by Harley Tate
“Whatever happens, Mrs. Sloane, it’s always better to be ready. Remember that.”
Tracy nodded and watched him walk toward the front door, the limp hitching every step. If the power stays out, I’m checking on Joe. Tracy might have relied on Joe this morning, but she knew he wouldn’t be able to survive on his own for long.
The man could barely walk. He couldn’t live in a world without power.
“Tracy? The meeting?”
“Coming!” Tracy pushed the thoughts of space weather and her family out of her mind and picked up the stack of tax forms. She had a job to do until four that afternoon. Until then, she needed to focus.
Preparing for the unknown could wait a bit longer.
Sacramento, CA
2:05 p.m.
The door to the Suburban shut with a solid thud and Tracy took a deep breath for the first time all afternoon. Between the tax seminar, setting up a computer-training class, and scanning the news headlines every chance she could, Tracy hadn’t sat down since Joe said goodbye.
She had texted her daughter a million times and called a few, but she had only received one more text:
Be careful, Mom.
That’s all it said.
Tracy didn’t know if Madison was on her way home, safely tucked in her dorm room on campus, or running around Davis freaking out. She hoped she’d done the sensible thing and decided to stay put.
The college had excellent security and a full staff. Madison would be safe there. At least for a while.
Madison was a resourceful young woman. She might be only nineteen years old, but she knew how to take care of herself. It was Walter that Tracy worried about more.
He hadn’t updated her on the flight. Not a single text or call since that first notification all those hours ago. If he was up in the air when the CME hit, Tracy didn’t know what would happen. Would the plane drop from the sky? Lose navigation and radio?
If the airports all lost power, how would he land?
She tried not to worry. Walter was a grown man. He had always taken care of their family and kept them safe. Even if the worst happened, he would find a way back home. Tracy just had to have faith.
She started the engine of the SUV and pulled out of the library parking space. Thank goodness Wanda let her leave work two hours early. If Joe was right, then she needed to stock up while she still could. A litany of items ran through her mind. Groceries. Paper products. Emergency supplies and first aid.
When Madison was little, Tracy always kept a fully stocked pantry with multiple packages of everything she needed just so she didn’t have to run to the store. She’d even gone through a crazy couponing phase, stocking up on everything from soap to shampoo to cereal. They’d turned their spare bedroom into a veritable grocery store stockroom.
But since Madison left for college, Tracy and Walter sold their large family home and downsized. Their two-bedroom, one bath, little bungalow barely had enough room for a two-cabinet pantry. There simply wasn’t enough space for extras.
The things she loved about their new home when they bought it all seemed so trivial now. The small footprint, easy-to-care-for yard, and quiet neighborhood with a park in the middle, didn’t mean a thing if in a handful of hours life as they knew it took a nosedive.
She thought of her neighbors. The Smiths next door had a toddler and a baby on the way. The Rodgers across the street worked for the city school district and ordered delivery almost every night. No one she knew would be prepared for something like this. How much food would they have on hand? What type of supplies?
How long would the neighborhood stay civil and friendly if the power never came back on? Desperation made people do terrible things. She knew that firsthand.
Tracy pulled into the local grocery store parking lot. It didn’t seem any busier than a typical Tuesday afternoon. Stepping out of the SUV, she slung her purse over her shoulder and headed inside.
In case Madison and Walter made it home, she needed to buy enough food for all of them. Things that would last. If nothing happened, she could always donate the extra to the food bank. It was something she’d been doing for years.
After pulling a cart out of the row, Tracy headed inside the store. If she was lucky, no one she knew would be shopping and she could be in and out without anyone questioning her. Explaining why she had a cart full of enough food to feed an army wasn’t something she knew how to do.
Bypassing the produce, Tracy headed straight to the bottled water and sports drinks. She piled cases of both in the bottom of her cart, filling the entire space. It wasn’t nearly enough.
She glanced up and down the aisle. No one was there. Why weren’t people freaking out? Did they simply not know? Was she blowing it all out of proportion?
After stacking another case of water inside her cart, she headed to the canned goods. Chicken and tuna and beans all went into her cart along with packets of already-cooked rice and cans of ravioli and meatballs.
She smiled with a mix of regret and nostalgia. Spaghettios straight from the can had been a good meal when she was a kid. It sure beat nothing. Now it might keep her family fed when the world fell down around them.
The cart already teemed with food, but Tracy wasn’t close to done. She needed peanut butter and crackers. Nuts and protein bars. Anything that could keep in the pantry without refrigeration.
She needed a trip to Costco.
“Hey, Tracy. Is that you?”
Oh, no. She turned to see a woman walking down the aisle with a handheld shopping basket and a fancy coffee.
“It’s Melanie, from Loma Blanco High. Our daughters were in the same class.”
“Oh, right. Your daughter is Kristie, right?”
Melanie nodded, her ponytail bobbing behind her. “Are you getting ready for a party or something? That’s a lot of tuna… and Gatorade. Wow.”
Tracy swallowed. Should she tell her the truth? What if it all turned out to be nothing? Would this woman she barely knew think she’d gone off the deep end? All she remembered about her daughter was that Madison didn’t care for her. Something about having more clothes than sense.
She hedged. “I donate a lot to the food bank. They can always use canned goods.”
“How thoughtful of you. Did you know I’m on the board of the Children’s Hospital? We do a fundraiser every year. It’s more of a gala type thing, but you get the idea.”
Tracy didn’t. Not at all. She just wanted to get out of the store, load up her Suburban and get over to Costco before rush hour. She smiled. “I’m sure it’s wonderful. How’s Kristie?”
Melanie beamed. “In Cancun. Spring break only comes once a year, you know. How about Madison? Is she off somewhere fun? Hawaii, maybe?”
“She’s back at school, working.”
“Oh.” Melanie sipped her coffee. “Good for her, being industrious and all.”
Tracy couldn’t stand it another minute. She’d made enough small talk. “It’s been good talking to you, but if you don’t mind, I’m kind of in a hurry.”
“Of course. All those donations… you probably want to get those to the food bank right away.”
“Something like that. Nice to see you, Melanie.”
“You, too!” Melanie waved as Tracy pushed the cart down the aisle toward the checkout. There were still a million more things to get, but she had to get out of her local supermarket and into a big box store. No one would question her motives there.
Lying wasn’t something Tracy made a habit of, but what could she do? Melanie didn’t strike her as the type to take space weather seriously. If she did tell her, the woman was liable to either blow it off or panic.
Tracy slowed the cart to a stop in the checkout aisle and took a deep breath. Panic was never a good thing. She needed to remember that.
CHAPTER FIVE
MADISON
University of California, Davis
12:00 p.m.
“What about all the plants? The research? If we lose power, the a
utomatic sprinklers won’t turn on.”
Peyton scratched his head. “We could water everything now. Change the timers to go off early. It would buy us some time.”
“Guys, come on. We can’t stand around here worrying about the agriculture department. We need to find Brianna and get out of here.”
“But half of these plants are food, Tucker. What if we need it?”
He glanced around at the rows of tomatoes and peppers. “How long will this all last without water?”
Madison bit her lip as she thought it over. “If we water them extra right now, maybe a week. Longer if it’s not too hot.”
Tucker frowned. “Fine. Water them, but do it quick. We need to get going.”
Peyton headed to the back of the greenhouse where the sprinkler controls were located while Madison began to open up the sprinkler heads to full spray.
“Can you twist that row to full on?” She motioned to the next row over and Tucker complied, opening up each sprinkler to the max it could go.
Peyton walked back into the room as Madison and Tucker finished. “I reprogrammed the controls.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced around. “If this is all one big false alarm, we’re ruining months of research for nothing. We could get expelled over this.”
Madison looked at Tucker. “You’re sure this is the real thing? We’re not overreacting?”
“In less than twenty-four hours, there won’t be an agricultural program to come back to.” Tucker reached for his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “If you’re done, let’s go.”
The three of them filed out of the greenhouse and Madison shielded her eyes from the bright noon sun. It seemed like any other day. The sun still shone; the birds still sat on the tree branches chirping among the new spring leaves.
How could anything bad be about to happen? She glanced back at the greenhouse. If they were really on the verge of a massive, countrywide blackout like Tucker claimed, she might never be back here.
“Hold on, guys. I need to grab something.” Madison rushed back inside, running down the row of plants, until she stopped in front of her work station. She grabbed the little portable radio she’d been listening to that morning and shoved it in her backpack.
It ran on batteries. If anyone was out broadcasting after tonight, she wanted to hear them.
A half an hour later, they made it back to the dorm and to the room she shared with Brianna.
“It’s about time the three of you showed up. We should have been on the road an hour ago.” Her roommate’s brash scolding made Madison smile. Leave it to Brianna to already have one foot out the door.
“Did you get my texts?” Tucker headed straight for Brianna, wrapping her up in a quick hug before pulling back.
“Yeah. I tried to respond, but my phone wouldn’t work.” Her brown eyes practically sparkled. “This is it, isn’t it?”
“Could be.”
“Then we shouldn’t waste any more time. We need to load up all we can, get gas, and get on the road. The cabin’s a three-hour drive from here.”
Brianna cinched the top of her hiking pack while she shoved the contents down with her other hand. The pack was stuffed to the gills.
Madison couldn’t believe Brianna had everything together. It had only been a couple of hours. “What’s in there? It looks like you’ve packed everything but our bathroom sink.”
Brianna pulled her curly blonde hair back into a low ponytail and slipped on a hoodie. “My dad always told me something like this would happen. It’s why he worked so hard to buy the place up in the mountains and why he’s stashed so many supplies up there. I always thought he was crazy, but he was right.”
Madison exhaled. She knew all about Brianna’s prepper dad and the outlandish theories he had about the end of the world. “First your dad thought Y2K was going to kill all the computers, then it was some Mayan prophecy in 2012, now it’s terrorists with nuclear bombs. This isn’t any of that, Brianna. It’s the sun.”
“So?” Brianna glanced around the room. “What’s the difference, really? Whether it’s economic collapse or a solar EMP or World War III, it’s all the same. Everything we know about life is going to change. All the things we take for granted…” She pointed at Madison’s cell phone in her hand and the laptop computer sitting on the desk. “All of it’s going to be worthless without power. We might as well be pre-Industrial Revolution.”
Peyton snorted. “You really think we’re going all Dark Ages? Just because the power goes out?”
Tucker spoke up. “If this is as bad as I think it will be, yeah. It will take years to get the grid back up. Can we really hold on that long? What if it’s not just North America that’s hit? What if it’s the whole Earth? Things will devolve pretty darn quick.”
Madison thought about the cheesy reality shows she used to watch on TV. A bunch of people thrown on a deserted island with nothing but their wits. It didn’t take long for factions to form and fights to break out.
Add in guns and hunger, and Brianna had a point. She slumped onto the edge of her bed. “What if we wait until tomorrow? We could get ready, but just stay here and wait it out. It could all amount to nothing.”
Brianna rolled her eyes. “And if it doesn’t? You really want to be stuck in Davis when my family’s got a place that can take care of us for months, if not years?”
Peyton came over and sat beside Madison, slipping his arm around her shoulder. His green eyes held as much fear and uncertainty as her own. “If it turns out to be a false alarm, we can just come back. But shouldn’t we be proactive?”
Madison couldn’t believe the four of them were even having this conversation. “What about the other people on campus? Why isn’t anyone else freaking out?”
“Haven’t you noticed it’s like a ghost town around here? Almost everyone is on vacation. With the dining hall closed and most of campus shut down, there isn’t anyone left to cause a panic.”
Peyton had a point. It had been quiet. They were the only two people tending to the greenhouse and apart from Brianna and Tucker, Madison hadn’t seen more than a handful of other students. Teachers and staff were all home with their families.
Brianna picked up her pack and slipped it on before buckling the belt in front. “Tucker and I are leaving ASAP. You two should come with us. We’ve got space.”
Madison shook her head. “I can’t. I’ve got to get to my mom.”
“What about you, Peyton?”
“I’m going with Madison. If this is nothing, I’ve got dibs on Mrs. Sloane’s peach pie.”
Brianna chewed on her lip. “Is your mom at home?”
Madison nodded.
“How are you planning to get there? You don’t have a car.”
Madison shrugged. “The bus. It shouldn’t take too long. I’ve done it before.”
“Don’t take the bus. You could get stuck halfway there.” Brianna glanced at Tucker. He nodded. “We’ll take you.”
“No!” Madison looked up, shaking her head. “I can’t ask you to do that. You’ve got family waiting for you.”
Her roommate smiled. “You’re family, too. Besides, Sacramento’s on the way to Truckee. If we leave now we can stop for gas, load up on supplies, and still make it to your mom’s place before traffic sets in.”
Madison thought it over. Hitching a ride with Brianna meant she’d be sure to get home before the CME reached Earth’s atmosphere. But she’d be putting Brianna and Tucker at risk. They should be worrying about their drive upstate, not whether Madison and Peyton made it to Sacramento.
She walked over to her desk and fished around in the drawer before pulling out a small pencil box. She opened it up and handed a wad of cash to Brianna. Madison always kept a stash of cash in case of emergencies. This definitely qualified. “If you’re taking us, then I’m buying supplies. It’s the least I can do.”
Her roommate took the money with a grin. “Deal. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
CHAPTER SIX
MADISON
Davis, CA
1:00 p.m.
Madison stood in the middle of the largest sporting goods store in town, unsure where to even begin. After filling up the tank of Brianna’s Wrangler, they had headed straight there.
It still seemed like overkill. She leaned toward Brianna. “I thought your parents were totally stocked. Why are we shopping? Shouldn’t we just get on the road?”
The distance between her and her mom made Madison nervous. She just wanted to get home, lock the doors, and relax, not pile a cart full of camping gear.
Brianna frowned, her big brown eyes intense as she stared at Madison. “Haven’t you listened to anything I’ve said?” She waved at the display of sleeping bags in front of them. “You really think any of this will be here in a few days? What if we have to bug out? What if we don’t make it to the cabin? We need to be prepared to be on our own.”
Madison shook her head. “Even if it’s as bad as Tucker says, it’s just a blackout. We’ve all lived through those before.”
“Not for a decade.” Tucker stopped beside her, a sleeping bag under each arm. “Once people figure out this isn’t a temporary thing, you really think they’ll wait in line for these?”
He waggled the bags before dumping them in a cart. “Think about it. No electricity means no central heat, no microwaves, no electric stoves. If we don’t have ways to stay warm and cook food without power, we won’t survive very long.”
Brianna agreed. “Think about all the people we know who don’t have more than a few days’ worth of food. You’ve seen the refrigerators on campus. Half of them only have beer and ketchup.”
“Expired ketchup.” Peyton added another two sleeping bags to the cart and pointed at the cold-weather gear. “You should grab a jacket. Maybe some clothes. Something you can wear for a while.”
“Cargo pockets. Look for lots of pockets.” Brianna patted the side of her pants. “I can put ammo or a knife or first aid supplies in here and not even notice it.”
“Ammo?” Madison’s brain must have misfired. She couldn’t have heard Brianna right. “For what? Hunting?”
