what we need to worry about at the moment,” Sam urged while pointing back at the city. “Have you heard about the seventy-two-hour theory?”
Danny was still thinking about radiation poisoning and the headache she was fighting, but it sounded familiar. “I think I have,” she answered. “In one of the natural disaster courses I took. Do you mean how it’ll take an average of seventy-two hours for infrastructure to be restored?”
Sam gave one quick shake of his head. “No. If there’s enough of us left, rebuilding the basics will take years. I’m referring to studies that indicate how society and the laws and morals that govern us will fall apart within three days of being without power.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?” Danny asked.
“Think about it.”
“I am thinking about it,” Danny retorted. Her pain and weariness were catching up and she couldn’t avoid the obvious conversation anymore. “Sam, you haven’t said anything about your wife. She’s still back in Florida?”
Sam stopped then, and when he turned to Danny, she was shocked by the utter devastation she saw. “I haven’t stopped thinking about her since the second that flash first appeared. But there isn’t anything I can do for her.” His voice caught and he cleared his throat. “She’d want me to do whatever it took to stay alive, and if she survived the initial hit, then that’s what I’d expect from her, too.”
He turned away and Danny knew better than to respond. There was nothing to say. They skirted an empty school bus and she wondered where all of the children had gone. Beyond it there were finally some open expanses empty of wrecked vehicles. With the sun starting to dip behind the looming mountains to the west, she was glad to see only a few people walking on the stretch of freeway with them.
Looking again at the mountains, a chill coursed through Danny as she thought of the approaching night. It was going to be the darkest hours of her life.
Chapter 10
CHLOE
Lewis and Clark National Forest, Central Montana
“I found it! It’s over here!” Hicks shouted, his voice echoing up the hillside and to the group of hikers that were spread out on the trail.
Chloe could have cried with relief. They’d been trekking through the woods at breakneck speed for at least seven hours, ever since the flash. Her legs burned and she was certain she had blisters on top of blisters. They weren’t supposed to reach the supply point until the next morning, but Bishop was adamant they get there as soon as possible. Chloe agreed, although she’d stopped feeling her legs a few miles ago.
“How much longer?” Trevor whined as they moved single-file off the official trail and onto the less obvious one.
Ripley pushed him ahead of her, using his huge pack to steer him. “Mush, mush! Only a tenth of a mile. We chose this logging road because it was so close to the trail.”
“I can’t wait to sit down,” Crissy said from behind Chloe. “And the best part is that we’re getting off this mountain three days early!”
“If the Jeep works,” Chloe reminded her friend. Despite her pessimism, she had to admit that the thought of hearing the engine turn over, the radio playing, and lights shining was what had kept her moving the last couple of hours.
“It’ll work,” Ripley stated, looking back at Chloe. “I’ve had the Jeep for over five years and it’s never failed me yet!”
There was a festive air now that they were on the last stretch, with the hope of reaching a working vehicle. Caught up in the moment, Chloe smiled back at Ripley and nodded reassuringly at her.
“Ha!” Ripley shouted, and clapped her hands together. “There it is. I knew I’d get you to smile before the end of the day!” Turning around she jogged up the trail, passing Trevor and catching up to Hicks.
“Seriously?” Chloe called to the counselor’s back. “In the middle of all of this, you’re keeping score?”
“I’m going to get there first!” Ben yelled as he ran down the trail, nearly forcing Chloe into a tree. “And I call dibs on the Jeep. I get to go home first! I gotta get home before the Russians reach us!”
It was all Chloe could do not to stick her foot out and send the brat sprawling. The amount of energy he still had defied all logic, but even he had to eventually hit a wall and then he’d finally shut up. Better to let him run it out.
Jason was suddenly at Chloe’s elbow and invading her personal space as he leaned in close to her ear. “I’ll bet I could make you smile, too.”
Relieved to finally have an outlet for her growing frustrations, Chloe turned into the misled teen and used his own momentum to throw him off balance. Sticking a foot behind him, she put a shoulder into his chest and shoved, making him sit down hard in the middle of the trail.
“Hey!” Jason glared up at Chloe and struggled to get to his feet, the large pack making it difficult.
Bishop was suddenly there, yanking the smaller boy up by his straps. “Walk behind me.”
“But—”
“You’ll walk behind me, Jason,” Bishop ordered, not leaving any room for argument.
Crissy grabbed Chloe’s arm and pulled her along, giggling. Chloe gave Jason a parting glare and then moved forward on legs that protested with fresh pain after stopping for less than a minute. She really hoped the Jeep worked, because she didn’t think she’d be able to move in the morning.
While the other kids seemed content with acting like nothing more unusual than a storm had happened, it was obvious to Chloe that the adults were freaked out. It was so much easier to believe it was all random coincidence, but then she’d remember the image that was literally burned into her vision. Whatever it had been, it was massive. And powerful enough to wipe out everything electronic they had.
“We made it!” Ripley yelled out happily.
By the time the rest of them emerged onto the overgrown dirt logging road, Ripley had her keys out and was attempting to open the vehicle. “It’s not working.” The tone of her voice said it all.
Hicks grabbed the fob from her hand and pressed all of the buttons before toss
ing it back at her. “Don’t you have an actual key?”
“There should be one inside the remote,” Bishop said. “So long as it’s the one that came with the Jeep?”
Ripley’s face fell. “Oh, no. I lost the original and had to order a replacement.”
The sound of crashing glass made them all jump and Chloe was shocked to see Hicks had thrown a good-sized rock through the passenger window.
“What?” he shrugged at Ripley. “We’ve got to get in and unless you know a good locksmith out here, I don’t see any other options.” He reached his hand in and opened the door without waiting for a reply.
Chloe stood off to the side with Crissy, her stomach clenching painfully. The automatic locks not working wasn’t a good sign. She looked around at the darkening woods and wondered what they would do if the Jeep didn’t work. It was obvious that the road was rarely used, and according to Bishop, wasn’t even on most maps. The area must have been cut well over thirty years ago, because the trees closest to the road were mature.
Hicks was sitting in the driver’s seat, slamming his hands on the steering wheel. “The radio won’t even work!”
So much for my plans, Chloe thought.
“Pop the hood,” Bishop directed, moving around to the front of the vehicle.
Crissy and Chloe dropped their heavy packs on the ground and then joined everyone else to stare uselessly at the machinery.
“Whoa,” Ben hooted. “Check out that battery! It’s like Mount St. Helen’s on acid.” He laughed at his own joke before running off.
But he was right. Chloe leaned in closer to get a better look. The battery acid had boiled over, spilling down the sides of the battery and forming a thick white foam on everything around it. There were even flecks of white scattered on the underside of the hood.
“All the fuses are blown,” Hicks said with disgust, throwing a handful of small blue chips onto the ground. “We’re stuck.”
“We start walking then.” Jason was already going for his pack. “This road has to lead somewhere.”