Eric, unfortunately, had thought about this a great deal back in 2009 and 2010 when he’d had to harden his birds. Microwave ovens weren’t the big problem. In fact, they weren’t even “on the radar”, as it were. The problem was much more fundamental than that.
Society as we have come to know it is a very fragile thing. New Orleans didn’t fall apart after hurricane Katrina because of the government and their lack of response.
The reason that society came unraveled in New Orleans after Katrina--and why Eric was so concerned for himself, Karen, and a few people he’d come to know in his short time outside of the military-- was a simple lack of preparation. That and the knowledge needed to survive in the short term, and the willingness to use that knowledge however necessary.
Ok, Eric, fine--be that as it may--what are you going to do? You are here right now with Karen. You have the Taylors down the street. They were the first people to welcome you to the neighborhood and treat you like you didn’t have two heads. There’s Sheri Hines across the street from them, who met Karen at the ‘Y’ and has become a really good friend and neighbor too. Good folks, who’ve treated us really well, and who I really care about already. So…self, what are you going to do?
Just as Eric was taking a breath to tell Karen they needed to tell a few people what he thought was going on, she beat him to it.
“Eric, if it’s that bad, and if you’re this worked up about it then it’s probably that bad, we need to tell Joel, Rachael, and Sheri, soonest.”
“Where have you been all my life?”
“Well, for the last four and a half years or so I’ve been following your sorry butt all over the country waiting for you to propose,” Karen had a twinkle in her eye you couldn’t miss even in the crappy lantern light, “but seeing as how we’re now in the middle of a crisis and you’re a gentleman and you wouldn’t want me to feel like I had pressured you into it, it’ll probably have to wait at least a little while longer.”
He couldn’t help but smile, both because he knew she was right and because he knew there was an engagement ring in the fire safe in the bedroom.
“Ok, I’m awful. You sure you want to keep me? Wait, don’t answer that just yet, you might want me to shoot a deer or lift something heavy in the near future. So, do I go over now or do we wait until later?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure Sheri’s got graveyard right now. She mentioned how glad she was she didn’t have to go to another girls’ night out; or, as she referred to it, the ‘get Sheri laid party’. The Taylors are probably sound asleep still, so I say we wait until the sun is up.” Karen was looking over his left shoulder now--she always did that when she was deep in thought--her gaze drifted from the person she was talking to, to just over their left shoulder.
“We should probably get some ice for the coolers since those stay cold longer than the freezer. Does the convenience store sell dry ice or just regular ice?”
Eric smiled but shook his head, “Just regular ice, unfortunately.” “They restricted dry ice to grocery stores everywhere but the back hills and bait shops back when I was a kid, when dry ice bombs became popular—not that they ever went out of style.” Dry ice would keep things colder for much longer than regular ice and when it melted, and wouldn’t create puddles of water in the cooler. It was also lighter than frozen water. They’d used it a couple of years ago on a backpacking trip to keep some ice cream frozen for dessert.
“I’ll head over to the mini-mart and grab some ice, probably ought to take cash, and I’ll rummage around for anything else that catches my eye as a must have.”
Chapter Three
The first thing Eric noticed at the convenience store was the humming of the generator; second, the lack of lights; and third, that the sliding doors were already all the way open--not a good sign. Right, okay…get the goods first and then the conversation.
Inside, a few emergency lights flickered dimly. Eric was amazed at the kind of beating those systems could take and keep on working. He bought six 10lb bags of ice, two bottles of rubbing alcohol, a bottle of aspirin, a bottle of ibuprofen, a bottle of acetaminophen, a bottle of Benadryl, and four six-packs of 20oz water bottles--which came to nearly fifty-three dollars before tax and earned him a very strange look. He mentioned the generator and lack of power in the store.
“Yeah, really weird, man! The lights dimmed real low and the coolers made a funny noise, then all the lights got real bright--brighter than they should have, you know? Every last one of ‘em. Tubes, regular bulbs, even the neon ones for the beer.”
“And then they popped--burned right out. I was afraid a couple of ‘em were gonna start a fire at first, specially the neons. Started to stink really bad. I had to have the front and back doors open for a while. I even went to turn on the fans to blow the smell out.” He chuckled at that for a second and then continued, “How dumb’s that?”
“Not dumb at all, man, I went to grab some OJ out of the fridge and didn’t even notice the light wasn’t on until the fridge was closed again. Just habit, I guess.” Eric was still hoping to work the clerk around to the generator. Apparently he didn’t get many visitors and was enjoying the company, or the dark was getting to him--or both.
“Well, the generator comes on automatically and I figured the power would be on fairly quick, except it isn’t. I reset all the breakers, the ones that’ll reset that is. A couple of ‘em won’t budge. Looks like they got cooked pretty good when the power blew. The main is ok, and most of the others look good too, but nothing’s turning on.”
“Have you had any calls? Cell phone, anything?”
“Nope, regular phone’s out and my cell isn’t getting any signal. How ‘bout you?”
“Nah, both the girlfriend and I have the same provider and neither of us have any signal either. She’s probably freaking out a little as a matter of fact; I ought to be getting back. Hang in there.”
On the way back to the house Eric decided he would definitely be at the Taylor’s door at sunrise.
…
Joel could see it was Eric through the windows set to either side of the front door.
“Morning, Eric, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess this isn’t a social call since I don’t see Karen or a bottle of wine. Come on in. I’d offer you coffee but, as you can see, the power’s out. We’ve got cold Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi though. Rachael swears cold caffeine is better than no caffeine but I told her Diet anything is worse than…yeah, never mind, have a seat please.”
“Thank you, I’m good.” He was starting to feel bad for giving Joel the shock he had. He hadn’t realized how hard he’d knocked on the door until he’d seen them jump on the back porch. I guess I’m still wound a little tight, probably will be for a while too.
“So, what brings you over so bright and early?” Joel stole a glance at his wife whose gaze was fixed on Eric. Oddly enough, Millie hadn’t barked at all when Eric had hammered on the door, and came over to have her head scratched once he sat down.
“Well, um, now that I’m here, I feel kind of funny bringing it up. I know you folks haven’t known me for all that long--only a couple of months--but Karen and I really like you guys, and the kids--we feel like you’re family. This is going to sound crazy, but…”
It took about fifteen minutes to go over the same information he’d gone over with Karen earlier. When he was finished, Rachael was the first to say anything and that was after several seconds of silence. “Everything you said, taken one at a time, sounds perfectly logical, Eric. When you put it all together, though, this conversation sounds like something from ‘Coast to Coast AM’. Are you sure the power isn’t just ‘out’?”
Eric didn’t answer right away. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting but being compared to a tinfoil-hat-wearing nut job hadn’t been it. “Yes, I am.” Eric sighed, “Yes it sounds insane--that’s fair--but the power isn’t just out, it’s Out with a capital O.”
“So help me, Eric, if I have to admit to Carey that he was right ea
rlier this morning, I will never forgive you,” Joel muttered.
Eric snorted. “I don’t think I want to know.”
“Not right now, no,” Joel replied.
“My point is that I’m really not one of those end-of-the-worlders you hear about. I don’t just have a ‘bad feeling’ about this. It’s based on some pretty heavy-duty past experience and research.” Eric stopped and looked around for something that he could use as an immediate example to prove his point.
“I see you have the coolers out. Did you go and get ice this morning?”
“Well, I tried at about 3:45, but turned around when there were no street lights and no traffic lights. The ice is just from the freezer right now.”
“I must have missed you by about ten minutes. Humor me for a sec, ok? Did you try the radio while you were out?”
“Yes.”
Eric waited for more and when Joel didn’t go into any further detail, he prodded for additional information. “Did you try more than one station, and did you try both FM and AM?”
Joel didn’t answer right away but eventually responded with a curt, “Yes.”
“Joel, this isn’t an interrogation. I’m not waterboarding you for crying out loud, I’m trying to make a point! I bet your cell phones don’t have any signal either do they? If you’ve got laptops that were turned off and unplugged then I’m sure they boot up just fine because the batteries are ok. If you have an inverter in the car you can charge them without a problem. Unfortunately, the Internet is down. For the first time in recorded history when someone says ‘Hey, the Internet is down’ they’re actually right. The whole thing is really and truly down!”
“Calm down, Eric.” Joel said.
“I am calm, Joel, I really am. I’ve just spent too much time being a sheep dog and you two are too intelligent to be acting like sheep.” Rachael was about to take offense to the last remark and Joel was fast on her heels with, “Now just a minute”, but Eric kept right on going.
“I wasn’t trying to offend you, although anyone with a brain can see I just did. That wasn’t my point at all but I’ll let myself out now. I was trying to get you to entertain for a minute that you might not have all the information. I’m done, I’ve said my piece. If you don’t believe me maybe you should ask Sheri when she gets home.”
Eric got up from the kitchen table and headed for the front door, passing Joshua, the Taylor’s sixteen-year-old son, on the way out.
“Hey, Mr. Tripp. You’re out and about awful early.” ‘Awful early’ actually came out ‘awwwuuul uurreeeee’ as Joshua had yet to learn not to speak through a yawn. Sixteen years old and he hadn’t learned to cover his mouth while yawning yet either, apparently.
“Morning, Josh--you have no idea.” As he passed Josh, Eric looked over his shoulder at Joel and Rachael with raised eyebrows while moving his eyes between them and their son. He didn’t say another word but the message was clear: If I’m wrong, so be it; but if I’m right, what about your kids?
Eric let himself out and Rachael brought over bowls of cereal for Josh and Maya, who had also come down just as Eric was leaving. They had to use the milk while it was still cold, and they were using the ice to keep frozen foods as close to frozen as they could. Josh and Maya were both kids, there were no two ways about it, but they were fairly mature for their age
As they ate, Joel and Rachael looked at each other across the length of the table each willing the other to make the first mention of the night before. Finally, Joshua broke the silence and the tension.
“Ok, what’s up, what did we do? Did you guys find Maya’s Playboys?” For which statement, Josh was rewarded by a kick in the shin from his sister.
“Eww, as if! You are so gross!”
Rachael rolled her eyes and Joel stifled a laugh, which was a welcome if short-lived change.
“No, and let’s just not go there, Joshua Michael Taylor. It isn’t anything you’ve done. Although, if there’s something we should know, now’s the time to spill it; I seriously doubt your mother and I could be any more surprised about anything than we think we are right now.”
“No,” Joel repeated, pausing to take a breath, “It’s about why Mr. Tripp was over so early this morning. Maya, do you remember waking up and seeing the aurora borealis last night?”
…..
Chapter Four
“Ten-to-one the radio doesn’t work.” Sheri muttered to herself after the lights went out. “Figures.” This they had actually drilled for--a lot. Not to this catastrophic level, but a power plant losing power isn’t as impossible as most people might think. All it takes is one idiot pushing the wrong button and the outside world keeps getting their power just like always, while everyone inside is in the dark. Ok, technically it takes three idiots, a manager, two switches in different rooms, and five minutes--the point is that it’s possible.
The emergency lights came on after about a two-second delay and Sheri reached into her left-hand top desk drawer for her three D-cell Mag-Light. She didn’t carry a purse to work--she had a wallet--and her keys were on a carabineer on a belt-loop. Ok, now for the radio. Dead, of course; it was plugged in. The surge would have knocked it out. Hell, that surge would have knocked out Superman! Sheri thought. So, what just happened? Had a nuke gone off? It hadn’t been a bomb inside the dam, they would have felt an explosion. Cutting the lines, all of them, even simultaneously, wouldn’t have shut the power off inside the facility. Aliens? No, they only blow up national monuments…usually. Sheri, you are sick.
“Is everybody OK?” Sheri asked of the other seven technicians and engineers in the control room. If this had been a drill, there would have been supervisors on shift within shouting distance of the entire plant, but there was only one on site tonight, and he was in the cafeteria. One more nail in the coffin of the idea that this had been a drill.
Nobody was stepping up to take control of the situation; not that there was much to control except getting everyone out of the control center. They were under almost one hundred and fifty feet of concrete, steel, and water. Without the air pumps they had about thirty minutes before the air got stuffy.
“HEY!” That got attention, if only for a couple of seconds; now to get people moving. “Ok, folks, we’ve only got about thirty minutes before the air is going to get stale down here. Who knows why they put the control room at the bottom of the dam but they did. Jack and Pete, help Carol up the stairs, but bring up the rear.” That got her a sour look from Pete. So be it. Carol was pregnant and Pete was able-bodied; he could deal with it. “We need to get up top, let’s go people. We’ve done this a hundred times if we’ve done it once. When the power comes back we can do most of what we need to from half a dozen different places up there and come back down later. You’ve got two minutes to grab your stuff.”
The key is not to let anyone think you aren’t in control; if you question yourself or let them question you it will devolve into chaos and someone will get hurt. Let them write me up for ordering my peers around after everyone is safe.
It didn’t take quite sixty seconds once everyone snapped out of their initial shock. Sheri was right, they’d done this at least a hundred times; it had simply caught them flat-footed.
The emergency lights in the stairwells were working, which was both a good sign and a testament to the design and construction of the backup system. Sheri wondered idly if the transfer switch had started to kick in during dip or at the beginning of the spike. Oh well, another one of those things she figured she might wonder about for a while.
They heard voices up ahead as a couple of technicians were climbing out of the dam and picked up Chuck, their supervisor, near the top.
“Sheri, we got anyone else down there? On the way up a minute ago, Jerry said two of the turbines arced over fifty feet between them. He’s been doing this for thirty years and he’s never seen anything like it.”
Chuck was shaking his head, eyes wide, as he continued. “He said that those two seized up while the rest spun
down when the lights went out, from what he could see. Those two turbines that seized are shot, Sheri, and if that spike was as big as you said--and don’t give me that look, I believe you--I bet the rest are shot too.”
Sheri felt some of the supernatural calm of earlier this morning give way to whatever the next stage of shock was. The stage that gave you trembling knees and sweaty hands, apparently. “Super. Now what? I got everybody out, I now defer to you oh great and powerful management-type guy!” Sheri said it with a shaky smile, but she was serious. She’d stepped up to get everybody out of the control room but she really didn’t have a clue what to do next.
“Ha ha ha. Well, the manual says we, um, uh, let’s see, oh yeah, this isn’t ever supposed to happen. We drill for it, sure, but actually having a spike on the grid, that blows out turbines and shuts power off to the plant? Uh-uh, ain’t supposed to really be possible short of a nuke, and if we’re talking about it they’ve got hydro plants in the afterlife and/or hell looks an awful lot like an early Thursday morning.”
Just then, they got to the door and stepped outside and Chuck swore under his breath. “Charles! There are ladies present and one of them is pregnant. Watch your mouth!” Sheri had been riding Chuck for almost four years about his language, and--truth be told--he’d been getting better. But when he didn’t think she could hear, or when he was really caught off guard, he could turn the air blue.
“Sorry, Sheri, but I think I know what happened. Idiots had six years warning, got it wrong by three months, and still weren’t able to give us the warning they thought they would!”
Sheri gaped as what Chuck said registered. “Wait…No!...Chuck, tell me it wasn’t the CME. Please tell me that isn’t what happened.” She reached out a hand as if to shut off a switch, or bolt a heavy door. Chuck thought about reaching back to comfort her, but changed his mind. It might not seem right, coming from a supervisor.
Dark Grid (Book 1) Page 2