As We Fall

by Jack Hunt

  “Planes?”

  Mason nodded. “Before the power went out on the East Coast, the media were talking about planes crashing.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Well no, we’re not sure about any of this,” Mason replied. “But based on what we’ve seen so far it doesn’t look promising.”

  Sam turned back to the window. “Maybe we hole up here for the next twenty-four hours and see where this all goes but by then it might be too late.”

  Chase hurried over to the window and looked out. “No, you’re jumping the gun here. People aren’t rioting, or fighting out there. See for yourself.”

  “Sure, right now they aren’t because they are blissfully unaware of what is unraveling out there in the streets and around the country but seventy-two hours from now if the power hasn’t come on, you can be damn sure they won’t be out there partying it up. People will get worried, then they will panic, and then the chances of getting out of the city will decrease. Right now, we have the advantage. The odds are stacked in our favor and I plan to capitalize on that.”

  “Well that’s fine for you to say because you had every intention of leaving for Colorado anyway, but what about us?” Chase asked.

  “What about you?”

  “Anna’s right. Maybe we are just taking this all too seriously. Maybe the power will come back on in a couple of hours.”

  “Perhaps it will,” Sam said. “In which case you won’t have anything to worry about… unless—”

  Chase raised an eyebrow. “Unless?”

  “What if it doesn’t? What will you do then?”

  Chase looked back out the window. Sam glanced at Mason who still had his hand on the door handle. He understood the dilemma they all faced and he wished he could guarantee that everything would turn out fine but he didn’t know. It was a gamble. A decision that every person had to make when faced with volatile and shaky circumstances. It was no different than buying insurance on a car. Sure, they may never have an accident but damn, they would be glad they had taken action for that one time when things went belly-up.

  Sam shrugged. “Look, all that matters to me is getting my daughter home safely.”

  Mason opened the door. “I should head out and find my wife.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Chase said. “I need to check in on my dorm mates.”

  Sam raised a hand. “If I don’t see you, thanks again, Mason.”

  He smiled and headed out. The door slammed shut and silence dominated. Sam walked over to the bedroom door and rapped on it. “Hey Anna.”

  “Go away.”

  “Listen, I don’t know what your grandfather told you but… you’re wrong about the birthday cards. I sent you one every birthday. I emailed, and wrote to you once a month, I even tried to speak to you on the phone but I was told you were busy, or you didn’t want to speak to me.”

  “Oh yeah? Well then those messages must have got lost because I didn’t get anything.”

  There was a pause.

  “That bastard,” Sam muttered under his breath.

  “What?” she replied.

  “Nothing. Listen, Anna…”

  “And what about showing up?”

  “I tried but I was told you were away at private school, and then the times you were home, I was told you were vacationing with your grandfather. There was always some excuse.”

  “Oh, there’s always an excuse and you sure seem to have a lot of them.”

  Sam shook his head and slumped down pressing his back against the door. There was silence on the other side of the door.

  Chase followed Mason like an annoying younger brother.

  “What did you say your wife’s name was?”

  “Lisa Dyer,” Mason replied scanning the buildings. He hadn’t been there at night so he was trying to recall where the Harvard University Information Technology building was. He knew his wife wouldn’t have left the place under these circumstances. She would either be speaking with staff or nose deep in trying to solve the problem.

  “Ah, Ms. Dyer, yeah, I know her. Wow, that’s your wife? She’s quite the looker.”

  Mason flashed him a sideways glance and Chase was quick to correct himself. “I mean, if you’re middle-aged and go for that type. Me, personally I prefer the dark brooding ones. You know, the ones with daddy issues. It’s always the quiet ones that are…”

  Mason raised a hand. “Listen, do you know where the HUIT is housed?

  “You haven’t been there?”

  “I have but it was in the day, and it was a long time ago so I’m having a little trouble getting my bearings.” He turned around trying to remember some of the buildings. They all looked the same shrouded by darkness. It didn’t help that there wasn’t a single light on. The only illumination came from students’ flashlights, and glow sticks that were being waved in the air like they thought the whole event was one big party.

  Chase pointed. “It’s about ten minutes from here, north. It’s at 60 Oxford Street in the North Yard Campus. Come, I’ll take you there.”

  “I thought you had to go check in at your dorm?”

  “Ah, there’s plenty of time for that. Besides, I wanted to get some air. Believe me, being trapped inside an elevator is not fun.”

  Mason was hoping he would walk away because he couldn’t get him to shut up but no, he was stuck with him at least for now. They squeezed their way through a large crowd of students in the northern part of the Yard, and made their way across the Plaza past Sanders Theatre before entering Oxford Street and heading north.

  “So do you buy into anything he said?” Chase asked.

  “Who?”

  “Anna’s father, Sam.”

  “I don’t know, kid, all I know is if the lights don’t come back on soon, tomorrow is going to make today’s events look like child’s play.”

  As they got onto Oxford Street they once again got a taste of what Mason had seen earlier. Many of the vehicles had come to a standstill barring a few that were trying to get around the ones blocking the road. One driver had got out of his vehicle and he and two others were pushing a sedan out of the way. A couple of students riding bicycles zipped by them.

  “This is crazy,” Chase muttered.

  “You bet it is.”

  “All right. Let’s just say he’s right and that we’re looking at some kind of cyber attack. Our government can bounce back from this, right? I mean, nothing is physically damaged, it’s just disabled. They get some of their smartest minds to work on finding out what back door these assholes came in on, locate the malware or whatever the hell did this and bingo, we’re back up and running.”

  Mason chuckled. “You know, a few years back I got this virus, malware, whatever you want to call it on my computer. My wife and I spent the better part of a day trying to clean it. In the end we had to reformat the entire system. I kid you not. We tried all manner of software and every time we loaded it up, that damn thing took over.”

  “What are you saying?” Chase asked.

  “I’m saying that even if they can find it, they might not be able to get it off without wiping whatever was already in place.”

  “But they have backups?”

  “It’s not the same thing.”

  “Well then how does it work?”

  “Ask my wife when I find her. She lives for this kind of stuff.”

  He nodded and they walked past a drove of students heading in the opposite direction. Mason forced his way through the crowd. On one hand he didn’t want to panic because he’d seen power outages before and been there for the one in 2003 but on the other hand this seemed different.

  “At least fights aren’t occurring,” Chase said observing how everyone was just acting like it was an ordinary night. Sure, there were issues with vehicles and that was causing a level of frustration but none of that was being directed at each other — at least not yet. People believed they were experiencing nothing more than a temporary power outage with some vehicle issues. Mason hoped t
hat was all it was, a simple slip-up by the powers that be, but deep down, he was beginning to think that society was on the verge of a breakdown.

  When they arrived at the four-story building, it all came back to him. Some of the arguments he’d had with Lisa, the two times she’d slammed the door on their car when he dropped her off after going out for lunch, and then some of the good times. Things weren’t always bad. Life had just got in the way.

  Mason and Chase entered the darkened building to find a security guard in a blue shirt still manning the front booth by the main entrance. He flashed his light in their direction, nearly blinding them. “You there. Hold up.”

  “I’m here to see my wife. Lisa Dyer. Is she still here?”

  “And you are?”

  “Mason Dyer.”

  “There are a few staff members on the third and fourth floors, I’ll go up with you.”

  “We should be okay.”

  “Yeah, I’ll go up with you,” he repeated. He obviously didn’t trust them. They took the stairwell and arrived on the fourth floor where the guard escorted them down to one of the faculty offices. As they got closer they could see light coming from several of the rooms.

  “You got power?” Chase asked.

  The security guy cast a sideways glance. “It’s the generator.”

  When they reached the door the guard knocked and Lisa turned her head.

  “Mason? What are you doing here?”

  He entered and the guard walked away.

  “Transit is halted. Have you seen it out there?”

  “No, I’ve been trying to back up some of the systems here. When the power went out the backup generator kicked in but some of the computers were wiped. I have no idea how. I’m trying to manually back up what we have.”

  “Forget it,” he said. “We should go.”

  “Go? I’m not going. I have work to do.”

  “Lisa. The power grid is out across the country. They’re calling it a terrorist attack. I mean, a cyber attack by terrorists. They think it’s Russia.”

  “I know.”

  “Then you know we need to get going.”

  “Go where?”

  Mason took a deep breath and glanced at Chase before looking back at her.

  “A guy I met on the train today is a SEAL. He’s heading out of the city, traveling to Colorado. I’m thinking…”

  She put her finger up and cut him off. “Nope. Stop right there. This is the reason why you and I are separated. You are so easily influenced.”

  “And you’re not?”

  “Not by conspiracy theories.”

  “Come on, it was my vacation.”

  “Our vacation! And you forget to tell me that it would involve traipsing through a bug-infested Idaho forest hunting for some imaginary creature.”

  Mason stabbed his finger. “Bigfoot would be offended.”

  She brought a hand up to her forehead and turned away to continue what she was doing. Mason looked at Chase who had a smirk on his face.

  “Lisa.”

  “I’m not doing this right now.”

  Mason walked around the table. Lisa was tapping keys and transferring files.

  “Okay, I admit I was wrong not to tell you the whole truth about the vacation but would you have come along if I had?”

  “No.”

  “Exactly.” He sighed. “Lisa, forget that. What is going on outside is far bigger than any issues we have. Look, would you just come with me and we’ll figure this out.”

  “Mason, you don’t get it, do you? I have a job to do.”

  “Well then at least tell me this. Based on what you heard before the power went out, do you believe what they’re saying is true?”

  She didn’t answer and pretended to be busy.

  “Lisa!”

  “Yes. Yes I do. Is that what you want to hear?” She looked up at him. “But it changes nothing. I’m not leaving the city because of this. Are you out of your mind?”

  “And if it gets worse?”

  She sighed and looked back at the screen. “I’ll take my chances.”

  SIX - AFTERMATH

  The morning arrived fast. Sam stirred from his sleep a little after six. He didn’t sleep much that night because he awoke to the sound of multiple loud crashes in the night. A couple even shook the building. What caused them was anyone’s guess. He’d looked out into the darkness but saw nothing. All the students that had been partying had retired to their dorms sometime in the early hours of the morning. Anna had remained in her room and three hours after Mason had gone out looking for his wife he returned by himself. He would have asked him about his wife but by the sour look on his face he figured it hadn’t gone well. When he asked about Chase, Mason said he’d returned to his dorm room but said he would check in later that morning. Mason slept on the couch, while Sam had opted for a chair, and put his feet up on the coffee table.

  He got up and worked out the tension in his back before heading over to Mason and shaking him awake. “Hey.”

  Mason pawed at his eyes and yanked the thin cover off him. “What time is it?”

  “Just after six,” Sam replied.

  He groaned and coughed up phlegm, spitting it into a tissue before depositing it in his pocket. “What a hell of a night. How’s it outside?”

  “Haven’t looked yet.”

  “No power still?”

  Sam walked over to the light switch and flicked it. Nothing.

  “Great. Real great.”

  Outside the window it didn’t look any worse than the day before. No windows had been smashed, there was no sense of lawlessness, but that wasn’t to say that it hadn’t occurred. Their view was confined to a small segment of the yard. “How did you get on with your wife last night?” Sam asked.

  Mason swung his legs off the couch and ran a hand around the back of his neck.

  “Oh you know — the usual crap, I’m in the wrong and too impressionable.”

  Sam’s brow pinched.

  Mason yawned. “Ah, my wife is stubborn.”

  “She wouldn’t listen to you?”

  “Nope. Said she had to stay and work. Always her work.” He groaned and rolled his head around. “Man, I don’t miss student living.”

  Sam smiled. “Did you ever go here?”

  “I work for the transit system. What do you think?” He sniffed hard. “Nah, academics was never a strong point of mine. Tell me to pick up a shovel and dig a ditch, I can do that.” He jerked his head towards the door. “So, did you patch things up with Anna?”

  “She hasn’t come out.”

  Mason’s eyebrow shot up. “All night?”

  Sam didn’t reply, instead he walked over to her bedroom door and gave it a knock before trying to engage the handle. It was locked. “Anna. You up?”

  A faint groan emanated from inside followed by, “You still here?”

  “Yep, afraid so. We’re heading out soon, so pull some things together.”

  He walked away scanning the table for a bowl of fruit, anything to calm the grumbling in his stomach. It was only then he realized he hadn’t eaten last night. On the counter he spotted some chewy multivitamins. Sam popped the lid and tossed a few back before throwing the remainder into his backpack. Mason snorted. “Just take whatever you like, why don’t you?”

  “I intend to, and I would recommend you do the same. Things will get tight from here on out.”

  He grabbed up a can of Folgers coffee and removed the plastic lid. “Ah sweet.” Sam scooped up the Pyrex coffee pot and headed for the front door.

  “You are aware there is no power,” Mason said.

  “Of course.”

  “Which means there probably won’t be any water pumping through.”

  Sam smiled as he opened the door. “Ah but there will be some water left in the pipes.”

  Mason grimaced. Outside Sam cast a glance down the hallway and went across to the shared bathroom and turned on the faucet. It spluttered to life and the remaining water, which
wasn’t much, spat out filling up the pot. He placed the pot down and went to relieve himself and noticed that someone already had and left it there on display. Sam took a quick pee, and then headed back to the room. He took out a filter and tossed some coffee granules inside and did a cold pour over. It was no different than ordering a cold coffee. Well, it tasted weaker but it would hit the spot and give him the caffeine boost he needed.

  The door to Anna’s bedroom cracked open. She emerged wearing different clothes, a thick, burgundy Harvard hoodie, jeans and black boots. She’d put her hair up into a bun, and had what looked like two chopsticks pushed through it.

  “Coffee?” he asked.

  “Please tell me that is hot,” she said.

  “Afraid not but it does have a kick to it.”

  Right then there was a knock at the door and Anna answered. Chase entered brushing past her. “Please come in,” she said after he’d already walked in. Chase had a jean jacket on, a backpack and was wearing walking boots.

  “Right, so are we ready?”

  “Ready for what?” Sam asked.

  “The journey home.”

  Sam placed the pot on the counter and glanced at Mason. “Did I miss something?”

  “He lives in California,” Anna said, crossing the room before anyone else could answer.

  “Sacramento,” Chase added with a smile on his face. Chase reminded Sam of a kid he knew when he was in Hell Week — all peppy, muscular, a real go-getter but someone that lacked depth. The kid only made it a few days in before he rang the bell and quit.

  “Ah, my neck of the woods,” Sam said.

  “That’s where you’re heading, right?”

  Sam leaned back against the table and crossed his arms. “No, actually we’re going to Colorado first.” He motioned between his daughter and himself. He glanced at Mason but didn’t include him, as he hadn’t indicated he wanted to head out of the city.