The Solar Pulse (Book 2): Escape the Pulse

by Will Hawthorne

  ‘Let’s not get too smug. What’s happening in town?’ I asked. ‘Sherriff Miles struggling to do anything that doesn’t involve picking up dead animals off the road or giving out speeding tickets?’

  ‘Somebody’s got a chip on their shoulder,’ Helen said, shaking her head at me and smiling.

  ‘I don’t mean that. He just really shouted at me once for something that I never did.’

  ‘It’s a little past that point,’ Dolores said. ‘It got a little fun this morning when everybody flocked to the police building thinking that they could magically solve all of their problems, but now they’re mostly skulking around in town or back at home. Nobody can really do anything. Doesn’t mean Miles isn’t still dealing with plenty of sass from the locals.’

  ‘We arrived from the city early this morning. We barely made it out alive. It’s complete chaos.’

  ‘No shit?’ Dolores nodded. ‘Populated areas always get taken down quicker. More concentrated madness. Out here there’s only so many idiots to cause trouble. So where’s your Dad?’

  I glanced at Luke and Helen, who looked back at me edgily.

  ‘Don’t tell me his corpse is in there,’ Dolores said, balancing somewhere on the line between tongue-in-cheek humour and seriousness.

  I turned and jogged into the house before returning with the letter. Dolores looked confused as I handed it to her, but as we watched her in silence as she read the letter, her expression slowly changed to one of understanding, and then sorrow.

  ‘Damn it,’ she muttered. ‘I can’t believe it… He never mentioned this to me, even at our meetings… Well, that’s it. He’s gone.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘Looks like you spent a lot more time with him over the past few years than I did.’

  ‘We did… But he was still your father.’

  I had already dwelt on his departure enough, but the wound was still fresh. I shook my head.

  ‘Anyway – what can we do for you? Did you have an escape plan or something?’

  ‘Just a plan to hunker down. This is a remote place. I’ve no interest in leaving… That said, I could do with a little help in town. We need to keep the people a quiet as possible, and if you’ve got experience escaping a war zone then you might be able to calm a few of them down.’

  ‘Uhh…’ I said rubbing the back of my head, ‘I… Why not? If we’re going to be staying here a while then I might as well make an effort to keep the peace…’

  I took Luke and Helen aside.

  ‘So what’s the play?’ I asked.

  ‘You’re asking us?’ Luke said.

  ‘I’m not just gonna tell you what to do. This isn’t some BDSM novel.’

  ‘We’ll stay here,’ Helen said, holding up her hand in a resolute fashion. ‘It’s better that two of us look after the supplies in the event that something goes wrong.’

  ‘You don’t even know how to use a gun yet.’

  ‘Point and shoot. We can cover it when you get back.’

  ‘We can cope,’ Luke said, nodding. ‘Don’t worry, I can look after her.’

  Sarcastically he put his arm around Helen, but she brushed it off effortlessly.

  ‘Yeah, right. I’ll shoot our attackers while you scream in the corner.’

  ‘We saved you, remember?’

  ‘You’re not the one who got stuck in an elevator. Dick.’

  ‘Stop,’ I laughed. ‘I’ll go check the town out. If I’m not back in six hours then come looking for me.’

  ‘Okay… Hey, Sam?’ Luke said, drawing me aside and speaking close to me. ‘You do realise that a two-person club is really just two people meeting up.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So this lady… Same age as your Dad… Weekly meetings… I’m just saying.’

  ‘If it’s all right with you then I’d really rather not discuss my missing father’s sex life with you right now. Or ever. Weirdo.’

  Chapter Six

  Redwood

  The few hundred yards that led into town was a dream in comparison to the fifty mile stretch that we had cycled to get to the outskirts of Redwood in the first place. We walked in silence, but there wasn’t an ounce of awkwardness. People at work tend to carry an unspoken agreement that you only need to talk when it contributes towards the task at hand, and that was something that I respected and appreciated considerably.

  I had brought the pistol with me, tucked into the back of my jeans – it was easier to keep hidden than the rifle, and whilst running through a city in the midst of the collapse of society with a loaded gun was one thing, casually wandering around a small town like Redwood, even in a situation such as this one, with a rifle in your hand was another kettle of fish entirely.

  Hell, if the sheriff was feeling on edge that he might go right ahead and put me down to exert some kind of authority.

  I wasn’t going to be the example, smeared and bloody on the pavement, while my friends waited for me to get back.

  I had walked this road in the past, or rather I had walked along the edge or on the dirt and grass verge. Now, though, we were walking right along the centre, with no expectation or sound of a vehicle present.

  But right then, as we approached the first houses at the edge, just another few hundred yards from main street, I heard the sound that Luke and Helen had mentioned.

  It was a plane engine, unquestionably. Something powerful, way overhead, moving fast.

  ‘There it is again,’ Rubin said.

  ‘How many times is that?’ Dolores asked.

  ‘Five since the pulse.’

  ‘Wait…’ I interjected. ‘You heard that?’

  ‘The sun hasn’t been sending you crazy,’ Dolores said. ‘Even if it is beating down like I can’t remember. They’ve been going overhead ever since the blackout.’

  ‘During the night, too?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Who d’you think it is? Military?’

  ‘That,’ Dolores said. ‘But it may not necessarily be the US military.’

  Despite the heat, goosebumps struck my arms and flourished over my back.

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘The US government have a greater defence budget than the next 25 countries on the planet combined. Worst case scenario they have at least some equipment that’s still operational. Problem is that if they can’t stay glued together and keep their grunts looked after, then they’ll start to break ranks. You’ve only got loyalty as long as you can look after your people and treat them right. If there’s nobody to fly the planes or control the drones then they don’t stay afloat up there.

  ‘Consider the possibility, though, that another government predicted this and has no interest in helping us. It won’t surprise you that a lot of countries really do not like the US, or our way of life. True, we might have a lot of things on the right page, but we’ve also done a lot of shitty things over the years. We’re no saints. What if somebody has predicted this and has been preparing for it, just waiting for our knees to give out so that they can pounce?’

  I dwelt on the notion, another possibility that was totally plausible considering all that I knew so far. Another country using the solar pulse as an opportunity to survey the US, to… Attack? What was this? What could it be called? There was no radar anymore to detect anything – if the satellites were still floating up there then they would be completely out of action, dead hunks of metal circulating the earth.

  ‘D’you know anything else about this?’ I asked curiously.

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Well, if you and my father were following the event and the build-up to it then I just thought you might have been monitoring any surrounding events closely.’

  ‘Not much, honestly,’ Dolores said disappointingly. ‘Message boards online were alight with speculation, obviously, but nothing other than that.’

  I kept quiet, eyeing the windows of the houses that lined the streets. Occasionally somebody would be stood outside on their front lawn, or stood in the shade
of a tilted garage door, or a curtain would flicker surreptitiously as my gaze fell upon it before being drawn back.

  People began to appear in the streets in greater numbers the closer we got to main street. Unlike the city I didn’t expect any of them to attack me at any moment – no, this was much worse than that. There was a weariness in everyone’s eyes, a quiet distrust, as if they desperately wanted to take what you had but would never quite dare make a move. Every so often this look was absent, instead replaced by an expression that said what the fuck is going on? Do you know what’s happening? When will the power come back?

  And I wanted to grab every single one of them by the shoulders and scream in their faces that it wasn’t going to come back on and that they just needed to deal with it. I wanted to say that to myself, though, too. Sympathy broke through in the midst of the frustration I had with all of this complacency.

  ‘Welcome home, Sam,’ Rubin said flatly as we headed up Main Street. Every storefront was open and people dwelt in the streets or on the sidewalk, but the roads were still void of cars… Mostly.

  I had felt sympathy and fear and a lot of different things over the past 24 hours, but the one random thing that took it out of me, even beyond the gunfights and fires and shooting a guy point blank in the face, was the sight of the citizens of the town of Redwood attempting to fix their entirely unfixable electrical equipment. Cashiers computerised tills failed to function, car hoods stood open as men leant over them, squabbling over what to do about the innards, and people even stood on rooftops attempting to repair generators.

  Alongside Dolores and Rubin, I felt like we were the only ones in the world who had a clue about what was going on – probably because we were the only ones.

  ‘Here,’ Dolores said, nodding towards the police station just ahead on the right. ‘Keep that gun of yours hidden under your shirt. People in there are already tense enough as it is.’

  I checked the weapon in the back of my jeans as we ducked off the street and into the station.

  The noise outside was background and ambient at most, but walking into here was like stepping into a stadium concert. Voices shouted and bellowed to be heard, each more pointless than the last. A crowd of ten or twenty people stood and sat in the small waiting area, flanking the front desk where Sherriff Miles stood. He was a little older and no wiser, with an equally frustrated and blank-looking deputy to his side. They were both poring over paperwork on their desks – the next best thing with the computers gone.

  ‘What did you bring me here for?’

  ‘I thought you could talk some sense into these people and take some of the weight off of the Sherriff. He’s not exactly fantastic but he’s the only law we’ve got in this town right now.’

  ‘What the hell can I do that anybody else can’t?’

  ‘You were in the city. Just tell them the truth. We’re the only ones who know what’s going on, and there’s no way they’ll listen to me. I’m an old kook conspiracy theorist. Even if I am right they won’t hear it.’

  ‘Me too,’ Rubin said. ‘All they’re gonna see is some stupid kid.’

  I looked around desperately at the chaos. I was really being pushed into the role of unlikely leader, here, and I didn’t know whether I appreciated it or not.

  I moved to the front by the desk and looked around at them. Miles looked at me with an air of frustration, thinking I was another complainer, but I just shook my head at him.

  ‘Uhh… Everybody?! Could I have your attention for just a minute?’

  The place quietened, but there was still some chatter.

  ‘Who are you?’ One asked me suspiciously.

  ‘Probably the only person in this town right now who knows what the fuck is going on, so if you want some information instead of sitting there whining then listen up.’

  Everybody fell silent, and by the door I saw Rubin stifle a laugh as Dolores looked at me with a surprised expression.

  I didn’t know where that came from – I was still tired, so it might have factored into it.

  ‘I know that you’re all confused and scared. I get that. Everybody is in the same boat right now, but I need you all to understand something – this is not just happening here. This is not localised to Redwood alone. This morning myself and a few others arrived here from the city. It’s the same situation there. This is nationwide. Maybe even worldwide. Meteorologists forecast a massive burst of solar energy but it looks like they miscalculated whether it would hit the Earth. It has, and everything that has a circuitboard inside of it is completely done. The police can’t do anything about it. They’re in the same situation as you. So the best thing that we can do right now is to work together and be democratic about this.’

  They all looked back at me, and in the midst there was the occasional murmur and shrug.

  ‘And why should we believe you?’

  My eyes flicked over to the source of the voice. A heavy-set man with greying hair crowing a receding hairline stood with his arms crossed, glaring over at me. His polo shirt was open at the neck, a set of jeans leading down to scuffed black work shoes.

  ‘I didn’t say you had to believe me,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘Believe what you want. But I’ve got nothing to gain from lying to you.’

  ‘Who even are you?’

  ‘I lived here for the first eighteen years of my life. I’m not exactly an outsider.’

  ‘Who are your parents?’

  ‘Gerry’s my dad. Gerry Thompson.’

  The man rolled his eyes and began laughing, shaking his head.

  ‘That fucking kook? No wonder you’re his son, you’re coming out with the same bullshit as him.’

  ‘Don’t say a fucking word about my father,’ I ordered sternly. ‘I get that you’re trying to act like a real fucking alpha male in front of all these people. I can practically smell the testosterone coming off you. But let me tell you something – if you’d seen what I’ve seen over the last 24 hours then you’d realise how much of a fucking moron you are.’

  ‘Now listen here you little shit…’ He moved towards me, reaching into the back of his pants, but I already knew what he was doing – because I was in the exact same position.

  And, just like that, I was stood in the middle of a police station pointing a loaded gun at the head of a bystander who had really riled me up the wrong way, with two police officers stood right behind me.

  The man stopped with his hand on the handle of the hypothetical weapon in his pants that I knew was there. The rankled look on his face changed to one of fear and frustration with a hint of seething anger as he looked at the barrel of the gun shiftily – who wouldn’t?

  ‘Drop the gun!’

  Sherriff Miles’ voice piped up from behind me. I couldn’t see him, but I heard his service weapon click. Everybody else in the room was silent.

  The slight movement of a finger, either mine or the Sherriff’s, and my brains would be a smear on the station walls.

  But I was too furious and too in the moment to pay any attention to possible consequences.

  ‘Listen,’ I said, turning my head to the side to address Miles but keeping my eyes on the man, ‘You know me, Miles.’

  ‘I do?’

  ‘It wasn’t a question. I’m Sam Thompson. Gerry’s son. You came by the school when I was a kid to teach us about strangers and drug safety and the like. You pulled up me and a friend for dumping a firecracker in the drains by the park when I was 12. Look… I’m not interested in a shootout, and believe me when I tell you that killing me won’t solve anything except for making the people of this town disillusioned and scared. Now, I’m gonna put away my gun and walk out of here, and that’ll be that. I’ve had enough of this backwards bullshit for one day. You can sort your own mess out if you won’t take my word for anything.’

  In a slow, smooth movement I turned and took the gun with me, keeping it to the side, careful to keep it from pointing at anybody.

  I backed up to the door where Dolores and Rubin s
tood. They backed out into the street just as I reached it, watching every pair of eyes in the room set upon me like I was some hideous creature that had escaped from a top secret government lab.

  I stumbled into the street, lowering the barrel of the gun to the sidewalk.

  ‘We need to get out of here for a little while,’ Dolores said. ‘Just until this heat dies down. Head back home and spend some time with your mom and dad, Rubin. I’ll look after young Mr Thompson and get him up to speed. He seems to have proven himself worthy of being privy to our secret.’

  ‘Secret?’ I said, a high ringing emerging in my ears as the adrenaline began to wrestle with my limbs. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘It’ll be easier to show you. Let’s go.’

  Chapter Seven

  Rooftop

  ‘That’s one hell of a temper you’ve got on you, son.’

  Dolores and I walked quickly through the small suburban streets on the North side of town. I had cooled off after the altercation, but that didn’t mean we weren’t at risk of being followed or watched by anybody.

  ‘I don’t,’ I said. ‘I just… I don’t like people like that. They add nothing of value and they always end up getting people killed because they can’t put aside their manhood.’

  ‘Oh, yeah,’ she said sarcastically. ‘And that wasn’t what you were just doing?’

  ‘I didn’t feel like being the one with the gun pointed at his face. That’s all.’

  ‘Who does?’

  ‘Right… Look, I came into town to check the state of things and try and calm the situation down, and it looks like I’ve done pretty much the opposite.’

  ‘Don’t sweat it, kid. We’ve got bigger fish to fry than a few small town locals.’

  ‘I… Could you not just tell me clearly what the hell it is that you’re talking about? Why am I here? There must have been a real reason that you brought me into town.’

  My new companion looked about shiftily, refusing to meet my gaze.

  ‘Look… With your dad gone, you and Rubin seem about the only level-headed people I can discuss this with.’

  ‘Discuss what with? I thought you said that you didn’t know anything.’