EMPulse

by Deborah D. Moore

  ***

  “I think that all went well, considering,” Henry said to the sheriff.

  “Yeah, considering everyone is still in shock and aren’t hungry yet. Eventually both of those controls will end, and then what?”

  “I don’t know, Claude, I don’t know,” Henry said. “I’m going out on a limb here and ask that you and Allison take me in,” he laughed. “That sounds really strange to me. Oh, and I think we should move all the ammo I have at the Outfitters here, maybe locked in a cell, along with the few firearms. The dried foods too. I want to make that place as unappealing for a break in as possible.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “How is your patient doing, Doc?” Claude asked.

  “His body temperature is back to normal now, although he still hasn’t regained consciousness,” Dr. Cory answered. “And thanks for that heater, it’s helped. We’ve managed to move all the remaining patients down here to the ER where the heater is and have shut off the remaining rooms to help conserve that heat.”

  “That’s good. I’m going to shut the heater off for a short time, take it outside and refill it for you.” When he was done, Claude returned it to the ER waiting room and relit it, sending billows of hot air out to quench the chill.

  “So what’s your opinion on the frostbite, Doc?” Claude asked.

  “While it might be a bit early to say for sure, it looks like he will lose a couple of toes on each foot, two fingers on his left hand, and most, if not all of the fingers on his right hand. I’m going to say he was damn lucky you two came along when you did. Another twenty-four hours and he would have been dead.”

  “I wonder how lucky he’s going to feel when he gets the news.”

  “My oath is to keep him alive, Claude. If he doesn’t wake in the next forty-eight hours, I will perform the surgery and he will have to deal with it. I don’t know what this man did for a living before, but I hope it didn’t involve his hands.”

  ***

  “What the hell is this?” Cal, the guy in the black balaclava, asked over his shoulder. “I thought you said it was easy to get into this place!” The thick plywood now covering the back door at Walstroms was attached with construction screws making access impossible.

  “It was easy the last time I was here,” Gene replied. Not even out of his teens, he kept tugging his green winter face covering out of his eyes. The full ski mask didn’t fit his smaller head well and kept slipping. “With all the noise the other guys made while trashing the place, someone obviously heard.” He jutted his invisible chin out, knowing he was one of the perpetrators the other night that made all the noise and was why he was ousted from the new gang.

  “Well find us another way in, bucko, or your ass is grass.” Fred, a big guy with a hunter orange balaclava, said, giving Gene a shove.

  “Only other way in that I know of is the main doors around front,” the kid said, walking away. He was thankful for the mask so the other two couldn’t see his fear.

  “Now what?” the big guy snarled. “There’s a light on in there; it’s coming from a lantern sitting on a chair, which means someone is here and guarding the place. Damn!” The three slunk around the corner letting the night hide them.

  “If we wait until the time is perfect, we will never get in there for the drugs in the pharmacy,” Cal said.

  “Then let’s do it.” Fred pulled a large wicked looking knife from his boot and gave the door a harsh shove.

  ***

  “Who’s in here?” came a strong voice from the dark.

  “We didn’t think anyone would be here,” Cal spoke up, leading the trio in the deception. “We were hoping to find some food. Is there any left?”

  A middle aged man carrying a shotgun stepped out from the shadows. “Since the mayor is giving away this food, I guess it would be okay for you to take some.”

  Fred’s long legs took him close to the guard in three steps. “Thanks,” he said, shoving the knife into the startled man’s midsection and slicing up. He pulled the knife free as the guard collapsed to the floor, and then wiped it on the man’s jacket. “Let’s find that pharmacy.” He picked up the dropped shotgun and flashlight and quickly moved away.

  Gene stood frozen, shocked at the uncalled-for violence.

  “Come on, little stock boy, we need you to show us the way,” Cal roughly grabbed Gene’s arm and pulled him past the inert body and into the bowels of the Walstroms store.

  ***

  “What the…?” Fred faced Cal. “It’s already been stripped clean!” Had there been enough light to see by, the other two would have seen the rage building in the big guy’s face.

  “So where is it?” Cal twisted Gene’s arm to an unnatural angle.

  “How should I know?” Gene whimpered. “These shelves were full a couple of days ago!”

  “Liar,” Fred snarled, and drove the still-bloody knife into the boy.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The Geo Dome Resort

  “How’s the generator work coming along, Aaron?” Jeff asked, sitting down at their table for a cup of coffee. He and Adele had already eaten at her—their—place. Jeff was still getting used to the arrangements, overwhelmed that someone so beautiful and talented would want him.

  “Better than I thought it would. Well, maybe not better, but definitely quicker than I hoped. Of course, there were other things that had priority, like draining the pipes in all the units,” Aaron answered. Jeff raised his eyebrows. “Hey, boss-man, you said that came first.”

  “Yes, I did, didn’t I? So what are you doing and what can any of us do to help?” Jeff asked, stirring a teaspoon of powdered milk into his cup to cut the bitter brew.

  Aaron stood and looked out the window at the snowy landscape. “Again, I’m not sure if this will work, so I don’t want everyone to get their hopes up, okay? We need to pull all the batteries from every car we can get to, and take them to the generator dome. I’ve got a lot of rewiring to do, so someone will need to pick up on my chores.”

  “Wiring?” echoed Walt, who kept to himself and was quiet most of the time. “I’m an electrical engineer. Is there anything I can do?”

  Aaron stopped pacing and smiled at the new member of their group. “Oh, yeah, you can help. It would make it much easier on me to not have to explain ohms and amps and voltage to a second pair of hands. Jeff, do I have your permission to take the batteries?”

  “Sure, Aaron, anything you need, although wouldn’t the batteries have fried in the EMP?”

  “Not necessarily. They’re only batteries, and don’t have any electronics or chips in them, they just need something to get the power that’s in them out and usable.”

  ***

  “The batteries are heavy. I don’t think we should put more than two in a sled,” Jeff told Adele. He took the necessary tools out of the old pickup truck that was stuck in the avalanche snowbank and disconnected the battery in Adele’s Tahoe, then disconnected his own. Each of them cradled a battery out to the sloped area that had been created by foot traffic and set them in one of Aaron’s makeshift sleds. Beth took the first load and headed toward the generator dome. Gwen silently followed the duo to retrieve what they needed from her car and then to the Bentley left behind by the Jenkins’.

  Once the sled was full, she looped the tow rope around her waist and followed the smooth tracks left by the other sled, meeting Beth halfway.

  “If you follow my tracks, Gwen, you can’t miss the place. Where are Jeff and Adele headed next?” Beth asked.

  “Over to the Bjork dome and then I think back to Aaron since there aren’t any more cars out on this side.”

  ***

  “Here are five batteries, Aaron. Will that be enough?” Jeff asked.

  “We should have a minimum of eight. We still have a couple of cars and my pickup in the resort garage,” Aaron answered,
with a hint in his voice.

  “Yes, sir, boss-man,” Jeff replied, a chuckle lacing his deep voice. He and Adele left for the garage that sheltered employee cars and other work vehicles.

  Adele peered inside the dark, cavernous building and waited for Jeff to manually lift the huge doors to let in some daylight. Inside was Matt’s Subaru, Beth and Aaron’s Jeep, the resort’s new pickup, and the two old vehicles Jeff was restoring.

  “No wonder I never saw anyone’s cars. You kept them hidden,” Adele said.

  “Not hidden, only out of sight. I didn’t want the place to look like a parking lot. There are five available batteries here. We’ll leave the two older cars alone for now and see if this is enough for Aaron. Besides, I’ll need one for the truck when the snow melts.” Jeff lifted each one out and handed it to Adele, who lined the three up by the door.

  ***

  “Can you explain what you’re trying to do, Aaron?” Jeff asked after they set the rest of the batteries next to the others.

  “I’ll try. Remember when we first wired the condos I suggested we wire every unit with a separate switch in the breaker box? That was so I could disconnect one for repairs without interrupting the others,” Aaron said.

  “Right, and we did the condos first to lay the underground wiring before we were even open so it wouldn’t disrupt anyone,” Jeff remarked.

  “Yes, and when we added the hotel part, we continued with each having their own breakers, likewise the offices and the restaurant.” Aaron walked over to the massive number of circuit breakers, all neatly labeled, and pulled the main to each box. “Everything is now completely disconnected from the generator, which really doesn’t matter since it’s fried anyway. However, the power to the generator is still there, it just can’t get in.”

  “What are you saying, Aaron?” Jeff had a cautious optimism in his voice.

  “The windmills don’t have any electronics and are still functioning, and fortunately were missed by the avalanche. That’s where the batteries come in. I think we can rewire the turbines to charge the batteries directly, hook up the inverter to limited circuits, and give the two domes, the well, and maybe, maybe the restaurant, at least the lights.”

  “Wouldn’t the inverter have been destroyed too?” Adele asked.

  “Yes, and this one was,” Aaron said, tapping the huge powerhouse, “but not our spare.”

  “Spare?” Jeff said. “I didn’t know we had a spare.”

  “Honestly, I had forgotten about it. When we went from the six domes and office, to the domes, the hotel, and restaurant, the inverter we had wasn’t adequate. So I ordered a new, bigger one, and put the first one away in my tool chest—my metal tool chest—which acted like a Faraday Cage. I was looking for some tools when I found it.”

  “Aaron,” Walt chimed in, “if it was in a metal case without protection, it might still be fried. Unless… was it in something else first?”

  “When I was storing it, I wrapped it in bubble wrap to protect it from getting banged around.” Aaron grinned in the dim light. “I think what we should test out first are the lights for in here so Walt and I can see what we’re doing.”

  “Aaron,” Jeff said slowly, “if this works, I’m giving you a raise, a big raise.”

  “If it works?”

  “What the hell, even if it doesn’t work, I’d give you a raise for giving us all some hope. When will you know?”

  “Come back in an hour.”

  ***

  Inside their dome, Jeff paced like an expectant father.

  “Jeff, why don’t you do something useful, like help me haul in wood?” Adele said, stepping in front of him to halt his motion.

  “If this works, Adele, we won’t need to burn wood anymore. We’ll have power back and with power we have the electric heat,” he replied, overjoyed at the thought.

  She dumped her armload on the floor next to the stove. “What if it doesn’t? Besides, even if it does work, and I sure hope it does, we might not be able to use everything we used to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The times my mother used the generator, and it was a good sized one, she always reminded me to be conservative. Any appliance that generated heat drew way more power than anything else. That included the dryer, stove, refrigerator, water heater, and furnace. When one was on, the others couldn’t be without risk of damaging the generator.

  “She always told me to prioritize, and water came first, which meant the well. Second was lights,” she said. “Water is the only thing critical we don’t have enough of that we haven’t already adapted to. Lights don’t draw a great deal of power if you remember to shut them off when you leave a room.”

  Jeff looked at her and sighed. “Okay, so we can’t use everything. What would be your priority?”

  “The water heater,” she replied without hesitation. “I really miss hot showers. And the water heater will suck up a lot of juice because it stays on all the time.”

  “Can we turn it on and off? Maybe dial it back?”

  “That’s something to ask Aaron, which,” she glanced at her Cinderella watch, “it’s been an hour.”

  ***

  Jeff and Adele, Chet, Beth, and Gwen waited while Walter and Aaron systematically flipped individual switches to the off position. With a nod from Aaron, Walter pushed the main breaker to the on position. Nothing happened.

  “Aaron…” Jeff said.

  “Patience, boss-man,” Aaron replied. He looked at the breaker boxes, spotted the one he wanted, and pushed it to the on position. When the overhead lights came on, everyone cheered. “Everyone, this was the test run. We don’t have everything rewired yet. All we did was hook up one of the newer batteries to the inverter; one that I was pretty sure still had at least a partial charge. Now what we do, since we have lights,” he grinned widely, “is wire the rest of the batteries to link with each other and into the windmills. That will take time; I’m guessing the rest of the day. And then the batteries need to charge, which shouldn’t take much since they aren’t completely drained. Tomorrow we should all have lights!”

  Chet hung back while everyone else filed out. “Aaron, could you turn on the lights in the kitchen for maybe an hour? I want to get some things for a celebration tomorrow night.”

  “No problem, my man,” he went to the bank of circuit breakers and flipped one to the on position. “Let me know when you’re done. This battery isn’t being charged. Lights don’t draw too much, but they still draw.”

  ***

  Chet took one of the few flashlights that worked and made his way down the dark halls toward the kitchen. When he entered the restaurant dining room, he could see lights on behind the swinging doors that led to his domain. His heart pumped faster and he almost wept for joy. Knowing his time was limited and not wanting to press his luck, he pushed the roll cart into the big doors that opened silently.

  From the freezer he pulled out several chickens, a whole tenderloin, and a bag of shrimp, testing each item for how frozen it was. He was pleased. Another week and everything would be too thawed to use. For now, because he had insisted on keeping the doors closed even when he was inside, most everything had stayed partially frozen. This was something most people didn’t realize: solidly frozen food would stay frozen for a long time inside a highly insulated cooler if not exposed to warmer air. With the weather below freezing, and no heat in that dome, the food was staying good longer than he’d expected it to. The fresh produce, on the other hand, was gone. As much as they had eaten over the past two weeks, some had gone to rot.

  Chet put everything on the rolling cart, along with a few of his favorite knives and his sharpening stone. He added a large bag of flour and some yeast to make bread once he could use the stove, two bread pans, and more of his favorite condiments. On his way out, he stopped at a plain door that concealed the wine cellar. He selected three bott
les of their best champagne.

  ***

  “That was quick,” Aaron said when Chet stopped in. “What are we having for dinner?”

  “Tonight is chicken,” Chet said while Aaron shut the breakers down to the kitchen. “Tomorrow is a surprise.” He thought a moment after Aaron went back to his wiring. “When you finish, will there be enough power for the freezers?”

  “I can’t answer that, sorry. I won’t know until things are up and running and we can test the output. With only two domes running instead of six and the office, I hope so.” Chet’s face fell. “There are too many variables, Chet.” Aaron said gently. “I’m going to talk with Jeff about a rotating schedule that will let us have most everything back, just not at the same time.”

  ***

  “Here comes the real test,” Aaron announced. Everyone was gathered in the generator dome for the momentous occasion. Although it had been only a few weeks without power, it felt like an eternity to most. “Last night, after we wired the seven batteries together, I adapted the windmills to charge them. And before you ask, Jeff, I left the one battery off so we could still have lights in here. This morning, that one was disconnected from the inverter and added to the bank, giving us a full eight batteries. It’s a bit low, but will charge quickly now.”

  “At that point, we wired them to the inverter, which was already wired to the circuit breakers,” Walt said, prideful that he had contributed something important to this group that had saved his life and took him in. “Everything is ready to test.”