by Harley Tate
Madison’s mom smiled. “Thanks, Peyton. It’s good to see you. I’m glad Madison had so many friends with her.” She gave Madison another squeeze. “I was so worried about you.”
“I was worried about you!” Madison pushed her hair off her face. “I didn’t know if you got any of my texts, and then the EMP hit and the power went out. It’s been a crazy few days. I didn’t know if we’d ever make it here.”
“And then when you got here, the house was empty.”
“Not exactly empty.” Brianna motioned at all the water on the counter. “You did an amazing job getting so many supplies. Even my dad would be proud.”
Madison clued her mom in. “Brianna’s family is kind of into prepping. You know, preparing for the apocalypse.”
Brianna nodded. “It’s our thing.”
“Well, then I take your approval as quite the compliment. Thank you.”
Madison had never seen her mom so tough. Sure, she’d argued with the guy from the county who wanted to dig up the front yard to replace the water meter, and she’d stuck up for Madison whenever she had a problem at school. But her mom never dressed like a commando on a mission.
With her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and her usual sandals and shorts swapped for jeans and hiking boots, her mom looked so much younger. She had even foregone any trace of makeup. Add in the gun shoved in her waistband, and her mom was a downright badass.
The woman who had been in the car with her mom stepped into the kitchen. Her mom held out her hand. “Everyone, this is Wanda. Wanda, this is my daughter Madison and her friends Peyton, Brianna, and Tucker.”
Wanda smiled. “Hello.” She held up a pipsqueak of a cat. “This is Fireball.”
The cat meowed a hello and snuggled against Wanda’s shoulder like it was his favorite place in the world. Everyone took turns giving him a pat before turning to the list of food to eat when.
They all chipped in, with Madison once again teaching Tucker how to work the grill and her mom helping Brianna clean fresh green beans. Wanda set the table with Fireball weaving in and out of her legs.
After they had all eaten, Madison’s mom filled her in on the past three days. Madison had a feeling she left out a few details, but then again, Madison did as well. Her mom didn’t need to know all the rash decisions they had made and all the risks they had taken to get home.
At last, her mom broached the topic of her father. “Have you heard from your dad?”
Madison shook her head. “Not even once. You?”
“Only once. He texted to tell me his flight was delayed, but that’s the last I’ve heard from him.” She reached out and took Madison’s hand. “We have to hope for the best. Stay positive. If he can find a way to come home, he will.”
Madison nodded. She knew her mom was right. Her father was a fighter. He’d make it home. She turned to Brianna. “Please tell me you’re staying the night.”
“No one needs to leave. We have plenty. As Madison’s friends, you all are welcome here as long as you would like to stay.”
Brianna smiled at Madison’s mom. “Thanks, Mrs. Sloane. We were planning on driving up to my parents’ place outside of Truckee, but after what happened today…” Brianna trailed off and Tucker took over.
“We don’t think leaving you all is the best idea. That Bill guy seems like a real hothead. You might need us around.”
Madison chewed on her lip. Part of her wanted Brianna and Tucker to stay, but more for the friendship than the body count. But Brianna had family waiting for her. Family who was probably worried sick.
“Whenever you want to leave, it’s okay. We’ll survive.”
“Thanks, Madison.” Brianna reached across the table and squeezed her hand as Peyton shifted in his seat.
“As for you,” Madison said as she turned to him, “I forbid you from leaving.”
“Madison’s right. Besides, I hear you’d like a fried pie revival.”
Peyton’s eyes went wide. “The power’s out.”
Madison’s mom smiled. “Give this Girl Scout a little credit. If I don’t know how to cook over an open flame, then I should never have earned that merit badge.”
“Don’t underestimate my mom’s mad cooking skills. If she says she can make a pie, she can make a pie.”
“And stick a gun in someone’s face!”
Everyone laughed, even Madison’s mom. She leaned into her mom, resting her head on her shoulder. “It’s good to have you home.”
Chapter Thirty
TRACY
Sacramento, CA
2:30 p.m.
Madison was safe. Her friends were with her, they had plenty of food and water and other supplies tucked into the house, and for now, no one was breaking down the door to get it.
Life was as good as it could be. Tracy only wished her husband was there to be a part of it. Every hour that went by, her unease over Walter’s absence grew.
She knew that eventually, they would have to leave this little bungalow in the middle of the city. Every day the threats would grow. Whether from other neighbors like Bill, or outsiders looking for an easy mark. The longer they stayed, the more vulnerable they became.
The more she heard about Brianna’s family compound in the mountains, the more it seemed like the best option. But they couldn’t leave without Walter. He would be coming home, and when he got there, she needed to be waiting.
Tracy thought about sending Madison on her way, demanding that she leave with Brianna and head to safety. But she couldn’t bear to do it. For three days she had worried that she would never see her daughter again. She couldn’t send her away now.
Whatever happened next, they would face it together. Tracy glanced at all of the faces gathered around her. Four college kids, a librarian, and a fluffy orange cat. Not the most intimidating crew on the outside, but so far they had managed to survive more than she thought possible.
She smiled at Tucker and raised her water glass. “Thank you for warning Madison about the EMP. If it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t be sitting here with all these supplies.”
His cheeks colored and he gave her a small nod. “You’re welcome, Mrs. Sloane. I’m just glad her text went through.”
“So am I.” Madison hugged her again. “I still can’t believe we both made it home.”
“Neither can I, honey.” She squeezed her daughter closer to her side. “But I’m afraid this is just the beginning.”
Everyone around the table nodded, even Wanda.
“What do you think will happen tomorrow?” Peyton asked the question, his green eyes full of fear and hope.
Tracy smiled. “Tomorrow, I teach you all how to fry a pie on a campfire and we figure out just what food this cat will eat.”
“I vote jalapeño Doritos.” Tucker grinned as Brianna punched him in the arm.
“We’re saving those, remember!”
“Maybe he’ll be a mouser,” Wanda offered. “Without electricity, there will be a ton more mice and rats.”
Madison recoiled. “Eww.”
“Hey, don’t knock it.” Tucker tried not to laugh. “Pretty soon we might be eating them!”
Brianna raised her water glass. “To surviving the apocalypse without eating a single rodent!”
Everyone around the table raised their glasses and Tracy smiled. It might not be the world she envisioned, but the motley band assembled in her tiny home had proven themselves more than capable.
They might have witnessed the end of life as they knew it, but Tracy planned to stick around long enough to see the start of something new. This was only the beginning.
Chapter Thirty-One
WALTER
Somewhere near the California-Oregon Border
8:00 p.m.
Walter pulled the tiny compact over to the side of the road. The tires rumbled over the strip warning of his exit, but he ignored them, coasting to a stop in the dust and weeds. He turned the engine off and waited for the headlights to go out.
He
stared, dumbstruck.
“So it’s true.”
He turned to his passenger and nodded. “I guess so.” Without another word, he opened the driver’s side door and stepped out into the semidarkness.
Instead of dark sky and stars, giant swaths of undulating blues and greens and even purples filled the air. The northern lights all the way down here. He rubbed at the back of his neck.
The sky wasn’t what bothered him. It was the worrying sight below him that had Walter praying silently for the first time in nineteen years. He had pulled over at the edge of a cliff; one of those lookout spots where tourists could stand and take a photo of themselves in front of an amazing backdrop.
Only instead of the lights of the valley opening up below him, there was nothing but darkness.
A giant, gaping maw, ready to swallow up the beauty of the night sky above it. Had the sun been out, how far could he see? A hundred miles? Two hundred?
There should be lights. Millions of little shimmering lights announcing that civilization lurked just down this mountain. But it was dark, just like he had seen from thirty-thousand feet.
For some reason, he’d kept hoping that as soon as they crested the hill, as soon as they reached California, somewhere, somehow, the lights would be on. But as far as he could see, from Oregon to Idaho and beyond, the lights just blinked out. America sat in darkness.
He thought of the terror down the hill below them. The fear and peril.
The worst was just beginning. How bad would it get? And how soon?
Walter shuddered and turned back to the car.
Hold on, Tracy. I’m coming.
Darkness Grows
DAY FOUR
SIXTY HOURS WITHOUT POWER
Chapter One
MADISON
Sloane Residence
Sacramento, CA
7:00 a.m.
I will never take cotton sheets and a good mattress for granted again. Madison stretched her arms over her head and rolled over. The sky outside hung in the liminal moment between dark and light, sunrise still a few minutes away.
If Madison hadn’t been up at dawn most mornings in college, she would never know such a space existed. The handful of minutes before the sun spilled over the horizon had always signaled the start of something new for her. Hope, anticipation, the promise of more.
But three days ago, everything changed. How long would it take for the world to notice? How long could her friends and family survive?
The geomagnetic storm that hit the earth didn’t discriminate. The EMP destroyed every inch of the power grid it touched. How many people were powerless? The West Coast? The entire country? Continent? World?
Without a means of communication, Madison didn’t know. But that wouldn’t stop her. Whether the government or the military or relief charities showed up wouldn’t be the difference between her survival or her death. No. Madison would survive, and she would keep her friends and family alive, too.
After one last stretch, she swung her legs over the side of her bed, narrowly missing Peyton’s head on the floor. Her best friend from college might only be a calendar year older, but he more than made up for it in height and width.
Peyton’s arms stretched from the edge of Madison’s bed all the way to the door on the other side. His head poked out of his sleeping bag like the sack had been made for a child. If she didn’t know him so well, she would assume he played on the UC Davis football team as a proud Aggie. Instead, he spent his days by her side in a stuffy greenhouse watering tomato plants.
Easing her feet down between his sleeping bag and her bed, Madison sneaked around Peyton and out her bedroom door. The tiny two-bedroom bungalow her parents called home wasn’t made for six people, but no one seemed to mind.
They had a roof over their heads and enough food and water for weeks thanks to her mom’s quick thinking. Madison grabbed the portable radio off the hall table and poked her head in the living room, pausing as her eyes adjusted to the light.
The bright yellow sleeping bag on the floor reminded Madison of a butterfly cocoon, bumpy and lumpy with a still-sleeping form inside. But the sleeping bag next to it was gone. Madison smiled. Tucker must be awake.
She found him a few minutes later, crouched in the backyard, tinkering with something on the ground.
“Whatcha doin?”
He turned, brushing a clump of shaggy black hair out of his eye. “Trying to rig this solar panel to charge my laptop. You?”
“Wiping sleep from my eyes and jonesing for a hot cup of coffee.”
“Better watch out, too much caffeine will stunt your growth.”
Madison put her hand up as if to guess at her own height. “Now you tell me.” She walked forward with a grin and joined Tucker on the edge of the patio. A three-section piece of canvas sat unfolded on the ground, the blue solar panels on top waiting for the sun.
She motioned at it. “You really think you can power your laptop with that?”
Tucker nodded. “I’ve done it before just for fun. It might take a day or two, but give it enough hours of solid daylight and it’ll charge.”
Leave it to an astrophysics major to know how to keep technology going even without the grid. Madison chewed on her lip. If the solar panel could charge Tucker’s laptop battery, what else could it do? “Any chance that could run a coffee pot?”
Tucker laughed. “Not unless you’ve got a spare power bank with a 120 volt receptacle lying around. I looked for one when we were loading up on supplies, but the store was out of stock.”
Madison sighed. “It was worth a shot.” She stood up and clicked the radio on, turning the dial in slow-motion, hoping for anything other than static. No luck. Shouldn’t the government be saying something by now? Doing something?
The sliding door to the patio opened and Brianna, Madison’s roommate from college, stood in the open doorway, eyebrows scrunched together.
“How long do you think before that crazy guy comes back and wants all our stuff?”
“Good morning to you, too.”
Brianna pressed her lips together. “Sorry. I’m cranky without coffee.”
“Me too.” Madison stood up. “I don’t think Bill is coming back any time soon. After my mom threatened to shoot him, he backed down pretty quick.”
“He pointed a shotgun at you, Madison.”
Madison corrected her. “Bill pointed a shotgun at all of us.”
“That doesn’t make it any better.” Brianna stepped onto the patio and walked over to Tucker. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze before letting go.
She didn’t want to admit it, but Brianna had a point. The man had shown himself to be a hothead who didn’t take no for an answer. Add in the fact that he’d seen some of their supplies in the back of Brianna’s Jeep and Madison knew Bill would be trouble.
Part of her wished they could just batten down the hatches and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. Inside her parents’ house, they were safe, secure, and could survive. Unfortunately the rest of the neighborhood knew it, too.
How many neighbors would side with Bill? How many would come knocking on their door demanding a share of their food and water?
Madison thought back to the neighborhood meeting only the day before. It seemed like months ago, not hours. She still couldn’t believe how unprepared and naïve everyone appeared.
Did most of the population believe the power would come back on? Did they really think this was no different than a bad thunderstorm and downed power lines?
Madison ran a hand through her hair, tugging at the tangles in the brown strands. It had been long enough since she’d showered that her hair had passed the greasy stage and entered disgusting.
She wondered about all the homes tucked into her parents’ neighborhood. What were the occupants doing right now? Would they be allies or threats? With a glance back at the open sliding glass door, she asked the question out loud. “How many houses are in the neighborhood, do you thin
k? A hundred? More?”
Brianna scratched at a spot behind her ear. “Probably a hundred and fifty. Maybe two hundred. We drove by a lot of places on the way in. Why?”
“There were about thirty people at the neighborhood meeting yesterday, right?”
“I counted thirty-three.” Tucker stood up before continuing. “But some of those were from the same household. I met a few married couples. ”
Madison nodded. She might have gone through hell the last three days to get from Davis to Sacramento, but people had stayed home. Most people still didn’t know.
She perched on the patio table as she thought it over. “Let’s assume there’s at least a hundred houses around us that didn’t attend. That means there are a hundred houses who didn’t hear Tucker’s explanation for the power loss. They don’t know about the EMP.”
Glancing at Brianna, Madison dropped her voice to ensure it didn’t carry past the small backyard. “That’s a hundred families in this neighborhood alone who are sitting in front of their televisions, checking their phones, and waiting for the power to come back on.”
“I still don’t get what you’re saying.” Brianna crossed her arms, her pink plaid shirt a stark contrast to the T-shirt and camouflage cargo pants she had worn the last few days.
Madison focused on the lines parading up and down the flannel. “I think we’re still ahead of the game. We’re some of the few people around who know what’s happened.”
At last, Brianna nodded in understanding. Her father had been a survivalist for as long as Madison knew them, fortifying a cabin up in the mountains for just this situation. “As long as we have the upper hand, we should take advantage.”
“You mean we should go on a run.” Peyton walked outside, the orange cat her mom had saved the day before tucked into his arm. Fireball mewled and Peyton let him go, watching as the cat greeted each person with a headbutt and rub across the legs.
