by Miles Maresh
EMP ESCAPE
EMP Journey Book 2
By Miles Maresh
Text Copyright © 2018 Miles J Maresh
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Prologue
President Jim Ryan was in the Oval Office when the EMP hit on September 17, 2021. The White House itself was mostly unaffected. The emergency generators kicked in immediately and secure communication links had already been shielded to be EMP resistant. The president first realized something was wrong when his staff reported that all their personal electronic devices had stopped working. Almost immediately afterwards, his Chief of Staff reported that cars were dying on the road and airplanes unlucky enough to be in the air were crashing. From indications this was happening across the country, although communication links were down. The president met with the cabinet members that were close enough to reach the White House. Ryan had secure communication links to the Joint Chiefs. He didn’t know if this was a military attack or a natural event, but the military was on high alert until they found out.
The Joint Chiefs assured the president that the EMP was caused by a solar flare, not a nuclear attack. With communications with other countries down, the U.S. had its ambassadors report to our allies that the event was of natural origin, and would be short lived. The ambassador reported to the White House that Europe was as dark as the United States, but the Eastern Hemisphere was not as badly hit. Scientists the president had on staff reported that the U.S. had been facing the sun when the EMP hit. By the time the Eastern Hemisphere faced the sun, the flare was dying down. They were still affected, but it wasn’t the total loss of power that the western countries faced. Reports from China indicated that 50% of their cities had lost power, but with their infrastructure intact, they should be able to rebuild quickly. This worried Ryan. China was already an economic superpower and now they might have the world’s strongest remaining military.
The ambassador to North Korea reported that Kim Jong-Un was suspicious of U.S. reports and accused the president of launching a nuclear EMP against his country intentionally. The fledging peace with North Korea was put at risk as Kim threatened to unleash his nuclear arsenal on the United States. Because Kim had signed treaties based on nuclear disarmament, the president was furious. The Joint Chiefs agreed that that Kim had enough nuclear capability left to launch his missiles. Although U.S. countermeasures could prevent most from striking the country, Washington D. C. was at risk. Ryan and his staff hastily evacuated and relocated to the Cheyenne Mountain facility in Colorado.
Shortly after arriving at Cheyenne Mountain, President Ryan was told that North Korea had indeed unleashed its arsenal. Ryan had the nuclear football with him and the Joint Chiefs insisted that he needed to respond before our own missiles were compromised. Ryan did not think that many missiles would actually reach the U.S, and said he would base his counterattack on how successful the North Korean attack was. The military had been shielded from the EMP and was able to intercept and destroy most incoming North Korean missiles. A few landed harmlessly in the oceans and the debris from destroyed missiles burned up in the atmosphere. A small amount of nuclear material did hit the U. S. mainland but it was mostly in uninhabited areas.
Two missile did however slip through U.S. defenses. One hit and destroyed Washington D.C. The president knew that congressmen who were not evacuated to Cheyenne or other facilities likely perished, along with millions of residents. Another missile hit Los Angeles destroying the city and unleashing radioactivity over much of southern California. The Joint Chiefs urged an immediate retaliatory strike against North Korea. They wanted to turn the country into a radioactive hole in the ground. Ryan knew that if he unleashed nuclear weapons, fallout would easily spread to China, which had been mostly silent about Kim Jong-Un’s claims. He knew that China’s military was mostly unaffected, and their own nuclear capability was operational. In order to spare China from fallout, Ryan ordered a massive, but conventional aerial assault on North Korea. In order to make sure there would be no further attacks he ordered the country’s infrastructure to be completely destroyed. He knew that would result in massive loss of life to North Korean civilians, but millions of U.S. citizens had already died. It was important for Ryan to protect what was left of his country. He could not waste time fighting madmen when he needed to fix his own country’s power grid.
Chapter 1
Barry Bell awoke with a start. He was supposed to be in His American Literature class at Stanford University at 8:00 AM and it was now 9:15. He had missed the class and wondered why his girlfriend Megan Rice had not called him. She was in the same class and surely would have texted him if he had not shown up 5 minutes before class started. Barry grabbed his cell phone to see if he had slept so soundly that he missed the message. The phone was totally dark and Barry thought” “Crap I forgot to charge it”, He also noticed it was already warm in the apartment and the air conditioning was not on. He went to the thermostat, hitting the light switch as he went by. The lights stayed off and Barry moved the thermostat back and forth without effect. Power outages would explain why he overslept as his alarm was electric. He had another class at 9:30 and he quickly cleaned up and dressed wondering if the next class was also in the zone of the power outage. Barry was within walking distance of Faulkner Hall where his next class was, and thought he could be there on time. As he stepped outside, other apartment residents had the hoods of their cars up looking perplexed. Several cars in the road ahead had died and rolled to a stop, some tapping other cars as their power brakes and steering failed. Barry felt uneasy. His cell phone issue and a power outage were easy to explain, but how did everyone’s car die at the same time?
Megan Rice was walking to class shortly before 8:00 AM when a bright flash in the sky temporarily blinded her. When she could see again she noticed everyone was in the same situation. People were stumbling around, not sure what had happened. Megan checked the sky but did not see anything that explained the flash of light. She grabbed her cell phone to call her boyfriend Barry to see what he thought, but her phone was dark. She was perplexed, because she knew she had charged it and was using it just a few minutes ago. She did not know what else to do so she walked into the lecture hall where her class was held. It was dark inside and campus security was there telling people to wait outside until the power came back on. A power outage was logical if that flash in the sky had fried some local power grids, but she did not know if that explained her cell phone issue. She wandered down to the road where harried drivers were standing by their cars that had died in the middle of the road. Not a single car was running and Megan started to feel uneasy. She did not think there would be any classes today, and she headed for Barry’s apartment to plan for the day. She knew what an EMP was and wanted to compare notes with her boyfriend who was kind of a prepper nut. If anyone would be able to figure this out she thought it was Barry. She was sure this was a temporary issue. Even if an EMP hit, surely she believed the government must have
plans for an event like this.
Barry was quick to figure out what was going on and he retreated to his apartment to wait for Megan. He knew she laughed at him for his prepping mindset, but respected the science backing his theories, even though she doubted any apocalyptic event would ever actually happen. Barry knew that this was likely to be a long term event, but he was sure his girlfriend and classmates thought things would get back to normal soon. He decided he would wait a few days just in case they were right. Traveling all the way home east would be a waste if this thing was corrected in a day or two. Barry’s family had a farm in the wooded area north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they planned to retreat from their suburban Pittsburgh home if the worst ever happened. His parents also had a hidden shelter below their house in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. He had been in the shelter and knew that it was self-contained if you didn’t mind living in a hole in the ground. Even his father, who built the shelter with help from his prepper friends only wanted to stay in the shelter if a nuclear war hit the United States, but the supplies stored in the shelter could quickly be moved to the farm. Barry knew an EMP or CME were not going to spread radioactivity. An EMP could be caused by a nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere which would fry the power grid without causing a nuclear Armageddon. A Coronal Mass Ejection was similar to an EMP but it was a natural event caused by solar flares. He knew preppers had warned for a long time that these were more likely to happen, as they had done so throughout history. It was only in the last 100 years or so, that a CME would bring the country, and indeed the whole world to its knees. The global economy the world knew and depended on would fail as soon as the communication and transportation networks went off line. The farm was stocked with supplies including food with long shelf lives, livestock, and fertile fields that were fallow for now. Barry’s grandparents lived on the farm and tended to the animals, but did not have the energy to also farm the land. The plan was for the family to gather at the farm if any major event ever hit the country. From what Barry could see this was one of those events.
When Barry had went off to college in California his parents had not been happy. They were concerned, not about his being away from home, but by being 2,500 miles ways from a safe location if society collapsed. Barry believed in the prepping, but was sure there would be no event during the 4 years he intended to study at Stanford. He had gotten an academic scholarship to the top school and wanted to do his undergraduate work there before he went to graduate school in the east. To appease his parents fears’ they had given him a satellite phone which he kept in a faraday cage in his apartment. Barry also had a 1972 Jeep Wrangler that had no computer chips and should keep running even if an EMP or CMP hit the country. His father also insisted that Barry keep the Jeep housed in a garage a short distance away from his apartment, Barry sometimes forgot to park the Jeep there, but fortunately it was in the garage when the EMP hit. Barry did not know if the vehicle would work or not. The theory was without computer chips it should still run, but without trying it he had no assurance. Barry also kept a bugout bag in his apartment which kept prepper supplies he would need if he had to leave. He also had a Sig Sauer pistol provided by ones of his dad’s prepper friends. The weapon was illegal in California but Barry had grown up visiting the farm and he knew how to shoot well Despite California’s repressive gun laws, he had always owned a weapon and believed that the 2nd Amendment gave him the right to defend himself. He did not know what he would be likely to face if he had to bug out, but he was glad he had the firearm and the bag. He had convinced Megan to create one also. She had humored him and had mostly the same supplies, but without a weapon. While she had kidded him about it he had told her not to raid her bag for daily supplies as she had been dipping into hers for energy bars and the cash reserve on occasion. She would probably be glad she had listened to him now.
When Megan reached Barry’s apartment she hoped he would tell her that this was a temporary local event but the grim look on his face ended that possibility. He was just about to call his parents on the satellite phone and asked her to listen in. His father answered the phone. “It’s a solar flare and the power is down worldwide although not as severely in the Eastern Hemisphere. The West was facing toward the sun when the flare hit and took the brunt of the damage. In addition, North Korea does not believe it was solar event. They are convinced the U.S. attacked them and might be launching their own missiles.” Barry responded. “I thought North Korea got rid of its missiles.” His father said “Never happened, no matter what they promised. They might not have to technology to hit us, but California is a target. You need to get out of the state as fast as possible. Eventually we will try to get you to the farm, but for now just leave the west coast. From what we know of North Korea’s capabilities that would be the area they would be most likely to hit.” Barry knew they liked his girlfriend and said “Can Megan come along?” “Absolutely” his mother said breaking into the phone call. “We have room at the farm for her”. Barry had long ago planned how to escape the area. He was fairly sure his vehicle would work, but almost no one else had the older model car like he did. The Jeep was in good working condition but was not luxurious like his classmates’ cars. His classmates were mostly affluent, and drove new Beemers or Mercedes. They laughed at Barry for driving the old Jeep He knew that if it was still running, they would not be laughing much longer. The computer chips were nice when everything was working, but just as were cell phones, the newer vehicles were useless now. Megan had wanted to wait several days to see if the power would come back on, but had listened to the phone call, and was now terrified that a nuclear attack was imminent. She quickly returned to her own apartment to pack a suitcase and grab her go bag that Barry had insisted she create. She wondered if it was too late to get a weapon. She did not want to shoot anyone, but had a long journey ahead of her. Barry had told her how most people only had a few days’ supply of food and water. Once they ran out of their own supplies they would forget about law and order as they scrambled to find more. Looting stores and attacking others that had supplies, would be done by formerly law abiding citizens. She wondered if they should hit the stores before they ran out of supplies. Barry had a cache of water and MREs but it wouldn’t hurt to have more.
Barry agreed that they should head to the grocery stores before people figured out what was going on and cleaned out the shelves. He wanted to head out of town, but figured leaving in the middle of the day with so many people in the streets was not safe, so they might as well acquire some more supplies He did not even want to take his Jeep to the grocery store. He was too afraid that if people realized it ran, he may already have trouble holding on to it. The store only a half mile walk away and he figured Megan and him could just push the carts the distance home. Barry had about $500 cash in his bugout bag. It was difficult to not dig into that stash when he needed something for school, or recreation, but he had always managed to replace any of the money he borrowed from that supply. It was fortunate that he had the full amount in his bag at this time. He knew that the power would be off at the grocery stores and people that were used to paying by debit cards would be turned away. Over time, even cash might lose value, but for now most people still though it was stable. When they got to the Safeway grocery store, there were only a few cars in the parking lot, but there was a growing line out the door. The store employees were only letting a few people in at a time. As people left they would let the same number of people in. The manager was walking down the line of customers reminding them that the computers were down. Because price tags were not on items, the cashiers were told to estimate prices and they would use a high estimation. The manager reiterated that only cash was being accepted today. “If you don’t have cash, come back tomorrow when we are sure everything will be back to normal.” Several people protested, but left the line. Barry glanced at Megan as they moved up to fill in the line. They both knew that the power was not coming back on anytime soon, and definitely not by tomorrow.
When Barry and Megan entered the store they grabbed the shopping carts left and agreed to split up and meet at the registers. Barry was to grab all the canned food he could find, while Megan was to fill her cart with water. Both of their carts were mostly empty after they hit the aisles. Barry was able to find a few cans on the back of the bottom shelves where they had been missed but the water was already totally cleaned out. Megan threw a couple of cases of Gatorade on the cart, but Barry was not satisfied. He reasoned that the loading docks of the store should have unstocked groceries on pallets in the backroom. There were no employees around to stop them from going into the stockroom and they found enough canned meats to fill up Barry’s cart. A pallet of water was not touched yet and Megan filled up one cart and another that she found. They herded their 3 carts up to the register. Several people in line saw the water and asked where they found it. “In the backroom” he reported. They ran back to the back of the store and Barry pushed his carts in front of theirs at the register. Megan looked at him and Barry said coolly “There’s a price for information.” The harried teenage cashier was adding things up on a calculator. She was estimating prices to the nearest dollar, but rounding up as she had been told. Barry asked her to vocalize as she totaled up his purchases. She was high, but not excessively so based on the situation. Barry paid $338 in cash and left the store. As they pushed and pulled their carts down the sidewalk the manager of the store came running after them. “You can’t take the carts”. He complained. “I will bring them back” Barry lied. My car is not working and I have to get all of this home.” The manager looked at all they had bought and said “why are you buying so much?” Barry looked at the man. He was in denial, but with so many people clearing his store out he was getting worried. Barry said. “This is not a short term event. An EMP has fried the power grid and it is not a quick fix. You need to set some of those supplies aside for yourself. When the store is cleared out you need to go home. There are not supply trucks bringing more food in. What you have there is all there will be.” The man listened but then sputtered “Just bring the carts back. I don’t want to lose my job.” Barry sighed and continued on his way. He told Megan “That’s the way it will be. You can try to warn your friends, but for a few days people will expect the government to come in and fix everything. We need to leave tonight, before the city falls apart.