Surviving the Collapse Omnibus

by Hunt, James

  The manager shook off the disturbance, clearing his throat. “As I was saying, the power is out in the entire building.”

  “Cell phones aren’t working either!” a voice shouted among the crowd.

  “Nothing’s working!” another added, and so began the low rumble of dissent.

  Rodney kept quiet, wanting to see, wanting to hear how they’d react. While he hadn’t left yet, that didn’t mean he wanted to die here, and there still might be someone useful he could take along. He had what everyone wanted: a way out.

  “Everyone, please!” the manager shouted, arms extended high and over people’s heads. “I understand everyone’s frustration, but the purpose of this meeting is to unearth the facts of what we know and don’t know.”

  The door opened again, and this time Rodney’s was one of the heads turning to see who entered. It was a woman and man, presumably husband and wife. The man was fairly put together, but the woman had flecks of dirt and snow littered in her hair. He thought about the explosions and then furrowed his brow. Had she seen what happened?

  “If anyone has any information about what is going on, please, now is the time to let your voice be heard.”

  Rodney watched the woman and the man whisper to one another. Then the man nudged the woman forward, and she slowly raised her hand.

  “I was out there,” she said, shouting above the murmur of the crowd. Again, heads turned, and the room went silent.

  The manager up front motioned her toward him. “Let her through, let her come up here.”

  The crowd stepped aside, and the woman moved past. Her steps were slow but deliberate, as if she was biding her time and thinking of what to say. She looked nervous, due either to the crowd or to what she’d seen outside.

  By the time she reached the front of the room, the murmur had started up again, but it shushed itself when she stepped up on the chair, hovering above the crowd. She kept her fists balled at her sides, and she cleared her throat.

  “My name is Kate Hillman. I live on the thirty-fifth floor with my husband and daughter.” She swallowed, scanning the crowd, and she finally relaxed her hands. “I’m a pilot with Nova Airlines, and I landed at LaGuardia this morning before the attack.”

  Rodney squinted at her but remained silent as everyone else whispered.

  “I don’t know much, but I can tell you what I’ve seen!” She raised her voice, taking command of the room. “Transportation is down. Cars, metro, buses, planes, trains, boats, all out of commission. Whoever is doing this has also blown up every bridge over the East River.”

  “What!” The comment triggered a general outrage that flooded through the crowd like a virus. “All the bridges are out!” “How are we supposed to leave?” “How are we supposed to get help?”

  Half of the people bickered among themselves while the other half barked at Kate.

  “Everyone, please, calm down!” She waited for the crowd’s roar to quiet then drew in a breath. “The bridges over the East River are gone. And while I didn’t witness it firsthand, it’s probably safe to say the bridges over the Hudson have been destroyed as well. The people responsible for all of this are still in the streets. I don’t have any proof that all of this relates to the phones, cars, and power not working, but I think it might.”

  Rodney looked to his left and to his right. The mood in the room shifted. Everyone was calmer. And it was because of her.

  “Police, emergency services, anyone that you think can help you already has their hands full,” Kate said. “And I think if there is a way to get off the island, then we need to do it and go quickly.”

  “But how?” a woman shrieked. “The bridges are down, and you said the boats aren’t working.”

  “Power boats aren’t working,” Kate replied.

  Rodney smirked. She was smart. He looked to Kate’s husband. He’d have to come, most likely, and the daughter too. No way she’d leave them behind. But if she’d already seen what they were up against, he’d have a better chance of making it out the other side.

  “So what?” a man asked, flapping his arms at his sides in exasperation. “We’re supposed to swim across? That water is freezing!”

  “I don’t know how we cross.” Kate shut her eyes, and her forehead creased. “Rowboats, paddleboards maybe, anything that can float and we can move by hand. But if we go, we should go together, and we should go soon. Trust me.”

  Kate looked to the manager and then stepped down. The crowd parted again as she walked back to her husband, but this time she was stopped and questioned along the way. Rodney couldn’t hear what they were asking her, but everyone was ignoring whatever the manager was saying. He was old news. He hadn’t seen the shit. She had. And Rodney wanted to take her with him.

  It all happened so quickly that when Kate tried to recall what she’d said and what people were asking, it was nothing but a haze. But despite her words, no one offered any suggestions. No one had a solution. People started to trickle out, and Kate grabbed Mark’s hand. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

  A few heads turned to watch her leave, and Kate made a beeline for the stairwell the moment she was in the hallway. She reached for the door handle but paused as she stretched out her hand.

  A slight tremor rattled her hand back and forth. Kate pulled her hand toward her, examining the vibration. She slowly turned her hand palm up, watching all the muscles twitching simultaneously. She was exhausted, stretched beyond her means.

  “You okay?” Mark asked, gently coming up behind her.

  “Yeah.” Kate balled her hand into a fist and then turned toward him. She slouched, exhausted. “I don’t know how we’re going to get out of here.”

  “I might be able to help with that.”

  Kate and Mark turned toward the voice. It belonged to a young man. He was about Mark’s height and maybe only a couple years older than her own son. He was bundled in a jacket with a hiking backpack strapped securely to his body.

  The man kept his distance and a casual stance. “Getting out of the city is only going to become harder the longer people stay. You’re right in wanting to get out now.”

  Kate squinted at him. He spoke like a person who had a secret key that could unlock everything. It made him come off as arrogant. She didn’t like that. “Do you know what’s going on?”

  “I have a few theories.”

  “Care to share?” Mark asked.

  “What you did in there was impressive,” he said, ignoring their questions. “People looked up to you. That’s valuable now.”

  “I don’t have time for this.” Kate turned to leave, and Mark followed.

  “I can get you and your family off the island,” he said.

  Kate stopped. She turned. “How?”

  “I have a boat,” he answered. “A sailboat. It’s docked on the west side of the city.”

  “How far?”

  “The George Washington Bridge.” He shrugged. “If that’s even still there anymore.”

  Kate paced in a circle, biting a lip that had already started to blister from the cold and dehydration. She stopped, then arched an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you say anything in the meeting?”

  “You saw what happened in there.” The man inched forward, keeping his voice low, and then checked behind him to make sure they were still alone in the hall. “People are scared. And fear makes people irrational. You really want to risk going out there with people that don’t have their shit together?”

  “And do you really want the death of the people you leave behind on your conscience?” Kate asked.

  The man stepped back, grimacing. “Listen, I came out here with an offer, and if you—”

  “You didn’t come out here with an offer,” Kate said. “You came out here with an ultimatum.” She looked him up and down, taking in the cargo pants, boots, gloves, and backpack. He was prepared, and she was betting that he had even more supplies waiting for him on the boat. “You want to go, but you don’t want to go alone. Is that it? Afraid of what migh
t happen when you’re stuck out there on your own?”

  “This was a mistake.” The man shuffled past her toward the hallway door.

  Kate turned and followed him inside the stairwell, upset by the fact that he was leaving, upset over the fact that she may have missed her one chance to get her family to safety. “So you can live with that? Letting these people die?”

  “It’s not my fault they’re not ready,” he said, descending the staircase.

  “Then help them!” Kate curled her body forward, and the heightened scream stopped him in his tracks. He turned to look up at her, and she frantically ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t… I don’t know what to do. My daughter is sick. I don’t know if I should move her. I don’t know where to go.” As badly as they wanted to come, she denied the tears their fall. “If you know what’s going on, then tell people. If you have a way to save people, then save them.” She gripped the railing for support, fatigue suddenly catching up with her again. “A world where you’re by yourself isn’t much of a world to live in, is it?”

  The man looked at his feet and shut his eyes. After a minute, the tension in his body relaxed, and he looked back up at her, his expression softened. “I guess not.” He stepped to the stair just below her so they met at eye level. “But you should know that the more people we take, the longer it will take us to get to the boat.” He pointed toward the hall. “And if everyone decides to come, I won’t be able to fit them on the boat in one trip. Time is an ally that we don’t have right now.”

  “We give people the option,” Kate said. “If they want to come, we explain what’ll happen. If they don’t, well…”

  “If they don’t, they’ll be wishing that they did.”

  Kate nodded. “You’re probably right.”

  “I’m Rodney.” He extended his hand, and Kate shook it.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  The pair lingered, and before they ascended the staircase, Rodney cleared his throat. “If we’re all about being up front, then there’s something else I should tell you.” He wouldn’t look at her as he spoke. “After we get across the river, there still won’t be any help on the other side. What’s happened here is more than likely happening all over the country.”

  “How is that even possible?” Mark asked. “Was it a bomb or something?”

  “Kind of,” Rodney answered. “It’s a piece of a bomb, a nuclear bomb actually.”

  Kate raised her eyebrows. “We were nuked?”

  “It was an EMP,” Rodney answered. “It’s a device that fries and renders anything with a circuit board useless, and in today’s world, that pretty much means everything. Cars, phones, computers, utility companies, they all run off computer circuits. The terrorist group responsible knew what they were doing.”

  “How long?” Kate asked.

  Rodney shook his head in confusion. “How long what?”

  “How long until things get up and running again?”

  Rodney chuckled to himself, and then the smile melted, and in its place was a hollowness that Kate had never seen in someone before. “Every decision that you make right now, that anyone makes now, will have ripple effects that extend for years.”

  Kate reached for her wedding band. The metal was cold, almost freezing to the touch. “Then I guess we better make some good decisions.”

  8

  The emotions in the room rolled up and down like turbulence on a bad flight. Kate let Rodney take the lead, and she jumped in to help corral the masses when he couldn’t reel them in. He told them exactly what he had told her and stressed the importance of leaving.

  Kate watched the varied expressions of the people in the crowd. They ranged from fear to skepticism, from uncertainty to disbelief.

  “So you’re saying that the power is never coming back on?” a woman asked.

  “I’m saying it’s going to be a long time before we’re back to anything normal,” Rodney answered.

  “But those terrorists in the streets,” a man said. “They’re just killing people. How are we supposed to fight that? They have guns.”

  A general murmur of agreement flooded through the room, and Kate noticed that Rodney was getting frustrated. She stepped in before he made a tense situation worse.

  “Listen, everyone,” Kate said, and the room hushed. “You know everything we do. We’re not holding any details back. Leaving is a risk, but staying might be a bigger one. We don’t know what’s across the river and what we’ll face, but we know what’s here, and it’s only going to become more dangerous.” She looked to Rodney then back to the crowd. “My family is going with him, and he’s leaving within the hour. If you want to come, then raise your hand. But we need to know now.”

  The room shifted and swayed. Hands fidgeted, lips were bitten, and tongues whispered in ears. At first, no one moved. Groupthink had taken over in the form of hesitation. And then, finally, a hand rose in the back, which Kate was quick to point out.

  “That’s one. Anybody else?”

  More glances between people, more whispers, and then another hand shot up on the left. Two more on the right. Three in the middle. Then one in the front. Kate waited until the division in the room grew uncomfortable.

  “All right then,” Rodney said. “Everyone who raised their hands, please come up front.”

  The door opened in the back, and a slow leak drained the room of everyone that was staying at the complex. Kate watched them go, pairs talking to one another. She saw mouthed expressions of “they’re crazy to go out in that” and “it can’t really get much worse” and “they’ll get shot the moment they step out of the building.”

  With so many people staying and so few coming with them, Kate questioned her decision. Wasn’t the best course of action in a survival situation to stay put and wait for rescue? Everything she was doing now was against her flight training in a crash-land situation.

  But there was no black box for this, no hidden beacon switch that she could flip to notify the Coast Guard. This was all instinct, and despite the walkout, after everyone had gone and she saw the eight people that had stayed, she felt calmed.

  “Don’t bring anything perishable, not unless you’re going to eat it today,” Rodney said. “Water bottles, blankets, any medicines that you have should come with. But you don’t want to overpack. Remember that everything you bring you must carry. Overpacking can slow you down and hurt you in the long haul. And we can probably forage for food along the way.”

  “Forage? What are we, Yogi Bear looking for a picnic basket?” the middle-aged man with a receding hair line scoffed. He turned to the rest of the group, the gold necklace dangling from his black turtleneck swaying with his movements. He had thick eyebrows and a pronounced brow, most likely from Eastern European ancestry.

  “What he means is stealing.” A young woman spoke up. Short blond hair styled in a pixie cut framed a pretty face. She had blue eyes, and even with the gloomy winter weather that had plagued the city for the past month, she still had the remnants of a tan.

  Rodney held up his hands. “That’s not—”

  “Of course that’s what you’re suggesting.” The Eastern European man crossed his arms. “If we are going out there, it’s best to use plain English. We’re not going to have time for subtext or feelings when shit hits the fan.”

  Kate stepped in, but Rodney stopped her, nodding. “He’s right.” He addressed the crowd, and everyone stiffened. “We’re all going to have to get used to doing things we don’t want to do. Things that before the EMP went off may have been considered illegal.” He looked at the man who’d made the comment. “But when it comes down between us staying alive and someone else, we need to understand that it’s us.”

  “But not at all costs,” Kate said, uncrossing her arms. “We lose ourselves, and we’re no different than the people tearing apart the city.” She leveled Rodney with a mother’s gaze. “We help who we can.”

  “And what if someone decides to help themselves to her?” Rodn
ey pointed at the young woman with the pixie cut, and she jumped. “You want her blood on your hands? I know I don’t.” He dropped his hand and addressed the small crowd. “I want to make one thing very clear: My main goal is to survive. I could have left, and I almost did, but I stayed to find people to join me. I recognize that there is strength in numbers, but other people will have that strength too. And when push comes to shove, I will act to protect my interests and the interests of the people around me.” He turned back to Kate. “Anyone who has a problem with that should stay behind.”

  Kate opened her mouth, but she felt Mark’s familiar hand on her wrist, and she turned back to him. He gently shook his head. And as he did, she pulled away from him, crossing her arms, but remained silent.

  “All right then.” Rodney finished addressing the crowd and instructed them to head toward their apartments, gather the supplies he had spoken about, and meet back here in thirty minutes.

  “How do we know how long thirty minutes is?” the girl with the pixie cut asked, holding up her dead phone. “Nothing’s working, remember?”

  “Good point,” Rodney said, exhaling, tapping his foot. “Um, I don’t know, just—”

  “Give us your apartment numbers,” Kate said. “We’ll swing by to get everyone on our way down. Just make sure you pack everything quickly. And that way we can have Rodney scan your apartment to see if there was anything he might think would be useful that we missed.”

  “Yeah,” Rodney said. “Good idea.”

  Kate used a scrap sheet of paper and pen from a desk drawer in the corner. A business center was tucked away in the rec room’s corner, which basically boiled down to nothing more than a computer and a printer, not that either of them had worked before the EMP.

  EMP, Kate thought. It felt ridiculous to say, but from Rodney’s description, it was anything but funny. Some invisible blast wave had brought the whole country to its knees. It really was like flipping a switch. Only the switch flipped one way.