The Gates_The Arrival

by Max Wyatt

  “Sergeant,” the General called out. “Assist Mr. Lawrence with getting his items and escort him as our guest to his car.”

  A man in his mid-thirties wearing an MP uniform saluted and walked up to Finn. He looked like he could bench press a tank.

  Finn laid his hand over the stick in his pocket and wondered just how much it would hurt if they found out he’d just stolen valuable government data. And whether that made him no better than the hackers who had just shut down the world.

  Chapter Nine

  Harper

  The New York skyline was gone, the expressway a parking lot.

  “The city shouldn’t be dark…” Harper muttered, staring at where she knew the buildings should be.

  Tara’s hands clenched the steering so hard that her knuckles were white. “My parents are there.”

  Harper had forgotten. What kind of friend was she that she’d forgotten? Tara had talked endlessly about her parent’s anniversary weekend. They’d been real excited about staying in town overnight, doing dinner somewhere nice, and a Broadway show. “Do you know where they’re staying? We could—”

  “No!” The single word came out on a sob. “No…they should be safe enough at the hotel. The…the power will return, everything will calm down. They’re staying somewhere nice. Nothing bad will happen there except room service probably won’t be operational.”

  They were in an SUV packed with survival goods, blankets, and belongings like they never expected to go home again, and Tara was talking about room service. Harper bit her lip and continued to stare out the window. The vehicle edged forward and came to a halt. It was stopped more often than it was in motion.

  “Where are all these people going?” she asked, watching a small car with a mattress tied on top trying to merge in front of them. So many belongings packed the back window that she couldn’t even see the occupants.

  “Getting out of the city. Like us. Looking for somewhere…safer.”

  Safer. Harper was still rattled from their shopping expedition though hours had passed. The mob…the riot. People had been breaking things as they’d left, the windows crashing down in a cascade of broken glass even as they were driving off. There’d still been people inside. Children…there had been screams.

  Tara hugged her rucksack to her chest. There hadn’t been room for it in back and she’d been holding it since they’d left. A pull from a zipper dug into her hand, but she made no move to shift it. There really wasn’t space. And the heavy weight of it was somehow…comforting. Like if she closed her eyes, she could imagine they were going camping. Joining friends in the woods. All would be well—

  A blaring of horns drew her out of her reverie. Eyes wide open she watched as someone in the next lane leaned out their window shouting and waving a fist. Why did everyone have to get violent? They were all going in the same direction, surely if they cooperated, just waited…

  “They’re worried about their gas. The longer we sit idling here, the more fuel we burn,” Tara said as if reading her mind.

  “Are we okay?” Harper hadn’t thought about gas either. She was beginning to feel like she was a hindrance to her friend, not a help.

  “We’re two hours out from home, more gas would be welcome, but we’re okay right now. I don’t get the greatest mileage…”

  It seemed a silly complaint. Tara’s face seemed unnaturally pale in the glow of the sea of brake lights in front of them.

  Harper leaned forward, trying to see the green sign ahead, trying to get her bearings on where they were. “There’s an exit ahead…back roads?”

  Tara shot her a look. “Welcome back!”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you’re starting to think. Good girl, we’re going to get through this, but I need your help. Does the map app on your phone work?”

  Harper unplugged her phone from the charger in the car. Since they’d left she’d had it plugged in constantly in what was probably overkill. Tara said something about it not being good for the phone, but that seemed the least of their problems. The screen lit up when she tapped it, bright and reassuring. “I haven’t used it much…” she said softly, frustrated because she truly did want to help but wasn’t sure how. She’d not had much occasion to use that app.

  “I don’t dare look away. I need to get in that outer lane and everyone else seems to have the same idea. Hang on, I might be able to work myself in.”

  Harper swallowed hard and looked again at the phone. A cautious tap brought up a map of the area. The internet was still up, miracle of miracles. Tara had said it would be the last to go down, that there were people working everywhere to keep communication open. To lose communication would be to fall into chaos. Looking out the window, it seemed they were already there.

  No. Tara had said it would get worse. Much worse. These were just people like them, people who were uneasy enough to leave. When the full scope of things was realized, that was when things would…erupt. When people realized the power was down everywhere and not just where they were…and that it wasn’t coming back up.

  Except it was. The car edged forward. Harper could see a train station coming up on the left, still brightly lit. The train system was still up.

  Until it wasn’t. As she watched, the lights flickered and died. She looked away, not wanting to see the people on the platform. Would they wait patiently for it to come back up? What if it didn’t? New York City still was…dark. Ominously dark.

  No. Not entirely dark. Lights here…there…a handful of buildings in the distance, shining like beacons. The world hadn’t ended just yet. Not yet. A few bastions of civilization hung on tight to the light they had left.

  “What is this?” Harper barked a small laugh, feeling slightly hysterical. “We’re all being silly! This is some kind of rolling blackout like they said and tomorrow the world will be back to normal.”

  “Harper, I need you to look at your phone. Find me a back road, something that will take us somewhere west of Philadelphia. Reading. Or maybe Lancaster. I had the place programmed into my phone, but that will get us within range for now…”

  “Tara, listen to me! We’re acting crazy! Why are we doing this? I don’t understand…” Harper’s stifled a sob. “Why are we listening to my stupid brother? People panic when the power goes out. It happens. Then the power goes back on and everything goes on as normal. We’re being crazy, we’re becoming part of the problem. You’re supposed to stay home and wait for help. Isn’t that what the National Guard is for? When we had that hurricane we helped each other, we helped our neighbors. Don’t you remember? But this…people are fighting over…what?”

  They were passing the train station. Dim figures struggled in the darkness. “Why aren’t we helping each other?” Her voice ended on a wail, and she buried her face in the rucksack, feeling the rough fabric against her cheek as she cried for the second time that day.

  Tara was silent a long time. When she spoke, her voice was so soft that Harper had to strain to hear. “We are. You and I. We’re helping each other. When we get settled, we’ll figure a way to send for my parents. Your brother…maybe eventually your parents if Erik can reach them. We can’t save everyone, Harper. The world is too big. We can only save ourselves.”

  Harper lifted her head and looked at her, really looked at her and saw for the first time that Tara’s cheeks were wet. That she was crying, that she’d been crying and that she, Harper, was so wrapped up in her own little world she hadn’t even noticed.

  “Tara…”

  Tara turned toward her then. The car wasn’t moving, it wasn’t going to move anytime soon. The look she gave Harper cut her to the bone, so hard were her eyes. Her jaw was clenched so tight it was a wonder she could speak at all.

  “Look, Harper. I don’t know what’s been going on with you since college but whatever funk you’re in has got to stop. Weeping? Harper Gentry weeping because things aren’t going her way? You used to be someone. Back in college, you were the fi
rst one out there to do some damn fool wild and crazy stunt. We sat outside all night in the cold…in January…because you were trying to prove some point about Valley Forge to some asinine History professor. You got the entire campus in an uproar when you found out that the hiring practices in the cafeteria weren’t being fair to minorities. You went to the dean of students when you thought someone was being bullied. You were a fighter. And then all of a sudden you changed.”

  She waved dismissively at her, her tone almost vicious. “You’re wearing pastels, for God’s sake. And crying because we’re in a freaking traffic jam. I don’t know what the hell happened to you that made you take that job at AIRS Magazine, but somewhere along the way you forgot who Harper Gentry is, and I need her back. So shut your trap, get on your phone and do something useful for a change. I need you to find us a gas station with power enough to run the pumps so we can fill the tank. And then I need you to route us out of this fucking mess. Because I can’t do this alone anymore, Harper. I thought you were back, and you’re not really, and I need you now!” Her voice was high-pitched, like she was barely hanging on, and her jaw looked like it would shatter under the pressure of her stare.

  Then suddenly Tara just wrenched the steering wheel to the right, gunned the engine, and threw the entire vehicle sideways into the next lane and then kept right on going until they hit the shoulder, bumped across the gravel and almost off the road completely. Harper stifled a scream as they rocketed up and over the embankment, righted themselves, and somehow made it over to the off ramp in one piece, to a wild chorus of horns honking and one guy she could swear yelled something like “That’s showing them!” in their wake.

  With icy cold hands, Harper scrambled for her phone which she’d lost on the floor somewhere. Finding it, she pulled up one app after another, finding that to her surprise, she could make the stupid device do exactly what she wanted it to when she needed it bad enough. Cautiously she cleared her throat, and looked up, seeing the traffic snarl ahead, because even here the stoplights were out and it seemed like nobody had a clue how to drive without blinking lights to guide them.

  “Um…turn right at the…um…light and then another left. If we stay on that road we should be able to bypass the city and um…maybe find gas somewhere.”

  Tara nodded stiffly, staring straight ahead so hard it was a wonder that every car on the road didn’t just get out of her way. The expression “if looks could kill” came to Harper’s mind and she shied away from that glare.

  Harper discovered in the gathering darkness of a country road that there was something she was more afraid of then the end of the world, and that right now, that fear was the one driving the car.

  Chapter Ten

  Harper

  How long had they been in traffic? It had seemed like hours, but it wasn’t as late as she’d thought. They’d made good time out of Connecticut, and hadn’t gotten caught in that snarl on the expressway until they’d gotten pretty close in to New York City. Now, as they traveled through rural areas, the night seemed almost peaceful. They passed darkened houses under stars so bright it felt like you could reach up and grab them if you had a mind to. Harper rolled her window down, enjoying the feel of the night air on her face.

  If she closed her eyes she could imagine that they were going camping. It had become a ritual, the words a mantra. A way to keep calm.

  Yet she’d used to go camping all the time when she was younger, though her time in the great outdoors was spent looking through a camera lens while her brother and his friends fished for their dinner. It had been a wild carefree time.

  She sighed a little, feeling the fantasy slip. The knotted feeling in the pit of her stomach kept her from getting too lost in her thoughts.

  “There’s lights ahead.”

  Tara hadn’t spoken since they’d left the expressway. Hearing her speak startled her out of her reverie. Harper sat up, adjust the rucksack so she could see over it. Sure enough there was a town ahead, a town with…lights? Golden arches gleamed in the darkness.

  Harper’s stomach rumbled.

  “Is there a gas station?”

  “I don’t…let me try to find out.” Harper started poking at her phone, trying to remember how to ask Siri to find out about such things, then realized you had to push the button before speaking, which was why nothing was working. Beside her she heard Tara sigh and knew her friend was frustrated with her. Hell, she was frustrated with herself at this point.

  “Never mind, I see something ahead on the right.”

  Civilization. A gas station appeared at the crossroads, right next door to the restaurant. Both buildings stood right at the road, out in front of a larger shopping center that was completely dark. Beyond these were houses from the look of things, sensed more than seen with the streetlights out. In fact, there wasn’t a light anywhere in town except these two businesses.

  They weren’t the first ones to find it. Long lines of cars snaked out of the gas station and down the road. Tara eased herself into the line, looking for the first time uncertain in the glow from the dash.

  “They’re both running off generators.”

  Harper looked and sure enough, not every light was on. The big sign on the fast food place, a handful of lights inside, though the drive through signs seemed to be dark, as was most of the dining room. Yet they seemed to be doing a brisk trade of walk-in business from those waiting in line from the gas station. There was a distinct smell of hamburgers and onions in the air, intermingling with the smells of exhaust, of the gasoline being pumped at the station.

  Odd how such smells could feel so much like home.

  The gas station had no lights on at all, save the ones at the pumps. Two individuals, a heavyset middle-aged man in a t-shirt advertising the station, and a scrawnier kid that looked enough like the old guy to be his son, were pumping the gas. A couple guys with shotguns shadowed them. Making sure there was no trouble, Harper realized. She stared at the guns with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Had they really come to this?

  “They’re taking cash only,” Tara said softly.

  “We have cash,” Harper said, eyeing the restaurant. They had a cooler full of cooked meat and other perishables taken from the fridge and packed in what ice there had been in Tara’s freezer. But the thought of French fries was quickly bordering on obsession and she wondered about making a run across the street like so many other weary pilgrims.

  “It’s going to cost…big time.”

  “What do you mean?”

  But already the answer was coming to them through the window. “What do you mean, twenty bucks a gallon?”

  “Maybe we should…”

  “Do what? Walk? Look around, Harper, there’s not a lot of options right now, and these…” Words seemed to fail her as she gestured at the guys at the gas station, stolidly going about their jobs, not seeming to care about or even hear the abuse heaped on them as they worked.

  “Can we…?”

  “I have money enough to buy what we need to get us there. After that…” Tara shrugged.

  It wasn’t a good feeling, realizing that Tara, always prepared Tara, was running out of ideas.

  “Do you think I should…” She gestured at the restaurant then realized that they too were likely capitalizing on the crisis. She didn’t even want to know how much the fries cost at this point. The people coming out of the place weren’t looking happy.

  She wondered what corporate would do if they knew their managers were jacking up the prices like this…

  But corporate might as well have been a million miles away. Who cared when it was the end of the world?

  Harper slumped in her seat, suddenly tired. She hated this trip. She hated the way people were acting. She was sick of the car, and even starting to get sick of Tara who seemed to find fault no matter how much she tried to help. Spotting a porta-potty at the edge of the parking lot, she shot a glance over to Tara who had turned off the engine while they waited. The line wasn’t going t
o move anytime soon, and there were at least a dozen cars ahead of them. “Hey, it looks like someone around here has their act together. I think I’m going to just…”

  “You can’t wait?” Tara’s voice was sharp, the look she shot her one of concern.

  “Actually…no I can’t. I haven’t seen anything…”

  “We could have stopped along the road anytime.”

  Harper stared at her. “Okay, squatting in the woods while camping is one thing, but I’m hardly going to go…in a farmer’s field? Are you serious?”

  She was. Tara had become such a control freak that she didn’t even want to let Harper out of the car now.

  “We’re at a gas station somewhere in the suburbs. I think I’ll be okay, Tara.”

  Without waiting for an answer, Harper opened the door and jumped out of the car. Tara started to call something after her, but Harper wasn’t paying attention. She was already following the line up toward the only gas station, head down and focused on her phone as she walked.

  This was maybe more what she was expecting from people. Others had turned off their engines same as Tara. Conserving what gas they had, Harper realized. Children hyped up from the strangeness of this nighttime adventure played tag in the parking lot of the big box store behind the station, their laughter making this seem like a community event. People talked, exchanging gossip. She heard people talking about New York, Philly. Other places even further. The power was out everywhere it seemed. The destinations universal.

  “I’m heading to my sister’s place…”

  “We have a cabin we share with my uncle’s family…”

  “I’m trying to get to my parents…”

  Family. When the world was crashing down around you, it seemed all anyone wanted was just to go home.

  Dad.

  Harper quit messing with the app that showed their route and swiped to the phone screen. No one had called. She wondered if Erik had reached their dad.