The man swallowed slowly and nodded, unable to speak.
“I can’t believe you had this on you the whole time and you didn’t say anything,” Mary said to James. “But never mind about that. You used it when you had to, and you saved our lives.”
“I’ve never … shot a gun before,” James murmured, still looking complete shell-shocked. “I mean, I’ve probably killed a million people in video games, but in real life…”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “And I guess you’re really lucky this is a revolver, with no safety. All you really have to do is the point and squeeze the trigger.” She smiled. “My God, James, I still can’t believe you did that! Make no mistake, you saved our lives. You’re a hero. I just wish you’d have told me that you had the gun in there! Do you have any more ammo for it?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but I uh, I don’t know how to load it or anything, though,” he said.
“Here, like this,” she said, popping out the cylinder. James reached into the same pocket of his backpack that he’d slipped the revolver out of and dropped a handful of bullets into Mary’s hand. She showed him how to load the revolver, then handed it back to him.
“Th-thank you,” the young man behind the counter said, finally speaking. “You s-save my life.”
“And thank you for allowing us to take shelter here,” she said. “Is this your store?”
He shook his head. “My cousin’s. We live nearby, my whole family.”
“Then you need to take as much food from the store as you can, and all the bottled water and sports drinks, and lock this place up,” she said. “And don’t come back. Stay in your home and stay locked up. Things aren’t going to be safe in this city for a long time.”
“If you want anything from the store, please take,” he said.
“Just these,” she said, taking some sports drinks out of a nearby fridge. “And don’t worry, we’ll pay for them. Also, do you have any dust masks for painting and stuff?”
“Maybe look there, hardware section,” he said, pointing toward some shelves at the rear of the store.
Mary headed to the rear of the store and browsed the shelves and found some basic masks for painting and fumigation work that would do, and in the small toy section, there were some kids’ swimming goggles, which would serve to keep the teargas out of their eyes. The clouds of the offensive substance were thinner, but they had no means dissipated, and since there wasn’t much of a breeze outside, Mary figured they might be hanging around the streets for hours. She took three masks and three pairs of goggles—the extra items being for Ann—and put some sports drinks in her backpack, and then thanked the clerk for his help.
“What should I do with … them?” he asked, pointing to the dead robbers.
Mary suspected that there wouldn’t exactly be any murder investigations happening anytime soon, if ever, and that by nightfall, there would be dozens, if not hundreds of corpses on the city streets. She also guessed that the coroners would probably not be working, given the lack of useable vehicles and the general state of chaos.
“We’ll help you drag them out onto the street,” she said. “Once they’re out there, they won’t be your problem anymore. Just get the blood cleaned up off the floor and forget about them.”
After checking that the coast was clear, Mary, James, and the clerk dragged the bodies out onto the street and left them there. They went back into the store, and the clerk locked the door behind them.
“Where you go to now?” the clerk asked. “You live in the city?”
“No, we’re heading to the high school a few blocks from here,” Mary answered, “and then we’re getting as far away from the city as possible. It’s going to get really bad in the next few days. Sorry, what was your name?”
“I’m Sanjay.”
“Pleased to meet you, Sanjay. I’m Mary. And this is James. Anyway, what I was saying was, it’s gonna get really bad. Make sure you’ve got enough food and water—maybe fill up your bathtub and any other big containers in your house, if the faucets are still running—and lock yourselves up. Take all the candles home from your store; there isn’t going to be any electricity again, I don’t know for how long. Weeks, months, maybe years. Don’t open the doors for anyone, don’t go out yourselves. Do you have a gun?”
He shook his head, looking anxious. “No…”
Mary bent down and picked up the robber’s pistol, which was still on the floor near the counter. She checked the weapon, made sure it was working and clean, and then handed it to the young man. “You do now. Keep this in your house, and if any bad people try to get in, use it. I don’t think the cops are going to be coming to help if there’s trouble; you guys are going to have to help yourselves.”
She gave him a quick rundown on how to use the pistol, and then she and James got ready to go.
“Come this way,” he said, calling them behind the counter. “Safer to go through the back alley, I think.”
“Thank you, Sanjay,” Mary said. “And good luck. I hope you and your family get through this disaster all right.”
“Good luck to you, too, Mary,” he said. “And thank you again, James, for saving my life.”
He led them through the stock room behind the counter, and then let them out of the back door. They moved through the alley quickly and quietly, always on the lookout for danger. The clouds of tear gas from the street hadn’t penetrated the alley, but Mary and James kept their masks and goggles on, nonetheless.
The alley was a long, narrow one, and Mary was thankful for the concealment and shelter it provided. It emerged onto a large street near the school, and Mary made sure she scouted out the street for possible threats thoroughly before exiting the alley.
There was still intermittent gunfire and shouting coming from only a block or two away and more than a few confused and frightened-looking people running around or huddling behind abandoned cars, looking out for the riot police and army men, but for the most part, the street seemed safe, at least temporarily.
“Come on, let’s go,” Mary said to James.
They hurried across the street and jogged down the sidewalk, keeping a respectful distance from anyone they came near, whether the people they came across looked threatening or not. A few people called out to them or tried to get them to stop, but they simply veered around them. Mary wasn’t about to stop for anyone and knew that even the most innocuous-looking person could turn out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
They traveled across two more blocks, and then, finally, they got to the school. The front gates were locked up, and the buildings looked as if they were all closed up too, but that didn’t present much of an obstacle. Mary and James—who was quite out of breath now, after having run about a mile—moved around to the rear of the school and hopped over the fence there, then cut across the grounds to the fields.
Mary made a beeline for the old oak tree at the bottom of the grounds, and the closer she got, the faster her heart began to beat. She didn’t know what she would do if Ann weren’t there; they’d gone through hell to get here, and if it had all been for nothing, she didn’t know if she could go on.
“Aunt Mary … wait … I … just need it… to…” James gasped, stumbling along behind her, totally out of breath.
Mary ignored his pleas and steamed on ahead; he would be able to catch up in a few minutes, and there was no danger out there. She had to get to the tree and see if Ann were there. Once she got within a hundred yards of it, she broke into a run, and then, in the final twenty yards, a sprint. But the closer she got, the more her heart sank, for it was obvious that there was nobody there.
She reached the tree’s girthy trunk and dashed around it, looking everywhere. There was nobody in sight.
“Ann, my baby girl, where are you, where are you?” Mary whimpered, crumpling against the tree and bursting into tears. “If I’ve lost you, I don’t know what I’ll do. I won’t be able to go on…”
“Mom!”
Mary’s sp
irits soared. The voice had come from directly above her. She scrambled to her feet and looked up into the messy tangle of thick boughs and bushy green summer leaves. And there, looking down at her from the branches a few yards up, was Ann.
14
Ann, Mary, and James had a meal beneath the oak tree; they all needed an hour or so to rest and replenish their energy levels. It was eerily quiet and peaceful out here, but in the distance, they could hear the sound of gunfire and deep, booming explosions. Ann told them the story of how she’d escaped the museum with Sandy and described the various ordeals they’d had to go through after that, and then Mary and James told Ann their story. After they’d eaten and rested, Mary got the two teenagers up and urged them to prepare to leave.
“How are we gonna get out of town, Mom?” Ann asked. “Are you going to take one of the cars from where you work? Most of them should still work, right?”
“There’s a bunch that still work, despite the EMP attack,” Mary said. “I was gonna take the Army Jeep, but there’s an eighteen-wheeler blocking the entrance to the workshop. It’s so frustrating; it would have been a perfect vehicle for the dirt roads in the mountains.”
“But if you can’t get it out, what are we gonna do?” James asked, looking worried. “Are we gonna have to, like walk all the way to the mountains? That’ll take … I don’t even know … a week? More?”
Mary was stumped; she’d been so utterly focused on just getting to Ann, she hadn’t really considered what the next step of the plan might be. Before she could respond to James, Ann spoke up.
“Let’s go look in the bike shed. I bet a bunch of kids abandoned their bicycles there. Riding in the mountains will be tough, but it’ll be way faster and easier than walking.”
“I uh, I don’t know how to ride a bicycle,” James said. His cheeks reddened with a deep blush of embarrassment, and he quickly looked down, staring at his shoes, and he shifted them around on the grass.
A wave of despair crashed against Mary’s mind. The thought of having to walk all the way to the mountains seemed like an insurmountable task, especially considering all the perils and dangers they would have to face along the way. Plus, having to walk meant that they wouldn’t be able to get out of the city before darkness fell, and this was the last place Mary wanted to be after nightfall.
Suddenly, however, a blazing spark of an idea brightened the shadows of her mind.
“I know where a vehicle is!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Yes! I’m sure it’ll still be there! And thank God I brought my toolbelt and a few essential tools along with me. I knew they’d come in handy! Come on, you two, we’ve got a gas station to get to.”
“A gas station?” Ann asked warily. “What are you talking about, Mom?”
Mary didn’t answer, though; she was already striding purposefully ahead. Ann looked at James, shrugged and shook her head, and then followed her mother. James hurried along behind the two of them. They walked around the perimeter of the school grounds, listening out for the sounds of shouts or gunshots and carefully scoping out the streets before they jumped the fence and exited the school.
Mary took them through the neighborhood to the west of the school; it seemed to be the quietest, and while it was a little longer than going directly to the gas station, she knew it was far wiser to choose safety over speed and convenience. They ran into a few groups of people on the streets, but they were, for the most part, confused and frightened rather than predatory or aggressive. Even so, Mary kept the teens close to her and gave any people she encountered a wide berth. She also carried her .45 openly now, keeping it in her right hand, and told Ann and James to carry their guns openly too. She was determined to avoid making the same mistake she had in the convenience store—a mistake that had almost gotten her killed. Law and order had clearly broken down, and the only law now in place was the age-old law of the jungle: kill or be killed. And, after what James and Ann had had to do, Mary knew that the teenagers understood this with as much chilling clarity as she did.
Thankfully, though, the journey to the gas station, a trip of around two miles, was mostly uneventful. They did come across a group of young, thuggish-looking men who tried to intimidate them, but a few ice-cold glares and purposefully pointed firearms on the part of Mary and the kids scared the goons off; they weren’t looking for a fight, they were looking for easy targets. As for the mysterious, sinister terrorists in black, they didn’t run into anymore, although, from the sound of it, these ominous men were presumably having fierce gun battles with the army and police in the inner city. Throughout the whole trip to the gas station, there were regular bursts of gunfire and explosions, and dark plumes of smoke were rising to the sky from many spots in the middle of the city.
Finally, though, they reached the gas station, shaken up and nervous but unhurt. A few vehicles had been abandoned around the station and at the gas pumps, but Mary’s eyes quickly fell on the one she’d come here for: a ’74 AMC Javelin AMX muscle car.
“I have a feeling I know which car you’re gonna take,” Ann said, looking at the beautiful vintage vehicle.
“Cool ride,” James said with a grin, smiling for the first time since this whole episode had started.
“This jerk came into the workshop earlier,” Mary said, “right about the time the EMP went off. He said that his car had stalled out here and wouldn’t start, asked me about fixing it. Good thing I remembered.”
“But Mom, you just said that the guy told you it was broken down,” Anna said. “What use is it to us?”
“I’m pretty sure I know what the problem is, and it should be an easy fix,” Mary said. “And I’ve got everything I need right here to fix it up,” she continued, patting her toolbelt. “Shouldn’t take more than fifteen, twenty minutes.”
They walked over to the car, which was a spotless vehicle in orange paint with black racing trim.
“Damn, this is such a sick ride!” James remarked, tracing his appreciative fingertips across the gleaming hood.
“The guy was an asshole, but he kept his car in great condition,” Mary said. “Looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor, doesn’t it?”
Before anyone could say anything else, a harsh shout from behind them startled them.
“No looters or robbers are welcome here! Clear out right now, or I’ll fill your thievin’ hides with buckshot!”
Mary recognized the voice right away, so she didn’t draw her pistol. “It’s just me, Bill,” she said, turning around.
Bill, the elderly manager of the gas station, knew Mary well, since her vintage car workshop was only a mile down the road, and she often brought vehicles here for fuel.
“Mary!” he said, and all traces of aggression had vanished from his voice. He lowered the shotgun he was holding and frowned, shaking his head. “I can’t see a damn thing, when the power went out a few hours ago I was in the back room, and I tripped over something in the dark, and my damn glasses fell off. Couldn’t find ‘em, and I’ve been blind as a damn bat since then! What in the hell is going on? I’ve never seen a power outage like this one. And I’ve heard explosions and gunfire from all over town, but aside from that, it’s dead quiet. I haven’t heard a single damn car for hours! I’m freaked out, I gotta say…”
“That’s because it’s not a power outage, Bill,” Mary said with a sigh. “I’ll explain everything to you in a minute but let us help you find your glasses first. James, do you wanna go with him and help him find his glasses? Ann, you can help me here.”
“Thanks, Mary, I’m glad you stopped by here,” Bill said. “Without my glasses, I haven’t been able to do a damn thing, and I’ve just been stuck here. Some looters or some criminal scum tried to break in an hour ago, but I scared ‘em off with the shotgun. Little did the bastards know I wouldn’t have been able to hit ‘em even if they’d been standing a couple of feet in front of me!”
“I’ll help you find your glasses, sir,” James said. He put his backpacks down and accompanied Bill into the gas
station store.
Mary and Ann, meanwhile, got busy with the AMC. The owner had left it locked up and had taken the keys, but that didn’t turn out to be much of a problem for Mary. She used a piece of scrap wire to unlock the door, and then popped the hood. She had a quick look around the engine, and checked the wiring, and saw that what was preventing the car from starting was the exact thing she’d suspected when the owner had first told her about the problem. Luckily, it was something fixable with the basic tools she had with her.
After around fifteen minutes, she’d completed the repair, and she climbed into the driver’s seat. She was mostly certain that the vehicle, being an early ‘70s model, would have been unaffected by the EMP, but there was only one way to find out. She pulled a chunk of wiring out from under the steering wheel—in the absence of the key, hotwiring the vehicle was the only way to get it started—and whispered a silent prayer before touching the two wires together.
There was a spark, and the big V8 roared to life. Mary almost cried with joy, and she leaned her head onto the steering wheel for a few moments and closed her eyes, the deep rumble of the powerful motor pure music to her ears.
“Oh my God, it works, it works!” Ann exclaimed, jumping up and down with glee next to the car.
“Don’t get too excited, Ann,” Mary said drily. “We have a little problem here.” Her own joy was fizzling out quickly, for now, that the vehicle was running the gas gauge had come on, and it was showing that the fuel tank was nearly empty. And with the gas pumps being permanently out, she couldn’t think of how she would manage to get enough gas into the car to get even a mile down the road, let alone out of the city and into the mountains.
James and Bill came out of the gas station store. James had managed to help the old man find his glasses, so he could now see again. Mary explained the EMP situation to Bill, and he shook his head and sighed.
EMP Survival In A Powerless World | Book 21 | The Darkest Day Page 9