by Dennis Elder
“What time is it?” asked Mark realizing he left his watch downstairs by his bed.
“9:15,” said Susan as he checked her watch.
“That’s still rush hour,” said Junior.
“So, then where are all the cars?” asked Randy.
“I noticed something else,” said Randy.
“Yea?” questioned Tyrone.
“No noise. Not a sound,” continued Randy.
Chapter 16: No Lights
Like all homes and businesses in the greater Las Vegas area, the county provided Nevada’s High Desert Federal prison with its power. But the prison also had two large diesel generators designated as automatic backup systems, in case the county power failed. The facility prisoners were some of the nation’s worst and the backup power system was designed to make sure the automated door system stayed intact. But when the Gamma ray burst fried the world’s electrical grids during the previous evening, it also fused the Prison’s backup generator engines before they had a chance to kick in. When that happened there was a surge in the electronics and the magnetic locks on all the prison doors became inactive.
Of course, Ivan Petrovich didn’t know that. He was asleep in his sub-basement prison cell when the Gamma burst hit the earth. All he knew by the time he woke up was the lights we’re not on.
“No lights?” Ivan thought to himself as he sat up. The lights automatically came on at 8 am, and he knew the time had passed.
“Why no lights?” he said out loud, his voice echoing in the darkness
Then Ivan stood up, inched toward the door and looked out the cell door’s four by four-inch window. It was pitch black in the common area.
“Hey,” he shouted. “Where are lights!”
But no one answered. In frustration Ivan pounded his fist on the hard steel door to his cell.
“Hey,” he shouted again. When his fist hit the door the second time the impact bounced the door open slightly. Instantly Ivan knew something was different. Cell doors were never left open.
He blindly reached forward, touched the cell door with his fingertips and tried to push it open. It took some muscle since it usually opened by an electric motor. He stood in the doorway with his hands on the doorframe and peered into the common area.
“Where are lights?” shouted Ivan again.
Chapter 17: Think anyone survived?
Dr. Kevin Phillips, NOOAs only known surviving Astrophysics professor moved slightly. He was against the building’s sub-basement concrete wall. When he moved he woke Marylin Stanza. Kevin and Marylin had raced down into the basement when they discovered a burst of Gamma Ray Burst radiation was about to strike the earth. Marylin had been asleep against Kevin’s shoulder. When she woke she felt the stiffness in her body from sleeping on a concrete floor. Slowly she moved away from Kevin, and Kevin withdrew his arm from behind her and brought his arm into his own lap.
It was pitch black in the basement. Kevin had a small flashlight that he carried on his belt along with a Leatherman all-purpose tool. “You can never be too prepared,” Kevin’ father used to always say. He was grateful he had the light now.
“What time is it?” asked Marylin as he rubbed her face to improve her wakefulness.
Kevin reached for his flashlight and directed the beam to his wristwatch.
“10:10 am,” replied Kevin.
“Think we could go up now?” asked Marylin.
“I think so,” responded Kevin. “The radiation should be gone.”
With that, the couple stood and faced the door leading to the ascending staircase. Marylin smoothed her pants with her hands trying to look more presentable.
“Do you think anyone survived?” asked Marylin.
“Not if they were on the surface,” said Kevin as he reached for the door.
Slowly Kevin and Marylin ascended the stairs.
Chapter 18:
Sylvia Harmon awoke with a start. Gracie was screaming from a nightmare.
When the kids got home from the movie the previous evening Gracie was too scared to go to sleep. So, Sylvia sat in a chair close to Gracie’s bed. Sylvia fell asleep in the chair and was now trying to console the young girl.
“It’s just a dream sweetheart,” said Sylvia as she pulled little Gracie close to give her a reassuring hug.
After a moment Sylvia looked around the girl’s bedroom and realized the bedroom was very dark. Even the alarm clock light was out. “The power must have gone off – again,” she thought. A sliver of light drifted down the staircase from the upstairs’ entry.
“Just a nightmare, Gracie,” continued Sylvia.
“She’s always having nightmares,” said Teresa from the other bed to Sylvia’s right. Teresa and Gracie shared the room.
“And taking her to a scary movie didn’t help,” responded Sylvia.
“She wanted to go,” mumbled Teresa.
Sylvia continued to hold Gracie in her arms. So, she couldn’t get up to see what was the problem with the lights.
“Jacob,” cried Sylvia.
After a few seconds Jacob responded somberly from the other end of the basement, “Yea.”
“Honey, would you take a look at the breaker box. The power is off. Probably the main’s flipped again,” continued Sylvia.
“OK,” said Jacob as he shook himself from a deep sleep. “I’ll get the flashlight and take a look.”
Sylvia kept rechargeable flashlights plugged into a couple of the basement’s electrical outlets. Just in case of emergencies.
Jacob found a flashlight, flipped it on and pointed it toward the end of the basement hallway. He could see the electrical box. The access door was half open. The panel was over 70 years old and the bent up door wouldn’t stay shut anymore.
“OK, OK, let’s see what the problem is,” Jacob said to himself as he stumbled half asleep toward the electrical panel.
Jacob opened the door full wide and shinned the flashlight directly on the main switch. The main switch looked good. It had not kicked back open. He’d stood in front of the power main many times before and sometimes a simple re-flip of the switch would reset the power. He flipped the switch up to the off position and then down again.
“How’s that,” shouted Jacob, directing his voice back down toward Sylvia in Gracie’s and Teresa’s bedroom.
“Nope,” shouted Sylvia.
The shouting back and forth had already woken all the kids. William was usually the last to rise and always the grumpiest in the morning.
“Hey,” barked William. “Can’t a man get a little sleep around here?”
Chapter 19: I need food
Mark and his crew attempted to start the vans but had no luck. Tyrone tried everything he knew but there just wasn’t any juice in the battery, in either van. And one of the engine compartments had strange burn marks around the injectors. They now all stood fully dressed inside the construction gates at the edge of the police station property line. Katella Avenue was directly in front of them. They decided to walk over to the convention center. It was only three blocks away.
Randy was the first to the gate and swung it open. As he did all of them spilled out onto the sidewalk. It was then that they saw the full measure of devastation last night’s radiation burst had left on Los Angeles.
“Holy moly…” said Jake as he looked down Katella Avenue. The rest of the crew was equally shocked and came to a standstill.
The reason they hadn’t seen any cars moving on the main road in front of the police station was because the cars that had been moving were now motionless. Automobiles and trucks were standing at random angles all over the road. And it was like that in either direction, as far as they could see.
Small fires smoldered in a few of the cars. Nearly all the cars gave off trails of grey or white smoke and most still had drivers in them. A few moved but most were silent. And there were bodies on the ground.
They were everywhere. People fully dressed were mixed with people in their nightclothes. Some were moaning for help
. Outside a nearby apartment complex entrance there were 30 plus bodies piled upon on the sidewalk. There were so many bodies that none of the team knew where to begin. Just then Mark noticed a man stumbling toward them from the restaurant parking lot across the street. He was the only one they could see that wasn’t lying on the ground.
Mark pointed toward the man to make sure everyone saw him coming. The man came closer and closer until he stopped directly in front of Mark and said, “I need food.”
Food? Nobody knew what to say to that. When Mark didn’t reply immediately the man turned to some of the others around Mark and said again, “I need food. I am hungry.”
The man was unsteady on his feet. It was obvious he had vomited. There was blood on the front of his shirt and around the corners of his mouth. He looked ready to fall down. Mark reached out his arm and placed it on the shoulder of the man in an effort to help him.
“Hey there mister,” said Mark. Junior and Sam drew a little closer too.
“We don’t have any food with us…,” said Mark. Then suddenly, and before Mark could finish his sentence, the man turned away from Mark and then moved toward Sam.
The man then asked again, “I need food, I am hungry.”
Mark and Sam exchanged confused glances and then looked back at the man.
“We don’t have any food either, but we can…” offered Sam. But the man cut Sam short too, impatiently turned away from the group and began walking away.
“Hey buddy, are you alright? What happened to you,” asked Mark.
The man never looked back, he kept walking and shouted incoherently over his shoulder, “You don’t have any food.”
The group kept their eyes on the man until he turned down a cross street and disappeared.
“What happened here?” wondered Susan Jenkins outloud.
Whatever happened began to sink in with the group. They all sensed something major had gone down.
Mark turned to the group and directed a question to Doc Martin.
“Could this have been some kind of nuclear detonation?” asked Mark.
“I don’t think so,” said Doc. “We’d see fall out raining down by now if that happened. And there wasn’t an explosion.”
“What about an EMP?” asked Frank.
“Maybe,” said Doc. “But then that doesn’t explain the condition of these people.”
“Could we be in danger of radiation poisoning?” questioned Mark.
“Possibly,” said Doc. Depends on the amount of residual radiation. If so, we’ll begin to feel sick pretty soon.
Nobody said anything else. Mark was thinking out several options.
“OK then,” said Mark, his military training kicking in. “Gather round. Doc, Susan, Frank, Randy and Jake head over to the Convention center. They always have a few survivalist booths every year. See if you can find any radiation detection devices. And Frank make sure to find us some weapons and ammo. I’ll take the rest of the team and we’ll find a cutting torch to get Boon out of his cell.” Say we meet back at the station in 45 minutes. Until we know more this station is our base camp.”
He looked around and saw soldiers beginning to stare back at him. He knew their character. They knew how to follow orders. Susan however was a little shaken and out of her element. Mark noticed and made a mental note to keep an eye on her.
“And don’t eat or drink anything until Doc say’s it OK,” ordered Mark. “Any other questions?”
“Yea,” said Sam. “What are the rules of engagement here, Mark? What do we do if there’s trouble?”
Mark took a deep breath and said, “I’m not sure just yet, Sam. But we seem to be right in the middle of some serious shit. We also seem to be the only people around here to have survived this thing intact. And I’m not willing to let any of us get hurt because nobody knows the rules. So, until we get more information, everybody does what they have to, to protect the team.”
As soldiers, they all knew what that meant and nodded approvals. Mark looked around the group again to see if anyone else had any questions. When he was satisfied he said, “Then let’s move out.”
Doc and his five companions immediately headed off toward the Convention Center. Mark turned to his group and said, “Let’s see if we can find a phone book in that restaurant. Maybe then we can locate a hardware store or something.”
As they crossed the Street and entered the Denny’s parking lot, Tyrone bent over and picked up a three-foot-long metal bar that was lying next to a smoking car.
Junior was walking next to him and raised an eyebrow toward Tyrone.
Tyrone gripped the bat like a club and tested its weight. He looked back at Junior and said, “You know…. just in case.”
Chapter 20: Dr. Green
Mary Smith was one of three head surgical nurses in Victorville’s Desert valley hospital, located about 40 miles north of San Bernardino. She worked the night shift prepping patients for early morning surgeries. The night shift started at midnight and usually ran for 10 hrs. But on Thursday nights, Mary and the other girls started two hours earlier and worked a 12-hour shift. Desert Valley’s surgical units were all located in the hospital basement. Mary hated the night shift but was grateful to get the hours after a nasty and lengthy divorce. It also let her get her kids off to school in the early morning before she could get a few hours of sleep.
When the gamma ray burst hit the night before the Hospital’s power was immediately cut. However, its backup generators were built into the lowest level of the Hospital’s structure and were not affected by the radiation. They kicked in immediately and kept the lights on. Mary and the other on call nurses never even knew there was a problem, even as the radiation began poisoning everyone on the floors above them.
Because she and her co-workers were in the sub-basement they were the very last to learn there were problems in other parts of the Hospital. The first clue came when a Doctor came down the staircase. He came out of the stair well door and stood right in front of the Nurses main aid station. He looked like he was going to fall over. Pam LaValley was closest to the Dr. and she recognized him.
“Dr. Green?” asked Pam LaValley.
But before the Doctor could reply he bent forward and threw up. Pam and Leny Ralphs, the two nurses behind the station counter, instinctively ran to his aid. They were professionals and took Dr. Green by both arms and guided him into the closest restroom. Dr. Green dropped to his knees and retched again, this time into the toilet. Leny stayed with Dr. Green while Pam came back out. It was then she noticed traces of blood on the floor, mixed in with Dr. Green’s vomit.
Mary noticed the commotion and calmly approached Pam.
“What’s going on?” asked Mary as he looked toward the restroom and then back to the vomit on the floor.
Both women squatted down to get a better look at the blood.
“There’s more blood here than vomit,” said Pam.
Mary turned toward the restroom where Dr. Green and Leny were still crouched over the toilet.
“Dr. Green?” asked Pam. “Did you know there is blood in your vomit?”
But Dr. Green never answered. He had passed out and slid to the slide of the toilet. Leny tried to help him but he was to heavy, and he slowly slipped out of her grasp. On his way down, Dr. Green’s head hit the bowl of the toilet.
“A little help here!” cried Leny she struggled against Dr. Green’s dead weight.
Both Pam and Mary moved quickly to help Leny. The three women were able to pull him out of the small restroom and laid him out on the linoleum sub-basement hall floor.
“Dr. Green!” shouted Mary, as she placed both hands on the sides of Dr. Green head. She pulled back his eyelids one at a time and peered into them.
“Dr. Green?” Can you hear me? Dr. Green!” repeated Mary.
But Dr. Green was unresponsive.
“Let’s get him in a bed,” commanded Mary.
These nurses were used lifting lethargic patients. After they rolled out an empty be
d next to Dr. Green they easily lifted him into it.
“I’ll call emergency,” said Leny, as she reached for the station phone.
Leny hit the emergency room line and waited for the upstairs duty nurses to pick up. After 10 rings she put the receiver down again. And tried the number again. Ten more rings later she hung up. The look on her face betrayed worry.
Pam and Mary had cleaned off blood from Dr. Green’s face and were continuing to monitor his condition. Mary had a blood pressure cuff on him and was checking his pressure when Leny came in.
