Solar Fury

by E A Chance

  “That’s nice for your mom. Too bad all this happened to ruin it.”

  “It’s not ruined. Even in all this craziness, Mom’s the happiest I’ve seen her since Dad died. We’re all lucky to have him, especially since he’s letting us stay in his suite.”

  She watched Hannah finish her donut. She had chocolate icing on the sides of her mouth and seemed younger than twelve.

  “It stinks that the babysitter ran out on you. What a jerk. We’d never abandon you.”

  “I was so scared by myself in the room all night. I didn’t leave the room until morning when I was hungry and wanted to find out what to do. Dr. Cooper saw me and asked Quinten to bring me here. Can you ask your mom if we can go see if my parents came back before she leaves? They won’t know where I am.”

  “Sure, and I need an excuse to get out of this room for a minute. We’ll go as soon as we’re dressed.”

  Riley was stepping out of the shower when a deafening explosion shook the walls, and the lights went dark. When two more explosions followed, she threw on her robe and ran to the living room. She shined her phone flashlight toward the girls, and they stared back, wide-eyed.

  “Are you two all right?”

  Julia moved beside her and Riley put an arm around her shoulders. “What was that, Mom?”

  “Nothing good,” Coop said, as he came in the door.

  Riley opened the patio curtains to let in the dull light. “How did you get in with your key if the power’s out?”

  “The card readers are battery-powered in case of power loss, fortunately.”

  “Good to know,” Riley said. “Why are you back from the clinic?”

  “To check on all of you. The ballroom was empty. I saw Nabhitha in the lobby. She said they finished with the last patient at six and closed up shop. She stayed in case anyone showed up but was leaving as I got there. I was on my way to get an update from the manager when the explosions happened. My gut’s telling me the power’s gone for good. If you’re all safe, I’m going to see if the manager knows what happened.”

  Riley watched him go before turning to the girls. “You two bundle up while I get dressed. It’s going to get cold inside in a hurry.”

  “I left my coat in my room,” Hannah said.

  Julia jumped up and headed for her room. “I’ll take her to get it. We can get the rest of her clothes, too.”

  “You two are not going to go running around the dark hotel by yourselves. I’ll take the message to your room and bring your belongings back with me. Write the note while I get dressed. What’s your room number?”

  “Thank you, Dr. Poole,” Hannah said. “It’s 923.”

  Ninth floor. Of course it is, Riley thought. “Since you’re going to be a member of our family for a while, please call me Riley.”

  Hannah nodded as Riley went to her room and put leggings on under her jeans before layering a t-shirt and long-sleeved pullover under her heaviest sweater. Her bedroom was still warm and the bulky clothing made her sweat. She pulled off the sweater and tied it around her waist, then put on a pair of wool socks.

  She grabbed a walkie and gave Julia the usual warning about bolting the door before walking into the pitch-black hallway. She turned on her phone flashlight and took a breath to summon her courage. She was on a mission for that poor orphan girl who had spent a night alone in the hotel. If she was brave enough to do that, Riley could leave a note for her parents and retrieve her belongings.

  The lobby was deserted and already growing colder, but at least gray light filtered in through the revolving door and front windows. She turned off her phone light to conserve the battery and considered going to find Coop to go with her to Hannah’s room, but didn’t want to appear pathetic. She crossed to the stairs and flashed her light up the first flight. This is ridiculous, she told herself. There are no monsters. It’s just a stairwell.

  After making it to the room and leaving the note that she doubted Hannah’s parents would ever see, she packed Hannah’s clothes and other belongings. Since their suite was on the far end from the stairs she’d used on going up, she descended the opposite stairway. When she rounded the corner of the second-floor landing, her foot bumped into a soft heap on the floor near the wall. She jumped back and dropped her phone, which clattered to the bottom of the stairs, leaving her in total darkness. The heap let out a low groan.

  “Is someone there?” she whispered.

  Another groan answered her. Switching into doctor mode, she knelt and ran her hands over the body to make an assessment.

  “I’m Dr. Poole. Can you speak? Can you tell me what happened?”

  “Riley?” the heap croaked.

  She stopped the exam when her hands touched something sticky in his hair above his eye. “Coop? Don’t move. Your head is bleeding.”

  She stripped off her three layers of tops and pressed her t-shirt to Coop’s head. “Can you put pressure on this?”

  “Yes,” he said weakly.

  She put her long-sleeved t-shirt back on and felt for more injuries. “Did you fall in the dark?”

  It took several seconds for him to answer. “I raided the vending machines on the third floor and was coming to look for you when three men rushed me. They took my flashlight and box of food, then pushed me down the stairs. I think I recognized two of them as hotel staff, but it happened so fast. I’m not sure.”

  “We’ll worry about who did this later. I have to leave you alone for a minute while I get my phone and whatever medical supplies I can scrounge from the ballroom.” She covered him with her sweater. “I’ll only be gone a minute. Don’t move.”

  She raced down the stairs, grabbed her phone and blinked in the daylight when she exited the stairwell. She searched the vacant reception desk and staff room for supplies, but all she found was a cigarette lighter, a small box of Band-Aids, and a travel sewing kit. She tossed them in a baggie and rushed to the ballroom. She passed the pool on her way and spotted what looked like a pack of glowsticks sitting on a lounge chair. She went into the pool area and stuffed them into her pocket before taking the few towels left on the racks.

  Once at the ballroom, she stopped in despair to see the shelves had been picked clean. She picked up the few unopened packets of gauze she found on the floor before heading back to the stairs. She lit a glowstick while she made her way to Coop.

  He was sitting against the wall, still pressing her t-shirt to his forehead. “I told you not to move,” she scolded as she peeled the shirt from his wound.

  “My neck and back aren’t injured. I rolled into a ball as I fell, but my head hit the last step.”

  She knelt in front of him and held her phone close to his face to check his eyes. “Pupils are equal and reactive, so no concussion yet. That cut needs stitches. Can you make it to your suite?”

  He gripped her wrist. “Riley, listen first.” He closed his eyes and took a few breaths before continuing. “The hotel manager said an engineer told him the natural gas pipelines beneath the city have all been destroyed. That’s what those rumbling explosions were before the hotel went dark. And the massive transformers that process the city’s energy are all blown. The city’s power isn’t coming back. Not now, maybe not ever.”

  Riley switched out her t-shirt for one of the pool towels and ordered him to keep it pressed on his cut, then held out her hand. “My instincts have been telling me that, but I’ve tried to convince myself the lights would come back any minute. I’ll freak out about it after I’ve stitched your head. Let’s get you to your feet.”

  He took her hand, and after helping him up, she waited for him to get his balance before guiding him to the steps.

  “Why would anyone do this to you? I get stealing your stuff, but why push you down the stairs?”

  Coop swayed and grabbed onto Riley. “Maybe so I wouldn’t follow or identify them. They were probably hoping they killed me.”

  “Over a flashlight and a box of food? People can’t be that desperate already.”

  �
��I got the impression these weren’t fine, upstanding citizens. People like them take advantage of any opportunity to get what they want, and hunger is a powerful motivator.”

  Riley was quiet for the rest of the walk to Coop’s suite. She helped him to the sofa once they were inside, and the girls rushed them, asking a thousand questions at once.

  Riley put her hands up to quiet them. “We’ll explain after I’ve stitched his cut. Julia, please bring me that backpack next to the couch.”

  When Julia handed it to her, she took out a suture kit and Lidocaine to numb Coop’s skin. She sterilized the wound with alcohol and sterile water before working quickly to suture the laceration before he lost more blood. She handed him ibuprofen and a bottle of water when she finished. He swallowed the tablets but immediately vomited them back up into a beautiful crystal bowl from the coffee table.

  “Lovely,” she said, while she rinsed it in the sink. “That bowl just became a little less priceless.”

  “Take me to my bed,” he mumbled. Riley helped him down the hallway and got him settled. She sat on the edge of his bed, and when he tried to sit up, she put her hands on his shoulders, pinning him to the mattress. “With the city going dark, we need to get out of here by tomorrow morning.”

  “We’ll discuss that later. I’ll be right back with pain killers, antibiotics, and a saline drip.”

  Riley watched him while she started his IV and gave him the meds, trying to block out what he’d said about getting out of the city. He was in no shape to go anywhere, and she wasn’t up to being in charge of him and two teenage girls. Conditions were deteriorating rapidly, but she still felt safest in the hotel, even without electricity.

  She dropped into the recliner in the corner of his room. “I’ll stay to monitor you. Try to sleep.” I predict an argument in my future, she thought as she leaned back and closed her eyes.

  She woke two hours later to Coop, calling her name. She got up and opened the blinds. “You look chipper,” she said when she saw him sitting up against the headboard.

  “My headache is down to a dull roar, so that’s a positive sign.”

  He flinched when she shined her penlight on his pupils. “I’m thrilled you’re feeling better, but it could take a few days for a brain bleed or concussion to show up after the initial injury.

  He gently pushed her hand down to get the light out of his eyes. “I’m a doctor, too, remember. I don’t have a brain bleed. I’m too hardheaded for that. You and I need to find a truck today and fill it with as many supplies as we can scavenge before there’s none to be found.”

  He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, but Riley leaned over him and said, “You’re not getting out of that bed. You need to rest today. We’ll go at first light.”

  “I need to pee if I have your permission. Remove the IV unless you want to join me in the john and hold the bag.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first male patient I’ve had to help to the bathroom, but we should leave the IV in until we’re sure you can keep food and liquids down.”

  In answer, he ripped the IV out. Blood immediately spurted from the open vein. He pulled tissues from the box on the nightstand and pressed them onto the opening.

  She put her hands on her hips and glared. “You are the most impetuous person I’ve ever met. You could have warned me to have gauze ready.”

  Blood soaked the tissues in seconds, so he grabbed more and looked up at her sheepishly. “Do you have gauze and tape?”

  She sucked in her lips to keep from laughing as she reached for the gauze. He was a contrite little patient while she taped him and helped him to the bathroom.

  She stopped just outside the doorway and crossed her arms. “Sure you can manage in there by yourself?”

  He grinned and closed the door. Riley shook her head and went to clean the blood off his sheets. She poured alcohol on a hand towel and scrubbed hard at the stains.

  “Toilet won’t flush,” Coop called through the door. “Water pressure’s gone. It was just a matter of time.” He opened the bathroom door and showed her the trickle of water coming from the sink faucet. “Our situation just deteriorated by magnitudes. The tap water may not have been safe to drink, but at least we had it for the toilets and washing. Acquiring drinking water just rocketed to the top of our priority list. How much do we have left?”

  “About a fourth of what we started with, so not nearly enough.”

  “The snow is too dirty to drink, but we can melt it for other uses. Grab me a pair of jeans and a sweater from the dresser, please. Have the girls fill every container we have with snow.” When she saluted, he pulled her close and gave her a long kiss. “I’m proud of you. I know this isn’t easy with your…issues. I like this new take charge Riley.”

  “I don’t have the luxury of cowering in a corner if we want to survive. Maybe we’ve discovered the cure for PTSD: facing the end of the world. You’re all depending on me. I can’t afford to let you down.”

  “I gladly place my life in your capable hands.”

  She handed him his clothes from the dresser and said, “I’m not comfortable leaving the girls here alone while we’re gone, but we can’t take them with us. What if something happens to us? Or them?”

  “We’ll ask one of the other doctors or Quinten to check in on them. They’ll be fine. Julia is the Warrior Princess, after all.”

  Satisfied with his idea, she gave him a quick kiss, then left him to dress.

  Riley followed Coop into the hallway and waited for the sound of the bolt before proceeding in darkness toward the lobby. She switched on the flashlight and patted her pocket for her phone, which still had a small charge left. The backup chargers were all dead, so they’d have to rely solely on alkaline batteries and solar power. She was glad she’d remembered to put the other flashlights on the patio to charge before they left.

  After hunting down her rental in the corner of a dank valet parking basement, she held her breath and pressed the ignition button. When the engine hummed to life, she and Coop sighed in relief.

  “The circuits must have been protected from the CME by the garage structure,” Coop said, as he climbed in and buckled his seatbelt. Let’s just hope we can get out of here.”

  As Riley wound through the garage to the surface, she hoped the streets would be clear enough of debris and cars to navigate. She exited the garage and frowned at the sight of the one-way street blocked with mangled vehicles in the direction they needed to go.

  “The other way is clear. Turn left,” Coop said. “It’s not like you’ll get a ticket for driving the wrong way.”

  Riley made sure no one was coming before turning. She needn’t have bothered. The only cars on the roads were twisted wrecks.

  Reminding herself to breathe, she said, “I hope you know your way around. I’m useless without GPS.”

  Coop pulled a city map out of his pocket. “We’ll have to do this old-school, as Julia calls it,” he said and laughed as he unfolded the map. “I’m pretty familiar with the city and I have a freakish sense of direction. It’s my superpower. It’ll be easier to navigate if we get out of downtown.”

  “No argument from me,” she said, eager to flee the shattered remains of the once glorious capital city.

  Coop called out directions to her in an imitated GPS voice. She appreciated his attempt to distract her from the sight of decomposing corpses and burned-out buildings as they made their way to the interstate.

  He directed her to the I-66 onramp. “We should be able to find most of what we need at an outdoor store just outside the city, if it hasn’t been looted. There’s a grocery store in the same shopping center.”

  Riley merged onto the interstate but was forced to slam on the brakes when they rounded the first curve. The destruction that met them was like a scene from The Walking Dead. Human debris was scattered around demolished cars and overturned buses. A car-seat hung from an open door, suspended by the seatbelt. Gratefully, it was empty. In the distance, she saw a commerc
ial jet shattered into pieces and resting where the Iwo Jima monument should have been.

  She shoved the gear into park and covered her face with her hands. “Still think it’s a good idea to leave the hotel?” she whispered.

  “This proves we need to get out of the city.” Coop studied the map for a few seconds, then said, “Trade places. I’ll drive.”

  She was about to object, concerned about him driving with his head injury, but she preferred to navigate rather than be forced to stare at the disaster stretching before them. He got out and ran to the driver's side while she climbed over the center console to avoid exiting the car. Coop put the gear in drive and made a U-turn to travel down the ramp.

  He put his hand on her arm. “Want to go back to the hotel? Don’t be ashamed if you do. Even I’m overwhelmed.”

  Riley was tempted to shout, “Yes!” but hesitated before answering. They’d been sheltered in the cocoon of the hotel and had only witnessed the devastation from a distance. She’d pictured their outing as an adventurous scavenger hunt, but after getting a glimpse of their terrifying new world, she wanted to run back to the girls and the security of the hotel walls.

  She had to learn to function in this new existence sooner or later, so she swallowed her panic and raised her chin. “I can do this, but what’s the point of going on? If all the roads are like this, we won’t get very far.”

  “Surface streets shouldn’t be as congested. Let’s give those a shot.”

  Coop wove the car along the surface streets like a professional driver. When they passed the occasional moving vehicle, he flashed the lights to get the driver to slow so he could ask what to expect up ahead. Most stopped, but a few ignored them and raced past. Riley didn’t blame them. It took two and a half hours to travel twenty miles, and Riley estimated that they’d have just enough gas to get back if they didn’t run into trouble.

  She didn’t relax her white-knuckle grip on the armrest until Coop pulled into a parking lot and turned off the engine. The outdoor store Coop had wanted to check out first had burned down. They’d passed countless stores after that one whose doors had been smashed or were hanging by the hinges. Two others weren’t damaged, but the shelves were empty.