EMP Survival In A Powerless World | Book 21 | The Darkest Day

by Walker, Robert J.

  “So it’s more of a meritocracy, then?” Ann asked.

  “Yes. And we don’t have group votes on everything, either; if something is in an area of one person’s very specific area of expertise, then they get a far bigger say in it than someone who doesn’t know anything about that subject. For instance, if Dr. Krueger and the nurse say we need this and that in order to maintain our medical standards, we listen to them; we don’t just ask a bunch of people who are ignorant about medical issues to vote on it.”

  “That makes sense,” Ann said.

  “Exactly,” Ted said. “You don’t just get on an airplane and have the passengers vote on how to fly the damn thing. You sit down, shut up, and let the qualified pilot do it. We apply that principle to a lot of the governance here too.”

  “So, about the whole no slackers allowed thing,” Mary said, “I assume we’re going to be put to work with everyone else?”

  Ted smiled. “In good time. Ann won’t, of course, as she’s injured, and James can’t do much without his glasses, although I think a few hours a day on one of the stationary bikes that power the pumps would do wonders for the boy’s fitness; he doesn’t seem very athletic.”

  “He’s got a good heart, but he’s spent most of his life sitting in front of a TV,” Mary said. “His father, our neighbor, was an awful man, a violent drunk who did nothing when it came to raising that poor boy.”

  “I see,” Ted said. “Well, there’s no better place for him to have a fresh start in life than here. He doesn’t need his glasses to pedal a stationary bike, and the fresh air and exercise and healthy produce and fruit here will do wonders for him, I bet.”

  “I wanna help, too,” Ann said eagerly. “I’m sure there must be something I can do that won’t hurt my leg.”

  “Well, sure, you can sit down in the kitchen and help with canning and pickling and food preparation. There are never enough spare hands in the kitchen.”

  They talked a little more about the homestead, and the various tasks Mary, James, and Ann would be able to help out with. Both Mary and Ann were extremely impressed with how efficiently everything was run here, and all the homesteaders they met were friendly and welcoming. Eventually, the subject of James’s glasses came up again.

  “We’ve gotta do something about his eyesight,” Mary said. “I know that he can sit and pedal a stationary bike and make himself useful that way, but he’s not going to have much quality of life if he can’t really see anything. There must be something we can do, short of traveling to town and raiding the optometrist’s place.”

  “He’s near-sighted, right?” Ted asked.

  “Extremely, yes,” Mary answered. “I don’t know his exact prescription, but he’ll be able to tell you.”

  “One of the students here wears some pretty thick glasses, and I know he’s near-sighted too,” Ted said. “We could go see if he has a spare pair James could borrow for a while. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s something, right?”

  “It’s worth a shot, yeah,” Mary said. “Let’s go see him.”

  23

  “Come, I’ll take you to his trailer,” Ted said. “I’ll give you a bit of a warning, though, he’s a little … strange. A bit of a loner who prefers to keep to himself. He knows a heck of a lot about soil science and chemistry, though, and he’s helped us get our soil pH in many of our growing beds nigh on perfect, all with natural additives like river clay and mushroom compost.”

  They walked across the homestead to the far end, where there was a lone trailer parked in the middle of some trees, quite far from the others.

  “I can see what you mean about him being a loner,” Mary said. “He’s as far away from everyone else as he can be without being totally in the woods.”

  “Well, I don’t begrudge anyone’s need for privacy,” Ted said. “If he wants to keep to himself, that’s fine, as long as he pulls his weight when it comes to work, which he usually does.”

  “Usually?”

  Ted shrugged, and a hint of a frown came across his face. “He sometimes locks himself up in there for days with his computer. I’ve given him a few warnings, to be honest, when he missed his work shifts. Now, with this whole EMP situation, I don’t think that’s gonna be much of a problem anymore. That computer of his isn’t going to be of much use anymore except as a doorstop.”

  They walked up to the trailer, and Ted knocked on the door. “William? You in there?”

  “Coming, hold on, hold on,” a voice muttered irritably from inside.

  “Relax, Will, I’m not here about work,” Ted said.

  “Fine,” the voice grunted, sounded just as annoyed regardless.

  The door was flung open, and in it stood a short, rotund young man in his twenties. He was shirtless, and his pale, heavy belly hung over his grubby jeans. His greasy, unwashed black hair, prematurely balding on top, was tied back in a ponytail, and his chubby face and throat were covered in a thick growth of stubble. Behind him in the trailer, Mary could see that the place was a slobby mess. The man’s face looked deceptively dull and almost moronic, but in his eyes, which looked unnaturally large due to his thick spectacles, there was a gleam of keen and almost dangerous intelligence. His eyes seemed to be drawn with a magnetic force to Ann, and Mary noticed a disturbing glimmer of lust appearing in them as he looked the teenage girl up and down. This furthered her immediate and almost instinctive dislike of him.

  “Who are they?” he muttered rudely, nodding his head in Mary and Ann’s direction.

  “My daughter and granddaughter,” Ted said. He seemed not to notice William’s creepiness and rudeness, or, perhaps, he was used to dealing with his attitude. “They’re going to be staying here on the homestead now.”

  “Okay,” William said, still sounding annoyed. “What does that have to do with me?” His gaze once again drifted to Ann’s body, on which it lingered.

  Mary noticed this, and a flare of rage and disgust ripped through her, but she held her tongue. As much as it angered her, she knew they had to be nice to this unpleasant man if they were to get him to lend James some glasses.

  “Well, they’ve got someone else with them, a near-sighted kid who lost his glasses on the way here,” Ted said. “And we were wondering if you could lend him a spare pair of yours.”

  “You understand that his prescription might be totally different to mine, right?” William said sourly. “It’ll probably be a complete waste of time.”

  “I’d appreciate it if you could just allow us to give it a shot anyway,” Ted said, doing his best to remain diplomatic.

  “I only have one spare pair,” William said. “What am I supposed to do if this guy breaks them or loses them?”

  “We’ll go to town and get you another pair if that happens,” Ted said patiently. “This will only be a temporary thing, trust me.”

  “I don’t want some idiot who can’t hang on to his own glasses wrecking my only spare pair,” William said, folding his arms across his chest. “I need those glasses. I can’t only have one pair.”

  “Well he can barely see anything, and it wasn’t his fault that he lost them, he was attacked and beaten up,” Mary said, doing her best to be calm, but feeling like she wanted to reach out and slap him. “Please, have a heart, this poor kid can’t see a damn thing without his glasses.”

  “We’re a community here, Will, and we’d do the same for you if you lost your glasses,” Ted said gently. There was a firmer edge to his tone now, though, and he was tightening up the pressure. “Look, I don’t want to have to get the rest of the community involved. You have my word that if anything happens to the glasses, I will personally go to town and get you a new pair.”

  It was plainly obvious that William didn’t want to lend James his spare glasses, but he realized that continuing to refuse would cause more trouble than it was worth. Scowling, he turned around and stomped back into his trailer, and he came back a few moments later and shoved a glasses case into Ted’s hands. “If there’s so much as a singl
e scratch on them when I get them back, you’re getting me a new pair,” he muttered, and then without another word, he shut the door in their faces.

  “What a nasty jerk,” Mary muttered.

  “He kept staring at me … ew,” Ann said, wrinkling her nose with disgust.

  “He seemed to be in a lot more of a bad mood than usual today,” Ted said. “I guess he’s having withdrawal from his computer or something. He’s a bit of a strange fellow, but he’s not usually that unpleasant. I’m sorry you two had to experience that, but I promise that nobody else on the homestead is like that. And as much of an ass as William can sometimes be, he does know his soil science like nobody else I’ve met, and he does work hard when he needs to.”

  “That doesn’t make him any less of a creep,” Mary said. As a woman, she noticed things that went over the heads of most men, and the vibe she’d gotten from William was one of distinct creepiness. She definitely wouldn’t be leaving Ann unattended anywhere near William.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Ann said. “I’m sure James is awake by now.”

  They walked back to Ted’s cabin and found that James was up and about. They handed him the glasses, and he smiled as soon as he tried them on. “They’re not really strong enough,” he said, “but I can see a lot better with them, so at least I don’t feel like I’m totally blind now. What can I do to help around here?”

  Ted took them around the homestead and assigned everyone a task that would be within their ability to carry out. Each of them got busy with their jobs, content and relieved to be safe, but on the far horizon, the city continued to burn. While it was easy out here in this idyllic setting to forget about the chaos over the horizon, Mary knew that it wouldn’t be like this forever. In her mind, she began to prepare for its inevitable spread to reach the borders of the homestead.

  Little did she know that the darkness of what was happening in the city would come to this peaceful place a lot sooner than she or anyone else could have imagined.

  24

  Late that night, after Ann and James had gone to bed, Mary and Ted sat on the porch of the cabin, quietly staring at the starry sky, which was bright and unobscured by the usual light pollution of civilization.

  “I haven’t seen this many stars for years,” Mary said. “I’d forgotten how beautiful the night sky was out here, away from all the lights and smog of the city.”

  “I try to look at the stars every night, baby girl,” Ted said. “They remind me of how small we really are and how fleeting our lives are. Hey, wait right here, I’ve got something for you.”

  “All right, Dad,” she said.

  He got up and returned later with a grin on his lips and tumblers of whiskey in his hands. “I hope you’re a fan of finely aged single malt,” he said, handing her a glass.

  “Are you kidding?” she said with a laugh. “It’s the best drink around. Not that I drink much these days, but if I do have one, it’s gotta be quality stuff.”

  Ted clinked his glass against hers. “Like father, like daughter,” he said with a smile. “And this, baby girl, is some very fine stuff. You know me. I’m a man of simple tastes, but this is one little luxury I like to indulge in every once in a while.”

  Mary took a sip and sighed. “Mm, lovely stuff, Dad, lovely stuff. I hope you’ve got a good stash of this!”

  “Oh I do, don’t you worry about that.”

  They drank in silence for a while, listening to the calming sounds of the night and looking up at the dazzling display of stars in the clear sky. Mary finished her glass quite quickly and found she was feeling a little buzzed.

  “Need a refill there?” Ted asked.

  “Sure, if you don’t mind.”

  “Of course not. I’ll bring out the bottle.”

  After Ted went back into the cabin to fetch the bottle, a tumult of memories began to cascade through Mary’s mind. Guilt at what she’d done all those years ago still gnawed at her innards with relentless persistence, but she didn’t know how to even begin to approach the topic with Ted. His footsteps interrupted these thoughts, and although Mary smiled at him when he returned to the porch, he could tell that something was worrying her. He didn’t pry, though; he knew she would open up when she was ready.

  “Do you mind if I ask about Ann’s father?” Ted said. “And I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, of course.”

  “No, no, it’s fine,” she said. “His name was Alex,” she continued, feeling the usual strange cocktail of sadness, bitterness, and anger that she always did whenever talk of her former husband came up. “We met when I was twenty. I fell head over heels for him; he was so sweet and charming, really swept me off my feet. And he was a good man, a decent man with old-fashioned values—or, at least, I thought he was. A year later, I was pregnant with Ann, and we eloped—his rich parents didn’t approve of me at all. We drove across the country, got married in a Vegas chapel. Crazy, huh?” She laughed softly and shook her head. “We were going to start a new life in California. And we did, for all of two years. Alex quickly decided that fatherhood and being a responsible dad weren’t for him, though. He only got deeper into his partying and drinking while I was stuck doing my best to make ends meet and take care of a baby. And as much of an asshole as he was, I still loved him. God, I loved him. Even when he started disappearing for days at a time. Well, one day, he just never came back. After a week, I filed a missing person report with the cops. The week after that, I got a collect call from a payphone in New Orleans. It was Alex. He said he’d been doing a lot of thinking, and he’d needed some time alone, and … oh, I won’t bore you with the details,” she said bitterly, tears rimming her eyes. “The bottom line was, he wasn’t coming back. Ever.”

  “I’m sorry, baby girl,” Ted said gently. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you during that time.”

  “No, no, that’s my fault, Dad. It’s all my fault, don’t you apologize for it. At any time, I could have reached out to you and come back here. I mean, after Alex left me, I came all the way back to the East Coast, and I could have come back to you and asked for help. But I was too ashamed of what I’d done, too embarrassed about being a failure, too proud to ask for help, and too guilty that I’d broken your heart.”

  “Mary, you don’t need to be holding onto feelings like that. The past is the past; it’s behind us. Don’t be a prisoner to guilt; it’ll just eat you alive. And I don’t want you thinking that your running away was all your fault. I know I played a part in driving you away. All you wanted was a normal childhood, and to have a normal teenage life, and I was so focused on survival and preparing you for disasters like this one, I refused to allow you to have anything of the sort. I know my own stubbornness played a big part in why you did what you did.”

  “It doesn’t excuse the fact that I never called, that I never—”

  “That’s enough, Mary,” Ted said softly. “We’ve both caused each other a lot of pain. Too much pain. We’ve lost twenty years, but now, at least, we’ve been given a chance to start afresh. So let’s leave the past behind, leave all that guilt and pain behind and wipe the slate clean. Here you are, back where you belong. That’s what counts.”

  Choking down a sob, Mary nodded, and a single tear ran down her cheek. “Yeah, Dad,” she said, her voice cracking. “Let’s do that.”

  They got up from their chairs and shared a long, tight hug, and both of them had misty eyes and knots in their throats when they eventually sat down again. From then on, they talked of lighter-hearted things, shared memories from Mary’s childhood and the good times they’d had when she’d been a young girl. They also talked about her mother; she had died of cancer when Mary had only been four years old. Thus, Mary’s memories of her mom were few, and those that she did have were hazy. She had always felt a gulf of sadness within her, though, about the loss of her mother, and hearing her father talk about the good times he’d had with her mother went away toward healing this old wound. During her childhood and teenage years, her fa
ther had always refused to talk about her mother; it had taken him many years to get over her passing. On this night, both of them thus felt a measure of emotional healing as they talked

  By the time Mary eventually went to sleep, she felt as if a ten-ton weight had been lifted from her shoulders and a cancerous tumor had been successfully purged from her body. All of the guilt and sadness she’d been carrying around for years was gone, and finally, it seemed, her life felt whole again.

  She realized, of course, that this time of peace and happiness would not last; she knew that the chaos from the EMP strike would be spreading far and wide and that there was little they could do to escape it here. All they could really do was brace for the impact and hope that whatever devastation it brought with it could be minimized and contained.

  Mary wondered how long it would be before the chaos reached the shores of this wonderful place. She closed her eyes and prayed that it wouldn’t be too soon, but she knew that this was wishful thinking.

  She knew that it would hit sooner or later, but what she didn’t know was that the trigger that would set off an explosive chain of events would come from within this community, not from the outside and that it would begin sooner than any of them thought … a lot sooner, in fact.

  25

  Five weeks had passed since the EMP strike, and Mary, Ann, and James had adjusted well to life on the homestead. Mary now felt almost like her previous life in the city was some sort of extended dream she’d just woken from. Although she missed wrenching on classic cars, she was happy to work on the land out here and get back into the simple rural life she’d hated so much as a teenager. There were, of course, vehicles out here; there was the Army Humvee she’d come here in, and a few old trucks and dirt bikes from the 1950s and 60s. Ted had kept all the vintage vehicles in pristine condition, though, so they didn’t need much maintenance. Sometimes Mary would simply sit in the old trucks and think about her past life in the city, understanding, with bittersweet nostalgia, that it was something that she may never be able to go back to. Still, for the most part, she was content to work on the homestead.