The Light: Who do you become when the world falls away? (New Dawn Book 1)

by Jacqueline Brown

“I know, JP, not you. But you at least need to come with me to get your pajamas on and brush your teeth,” Charlotte said.

  “Will you all see what you can do with the dishes and trash? And remember, the soap we have is all we have,” Charlotte said, looking at her family.

  They nodded.

  Charlotte and her youngest children disappeared up the stairs, taking a candle with them.

  “Can we do anything to help?” Sara asked, still leaning toward Jonah.

  Quint shook his head. “I’m not sure what can be done tonight. We need more water to boil before we wash the dishes. And the trash—I guess we will bury it.”

  “Dad! We can’t bury trash,” East exclaimed.

  “What do you think they do at landfills?” Jonah crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

  “So, that doesn’t make it right. What are we going to do, turn our yard into a waste dump?” East retorted.

  Jonah leaned forward. Sara leaned back, away from Jonah. I could sense the anger in him from across the room. I knew she could too.

  “You get that the trash we have now is the only trash we will ever have, right? That we aren’t going to the store and buying more stuff? There will never be more cartons of ice cream or empty boxes of hair dye? You get all that, right?” His words were angry and sarcastic.

  East pushed back from the table. “Shut up, Jonah. I get that you are just as depressing to be around as you’ve always been.” She put her bowl in the sink and stomped upstairs.

  “That was uncalled for,” Quint said after she’d gone.

  “What was? What did I say that was wrong or untrue?” Jonah said, glaring at the wall behind where his sister had been sitting.

  “Your tone, that’s what was uncalled for. I know you’re an adult, but you are my son and East is my daughter, and no man, especially not my son, is going to speak to my daughter that way,” Quint said, fully in control of his emotions. Fully aware he was in the right.

  “Fine. I’m sorry. But I’m sick of her not getting how serious this is. This is not a power outage. This is going back in time two hundred years and none of us knows how to survive in that world.”

  I could hear the scared child that still lived in his heart—that still lived in mine too, if I was honest. I was terrified of this and had no idea what to think, let alone what to do.

  “Son, East knows how serious this is. We all know how serious this is. Well, maybe not John Paul,” he said with a slight lightness to his voice, “but even Quinn is shaken. It’s true that East wants to go into town and see if others know anything.”

  Jonah started to interrupt.

  “And I know you vehemently disagree with that idea,” Quint responded before Jonah could. “I don’t disagree with you. But that’s her love for others. She wants to make sure others in the community are okay. I respect her for that. Your mom and I will keep discussing options. But one thing Mom and I both know is we will do whatever it takes to keep you kids safe. Your safety,”—he paused and exhaled, locking eyes with Jonah—“your survival is everything to us.”

  “I know,” Jonah said, nodding, blinking tears from his eyes. “And you know we feel the same way about you and Mom.”

  “I know you do, and I couldn’t love you more for it. All of you,” he said, looking at Eli, who sat silently watching the exchange between his father and brother.

  After a short pause, Eli said, “We need to get Nonie and Pops. They can’t stay at their house alone. Not now.”

  I remembered now East saying her grandparents lived on the property.

  “Mom and I already decided we will bring them here tomorrow. Kicking and screaming, if need be,” Quint said.

  “This house is going to be overflowing,” Eli said, his gaze going from the family room back to the kitchen.

  “Sorry. We don’t mean to take away room and food from your family. We can leave,” I said, knowing we had nowhere else to go.

  “First of all, Bria, you are family,” Eli said with kindness in his voice. “And second of all, you misunderstood. I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. More of my cup runneth over sort of thing.”

  “But Bria’s right,” Josh said. “By us being with you, we will take away resources from your family.”

  “There is nothing more precious than life. That includes the life of each of you. You will stay and we will figure things out.” Quint’s tone was firm.

  “Besides, there is safety in numbers,” Jonah said, looking first at Josh and then at me, his voice back to normal. “The food we have will only last so long. After that, we’ll have to get a lot more creative.”

  Sara looked at Quint. “How long do you think this will last?” she asked.

  Jonah and Eli exchanged glances. I got the sense they knew something but didn’t want to tell her … to tell us.

  Quint leaned back from the table and looked at each of us in turn, before stopping at Sara and answering her question. “I’m not sure. I know the world has changed, categorically changed. What we once took for granted, clean drinking water coming into our homes, food in abundance, heat,”—his voice became soft—“and safety, those things no longer exist as they once did. It is possible with time, those things could exist again. Certainly, the infrastructure and the knowledge exist.”

  “So you agree with Jonah that it was an electromagnetic pulse?” Blaise asked.

  Jonah and Eli looked at each other again. There was a pause and then Quint spoke.

  “Last night I couldn’t sleep. East sent me a text at eleven, saying they were a hundred fifty miles out. I expected them by two at the latest, so I was waiting up. I can’t sleep when I know my kids are traveling. I would have been doubly worried had I known Eli was on his way.”

  “That’s why I didn’t tell you,” Eli said, interrupting.

  “You’re a good boy, but I would rather know the truth than be naïvely unconcerned,” Quint said, looking at both his sons in turn.

  “Anyway, I was watching TV to distract myself. A few minutes before one o’clock the show was interrupted. The announcer was panicked, not calm and put together like you normally see them. It was clear there was no script. There had been no makeup or hair done. He was not anyone I recognized. Perhaps the camera guy or whoever happened to be there. He said the U.S. was under attack. That several large weapons were headed for us. He said the air force and navy were trying to intercept, but there was a problem. He didn’t say what it was. He said to remain calm and in our homes. Then the picture cut out.

  “Immediately after that, a light shone through every window in the house. Everything went dark. Charlotte and the kids stayed asleep. I locked the doors, got my hunting rifle down and loaded, got on my knees and prayed. Just before dawn Eli knocked on the door. I soaked the poor kid’s shirt with my tears. I woke Charlotte and told her what happened. She was almost inconsolable, knowing Jonah and East were stranded somewhere. But I knew they were close. I had faith they would make it. I had to. Eli stayed with his mom as she cried. He prayed when she couldn’t. I made sure everything around the house looked okay, and then I had to check on my parents. I tried to get them to come back with me and they refused. I came back, and you all were here. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to have all my kids with me. When I heard Bria had come home too,”—his voice cracked. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffed back tears.

  Quint cleared his throat and then continued. “I suppose then, Blaise, the answer to your question is I don’t know what it was, but I know it was an attack and there were several weapons. I know our government was unable to stop them, and I would think that means the government and the armed forces were caught off guard. Based on the fact that none of our electronics are working, I would say, yes, it was an EMP, or more accurately, several very large EMPs detonated in the upper atmosphere to have the most effect.”

  No one spoke. I stared at the small cross on the wall behind Jonah. I thought of my father and longed for him to be with me. I didn’t care that he hadn’
t been honest with me. I missed him.

  “Did the announcer say who was attacking us?” Josh asked. His words were slow and methodical, as if it was a struggle to get them out.

  Quint looked from Josh to Blaise, and shook his head no.

  Josh exhaled. We’d all been worried the answer would be China, and Blaise would become a target.

  “Are there actual attackers or terrorists or whatever on the ground, like in the cities?” Sara asked. I knew her thoughts were of her mother and sister.

  Quint looked at Sara. “I don’t know, but it seems unlikely to me that someone, some entity, would go to the trouble of setting off EMPs just to set them off. There had to be a bigger reason.”

  A chill surged through me. Our country had been debilitated and no one saw it coming. We had been naïvely unconcerned, as Quint said. How did this happen? How could this happen? How would we survive?

  We sat in silence. Josh held Blaise tightly to his chest. The rest of us made no attempts to comfort one another. What could be said? What could be done?

  Quint looked up as footsteps approached from the stairs.

  “What are you all talking about?” Charlotte said, holding the hand of a wide-awake JP.

  “The events of the last day,” Quint said stoically.

  Charlotte nodded. “As the mother of the house, I announce that it is time for bed. None of you slept last night. Not to mention we have a lot to do tomorrow and we only have so many candles.”

  Jonah looked up at his mother and then down at his hands. “Where is East? I need to tell her something,” he said.

  “Upstairs with Quinn,” Charlotte said, looking at her son.

  “Quinn was too scared to sleep without her,” JP said, in a tone mocking his little sister.

  “Yes, and you will be sleeping with Dad and me, so it is perfectly fine for Quinn to want to sleep with her big sister,” Charlotte said, giving JP a look that said, Don’t you dare tease your sister. “Jonah, she forgives you. She told me about what happened and she knows you are stressed. We all are.”

  Jonah nodded and continued looking at his hands.

  “Do you four need anything? Josh, the boys can get a sleeping bag for you. You girls have John Paul’s bed and Eli can get you a sleeping bag. Sorry we can’t offer actual beds to all of you,” Charlotte said.

  Josh stood next to Blaise, and said, “You’ve done more than enough.”

  “Thank you for saving us,” Blaise said. She stood and gave Charlotte a hug, tears in her eyes.

  Charlotte hugged her back. “You three are part of our family now. Bria already was, but the rest of you are, also. We will work as a family and get through this,” she said, squeezing Blaise’s hand.

  Blaise nodded and bit her lip to keep from crying.

  Six

  I awoke, disoriented. It was dark and cold. Moonlight shone through the large window in JP’s room. There had been no reason to close the drapes. The sun had set long before we had laid down. With the drapes open, cold air seemed to pour in from the closed windows. I shivered violently under the covers. I could hear the soft breathing of Sara and Blaise on the bed above me. I had insisted on the floor, but now I wished I hadn’t. The bed must be warmer than the floor. My body ached for more sleep. I pulled the blankets over my head, hoping my breath would warm the air around me enough so I could fall back asleep. I pulled my knees to my chest and tried to warm my toes. They felt like ice, even with socks on.

  How was this going to work? It was only November; the first frost hadn’t come yet. It was still getting up to the seventies during the day. How was I going to survive winter? How were any of us?

  I sat up. My body shivered as I crept to my suitcase. I layered on as many clothes as I could. I spread my blanket gently over my sleeping friends. I walked out of the room and tiptoed down the stairs. It was too dark to see the picture of my mother, though I stopped and looked in its direction when I was close to it. I sighed and walked to the family room.

  The fire was burning brightly. Eli sat beside it, a string of brown beads in his hand. I looked at the rifles still on the mantel above him. I looked back at Eli. Did he wake up early or was he on watch?

  He looked up as I entered. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “I tried, but I was a little cold,” I answered, not wanting to appear ungrateful for the room I shared with my friends. I sat on the ground as close to the fire as I could without getting burned. Half awake, half asleep.

  He nodded and moved his fingers along the beads. After a moment he put the beads in his pocket. “The house was designed for central heat and air. It doesn’t matter how warm the fire is. The rest of the house won’t feel its heat,” he said.

  I yawned. “Maybe I’ll sleep down here tonight,” I said.

  He looked toward the drawn curtains. “I think we will all be sleeping down here soon,” he said.

  “Do you know what time it is?” I asked.

  He nodded. “A little after five.”

  I groaned.

  “You aren’t a morning person?” he teased.

  “I don’t believe people should wake up before the sun,” I mumbled as I lay my head on my knees.

  “You know, as a baby you were up at five almost every day. I remember your parents coming over for dinner and falling asleep on the couch while you and Jonah played right there,” he said, pointing to the middle of the large rug I sat on.

  I felt a mixture of joy and pain at his words. I turned my head to look at him. “What was my mom like?” I asked.

  He raised his head to the ceiling and thought for a moment. “She was joyful. I suppose that’s the best way to describe her. She loved life. Loved you and your dad. Loved us. Loved God. And the love was there in all she did. From the smallest act to the largest. She wasn’t always happy, but she was always joyful. She made me want to be like her,” he said, smiling down at me.

  “Until yesterday, I’d never met anyone who knew her—well, except my father, and he never talks about her. I never knew she was religious or that she looked like me. I knew she loved me. That much I could remember. I remember the joy I felt with her, so it makes sense that you describe her as joyful,” I said, feeling oddly at peace about speaking of my mother.

  “Did your dad not raise you in the church?” Eli asked, looking puzzled.

  “What church? But no, he hates religion. He’s the most vocal atheist I know. And I know several.”

  “I see. And what do you think?” Eli asked, his voice relaxed yet interested.

  “I don’t know what I think. I’ve never been to church, never celebrated religious things. My father did all he could to keep me free of lies, as he called it. But finding out my mom was religious makes me question things,” I said, lifting my head and looking at him.

  “Your mom and your dad, for that matter, were devout Catholics. It’s actually partly because of your mom that I became a priest,” he said with a distant look in his eyes.

  “You’re a priest?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s cool,” I said, putting my head back down to my knees. The heat of the fire washing over me reminded me I was tired.

  “I think so,” he said, pausing as if thinking about something. “Bria, where did you and your dad go? It was like you vanished.”

  I could hear the pain in his voice. I looked at him, sensing he had missed me as much as his parents. “DC. It’s where I grew up,” I said.

  “Holt Ford in Washington? He always hated cities. I can’t imagine him in a city that size,” he said.

  “He seemed at home to me,” I said, my eyes closed again. I wanted to sleep.

  “Why did you leave so quickly? My parents went over the day after the funeral to check on you and your dad, and you were gone. They tried to find your dad, tried to find you, but until yesterday we had no idea what happened,” he said, the hurt noticeable in his voice.

  I opened my eyes a little. “Where did they go?” I asked, feeling confused.

  “Your
house,” he said.

  “My house was destroyed in the fire,” I said, gazing sleepily at Eli. His expression changed into one of confusion. I raised my head and stared at him.

  I heard footsteps on the stairs.

  “We wondered where you went,” Sara said as she and Blaise walked into the room and sat next to me in front of the fire.

  “Aww, this is better. That room was freezing!” Blaise said.

  “Sorry if we’re interrupting,” Sara said as she looked at me staring at Eli. His face still showed confusion.

  He blinked and his expression returned to normal. “No, we were just reminiscing. Or at least I was. I was remembering Bria as an energetic toddler playing on this rug. But I guess it’s time to get the day started. I’m sure Mom and Dad are up by now. They are probably trying to be quiet so they don’t wake John Paul. Once that boy’s eyes open, he’s awake and there is no slowing him down until he passes out at night,” Eli said as he stood and stretched his back.

  I watched him walk away. I wondered why he had looked so confused. I wondered what he was not telling me.

  “You sure we didn’t interrupt something?” Sara said, teasing me after Eli left the room.

  “You interrupted something, but not what you’re thinking,” I said, irritated that Sara had assumed I was flirting with Eli. She always assumed everyone was flirting, probably because she was always flirting.

  “So what did we interrupt?” Blaise asked.

  “He said my mom was joyful and religious,” I answered.

  “Your mom was religious? Weird. I wonder what your dad thought of that,” Sara said, holding her hands out toward the fire.

  “Probably that she was crazy,” Josh said, entering the room. He sat down by Blaise and pulled her into him.

  “No,” I said. “He said my father was religious too. He said it was because of my mom that he became a priest.”

  “Your dad was religious?” Blaise asked, shock in her voice.

  “Eli’s a priest?” Sara asked, horror in her voice.

  “Yes and yes,” I answered.

  “That is weird,” Josh said.