The Blackout Series (Book 2): Zero Hour Read online

A couple of other neighbors joined in while others stood off in the distance, doing nothing. It took thirty minutes for Colton and his neighbors to put out the flames. Sadly, through it all, the O’Malleys lay on their front lawn, dead and forgotten. Colton retrieved a tarp and some cinder blocks from their backyard. He would come back in the morning to bury them—the first of several he would bury in the coming days.

  Chapter 2

  DAY ONE

  12:30 a.m., September 9

  Ryman Residence

  Belle Meade, Tennessee

  Colton collapsed in the lawn chair and stared at the wondrous sky. How could something so amazing and beautiful wreak havoc like this? Madison brought him a Red Bull. He smiled up at her and gently reached for her hand.

  “Do you think I need the caffeine?” he asked as he popped the top.

  “No, love. Just considered it a reward for a job well done. There aren’t many of these left, you know.”

  Colton relaxed somewhat and studied Alex as she retrieved a couple more citronella candles to provide some protection against the mosquitos. The aurora created was so bright, Colton could make out the words on his Red Bull can. He expected the northern lights would last for days.

  Alex joined her parents and sat in the chair next to them, letting out a sigh.

  “I was right,” said Alex.

  She stared upward and took it all in. She had been a real soldier as a member of the fire brigade. Her maturity amazed Colton.

  “Yes, you were,” replied Madison as she continued to admire the aurora.

  The Rymans shared the details of their day with one another into the early hours of the morning. As Colton learned of their exploits, he was astonished at the strength and determination of the Ryman women. Any concerns about their ability or desire to survive he might have entertained on the long drive from Dallas were set aside. They’d both be assets in the struggles the family faced in the coming days and weeks.

  After they’d talked, Colton needed to speak to Madison about Alex and their uncertain future. Alex was mature for her age, but some matters needed to be discussed between parents before bringing their child into the conversation.

  “It’s getting late, guys, and I have a few things to do like unload the Suburban and make sure we’re secure for the evening,” started Colton. He stood up and stretched his legs, rolling his shoulders to work out the stiffness. Between the full-day car ride, the slide down the hill, and the all-hands-on-deck fire brigade, his nearly forty body was feeling the effects already. Colton regretted not being in better shape. He was not an ex-military action hero or a mild-mannered salesman turned Rambo. He would have to adapt, and quickly.

  “We’re gonna need to sleep in shifts. Until they can restore power, we’ll have to keep a vigilant eye. After the things we experienced today, our safety is the first order of business.”

  “Daddy, the power’s not coming back on,” interrupted Alex. “It may be like this for years.”

  “We don’t know that, honey,” interjected Madison. “I’m sure the government has a plan for something like this. Surely they anticipated—”

  “No, Mom, they don’t have a plan. They were warned. They’ve known for longer than I’ve been alive that this could happen. The government didn’t want to spend the money. They’re stupid.”

  “Okay, okay,” said Colton, stopping the conversation as he settled back into his chair. “We can talk about the whys and wherefores more tomorrow. For now, the most important thing is sleeping in shifts. Alex, you’re first to get some shut-eye. Come give me a kiss, and hit the hay.”

  “All right, Daddy.” She succumbed to her father’s orders. She leaned down and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I love you. I love you too, Mom.” She gave Madison a hug and entered the dark living room through the French doors. A loud clang, followed by an oh crap, indicated Alex had stumbled over Madison’s Faraday cages in the living room.

  Colton chuckled. “She’ll be all right. This powerless world will take some gettin’ used to.”

  Madison was quiet for a moment, which concerned Colton. As the neighbors hustled to put out the fire, Madison had viewed the scene across the street. She had stared at the O’Malleys’ charred remains for several minutes until Colton could cover them. He was concerned about Madison’s emotional detachment. Colton and his wife had overcome hurdles in the past, but nobody in America had ever faced the prospect of losing all of their modern conveniences as they were thrust back into the nineteenth century.

  “Maddie, what’re you thinking?” asked Colton, trying to bring her out of her shell.

  Madison let out a deep breath and asked, “What do you really think all of this means?”

  Colton looked up as a flickering candle in Alex’s bedroom window caught his eye. He glanced around their backyard and realized no other homes were in view, but he made a mental note to talk with the girls about avoiding light in the evening hours. He didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to their home from passersby.

  Colton reached for his wife’s hand and held it. It was clammy and sweaty. He quickly realized Madison was wrought with anxiety. He needed to reassure her while not giving her a false sense of hope. If she was experiencing the first stages of shock or depression, Colton would have to tread lightly.

  “I listened to news reports all the way home today,” started Colton. “There were experts from all across the spectrum, including scientists, politicians, and even survivalists. Maddie, you know how the news sensationalizes things. They create this huge dramatic situation so you’ll stay glued to their network. The bigger the crisis, the fatter the ratings.”

  “I know, I saw it too,” said Madison. “When Alex first brought this to my attention, I disregarded the threat and passed it off as a teenager’s fabricated drama. But as I learned more, I came to the realization the threat is real. I wish I’d done more.” She began to cry, squeezing his hand tighter.

  Colton sat up onto the edge of the lawn chair and faced his distraught wife. He rubbed her arm and shoulders and tried to calm her.

  “Honey, what you and Alex did for this family today will probably save our lives. I am so proud of you.” He gently wiped her tears from her bruised face.

  “I could’ve done more.” She sobbed.

  Colton let out a nervous laugh. “Like what? Cleaning out the grocery store single-handedly wasn’t enough? You ran over a KIA, for the love of Pete!”

  Madison stopped sobbing, but the tears still streamed as she laughed. Colton kissed her cheek and wiped her tears once again.

  “You know what I mean,” she said.

  “Listen to me, darling. Our family is safe, and we’re together at home, as it should be. I don’t know what we’ll face, exactly, but we’ll face it together.”

  Madison nodded. “I’m okay. I feel better.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yes, promise,” she replied. “Now, seriously, I’ll hitch up my big-girl panties and do what I have to do. Oddly, I didn’t hesitate today when it was just Alex and me. Now that you’re home, as weird as it sounds, I feel like I’ve turned over the job of protector to you. Now look at me. I’m a ball of blubbering mush.” They both started laughing.

  “Very funny,” said Colton. “I’m trying to visualize blubbering mush, and it ain’t you, love.”

  Madison nodded and sat up in her chair. She finished off Colton’s Red Bull and smiled. “Okay, seriously. Gimme the straight poop. Don’t sugarcoat it, ’cause I’ll know. We’ve got our work cut out, don’t we?”

  Colton relaxed considerably. This was the Madison he married and who he counted on as an equal member of Team Ryman. He decided to give her his relatively uninformed opinion.

  “If the blackout lasts longer than a few days, the vast majority of the population will be ill-equipped to deal with the shock to their normal modern-day lives. They won’t have water or sufficient food to last long. Mentally, most people are weak. They’re not self-reliant. The unprepared will look to the governm
ent for help, and when that doesn’t materialize, they’ll look around, seeking the next best alternative.”

  “People like us,” added Madison.

  “Exactly. I feel bad that I never anticipated anything of this magnitude. The warning signs were there. Heck, our country has been threatened by a nuclear EMP attack from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran daily. I guess I just never thought it could happen to us.”

  “Don’t feel bad,” said Madison. “I’m at home all day, usually with the news playing in the background. I was aware, probably more so than you. I chose to ignore the warnings.”

  Colton stood up to stretch again and walked around the perimeter of their pool. He peered through the trees to see if he could see any evidence of light in other homes. The homes were pitch black.

  “Our world is much smaller now,” started Colton. “In the past, we were capable of flying at high speeds from point A to point B. There were no boundaries, including the ability to travel through space. Now, streets, neighborhoods, and towns are our universe. For most people, their world will only be as big as they’re capable of reaching on foot or a bicycle.”

  “What happens when this reality sets in?” asked Madison.

  “For a couple of days, our neighbors will hold out hope for a rescue, so to speak,” started Colton. “We’ll know more about their attitudes as we begin to interact with them over the coming days. These will be difficult times because people won’t know where to turn.”

  Colton pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and showed it to Madison. He tried to power it on, but it was dead.

  “I get it,” she said. “People crave information, and they won’t have a means to get it. They’re used to picking up the phone and calling the police or the air-conditioning repairman or a doctor or whatever. All of that is gone now.”

  “Well, especially the police part,” said Colton. “This was the reason I wanted Alex to go to bed. Madison, our fellow man is the most dangerous living creature on the planet. My grandfather taught me to never underestimate the depravity of man. I believe evil will be on full display.”

  Madison rose to join him. She gave him a hug and reassuring smile. He was amazed how well she knew him. Colton was genuinely concerned about their ability to protect themselves. It was just the three of them.

  He continued. “Granddaddy used to talk about his days in World War Two. He said in any survival situation, think about what can most likely kill you and protect against that first. Mark that off your checklist, and then consider the next threat, and so on.”

  “Makes sense,” said Madison. “Have you thought about it?”

  “I have,” he replied. “Human nature encouraged me to rush around here in a panic, trying to protect our home all at once. We need to think this through logically because our supplies and resources are limited. We have to secure our home first, and that will be the first order of business tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” said Madison. “I have some things I picked up today that will be useful.”

  Early in the day, Colton came to the realization that an America without power was no different than a third world country. A new range of threats would become a part of their everyday lives.

  “Great,” started Colton. He picked up the leaf skimmer for the pool and stirred the stagnant water. “Water is life. If we become dehydrated, we’ll die. If we drink unpurified water, we’ll get dysentery, which will cause diarrhea and nausea. This will exacerbate the dehydration process, and we’ll die sooner.”

  “Nicely put.” Madison laughed.

  “Thanks,” said Colton. “You said don’t hold back.”

  “Yeah, well, I thought about that today too,” said Madison proudly. “Our fresh water is pumped to us from Metro’s water plants. If the power is out, the pumps won’t work. I bought a few things at the sporting goods store that will help, but I don’t know for how long.”

  “In addition to dysentery, starvation kills people in undeveloped nations as well,” added Colton. “Our bodies will break down without proper nutrition. We’ll need the energy to defend ourselves from others.”

  Madison approached him and patted his slightly enlarging, soft, middle-aged belly. “I’ve got you covered there too, husband. You’ll be glad I ran over the KIA.”

  Colton sat on the retaining wall holding up the hill behind their home. He still wore his suit pants, complete with bloody holes in the knees and newly introduced grass stains. He repeated his grandfather’s words. “Never underestimate the depravity of man. We have to try to stay under the radar. Our best defense is to avoid the fight altogether. If we lie low and don’t draw attention to ourselves, maybe we can avoid conflicts.”

  Madison sat next to him and put her arm around his waist. “I guess it all depends on what is going on around us. Tomorrow, we’ll figure it out.”

  “Yup,” said Colton. “Please go get some rest. I need to unpack your truck and store that stuff out of sight, and honestly, I need to enjoy this quiet time to think all of this through. Cool?”

  “Cool,” replied Madison. “I’m so glad you’re home safe. I don’t care about what’s ahead. I’m thankful for what I have right at this moment.”

  “I love you, Maddie,” said Colton as he kissed his wife good night.

  Chapter 3

  DAY ONE

  3:00 a.m., September 9

  ALMA

  Atacama, Chile

  Dr. Andrea Stanford sat alone in front of the triple-panel monitors vacated by her associate Deb Daniels. Daniels, like several other members of the JAO Team, was sent home to seek shelter during the second incoming G5 geomagnetic storm. Only her assistant Jose and a skeleton maintenance crew remained.

  Over the past several decades, Earth’s ozone layer in the atmosphere, which provided a blanket of protection from the sun’s damaging rays, had been thinning. As a result, the sun’s radiation could reach the earth more easily, resulting in an increase in the incidence of skin cancers.

  Earth’s magnetosphere was under assault. The X58 solar flare punched the planet in the gut, and the trailing blast of heat energy from the coronal mass ejection knocked Mother Earth to her knees. Dr. Stanford rubbed her temples and studied the data. The knockout blow from the celestial body that gave us life wasn’t going to be a sucker punch. It wasn’t a left hook to the blind side. This second massive geomagnetic storm was going to hit the Earth square in the jaw at a time when its defensives were at its weakest.

  Although ALMA was located fairly close to the equator, which protected its equipment from the solar electromagnetic pulse, its eight-thousand-foot altitude and corresponding thin atmosphere resulted in a deadly combination for this second wave of ultraviolet radiation. The UV levels were twenty percent higher than at sea level, and when coupled with the proximity to the equator, the risk of permanent damage to the eyes, in the form of cataracts, and the skin, in the form of melanoma, was high.

  Dr. Stanford was exhausted. She’d just sent a message to NORAD at Cheyenne Mountain. The data was preliminary, but her conclusions were solid. A series of solar storms were likely to strike the planet forty-eight hours after the first one.

  NASA dubbed yesterday’s space weather event—both the X58-flare and the G5 geomagnetic storm—the Impactor. Impactor was the strongest solar storm known to man, easily surpassing the strength and intensity of the widely known Carrington Event of 1859.

  In 2014, a team of physicists studied the Carrington Event and every major solar storm since the early twentieth century. By extrapolating the frequency of ordinary solar storms and comparing the data to the instances of extreme storms, the physicists calculated the odds of a Carrington-level storm to be twelve percent.

  Having been born in Las Vegas, the gambling mecca of the world, Dr. Stanford knew those odds weren’t very good. But when you considered the devastating impact a geomagnetic storm of this magnitude would have on the earth’s critical infrastructure, the odds were actually high. It was a sobering figure.

  AR3
222 had erupted. It hadn’t just produced the largest coronal mass ejection on record, but another and another. Impactor was just the beginning. It plowed a road through space, allowing the solar winds to soar across the void unimpeded.

  AR3222 was alive, fertile, and spawning offspring. Impactor cleared the way for the stork to drop the babies to Earth—in a hurry.

  Chapter 4

  DAY ONE

  4:00 a.m., September 9

  Ryman Residence

  Belle Meade, Tennessee

  Colton fumbled his way through the darkness and found a change of clothes in the laundry room. He disposed of his ruined suit pants in the kitchen trash can. Exiting through the kitchen door allowed him to take a breath of fresh air, as the interior of the home was already filling up with stale hot air due to the lack of circulation from the HVAC system.

  This simple process, which he would take for granted on an ordinary day, immediately raised his awareness of how dire this situation was. Without power, how would they wash their clothes? Where would they dispose of garbage? How would they heat their home in the dead of winter? These were all everyday activities that, had he planned ahead, he could have prepared for.

  Instead of a large box of powdered laundry detergent, they would’ve purchased the liquid type, which was easily dissolved. Colton wished he had boxfuls of thick lawn and leaf bags for his garbage instead of the thin white kitchen style. A wood-burning fireplace would’ve been a much better option than the clean, energy-efficient natural gas burner he was convinced to install by the Piedmont Gas contractor.

  Work with what you’ve got, Colton’s dad would always say. With that in mind, he continued setting up their home for life with no electricity. As tempting as it was to scramble around in a frenzy and do everything before sunrise, Colton suppressed his adrenaline, stress, and fear to allow himself the opportunity to assess their home.

  He walked onto the sidewalk leading to their front door and stood in the midst of the red Double Knock Out roses. His lawn was impeccable, and its steep slope provided a deterrent to people or vehicles approaching from the street. He studied the driveway and decided to block it with the Suburban.