THE HIDDEN SURVIVOR: an EMP survival story

by Connor Mccoy

  “Here is the town,” he said and drew a line through the middle of it. “And this is the main road running through it. The pharmacy is here.” He drew an X at the spot where Sally had noticed the pharmacy. Then he drew another X at the entrance to the town farthest from the first X. “This is the best area for starting a fire. It’s the farthest point from the drugs.”

  He drew a dotted line in the ash from the edge of the woods to the place they were to start a fire. “Sally and Christian, you take my Ferro rod and my knife.”

  “I have my own knife,” Christian said. “But I will need the Ferro rod.”

  “Great,” Glen said. “Then Mia and I will go over the wall, here.” He drew another dotted line to the place where they would breach the wall. “If it’s quiet when we get there, then we’ll go over before you start the fire. If there are people around, we’ll wait.”

  “Hang on,” Mia said, “Shouldn’t I go with Christian? He needs me.”

  “You are smaller than Sally,” Glen said. “You will be easier for me to boost over the wall. You are also a smaller shadow in the dark. It will be easier to keep you hidden. Sally can help Christian this time around.”

  “I don’t like it,” Mia said. “I don’t like to be separated from him. It makes me nervous.”

  “It will be okay.” Christian put a hand on her shoulder. “I promise I won’t leave you behind. And anyway, Sally wouldn’t let me.”

  She brushed his hand aside. “I’m not worried about you leaving me,” she said. “I’m worried about you making it out of this alive. What if you collapse? Sally isn’t strong enough to carry you.”

  Glen secretly thought that she wasn’t strong enough either, as tough as she was. “Just for tonight, Mia,” he said. “Sally and Christian are together, and you are with me. Okay?”

  Mia looked at Christian. He and Sally both nodded at her, but she only appeared to notice Christian. “Okay,” Mia said reluctantly, “you and I go over the wall. Then what?”

  “Provided nothing goes wrong? We grab the stuff and run. Sally and Christian do the same. You only stay long enough to see that the fire is burning and then you run. We meet up on the trail and head straight back for the falls. They may or may not wait until morning to follow us, and we need to be long gone.”

  “So, we start our fire and leg it out of there. Come up the trail, I’m assuming Sally knows where the fork is that heads toward the falls?” Christian said.

  Sally nodded and looked unhappy.

  “We wait there for you and Mia and then we leg it. When do we head down?” Christian asked.

  “Midnight,” Glen said. “It will be fully dark, with a quarter moon to give us some light, but not too much light. We are fortunate not to have a full moon.”

  “Really?” Sally asked. “A full moon would be a bad thing?”

  “On a night like tonight with no cloud cover? You bet.” Glen said. “A full moon can seem almost like daylight under the right conditions. It’s useless for cover.”

  “Huh,” Sally said. “I guess I never went out at night and paid much attention.”

  “It wouldn’t matter in a city,” Glen said. “The ambient light – you know street lights and fluorescent signs – make the stages of the moon irrelevant. The night sky is a totally different animal in the city.” He looked up at the swarm of stars above their heads. The moon only had begun topping the horizon and the stars were brilliant. He looked around and saw the others examining the sky as well.

  “How could we have missed this?” Mia asked. “I don’t think I’ve looked at the sky since we left the city.”

  “We’ve been too busy holing up at night,” Christian said. “And if we were out, we were on the lookout for danger.”

  Sally dropped back in the grass, watching the sky above her. “Well I have two hours to make up for it now, but you probably should rest, Christian.”

  “Yeah, I’ll sleep,” he said. “But I’m not going back in that tent. I’ll sleep out here under the stars with you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  It was a little longer than two hours later when Glen shook Christian awake. He was hot to the touch and Glen worried that he might show symptoms of fever sickness, but he sat up, clear-headed and ready to go.

  They collected all their belongings, Glen handing Christian the Ferro rod, and they started down the game trail. When they got to the point where the trail split, they stashed their bags in the grass on the side of the track and headed down the hill. It was dark under the forest canopy, where the moonlight couldn’t reach, and so the going was slow. They didn’t speak, and walked as quietly as they could, knowing that voices and footfalls carry.

  At the base of the incline they split up, Glen and Sally going right to circle around to get to the road, and Glen and Mia going straight on. Glen chose what looked like a deer trail and led the way, placing Mia’s hand on his shoulder so she could follow more easily.

  When they were approaching the edge of the forest they stopped. They were to wait and watch, giving Christian and Sally time to make their way around the town, while also checking to see if people were out and about. Glen hunkered down with his back against a tree. The moonlight was illuminating the town just as he had predicted, and so far, there was no movement.

  He looked over to see Mia lying on the ground, looking up through the branches. The canopy was less dense here and, glancing up, Glen could see a sea of stars. He smiled to himself. How like Mia to discover the night sky, and then spend every available moment examining it. He had best keep his eye on the town. What happened next would depend on what he could see.

  A flicker caught his eye, and for a moment he thought he was seeing their diversion, but then he realized Main Street was illuminated by torches. It reminded him of illustrated scenes of eighteenth century London, with lanterns lining the streets. There was a certain romance to that century, which had been lost to the modern world. Well it was back, and Glen could do without the romance if it meant they had electricity again.

  After about thirty minutes he tapped Mia on the leg to get her attention. It was time to go. She shook her head no and tapped her watch. He figured she wanted to wait longer, give the others time to set the fire. He pursed his lips and shook his head no. He jerked his head in a ‘Let’s go!’ so sharp he about gave himself a headache.

  Mia put her hands on her hips, which made him grin because she still was lying on her back and she looked ridiculous. He reined in the impulse to laugh and shook his head no. Then he pointed toward town with both his index fingers. She made an open gesture with her hands that clearly meant ‘Oh my God, you are so stubborn. Can’t you wait a few more minutes?’ Glen crooked all four fingers on both hands, making sure she got his meaning of ‘Get the hell up already. It’s time to move.’

  This time Mia shrugged and got to her feet. Apparently, the few minutes they’d spent playing charades had given the others the leeway she thought they needed. There was no fire, no call of alarm, but Mia got up anyway and followed Glen.

  They encountered with a bramble bush as they came to the open area on the edge of the forest. Glen made a couple of tentative starts into the bush, but there wasn’t a way through. So, they skirted the brambles and made their way under cover of the shadows to the concrete block wall that surrounded this end of the town. No lowly fence here, unfortunately, they would be scaling an eight-foot wall.

  Why did they need a wall on this side of town? Was it the proximity of the cliff? Had they been attacked from above in the past? He led Mia along the wall, staying low so they didn’t draw attention to themselves. Not that he’d seen movement in any of the upper windows. If he had, they wouldn’t be here now.

  It was hard to tell exactly where they were when they were so close to the wall, so Glen approximated the distance and stopped Mia at what he hoped was the right spot. After what seemed like several minutes, but probably was only seconds of frantic hand signals, she put her foot into his clasped hands and he boosted her over the w
all. There was a dull thump and a whispered curse and then silence.

  He tossed a length of rope over the wall and a moment later there was a tug. She was strong, he had to give her that. He was able to walk himself up the wall using the rope, and then swing himself over. They left the rope hanging on the wall in case a few seconds would make the difference on the way back.

  Glen assumed they were in someone’s backyard and was surprised to see a wind turbine. A small one, to be sure, but still it probably generated enough electricity on a windy day to power the house. He wondered if there were solar panels somewhere that he had missed. They weren’t on the roof, he knew that. A glance along the row of backyards revealed many wind turbines. They may even have refrigeration here. Not that he didn’t do okay with his pond and cold house. But still, electricity… that was civilization in and of itself.

  They ducked down a passageway between the houses, being careful to listen for any sounds that would indicate someone knew they were there. The last thing he needed was to duck between two buildings and have a door open that would trap them there. They came out into a neighborhood of houses, crossed the street quickly, and ducked between two houses on the other side. They had five more rows of houses to get through before they reached the center of town.

  A dog barked when they came out from between the next set of houses. They were in another set of backyards that backed onto the backyards of the houses on the next street. The dog was two or three yards down and seemed to have heard them. Glen reached out and pulled Mia up next to the wall, back in the space between the houses. It was dark, and if the dog didn’t smell, then maybe he’d stop barking.

  A door opened down the block and a woman’s voice said, “Rocky, get in the house.” And when the dog hesitated. “Now! Rocky!”

  The dog went inside grumbling, and Glen and Mia stayed stock-still and silent for a few minutes more. But no other doors opened and no candles flickered in the windows. So, they started again, vaulting over the low wooden fence between the yards.

  They reached Main Street without further mishap, and they were close to their objective. They’d overshot it by a few buildings, but it would take only a couple of minutes to reach the pharmacy. They jogged quietly down the street, staying to the shadows, and stopped in the dark doorway of the shop beside their objective. Glen listened. Nothing. There didn’t appear to be any sort of sentries walking the streets. No one guarding the pharmacy. Nothing to keep them from breaking the lock and waltzing right in.

  Which made Glen deeply suspicious. Here was a town using torches to light the streets, wind to power their homes. They’d seen fruit tree seedlings lining the streets and vegetable gardens in every yard. This was a place worth taking, so why was no one guarding it?

  Mia was getting restless, but Glen made her wait. There was nothing to be gained by rushing into this. It was like their roles had reversed now that they were so close. She wanted to dive in, and he wanted to wait. It was ludicrous.

  Light from the moon glinted off something on a roof across the street and startled Glen. What was that? And then it came to him. It was a solar water heater. Amazing. And now that he was looking, he spotted rigged solar panels as well. They weren’t like any solar panel Glen had ever seen before. They were matt black, or at least they seemed so by the light of the moon. A new technology? Why not? Certainly any new tech that could be pirated or stolen would be.

  He was impressed. Whoever was running this town was smart and capable. They knew what was needed to reinvent civilization. How many other towns across the country were doing the same? Thousands probably. And maybe he should go back to the little town near home and suggest it to them as well? How much better off they’d be with heat and refrigeration. He wondered if he could “borrow” a solar panel to examine.

  Unlikely, but still, there had to be things they could do to transform their town like this one had done. Even if it was just basics – heat and light. Warm water and cold storage. He felt himself getting excited about the possibilities. They could get civilization back. Hot showers. Cold beer. Ice cream! It would take some effort and creativity, and imagination, certainly. But it was doable.

  It didn’t occur to him that he’d deliberately left civilization behind. That he hadn’t wanted company or light or heat. Now that he saw it was possible, it was like the whole world had opened up to him again. Maybe it was time to stop playing Grizzly Adams and get back to the real world. He began hoping they did meet some people. This could be the beginning of a whole new life for him.

  He could see Mia’s face in the reflected moonlight and she was frowning. He bent and whispered so quietly it was hardly more than a breath, “What’s wrong?”

  “No diversion,” she mouthed.

  He shrugged. “Maybe they are having trouble lighting the Ferro rod,” he mouthed back.

  She looked at him in confusion and then shrugged, ‘Whatever.’

  They probably should move now, but he was strangely reluctant. He knew once they were in the pharmacy they’d have to move fast. There’d be no more examining the ways in which this town was coping. No, not just coping, thriving.

  He took a last look around, taking in the details, and noticed that instead of grass in the stretch of earth between the sidewalk and the road, there was lettuce and other vegetables growing. Every inch of ground was being used. He began to feel guilty about all the yards they’d run through. Had they been running through the runner beans?

  Was some poor family going to come out tomorrow morning to find their carrots and radishes trampled? He was looking around to see what else he might have missed in the dash to get here when Mia raised up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear. “I think we’d better do this,” she said. “I’m worried about Sally and Christian.”

  Of course, she had wanted to be teamed with Christian and she was worried about him. Glen wasn’t exactly worried, but he did wonder what had happened to their diversion. Luckily, the street was empty, and the entire town seemed to be asleep. So, why didn’t they do this?

  He nodded and took her hand. They ran quietly across the space between the buildings, crossing where the sliver of light from the moon was the narrowest. They were at the door to the pharmacy and, of course, it was locked. They’d expected that. Mia slipped a tool from her pocket and went to work on the door.

  It didn’t take but a moment for her to open the lock. This small town pharmacy hadn’t bothered with high tech locks. There was the faint tinkle of the doorbell as she pushed the door open. They stepped through the doorway and let the door close behind them. They stood for a moment, letting their eyes adjust. Then a spotlight blinded them, and they were grabbed and held.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Glen struggled, but Mia went limp. He wanted to urge her to fight, but one of the large men backhanded him and he could understand Mia’s passive response to getting caught. “Wait!” Glen said, “I can explain.”

  “Oh, you’ll explain alright,” said the man holding the flashlight.

  “We should take them to Terror,” said the one holding Mia.

  “We will, but I’d like to see what we have first. Mike, tie them up.”

  The guy behind Glen grunted and pulled his hands behind his back. Glen heard the buzz of a zip tie and his wrists stung as the nylon dug into his skin. Mike shoved him onto the floor in front of the checkout counter and went to snap a zip tie on Mia’s wrists. A moment later she was on the floor with Glen, her face pinched in anger. She was going to spit nails or about to cry, and Glen couldn’t tell which. He remembered how Sarah sometimes would cry when she was angry and how she hated that. “No one takes you seriously when you are crying,” she would say. “I hate that.”

  He tried to smile at Mia, to let her know he thought they still could talk their way out of this, but she wasn’t buying it. She glared at him. Did she blame him for getting them caught? He did. Why had it never occurred to him that someone could be waiting inside? And how had the men known he and Mia were comi
ng? They couldn’t have had a spy on the ridge with them. Could they? Had they been spotted checking out the town?

  Glen wondered what he had missed. And how on Earth he had missed it. He was a surgeon, for God’s sake. His whole job had been about details. And yet, here he was tied up and on the floor. At the mercy of three men who didn’t look as though they had much pity.

  Now that the spotlight wasn’t in his eyes he could see them. They were big men, muscular and tattooed. Stereotypical Latino gang members, but Glen knew they all could hold degrees in nuclear physics. You just never knew. Just because they were big didn’t mean they were dumb.

  “Can I explain?” Glen asked. “We have…”

  “Save it.” This was Mike, the shortest man, with a tattoo of a dragon snaking down his arm to shoot flames across his hand. “Terror will deal with you.”

  Mia was silent, chewing on her lip and darting her eyes around the room. There were a lot of mostly empty shelves in the store and Glen could tell she was taking inventory of the contents. But what they needed wouldn’t be in here. It would be in the back room, where the pharmacists spent the bulk of their time.

  The three men had stepped away to have a quiet conversation and Mia struggled to her feet. She moved slowly down the counter and then down an aisle of cosmetics. Glen could see a tube of mascara still hanging from a hook. Mia was headed toward the back of the store, to where the medications were dispensed, when the big guy who appeared to be the leader of the three noticed that Mia wasn’t where he had left her. He grunted to the guy with a third eye tattooed on his forehead to go find her.

  As Third Eye walked past, Glen stuck out a leg and tripped the man. He went down hard and smacked his chin on the concrete floor. He bellowed and turned on Glen, but a word from their leader had him leaving Glen untouched and heading to the back of the store.