Into the Dark

by Ryan Casey

  But in terms of planning inside Benny’s house… there wasn’t a lot of it going on. And Holly knew that was going to have to change sometime soon unless they wanted to be left behind by this world.

  She remembered what her dad used to tell her about what’d happen if there was some kind of disaster that sent the world into shock. She used to think his theorising was a bit weird—and his obsession with researching ways in which he’d survive a post-disaster world was over the top.

  But now, the lights out, and clear panic building already even though it’d only really been a matter of minutes… Holly saw her dad’s perspective. She saw where he was coming from. Even if this was something temporary… she had a bad feeling about all this. It might be the news. It might be the way she’d watched the plane fall from the sky, and the helicopter not long after.

  They weren’t normal events. They weren’t the events of a world that had its shit together.

  And she found it scary.

  The phones were down. The entire power system seemed to be down. Which meant other things would be down too—hospitals, things like that. There’d be a few backup diesel generators, sure. But they wouldn’t last long if this really was what Holly feared it was.

  So they had to do something about it.

  And they had to do it fast.

  “We’re going to have to go out there and find somewhere safer than here,” Holly said.

  The first person to frown at her was Harriet. Naturally. It was to be expected, really.

  “And why should we listen to you?” she said.

  “Because my dad researched into all this kind of stuff. How to stockpile for the end. Where… where to go if and when disaster struck.”

  “Is this the same dad who boozes all the time?”

  Holly felt her jaw tensing. “Take that back.”

  “Why?” Harriet said. “It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

  “Whoa, whoa,” Kumal said, stepping in. “Let’s try and keep it civil here, okay? The last thing we want is to start tearing each other apart. The world’s mad enough out there as it is. Now, Holly’s got a point. If this really is an EMP, then we’re probably gonna want to get stocked up. Think about it. The shelves will be bare in no time, especially with people not able to use damned debit cards or contactless even if they want to. And all this… I can’t see it just coming to a stop anytime soon.”

  Gina shook her head. “I’m with Harriet on this. I mean, there has to be someone out there working on this already, right? There’ll be, like, generators, won’t there?”

  “Look outside,” Kumal said, lifting a hand. “Do you see any sign of power? The only generators that’ll be running are limited, too. They rely on petrol to keep going. But they won’t last. And besides. How many people actually have generators?”

  Kumal’s point might’ve been directed at Gina, but Holly couldn’t deny she felt the weight of it, too. Because a small part of her still believed that maybe she’d got this all wrong. Maybe she was just going a bit over the top, and she had nothing to worry about, not really. After all, Gina was right. This was a civilised world. Things would get back to the way they were.

  Wouldn’t they?

  “Benny?” Kumal asked.

  Benny smoked on a cigarette as he stood by the door. He still seemed transfixed by those lights in the sky, unable to believe the situation they’d found themselves in. “You lot can do what you want. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Holly tensed up. “But—”

  “If Harriet and Gina are right, this is probably just bullshit. Some kind of government scare tactic to get us respecting them, remind us we’re dependent on them, that sorta thing.”

  “And if they’re not?” Holly said.

  Benny looked right into her eyes. “If they’re not… then I know where I want to be while this shit goes down. And the last place I want to be is away from home when there’s gonna be people out there losing their minds.”

  The idea of people losing their minds on the streets wasn’t an impossible one to imagine. After all, they’d been cut off from mobile phones. They’d been pulled away from electricity. They’d been yanked from the comforts of their normal lives and thrown into a world they didn’t understand—a world that was going to be rapidly changing by the moment.

  And then there were the people in hospitals. The people reliant on medication. And even the people with pacemakers… How would this disaster affect them? If this really was an EMP, like Kumal theorised, then how widespread was it? And what would it mean for the millions of flights in the skies? Would all of them just fall?

  “The way I see it,” Benny said, “we have one choice. And that’s to stick together.”

  Gina nodded. “I’m with that. Stick together. Ride it all out.”

  Harriet shrugged, presumably in agreement. “Sounds about right to me.”

  Kumal looked at Holly, and Holly looked back at him. It seemed like they were the only two that realised what was actually going on here—and they were also the two who didn’t feel like staying put was a good idea. What did that say?

  “You can stay here as long as you want,” Kumal said. “But eventually… eventually we’re going to have to go out there. We’re going to have to get food and supplies. And I’d rather do it while nobody else really realises what’s going on—before the supplies have gone and it’s already too late.”

  “I need to go home,” Holly said.

  She surprised herself saying the words. But the urgency of the situation, it was all just too real.

  Harriet glared at her. “What?”

  “My… my dad. He understands all this stuff. He’ll be able to help.”

  “The last place we’re going is your dad’s right now,” Harriet said.

  “Then stay here,” Holly said. “But I… I need to find my dad. And if you want to get through the start of whatever this is, I suggest you come with me.”

  She looked at Benny when she spoke. And she expected him to turn away.

  Kumal stepped to her side. “I’m with Holly.”

  “Kumal,” Harriet said, rolling her eyes.

  “I can’t let her go out there alone. Besides, she’s right. Her dad’s pretty cool with this stuff. He’ll be able to help.”

  Holly swallowed a lump in her throat, then. Because while she was happy Kumal was joining her, she couldn’t help feeling let down by her other friends for essentially leaving her behind.

  She started to turn around. Half-smiled at Kumal. “Right,” she said. “I guess we should be off, then.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Holly looked around.

  Benny was walking towards them.

  Harriet’s eyes were even wider now. Gina looked panicked, too. “Benny?” Harriet said.

  “We stick together,” Benny said, looking at Holly. “Whether it’s right or wrong, we stick together. Anyway. This could be a pretty rad journey.”

  He looked around at Harriet and Gina. Both of them looked shell-shocked.

  “So?” Benny said. “You coming or are you gonna hold the fort while we’re out.”

  Harriet sighed. “I’ll never forgive you for this.”

  And then, along with Gina, who seemed just as reluctant, she walked over towards Holly and the rest of the group.

  They stood there, by the door, together, this new world waiting outside.

  Holly took a deep breath of the cool night air.

  It was time to go out into this world.

  It was time to find her dad.

  It was time for their journey to begin.

  Mike

  “So, what now?”

  Mike stood outside the destroyed police station, Alison by his side. She was nursing a wound on her head. On the road nearby, cars had come to a standstill. People were standing outside them, trying desperately to make calls. Arguments and conflict was already rising. The wise ones had abandoned their cars already and moved on to gather supplies.

  But they were a
minority. The majority would simply leave it too late.

  That’s what happened in a world where people were conditioned that everything was going to be okay; that they were going to be fine, no matter what.

  Mike looked up at the darkness above. His watch had stopped. And yes, it’s an analogue watch, not a digital one. Batteries were batteries, at the end of the day. The sooner you realised that, the better.

  “Truth is, this kind of storm—or attack—it wipes out everything electrical, everything battery powered.”

  Alison shook her head. She was clearly still struggling to wrap her thoughts around all of this, even though Mike had explained things to her. “It just doesn’t sound… well, possible. It doesn’t sound possible. Is it naive of me to say that?”

  Mike smiled. “I’d probably think the same if I hadn’t already done a load of research on EMP, solar flares, that kind of thing.”

  “So you spent time on conspiracy sites. That’s supposed to constitute as research?”

  “Look at your phone. Look at the police station. Look at the cars in the streets. Does that look like ‘conspiracy’ to you?”

  Alison was silent, then. Still clearly in shock, still trying to process everything. Couldn’t be blamed, not really. It wasn’t that Mike was immune to the shock of what was happening, per-se. He’d just opened himself to the fear of the possibility many years ago already. And now that it was finally happening, as scared as he was, deep down, he just had to get to work and get planning.

  “Is there any telling whether this is an attack from another country or solar?”

  Mike squinted at the northern lights, which were fading now. “Not really,” he said. “Only thing we have to go on is you said there were reports of weird activity around the globe. That’d point to something more solar. But hey. There’s no discounting the possibility that something else could be at play here. An attacker could’ve pinpointed a few locations. We just don’t know how deep this technology goes, after all.”

  Alison shook her head again, like she was still not really getting this. “I’m guessing I can clock off work early, then.”

  “I’d say that looks pretty likely.”

  She sighed as she looked over at the police station.

  “I’m sorry,” Mike said. “About what happened to your colleagues. Nobody should have to see that. Nobody should have to see their friends in that position.”

  She looked over at Mike. Nodded. “You speaking from experience?”

  He felt himself closing up. “More than you’d ever know. But anyway. That was a long time ago.”

  He stood up. Took a deep breath. There was a crispness to the air. A stillness. Kind of like on a snowy day. It felt like the earth had been reborn; that they were in the dawn of a new era.

  “So I’ll repeat myself,” Alison said, standing up too. “What now?”

  Mike took a deep breath, mulled over the possibilities as he stared over at the gridlocked cars, the desperate souls still standing by their sides. “First thing, we should get to our families. Assuming you have a family.”

  Alison tilted her head. “My mum. I… I kind of live with her.”

  “You look far too old to be living with your mum.”

  “It’s… a long story. Don’t start.”

  She looked up at Mike, that professionalism slipping from her demeanour and turning into full-blown amicable nature now. “She’s back home, no doubt. Probably wondering what the hell’s going on. If you think I’m confused, wait ’til you meet her.”

  “Then we get back to our families. We take important steps. And then we should get stocked up on supplies.”

  “You keep talking about ‘important steps’. Anything less vague?”

  “Well if you must know… there are step by step plans to how to deal with this kind of event. From the research I’ve done, the best thing to do first—before descending to looting—is to use whatever’s left of your cash. Cash will hold its value for a while. We have to use it before people realise it is effectively meaningless.”

  “And how is that any different to stealing, if what you think is happening is true?”

  Mike shrugged. “It’s more moral. Kind of.”

  Alison sighed, shook her head. “What else?”

  “In an ideal world, we’d have a year’s worth of rations. But that just isn’t the case. Even from the perspective of someone like me, who’s interested in all this stuff.”

  “So we raid the shelves?”

  “We get what we can. Mostly things that’ll last. A lot of people will go for fresh stuff and stuff lacking nutrition, for the same reason as their obsession with cash—because they think this’ll be short term.”

  “And remind me again why it doesn’t look short term?”

  “Think about it,” Mike said. “The power’s out everywhere. The shelves will be empty in days. The army and the military—at least the ones who stay loyal—they’ll be deployed to various places around the country. Except the ratio of army peacekeeper to people… that’ll be low. Damn low. And the longer this goes on, the more hungry people get, the more things will sink into chaos. I hate to scare you. I mean, I’d love to think this is just short term. But if it is as bad as it looks… we could be talking six months before generators are even starting to be repaired. And by that point…”

  Mike didn’t want to finish. The thought of admitting how many might be dead by that point was too hard to say.

  “So we get our families. We gather our supplies—preferably using cash, ’cause that sits better with your oh-so-clean morals. And then?”

  “There’s a few options. If your home’s out of the way, you can fortify it and try staying there. Otherwise… it’s off into the countryside.”

  Alison shook her head. “I’m a rubbish camper.”

  “The city isn’t safe. Besides, camping would just be a short-term solution. Preferably, you’d find a farm. A homestead. A place where you could build a new life in this world.”

  “This world? You keep talking like… like this is permanent.”

  Mike swallowed a lump in his throat. “Maybe it won’t be. Perhaps the damage that’s been done will be reversible, somehow. But I’ve—”

  “Done your research. Right. I just hope you realise how much of a tin foil hat dude you sound right now.”

  Mike smirked. Alison was smiling too. But then he swiftly looked away from her. He couldn’t get too attached. Couldn’t get too close. “We’ll go to our respective families. I’ll leave you with some advice. And then we’ll… we’ll go our own way.”

  He walked away from Alison, just a little. But before he did, he caught a glimpse of the look on her face. The look of surprise at his sudden turnaround. “I thought we were all ‘us’ this and ‘us’ that a few minutes ago?”

  “Well,” Mike said. “Last thing a police officer will want to do is hang around with a reckless boozy prick they’ve arrested, right?”

  Alison shrugged. “Fair point.”

  They walked a little further away from the police station, down by the side road. The road was filled with cars too, but most people seemed to have abandoned ship already. Besides, the ones that remained weren’t paying any attention to Mike or Alison. They were too caught up in their own lives and their own dramas as it was.

  “What happened,” Alison said. “With the driving. You don’t have to feel ashamed for it. At the end of the day, you wanted to get to your daughter’s show. It’s not the worst crime in the world.”

  Mike stopped, then. Looked at her. “Change of tune, isn’t it?”

  “Well, I guess I’m off duty now. And I have a way of looking at things from a much more objective perspective when I’m not in my police uniform—figuratively, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  They stopped. And Mike got the sense Alison was intrigued by his story. Like she wanted to know more about him—but that wanting to know wasn’t something he was comfortable with.

  “You’ll find yo
ur daughter,” Alison said. “Just like I’ll get to my mum. And when this all blows over, we’ll be able to laugh about this whole thing while I charge you for dangerous driving. Deal?”

  Mike smirked. Felt a smile widening across his face. “Deal,” he said.

  But there were two things that filled Mike’s attention.

  The first?

  That deep, inherent knowledge that things weren’t going back to the way they were; that he wasn’t going to end up arrested because he could see the destruction of fallen planes and outages already and he knew where this was going.

  And two… because he heard something.

  Something that stopped Alison and him dead in their tracks.

  A pained cry.

  Holly

  It wasn’t long after Holly stepped out of Benny’s house, her friends by her side, that she started to wish she’d stayed holed up in Benny’s after all.

  The darkness, now that the aurora had faded, was bizarre, to be quite honest. It was strange, seeing true darkness like this, because it wasn’t as jet black as you imagined. And that was because for the first time in a remarkably long time, Holly could actually make out the stars here in Preston, here in a city usually so lit up from below.

  It was strange. There were so many of these stars, and they were so much brighter than you’d imagine. And in a way, it was sad, too. Because it made her realise just how much she’d missed out on natural phenomena like this—how much everyone missed out on it because they were too distracted by the light of their phone screens or too demanding of the light of street lamps and such to really see the beauty above, for all it was worth.

  “I don’t like this,” Gina said.

  Holly rolled her eyes. To be honest, as nice as Gina was, she was getting a bit sick and tired of her moaning. She appreciated this was a difficult situation—they were all stuck in the same mess, after all. They had to just grow up and deal with it. Constantly fretting about things wasn’t going to get anyone anywhere.

  “Yeah, well,” Holly said. “We’ll be at my place soon, anyway. I’m sure Dad will be able to help.”