Blackout: Book 0

by Alexandria Clarke

  He eyed the device. “That’s a radio?”

  “Sure is. You wanted one, right? You did hold a gun to my head for it.”

  The teenager hesitated then said, “I have to find my mom. This is the only way to do it.”

  “Take it,” I said, nudging the radio toward him with my foot. “You’ll have to find a working tower. I heard a broadcast last night from Cherry Creek, so you might be in luck. Be gentle though. It’s fragile.”

  He stretched out along the floor to grab the radio, his eyes never leaving me as I stood over it. “Thanks.”

  “Now the magazine.”

  The kid reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a black rectangle, and slid it across the floor. I stopped it beneath the toe of my boot and bent down to pick it up.

  “Did you ever read Wonder Woman?” I asked.

  “Never read much at all.”

  “The Amazons had a saying,” I told him. “Don’t kill if you can wound, don’t wound if you can subdue, don’t subdue if you can pacify, and don’t raise your hand at all until you’ve first extended it.” I gestured toward the crystal radio in his hand. “If you’d asked, I would’ve given it to you. Remember that for next time.”

  I left before he could reply, this time heading toward the front door through the control room. Outside, Jacob had gotten off his bike to pace nervously back and forth in front of the station’s windows. Nita picked at the rust on her handlebars, staring blankly at the ground.

  “Finally!” he said when I emerged. “What took you so long? I was about to come in there myself. Did you get what you needed?”

  I held up the bag of trophies. “Yeah, let’s go.”

  We continued on, turning onto the street that led up to the nicer block of apartment buildings in the area. The sun worked its way higher. It warmed my back, bringing a layer of sweat to the surface of my skin, but the chilly wind made me clammy and cold. My nose ran, and my eyes streamed constantly. I had to keep wiping my face on my sleeve, which grew damper and damper the farther we rode. Finally, we made it to the Masons’ building, but we had to wait for the doorman to let us into the lobby since Jacob’s spare key card had been rendered useless.

  “I can’t believe you’re at work today, Frank,” Jacob said, clapping the doorman on his shoulder. “Shouldn’t you have had the day off?”

  “I worked the night shift,” Frank replied as he helped Jacob steer the tricky wagon across the lobby. “I got stuck here.”

  “Lucky for us,” Jacob said. “Listen, do you think you could keep our bikes and supplies in the store room for us? I’m not keen on the idea of lugging everything up twelve flights of stairs.”

  Frank made a gruff noise of affirmation, taking mine and Nita’s bike at the same time to wheel out of sight behind the front desk. Part of me felt a twinge of insecurity. Sure, Frank had been working in the building since Jacob was a kid, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t take advantage of us. It would be easy for him to ride off on Jacob’s bike with the water and our backpacks.

  “I’ll stay down here,” I said.

  “Why?” Jacob asked. “We’re going to need you. If you thought I couldn’t pack a bag, wait until you see my parents. Come on. Thanks, Frank.”

  I had no other choice but to leave Frank with our things and followed Jacob and Nita up the stairs. It was slow going. We were all tired from the night before, and the lack of breakfast was starting to get to us. On the seventh floor, my legs started to burn while Jacob marched upward like a toy soldier, all of his time at the gym paying off. By the time we reached the twelfth floor, I felt as if my legs might turn to jelly, and if the wobble in Nita’s step was any indication, she felt the same way. Jacob knocked on the door to his family’s suite, which occupied the entire floor. A second later, it swung open.

  “Jacob!”

  My boyfriend’s mother, Penny, was a tall, lean blonde with arms and legs sculpted like a greek goddess from hours of yoga and kickboxing. She always smelled slightly of salon chemicals and Chanel Number Five. She was also a good twenty years younger than Jove, Jacob’s father. When Jacob had first introduced me to his parents, I’d wondered if Penny was his real mother. Here was a woman accustomed to luxury, married off to an older guy with a lot of money to feed her shopping addiction. That had been my first impression of her, and while the details had not changed, I’d learned that there was no kinder or more giving soul.

  “Oh, I’m so glad the two of you are okay!” she said, unwrapping herself from Jacob to throw a hug at me as well. She noticed Nita behind me. “And who do we have here?”

  I held my breath until she let go to avoid the tidal wave of perfume then gestured for Nita to come inside. “This is our friend, Nita. She lives in our building.”

  “Wonderful!” Penny said, beaming. “Would you three like some breakfast? Leti is grilling on the balcony.”

  She ushered us through the suite. The place was so large that it could have fit four of our own apartment in it. This was where Jacob had grown up, high above the city in a suite that looked more like it belonged on the top floor of a New York City skyscraper than in Denver. It had four bedrooms and an office. Priceless artwork hung on the walls. The furniture was bright white, a sign that the family did not anticipate having to clean the pristine fabric themselves. It was so radically different from the setting of my own upbringing that I didn’t feel comfortable visiting the Masons. I didn’t belong in a place like this, with its shining tile floors and sweeping ceilings, but Jacob dragged me here once a week for dinner with his family anyway.

  Leti was the Masons’ combined cook and maid. Like Frank, she had never made it home the night before. That was lucky for the Masons. I doubted that they had ever cooked a meal on their own. Jove, Jacob’s father, supervised Leti as she flipped bacon like a pro on the gas grill. He was a large, rotund man, over six feet tall, with a head of curly white hair that blended in with a matching beard. He lived up to his name. With his holier-than-thou demeanor and quick temper, all he needed was a lightning bolt to complete the picture.

  “You’re going to burn it,” Jove was saying to Leti.

  “Mister Mason, please, the grease—”

  “I’m just saying,” Jove interrupted. “The bacon should come off. Ow!”

  A shower of grease popped up from the frying pan on the stove and splattered across Jove’s forearm. As he swiped a dish towel from Leti’s shoulder to wipe the hot oil away from his skin, a tiny smile lifted her lips before she stowed it away again. I turned a laugh into a hacking cough, and Jove glanced up.

  “Jacob, my boy,” he said, shaking hands with his son. He completely ignored me. “You made it.”

  “Hi, Dad.” Jacob shifted me forward. “Georgie’s here too. And this is Nita, one of our friends.”

  “Mm-hmm. Do you want breakfast?”

  “Is there enough for all of us?” Jacob asked.

  “Of course there is!” Penny answered for her husband. She steered Jove inside. “Come on, honey. Have a seat at the table. I’ll make your plate.”

  I thanked Leti as she finished up the bacon and arranged the breakfast on a ceramic plate for me, then waited for Jacob and Nita before going inside. I sure as hell wasn’t going to eat breakfast with Jove alone. I maneuvered myself to put both Jacob and Nita between me and Jove. Jacob’s father and I had never really gotten along, but we pushed through by avoiding each other as much as possible.

  “Where’s Pippa?” Jacob asked as he settled in next to me and started eating. “Shouldn’t she have something to eat?”

  “She’s still at school,” Jove replied, biting into his buttery roll and showering the glass table with bread crumbs.

  Jacob’s fork clattered against his plate. “She is? Why didn’t you go get her?”

  “Have you been living under a rock, son? Our cars don’t work, and even if they did, the traffic down there is ridiculous.”

  “Dad, she’s pregnant!”

  “Don’t remind me.”

&nbs
p; Penny stepped in from the balcony with Leti, holding two plates. She placed them both on the table. “Sit down and eat, Leti. You deserve it. Jacob, honey, I’m sure Pippa is fine. Saint Mark’s is probably well-prepared for something like this.”

  “It’s a private school, not a fort, Mom,” Jacob said, his bacon and eggs going cold. “We have to go find her. She could be in trouble.”

  “She’s the one who wanted to keep going to school after all of this.” Jove circled a hand around his own ample stomach. “If she agreed to be home-schooled like I wanted—”

  “Pippa is responsible for her own decisions, Jove,” Penny said.

  “Yes, so she’s responsible for this one,” he replied. “She can wait this out at the school. When the power comes back on and the police clear off the roads, we’ll go pick her up.”

  I swished orange juice around in my mouth, letting the tang against my taste buds wake me up. It wasn’t quite cold enough, but the Masons’ gigantic stainless steel fridge had at least maintained its temperature long enough to keep the juice from spoiling. “Sir, I hate to break it to you, but the power isn’t going to come back on,” I said to Jove. “The blackout was from an EMP.”

  “A what now?”

  “An electromagnetic pulse—”

  Jacob squeezed my thigh under the table, a silent request to stop talking.

  Jove peered at me from across the table, one eye squinting more than the other. “You know, I listen to your radio show, Georgiana. It boggles my mind that you can spread such inane propaganda like that. It shouldn’t be legal.”

  “It’s not propaganda—”

  “Jacob’s told me all about your little doomsday prophecies,” Jove went on as if I hadn’t spoken at all. “He might entertain them, but I won’t.”

  “Dad,” Jacob warned. His fingers tightened on my leg, but I wished he would let go. “Stop talking.”

  “This is my house!”

  His fist fell upon the table, causing the plates to clatter against the glass. A sausage rolled off of Nita’s plate and onto her lap. Penny cleared her throat, and Jove fell silent at once. The color drained from his ruddy face as he made eye contact with his wife.

  “Dear,” she said. “Perhaps we might want to consider listening to what the kids have to say. You have to admit it. This is all a bit funny.”

  “We’re leaving the city,” Jacob announced. “We’re heading up into the mountains where it’s safe, and I want you to come with us.”

  Jove barked out a laugh. “Come with you? Where are you going? What supplies do you have? How are we supposed to get into the mountains without a car? Goddamn it, Jacob, I thought you were a smart kid. What the hell happened to you?”

  My face burned as the unspoken answer weighed down the dining room. I happened to Jacob. I was the one who’d convinced him to leave town. I had agreed to stop by his parents’ house. Granted, I cared more about Penny and Pippa than I did for Jove, but he was Jacob’s father, so I naturally had to include him. Now Jove was being an ass, as usual, and Pippa wasn’t here, further stunting our progress.

  “We should go get Pippa,” I said, pushing my plate away from me. I’d lost my appetite. “She needs to be with her family, especially now.”

  Nita rose with me as I left the table and escaped into Jacob’s old bedroom. She closed the door behind her, anticipating my explosion.

  “I should have known,” I said, pacing between Jacob’s twin-sized bed and the chin-up bar mounted to the wall. “I should have known better than to come here. That man—”

  “Georgie, relax,” Nita said. “How far is Pippa’s school?”

  “Ten blocks maybe?”

  “That’s not far,” she assured me. “You and Jacob can go get here. I’ll stay here with his parents and get them ready to go.”

  I flopped down onto Jacob’s old bed and pressed my face into the pillows. Somehow, they still smelled like him even though he hadn’t slept here in years. “They don’t even want to go!”

  “I’ll convince them,” Nita said. “Believe me, I can be very persuasive. Don’t worry, okay? By the time you get back with Pippa, I’ll have them ready to get out the door.”

  I peeked out from beneath the pillow. “Really?”

  She sat down on the bed next to me. “I trust you, okay? Jacob’s dad may be boneheaded, but I’m not stupid enough to ignore the signs. We’re getting out of here, and if Jove wants to stay behind, I say we let him.”

  Someone knocked on the door. “Georgie? Nita? It’s me.”

  “Come in,” Nita called.

  Jacob slipped inside. “I’m sorry about that. My dad—he’s an idiot. Just ignore him. I already told him that we’re going to go get Pippa no matter what. I have to know that she’s okay. Are you ready to head out?”

  I got up from the bed. “Boy, am I ever.”

  “You coming, Nita?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve got a mission here.”

  So it was just Jacob and I that braved the twelve flights downstairs again and headed out into the cold. We left the bikes with Frank since Pippa wouldn’t be able to ride one on her own anyway. Jacob held my hand as we walked through the streets, though it was more for his comfort than mine. What Jove had said irked me, and the thought that Jacob was talking to his parents about me behind my back didn’t sit well. We were engaged, for Pete’s sake. Jove and Penny were going to be my in-laws. Penny, I didn’t mind, but I had a feeling that Christmases with the Masons were going to be really fun with Jove around.

  The streets weren’t getting any better. In fact, it was getting worse. Multiple times, Jacob pulled me down behind a car or forced us to duck into an alley in order to avoid someone. People took baseball bats to car and shop windows. They fought with each other over the simplest things like hand sanitizer or a package of baby wipes. I flinched each time a punch landed against someone else’s cheek. The teenager’s pistol from the radio station pressed against my spine. I had to stop myself from instinctively reaching for it. No one else knew that I had it—Jacob didn’t know that I could shoot a gun at all—and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

  We kept moving through the surreal landscape. In less than a day, Denver had disintegrated into madness. I could only imagine what it would look like in a week. At this rate, the death toll would skyrocket in a matter of days. I’d seen enough death already, bodies splayed out across the hood of their cars or slumped over the steering wheels. The stench would grow worse with each passing hour unless someone organized a removal of the corpses. I almost took my hand from Jacob’s, but silent tears streamed down his cheeks as we continued up the block toward St. Mark’s, so I let him squeeze the blood out of my fingers for as long as he needed.

  A few blocks ahead, the red brick building of the prestigious private school loomed, casting a shadow on the sidewalk below. I hoped Pippa had stayed put and holed up in a safe place. Knowing her, I was sure that she had. She was the sharpest seventeen-year-old I’d ever met, with a tongue to match, and she hadn’t let the inconvenience of an accidental pregnancy stop her from getting an education. On the contrary, she’d written such a stunning personal statement on the judgement she received as a pregnant teeanager that she had already been shortlisted for interviews at Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth. She would have her pick of universities.

  Unexpectedly, Jacob yanked me off the sidewalk and forced me down behind a stack of aluminum trash bins. I flatted out my left hand to steady myself, and the metal splint on my pinky finger scraped across the asphalt.

  “What?” I demanded. Saint Mark’s was so close. All I wanted to do was get inside the safety of the wrought-iron gates.

  Jacob hushed me. A gaggle of voices floated through the air.

  “Hey, pretty lady. Where you goin’?”

  “Where’s your mama?”

  “You out here all alone?”

  Three men. Maybe more if the others weren’t as vocal. And someone else. Someone smaller and much more vulnerable.r />
  “No.” The reply was high-pitched but firm. A little girl’s. “My big brother’s around the corner.”

  “Really? Your big brother?” the first voice said. “I don’t see him. What about you, boys? See a big brother anywhere?”

  “Nope.”

  “No, big brothers here.”

  “You know, pretty lady,” the first voice went on, “it’s not polite to lie. Why don’t you come with us? We’ll get you home to your mama.”

  “Don’t touch me!”

  I rose from my crouch, my hand on the pistol at my waistband.

  Chapter Six

  “What the hell are you doing?” Jacob growled.

  I ignored him, emerging from our hiding place behind the trash cans. I kept the pistol behind my back as I approached the gaggle of men. There were three of them, each in their thirties or forties, and the girl at the center of their party could not have been older than twelve. She shook like a leaf as they advanced on her, eyes darting in every direction as she looked for an escape. Quick as lightning, she nailed one guy in the crotch and tried to sprint past him as he doubled over, but one of the others took hold of her arm and held her in place.

  “I don’t think so, girly,” the man said. From the looks of it, he was the group’s ringleader, though he was shorter and stockier than the men who flanked either side of him. “We’re going to teach you a lesson.”

  “Let her go.”

  Three pairs of eyes, each more malicious than the last, turned to look at me. I squared my shoulders. The gun trembled in my fingers. Jacob drew level with me, drawing a small burst of confidence from beneath my anxiety. Jacob could be a threatening presence when he wanted to be. Even so, it was three against two.

  The ringleader chuckled, tossing the girl away from him. She tripped and stumbled to the ground but automatically scrambled back to her feet. “Nothing to see here, folks,” the ringleader said, blocking the girl’s escape again. “You should be on your way.”