CHAPTER 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, September 3rd

Katy, Texas

Kyle awoke in a small bed in an unfamiliar bedroom, the bright sunlight shining on him through the window of the bedroom. Outside the sounds of a typical Saturday morning could be heard--birds singing, dogs barking, and a lawn mower in a neighbor’s yard. From the kitchen he could hear the clinking of dishes and the occasional sound of a chair scraping on the floor. He lay in bed for half an hour, trying futilely to go back to sleep, but kept awake by the outside noises, the temperature in the bedroom, and a deep, nagging worry about his family as the nightmare that was yesterday played over and over in his mind.

Finally he got up, put on yesterday’s clothes, and headed to the kitchen. Virgie sat at the table drinking a glass of milk and eating a slice of bread covered with a thick layer of butter and jam. She looked startled to see Kyle coming down the hallway.

“Good morning,” Kyle said, sounding more cheerful than he felt. “I’m Kyle. We met last night, or technically this morning I guess; but either way, it was late.”

Virgie looked confused and covered her mouth as she swallowed. “I’m Virgie,” she said, pausing to think. “It’s starting to come back. Yesterday was a weird day, and then Ed came home in the middle of the night. I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on. Did Ed say something about airplane problems?”

“Yeah, you could say that,” Kyle replied. “There are a lot of things going on right now.”

Virgie’s look changed to one of concern. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Please have a seat. Can I get you something to eat? I’m sure you must be hungry.”

“That would be nice, but don’t go to a lot of trouble.”

“Well, we usually just have coffee and toast in the morning, but nothing is working, so I can’t get you either of those.” She got up from the table and opened the fridge. “Let’s see,” she said as she scanned the contents. “We’ve got some apples, orange juice, milk. Most of it’s not very cold anymore.” She closed the fridge and looked in the small pantry. “There’s some cereal, bread, peanut butter, …”

“Just a sandwich would be fine,” said Kyle. “Peanut butter and jam sounds good, maybe with some milk?”
“The milk’s warm,” she reminded him. “But I can get it for you if you’d like. It still tastes good.”
“Warm milk is fine,” Kyle answered. “I take it the power is still out.”

Virgie nodded. “It went out yesterday afternoon. I was at a friend’s house. Couldn’t even get my car started to come home. Strangest thing. I ended up having to walk over two miles.”

“It was like that at the airport, too.”

Kyle watched Virgie prepare his sandwich. She was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt and she hummed to herself while she worked. The small kitchen, devoid of any furniture other than the little table and its two chairs, reminded him of his grandmother’s kitchen from when he was young, minus the pictures and wall hangings that his grandmother had lovingly covered her walls with.

“So where is it that I am?” Kyle asked, attempting small talk as he waited for his food. “Ed told me, but I don’t remember.”

“This is Katy,” Virgie said as she poured milk in his cup. “We’re not too far from Houston, just a few miles west. With Houston growing so much, it’s more like a suburb.” She set the sandwich down in front of Kyle. “Now tell me what’s going on. What happened with your airplane? I’m still trying to figure out why Ed’s here and not in Denver.”

Kyle related most of what had happened. He described the failed takeoff and their escape from the airplane, how there had been no emergency response, and that other airplanes had also crashed at the same time. He told her about the chaos at the airport and why he and Ed had decided to come to the house. He described the drive from the airport, and how there were cars stalled all over the city blocking the roads, and that they had seen only a few other operating vehicles. He described the accidents, the people walking home, the lack of a police presence, and how overwhelmingly dark the city had become once the sun went down.

Virgie sat across the table, shaking her head as she listened to Kyle, her bloodshot eyes open wide. By the time he was done talking, Kyle had finished two sandwiches and three glasses of milk, and Virgie was nearly in a state of panic.

“So why did it take you so long to get back here?” she asked. “It should just be an hour’s drive, and that’s if traffic’s bad.”

“Ed,” Kyle answered. “There was a lady with three little kids on the side of the highway. Ed couldn’t drive by. She was headed somewhere on the far side of the city, and it was a lot slower going because cars were stalled everywhere. We could easily have been much later because there were a lot of people who needed help, but the Jeep was getting low on gas.”

“Sounds like Ed,” Virgie said. “He’s got a big heart, too big sometimes. So what do you think is causing all of this?”

Kyle hesitated before he spoke. “I was telling Ed, the only thing I can think of that could have done this is something called an EMP, a nuclear bomb detonated in space. It doesn’t blow things up, but basically cooks everything that uses electricity.

“I’m not an expert,” Kyle added. “It could very well be something else, maybe a huge solar pulse or something, but even then, depending on how intense it is, the effects are pretty similar.”

“If it is that EMT thing you described, how long until we get our power back?”

“Well, if it was an EMP,” said Kyle, annunciating clearly, “we’re probably looking at six months or more. More likely a year or two.”

Virgie’s eyes bulged. “Six months until everything’s back to normal? We’ll never survive for that long!”

Kyle shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. If it really was an EMP, normal is years away, maybe a decade. Six months is how long it will be until we might get some power plants operating, and that’s if things go well.”

 

Deer Creek, Montana

Jennifer was busily working around the house, the silent television and telephone making for a productive Saturday morning. The kids had cleaned their rooms. Emma had swept the kitchen and helped pick up toys in the basement with Spencer, and David had mowed the yard and swept the garage. When his chores were done David left for his friend’s house, and the two younger ones were now playing in the backyard.

By all outward signs, it was a perfect, late summer Saturday morning. The sun was shining in a brilliant, cloud-free sky, birds were singing, the kids were getting along, and the house was clean. Even the neighborhood, with its homes spread out on multi-acre lots, and which was usually peaceful anyway, was unusually quiet. Jennifer knew she should relax and enjoy the day, but something gnawed at her instead. She had experienced power outages before, and Kyle had been held over at work more times than she could remember, but this was different. She tried to convince herself that the power, the phones, and Kyle being late were all a coincidence, that Kyle was probably trying to reach her to let her know he would be delayed by a day or two. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been held over out of town.

Still feeling unsettled, Jennifer found her book and went outside to read in the backyard, hoping a good story would help take her mind off of Kyle and the power outage. Finding a lounge chair, she set it up on a sunny corner of their fenced in section of lawn, adjusted the headrest, rolled up her shorts, and sat back to both read and take advantage of the sunshine.

She had only read a few pages when she heard David’s distressed voice shouting for her. Not expecting him to return home until closer to dinnertime and with nerves already wound tight, Jennifer jumped up from her chair and hurried around to the front of the house. David was cutting across the neighbor’s property and running fast.

“Mom…you gotta…listen…to the…radio!” he said, trying to catch his breath as he came to a stop in front of her. He took a couple of deep breaths then continued. “Matt’s dad….he listened on the radio….the vice president ….he said we’ve been attacked….and that people have been killed.”

 

Katy, Texas

Kyle sat in the front seat of Ed’s jeep, slowly turning the radio dial and scanning for any station that was broadcasting, while Ed searched the garage for batteries, flashlights and candles. Ed and Virgie had scoured their house that morning but only found a handful of candles, two flashlights, and several AA batteries, which were useless for the flashlights. In the backyard, Virgie was cooking up the meat from the freezer. Steaks were on the menu for lunch, along with barbequed corn-on-the-cob and fast-melting ice cream for dessert.

Kyle strained to catch any hint of a signal as he patiently tuned the radio, likely the Jeep’s original with its old-fashioned dial tuner that made his wrist cramp but allowed him to creep carefully through the frequencies. On the second scan through, as he was about to give up and go help Ed in the garage, Kyle found a signal. He turned the volume up and fine-tuned the station until he could hear an intermittent beeping followed by a voice announcing an emergency broadcast.

“Ed, come over here! I got something!” Kyle shouted, waving his arm to get Ed’s attention.
Ed put down the box he was carrying and hurried over to the Jeep. “What’d you find?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s the only signal I’ve detected. It say’s there’s going to be an emergency broadcast.”

They waited in silence for the broadcast to begin, with Ed adjusting the rubber seals around the door of the Jeep and Kyle chewing on his fingernails as the seconds ticked by. The announcer’s voice came back. “We have an urgent message from the Office of the President.”

There was a brief pause, then a voice. Kyle and Ed strained to hear over the static of the radio.

My fellow citizens,” the broadcast began. “This is Vice President Brent Hamilton. On Friday, Sept. 2, at approximately 4:08 P.M. Eastern Time, our country was attacked by enemies we have not yet identified. President Stewart was traveling at the time of the attack and is currently en-route to Washington. The target of the attack was the continental United States, and, by extension, the entire North American continent. A nuclear missile was detonated approximately three hundred miles above our country. The result of this detonation was an electrical storm that appears to have crippled our electrical infrastructure. This type of attack is referred to as an EMP, or Electromagnetic Pulse.”

“Damn,” said Kyle. “That’s really bad news.”

No one was directly killed by the blast, and there is no danger to the population from radioactivity, but the consequences of the attack are exceptionally serious and will be felt by everyone. The power generation and transmission capabilities of our utility system appear, at this point, to have been destroyed, or at best, severely diminished. Telephone and communication systems have also been destroyed. Transportation systems will be greatly limited due to our inability to pump and process fuel, control air traffic, and because of the direct effect of the EMP on the electronics of most motor vehicles and airplanes. We have received word of dozens of airplane crashes and stranded motorists, as well as inoperable train and subway systems. The degree to which our government and military have been affected is yet to be determined.”

This is a threat for which we have been preparing for over thirty years, and many critical systems appear to have survived the attack, allowing the government to function in a limited but effective capacity. The military is also intact and is prepared to restore order and defend the United States from any military threats. All available military units have been recalled and will return stateside as quickly as possible. We ask that all members of the National Guard report to their assigned locations as soon as possible. We have been in contact with our allies throughout the world, and they have pledged to do everything in their power to help us work through these challenges.”

This is a time for the citizens of this great country to come together and display the nobility of character that has helped make this the greatest nation in the history of mankind. Every effort is being made on your behalf to restore critical systems as quickly as possible, but even under the best of circumstances, it is a process that will take months and potentially years to complete.”

The bulk of the recovery is dependant on the determination, ingenuity and efforts of you, the American people. As citizens, there are things you must do to help. Do not panic. Continue to respect and obey the laws of the nation and your communities. Be judicious with your use of food and water. We are aware that there are uncontrolled fires burning in a number of communities across our nation. Use caution in your activities as it is likely that medical, law enforcement, and emergency services will be unable to provide assistance. We encourage you to gather in your neighborhoods and communities and to organize yourselves to help take care of each other. Finally, we encourage you to remember our Maker and to call upon Him for mercy and protection.”

America, of the many challenges our country has faced, this is the greatest one of all. It will take the determined efforts of every man, woman and child to recover and regain our status as the leader of the free world. It is an effort that will not be without obstacles and difficulties, but there are no other people on the face of this planet who are more able to deal with such a challenge. It is a challenge we must face and from which we must never shrink.

We will continue to broadcast information for you each day on these same stations. May God watch over us all. Thank you.”

The station was momentarily silent, then the beeping resumed.