EMP Crash (Book 1): Crash (An EMP Survival Story) Page 8

  “This bunker had good people, people who could have worked together to rebuild society, but these others, they don't want this, they never wanted it. All they wanted is what they've wanted for the longest time, to tear down everything and start again. You were right, Grace; people don't want to work together. They just want to destroy everything. Look at this, all these people, they're dead now, and for what? A few guns, some water, some food. You take away society and we just crumble. Is this what's waiting for us out there? And who knows what's going on in the city! They don't know. Nobody knows a thing. How many others have died because of this? How many more are going to?”

  “Probably lots,” Grace said in an even tone, walking toward Mack. He stopped and stared at her.

  “This is the world we live in now. It's changed, and we have to adapt as well. But Mack, there were bad people before the EMP. People still died then. That hasn't changed. And as long as there are people like you there's still hope in the world.”

  A smile flickered on Mack's face. “You've changed your tune,” he said.

  “I have, because I've spent time with you,” Grace said, and the two of them shared a warm smile. Then, Luis moved forward.

  “I hate to interrupt you guys, but what are we going to do now? I mean, the whole plan was to come here, but there isn't anything here.”

  Grace and Mack looked at each other, then back at Luis. “We survive,” Mack said, and as he walked out of the bunker a new dawn was breaking.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE WORLD as we know it has ended and a new one has begun, one without laws. An EMP knocked out all the electrical devices across America, and perhaps even the world. Thomas 'Mack' Mackenzie, Grace Everly, and Luis Gonzalez already have been through a lot, even though they've only just found each other. Having rescued Luis from a crazed family, the three of them traveled to a military bunker in the hopes of rebuilding some sense of order, only to find the bunker had been attacked before they arrived. There were no signs of who had attacked it. The place was littered with corpses and had been stripped of anything worthwhile. The three of them now had to plan their next moves.

  They only had oil lanterns to illuminate the bunker, and this gave the place a dingy feel. After they had searched the place they spent time dragging the bodies out and covering them in some tarpaulin and rocks they had found. It was a grim task and already Mack had seen too many people die in this apocalypse. It also made him feel guilty that he couldn't bury any of the bodies, as it would have taken too much effort and time to dig a big enough grave. His mind turned to the bodies that he and Grace had left after the plane crash, which would have been rotting by now. He pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing this whole thing never had happened.

  After that, the three of them decided to stay in the bunker for a day or so while they planned their next move. Their plan had been to get to the bunker and see if the military personnel had any information about what had happened, but the only records left weren't helpful. The only plan the small group had at the moment was to survive. Mack knew the two younger people were looking to him for leadership, but he never had thought he would be in this type of situation. However, there was a grimly ironic thread in that he saw himself almost as a father to the two of them, especially Grace, even if she still technically was his prisoner. If the EMP hadn't hit and life had carried on as normal he and Anna, his wife, would have been trying to bring a new life into this world.

  But now the thought of a baby being introduced to this wasteland of a country made Mack feel nauseous. He couldn't imagine how dangerous it was, or how a fragile, vulnerable thing like a baby could make it through these days. It was difficult enough for him, and he had been in the army for a little over two decades.

  “You know, I always imagined different apocalypse scenarios but I never thought it actually would happen, and I didn't think it would be like this,” Luis said. He was sitting on a chair with his legs resting on the desk, staring up at the ceiling. Grace was at another table, but she was slouching forward across a keyboard, almost as though she was hugging it.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Well, I always thought it would be something like zombies or aliens attacking.”

  “Is this not exciting enough for you?”

  “It's not that. I just never thought that, with all our technology, we would not see it coming, that there would not be some sign so that we could prepare.”

  “Humans are arrogant and we always think we know what's going on. You really think things would be different anyway? Look at climate change. We had ample time to prepare for that, but it was still a struggle for anyone to get things done. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. This has been waiting to happen ever since World War Two. When the atom bomb was invented that was the tipping point. Suddenly it was possible to wipe out people on a large scale just by pressing a simple little button.” She tapped the return key on the keyboard, almost in hope that it would magically do something, but the screen in front of her was still blank and only her reflection stared back at her.

  “And it's a miracle we lasted as long as we did, but at the end of the day you can't change human nature. There's a destructive force inside us that always is going to be there, no matter how much we fight it. Just be glad that it was an EMP and not a massive nuclear event, otherwise we wouldn't be here having this conversation.”

  “It's strange to think we can't even know what's going on in the nearest city to us, when we used to be able to know what was happening on the other side of the world.”

  “I know, it's killing me. Computers were my life. I used to be connected to the internet 24/7 and now I feel like I don't know what to do with myself. It almost feels like I've lost two worlds, the internet and the real one.”

  “Which one do you regret losing more?” Luis asked, looking at her with a crooked smile.

  “I'm not sure yet,” Grace said, still reluctant to open up to him fully.

  The only person with whom she had built a relationship was Mack, but old habits were difficult to break. She had spent her life not trusting people and keeping her distance, and those walls were being kept up against Luis' eager charm.

  “Is the internet still there? I mean, all the information on it? Like, if we got everything working again would it still be there or has everything been lost?”

  Grace pushed herself up and exhaled deeply as she sat back in her chair. She pursed her lips. “Well, that's a good question. Basically, everything is still there, but since nothing works we can't access it. So, for all intents and purposes, it has been destroyed. If we could get replacement components then we could access it, but it's looking as though we would have to build them from scratch. Building them also requires electricity. So, we're basically screwed. The only other way is if somebody had a Faraday cage.”

  “What's that?” Luis said, a blank look on his face.

  Grace swiveled on her chair and hooked her legs up beneath her as she explained a Faraday cage to Luis. Mack looked on with something akin to pride as he watched Grace actually engage with someone, presumably because this was her area of expertise. Since this all began Grace had been feeling a little lost, so it was good to see her becoming passionate about something again. Mack was leaning against the bunker wall, staying out of the way as he didn't want to interrupt their conversation just yet.

  “It's pretty simple, actually. It's literally a cage of metal that is grounded in the Earth, and it shields electromagnetic interference.”

  “Surely there must have been a lot of these around if they were so easy to make?”

  Grace shrugged. “Like I said, humans are arrogant. I can imagine that a few paranoid preppers probably have them but the government? Not likely. They never took cyber security seriously.”

  Then Grace caught herself before she said anymore. So far she only had told Luis that she worked with computers and that it had been by chance that she had been sitting next to Mack when the plane went down.
In reality she had been his prisoner, and in another life she had been known as C1PH3R, a hacker responsible for a number of attacks on the government and big corporations.

  “But if you want to know something interesting,” she said quickly, before Luis could ask her how she knew so much about the state of government security, “the satellites that transmit all the information are still up there. If it wasn't a solar wind and the EMP was caused by bombs being detonated, it wouldn't have affected them since they're too high up. So they're still floating around up there, and I guess they will do that until they eventually fall out of orbit.”

  “Wait,” Mack said, stepping forward, “you mean the things we put in space still are functioning?”

  “Yeah, why?” Grace said, instantly turning her head toward him.

  Luis took his feet off the desk and folded his arms, disappointed that his time alone with Grace was at an end. It was never possible to forget there were three of them in that bunker, or that Grace responded to Mack in a way that Luis yearned for.

  “The space station! The men up there must still be alive,” Mack said, planting his hands on the table in front of Grace.

  “But there's no way to get to them. I wonder if they even know what's happening down here...” Grace said.

  “You said the stuff in space wasn't affected. So if they returned to Earth, their equipment still would be working?” Mack asked.

  “Well, yeah, but from what I understand the station never was built to land on Earth. They'd have to leave in a pod and they wouldn't be able to carry much. Even if they did, it still would be a hell of a lot of work to retrofit the equipment in that pod to be of any use to us, and that's if they actually made it back to Earth. Without anyone to guide them in it'd be a difficult task. Not to mention the problem of who they first would run into. Some people may not welcome the arrival of a man from space.”

  Mack snapped his fingers and turned away.

  “I'm sorry,” Grace added.

  “No, don't be. I just thought for a moment that there might be some glimmer of hope.”

  “I feel bad for them, though,” Luis said, tilting his head up to the ceiling. “They're up there all alone, completely cut off. At least we are able to meet new people, even if most of them are crazy.”

  “We can't think like that,” Mack said.

  “People are still people. There are good ones and bad ones. Deep down we're all human and as a species we've survived for thousands of years. We can make it through this as long as we hold onto what makes us human in the first place, our sense of reasoning, our compassion, our intelligence.”

  “Tell that to the people who shot up this place,” Luis said. Mack ran his hand along his scratchy beard.

  “We need to talk about our next move. Obviously we can't stay here, as much as I'd like to,” Mack said.

  “You think those people will be back?” Luis asked.

  “Possibly. I'm more worried about the fact that water and food would run out. It's still a ways to the river, and I wouldn't want to make that trek every day. And I still haven't seen much wildlife around to hunt. We have to move forward.”

  “We should stay off the grid, though,” Grace said, and Luis nodded.

  “Stay away from the main areas of population. We've already seen two examples of what's waiting for us out there, and you read the reports. Soldiers went into the city and didn't come back again. What does that tell you? It's probably a war zone in there. We should stay to the back roads, try finding some place that's been abandoned and settle down. Kathryn and her lot had the right idea. Stay out of people's way, grow vegetables, live off the land. That's what we're going to have to do to stay safe.”

  “I can't accept that. We should go to the city and see if anyone has set up a relief center. There are any number of reasons why those soldiers never returned, and I don't think we always should leap to the worst case scenario. We're going to be in danger in the wilderness as well, and we may never find this abandoned place. At least we know the city is there, and there must be people who are willing to work together.”

  “Maybe we'll have to split up,” Luis said. Mack and Grace both said 'no' at the same time, and smiled.

  “Look, we all have been through a lot and we probably could do with some rest. We don't have to decide our next move just yet. Let's take some time and get some sleep, and we'll talk about it more tomorrow.”

  That sounded good to Grace and Luis, so the three of them arranged themselves in the bunks. While they weren't the comfiest beds (the mattresses were hard and lumpy) it was better than sleeping on the floor. Grace and Luis pulled the covers over themselves, but Mack stayed up and pulled a pen and a sheet of paper off the desk.

  Dear Anna,

  I don't know why I'm writing you this when you're probably never going to see it. Hell, I don't even know if you're still alive. I guess I just need to get a few things off my chest. The world has ended and I'm here with two people who need me to lead them. I thought that part of my life was going to be over. Guess it's like you always said, once in the military, always in the military. They're good kids, but it's hard being the one they always turn to. I don't know what it's like out there. I'm trying to believe in the best of humanity and the best of me, but I'm worried that I'm just going to lead us all to our deaths, that I'm going to make the wrong call. I guess this is what it's like to be a parent, always worrying.

  The worst thing is going through all this without you. I thought I was going to die when the plane went down. In some ways I wish I had. Living without you is the worst fate I could imagine. There are so many things I would have done differently if I had known this was going to happen. I spent far too much time away from you. Never again. If I ever find you I will never let you go. I wish you were here to keep me on the straight and narrow. You'd like Grace. She reminds me of you a little bit. She's smart, real smart, she just lacks a little direction. I don't think she's had that many people give a damn about her in her life. And Luis, well, I don't know him all that well yet, but he seems like a good kid, and he's taken a shine to Grace already. Good luck to him there, he's going to need it to get through all the walls she's put up.

  We've had a few adventures already. I'm not going to get into them here. The world has gone to hell, though. I'm worried about the future. How can we go on living like this? Being scared of a new day? I hope it's better where you are and that you're keeping safe. I hope that you've found good people to stick with. We're all going to need them if we're going to make it through this. I still have that picture of you, the one that you always hated. You just get more beautiful every night. I'm going to make it back to you. I don't know how long it's going to take, but I will see you again, that much I swear.

  I guess that's all I've got to say for right now.

  Love,

  Your Mack

  “What are you doing?” Grace said, her words interrupted by a yawn. Mack looked startled and put the pen down.

  “I'm writing a letter to my wife. I know I'll probably never get to give it to her, but it helps me to feel connected to her. I guess being a hacker you've never written a letter in your life.”

  Grace hit him playfully. “I know what a letter is. That's really sweet,” she said, then a strange look came over her face.

  “Is everything okay?” Mack asked, concern creeping into his voice.

  Grace nodded. “Yeah, I just was thinking about all the people I used to talk with online, my hacking group. We would spend hours just chatting and playing games and stuff.” Her eyes looked into the distance.

  “I'd better get back to bed. I'll leave you to it,” she said, and walked away. Mack got the feeling she was keeping something from him, and that perhaps there was one hacker in particular that Grace missed.

  He sighed as he folded the letter and put it in his pack. There were still a great many adjustments the three of them had to make to this new world. As he crawled into his bunk he stared into the darkness and thought about all of hi
s friends he'd never get to see again. Although, in truth, his friendships had suffered in recent years because he'd been so busy with his job. When he wasn't working, he was with Anna, and all his other friends had their own families to worry about. He'd told himself it was just a symptom of getting older, and that it happened to everyone, but deep down he knew it wasn't true. The plain fact of the matter was that neither he nor his friends had put in the effort to see each other. They always had assumed there would be another day for it. Yet now all their days had run out, and the funny thing was, Mack felt closer to Grace than he had to anyone else, aside from Anna, in years.

  He pulled out the photo of Anna and held it up so it captured some of the dim light of the lantern. Then he kissed it and held it to his chest as he curled up and tried to forget about the apocalypse and all the dead bodies that littered the world around him. Soon enough the comforting arms of sleep had encircled them all, and for about eight hours they were able to rest comfortably, before another day would bring with it its own trials and tribulations.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  MACK WAS the first to awake, and since they were in a bunker he was not aware of the time. He rubbed his eyes and pulled himself out of the bunk, still holding the picture of Anna close to him. He went over to his pack and put the picture back into one of the pouches, then walked to the entrance of the bunker and opened the door. The bunker's air was stale and stagnant. The body odor of the soldiers that had lived there hung in the air, and now was accompanied by the smell of blood that stained the walls. The morning air was fresh and a welcome relief, although even it, too, was tainted by the events that had transpired as the dead bodies were close by, and the stench of death traveled on the air. Mack knew they couldn't stay at the bunker for too much longer as the corpses would begin decomposing and the last thing they needed was for one of them to get an infection.