Grid Attack

Cyber War

Book One

Emerson Hawk

Copyright 2015

All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters or incidents are all a product of the author’s imagination. Any likeness to persons, places, and things are purely coincidental.

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Contents

Copyright

Chapter 1 - Katherine

Chapter 2 - Anthony

Chapter 3 - Katherine

Chapter 4 - Anthony

Chapter 5 - Katherine

Chapter 6 - Anthony

Chapter 7 - Katherine

Chapter 8 - Anthony

Chapter 9 - Katherine

Chapter 10 - Anthony

Chatper 11 - Katherine

Chapter 12 - Anthony

Chapter 13 - Katherine

Chapter 14 - Anthony

Chapter 15 - Katherine

Chapter 1 - Katherine

“What the hell? Well, isn’t that the shit!” I said to my cat, Socks, as I watched the washer stop filling and the dryer slow to a halt.

I went over to the breaker box to see if anything tripped, but I could tell just by the lack of sound that it wasn’t just in the basement. The whole house had stopped its usual hum of appliances, and I could hear the quiet chatter of the chickens in the back yard.

I looked out of one of the windows and up towards the sky. Not a cloud. That was normal for this time of year. The first couple of weeks of November in Missouri were usually awesome. Today was no exception. Clear blue sky and crisp breezes softly swirled the crunchy leaves around the yard.

I pushed the washer button to off so that when the power came back on it wouldn’t surge and did the same with the dryer. It seemed like lately there had been a lot of sporadic power outages. They wouldn’t last for long, but it was an inconvenience.

“C’mon Socks, you want some lunch?”

His ears perked as he hopped off the top of the warm dryer and ran past me up the stairs to the kitchen. He waited at the top of the stairs looking at me as if he was telling me with his eyes to hurry up already.

He was giving me little purring mews as I pulled a small plate from the drawer and then went to the refrigerator to pull out his can of food. He knew the routine.

After putting his food down, I decided to see if it was just us that had lost power or if it was the whole block, so I opened the front door and stepped out onto the front porch.

I saw my neighbor across the street and down a few houses out walking her dog.

“You got power?” I yelled.

She shook her head, “No, you?”

I shook my head as well as I walked over.

The sun felt warm on my face as I pulled my jacket around me. The November wind had that winter chill to it already. All the leaves had fallen from the trees except a few stragglers that refused to let go.

“Were they doing some kind of maintenance here, do ya know?” I asked as I got closer.

“I have no idea. But when I called the electric company, they had a recording that said it was a statewide outage.” She said.

“What? Statewide? That doesn’t sound good. I think I need to go call Tony. Let me know if you hear anything, okay? I will do the same.” I replied.

She nodded in acknowledgment and I went back to the house.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I was getting ready to text Tony when I got one from him.

[Power’s out here. Totally dead now.]

{Same here. Just talked with Annette. She said she called the power company and they had a recording that said it was statewide. That can’t be good.} I replied. {Gonna call myself…stand by}

I grabbed the home phone and realized that the VOIP service I used wasn’t the same as the old copper line. I had no home phone service now. Just my cell.

At least texts were working and I could see I had some bars showing I had a phone signal. I called the electric company and got the same recording.

{Okay, just called, same message. Entire state out of power. I wonder if it is other states? Going to pull out battery radio.} I texted.

[Okay, huney. I’m just waiting here to see what happens.] He replied.

I pushed the button to turn off the screen on the phone to save power. Using the screen caused the battery to be used up fast and since I learned a long time ago that smartphones are dumb when it comes to power usage, I made sure to use all the tricks necessary to save battery life.

I pulled out my backpack from the upstairs closet and dug out the radio. It was just a cheapo battery powered radio that had AM/FM/Weather bands on it for when we had storms or a power outage from bad weather.

It helped us to feel that we hadn’t lost touch with the rest of the world. It amazed me how much that made a difference when there were no lights and all you could do was watch the candles flicker.

I turned it on and it barely crackled. Dead batteries. Fortunately, I had just gone and recharged all the AA batteries in the house, making sure to replace ones that had outlived their usefulness.

I pushed in some new ones and it sprang to life once more.

Turning the knob, I turned up the volume and began to search the dials. It wasn’t one of those digital tuners, but the older style that just had a line that went back and forth over the numbers.

Searching for the local talk radio station, I was able to get it tuned in as the announcer was in the middle of reporting what was happening.

…and what appears to be power outages all over the country. We are getting reports from most major metropolitan areas in Missouri and Illinois, as well as Arkansas and Tennessee. Regulators are unsure at this time why the outages are so widespread. This station is currently running on generator power and will stay on the air as long as possible to continue to update you as reports come in. Hang in there folks…

I felt an uneasiness wash over me. Like, this was something bigger than just a power outage. I mean, how often is it that an entire state has the power out at the same time? Like, never. Usually, it is just one area that is usually affected and that is after some kind of weather event.

We haven’t had any bad weather in the entire state for the last several weeks. In fact, it had been so quiet on the weather front the local meteorologist teased that if the weather kept going as nice as it was, he might be out of a job.

I decided to text Tony again and see if he had heard anything.

{Babe? Radio guy says it’s not just us. I’m concerned. I think this is bigger than just a simple power outage. Please come home. Now.}

I began to pace the floor a little while waiting for his reply, still fiddling with the radio trying to find any signs of life.

My phone chimed.

[Sweetie, it’ll be fine. Don’t worry. Why don’t you bring in some firewood? We can have a romantic candlelit dinner by the fire tonight. :)] He replied.

My neck bristled. I knew he was trying to calm me, but it always irritated me when he “poo-pood” my concerns about the SHTF type scenarios.

{Please babe. I’m serious. Think about it. This isn’t your standard power outage. Call me.}

I waited for the phone to ring. Thank god the cell towers were still working.

“Hi babe, I know you think I am being paranoid. I’m not. I really think this is going to turn into a problem.” I said, not even saying hello.

“Babe, I know you do. You’ve been telling me for years that something big is going to happen. And just like Y2k, 2012, etc., it was always just a false alarm. Just like this will be. It’ll be fine.” He persisted.

The tightness in my gut was getting worse, and now every part of my being was screaming that this was not just a drill, but was a real threat.

“Look, the power is out and you can’t do anything anyway. So come home now. If the power comes back on before the end of the day, you can go back to the office. It's not like it’s that far.” I pushed.

“I can’t babe. I don’t want to risk losing my job. You know how it is. Unless the boss tells me I can leave, I…”

The call dropped. Grrr…

I went to return the call. No bars. My phone still had plenty of power. I just wasn’t getting any signal. I walked around the house and then outside to the back yard to see if I could pick up a stronger signal. I got one bar, but it kept fading in and out.

I tried to send a text, but it just hung and then failed.

Shit. I remembered reading somewhere about how the cell phone companies will throttle phone calls to save power on the cell towers. I don’t know how they did it, but it usually allowed us to text even if we couldn’t call.

I hoped that Tony was figuring out the same thing and just saying to hell with work and coming anyway.

The chickens had gathered around me, looking at me for treats. They had stress-free lives in our little city back yard. I squatted down as they came to say hello, giving me quiet chirps and looking at my hands to see if I was holding some seeds. I reached out to pet them and they would dodge out of the way just in time.

I sat on the bench near the coop and just watched them scratch through the brown grass and straw, a million things running through my mind.

There was nothing but the sounds of cars and trucks, and I could actually hear the interstate that was a half mile away. In a way, that was a relief. I had learned that an EMP would totally disable most cars and trucks. That told me it wasn’t an EMP and made me feel slightly better about whatever was happening.

Still, it was unnerving not knowing exactly what was happening. Damn. I should have bought that inexpensive HAM portable radio. I didn’t have a license to use it, but I could still listen. And it would have given me a way to know more about what was happening.

One of the chickens jumped on my knee and chatted with me for a bit. We both jumped when my phone chimed from a text and she took off running.

I fumbled the phone out of my pocket. It was from Tony.

[I’m on my way. Arm yourself. Will explain when I get there.]

I knew at that point, life was going to change for good.

Chapter 2 - Anthony

My call had just dropped with Kat and I was trying to get a signal to call her back when my boss came to my office.

“Tony, can I see you in my office for a moment?” The boss said. The look on his face said it wasn’t really a question. I walked down the hallway and into his office, along with a few of the other men that were managers like me.

He came back in and closed the door.

“Listen, gentlemen, I decided to tell you this without the rest of the employees because I didn’t want to cause a panic.” His face wrinkled as he looked down at his desk.

“I got a call from an old friend of mine, an old retired military buddy. Now, I can’t tell you everything he said, but what I can tell you is that this power outage we are having…well…it isn’t just here. It’s nationwide. There was an attack on the grid.”

We all looked at each other, not saying anything and trying to digest what he was telling us.

“Look…” he sighed, “things are probably going to get pretty bad before they get better. This could just last a few hours, days, weeks…or even months. They don’t know just how bad it is or who even did this. There is a lot of speculation, but that is all I was able to get out of him at this point.”

He plopped down in his chair and looked us all over.

“You all go home. Do whatever you need to do to protect your families. Things could get pretty bad. But, if things come back online, you all will still have your jobs, providing we still have customers. Until then, we are unofficially closed.”

He opened his desk drawer and handed each of us an envelope.

“Now, I know it isn’t much, but it was all I had in cash. With the power down, there is no telling how long it will be before banking will work again. Hopefully, this will help with things until life gets restored to normal.”

He handed each of us an envelope. We all just nodded and took it.

“I would appreciate it if you would not panic and keep what I told you from my military friend to yourselves and immediate family. I will go out and tell the rest of the employees that we are closing until we know what is going on, but that additional information will be left out. Understood?”

Speechless, we all nodded not knowing exactly what to say.

As we all emerged from the office, the rest of the employees and front office ladies looked worried. I smiled as I made my way back to my office and began to put some personal items in a bag to take home.

The boss came out of his office and gathered up the rest of the employees, explaining the situation and giving them all envelopes as well. I made my way to the door, eager to get home.

As I was making my way out of the office, someone had brought in their personal portable radio from their car. It was one of the older sales people who should have retired ages ago, but that the boss kept on because he was a friend of the family.

He had a small transistor type radio similar to what my dad used to carry. I heard the static as he turned the knobs, trying to find a station strong enough for everyone to hear.

I stopped to listen as I heard someone reporting.

…truck drivers are reporting outages across the lower 48 states. Some of the smaller towns are still operating, but they don’t know for how long. And some of the gas stations are still able to dispense fuel, but only to those who have cash…

Looks like Kat may have been right this time. Damn, I hate that I treated her concern like it wasn’t important. Shit. And the way this was being reported, things in society were going to break down fast.

I hopped in my truck and looked at my phone. One bar. I sent a quick text and told her to arm herself and that I was on my way home. I only hoped that she got it.

From what I understood, most cell towers had some backup generator power, but that power could be drained quickly if a lot of people were using the service. At least, I think that’s what Kat told me. I only half listened when she started to put on her tin-foil hat theories about how our grid could be taken down.

I also figured that somehow they stopped calls, but allowed texts because it didn’t use as much power. I imagine people were panicking trying to get hold of their loved ones.

I turned over my engine and pulled the envelope my boss had given me out of my pocket. Opening it, there was probably around $500 in twenty’s. That was a nice surprise.

I started to head for home. It was less than seven miles. Little did I know this would be a long trip.

Even though both Kat and I were legal to carry concealed, rarely if ever did I take my firearm to work because I would have to leave it in my truck and it was too much risk of it getting stolen.

Today was a day I wish I’d brought it and made a mental note to always have it on me from today forward.

As I pulled out onto the main four-lane road, it became clear that chaos had already started. There were lines at the gas station that carried for a mile in either direction.

Most people didn’t realize that all the gas pumps were now electric and wouldn’t work in a power outage like the old pumps. With the older pumps, you could still do a manual override to get the pumps to work, so you could just take cash and pump anyway.

Plus, the cash registers wouldn’t work either. They couldn’t use credit or debit cards, so the cops had been told to go to most of the gas stations and grocery stores to control crowds that were starting to build. That was only going to work for a few hours since there weren’t enough cops to cover all the stations and stores.

I made my way slowly through the cars, driving around them down the shoulder so I could get past.

Kat had always told me to keep my gas tank full instead of letting it get down past half a tank. I never worried about it because there was a gas station on every corner and unless I was going to be on the highway, there really was no need. Until now. I was glad I had filled up the truck the day before.

As I passed one station, the cops were already making arrests of people who were yelling and getting belligerent. That was unexpected. The power had only been out a few hours. Most people would just move on.

But there was something in the air. It was a new kind of panic and it set people off in a different way. I’m sure most people knew by now that this just wasn’t a normal power outage.

As the traffic thinned I breathed a sigh of relief and sped up to get home as soon as I could. Unfortunately, there was a traffic light that was out at a 5 way stop that people were trying to get through and it was a mess. People were honking and cussing at each other. You’d have thought we were in the middle of New York City with the way people were acting.

I sat patiently waiting as the lines of cars took turns going through the intersection.

My mind went back to what my boss had said.

An attack on the grid. I didn’t think to ask what kind of attack, not that it really mattered. Whoever attacked us, we were now at war with them.

War. Here. Now.

My stomach started to ache and my chest tightened. I could feel my anxiety rising and I hadn’t even made it to my turn in the intersection yet.

I tried to shake off the feeling and turned on my radio trying to find any station that was broadcasting. Most of it was an eerie dead air with the exception of a few stations that were reporting what they knew.

…Anyone who can go home is encouraged to do so. Do not waste fuel going places that are not necessary. Until we know when the power will resume, it is best to save the gas for use in an emergency. If we don’t have power by tonight, please remember to check on your neighbors. It is supposed to get pretty chilly out there, and there was talk of some kind of storm heading our way in the next few days…

Taking a deep breath, the cool air of fall felt good after a blazing hot summer. The breeze helped to relax me as we inched closer trying to gauge who was next to go through.

Just before my turn to go through the intersection, two people decided it was their turn and punched their engines in anger, leading to a crash right in the middle of the lanes. It wasn’t like they were going fast enough for anyone to get hurt, but it did enough damage to their cars that they would need to be in the shop for a while.

A rather large black man jumped out of his entangled Cadillac and began to yell expletives at the guy in the new F150. He was cursing and kicking the truck as everyone else tried to inch their way around the two vehicles.

Out of the F150 stepped a big red headed man in overalls. His clothing didn’t suit the look of his truck. He appeared a bit hillbilly but the truck was spit shined.

Before I knew what happened, they were both out of their vehicles in the middle of the road screaming at each other.

“What the hell is wrong with people?” I said out loud to myself, just shaking my head and looking around to see if there was another way to go around.

It was at that time that things began to go in slow motion. Just like in the movies.

The Cadillac guy pulled a pistol out of his back and began to shoot at the F150 guy. The F150 guy turned to try to run but didn’t make it far before he fell to the ground.

“What the hell?” I said as I quickly crouched down into my seat, only allowing my head up high enough to peek over the dashboard. Damn, I needed my gun.

Just then, the F150 guy rolled over and had pulled a pistol out of his front pocket. With a couple of rounds, he took down Cadillac man. Now, they both lay in the middle of the road, bleeding out.

For a moment, no one else moved. And no one got out of their vehicles. It was just too dangerous. Everyone just sat in place for a few moments. Almost as if to give a moment of silence for what had just happened.

Anxiety rolled through my body. I began to feel hot and my throat was dry.

I needed to get home to my Katherine. I was half-way there and it had already been an hour to go 4 miles.

I’m sorry I doubted you, Kat, I thought to myself. She had always said to be mindful, that we should be preparing for “just in case.” That it was like having insurance.

I had always been resistant and I was now regretting that decision, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it right now.

I was jolted back into my current environment as I saw a couple of young men run over to the dead bodies lying in the middle of the street, grabbing their guns and running off into the neighborhood.

That was a dangerous move and I decided it was time to go, so I put my truck in drive and slowly drove around the accident and through the intersection.

Normally, I am the type of person who would stop and offer to help. But not this time. This time, it was every man and woman for themselves.

Others followed as I felt the tension and anxiety begin to leave my body in relief that I was getting closer to home.

The rest of the way home was uneventful and I was grateful for that. I almost felt back to normal as I turned down the dead end street where we lived.

That changed when I pulled up to the house, only to find Kat’s truck wasn’t there.

I pulled in and turned off the engine. Maybe she pulled the truck behind the fence into the back yard to hide it. That sounds like something she would do.

Fumbling with the door, I sprung out of the truck and called to her.

“Kat? Katherine?” I yelled as I made my way over to the little gate to the back yard.

Nope. No truck.

Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and said a little prayer.

“Please, God. Let her be safe and bring her home to me.”

I let myself in the house and ran upstairs, grabbing my pistol. There was a box of ammo out already and a note.

“I just went to see if I could get gas and any extra food. Don’t worry, I will be okay. I’m armed.” It said.

She had no idea what was out there. No idea how people were already reacting.

All I could do now was wait and pray.

Chapter 3 - Katherine

I knew Tony would have difficulty getting back. I also knew that getting fuel or any kind of food would be next to impossible, but I had to try. It would be our last run because I already knew how our country’s food supply worked. I had to try to get everything I could NOW.

Ever since the U.S. went over to the “just in time” system, there is maybe three days worth of stock in any grocery store, IF that. Plus, debit, credit, and EBT cards wouldn’t work if there was no power.

Only cash. I knew that and had several places on my person that I decided to put a few twenty’s that I could use. I figured if I tossed a twenty at them for a loaf or two of bread and a half gallon of milk, I would be good to go, providing I could actually make it back to my truck without being robbed.

The anxiety was high as I made my way through the store. I hated being in an enclosed environment in a situation like this. I made a mental note of all the exits as I went through. That wasn’t something I had ever done before but now that all hell was breaking loose, it seemed like a good idea.

At the moment, the grocery store was what I would call a civilized madhouse. People were frantically filling carts full of anything that was available not aware that unless they had cash, they wouldn’t be taking much with them.

Then, there was always those few entitled ones who had lived off the government teet so long that they expected things to be given to them regardless of ability to pay.

That system just died. And a lot of people have yet to realize that this little bump won’t be that little anymore. This was probably going to be permanent at least for the next several months depending on what really happened and how easy it would be to get the power back on again.

There was a security guard that already had a woman in handcuffs that was yelling that she needed her food and they should just give it to her because she had an EBT card.

I kept my eyes open and watched as I took a small basket instead of a large cart. I knew that trying to take a lot of stuff would not allow me to leave as soon as I hoped, so I just got the things that I knew I could make last as long as possible and also have a decent shelf life of at least a few weeks without power.

Potatoes, onions, a loaf of bread. I grabbed nuts and dried fruits, too. It was fall, so keeping things cool outside would be pretty easy. Half a gallon of milk and some cheese and beef log. Small amounts of protein can do wonders.

Plus, I already had been storing water and canned goods, rice and beans.

As I scurried through the store, it dawned on me that I needed to start filling up barrels, the tub and anything else I could with water as soon as I got home.

I got in line with the others that had just baskets as the girl looked over my things. I pulled out a two twenty’s. She looked at it and nodded as I bagged the few things up and made my way out the door as soon as I could.

I knew I overpaid, but I wasn’t there to haggle. Cash would work well for now until people realized it may stop being worth anything other than fire-starter in the near future.

The time spent in the store was focused but tense and I found myself holding my breath a lot before exiting. I was glad to be making my way across the parking lot and into my truck, quickly locking the door as I got in.

Getting back home should be easy as there were no gas stations on that side of the street so there wouldn’t be traffic backed up waiting to try to get fuel.

As I started the truck, something caught my eye. There were a bunch of people gathering in the parking lot. You know the ones…the ones who’s parents never bothered with discipline. The ones you see in the videos running through stores, knocking stuff over and looting. The ones who pants are down around their knees.

I pulled towards the back of the parking lot and waited to see what was going to happen next with the mass of agitated people gathering. I took out my phone and put it on the car charger, hoping it would be able to pull some kind of signal.

At least we could charge the phones in the vehicles, for however long they would work. I tried to text Tony and let him know I was okay, but there were no bars at all.

I turned on the video just in time. There must have been 200 people storming the grocery store. They went in screaming and yelling, knocking people down as they stormed through.

“Why on earth do people have to act this way?” I said, exasperated and frustrated at how our society has deteriorated. I let the video run as it filmed the chaos that ensued.

Masses of people began running out of the store, screaming. Then, I heard gun shots.

“What the hell?” My heart was racing.

That was my queue to leave. I wasn’t about to be taken down by a stray bullet because some kid was on a rampage. I sped out of the parking lot just in time as I heard something hit the back of the truck.

Not wanting to waste time, I looked for ways to get around the snarled traffic, almost pushing my way through the intersection ahead and onto the side street.

I decided to take the other route home that would take me through the residential area as opposed to the main roads. I figured it would be safer…for now.

As I made my way block by block, I finally relaxed a bit. The roads in the residential neighborhoods were still quiet at the moment. Who knows what they would be like by nightfall.

I went as fast as I could home, and was so relieved when I turned onto our street and could see Tony’s truck in the driveway.

“Made it.” I said to myself, almost proud, but feeling kind of silly for actually taking the chance I did.

As I pulled up into the driveway, Tony came bolting out of the door yelling at me as he ran towards me.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” he yelled, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me at first, before pulling me into a big, tight bear hug. “You should have waited for me.”

“I did!” I replied. “But I knew things were getting hairy and time was of the essence. I figured it would be easy right now and harder later. Plus, I figured you’d get caught up in some kind of traffic as well. I just didn’t want to wait. I’m sorry, babe.”

I decided not to mention the riot and looting that came a little to close for comfort.

I hugged him back tightly. He felt good in my arms. I felt better knowing we were together now.

Heading to the back of the truck, I grabbed the couple of bags of food I managed to get. That’s when I noticed it. The bullet hole.

Tony came around to help me and I turned my body enough to conceal it as I handed the bags to him and we made our way up the stairs to the front door.

Locking the door behind us, he went and pulled the shades down just so we could see slightly outside. This wasn’t typical for Tony.

“What are you doing?” I asked, hoping to see where his head was.

He took my hand and sat me on the couch, sitting next to me.

“Don’t freak out.” He started, “The boss pulled a few of us managers into his office before letting us go today. Apparently he has a high-up retired military friend. He was told this wasn’t just state-wide, but nation wide. There was an attack on the grid. This could go on for quite some time.”

My head began to swim with all the things I had heard about prepping. I wasn’t a hard-core prepper, but I had felt things were getting a little crazy over the last year so I began to buy a little extra food and bottled water, just in case.

“Did he say how long?” I asked. Tony shook his head and furrowed his brow.

I knew we had limited time to set up things up to try to live as normally as possible. Mainly, I wanted to get as much water as I could while the city water was still pressurized. I wasn’t sure if the city had a generator to keep pumping water up into the tank, but I knew that once it was empty there would be no water coming from the tap. Things would really get scary if there was no water.

“Babe?” I called out to Tony, “I need you to do me a favor. I need you to get every possible container that can hold water and fill it up. Every barrel, bucket, trash can. Wash the rolling cans out and fill those too.”

Since we didn’t know how long this would last, I wasn’t about to take any chances. We could always use the water for the chickens, or the yard if things were fixed and back to normal in a week.

He looked at me funny. I knew what he was thinking already.

“We probably won’t be drinking that water, but we still need the chickens to drink, and we need something to wash clothes in and use to clean our bodies.”

I saw a look of relief on his face. I hated to tell him that if things got really bad, that he probably wouldn’t care about what was in those cans before.

Still, I gave him the soap and a scrub brush.

“Get it as clean as you can. Imagine if you would have to drink from it. Even though we probably won’t have to. Just get it as clean as you can.” I insisted.

“And do it behind the fence and as quiet as possible. I don’t want anyone to see you or hear you if possible.”

He rolled his eyes smirked. I gave him a stare. He knew I was serious.

Then he nodded his head yes, and went out the door.

I always wondered what went on in people’s heads who were looking at the end of the world as we know it right in the face, and not take it seriously. It was almost like they had to be hit over the head to ‘get it’ and sometimes even that didn’t work.

I gathered everything and anything that would hold water and began to fill it.

Since the washer wouldn’t fill the normal way because of the power outage, I pulled off the hose and just filled it with that.

Bowls, pots, pans…even plastic tubs that I had used to store clothes in got filled. They were heavy so I took them to the basement before filling them and figured we could dip out of them when we needed and it would be clean water.

I didn’t know if I was wasting my time doing this, but it seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. And since rain wasn’t in the forecast for weeks, who knows how long it would be before the water stopped, and then things really started to get crazy.

As I worked, I began to think maybe we should be packing up and heading down to my mother’s house instead. I know it was drastic, but it would be easier to get out of the city now than it would be later.

I just had to convince Tony that it was the smart thing to do. He wouldn’t want to do it. He would say to wait. I knew him well enough to know how he worked. But this time, I was right and I knew it. We really needed to get out of the city now, and not wait until all hell broke loose.

I just had to convince him.

Chapter 4 - Anthony

I knew by the look in her eyes how serious she was. She was moving around the house like a madwoman, trying to find anything that would hold water.

Wash out the trash cans? C’mon! I thought, as she handed me the soap and scrub brush.

Her face said all that needed to be said. I went outside and pulled the smelly rolling trash bins into the back yard and began to clean them.

Man, I sure hope we don’t have to drink out of these, I thought, as I poured soap into the can. But as I looked around, I realized we had cats and chickens to tend to. They needed water, too.

She moved as fast as she could, gathering and filling. I would see her come in and out of the house, with more containers that could be filled and lined up along the back of the house.

“Babe, do we really need all these too?” I asked, trying not to whine.

She just looked at me. Then she cocked her head to one side and asked, “Do you like to drink water? Do you like to bathe? Do you like clean clothes?”

“Okay, Miss Bossy Pants, Okay!” I said with sarcasm and sweetness. I thought it was overkill. But this was stressful enough without me questioning her motives.

I knew she was trying to get us in a position to be a safe as possible for as long as needed. I figured if things calmed down in a week or two, then we could just use the water for the chickens or the yard. No big deal.

I just couldn’t imagine that it would get so extreme that we would be worrying about where to get water. That just seemed so foreign to me.

I lined the trash cans and the large barrels we had along the inside of the fence to where the sun couldn’t get to them. I knew that sunlight would grow algae so it was better to keep it cool and dark.

Kat came out as I was finally filling up the buckets. She had filled everything including the bathtub.

“Guess we are spot bathing for a while,” She said. “Glad I showered this morning.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “But do you really think we will need all this?”

She was so patient with me. I was always the one who waited until the last minute to do things. It’s just how I was. She was the planner, I always just flew by the seat of my pants.

I still managed to live life just fine like that, but it never made her feel secure. And there were times when I was glad she had planned ahead. Other times, she obsessed about things needlessly. I didn’t want her to be stressed, but I knew this would be stressful for both of us.

“Yes, I do, and I think you will be glad that we did this as well. Actually, before you fill up that last rolling trash can, let's put it over here next to the gutter.” She said. “I will grab a hacksaw. We need to cut the downspout so that it will fill the trash can up when it rains.”

It made sense. We hadn’t had rain for a while, but if we did get rain we could collect it from the roof.

“I know it’s asphalt shingles, so this won’t be for drinking. But we can filter it and use it for clothes or bathing.” She suggested. “Let’s put one over next to the chicken coop as well. We can collect from that roof, too.”

What a smart cookie, my wife. I smiled at her and pulled her into me, wrapping my arms around her.

“I love you. We’ll get through this.” I tried to sound reassuring, not knowing exactly what lay ahead.

She put her head on my chest and sighed.

“I hope so. But I am thinking maybe we should lock up this place, grab the chicks and cats and head down to moms. It would make more sense to be down there than here. Things are really going to get bad here. Then it will be harder to leave.” Her eyes pleaded as she looked up at me.

“We’ll be fine. Your mom will be fine. She’s down there and will be safe. That little town pulls together when things get rough. I don’t want to up and leave here just yet.” I said.

I could feel her body tighten up as she pulled away.

“Okay, hear me out…” she started, “Right now, people are trying to get to the store, get gas and are occupied with just getting through the next few days. Most people probably don’t know that this will be a long-term thing yet, right?”

I nodded, as she began to make her argument.

“And right now, the highways are probably still moving. We can hear the traffic and I suspect people are trying to make their way home. But after people run out of gas and the cars begin to block the highway it will be harder to leave. Plus, there will be people that will want to steal the gas.”

I understood her thought process, but I wasn’t about to just leave the house to looters.

She continued. “If we leave now…today, we can pack up the guns, food, cats, chickens and anything else we would need and get out of the city without anyone looking at us as a target. If we wait, we may not make it out at all. Then we would be stuck here.”

If I let her continue, she would just keep throwing out reasons why we should leave. I didn’t want to leave. If things were really going to go south, I wanted to stay and protect our home.

“Babe, I hear ya. But I think it makes the most sense to stay here and see how things go first. No need to assume things are going to get that bad. Yeah, people will freak out at first, but then everyone will work together and we will make things work. I don’t think we should jump the gun at this point.” I argued.

“No, babe. Don’t you remember Katrina? Remember how many people died and how people didn’t really work together as much as fight each other? And that was after the government was supposed to actually be on the way, helping them. We won’t have that. If this is nationwide, like your boss said, there will be NO outside help.” She said, exasperated.

“We aren’t leaving.” I said. I didn’t want to argue with her anymore. I just wanted things to go back to normal.

“You are being so naive! This isn’t going to get better, it will only get worse!” she yelled, then quieted her voice not wanting all the neighbors to hear us arguing.

I took the last trash can and wheeled it over to the gutter under the chicken coop and began to fill it, deciding not to continue to engage in the argument. Sometimes, it was just better to leave her alone and let her deal with the fact that I was making the decision.

She went into the house, slamming the door behind her. I knew she was pissed, but I really thought it best to try to protect our home here. We had good neighbors, and I knew we would all pull together to help each other. I felt we could make it here just fine once people realized we had no other choice than to make things work.

It wasn’t long before she came storming back out, and up to me. I could tell she had been crying, but I needed to hold my ground.

“If anything happens to mom, it’s on YOUR head!” she yelled before turning on her heel and walking back towards the house.

Great. Now she is throwing some guilt my way. I shook my head and bit my tongue. Things were already stressful enough without us getting into a shouting match.

She was about halfway to the back door when both of us were almost knocked on our asses by a loud explosion. She squatted down towards the ground and quickly looked back at me, fear in her eyes.

Chapter 5 - Katherine

I lost my balance as the explosion shook the ground below me.

“What the hell?” I asked Tony as if he would know what it was.

“Look!” he said, pointing towards the large black cloud of smoke to the west. It was close. “I hope that wasn’t the aluminum plant.”

Crap. The aluminum smelter was upwind of us. We could smell the fumes on the days the wind would be just right. I always wondered if living down wind would be something we would regret.

Tony dropped the water hose and went out to the front yard to see if anyone else was there. He saw the Alderman pulling into his driveway and decided to go see if he knew anything. He had a police radio in his truck to keep track of what was going on in town.

“I’ll be right back.” He said as he took off.

I looked towards the smoke and decided I needed to keep preparing things as much as possible. I looked over at the chickens and realized that if they stayed outside, they would probably get stolen. We needed to keep them alive as long as possible. We got enough eggs daily that as long as they were laying, we could stay alive.

I began to think of ways to make this work. We had to make sure they got enough sunlight or else they would stop laying. But the only real place to keep them would be in the basement.

There had to be a way to rig something that would give enough light. Either that or we would have to let them out only for a while each day, and guard them. That would work as well I think, but I was afraid they might make too much noise.

Right now, we were safe with them being outside. I wasn’t sure how long that would last. I tucked that idea away at the moment and continued to look at other things we needed to do.

Heat. It was November and winter was coming. We had a fireplace, thank goodness. However, Tony had yet to order the wood I had been asking for. So all we had were what was leftover from last year. Shit! Shit! Shit! Why couldn’t that man just DO it when I asked?!

My frustration at Tony’s lack of follow through was already grating on my nerves and things haven’t gotten bad yet.

Tony walks in from the back yard. “I just talked to Dudley. He said a plane crashed over next to the aluminum plant. The cyber attack didn’t just take down the grid, but all communications for airplanes. The air traffic controller has been trying to get the planes down but it has been slow going with some of the older radios, and all the planes now have digital communications instead of the old analog radios.”

I put my hand over my heart, feeling for the people who must have been in that plane. Those poor people must have been horrified.

“He said that most of the pilots are seasoned enough that they are figuring out how to come down, but not all. The one that crashed was trying to miss another plane. He said he saw it happen…”

Tony’s voice trailed off. It was beginning to hit him that things were much more serious than he realized. I decided to try to convince him again to leave now.

I went over to hug him. “Let’s say a little prayer that they all died quickly and didn’t feel any pain.” I pulled him close to me. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t being callous, but we really needed to leave. I knew that would be the best option. We needed to leave while we still could.

“Babe, please. We need to leave. We need to get out of the city while we still can.” I begged.

He pulled away. I could see the frustration on his face. Now it felt as if he was just being stubborn.

“No, we are staying. I’m not going to argue with you about this.” He said, firmly.

Anger rose up inside me. I needed to stay calm, but he wasn’t seeing the big picture. I didn’t know what I needed to do to make him see that staying was a bad idea. Now, more than ever.

But now we were having a battle of wills. He was being stubborn just because he wanted his way. On the other hand, I wanted us to be in the safest place possible. It wasn’t in the city. He just didn’t get it.

He went back outside to finish filling up the all the containers with water.

I took a deep breath and decided to focus my attention on what I needed to do right now to make life work in the new world we were getting thrown into.

I went down into the basement to take a look at what I had as far as pantry items. Fortunately, I had stocked up on rice and pasta. I knew I had meat in the freezer and since it was November I wouldn’t have any problem with keeping things cold. There was plenty of meat in the freezer that we could use, and I had lots of canned tomatoes.

I could make soup, chili, and spaghetti for a while. There weren't a lot of fresh vegetables, but there were some canned and frozen. It would be imperative to make sure nothing went to waste.

As I began to look around, it dawned on me that the neighbors and friends may not be as prepared as we were. Hell, we weren’t really that prepared either. I just stocked up on extra things when they went on sale. It wasn’t like I was a doomsday prepper.

I went upstairs to find Tony. He was outside talking to the next door neighbor.

Mr. Chen didn’t speak much English, but he and Mrs. Chen were good people. They bought eggs from us and she was always making food and bringing it over. Sometimes, it was good and sometimes our Americanized palate just didn’t care for what she made. We always were grateful regardless.

Tony was trying to explain to Mr. Chen that he needed to store some water. He wasn’t understanding that the power outage wasn’t just temporary.

I decided to see if Mrs. Chen was home.

“Hi, Mr. Chen. Is Mrs. Chen home?” I asked.

“No. At store.” He said.

I nodded in acknowledgment.

“Tell Mrs. Chen to come see me as soon as she gets home, okay?” I asked. He nodded as he shuffled back into his garage.

“I tried to tell him to store water. I don’t think he understood.” Tony said to me as we walked back to the house.

“Yeah, I will make sure she understands once she gets home. Do you know if Carl or Evan are home yet?” I asked.

“Not yet.” He said.

I thought about it for a minute. I knew Carl had a bunch of rolling trash cans at his house. We should probably try to fill them up with water as well.

“Maybe you should go fill up his trash cans?” I suggested.

Tony rolled his eyes. I decided maybe some sarcasm was in order.

“Okay, or don’t. Just be prepared when they come to us looking for water. They may look at you funny now, but they will be singing your praises later.”

He breathed in a deep breath. He knew I was right. Even if he looked like a fool at the moment, that water could be life-saving.

“Alright, alright. I will go wash the cans and fill them up.” He said.

I smiled and nodded.

“When you get back, we need all the wood available brought onto the porch,” I said. “Even that stuff you don’t like to burn in the fireplace. We will be glad to have it when it gets really cold.”

Right now, the nights were chilly, but not cold enough to have a fire. I wanted to save the wood as long as possible. This winter was going to be brutal…if we made it that long.

Chapter 6 - Anthony

“Hey man, whadda ya doin?” Carl said, as he hopped out of his truck. I had taken most of the trash out of the trash cans and put it in a pile at the back of the yard, washed the cans and was just finishing filling them with water.

“Just getting some water stored for you and anyone else that may need it.” I said, assuming he knew why I was doing what I was doing.

The look on his face led me to believe he had no clue.

“Uh…you know we have no power, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it’s just a power outage dude. Not a water outage.” He laughed.

I realized he didn’t know the seriousness of what was coming. I pulled him over closer to his house, to make sure our voices didn’t carry far.

“Um, no, it’s worse than that. This isn’t short term. This could be indefinite.” I said.

He balked and laughed. “No way. That kinda shit only happens in the movies, man. Not here.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong buddy. It’s here. Now. Katherine is filling up everything that will hold water. I think it is a wise decision. If the power comes back on, then we can just dump it.”

He rolled his eyes. “Really dude? Your wife has been parroting those alternative news sites for years. Nothing has happened. And a little power outage has you on edge? What, did you give her your pants or something?”

His snide remarks made my blood boil. Yeah, Kat followed lots of sites. Some were legit and others not so much. She had been saying the sky was falling for quite a few years. But a year ago she just stopped because nothing was happening. So she decided to stop believing so much.

Now that something major had happened, I was wishing I had listened and done more.

“Let’s take a walk. Inside.” I said sternly. I didn’t want anyone overhearing me that didn’t need to. Plus, I was pissed.

“Chill man. Alright.” He said, unlocking his side door.

I closed the door behind me.

“Listen. My boss told me today that this isn’t just a local power outage. This is nationwide. There has been an attack on the grid. A cyber attack from what we know. It’s serious. This time, Kat was right.” I said.

His face changed as my words sunk in.

“No way!” he said.

“Yes, way.” I responded. “So yeah, Kat suggested I fill up as many things with water as possible. Not just for us, but for you, too. So I will let you get to taking care of your own shit.” I spouted before heading to the door to leave.

“Hey man, sorry. I didn’t know.” He apologized.

I just turned and left, disgusted. He was a friend, but his words about Kat were unnecessary. Especially, because she suggested this for him. To help HIS ass out. Undeserving prick.

Making my way back to the wood pile in our own back yard, I took the wheel barrow and filled it up with as much wood as I could and loaded up the side porch. We did this each winter because the porch was covered and right behind the fireplace and it made it easy to grab the dry wood and bring it inside.

I began to think more about what Kat had said about leaving now instead of waiting. I just didn’t think it would be that bad. She would let things stir around in her head and would think about things that might happen but hasn’t happened yet, and would scare herself.

Several years ago when she first started looking at the world differently, she would follow some really crazy shit. She went a little crazy at first, talking about the New World Order, the Illuminati and how the government was trying to cull the population.

There was so many more things she threw at me, I can’t remember them all. I just shut down and decided I couldn’t listen. There wasn’t anything I could do about it anyway, and I felt like worrying about something I couldn’t change didn’t help anyone. I needed to just focus on getting up and going to work every day and paying the mortgage.

I didn’t have time to think about the world ending. Plus, I didn’t like thinking that way. It really messed with me. So I just decided not to worry about something I couldn’t change.

She had convinced me to let her start buying extra food, batteries, toilet paper and saving filtered water. I figured it couldn’t hurt because those were things we used anyway. She didn’t go crazy with it, but she did stock us up nice on the food supplies.

I figured we had at least 3 months of edible food in the basement if for some reason we ever needed it. Plus, it helped her to relax knowing we had at least a few months of supplies.

I never in a million years thought that we would actually have to use it to live off of. It was so hard to believe that anything really bad could happen here. I just didn’t want to believe that it could. Not in America.

Standing outside, the city was eerily quiet. I could hear the cars on the highway, which was unusual.

The smell of the plane that had crashed was drifting our direction. Burnt aviation fuel and other smells made me gag, so I decided to go inside and check on Kat.

I figured she would be in the basement or upstairs doing something, but there was no movement in the house. I heard her sniffle and found her sitting on the couch, crying.

My heart couldn’t handle her crying, so I went over and sat down next to her, pulling her under my arm and hugging her tight.

I petted her head and tried to console her. Our new reality was already setting in and it was just the first day.

“We’ll make it through this babe, I promise. It will be okay.” I said, not knowing what else I should say.

She didn’t say anything at first. I could feel her tension in her body as I tried to calm her fears as best I could.

Socks jumped up and gave her his sleepy eyed look that always melted her heart. He could sense she was stressed and would put on the lovable charm to get her mind off of things. He was a smart little guy.

She reached over and petted his head as his purrs seemed to calm her down.

“Shit.” She said. “I hope I have enough cat food to last a while.”

She turned her face to mine. I could tell she was going through all the things in her head that she wished she’d done and was now feeling guilty for not being better prepared.

“Babe, it will be okay. We will make things work. It’s starting to get dark. Let’s get all the candles we can find and put them in here on the coffee table.” I said, hoping to get her back into preparing and to stop worrying so much.

When she was busy, she was productive and it helped her to manage the emotions better.

I could feel her calming down as she wiped her tears with a tissue.

“I just…there’s just so many things I didn’t do.” She said.

“Let’s not worry about that now, there’s nothing…” I was interrupted by a loud knock on the front door. It made both of us jump.

“Who is it?” she whispered.

I put my finger up to my mouth to make the “shhh” motion as I quietly made my way to the peephole. Looking through, I breathed a sigh and opened the door.

It was Dudley. He popped in the living room and pushed the door closed behind him.

He was wearing his pistol in his holster, out in the open.

“We have a big problem!” he said.

Chapter 7 - Katherine

I stood up as Dudley came into the living room. He was normally quite charismatic. However, at the moment he seemed quite stressed.

"The police department is no longer going to be available for you." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"There's too many things going on the police departments can't handle. The National Guard has been called out, but they will probably only be available for the most serious situations." He said."You guys are going to be on your own for quite some time. I just wanted to let you know in case you decided to leave the city."

He put his hand on the butt of his pistol and shook his head. I could tell he was struggling with what was going on. I guess we all had to deal with this in our own way.

"We've decided to go ahead and leave and go to her mothers. I just don't think it's going to be safe to stay here. We are older and we cannot defend ourselves like younger folks." He said. “You all take care of yourself. Hopefully, this will remedy itself and we can go back to normal.”

As Tony closed the door behind him, I felt my throat begin to tighten again. We needed to leave and it needed to be now. Or at least first thing in the morning. I looked at Tony, hoping he could see the stress in my face and would understand that leaving was the smartest thing to do.

"Don't worry babe, we’ll be fine." He said.

I knew he had already dug in his heels. He wasn't planning on leaving. So I needed to make the best of it. I actually contemplated leaving without him. But I couldn’t. He was my husband. My commitment was to him above all others.

I shrugged my shoulders. I just needed to get busy so that I wouldn't keep thinking about what was coming.

Tony had no idea what was in store for us. Hell, I only had a clue. I remember Katrina and how things ended up down there. At least this wasn’t a hurricane.

My mind shifted as I began to locate all the candles around the house. While I was at it, I located all the batteries I could find, taking them out of remote controls and other things we wouldn’t be needing. I hoped I could find enough to keep some flashlights going.

I remembered that I also had one of those shake flashlights in the truck as well as one of those wind-up ones that would charge the battery. I just wish I had put everything where I could find it.

As I went upstairs I stopped to answer the call of nature. Out of habit, I flushed the toilet. It dawned on me that the sewers would eventually back up once the pumps stopped as well.

“Ugh!” I said out loud to myself, not wanting to think about how to deal with our own wastes.

Camping. Pretend that we are camping. How would we deal with it if we were camping?

That was the easiest way for me to come to terms with how to do some of the things that I needed to do.

I decided for today, we were safe. As long as there was water to flush, then we could flush. But as soon as the water stopped, no more flushing. Then we would have to come up with something else.

If we had to, I would make a toilet in a bucket with the toilet seat. I had seen it done on a video and filed it away in my brain in case I ever needed it.

I had a container of cat litter. That could work as a substitute. We could also use the half bag of peat moss I had in the shed. Leaves and dirt were also an option. We had a ton of leaves we just raked up that were in a pile in the back yard. Worst case scenario, we would dig a large hole out in the yard and bury it, keeping it away from any water supplies.

Okay, I think we have enough options, but I will deal with it later. Right now, I just needed to try to figure out how to keep us fed and watered and clean.

There was so much to do. I kept wishing I had prepared better.

I went to see what Tony was doing. He had pulled out all of our ammunition and firearms and was taking an inventory of what we had.

We both paused and looked at each other in silence. The implications of having to actually use our weapons were something neither of us took lightly. But we both knew we would if we had to.

Let’s just hope we won’t have to.

It was starting to get dark now and I was having a hard time seeing what I was doing.

I went over and flipped on the light switch out of habit. Damn. We have become so used to having power so readily available that we have become a bit spoiled in this country.

I look for one of the lantern type lights and turn it on. The cold glow doesn’t do much to lighten up the room, but it is enough for me to finish finding all the remaining candles we have and take them downstairs.

“Do you think we should move our bed down here?” I ask Tony, thinking it would be easier to heat just the main floor instead of trying to heat the upstairs, too.

“Not tonight. It isn’t that cold tonight so we can stay upstairs. But yeah, I think we should do a little rearranging so the bed can be down here. It will be closer to the fireplace on the nights when it gets cold.” He said.

I nodded as I thought back to one winter when we had a power outage for about a week. It was bitterly cold, but we had the fireplace and we kept it going for days.

We also went through a lot of wood that week. A lot more since we were trying to use it to keep the whole house warm. We just piled the bed with blankets and used our body heat to sleep.

During that power outage we knew it was temporary, it was just an inconvenience. Now, things are going to be different.

Much different.

When it got completely dark, we pulled down the shades and lit up several candles. They actually looked pretty cool all over the coffee table.

I was getting hungry and because we had been so busy trying to get other things set up, it never even occurred to me to check the gas. I had a gas hot water heater which didn’t require electricity as well as a gas stove.

The oven was electronic, but the stove could be lit with a match.

I grabbed the long lighter we used to start the grill and went into the kitchen.

As I turned on the gas, the stove didn’t click like it used to but I could smell the gas as I lowered the lit lighter down towards the burner.

Poof! I had a lit burner. I smiled a little as I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, at least we have gas…at the moment,” I yelled out to Tony, happy of my discovery. “It will allow me to cook and boil water for cleaning and bathing for as long as it lasts.”

“Does the gas company use electricity to send the gas to us?” Tony asked.

“I have no clue. But we have it tonight. So we should save our propane and use this as long as possible.” I said.

It’s funny that I never checked on that before. I mean, I knew about the water and sewer, but I never thought to check on how the natural gas actually got to our house. Oh well, it didn’t matter now.

I looked through the fridge and pulled out any leftovers we had to cook them off. We needed to eat as much of the stuff in the fridge that we had first so it wouldn’t spoil.

We could always put some things in coolers outside. Actually, we could probably just move the refrigerator out on the porch as well. It was cold enough, and would keep animals away.

Tony took some of the candles and put them on the dining room table, as I brought our plates of hot food and set them down. He picked up a bottle of wine and looked at me.

“Shall we open it? Shall we toast to the new reality?” he asked, half joking and trying to make me feel better about our situation.

I thought about it for a moment.

“No, let’s save it. We never know when it might come in handy. Cash isn’t going to work soon. Food, water, and alcohol will be better than gold.” I suggested.

He agreed.

We did crack open a couple of beers with dinner, though. That helped us feel like we were just camping out.

Any leftover food we put down on the floor and let the cats lick the plates clean. They weren’t going to be too picky when they got hungry.

The water was still running and was hot, so I was able to clean the dishes before we went into the living room.

Our normal routine was to eat and watch TV for a while before crashing. Tonight, it was so quiet we could hear the house settling.

I snuggled up under Tony’s arm as we sat in silence for a while. We were both pondering things and our brains and bodies were exhausted from the day.

Even though it was still pretty early, I could feel myself drifting off as I pulled one of the afghans over me.

Tony petted my head for a few minutes and I could feel him relaxing into the couch as well. It was nice to just be still. I didn’t realize it at the moment, but these still moments would be hard to come by soon.

I watched the candles flicker gently as I began to fall asleep on Tony’s lap. I was thinking about how much work we got done in such a short time and was proud that we both managed to do it without losing our heads.

My peace didn’t last long.

Bang! Bang! Scream!!!

Tony and I both jolted awake at the sound of a woman screaming and what sounded like gunshots.

It was time to live in our new world.

Chapter 8 - Anthony

Shit! Just as I was beginning to calm her down somebody has to go crazy and start shooting already?

The sound of the shots had me on my feet, with my pistol in my hand as I peeked outside through the side of the pulled shade.

I couldn’t see anything, dammit. It was so dark. I mean REALLY dark. We are used to the city having some glow from street lights, car lights and house lights. It was pitch black and there was no moon shining on us tonight.

I carefully opened the door to the porch so I could try and listen to hear if someone was close by. I didn’t want to be seen either and my porch had lattice around it so it was hard for anyone to see me even though I could see them.

There was the sound of a woman crying coming from across the street and up a couple of houses. Normally, I wouldn’t have been able to hear that, but the silence made it easy.

“Annette?” I yelled out, hoping that it was her. “Is that you, are you okay?”

“Tony? Please, help me!” she yelled back.

My heart jumped as I quickly went back into the house and grabbed a flashlight and headed to the door.

“Tony, wait!” Kat whispered, grabbing my sleeve. “What if someone is out there? I don’t want you to get shot!”

“Babe, it’s Annette. She sounds like she is hurt or something. I’m not just going to sit here.” I said as I pulled away.

Annette lived alone with just her dog. She was retired and didn’t have any family in the area so she was all alone. I imagined being alone with all this made her a little jumpy.

I opened the front door and called out to her.

“Annette, I’m coming. Don’t shoot me, please!” I yelled out as I made my way through the blackness towards her house.

I could see her up on her front porch, her revolver in her hand. I stayed mostly behind the tree until I could see if she was okay and that she wasn’t aiming at me.

“What happened?” I asked as I slowly walked up the front stairs.

“Someone…,” She breathed heavily, “Someone tried to break into my window on the side. I couldn’t see who it was, I just heard them. My flashlight batteries are dead.” She explained.

“I will go take a look, okay? You just sit here on the porch and relax. Don’t go firing that thing again, okay?” I coaxed.

“Yeah…okay.” The anxiety in her voice was palpable.

I took the flashlight and carefully walked around the side of the house, making sure to keep myself low and hidden as much as possible.

When I got to the window a raccoon jumped out of the trash can and ran off, scaring the shit out of me in the process. I fell backward on my ass as he scurried off, breathing a sigh of relief it wasn’t a human.

I couldn’t help but giggle a little. This whole thing had us all on edge.

Making my way back to the front, Annette was still shaking from the whole incident.

“It was just a raccoon,” I said, trying to calm her. “He was trying to get into your trash can under the window.”

“Are you sure? I mean, it sounded like someone was trying to break in.” She insisted.

“Yes, I’m sure. The screen isn’t even removed. It looks like he was scratching at it or something.”

I understood how easy it was to mistake noises in the dark. Especially, if you have only lived in the city. Living in the country, you learn that some noises are just animals doing their thing. We normally don’t notice them in the city, even though they live along side us.

“Here, take this flashlight. Don’t use it a lot, but keep it for an emergency. We don’t have any backup batteries.” I said.

She thanked me for the flashlight and went into the house and locked the door behind me. Thank goodness it was just a raccoon and not an intruder.

As I looked back towards my own house, the darkness was a little spooky. I knew about where all the trees and driveways were, but not being able to see them made it harder to get back to the house.

Fortunately, we had white trim and the two columns on the front porch were white, so even in the lack of moonlight, I was able to see a faint outline that I could walk towards.

I could also see Kat peeking from behind the shade. The candles lit up the room behind her so it made it easy to see inside, even though there was just a sliver of light.

It made me realize that we would need to really find a way to not allow the light to show at night. It would be a dead giveaway to anyone walking by that there were people inside.

That would go on my to do list for tomorrow for sure.

I got back to the house and Kat asked me a bunch of questions. I explained it was a raccoon and not to worry.

While I knew everyone was on edge, I felt like the overreaction was making it worse. We needed to be able to keep things under control and not allow our minds to play tricks on us while we learn to live in this new reality.

“I left her the flashlight so she had something to see with.” I told Kat.

“What? Tony, we can’t just go giving away our supplies!”

She was not happy at all.

“If we give away all of our supplies, then what happens when we need them? Dammit, Tony!”

I knew she was right, but I am also not the kind of person who is unwilling to help if I can. I’ve always been available to help if I can, and whatever this life is now isn’t going to change that.

“It’s just a flashlight!” I yelled back at her, hoping to shut her down. I didn’t need to be judged right now.

“Oh, okay. Well, yeah, so it’s JUST a flashlight now. Then it will be JUST a can of food later. Then you will be starving because you gave away OUR supplies. This isn’t the same world anymore. We have to think long term. We have to make what we have last as long as possible.” She was pissed.

“Dammit Kat, I’m not that stupid. Give me a little credit here. I’m trying to figure out how to make this work, too.” I said, hoping she wouldn’t keep grilling me.

She grabbed her pistol and headed upstairs.

“Blow out the candles so we don’t waste them. I’m going to bed.” She huffed, as she stomped up the stairs.

I sighed as I blew out all the candles. It was going to be a long night.

But I had an idea that I hoped would make things better.

Chapter 9 - Katherine

I didn’t know if I was more frustrated at the moment with Tony or just the whole damn situation. Being in this kind of environment made everyone edgy. I just didn’t get him some days. I know his heart was in the right place and he wants to help everyone, but these aren’t the times to be overly generous.

It was so dark outside. No lights anywhere except the occasional glow of a candle in a window. I was amazed at how far light traveled. I could look down our street and after a few minutes, could see which homes had candles or some other kind of light. It looked quite bright in the total darkness that seemed to envelope us.

Fortunately, tonight it wasn’t supposed to be too cold so we could throw enough quilts on the bed to stay warm. When we had gone through the previous winter storm we slept pretty good snuggled under the weight of the blankets.

I pulled off my sweats and socks but decided to leave my shirt on for warmth. The sheets were cold against my skin and I shivered as I tried to find a spot to curl up. Tonight I wished I had my electric blanket to warm the bed up ahead of time. I guess I could have heated up some water and put a hot water bottle down where my feet were going to be. I would have to remember that for the future.

I could see the candle glow reflect off the walls as Tony entered the room with it. I asked him to blow it out so that anyone walking down the street wouldn’t be able to tell we were here. He made sure his pistol was on the night table before blowing it out.

Under normal circumstances I would have had the window shades pulled down to block out the morning sun so I wouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn. Now, I needed to keep them up so I could be up when there was light.

My plans were to use the sunlit day to get as much done as possible. Since the days were shorter it made sense to work as much as we could while it was light outside. There would be plenty of time to rest when it was dark. It wasn’t what we were used to, but it would be the best way to utilize our time.

Tony slipped into bed beside me and scooched over so he could use my body heat to warm himself. I was always warmer than he was and he used to tease me that he needed my BTU’s, which stood for Butt Thermal Units. He would snuggle up to me and within a few minutes have to kick off the covers because I would always put out too much body heat. I’m sure this winter, he would be grateful for the fact that I kicked off as much heat as I did.

Right now, I was mad at him and really didn’t feel like snuggling too close. But I thought about something my grandmother said years ago and have lived by it.

“Never go to bed mad. You never know when one of you will pass on in your sleep.” She said. It was words that I lived by as often as possible. I couldn’t imagine how bad I would have felt if something happened to him and he passed on in the middle of the night. I would never be able to forgive myself for staying mad for something so trivial.

Plus, being mad used too much energy and I needed to relax to get some sleep. So I let him pull me close.

“I’m sorry I gave Annette the flashlight. I will try to be more mindful of things now. Please don’t be mad at me.” He said, sincerity in his voice. He always knew I couldn’t stay mad at him for long.

“I’m sorry, too. I should probably be a little more giving considering the circumstances. It’s just that we don’t know how bad this may get or what we may need to get through this. I’m just feeling more vulnerable than I like.” I responded.

I pushed my butt towards him as he spooned me, his arm wrapping around my waist and pulling me closer to him as we began to get warmer. It felt nice with his strong arms around me. Safe.

We laid there in silence for a while, both our brains processing what was happening. I knew I was going to have a hard time sleeping. It was too damn quiet.

When the power was on, I used to use a fan or an air filter to help give me white noise to sleep. Otherwise, I was constantly woken by the traffic or people who would walk on the busy road next to the house.

Our house was at the end of a street that had been blocked so cars could not go through so it was kind of a dead end, but on the side was a very well traveled road. I was an insomniac as it was and a light sleeper. It was a bad combination for someone who loves sleep as much as I did.

The white noise blocked it enough that I could still hear if a smoke alarm went off or if there might have been a break-in.

Now, it was almost too quiet. There was no sound of traffic and if there were people out, they weren’t making noise. It was strangely calm and eerily quiet.

Thank goodness the chickens went to bed at dark and stayed quiet. The only thing that could be heard was an occasional dog barking.

As I took his hand, I laced my fingers in with his, letting him know that I wasn’t mad. I was still irritated, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that now.

Our combined body heat didn’t take long to make us comfortable, but Tony had other plans.

I felt his hips push against my backside as his manhood made itself known.

Giggling at the situation, I asked, “Now? He wants to play now?” We would always refer to his manhood in third person.

“I can’t help it. Feeling your warm body against me makes me want you. Plus, I figured I might be able to relax you and help you sleep better.” He whispered into my neck as he kissed me.

His hand began to softly stroke my side as he worked his way down between my thighs. Gently caressing my mound, I could feel my mind shifting away from the doom and gloom and over to the attention he was giving me.

I rolled over to my back so his hand could get a better angle before slipping out of my panties. Moaning, his stiff rod pushed into the side of my hip as his fingers found that special spot that helped me to forget everything but him.

My legs instinctively spread to allow him full access to the goods, as my hips began small thrusting movements.

His mouth found mine as he kissed me roughly, rolling on top of me and pinning me down. Then he worked his way down and under the covers, his mouth and tongue finding that one spot that would push me over the edge.

With masterful skills, his mouth lavished me, forcing me to beg him to fuck me. But he wouldn’t just yet. No, he liked to keep me under his control and he knew he could with his mouth.

I felt my body tighten with each stroke of his tongue, pushing me faster and higher until I yelled and shuddered, releasing the tension of the day into the universe.

Tony came up from the covers, his manhood meeting up with my drenched folds as they took him inside willingly.

He thrusts his body hard against mine, building up his own orgasm to its highest possible peak.

The familiar holding of his breath and grunting let me know he was close, as I reached up and gave one of his nipples a pinch, sending him over the edge.

His breathless body collapsed onto mine as we both held each other in the dark.

Yes, I would definitely be able to sleep much better and so would he.

He rolled off and we got back into our spoon positions once again. I could hear his breathing change and within less than 5 minutes, he was out.

I was always envious of how easily he could sleep. Any time, any where.

On the other hand, sleep eluded me most of the time. I would lie in bed and read on the iPad and listen to alternative radio with my headphones until way past midnight most nights.

Now, I didn’t have those little luxuries. And oh, how I missed them.

Chapter 10 - Anthony

I tried not to wake her as I slipped out of bed. She always had such a hard time sleeping. I hope that I helped her last night, but after I came, I couldn’t stay awake. I found out long ago that as long as she was here, I could sleep well. I knew she slept lightly and it made me feel safer because she would easily wake up if there was a strange noise.

She used to ask me if I heard the thunderstorm that passed through the night, or if I noticed the power went out in the night. She would actually wake up when the power would go out because it would become too quiet. It was hard for her to sleep on nights when there was a lot going on outside. Now, it was almost too quiet. Plus, with what was happening we were both stressed.

I normally woke at the crack of dawn. I had stopped using an alarm clock years ago. Waking up early just became normal for me. Although, now there was no need for an alarm clock anyway.

From what I could remember from the forecast, today was going to be nice out. Funny how we rely on technology to tell us the weather, the news, and even how to cook. It would be hard to not have that around anymore. I would check my phone as soon as I woke up like a smoker who needed to light that first cigarette before their feet hit the floor. Both of us were full on tech addicts to a certain degree.

Kat was a wiz when it came to tech. She was always learning about the newest gadgets and wanted to upgrade our electronics, but at the same time she was afraid of how well the newer electronics tracked our every move. I wasn’t sure I bought into all of that, but I did read a story about one TV that actually said they could listen to your conversations.

Having a TV that would listen to us would be ludicrous. Any why would the TV company care anyway? Something about advertising I think.

For now, I just needed to find some sense of routine. It would be hard because I was used having to get up and go to work to collect a paycheck.

Hell, not getting up and going to work felt weird. Almost like I was playing hooky or something bad like that.

I had always worked, always had some job. Even if I hated the job, I would work until I found another one or was laid off. Actually, rarely did I change jobs even if I hated it. The way I was raised, when you finally got a job that paid you well enough, you stuck with it.

Unlike today’s thinking, where jobs and employees are equally disposable, I valued having a job that I had been at for over a decade so far. I was hopeful that one day life would get back to normal and that job would still be there for me.

I went down to the kitchen to make some coffee and realized that I had no clue how to make coffee without the coffee maker. I grabbed my phone to see if there was any sign of signal. There was one bar that would pop up occasionally, but then it just said ‘no seervice’. I could attempt to make coffee, but more than likely I would ruin it and Kat would get angry because I would have wasted something as valuable as coffee, so I decided to wait until she got up.

I peeked out into the back yard to see what the weather looked like. The chickens were up and ready for the day so I went outside to let them out of their coop. Letting them run in the yard kept the bug population down and gave them food so we didn’t have to spend as much on feed.

As I walked closer to their run, they all began to chirp in their happy chirps and hoping over each other trying to get me to open the door faster so they could get out and play. Kat loved the girls and they had become pets.

They gave us lots of eggs that we would sell to the neighbors. At the moment, I was really glad to have them. Their eggs would provide lots of protein and in times of stress protein was so important. At least that is what Kat told me.

I sat on the bench and watched them peck and scratch digging for worms. The silence of the neighborhood was almost overwhelming.

I could hear people talking from across the road, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying and I couldn’t see them. I turned my head and strained to try to hear what they were saying, but to no avail.

We had installed a privacy fence around our back yard a couple of years prior. Since the road next to the house was so well traveled, Kat felt exposed and everyone could see our yard. The fence allowed us the privacy we needed. For now at least.

I heard the sound of the back door open as Kat motioned for me to come inside.

“Hi babe, wanna have a do-over of last night?” I asked, grinning from ear to ear as I grabbed her and pushed my pelvis against her butt.

She giggled, rubbing her eyes, still trying to wake up.

“Sure, how about tonight?” she said with a chuckle. “It’s not like there is anything else to do once it gets dark.”

She had a point. Hmmm…who knows, maybe the apocalypse will give us more sex. Yeah, my mind went there. Wasn’t about to say that out loud, though.

“I was going to make you some coffee. But…” I started.

“Yeah, we are going to have to do it the old fashioned way. Boiling water poured over the grounds.” She said. “Damn. I wish I would have gotten that french press.”

She grabbed a pot and put it on the stove, lighting the burner with a match.

“At least the gas is still working today.” She joked.

Then she took a strainer and set it over a stainless steel pot, and lined it with a coffee filter. When the water began to boil, she tossed the coffee into the boiling water, then shut off the burner.

After letting it sit for a few minutes, she poured it through the strainer.

“Ta-da!” she said, as she poured us both a cup.

We put our sugar and creamer in it and gave it a taste. It was much stronger and more bitter than we were used to, but it would work and was still quite delicious. It always amazed me how some of the simple things in life could make life easier. Like a good cup of coffee.

“I will make it less strong next time. I have to figure out the right amount of water to coffee and how long to cook it.” She said.

We both went back outside and sat on the back porch in the cool morning air. She leaned up against me, scooting closer to keep warm as she put her head on my shoulder. For a moment, it felt like a normal weekend morning. I liked the feeling and didn’t want it to end.

The chickens were doing their normal thing when one of them came out of the coop crowing that she’d just laid an egg.

Kat and I both looked at each other wide-eyed. With the lack of noise from everything, the crow of the chicken would be heard for quite a ways away and we really didn’t want to attract that kind of attention. Just a few of our closer neighbors knew we had chickens and we wanted to keep it that way.

“Babe, we need to find a way to keep that noise down. Otherwise, we are going to have people coming to steal the chickens.” Kat said to me. I knew she was right.

At the moment, they would probably be fine, but in a day or two if people were starting to get hungry, we could be in for a fight over the chickens. And we couldn’t let them be killed. They provided more to us with their eggs at the moment and the eggs would go a lot farther than the chicken actually would.

She hurried over to the crowing chicken and talked to her a little to calm her down so she would shut up. It amazed me how well she knew how to deal with them. They looked up to her. She squatted down and petted the chicken, acknowledging her accomplishment. In a moment, the chicken was off quietly scratching at the ground again looking for bugs.

After calming the chicken she came back and sat down.

“I think we need to build a shelter in the basement.” She said.

“What? The basement? I don’t know babe. Keeping the chickens inside? Do you really think that’s a good idea?” I asked.

I didn’t really want hens in the house. I mean, they are birds and I wasn’t sure how clean it would be if they were inside. I just didn’t want to expose ourselves to anything that might make us sick.

It was then I noticed what sounded life footsteps coming up the driveway. I couldn’t see from where I was at, but I could hear the crunching of the leaves that we had yet to rake up.

Then a man appeared over by the gate which was the one spot that you could see into our back yard from the front.

Kat quickly hopped up and went inside.

Shit, I should have had my pistol on me. I had hoped that she was grabbing the gun just in case there was trouble.

“Hey man, wat you gonna do wit does chickns?”

I had not seen this guy before and didn’t want a confrontation. We had a mixed neighborhood and I knew most of the people around here. But this was a skinny black dude without many teeth, and I got the impression he wouldn’t have any trouble coming in the dark of night and taking whatever he wanted.

My heart was racing a mile a minute. Then it struck me what I needed to say. I walked over and stayed calm and friendly.

“Hey man, our vet told us yesterday that they all needed to be destroyed and buried. We found out just before the power went out.”

He gave me a side-eyed look, like he wasn’t sure I was telling the truth or not.

“They all have that H1N1 virus and if anyone eats them, they will get sick and die. So we were just trying to figure out the best way to do it without exposing anyone to the virus.”

“Oh, sorry man, that sucks.” He said as he backed away from the fence, a look of fear on his face.

“Yeah, I know. Would have been nice to have a big bbq, ya know?” I said with a chuckle, hoping it would seem like I would have shared in that.

“Cool man, good luck.” He said as he took off down the road.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, that would get the word spread and would keep anyone else away. But it would only work for a day or so before someone figured out we still had live chickens.

We had to come up with a better plan. Maybe keeping them inside wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Chatper 11 - Katherine

I hurried to find the pistol and then I stood at the back door listening, my gut tied up in knots. Anthony was pretty good at dealing with people. Much better than I was. I was always much more suspicious than he was.

He genuinely felt that people were good at heart and that their intentions were good. I was much more cynical. I usually figured people were bad at heart and had to prove themselves to me before I trusted them. That wasn’t always the best way to think of people, but after years of being taken advantage of in corporate, I had become hardened towards people in general.

Funny how our life experiences can make us believe one way or another.

We actually balanced each other out in that regard. I was much more critical and logical. He was more laid back and charismatic. We were actually the opposite of most couples.

Usually, it is the woman who is more emotional and trusting. Not me. I didn’t trust anyone. And some times I wish Tony was less trusting.

As I stood and listened, I heard what Tony said to the guy. Pretty smart thinking on his part. But I knew, we had to come up with some kind of solution.

Realizing I had been holding my breath, I waited until the guy left before coming back outside. Tony walked over to me and quietly said "It's OK babe, I handled it."

My adrenalin was still pumping and I was a bit shaky. I nodded my head in acknowledgment. "You did good babe." I said as I smiled and winked at him, trying not to look as concerned as I really was. I hated the feeling of insecurity.

Handing him his pistol, I suggested he get in the habit of keeping it on him at all times.

“Have you ever seen him before? Do you know who he was?” I asked.

Tony shook his head. “No, and I didn’t get the feeling he was here to make friends.”

He probably shouldn’t have said that to me, but I didn’t let it show that I was more than concerned that the guy might come back. I took a deep breath as I went back into the kitchen, Tony following me inside, locking the back door behind him.

"We need to figure out a way to hide the chickens. I think the basement is the best idea. Come, let me show you what I think." I said.

We went down to the basement and I showed him the area that I thought we should cordon off to keep the birds. It would make a good place for them if we put some grass or sod, or even straw on the floor.

There was also some sunlight that would come in through the glass block windows. That would give them the feeling that they still had some sunlight coming in.

Chickens need light. Otherwise, they would stop laying because it was dark all the time and they would think it was nighttime so they would just sleep.

"I figured we can rig some kind of ventilation through the laundry chute, so that any of the smell will go up and outside of the house through the attic." I said.

Tony looked at the laundry chute and tried to peer up inside of the dark abyss. "Yeah, it might work," He said. "I'm just not sure where that laundry chute ends."

He grabbed a flashlight and shined it up into the tube.

"Well, let's get the ladder and go up into the attic and see if we can find where it ends." I suggested.

Tony went outside and grabbed the 8-foot ladder bringing it inside and up the stairs to the attic opening.

Fortunately, the laundry chute went all the way up to the attic. It stopped there so we would have to open the top of the laundry chute to allow the smells to ventilate through the attic.

Grabbing a large screwdriver and some pliers, Tony pulled off the top of the laundry chute. Hopefully, the natural convection would pull the smells up and out through the attic.

“I have an idea!” I yelled up to him. “Stay there. I’m going to light a piece of newspaper and see if the smoke will rise up through the chute. You let me know if you can smell it.”

Running down into the basement again, I grabbed a lighter and some newspaper.

I lit the newspaper and put it on the concrete floor. The smoke wiggled around then made its way up the chute.

“Looks like it’s working. Can you smell it?” I yelled up to Tony.

“Yeah, I can smell it.” He yelled back down.

“Okay, that will have to do for now. Let’s get something built down here.” I said.

We worked throughout the morning moving boxes and tools and setting up an area so that we could create a little mini farm in the basement.

Taking some 2 x 4's and some chicken wire we created panels that would meet up with the corners of the wall. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do for now until we can figure out something better later on.

We decided to go ahead and let the chickens finish their day outside, choosing to wait until dark to bring them in the house. I didn’t want them staying in the outdoor coop any longer. It was just too risky.

Just because that guy acted like he wasn’t interested, doesn’t mean he won’t take his chances. When people get hungry enough, they will do things they normally wouldn’t do in regular times. And we hadn’t really gotten hungry yet. I just knew that it would only take a few days without food for people to go violent. It was a reality that none of us wanted to know.

Tony went to check on Annette to see how she was doing from the night before. She had decided she wanted to leave the city. She was packing her things and loading up her car. Tony helped her with anything she needed and wished her good luck.

When he got back home, He told me she was really scared. She said she had heard that this was a terrorist attack and that power would probably not come back for a year.

I looked at Tony, hoping he could read my thoughts. I still wanted to leave as well. It was only the second day and things were already going to shit because people were panicking and not planning for what lie ahead.

“I think we should leave as well, babe. Why don’t we just pack up and go now. Instead of waiting for the hell to come to us, like it did at the grocery store.” I said, not thinking.

Oops. I shouldn’t have mentioned that.

“What do you mean?” he asked, not knowing what I was talking about.

Busted. Now I had to tell him what happened. I was a horrible liar and he would be able to tell if I was hiding something. So I decided to go ahead and come clean about the rioting mob of people.

“When I was at the store, things got really crazy. A bunch of people were gathering outside the store. I waited and watched as they mobbed the place, sending people running out into the parking lot.” I explained, hoping he wouldn’t push for more.

He folded his arms and waited…brows stitched together.

“There were gunshots. And I took off and came back here right away.” I said as I continued to re-stack boxes. “Don’t worry babe, I wasn’t in any danger.”

As I turned my back towards him, I felt the stink of his hand as it landed hard on my ass. I gasped and turned back around reaching back to touch the stinging.

“What did you do that for?!” I yelled, feeling the sting through my jeans.

He shook his head and paced back and forth once, running his hands through is hair.

“For someone so smart, that was a stupid move. You should have left as soon as things started to get crazy.” He said.

Tony never laid a hand on me so the one smack surprised me. He was obviously furious with me, even though I knew I was fine and could handle myself.

I chose not to argue at the moment as I didn’t want to bring any wrath that wasn’t necessary. The stress of what was happening was making us all do things that were out of character.

“I…I’m sorry.” I said, looking down at my feet. I wasn’t one for crying, but I felt horrible for making him worry. I choked back the tears that began to prick at my eyes.

He came over and pulled me into his arms, giving me a deep hug.

“I couldn’t live if something happened to you.” He said. I could feel him choking up a little. “Please, don’t do stuff that will put you in danger like that.”

He pulled away, and I nodded.

“Did Annette say where she was going?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“Apparently, she has a sister down in Texas, so she is heading there. She has no clue if her sister is even there right now. Her sister had been traveling some. She said Dudley told her he thought it was the Chinese that had attacked.” He said.

“The Chinese? Why would they attack our grid? That doesn’t make any sense. We owe them so much money for taking on our debt.” I reminded him.

“Do we know for SURE that it was the Chinese or are we guessing? I don’t want to put anyone on the chopping block if we don’t know for sure.” I said. Now I was starting to sound sympathetic, which wasn’t like me.

I just didn’t want us to all go around accusing someone of something that they may not have had anything to do with. It was important to make sure we knew who attacked us.

We both shrugged it off and decided to get back to work setting up what we could while there was still light outside.

We managed to get a pen set up for the chickens, and by nightfall brought them into their new home.

After getting them in and quiet, I decided to fix us some chili that I had pre-cooked and in the freezer. It would be an easy meal to fix since I just had to put it in the pot and heat it up.

The smell of chili powder and cumin filled the house as I dug around the pantry for any leftover saltines. Eying them carefully, I decided to put them in a couple of zipper bags and hide them for myself for later.

Every time my monthly cycle would kick in, about the only thing I could eat was saltines. I figured it would be worth having them more later than now. We would just eat some leftover corn chips instead.

Just as we were sitting down to eat by candlelight, there was a knock on the door.

I let out a gasp as I was startled by it. Tony had his pistol on him as he pulled it out of the holster, taking the safety off as he moved towards the door.

There was a louder knock this time and a voice on the other side.

“Tony? Kat? It’s Carl, lemme in guys.” He said, as we both let out a breath and relaxed.

Tony opened the door and there stood Carl, with a box full of saltines.

Chapter 12 - Anthony

“C’mon in man. You scared the shit out of us.” Tony said with a chuckle.

“Thanks, man. I could smell the chili cooking from my house. Just wondered if you might want to trade some saltines for a bowl?” he asked.

I glanced over to Kat who gave me a little glare. I knew she didn’t want to, but he was much closer a friend of ours than everyone else on the block.

“Sure, Carl. Grab a bowl and help yourself.” She said, reluctantly.

“Thanks, Kat.” He said as he made his way to the stove and then joined us at the table.

“I can’t cook anything over at my house. All electric. No heat or hot water either.” He said. I felt a twinge of guilt. But just a twinge.

I knew he had family in the area so it wasn’t like he needed us. I figured he would probably head to his brother’s house or his mother’s.

“You planning on going to your mom’s and wait this thing out?” I asked.

“Probably not. Things are actually probably better here than there.” He said.

“How do you figure?” I asked. Inquiring minds want to know.

“This.” He said, and pulled out a portable HAM radio and plopped it on the table. “I only turn it on every so often so I can find out what might be going on. But the battery is almost dead and I don’t have gas for the generator.”

Carl grabbed a scoop of chili on the top of a cracker and shoved it in his mouth. Kat’s chili was known for being one of the best.

“Even if I did have the gas, the generator is so loud, it would draw a lot of unwanted attention unless I put it inside. Of course, then I would die from carbon monoxide poisoning, so I am kinda fucked.” He chuckled at his predicament.

Kat shook her head. “I wish I would have gotten at least ONE solar panel, dammit!” she said, looking at me.

I knew what she was thinking. She had asked me a couple of times for us to set up a single panel just to use to charge things and I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to spend the money. The worst part was, it wouldn’t have been that expensive for a small setup that would at least charge some 12-volt batteries, so we could charge small things like phones, flashlights, and portable HAM radios.

“I know, I know.” I said to her. Carl had no idea what I was talking about, but Katherine sure did.

“I want to save the gas for my truck anyway. I’m not sure exactly what I need to do. Based on what I could tell, the National Guard was evacuating some places. I just don’t know which areas.” Carl said. He sighed as he finished shoveling chili in his mouth.

There was a brief moment of silence as we all continued eating, watching the one candle flicker at the movement of the air.

“Wait, I have an idea,” Kat said. “Babe, did you leave the ladder upstairs?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s at the top of the landing, why?” I asked.

She grabbed a flashlight and hurried up the stairs. I followed her up. Moving the attic door out of the way, she went up for a minute and then came back down with a box that said, ‘camping’ on the side.

After putting the door back and coming down the stairs, she opened the box and pulled out something metal. It was an inverter that she had had from years back. It had two wires on it that you could attach to a car battery and use to power up items.

“Most likely, we aren’t going to be taking both trucks anywhere. We can pull on of the batteries out, and hook this up to charge up the HAM radio!” Her excitement showed as she handed me the inverter.

“I knew you were a smart cookie!” I said as I patted her on the butt. The same place that I smacked it earlier.

We both let out a giggle, knowing exactly what I meant.

Pat was done with his bowl of chili and had moved over to the couch.

I handed him the inverter. “We can use this to charge the radio.” I said.

“Sweet!” he said, “I will go over and get the power cable. Wait…Tony, why don’t you come help me. We can get the battery I have in the car. I’m not planning on taking it with me. We can use it until we can find a way to charge it back up.” Carl said.

I was ecstatic that he volunteered his battery for this.

Kat told us both to be careful and to be watchful. It was dark out and quiet, so if there were people out trying to do harm, they would be able to hear and see us because we had the flashlight.

Fortunately, his car was in his garage. We went outside and left off the flashlight, the sliver of a moon allowing us just enough to see the pavement.

He closed the garage side door behind us before turning on the flashlight to see. It took us only a few minutes to pull the battery and grab the power cord to the radio, then make our way back to the house.

Kat had been sitting with the roller shade just opened up enough that she could see us as we walked up the stairs to the front door. Our eyes had become somewhat used to the darkness, and we were glad that she opened the door to let us in, closing it and locking it quickly behind us.

We set the battery down on some cardboard and hooked up the inverter, then plugged in the HAM radio. The red light immediately came on showing it was charging.

Carl and I bumped fists as we giggled like schoolyard buddies at the fact that we all came together to make something work.

Now, we just had to wait until it charged up enough to pull a signal.

I could tell Kat was anxious as she stared at the radio. My hope would be that we could learn what actually happened to the power, the grid and whatever else. The regular radio broadcasts had mostly stopped except one that just kept repeating itself but not really telling us what was going on.

We had no idea how long it would take to charge. I decided to try to get everyone’s mind off of it.

Going out to the porch, I grabbed several pieces of wood to start a fire. It was going to be a pretty cold night and since the radiators were now cold, this old house would be hard to get warm enough to sleep.

“Do we really want to burn that wood right now? I mean, it’s cold, but I don’t know if it will be freezing or not.” Kat asked longingly. I knew she was cold and wanted the heat, but she also wanted to save it as long as possible.

Carl chimed in. “Actually, I heard it was going to be below freezing tonight. Right before the battery died, I heard there was some kind of freak winter storm coming right for us and it was going to bring cold and wind. And possibly some ice or snow.”

I looked over at Kat. She rubbed her temples and her eyes. She used to do that when she would have a headache. I am sure she was having one now.

“Let’s get in as much wood as possible.” She said, and went to get up.

Carl jumped up. “I’ll get it, Kat, if you’ll just watch the light on the radio. Let us know if it turns green.” He said.

I was glad Carl offered to help. He usually avoided work at all costs. Perhaps the apocalypse had changed him for the better. One could only hope.

Kat stayed bundled up on the sectional as Carl and I brought in as much wood as we could stack up and still get around. There was still quite a bit left on the porch. I hoped it would last us a while.

We lit up the fire and it didn’t take long to warm the living room.

The fire lulled all of us into a quiet place as Kat and I snuggled next to each other, watching the flicker of the flames…both of us lost in our own worlds.

“We got green!” Carl said, startling us out of our sleepiness.

He turned on the radio and began to scan the channels. There were people from all over the world talking. Most of what was being said we couldn’t understand, but it was nice to actually just hear voices over the airwaves.

“I found a channel the other day that was in Texas. Lemme see…” he said as he worked the buttons.

Then we heard it. It was a Texan for sure, with a strong southern accent.

We listened intently to what he was saying.

“I sure hope you folks up in Arkansas and Missouri are battening town the hatches. There is a big storm coming your way. I just heard from someone in Oklahoma that said they lost the roof off their house from the strong winds. Ice and rain too. This is going to be a bad one folks. As if things could get any worse. We’ll be praying for ya. Gotta sign off now. Trying to save the power. This is Howard from Austin, Texas, over and out.”

Carl turned off the radio and sighed, then looked over at the fire.

I looked over at Kat as I tossed another log on the fire. I knew she was going to get pissed at what I was about to do. But I felt it was the right thing to do.

“Carl, why don’t we go gather what food, ammo and other supplies you have, and you stay with us until this storm passes. If it gets really bad, you’ll freeze to death over there.”

Kat surprised me with what she said next.

“I agree with Tony. It could get really bad out there tonight. We have no way of knowing just how bad. You could help us maintain the fire. I will bring the cot down for you.” She said.

I was more than a little surprised. Usually, she didn’t want neighbors in the house at night while she slept.

Maybe the apocalypse was changing her as well.

Carl and I went over to his house with a couple of flashlights and got as many baskets full of food, ammo and anything else that we thought would be handy and brought it back to the house. Since we didn’t know how long the storm would be, we figured it would be best to bring as much as we could.

The wind was already beginning to pick up as we hurried back and forth between the two houses until we got everything over and put into the dining room.

“You can just keep your stuff in here until we see how things go.” I said, hoping Kat would approve.

She nodded her head and smiled as we put our jackets on the coat hooks by the door.

We all settled in for the night downstairs near the fireplace. Kat suggested we put something up to keep the heat from going upstairs. We all went back and forth with ideas until the room got quiet except for the howl of the wind and the crackle of the fire.

I felt as though I had just fallen asleep when I was woken by a large rumble and a crash. It was then I heard the screams of someone I couldn’t recognize.

Chapter 13 - Katherine

Being woken out of a sound sleep is something that doesn’t happen very often to me. I usually sleep pretty lightly, but I guess I was more tired than usual.

It felt like an earthquake as the floor rumbled me awake and I heard a crash.

Tony jumped up off the sectional and looked through the side of the roller shade to see what he could.

Carl had woken as well by this time.

“What the hell was that?” Carl asked.

“Looks like one of the big trees in the neighbors yard has blown over. Damn, that wind must be strong.” Tony said. “What is going on with this weather?”

I got up and looked out the other window. It was hard to see, but I could hear the sound of sleet hitting the far west window as it tried to push its way into the house.

“I think I heard someone scream.” Tony said, as he began to put on his shoes and jacket.

“Where are you going?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“I need to go check on the Chen’s. They could be hurt.” He said.

“I’m coming with.” Carl said, pulling on his boots after holstering his pistol.

I felt like I should be doing something. I put a couple of logs on the fire and began to heat up some water for some hot beverages once they got back.

The sound of the wind was so loud. I had never heard it like this before. It sounded like a bunch of trains all converging all at once.

I lifted the shades to see if I could see anything when Carl came across the yard with Alice Chen wrapped under a blanket. I quickly went and opened the door.

“Where’s Mr. Chen?” I asked, pulling Mrs. Chen inside.

“He’s trapped under something. I’m going back to see if we can get him.” Carl said.

I directed Mrs. Chen over to the chair that was near the fireplace and told her I would be right back with some towels. She was shivering and shaking so bad and mumbling something I couldn’t understand.

I rushed to grab a bunch of dry towels to help dry her off.

“Ambulance.” Was all she could say.

Shaking my head, I looked at her. “There are no ambulance’s anymore.” I said, not knowing how we would call them anyway.

She began to cry and I hugged her.

“Don’t worry. Tony and Carl will get him.” I assured her. I had no idea if they would be able to help him or even if he was alive at this time.

The wind shook the windows and they rattled furiously as if they were arguing with the wind as to who would win this battle. I prayed no more trees would fall.

At least our house was two stories and there was a huge steel beam in between floors. If we had a tree drop on our house, most likely we would be fine on the main floor or basement.

I heard the sound of Tony’s voice calling out to me. I couldn’t tell what he was saying so I just went and opened the door.

Carl and Tony were carrying Mr. Chen across their shoulders. They brought him into the living room as I quickly closed the door and locked it behind them, trying to keep the wind and sleet from coming inside.

They carefully placed Mr. Chen in the recliner as Mrs. Chen hurriedly went over to him. They were speaking to each other in Chinese as she knelt down and kissed him over and over on the face. They were both crying and holding onto each other. It was heartbreaking, and Tony and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes.

“Is he okay? Is he hurt?” I asked, hoping I could be of some help.

She said something to him. Then she turned back towards me.

“His leg is broken.” She said, the tears falling down her cheeks.

I looked up at Tony. None of us had any medical experience. What were we going to do?

I took a breath and asked her to ask him if it was okay if I took a look. He nodded his head as I squatted down with the flashlight.

Carefully, I pulled the leg of his pants up where it had been ripped, revealing the area that had been under the weight of the tree.

As I moved around I could see the leg was sitting crooked. It appeared to have been crushed. There were no bones sticking out, but it was misshapen and turning purple.

He said something to her in Chinese.

“He says his side also hurts.” She translated.

“Can you help him get his shirt off?” I asked her. She carefully helped him out of the wet shirt.

I could see the side of his body had started to swell and was turning black. I remember in a movie seeing this, he was bleeding internally.

I tried to think of what I could do or say. There was no way any of us could help him. We had to get him medical treatment, or he would lose his leg, or possibly even die.

Rubbing my eyes, I pulled Tony and Carl into the kitchen.

“I don’t know anything about broken bones, other than to set them with sticks like you see in the movies. I don’t even know if that works with something like this.” I said, hoping they would have some better options.

Then, it occurred to me that the radio was a HAM radio. Maybe we could call for help.

“Carl, did you take any HAM radio training at all? Do you know how to use it to call out? Maybe we could find someone to get him to a hospital?” I asked.

“Well, no, but I don’t the FCC is going to worry too much about it right now. HAM’s are the only thing working at the moment, so I am sure it would be okay to try.” He said.

Carl went and grabbed the radio. Turning it on, he began to try different channels in the hopes of finding someone that spoke English.

I heard Mrs. Chen call out when he heard what sounded like Chinese coming from the radio. Mrs. Chen said she understood what they were saying.

“Okay, but are they here in the States?” I asked her.

“No, they are in Beijing.” She said.

“Well, let’s try to find someone that can help us with your husband’s broken leg, then we can come back to that, okay?”

She nodded and went back to her husband as Carl kept going up the dial trying to get someone to respond.

“Hello? Is anyone out there?” he would ask. Then wait for a few seconds before asking again.

“Yeah, who is this?” said a voice on the other end. We all got excited that someone actually responded back.

“Uh, Hi, uh…this is Carl. We are in St. Louis and in the middle of a bad storm. We have someone with a broken leg we need an ambulance.” Carl pleaded.

“Oh, I’m sorry son. We are up in Ottawa. I wish we could help you.”

Carl’s shoulders drooped.

“Well, okay, thank you. I was hoping to find someone to help us here.” He said, as he shook his head.

“Hold on there a minute. Let me see if I can find some of the old station numbers list.” There were a couple of minutes we waited before the man on the radio came back on.

“I have about 10 different channels that used to be in your area. Maybe you can see if they can help.” He said.

I scrounged up a piece of paper and a pen to give to Carl. He quickly wrote down each of the channels and thanked the Ottawa man for his help.

Mr. Chen let out a loud yell. The pain must have been agonizing.

“Carl, you keep trying to see if you can find anyone here that can help us. I am going to see if I can find a way to make him more comfortable.” I said.

I pulled Tony aside so I could whisper to him.

“If we can’t get someone here soon, he won’t make it.” I said. Tony knew I was right.

We really needed an ambulance.

Carl worked through each of the channels with no response.

“Last one.” He said as he pushed in the number and began to call out.

“This is Carl in St. Louis. Is anyone there?” He said.

We waited for a few moments before a young woman’s voice came on the radio.

“Hi Carl, this is Shelly.” She said.

“Hi Shelly, thank you for responding. May I ask where you are?”

He figured it made no sense to carry on a conversation unless she could get an ambulance to him.

“I am at Clayton Memorial Hospital, where are you?” she responded.

“Hallelujah!” Carl said. “We are just north of you. We need an ambulance sent to us right away. We have a man with a broken leg. A tree fell on their house.”

There was a long pause before Shelly responded.

“I’m sorry Carl. There are no ambulances left. All the drivers went home to their families. Most of the staff left too because of the weather. Plus, we had a bunch of looters come through and take all the medicines they could find.”

We all heard what Shelly said.

“Even if you could get him here, I’m not sure there would be anyone to treat him. And the trip might actually make things worse for him. What I would advise is to make him as comfortable as possible and expect the worst.”

I looked over at Alice. She knew what that meant. She knew that most likely he wouldn’t make it.

I felt horrible and useless. Why couldn’t I have taken those emergency medical classes I read about? They were cheap and sometimes free. I always said I would do it later, but never did.

“Go down into the basement and get me several boxes and some tape if you can find it.” I asked Tony, who looked at me quizzically.

He nodded and headed downstairs with the flashlight, returning with some boxes and duct tape.

“Alice, tell him that I am going to try to put a splint around his leg to hold it in place and steady. It will probably hurt a lot, but it will help if he can let me get it in place.”

She translated and he nodded as I took the cardboard boxes and broke them down flat, then rolled them into hard stick like pieces that I could use around his calf.

It was hard listening to him yell as I managed to get all four pieces around his leg and taped. He eventually passed out from the pain.

“Quick, we need to move him to the cot before he wakes up.” I said to Carl and Tony, who gently lifted the man and put him down on the cot.

I sighed as he was laid flat near the fireplace, hoping that it wouldn’t be too painful for him.

A part of me wanted to give him pain killers, but I wasn’t sure if that would cause the internal bleeding to be worse. Especially, since I didn’t really know WHAT was causing it.

I gave Alice some clothes that would be way to big for her. She was tiny and petite compared to my robust German roots. But they were dry and warm, and she was thankful. She put her clothes near the fire to dry, as she sat on the floor and held Ernie’s hand.

Tony brought down a bunch of quilts to make a bed next to him for her. We were all exhausted and decided to see if we could get a few hours of sleep.

All I could think about is what if that would have been Tony. I can’t imagine losing him.

Chapter 14 - Anthony

I woke to the sound of crying and the sun pushing its way past the roll down shade. The storm had passed quick and furiously, taking roofs, trees and lots of other things with it.

As I turned towards the sound, I could see that Mr. Chen had passed in the night. She must have held his hand through it all.

I looked over at Kat, who was lying there with tears pouring out of her eyes. I had no idea how long she had been awake. But she knew he didn’t make it.

The internal bleeding had been too much.

Kat got up and went over to Alice and gave her a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Alice.” She said, handing her a box of tissues.

Carl had fallen asleep on the recliner that had been pushed into the dining room. I went and woke him up quietly.

“Ernie didn’t make it.” I whispered.

“Oh, man.” Carl said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

The sun forced its way into the kitchen window now. I looked out back and the roof had been blown off the chicken coop. If we had not brought them in the day before, they would all be dead as well.

I leaned over and told Carl, we needed to move his body somewhere. He nodded and got up, and we both went out the back to talk.

“Do you think we should offer to bury him in their back yard or something?” Carl asked.

“I dunno, man. They may have certain customs or something. I can’t imagine burying someone I care about in the back yard anyway. But he needs to be kept cold or buried or cremated.” I said.

Kat came out the back and looked around.

“Wow, the chicken coop…” she said.

I nodded. “Yeah, glad we put them inside.”

“Alice asks if you would mind putting Ernie in their garage. It’s cold enough to hold him until she can have him cremated.” Said Kat.

Carl and I looked at each other and nodded.

We went inside and carefully wrapped up the body in the quilt that he had died on. He was a small man so he wasn’t heavy for us to move. We went through the back yard to their garage but realized that it was on an electric opener.

Carl made his way through part of the house that was opened up from the tree falling on it, finding the manual lock and lifting the door.

We placed him in between the two cars since that was really the only place to put him and be able to move him again easily.

Closing the door, we both made our way back to the house.

Kat was trying to console Alice as much as she could, but she needed to be able to make some breakfast for everyone.

Carl decided he could help do some consoling and went and sat next to her as they stirred the fire back to life.

The wind from the night before had stopped, but it was still pretty chilly outside. I went out the front to assess the damage.

The tree had been blown over and its roots lifted the pavement from the street and sidewalk. It had landed square across their living room, where they were probably on the couch bundled up trying to keep warm.

I felt a little guilty that I didn’t check on them beforehand. I should have gone over and asked them to come stay with us as well.

It’s times like these that we need to stick together and show compassion.

I decided to check on the rest of the people on our block to make sure everyone was okay.

Most places I got no answer and didn’t hear any movement. A couple of places they didn’t know me and I was met with shotguns.

I made sure to let them know I was only checking up on them to make sure everyone had made it through the storm okay and then made my way off of their property.

No need to get shot just for trying to be nice.

I headed back home to see what was on the agenda today. None of us had gotten much sleep, so I am sure a nap would come in handy.

But with the power out and no lights, we needed to work as much as we could during the daytime.

When I had gotten back to the house, Alice had finally cried herself to sleep. We all decided to head down into the basement so we wouldn’t wake her.

I turned on the faucet and there was still water, and hot water to boot. So I figured it would be a good idea to do a little bathing while I still could.

We rigged up a couple of pieces of plastic around the area of the hot water heater. Since there was gas heating up the water tank still, it was like having a little heater near it.

I had some clean clothes that were still in a laundry basket so I pulled some out and decided to try to get a little bit of a shower.

I found a hose that had the one end still on it to screw onto a faucet. It worked perfectly onto the basement faucet fixture. I got the water just right and it felt good to take a warm shower, even if I was standing on cold concrete.

Making short work of it, I soaped up and rinsed off as quickly as I could. It was cold as heck in there and I didn’t want to stay naked any longer than I needed to.

I dried and dressed, feeling much more alive as Carl and Kat were over in the other corner discussing plans for the chickens.

“If we can at least give them light in the daytime, then they will continue to produce eggs. Those fluorescent lights don’t use a lot of electricity. We should be able to scrounge batteries from cars that have run out of gas.” Carl said.

“That’s a great idea. Except, I doubt people are going to take too lightly to you taking the batteries out of the cars, even if they are out of gas.” Kat said. She had a good point.

“Well, we will have to either get permission or do it at night, stealth-like.” I said.

Katherine glared at me.

“Yeah, then you will wind up like Ernie. I won’t be having anyone else die in my living room.” She said with a whisper.

I rolled my eyes at her. We needed to do some things different now. Things were not the same as before.

Now, it was all about surviving, no matter what we had to do.

Chapter 15 - Katherine

The next couple of days were a nut house. Between consoling Alice and trying to keep the men from getting themselves killed, we wound up with 12 batteries and cables.

They lined them all up and Carl connected them so that they would give us the power needed to light the basement during the day.

We still had natural gas, but I wasn’t sure just how long it would be before that was gone. At least it kept the basement from being so cold. Just the little bit of gas that was used to keep the water hot was enough to keep the chickens from freezing. Not to mention, we were below ground.

The water had finally slowed to a trickle. We opened up the faucets upstairs to release any water from the pipes so they wouldn’t freeze and bust. The one faucet in the basement we left open and tried to catch whatever water we could in the buckets that we would use the water from previously.

I had a gravity fed water filtration system and we made sure to run all the drinking water through that to make sure it was clean.

We had been pretty fortunate so far that we had not been bothered by anyone. I was actually surprised and thinking maybe Tony was right. Maybe I doubted the way people would act during a crisis.

Perhaps the way people were portrayed on TV wasn’t how they would react at all. I couldn’t help thinking about how things were after Katrina.

Alice was helping me feed and tend to the chickens when I heard someone coming down the outside basement steps. Even though we had glass block windows that we had covered to keep anyone from seeing our lights, the basement door had windows on it. It was the least secure place in our house.

I looked over at Alice, who had her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide as saucers. Pulling out my pistol, I carefully pulled the plug on the light so it would go out.

There was an American flag that hung over the door. It was just sheer enough that I could make out a man, but I couldn’t see who it was.

The man reached for the door handle and tried to open it.

“Locked.” I heard him say.

Who was this man and who was he talking to?

I motioned to Alice to go upstairs quietly. We both quickly made our way up to the kitchen and noticed Carl squatted next to the cabinets, pistol drawn.

I mouthed to him, “Tony?”

He pointed to the living room. I decided to wait and see what was happening before trying moving anywhere else. Alice and I stayed on the stairs until the men left, holding our breath.

Another man tried turning the handle on the back door, and tried to see inside, but we were all hidden from his view.

“This one’s locked, too.” I heard a deep voice say.

When the man left the back porch, we could hear them all walking down the driveway to the front. We all carefully and quietly stood up, going into the living room.

Tony was standing next to the window, peeking out through the crack between the shade and the window. As we walked into the living room, he put his finger up to his mouth indicating for us to be quiet.

In his hand, he had out his AR15.

We had not had the chance to take the rifle out and practice with it. I hoped he knew how to use it.

The men went across the street Carl’s house, and then down the block to other people’s houses. At first, they knocked. When there was no answer, they tried the doors.

Now that they had moved far enough away not to hear us, I carefully opened the door to the side porch so I could see what was happening.

Tony stood behind me as we watched in horror. The older couple down the block had opened up their door. There were some words exchanged, and then some yelling. The men pulled them out of their home and shot them right in the front yard.

I put my hand over my mouth as I began to cry. Why were these men shooting people? Those seniors were no threat to them. What in the world was happening?

Tony put his arms around me as I cried softly into his chest. We waited until they were off our block before coming back inside.

I sat down on the couch, not knowing what to say.

“They just killed the Anderson’s.” Tony said to Carl and Alice.

Alice started to cry. Carl just sat down on the couch.

“Who? And why?” Carl asked Tony.

“I don’t know. They didn’t look like military. But they were wearing all black clothes, and what looked like a lot of tactical gear.” Tony said.“Who knows who they are. Maybe they are looking for terrorists or something.”

“Yeah, but the Anderson’s were senior citizens. They could tell by looking they weren’t terrorists. They probably didn’t even know how to use a computer.” I said as I felt the sobs overwhelm me.

“Carl, will you get out your radio please and see if we can figure out what’s going on?” I asked.

Carl pulled out the radio and turned it on, scanning for channels. He heard a familiar Texan on one of the channels and stopped to listen in. He was talking about how Martial Law was declared and they were rounding up people and taking them to FEMA camps. If people didn’t comply, they were being shot on sight.

“What? That isn’t how it's supposed to work…” Carl said.

We continued to listen in as the Texan said that it wasn’t our own military that was shooting people. But there were men who were posing as military who were doing the shooting so they could come back and loot the people’s homes for food and supplies.

He said he’d heard that the houses that were locked up, they would come and break in at night, figuring that if they missed someone, they’d be caught off guard. They had no regard for human life, only for finding supplies, food, and guns.

I sat in horror as I listened. How could it be this bad already? It hadn’t even been two weeks yet, and we had already gotten to the point of people killing each other?

I looked at Tony. He knew what I was thinking. He couldn’t argue anymore.

We needed to escape. And we needed to do it now.

*******************

Pick up book two to see how the story continues!

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OJW Conversion -

Copyright

Chapter 1 - Katherine

Chapter 2 - Anthony

Chapter 3 - Katherine

Chapter 4 - Anthony

Chapter 5 - Katherine

Chapter 6 - Anthony

Chapter 7 - Katherine

Chapter 8 - Anthony

Chapter 9 - Katherine

Chapter 10 - Anthony

Chatper 11 - Katherine

Chapter 12 - Anthony

Chapter 13 - Katherine

Chapter 14 - Anthony

Chapter 15 - Katherine