EMP (The Districts Book 1)

by Orion Enzo Gaudio

  The Islamic Freedom Army- This is the greatest threat to America currently. The Islamic Freedom Army, like the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is angered by the United States stance on Muslims and is willing to retaliate. They have claimed responsibility for numerous attacks around the world, against American citizens, and were also behind the foiled attempt to bomb Times Square in 2015. While they may not currently possess a weapon capable of a large EMP, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Islamic Freedom Army is able to beg, borrow or steal such a device from any of the countries/groups listed above. Their lack of respect for life, especially when it comes to Americans, makes them extremely dangerous and should such an attack come at any point in the future, they should be considered the most likely to be responsible. It is also impossible to pin down members’ locations and they have a large, worldwide, network that helps them execute their attacks. I believe the Islamic Freedom Army is a level 9 threat.

  Nick set the magazine down. A feeling of devastation passed through his body as his hands started to tremble. If he thought about it, the events of the day fit perfectly with an EMP attack—no technology, with the exception of cars, seemed to work. That explains the airplane falling out of the sky, he thought. Nick threw the magazine against the wall and climbed under the covers of his bed.

  His mind spun as he thought about what he was going to do. His thoughts drifted to his parents—he hadn’t spoken to them for over a week and they were still at their winter home in Florida. There was no way to contact them until the government could get the power back on, if that was even a possibility. Nick worried that until that happened, his parents could be in danger and not able to take care of themselves.

  Nick had a feeling that the United States was about to become a very dangerous place as people scrambled for the last supplies.

  As the sun dropped behind the Rocky Mountains, Nick rolled over in bed and did his best to fall asleep. He didn’t feel tired, but he knew the next day was going to be a long one as he figured out what to do next.

  Chapter Five

  Sandra sat on her porch, sipping her morning tea while she waited for the sun to show itself. Farming was in her blood and she expected that she would keep tending the land until the day she died. She still remembered her mom telling her to get married. She wanted her daughter to do something else with her life. Sandra tried… she went to college, met a man and got engaged.

  Her parents died in a car accident during her junior year of college. They were driving home from the store in February when their car slid off the road and rolled down an embankment. It happened three miles from the farm and they both died before help could arrive. Sandra dropped out of school and moved back to the family farm. Her fiancé, who was in his senior year of engineering school wanted no part of the farming life, so Sandra broke it off with him and moved home.

  She had run the farm, located thirty miles northeast of Boulder, Colorado, for the past seventeen years largely by herself, only hiring farm hands when she could afford it. Even though it wasn’t the life her mother had wanted for Sandra, she had no regrets. She loved being with her animals and loved the reward the earth provided her for her devotion and hard work.

  As the first rays of light finally crested the horizon, she finished her tea and set down her cup, closed her eyes and welcomed the warmth that cascaded over her face. Sandra opened her eyes and stood up from her porch swing and looked toward the sun. The days were finally starting to warm up and she was right in the middle of her spring cleaning. She had too much to do and not enough time, just like every year, but she always managed to get it all done before she had to start planting.

  She was looking forward to fresh vegetables again. The garden yielded enough that she was able to make some money at the farmers’ market and canned any leftovers from that.

  Sandra walked across the porch and down the front steps. She looked toward the sun as the sky seemed suddenly brighter. Confused by what she was seeing, Sandra raised her hand to block out the sun as it continued to slowly creep higher in the sky. Above the sun, where it would be in the sky around ten, there was a large glow. As she watched, it rapidly expanded and got so bright she had to look away. She had no idea what it could possibly be, but she had a sick feeling in her gut.

  The sky lit up as she ran to the back of the house and yanked the cellar door open. The door creaked as she pulled it closed behind herself. She turned around when she reached the bottom of the steps and looked up. Light forced itself through the crack in the door and she slowly backed away from the stairs. Sandra had no idea what was happening or what she could do. The last time she felt so overwhelmed was the day she buried her parents.

  Sandra took another step back and felt herself fall as she tripped over her father’s rocking chair. It had been a comfort to see it in the cellar each time she went down there. It that moment, however, she was cursing herself as she toppled backward. Everything went black as her head collided with the floor.

  ~~~

  As she rubbed her head and sat up, Sandra looked to the door of the cellar. The light coming through the crack was gone and she was in total darkness. She stood up and walked to the wall. It was a dizzy trip for her and she paused to make sure she didn’t lose her balance. Sandra flipped the light switch and nothing happened. She turned it off and on again and still nothing happened.

  She felt around the shelf closest to her for her battery-powered lantern. Sandra pulled it from the shelf and turned it on and nothing happened. She wrinkled her forehead. She didn’t know why it wasn’t working, there was no logical explanation for it as far as she was concerned. Unsure about what had happened outside, Sandra was hesitant to go out just yet, but she also didn’t feel like sitting in the dark.

  Sandra sat down in the rocking chair and pushed her feet against the floor as she thought about her father. He would sit in the chair for hours reading the paper every Sunday when she was little and she would sit on the floor in front of his chair with her coloring books.

  She sat for some time before climbing the cellar stairs and cracking the door. The light was starting to fade. Sandra pushed the doors open all the way, climbed out of the cellar and looked to the sky where she had seen the burst of light. There was nothing now, the sky was normal and she started to question what she had seen. Maybe my eyes were playing a trick on me, she thought. There was a part of her that hoped that’s all it was.

  She climbed the porch steps and opened the front door. Sandra took a deep breath as she reached for the light switch. Nothing happened when she flipped it. She let out a deep sigh and found her way to the kitchen as the sun dropped behind the mountains. In her junk drawer there were two flashlights, she had used them a week earlier so she knew the batteries should still be good, but nothing happened when Sandra tried to turn them on.

  Living in a place where wind and snow could bring down branches, Sandra was no stranger to power outages. It wasn’t the lack of electricity that concerned her, but rather why her lantern and flashlights had also stopped working at the same time.

  As the sun disappeared behind the Rocky Mountains, Sandra conceded there was little she could do in the dark. She grabbed a granola bar from the cabinet and headed upstairs.

  Chapter Six

  A faint tap on the glass of his bedroom window woke Nick from the shallow sleep that had finally engulfed his exhausted body sometime in the middle of the night. He looked to the window and saw Mike standing outside with moonlight splashing on his face. Nick didn’t know what to think. He was hesitant to speak to his neighbor, considering he had pulled a gun on Nick, yet something told him that he should. Maybe he can give me some idea of what the fuck to do.

  He got out of bed and walked toward the window. Mike pointed to his right, toward the back door of Nick’s house and disappeared into the shadows. Nick walked to the door and opened it. Mike came in, set his 9mm down on the kitchen table, pulled out one of the chairs and sat down.

  “Take a seat,” Mike
said.

  Nick pulled out a chair across the table and sat down. He wasn’t sure what to expect. The gun was making him uneasy. He certainly wasn’t afraid of guns under normal circumstances, but this was about as far from normal as things could get.

  “Sorry about earlier,” Mike said. “I was getting the truck ready and I didn’t want anyone in the neighborhood to see. The world is about to go to shit, Nick, and you have to be very careful.”

  “Of other people?”

  “Yes. As people begin to realize what has happened and that the power is never coming on again, they will begin to crack. Riots will erupt in every town and city as hungry and thirsty people fight for survival.”

  Nick wondered if Mike knew something he didn’t—he seemed so certain that this was the end of everything.

  “Do you know what happened?”

  “It was an EMP attack. If I had to guess, a nuclear device was detonated in the atmosphere. Depending on the size of the device, there is a good chance that most, if not all, of the United States is dark for good.”

  Mike’s conviction made Nick squirm in his seat. Even after what he saw and reading the article, there was a part of Nick that believed it was some sort of fluke and the power would be back in no time and the government would explain what happened.

  “Isn’t there some sort of plan for this?”

  “Yeah. Stock up on supplies and protect yourself and your food and water by any means necessary.”

  “What about the government?”

  “They didn’t plan for this. They knew this was a potential threat, but with the collapse of the economy, there wasn’t enough tax money to do anything about it.”

  Nick knew he was in a bad spot if what Mike was saying was true. He lacked any sort of firearm and he was the sort of guy who only had old takeout and spoiled milk in his fridge at any given time. He really needed help from Mike, even if it were advice about what to do next. Nick hoped that it would be more than that.

  “What should I do?”

  “Well, since you’ve never mentioned it before, I’m assuming you didn’t stock up on food and water. What about a gun? Do you have a handgun or a shotgun or anything?”

  “No, I’ve never owned one of my own.”

  There was silence between the two men. Nick could see that he was quickly becoming of little use to Mike. He needed to think of something that would prove he was worthy of the help that Mike would be able to give him.

  “I can shoot… I used to go with my dad to the range a couple times a month.”

  Mike didn’t respond. Nick felt his gut wrench. He wasn’t sure if it was from not eating after breakfast or if it was from nerves or both. Mike drummed his fingers on the table and stood up.

  “Grab whatever supplies you do have. Rope, batteries, canned food, bottled water and bring it to my back door.”

  Mike picked up his 9mm from the kitchen table and left. Nick decided not to question the order from Mike and started to rummage through the kitchen drawers in a frantic search for batteries. He found two packs, one AAA and one AA before moving on to the cupboards. Just as he expected, they were nearly bare. He did manage to find a few packs of ramen noodles. Nick figured if things were really as bad as they appeared, eating expired ramen would be the least of his worries.

  Nick did find some twine in the garage as he felt his way around and crashed into just about everything he owned. The rest of the house yielded little that he thought useful, and he was sure Mike wouldn’t find it useful, not to mention the search had been made astronomically harder without a light source. Nick gathered his batteries and twine and headed next door. With each step, he grew more anxious. He was praying that Mike would help him and take him wherever he was going, because without his help Nick knew that his chances for surviving were not good.

  The backdoor of Mike’s house swung in as Nick lifted his hand to knock. Nick stepped inside and Mike closed the door behind him.

  “Follow me.”

  Nick did his best to follow, even though he had only been inside the house on one other occasion, and the two men went down the steps to the basement. Once they were down there, Mike sparked a lighter, lit a lantern and set it on a workbench against the far wall. Mike saw the look of confusion on Nick’s face and smiled.

  “Oil lamp.”

  Nick nodded in acknowledgement. He could never have imagined living in a time when an oil lamp was the best option for lighting a room. It seemed like a device from a lost era.

  “What did you bring?”

  Nick set the batteries, the twine and the packages of ramen noodles on the workbench and stood back. Part of him felt embarrassed. Mike seemed to be so well prepared for exactly what was happening. Mike inspected the packages of batteries, pulled on the twine and turned one of the packages of ramen over in his hand.

  “Is that it?”

  “Yeah… I never imagined that I would need supplies. I just assumed that I would be able to drive to the store and buy whatever I needed.”

  “You need to shake that mentality. That way of living is gone. From now on you will have to survive off of whatever we can scavenge and the supplies that I have collected over the last few years.”

  “We?” It was the word Nick had been waiting to hear.

  “Yeah, tough times are coming. Having someone to watch my back and help scavenge is worth sharing my gear and food. We will both have a better chance together than if we were alone.”

  Nick knew they did stand a better chance together, but he knew that Mike held all the cards and he could have easily chosen anyone else. For that, Nick felt fortunate and he promised himself he would do everything he could to help Mike.

  “I can do that,” Nick said. “You’re right… we both need someone to watch out backs.”

  Nick looked around the basement. He expected it to be full of supplies. The shelves that lined the walls were bare. He spotted a black gun safe in the back corner of the basement. The lamp didn’t provide enough light for Nick to see inside, even though the door was ajar.

  “I’ve got the truck loaded,” Mike pointed at the safe, “except for the guns.”

  Nick watched as Mike walked over to the safe and came back with a rifle and a pump shotgun and set them on the workbench. He made another trip and came back with an assault rifle and a revolver.

  “What do you feel like carrying?”

  Nick stepped up to the table and looked at the guns. His trips to the range with his dad as a teenager had consisted of shooting a .22 rifle at paper targets. One time his dad did let him shoot his 12 gauge shotgun and it was an experience he didn’t soon forget thanks to the large yellow bruise it left on his shoulder. Nick picked up the shotgun, it felt light in his hands and he lifted it to his shoulder. He put it back on the table and looked at the other rifles.

  “Try the AR-15,” Mike said. He handed Nick the assault rifle.

  It felt natural when he lifted it to his shoulder and pointed it at the wall.

  “It feels… good. I like it. What about the other rifle?”

  Mike shook his head. “That’s a .308, a hunting rifle. You don’t want that for personal defense, it’s for taking down something as big as a deer or an elk.”

  Nick nodded and set down the AR-15 and looked at the revolver. Mike picked it up and handed it to him.

  “Here, start with this and when we get a chance I’ll give you a few pointers on the other ones.”

  Nick held the revolver at arm’s length. It felt good in his hands even if it seemed heavy considering its size.

  “Just so you know, all of them are loaded right now and always will be.”

  Nick nodded. It made him a little nervous. People were always saying to not leave guns loaded. He had a feeling that Mike’s reasoning was legitimate, especially considering the circumstances. Nick knew that if things got half as bad as Mike seemed to think they would, they would run into trouble eventually. Having the guns loaded if something happened would make it that much easier to def
end themselves.

  “The extra ammo is in the truck. There’s a box in the cab, in the glove box, and the rest is in the bed.”

  They carried the guns upstairs and Mike turned the lantern off before leaving the stairwell.

  “Sorry, we have to go dark until we leave. I don’t want anyone to see the light.”

  Mike seemed a little paranoid to Nick. He wasn’t going to question him because he knew his best chance for survival was to stick with him and learn from the man who clearly had spent time and energy preparing for such an event. Nick felt fortunate that Mike was even willing to take him and was ready to do whatever Mike asked. The men went into the garage and loaded the guns into the truck.

  “Go lock up your house,” Mike said. “I’ll do the same and pull the truck out and park in front of your house. Try to hurry. I want to get there before it gets light.”

  Nick held his tongue even though he wanted to ask where they were heading.

  He left the garage and made his way back through the house and out the backdoor. He heard the faint click of the door locking behind him and he headed for his own backdoor. Nick went into his bedroom, pulled his backpack out and filled it with three shirts and enough socks and underwear for a few days. The rest of the room in the pack was taken up by an extra pair of tennis shoes. He zipped it up before checking each of the windows in his house to make sure they were locked.

  Nick locked the back door and pulled it closed behind him. He saw Mike’s truck parked in front of his house when he rounded the corner. Nick jogged to the truck, jumped in the passenger seat and shoved his backpack between his feet before buckling his seatbelt.