Last Light (7 page)

She went to Doug’s side of the bed, grabbed his pillow, and hugged it against her stomach. “Please, God, let them be all right. Help them get home.”

As she prayed, she started to cry. The frustrations of the day avalanched upon her, but she tried to rein in her emotions. She had so much to be thankful for. Three of her children were with her, safe and in their home. So what if they didn’t have lights?

What if Jeff had been out of town at an away game? What if Beth had been at the mall? What if Logan had been on a Boy Scout camping trip?

Oh, but where were Doug and Deni?

She sat down on her bed, praying that they were safe and would soon make their way home. Then she prayed this event would be short-lived.

Finally, she asked God to give her the strength to handle whatever lay before her. She felt certain she was going to need it.

six

That dark road leading up to their neighborhood seemed three times longer than Deni remembered—the longest stretch yet of their walk home. The heat had finally lifted as night set in, but she would have killed for a glass of cold water or a meal.

Neither she nor her father had spoken much for the last hour or so. Their minds were set on getting home, and all of their concentration went into meeting that goal.

Most of the hikers glutting the interstate had gone another way when Deni and Doug passed through Crockett and turned toward home. Only a few walkers trudged down this country road—and none spoke, probably for fear they’d be mugged or attacked in the oppressive darkness. Deni was glad her father was at her side, even if he
had
handed their bike over to that thug.

As they made that last stretch home, Deni thought about the absurdity of the day’s events. She was willing to bet this had happened because some technology that might have prevented it—whatever
it
was—had been put on some Southern politician’s back burner. Everyone would find out it could easily have been prevented, probably
had
been prevented in other states that kept up technologically.

That was why she was dead-set on starting her new life on the East Coast, where everything was cutting edge and state of the art. But she couldn’t say that to her dad. He took things so personally. He’d rattle on about how she needed to appreciate her home and realize that it was as advanced as any other place in the country. Then he’d launch into a list of medical advances coming from the Deep South, technology invented by those who lived here, and she’d wind up wishing she’d never even brought it up.

She picked up her step as they got closer to the entrance of Oak Hollow. “I can’t believe we’re here.”

“Finally.” Her father’s one-word statement came out on a breath of relief as they turned into the neighborhood.

Deni saw it with new eyes. She had never come here on foot before, and whenever she’d driven here at night, the road approaching it had been illuminated with streetlights. Lights in the windows of the homes always gave the sense that families lived here and were busy inside those houses. Now, with all the lights out, it looked like a ghost town, and gave her an unwelcoming sense of trepidation.

“I hope Mom has something to eat.”

“I hope she’s here,” Doug said.

That thought worked its way into her soul. Wherever her mom had been when the power went out, she couldn’t possibly have been farther than Deni and Doug. Surely she was home.

The garage door was closed, so Deni couldn’t tell if the car was here. They went to the front door and knocked on the mahogany.

Finally, the door flew open. “Oh, thank God!”

Her mother threw her arms around her dad, almost knocking him down, then grabbed Deni and pulled her into a hug. “I thought your plane might have crashed. Oh, you’re all right!”

Deni wasn’t in the mood for hugs. “I need to sit down. We’ve walked sixteen miles.”

“Not all the way,” Doug said. “We rode part of the way on a bike; otherwise it would have been even later before we got home.”

“Yeah. Some jerk fought with Dad over our bike, and Dad lost.”

“Fought with you?” She looked him over. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds.”

They went into the great room as her father gave a weary recounting of all that had happened. The living room was lit by candles and a kerosene lamp that cast a warm glow on the room. Deni had never been so glad to be home in her life.

“Hey, they made it!” Jeff leaped off the staircase, looking genuinely glad to see her, and she heard Logan and Beth pounding down the stairs.

“Dad! Deni!”

Another round of hugs, then Deni dropped down on the sofa and examined her scraped elbows. “I can’t wait to get a bath.”

“No baths,” Beth said. “Water’s out.”

Deni looked up at her sister. “What? Why?”

“We don’t know why,” Kay said. “I guess maybe the treatment plant has no power, so the water couldn’t be pumped.”

“That’s just great. I trekked sixteen miles home. A stupid bath is not too much to ask for!”

The two boys from next door followed her sister and brother into the great room. They looked disappointed when they saw her.

“Did you see my mom or dad?” Jeremy asked.

Deni shook her head. “No, sorry. There were millions of people walking home on the interstate. Your folks are probably on their way.”

But her optimism did nothing to change the worry and fear on their faces.

Doug went to his favorite recliner, kicked off his shoes, and pulled the footrest up. Kay ran into the kitchen and brought back two lukewarm Sprites. She handed one to him, the other to Deni. “Nothing works, Doug. Nothing. Not even radios. The flashlights work, but we don’t have extra batteries, so I’m afraid to use them for long.”

Doug wished he’d thought of grabbing batteries at Wal-Mart, but he’d only been focused on the bike. He took a long sip, then laid his head back.

“Daddy, are we at war?”

Beth’s question surprised him.

All faces turned to him, and he realized he was going to have to pull something out of his hat. “No, I don’t think so. It’s probably no big deal. Doesn’t look like anyone was hurt except for the people in those planes. We still have our house, and we’re all home. I’d say we’re blessed.”

“Do you think the power will come back on soon?” Kay asked.

He bottomed his Sprite, then set the can down on the table. “I’m not gonna lie to you guys. I think it could be off for a while. If it was just the electricity, it would be one thing. But with the cars failing, the planes, the phones, even the water . . . I’m afraid this could go on for several days at least. We need to just brace ourselves for that.”

“No way!” Logan cried. “I can’t
stand
this. There’s nothing to do. I
hate
it!”

“You’ll live.”

“Yeah,” Deni said. “Not like you had to walk sixteen miles.”

Logan threw himself dramatically on the sofa. “I can’t take any more of this. It’s the worst day of my entire life.”

Doug met Kay’s eyes in semi-amusement. “What about that time you fell out of the tree and broke your arm?”

“At least I wasn’t bored. When I got home I still had my computer and TV. I could talk to my friends.”

Doug didn’t want to hear it. “You have two friends over right now. Go play with them and stop whining.”

“In the dark? We can’t see anything.”

“You have candles. Get a board game or something.”

As the boys left the room, Doug looked up at Kay. “Is there anything to eat?”

“I have sandwiches and chips. Just stay right there and I’ll bring you a plate.”

Kay seemed to beam with contentment as she hurried out of the room. It was nice to know she was so glad to see him.

How bad could things be, now that the whole family was together?

seven

Judith came a little while later to gather her children, and cried as she kissed their faces. Still wearing her nursing scrubs, she told of a twelve-car pileup she’d been caught in on the interstate when the power died. She had walked home, worried sick about her children, and was grateful to see that they’d been safe and cared for.

When the Caldwells were gone, Kay found Doug in the garage with Jeff. They were kneeling on the floor, examining the generator.

“Did you find some oil?” Kay asked.

“Yeah, I had some. But it hardly mattered.” Doug’s voice was dull. “It doesn’t work, either.”

“What? I thought generators
always
worked in power outages.”

“Not this one. We started it up, and after a couple of seconds, it died, just like everything else.”

“What?” She stepped closer and saw that they had taken the housing off of the generator. Jeff held the flashlight as Doug worked. “Dad, do you even know what you’re looking at?”

“No, I don’t.” Frustration rippled in his tone. “But I thought maybe I could see something that would give us a clue why it isn’t working. Some common denominator that would make all these things go out.”

Kay stooped down behind them. “Do you?”

He was quiet for a moment as he probed with his screwdriver, studying the wiring and the motor. Finally, he threw the screwdriver down and sat back on the concrete floor. “No. I’m a stockbroker, not an electrician.”

Kay started to rub his shoulders. They were so tense . . . his head and neck had to be aching. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, honey. Even the electricians are probably baffled tonight. Why don’t we all just go to bed? Maybe by morning it’ll all be over.”

He rolled his head back as she managed to relax his muscles. “That’s just it, Kay. I don’t think it will be over by morning. This looks to me like something that might last awhile.”

She stopped rubbing and moved around him so she could see into his face. “What would make you think that?”

He took the light from Jeff. “An EMP would irreversibly damage electronic equipment. So if that’s what happened, it’s not likely that things will be up and running again right away. But it doesn’t seem to
be
that. An EMP shouldn’t knock out a generator, should it?” He shook his head. “Whatever is causing this might have done even more damage than an EMP. Which means the outage could last a lot longer than we think.”

“No way!” Jeff said.

Kay stared at her husband. “Doug, you can’t be serious.”

“I hope I’m wrong,” he said. “But strange things can happen in the atmosphere. I remember reading about something like this happening in the late eighties after a geomagnetic storm on the sun. Solar flares shut down Tibet and caused a massive blackout in Canada. Power transformers overheated because of the solar activity.”

Kay frowned. “Then it could be some kind of solar event? Something in space?”

“It could be,” Jeff said, eyes rounding. “I mean, if you think about it, what do scientists really know about the stuff out in space? I heard that the space station has been dumping its garbage out for years, and it’s just floating around in outer space. Who knows what that could mean to the balance of the universe?”

Doug shone the light on Jeff’s excited face. “Orbital debris didn’t do this, Son.”

“Dad,
something
caused this.”

Doug got up and dusted his shorts off. “Yeah, but only God knows what it was. Let’s go back inside.”

They followed him in, and as they stepped into the light of the kerosene lamp, Kay saw the fatigue casting shadows on her husband’s face, making him look much older than he was. “We need to plan for the long term just in case. And if I’m wrong, great. The lights will come back on, and our cars will start, and everything will go back to normal. But if I’m right, and this thing lasts for days or weeks—”

“That can’t happen, Doug. We’re not prepared!”

“No one is. But we have to think realistically. We need to ration our food. Eat the frozen stuff tomorrow after it thaws, then make the pantry stuff last as long as we can. We have a little charcoal. We can cook the meat out on the grill.”

Kay opened the pantry, let her eyes sweep over the contents. She’d needed to go to the grocery store for the last few days, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Why hadn’t she made the time?