That would be the start, and then the water would stop running. Sure, we lived in a region rich with streams and rivers but most wouldn’t think to fill up their bathtub with as much water as possible, and others wouldn’t know how to filter water beyond filling up a jug they had purchased from their local Wal-Mart.

  How long would it take until people started acting erratic? Hell, people couldn’t control themselves on Black Friday, never mind an EMP. The fact was, there was no telling how folks would respond. It could take weeks before people resorted to violence, but the reality was, no one really knew what anyone was capable of doing until they were pushed into a corner and right now as far I could tell, our little nook of the nation was on the precipice and it wouldn’t take much to push it over.

  “This is not good,” Marlin said tapping the wheel as the Jeep continued to thread its way around more stranded vehicles.

  “What, for your business or in general?” Chase said, quick to get a jab in after all the ones Marlin had. As we came over a rise in the road that led down into Main Street, my eyes widened. Seeing the entire town plunged into darkness was beyond unusual, it was downright terrifying.

  Seven – Family First

  Upon arriving at the hospital, Marlin swerved up to the entrance, and I hopped out. The woman in the back was screaming in pain and I had visions of having to deliver the baby by the side of the road. That wasn’t going to happen. I yelled for assistance as I went to help her out. Though the front of the hospital was shrouded by darkness, there were numerous windows that had light, which meant the backup generators had kicked in. How long they would last was anyone’s guess.

  Most hospitals ran two types of generators, natural gas and diesel. It was critical that they had some form of backup with so many folks on life support and relying upon equipment to survive. Unfortunately, not all of those backups worked when a disaster hit. When Katrina struck New Orleans, I’d seen reports on the news that 215 patients died in hospitals and nursing homes because the generators had stopped working or had failed completely. It soon came to light that some of the generators were more than 50 years old, housed in basements that didn’t even have flood protection and the government couldn’t afford to move them to safer locations. If that wasn’t alarming enough, the fact that there wasn’t a national standard that had to be followed on how and where generators needed to be installed only demonstrated that survival was at the bottom of the list for the government. Unless individual Americans took it upon themselves to act, they were shit out of luck.

  Outside a small crowd trying to operate cell phones stared at us. I flagged down a nurse who was smoking a cigarette and having a discussion. Another orderly shot back inside and returned with a wheelchair. It was a chaotic scene as the pregnant woman wasn’t the only one needing assistance. Several locals were outside complaining and the second they saw the woman getting attention there was uproar. It obviously didn’t factor in that she was about to burst forth life, oh no, that all took a back seat to their needs.

  “You want to tell me how this is working?” Some guy was standing at the passenger side window conversing with Chase about why our vehicle was operating when his top-of-the-line motor was as dead as a doornail.

  One woman held up her phone and kept shifting position as though that was the cure for a phone that wouldn’t power on. She had a better chance of being struck by lightning than having that operate anytime soon.

  But the fact was that’s how everyone was thinking.

  If they couldn’t get their vehicles to start they would try to call home, or roadside assistance. Society had become so dependent upon government and local services that the idea of actually preparing themselves for the worst-case scenario had become nothing but a joke shared over lunch.

  But how absurd was it?

  Most folks were already paying an arm and a leg for auto, medical and home insurance, so was putting aside a small amount of money to pay for a bug-out bag or freeze-dried food really that crazy? If the prepper shows on TV were anything to go by, most of society would have screamed yes. The fact was, the media portrayed survivalists as nutjobs, paranoid crazies who had nothing better to do than overspend on food and water and waste all their time running through end-of-the-world scenarios. No wonder society laughed.

  “Sir, just back up, I don’t know,” Chase replied.

  We all did but no one would say a word. Kai made a gesture for me to hurry up. I made sure the woman was taken care of before I dashed back to the Jeep and hopped in. Marlin didn’t waste a second hitting the gas and swerving out of there. He nearly ran over the foot of the guy who was now shaking his fist and yelling expletives.

  “What now?” Marlin asked.

  “I need to get home and make sure that Tiffany and the kids are okay.”

  “Yeah, I should check in on my mother,” Todd muttered.

  “How much gas we got left?” Kai asked Marlin.

  “Quarter tank.”

  “Before we check in on our families, let’s fill up with gas.”

  “And how do you expect to do that if the gas pumps aren’t working?” I said.

  “Well maybe some of them are running on generators.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I said. “Didn’t anything of what Mack taught you sink in?”

  “Yeah, yeah, Slater, well not everyone is like you. Some of us actually had better things to do with our time,” Kai replied.

  What he meant by that was he didn’t get around to going through the tapes Mack handed out because by the time he was fifteen, Kai’s father had him working in the martial arts school teaching classes. The kid never got a break. He would go off to school and then come home and help his father and then still have to squeeze in time for doing homework. I’d forgotten that until he brought it up.

  “Look, with all these vehicles abandoned on the side of the road, we could at least siphon out some. No one is going to see us,” Todd said.

  Marlin cracked up laughing. “A few hours without power and you are already resorting to theft. Now I know how you support yourself.”

  “Screw you, Marlin.” Todd pulled a cigarette and wedged it between his lips before lighting. That was another thing that was going to be in short supply. Probably for the best. It had taken me three years to kick the habit but with the stress of the present moment weighing down on us and the aroma from Todd’s cigarette filling the Jeep, I was beginning to feel the urge to reach for one.

  “No, he’s right. Let’s do it,” I said.

  “What?” Chase said spinning in his seat as if the idea was that outlandish. “You don’t know if this is anything more than a citywide, or statewide outage. For all we know the power could be up in an hour, and what then?”

  “No one is going to know but if it’s not an accident, we have gas.”

  “What, are you planning a road trip somewhere? Because if it was anything like the one we just went on, I’m not going.” Kai said.

  I sighed and ran a hand over my tired face. I was sweaty, still soaked to the bone from hiking back in the pouring rain, and the weather outside didn’t look as if it was going to get any better.

  “Well unless you guys have some fuel at home, then tell me where we are going to get some?”

  “Brody, right now we just need to make sure family is okay.”

  “And we will but you can be damn sure if Mack was here, he’d want us to be thinking survival first,” Todd muttered.

  “No he wouldn’t. Family is all that mattered to him in the end. All that shit about surviving and defying the odds and challenging yourself was just bullshit. You know it was. It was just the spillover from an old man who was reminiscing his days in the military,” Marlin said as he headed towards Chase’s home on the east side.

  “Is that why you didn’t enlist, Marlin? Cause if anyone could have, you sure as hell could,” I said.

  “I’m not even having that conversation with you. We are going to Chase’s home, and that’s it. I’m dropping him off, then Todd, then you and Kai, then I’ll drop this Jeep off and walk back home.”

  I laughed. “You really think this is going to fix itself, don’t you?”

  “You don’t know, Brody. So stop acting like you do. All we know right now is the power is down,” Chase said.

  “So explain to me then why every fucking vehicle isn’t operating except ours?”

  “Maybe cause theirs all hooked up to the same damn computer and when that went down, so did the computer chips on their vehicles.”

  “Oh please, you can’t honestly be that naïve?”

  “Well I haven’t seen a plane come down yet. I would imagine they would be dropping out of the sky right now.”

  “Look, if you want keep taking the dumb pills, that’s fine by me but I’m asking you to stop and let me siphon a few vehicles. If it turns out that the power comes back on, I’ll take the gas back to where I got it. How’s that sound?”

  This wasn’t an argument about whether or not an EMP had fried the grid. Chase knew better than that. He wasn’t stupid. It was a case of morals. His mother had forced him to go to church when he was a kid until he rebelled in his teen years. It wasn’t like he was much of a churchgoer now, but he did have one hell of a guilt complex. He didn’t want to be an accessory to theft. And who could blame him? I didn’t exactly like the idea but what other choice did we have? I could have given him a lecture about how quickly morals would vanish once society was thrown back into a lifestyle reminiscent of the 1800s but would that have helped? Probably not.

  Marlin slammed the brakes on, and we all jerked forward. “Go on then, make it quick.”

  Eight – Neighborhood Watch

  Ten minutes later we arrived on Panorama Drive. Chase’s home was a far cry from my own shack. His wife, Tiffany, had her own jewelry line and was making more than enough that he didn’t have to work his usual real estate job. He’d quit it two years ago thinking that he’d hit the jackpot only to find himself taking over the position of mommy dearest. That’s right, he’d got a promotion to head diaper changer and spent his afternoon ironing, vacuuming and doing anything else Tiffany could put on her man bitch list.

  There was no vehicle parked outside as the Jeep turned into their driveway. He lived in a prestigious neighborhood and a home that most of us could have only dreamed about; four bedrooms, four bathrooms, with breathtaking views of Mammoth Mountain.

  “You think you can stick around? I’m not sure if she’s going to turf me out for the night.”

  “Why, has she done that before?”

  He pointed to the two-door garage. “I’ve spent many a night inside there.”

  We shook our heads as he wandered up to the darkened house. I hopped out, stretched my legs and followed him in. In all the years we’d been friends, Chase was probably the one who I’d spent the majority of my time with as the other three were usually busy. However, that was years ago, a lot had changed since he’d got married to Tiffany. Or perhaps, she’d changed him. Until he put a ring on her finger, she was as nice as pie. Back then Chase had his own apartment. Nothing fancy but almost immediately I could pick up vibes that she was expecting him to sell it once they got hitched. We’d go out once a week for beer and wings and shoot the breeze, have a few games of pool and laugh about old times but the moment he got back from his honeymoon that all changed. It was like she didn’t want him spending time with me, or any of the others for that matter. It was controlling but he couldn’t see that. The last night out had been many years ago, and it didn’t exactly go well as I told him that she was trying to run his life and he was going to regret it if he gave up his job to stay at home. But there was no telling him. In his eyes Tiffany could do no wrong.

  “Tiff! Kids?” Chase shouted as he entered the dark corridor. I tripped over some shoes that were haphazardly scattered on the floor alongside a coat.

  “Perhaps they stepped out to a neighbor’s home.”

  “No, she wouldn’t do that. Hell, she doesn’t even say hello to them.”

  “Are you serious?”

  He didn’t reply, but I knew it was true. That was just like her. Her home was her castle and beyond family she wasn’t in the habit of making new friends or even spending time with people she’d met before. I’d tried to get Theresa to bridge the gap. You know, take her out or invite her over so I could hang out with Chase but it was a lost cause. I often wondered if Tiffany hadn’t been to blame for my marriage breaking down. The few times Theresa had swung by her place she would always return and be critical of me as if Tiffany had filled her head with some foolish idea that she could do better. It wasn’t long after that, word got around that she was sleeping with Carl Stimms.

  Chase reappeared in the hallway holding a note in his hand.

  “She’s gone to her mother’s!” He sighed. “I knew this trip was a bad idea.” He shook his head. “I bet you a dime to a dollar she had the kids packed and in the SUV within two hours of us leaving this morning. Shit! And I can’t even phone her.”

  “Well where does her mother live?”

  “Bridgeport.”

  “So it’s an hour away. We’ll run you over there tomorrow morning.”

  “Tomorrow? I need to go now. This isn’t just about the outage, my marriage is on the line.”

  “Well best of luck trying to convince Marlin to hand over the wheel. Buddy, it isn’t going to happen. Besides, you really think Tiffany would walk out on you just for going on a trip with the boys?”

  “Hell yeah,” he replied without missing a beat. “That’s why I didn’t want to go.” He leaned back against the wall and let out a heavy sigh.

  “What the hell has happened to you?”

  He shot a sideways glance. The only light came from the moon that shone through large living room windows. “What do you mean?”

  “You act like she’s the only woman on the planet and yet she treats you like shit.”

  “No she doesn’t.”

  I laughed. “You’re in denial.”

  “No, she’s just…”

  “Controlling.”

  He raised a finger to me. “That’s enough.”

  “Seriously, Chase, when was the last time your entire clan visited your family?”

  “A couple of years ago.”

  I scoffed. “And you live in the same town. Have they ever been over to see you?”

  “No, but Tiffany has social phobia. She doesn’t like to be around crowds.”

  “You sure people don’t like being around her?”

  “Careful, Brody.”

  I shrugged. “Okay then, have you been over to see them?”

  “I’ve been too busy with the kids, house and…”

  I shook my head and walked out. The guy was blind to it. He was so enamored with her, or worried that he’d never find another woman who would actually treat him right that he was willing to let her use him like a doormat.

  He followed me out. “No hey, wait up. Listen, just because Theresa didn’t give two shits about what you did, you think Tiffany is controlling.”

  “You happy, Chase?” I asked.

  He snorted. “Oh you are a fine one to lecture me about happiness. You ever asked yourself why you spend nearly all your waking hours listening to those self-help audios?”

  “Because I want to improve myself.”

  “Is that so? So what’s the next level for a Von’s Superstore manager?” he said in his most mocking tone.

  “District manager.”

  “Oooohh, exciting stuff. Is that when they let you decide what brand of tomatoes to stock the stores with?”

  I flipped him the bird as I walked back to the Jeep and he locked up. The truth was neither of us were happy. I didn’t really know at which point I made the shift over from enjoying life to enduring it, only that it had happened. It was subtle. I didn’t just wake up and think, okay, my life sucks. A shrink might have questioned my marriage, but it wasn’t the fourteen years that it had been on the rocks or the divorce that changed the way I looked at life. It started long before that. In reality the last time I could recall truly feeling alive was between the age of fifteen and eighteen. Three years. That was it.

  I was just about to get inside the Jeep when someone called out.

  “Chase, is that you?”

  I turned to see a group of four people holding flashlights. They were walking at a fast pace and shining the light in our direction. I squinted and put up a forearm to block the glare.

  “Yeah it’s me.”

  “Oh good, I thought someone was trying to break into your place. We’ve already had one incident so far this evening.”

  Chase wandered over, shook the hand of a man in his late fifties, give or take, stocky and going a little soft. I stood by the door while the other three remained inside.

  “Who are they?”

  “Friends of mine.”

  “Doug, did you see Tiffany leave this morning?”

  “No, when I picked up the mail from the box the SUV was gone. I thought you guys had gone up to the lake.”

  He shook his head. “No, she’s gone to her mother’s, I just wanted to check when she left.”

  He looked back at me and then his neighbor continued his line of questioning.

  “This is crazy, right? You heard anything?”

  “No.”

  “I’ve been trying to get hold of the emergency utilities line but the damn phones aren’t working, no Internet and none of our vehicles will start.” Then his eyes drifted over to the Jeep. “But you seem to be in luck. You want to give me a ride into town? Maybe a power line is down or something.”

  “Actually, Doug, we’re a little busy right now. Friends of mine are worried about their families and…”

 

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