by N. C. Reed
“Good plan,” Clay nodded. “Okay then, we're traveling today,” he stood. “You guys be careful,” he told the others.
Gordon and Gordy were next, with Ronny, Alicia and Angela following. Soon it was just Abby, the twins, and Leon. Well, plus Leon's new guests.
“Okay guys, what are we doing?” Abby asked her cousins.
“Right now, we're still downloading,” Leanne told her. “But there is something you can do that would help. You have a lot more experience with things than we do. Use Grandma's computer and look through the books online for information we may can use or instruction manuals we may not have. Maybe repair manuals and the like? Things we can download before we store everything until the storm is over.”
“Got it.”
-
“You expect this to be bad, don't you?” Lainie asked as she and Clay drove.
“I expect it to be world changing,” he said simply. “First world nations will crumble while third world nations may not even notice. It will completely change the way things get done. Have to be done I should say. And there are a lot of people who won't be able to change with it.”
“How long do you think it will last?” she asked.
“I doubt we see things return to normal in our lifetimes,” he admitted. “Leon and Leanne might, might see things improve if they live so long as Mom and Dad. The rest of us? Whatever is left will be our new normal.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
-
Unaware of the stir it was creating, the coming wave flew through space on the way for its meeting with the Earth. Originally traveling at 1600 kilometers per second, solar winds had slowed it substantially, something Leon the Younger had anticipated and figured into his calculations. Now traveling at a more sedate 650 kps, the slower speed was what would enable the collision between the storm and the Earth.
Government officials had been warned of the coming disaster as soon as it was calculated by NASA, only a few hours of checking and double-checking after a pair of fifteen-year-old prodigies had done it. The warning had been passed up the chain and finally deposited on the desk of a President who was busy trying to influence the coming election. As a result, he passed it off onto the Vice-President, whose understanding of science ended at 'really cold water becomes ice!'. He handed it to an aide so he could go and shake hands with a former Senate colleague. The aide took one look at the information and the expected damage and ran to throw up.
It took the aide an hour and three verification phone calls to convince the Vice-President that the information was not just important, but urgent. When they finally managed to convey the magnitude of the disaster they were facing, the Veep called the President, who promptly placed blame on NASA for not telling him about this sooner.
The scientists at NASA rolled their eyes at a lame duck president and went back to work.
The President had an ice cream cone as his chief scientific adviser explained what was happening, and what it meant for the country and indeed the world.
“Skip to the part about how we stop it,” the President made a 'hurry up' motion with his hand, checking his watch. The stunned adviser looked around the room, despairing at the expectant looks on the other faces. Apparently he wasn't being clear enough.
“Sir, we can't stop this,” he finally replied. “This is a force of nature, Mister President, with the power of more nuclear weapons than the entire world possess at the moment. Combined. This storm is going to destroy this country and the rest of the modern nations in the world right along with it. We should be shutting down nuclear reactors right now and bringing ships to port if there's time for them to reach it. We should be using every plane we can commandeer or seize to bring our people home as quickly as possible.”
“We can't do that!”
“Impossible!”
“That would create a panic!”
“Obviously, a result of Climate Change!” (you could hear the capital letters)
“We'd never be able to hide that from the public!”
The arguments came from around the room and none of them were sensible. The adviser shook his head in disbelief as he tried to silence them.
“Listen, you have a lot more problems than hiding this from the public!” he shouted to be heard. “Do you understand? Every tablet, smart phone, hell that fancy watch you just checked on, sir, is going to stop working forever unless it's properly shielded from this wave. The power grid is going to overload, and then collapse! Less than five percent of our grid is hardened against this kind of thing and Washington isn't a part of it!”
“You mean to tell me that we can't do anything about this?” the former community organizer asked, ice cream now forgotten. Finally.
“Just endure it,” the adviser sighed. “We have a little time thanks to NASA. Less thanks to you all ignoring their warnings for hours, but still, we have some time. There are a few things we can do that will help, but in the time we have, we can't even protect one percent of anything in this country. The best we can do is try to gather the people we will need to help rebuild once the world resets and get them into protection, along with the equipment and resources they will need to try and get the nation on its knees again.”
“On its feet you mean,” the hapless Vice-President looked around the room grinning.
“No sir, I don't,” the man shook his head, something he had done a great deal of this morning. “I mean its knees. As in up on its knees from having fallen flat on the floor. It will take years just to get back to the industrial revolution era of technology in any place that isn't protected. The fifties at that.”
“The fifties weren't so bad,” the Vice-President said. “Man, I had a-”
“The Eighteen fifties!” the adviser screamed loud enough to make one of the Secret Service agents raise up from his perch on the wall.
“That's ridiculous!” the President snorted. “Sounds like some right wing, doomer propaganda to me!”
“Sir, I'm a registered Democrat and about as liberal as they get,” the adviser replied calmly. “And everything I've told you is fact, not fiction. Supported by NASA and by research scientists all over this nation, and the world. We are going to be reduced to plowing with mules if we don't do something. Planes are going to fall out of the sky! Cars will stop wherever they are when the wave hits and they won't start again. Everything will stop!”
He could tell by looking at them they didn't believe it.
“Listen, it's obvious this has you upset,” the Veep got to his feet and walked over to the adviser. “Only natural that you'd get some stuff mixed up and no one is blaming you. Just get with the egg-heads at NASA, get the information straightened out, and then get back to us, okay?” the Vice-President said calmly as he walked the adviser to the door. “We'll be waiting to hear from you,” he said as he closed the door.
The adviser spent all of fifteen seconds staring at the door in wonder before he departed the White House.
He would not be coming back. He knew what was going to happen and he knew how little time there was. He had to get working to be prepared or he and his family wouldn't survive.
He had tried to help the rest. Now it was time to help himself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
-
In a rare feat, all of the groups in the family managed to return home within an hour of one another. All had been successful to at least some degree.
Clay and Lainie had managed to get five hive boxes, each containing a starter colony, into his trailer. They had acquired equipment for handling them from the bee keepers as well. Once they arrived home they had pulled the hives into the back lot of their holding pasture and put them out to allow the bees to get acclimated to their new home. Later they would be spread out.
Angela, Alicia and Ronny had returned less than half-an-hour later pulling a rented trailer. Ronny's truck had proved inadequate to hold everything Angela had found. The prescriptions had been filled, one or two with a pointed look but filled none-the-less. An
gela really hoped that Patricia wouldn't get in trouble for that.
Finally, an hour after Clay and Lainie, Gordon and Gordy pulled into the yard, the truck and farm trailer full of sugar beet seed balls. When the time came, they would make a decent crop for the Sanders, and when harvested could hopefully be broken into sugar. But that was far in the future so for now the family stored them in an empty grain bin.
It was after full dark when things were finished and the various members of the family began to break up to get ready for their evening. Gordy's voice caught their attention.
“Look!” he exclaimed softly and everyone looked to him only to see him pointing skyward.
Where the night time sky was flickering like a giant Christmas light.
“Is this it?” Alicia shrieked. “Is it here? Oh God, we aren't ready! ”
“Oh, shut up!” the Old Man snapped. “That's the Northern Lights, Alicia. Good grief. Have some damn pride, why don't'cha? You may not can help being a dumb ass but you don't have to prove it! Keep people in suspense!”
Scattered laughter answered the Old Man's diatribe but most eyes were on the sky.
Rows and streams of green and blue, yellow and red, flickering and swirling across the sky above them, disappearing into the northern horizon and seemingly without end.
“It's beautiful,” Abby said softly. “Like a reflection on the water.”
“Pretty,” Janice agreed in her own special way.
“I haven't seen that in years,” Leon's voice was now a bit broken. “You mother loved to see those things, God bless her resting spirit,” he sniffed just a little. “We used to see them regular back then.”
“I remember them as a boy,” Gordon agreed, just as transfixed as everyone else. “Haven't seen them like this ever, though, that I can remember,” he admitted.
“You haven't,” Leon confirmed. “You weren't born last time we saw this, as I recall.”
Deuce and Leanne both had phones out recording the sight. Others followed suit and the group fell quiet so as not to intrude on the moment. It lasted a long while until Gordon finally looked at his watch.
“We better go, Mamma,” He told Angela. “Church in thirty minutes.”
“Coming,” she replied. “Oh, I wanted to get cleaned up and changed if we were going out,” she sighed.
“Do what you want,” he shrugged as the two walked toward their house. “If we're a little late, we just are.”
“What are you guys going to do?” Robert asked, looking around. Patricia had gotten home just as they were finishing.
“We're going out,” Ronny said.
“I'm going to town,” Abby said to no one in particular. “Hang out with friends.”
“Think I will too,” Gordy said, then stopped. “No, I better not,” he decided. “I've skipped school for three days. Better not be out having a good time.”
“You guys want to have some fun?” Clay asked. Gordy and the twins nodded and Abby looked interested.
“I've got some night vision goggles we can play with,” he grinned. “Take them out into the field and look through them. Also, some binoculars. We can play with them a while before we have to seal them away to protect them from the storm.”
“And I've got an M-4 with a night vision scope mounted on it,” he hit the kicker as they all looked interested.
“I'm in,” Gordy said at once.
“Us too!” the twins were right behind. Abigail looked torn for a moment but then sighed.
“Me too,” she said almost reluctantly.
“Well, I guess that leaves us on date night as well,” Robert grinned at Patricia. “Shall we?”
“Why not?” she smiled. “We 'll see you guys later. Have fun,” she waved.
“Can I come?” a quiet voice asked and everyone looked around to see Janice standing there. They had all forgotten her.
“Sure,” Clay said at once. “Grab some jeans and a jacket and come up to my place. We 'll all meet at my house in half-an-hour,” Clay told them. “We 'll leave from there.”
Brick and Leon ended up taking the Old Man's truck into town and getting a meal out themselves. Thus everyone spent what might be the last normal night they would ever have doing what they wanted to do. It seemed like a good idea to enjoy themselves while they still could.
None of them knew exactly what tomorrow would bring, or what things would be like when it was over.
-
The President was in crisis mode. He had received calls from seven different heads of state in the last three hours demanding to know what he was doing about the emergency and why he hadn't informed them about it sooner.
“What emergency?” was the watch phrase for some time until a harried aide had whispered in his ear.
“I thought he was exaggerating!” the President said aloud. Very loud. A lot of people heard him.
“No, sir,” the aide shook his head. “He was very accurate.”
“Get him in here then!” the President demanded.
“He has disappeared, sir,” the aide sighed. “I suspect when we didn't take action, he decided to try and save his family if possible. The Service has traced his credit card purchases to a number of camping and outdoor stores, including the purchase of a shotgun. And he is a devout anti-gunner, sir.”
“He deserted?” the Veep asked. “We should have him arrested!”
“Ah, sir, he's not a service member, just a civilian,” the aide reminded him. “As such he can quit any time he feels like it.”
“And leave us high and dry!” the President huffed.
“He did try to tell you, sir,” the aide reminded him again. “And he only ran when no one took him seriously.”
“How much time do we have?” the President demanded.
“About twenty-four hours, sir,” the aide checked his watch. “Give or take.”
“What the hell is NASA doing that we don't get any more warning than that?” the President barked.
“Sir, the original warning you ignored came from NASA. They've continued to update you every hour. And wondered why you haven't responded,” the aide admitted.
“Why didn't you tell me about this!”
“Sir, we all told you about this,” the man began to show signs of irritation. “You blamed it on Climate Change and then ignored it. We've placed it in front of you three times and you've ignored it each time in favor of working on the election.”
“My legacy has to be protected,” the President told him. “Nothing is more important.”
“Well, if this hits, your 'legacy' will be as the President who could have stopped at least part of the end of the world, but didn't,” the aide said sharply. “You have about twenty-one hours by my memory of the last update, but you 'll have to take that with a good grain of salt because I don't remember exactly when I got the last one.”
“What can we do in that time?”
“We've prepared a list,” the aide set a list before him that already had several items crossed out.
“Are these things you've already done?” he asked, feeling better as he looked at the list.
“Those are things we no longer have time to accomplish,” the aide said stoically. “Like bringing our service people home from overseas, for one thing. Bringing our navy to port for another. When this hits, the ships will be adrift wherever they are.”
“This. . .this can't be that bad,” the President shook his head, slapping the paper with his free hand. “I want this checked by someone else and then get back to me with an accurate-”
“Sir, that list was prepared by department heads across the board,” the aide told him. “There is no one else to 'run it by'. They're the best in the world at what they do. This is all we can do.”
“Get back to me when you have it right,” the President ignored him as he picked up a phone.
“Mister Prime Minister, sorry to keep you waiting,” he actually smiled as he made a 'shooing' motion for the aide to be on his way. “What's that? No, no. I've
just been looking at that in fact. I think it's an obvious result of Climate Change. We're simply going to have to get control of...”
Ten minutes later the aide was on his way out of the White House. The ship was sinking. He wasn't going down with it.
-
Everyone had enjoyed their evening. After going to the range in the dark the kids were able to shoot the 'cool toy' with the night gear. Janice had passed on shooting, but got a kick out of the goggles and watched as the rest participated.
Then it was back to the cabin where Lainie made them all hot chocolate as they sat and talked about the day, and about what was coming. Around midnight, the Aurora Borealis still lighting the night sky, everyone headed home, Abby giving Janice a ride on her four-wheeler. The morning would come early as there was much work to be done before evening.
All of the traveling Sanders had made it in, though not all at the same time. The farm buttoned up for the night.
Morning saw Angela Sanders creating a huge breakfast for her family, even humming as she did so. While there was much to fear, there was also much to be thankful for, and she was a 'half-full' kind of person. Most of the time anyway.
Alicia, then Abby and finally Patricia showed up and threw in helping, as Lainie did when she and Clay arrived. Leon came down with Janice helping him and Brick following. Today was an all hands kind of day.
Clay floated his idea at the breakfast table to immediate objections.
“I thought you said we couldn't tell anyone!” Robert was first.
“If we're telling your friends, we're telling mine!” Alicia was second.
“If I could just get a word in here,” Gordon's voice cut in, “this isn't about telling 'friends'. It's about maybe helping protect at least some of the emergency vehicles that might make the county safer. And getting some much needed good will from those same peace officer along the way,” he added. “I don't know that we should do it, but it's a far cry from telling our 'friends' and exposing ourselves without caution or need.”
The talk calmed but didn't cease.
“I don't see how you can talk about warning some people and not all,” Robert complained again.
