The Blackout (6 page)

Gary raised an eyebrow and turned his attention to a large camping-style lantern.  It was battery-powered too, so he didn’t hold his breath as he flipped the switch.  Nothing happened. 

Panic crept into their voices.  “We don’t have anything else.  It’s not like we keep candles around.” 

Gary shook his head.  “No, why would you?  These would be enough in a hurricane or outage situation.”  He turned to them.  “Listen, we’ll be fine.  It’s just a little dark.  We’re big boys.  Go home before it gets too dark to find your way, OK?”

“OK,” they both said at once, relief and guilt fighting for time on their faces.

They planned to walk to the home of the one who lived the closest;  they’d separate from there. 

When Gary locked the door behind them, the sound of the bolt slamming home resonated.  Their band of refugees, as it were, had just shrunk by half. 

Clint could see his despair.  “I found a deck of cards when we were looking for candles and supplies.  Wanna play?” 

Heck, there wasn’t anything else to do.  “Sure.”

So they played cards.  They pulled the table close to the window where the moonlight was shining in the brightest.  Clint taught Gary how to play all kinds of games – poker games he hadn’t played before, although Gary didn’t think those were very fun with just two people, something called ‘down and up’, euchre, and some Gary didn’t remember the name of.  He felt it was a relief to have something to keep his mind off the status quo, and almost have some normalcy, even if they were playing by moonlight.  He almost felt like it was fun.

Gary was quite certain more than once that Clint tried to cheat and say his card was an ace when it was really a deuce.  It was hard telling sometimes in the darkness, and made for some lively games.

They played for a long time, and Gary thought it was pretty late when they finally decided to try and get some sleep.  They chose couches and settled in.  They got blankets from the plane and used the throw pillows on the couches.  It was no five-star resort hotel, but they were warm, dry and safe.  It was the last time he would enjoy such luxuries for a long time.

Gary listened to Clint’s even breathing and wondered about Molly.  He knew she would be worried after not hearing from him all day, and he was concerned about her.  He hoped she could get some sleep tonight, and he prayed that she would know he was safe. 

He drifted off to sleep thinking the same thing he did every night he was away. 
I love you, Molly, and I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again.

Speculation

7.

“Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

Confusion rode in on the coattails of darkness.  Everyone in the world thought normalcy would be restored any minute, and no one was thinking in terms of permanency – not yet at least. 

Communication was taken back to the times before Alexander Graham Bell, before Morse code, before the Pony Express.  There was no one to talk to except the neighbors.   The world shrank to walking distance.  No longer was there news of other countries, other cities, or other places.  In fact, no longer was there news at all. 

Each community assumed they were the only ones stricken with the debilitating problem, and that soon their neighboring cities would come to their aid.

They were wrong.

8.

After about two days, Molly really started to worry.  None of her neighbors knew anything.  There was no word.  Nothing.  No communication from emergency relief teams.  No inkling that help was on the way. 

Water was becoming a problem.  She didn’t realize it that first night when she settled in with Dug and Sally, but the water had stopped, leaving a lot of people in a pretty desperate state.  It seemed odd to Molly that the water and power were out at the same time, with no natural disaster to blame…unless the power was out at the actual pumping stations. 

She had quite a bit of bottled water on hand, but nothing to flush the toilet with.  She walked to the beach and got a bucket of sea water for flushing and some for bathing.  Clearly, bathing was about to become a luxury.  There was a stream of fresh water a little further away, in the opposite direction of the beach, and she thought she might have to resort to using that for washing and flushing if this went on too long.  Molly didn’t know what she would do if her supply of drinking water ran out. 
I could boil water over the grill, but what will I do when the charcoal runs out?
she wondered.
Gather wood.  I would gather wood.

She started to realize there seemed to be practical answers for most of her questions.  But there were some big ones she had nothing for. 
What happened to Gary?  Where is he?  Is he all right?
 
Will he still come home in a few days?  Or is the power out where he’s at as well?  What if he was in the air when everything went out? 
She tried to push the thoughts from her mind and focus on more immediate problems.

Those first days, Molly tried to eat what she could in the refrigerator and the freezer, but inevitably some of it spoiled.  She even fed some of the meat to Dug and Sally, and they thought they were in paradise.  She ended up throwing some of it away though, and as she was cleaning out the fridge, she wondered when they would come to take the trash. 

It seemed like everything had come to a screeching halt.  There had been no work, no community services, and no news for the past two days.  Several times a day, the neighbors gathered in the street to talk about what they thought was going on.  Some said they thought this was happening in more places than just their town.  Otherwise, there would have been help, or at least contact from the outside world. 

The thought filled Molly with a sense of dread. 
If the Blackout was more widespread, we may have to learn to live like this for an extended period.
 
Maybe even a few weeks,
she thought.  Luckily, their area was used to being without power due to the hurricanes that regularly pummeled the area, so most of the neighborhood wasn’t without food or basic supplies.  However, no one had enough to last over a week.  Well, almost no one.

Jimmy Jean was a nut.  At least everyone in the neighborhood thought so.  A retired military man, he was one of those extremists, telling anyone who would listen what would happen during a catastrophic event.  He was convinced a government collapse was inevitable; the only question was when.  He had enough food stores in his basement to last for months, and had even given Molly and Gary a tour once, trying to educate them on the importance of preparedness.  Gary had been annoyed, but Molly thought he was sweet and harmless.  Jimmy’s wife had died years before he’d moved to the area, and they’d never had kids.  Molly decided the “end is near” stuff was sort of a hobby for him, something to occupy his time.  Nothing more than that.

Now that she was surrounded by darkness, Molly wondered what he thought about all this.  He’d been noticeably absent at the neighborhood gossip fests, which wasn’t like him.  He always liked to spread his apocalyptic views, and what better time than now?

Molly decided to walk over there and find out if he was OK.  He lived a few streets over, near the outskirts of town.  That day, it was warm for early October, and Molly broke into a sweat before she arrived at Jimmy’s door.

She knocked and waited patiently for a reply.  There were no sounds inside, no one stirring, no one moving to answer her knocks.  She knocked again.  “Hey, Jimmy?  It’s Molly!  You OK?” 

No answer.  Molly walked around the back of the house, trying to see in a few of the windows.  She was too short for most, but the basement windows weren’t a problem.  She laid down on the ground and peered in.  It was dark in there, but she could make out Jimmy’s shelves of supplies, and thought she caught movement in the shadows, but couldn’t be sure. 

“Jimmy?”  she said a little louder.  “Hey!  Are you OK?” 

She sat up in the grass near the window well, trying to decide what to do.  If he was hurt in there, she should try to help him.  But if he was just out he’d be mad if she broke a window. 

A clicking noise behind her interrupted her thoughts.  “Whaddya want?”

Her relief was short-lived.  She turned around to find a shotgun pointed at her face, with Jimmy on the other end.  “Jesus Jimmy!  What the hell?”  She brushed the barrel of the gun away from her face, but he quickly repositioned it.

“I’m not gonna ask ya again.”  His voice was low.  She’d never seen him like this before.  He might have been a little nutty, but Molly never thought he was dangerous.

“I just came to see if you were OK.  I haven’t seen you in a few days, and it seemed like what was going on was your bread and butter, so I got worried.  Sue me.” 

He lowered the gun.  “Oh.  I thought ya might be here for my food.” 

She eyed him.  “Seriously, Jimmy?  It’s been two days.” 

He cleared his throat as he disarmed the weapon.  “Well, as ya can see, I’m fine.  So you can go back home.” 

“If that’s what you want.”  She’d never seen him acting so prickly before, except towards people who laughed at his theories.  She wasn’t laughing.  “Jimmy, what’s wrong?  What’s going on?” 

“Can’t you see, Molly?  It’s happened!”  His eyes had a feral quality about them that Molly didn’t care for.  “As soon as everyone realizes that, it’ll be every man for himself.  And I’ll tell you one thing, those sorry sons of bitches aren’t getting one thing from me.  I warned you, didn’t I?”

She sighed.  “Yes.  Yes you did.”  She paused.  “You don’t think the power’ll come back soon?”  She had no reason to believe otherwise.  But clearly, Jimmy did.

“No, honey.  I don’t.”

“State your sources.”  It was a phrase she often used with Jimmy when they debated about his theories. 

“It’s too much to recover from just like that, Molly.  The water’s off, the phones are out, all communications have been severed, transportation has been brought to a screeching halt.” He paused and shook his head.  “What they’re saying on the radio doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy either.  If it was just one of those things, we might expect a speedy recovery, but it’s too much.  We’re gonna be in the dark for a long time.” 

“Wait, your radio works?”

“Of course it does.  Kept it in my filing cabinet for just such an emergency. “

Molly wasn’t following.

“It’s a makeshift Faraday cage, Molly.”  Molly looked at him blankly.  “You know, to protect it from EMPs?”

“Right.  Remind me what an EMP is.”

He rolled his eyes.  “Don’t you ever listen to me?  An electro-magnetic pulse.  it knocks the power out.  Who knows what caused it, but the result it pretty clear.”

She shook her head.  “Back to the point, Jimmy.  What are they saying on the radio?”

“Not much.  Mostly military-type transmissions if I can get anything.”  She looked at him.  Obviously she wanted more details – details that would give her answers.  “Look, they’re not saying much, Molly.  And what they are saying ain’t good.” 

Molly frowned.  “Jimmy, what do you think happened to Gary?  When do you think he’ll be home?” 

Jimmy put his arm around Molly as he walked her to the edge of his property.  “I don’t know, honey.”

She turned to him before she walked away.  “Jimmy, did you put anything else in your little cage?”

He smiled devilishly at her.  “Of course I did.  I’m not stupid.”  He turned and walked away without telling her what other saving graces he had in his arsenal.

A sinking feeling settled into Molly’s chest as she walked back to her house. 
Jimmy’s crazy, right?  Everything will be up and running any minute now.  Heck, it could be on right now!
  She couldn’t help admitting everything Jimmy said made sense, though, and she didn’t like that one bit.

On the third day, there was talk of getting a group together and going to the local grocery store to get what canned and dry goods they could before everything was taken.  Molly didn’t need anything yet, but she thought it was a good idea.  Others might have the same idea, and if they waited too long, there wouldn’t be anything left.  Jimmy was, of course, better prepared and stayed behind. 

She tried not to think too much about the chaos that would ensue if supplies ran out before help arrived.  Her mind flashed to Jimmy’s shotgun and she shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of the image.

The store was only about two miles away from their street.  The city was good about having one every five miles or so, so that no one was too far from what they needed.  A few people decided to ride their bikes, equipped with backpacks and baskets, but Molly wanted to walk.  She thought it would be too hard to manage heavy supplies and balance on a bike.

When they arrived after about an hour, the doors were locked.  One of the men had brought a crowbar, though, and beat the glass until it shattered.  Someone else brought a towel that they swept the frame with, making it safe for all of them to pass through.  Apparently they were the first to arrive. 

After only three days without power, Molly felt odd about breaking into the grocery store this way, but with each passing day, Jimmy became more and more right.  With no communication from anyone, who’s to say how long it would be?  They’d gone longer than that during hurricane season, but they’d had a constant stream of information and knew what to expect.  The silence rattled everyone.  Even though none of them were desperate, they decided this was the best way to keep the situation from
becoming
desperate.  The consensus was that being proactive was the best approach. 

So, Molly grabbed some bags from the front of the store and passed out the extras.  Then, they fanned out. 

The store’s front wall was mostly floor-to-ceiling windows, but the other three walls were nothing but cement, so it was pretty dark towards the back.  Molly didn’t even venture into the freezer section, but she had to go near the meat department to get some pasta.  The stench was overwhelming.  Rancid pork, chicken, beef and fish filled the air with putrid odors.  It threw her gag reflex into overdrive.