The End Boxset: Postapocalyptic Visions of an Unstoppable Collapse (8 page)

Brian threw the gun as far away from him that he could. “Do it yourself!” he shouted.

The man watched the gun fly into the brush like a dog watching its favorite ball.

“Let’s go,” Brian said to Tobias. Tobias eagerly nodded and the boys ran away, leaving the man to his sad and sorry state. “You should have kept the gun,” Tobias said. Brian didn’t respond.

“Get back here!” the man yelled from his squatted position.

The boys quickened their pace, ignoring him.

The man attempted to run after the boys, but instead turned to search for his gun. He ran into the brush, tossing branches and leaves to the side. His cries and moans became distant as the boys ran farther ahead.

Tobias looked to Brian. “Thanks for not shooting me.”

“Don’t mention it,” Brian answered staring ahead.

The boys slowed down from a run to a fast walk.

“We’re still going to make it home. Everything will be normal again.”

“I know,” Brian said. Tobias took the lead and the boys slowed down to a walking pace.

Tobias knew they didn’t have much longer to go. Or at least he thought. He was certain they would be home eventually. There wasn’t much said between the two for some time. Their movements were measured by the sound of dead leaves from below. They weren’t the only people in town trying to get somewhere. If Brian had known that his mother was only a few miles away, peddling down the street past bewildered drivers who no longer had functioning cars, they might have changed direction. But the day was still young and their trouble was far from over. At that moment, they had each other, even as everything started to collapse around them.

The End: Book Two

Chapter 1: Who Turned Out the Lights?

Wednesday four o'clock in the afternoon. It was almost rush hour in this Pittsburgh suburb. Today was an exception due to the unprecedented amount of inoperable vehicles filling the road. There was simply no explanation behind the freak occurrence. All cars just stopped working. One moment people were behind driving wheel, and then in the next moment, they weren't moving. On a moderately busy street outside a high school, there were around forty cars stalled along the road for miles. Some people, after becoming even more frustrated to discover their cell phones didn't work, fled the scene on foot. Other people conversed among themselves, or with other drivers, offering thoughts on the unexplained shutdown of their cars and phones.

From these conversations stemmed several wild theories involving some type of massive electrical glitch in the system or some foreign attack on our satellites. Maybe it was a radioactive element; some vapor that had been released in the air to destroy electrical systems. Considering all cars today ran on the very vulnerable electrical system prone to attack, this could have very well explained such a massive malfunctioning.

Alice believed that her Pittsburgh neighborhood had been hit with an EMP, or Electromagnetic pulse. But what that really meant for everyone, she wasn't sure. She had never considered the full ranging effects of an EMP before, or how such an attack could be implemented. Detonation could have been achieved through a nuclear blast, a dirty bomb, or a geomagnetic storm. For starters, Alice wasn't an expert, but she had done some reading on EMPs in the past. As she peddled her son's bicycle down the street a good ten miles from his school, she wished she had done more reading on the matter. Alice weaved between vehicles that were no longer functional and huddled groups of confused drivers along the road. Most people were too distracted to even take notice of her. However, she didn't like the look of one tired and frustrated man who was leaning on the hood of his car. Their eyes met in a quick glance where Alice looked away first. His expression seemed to ask,
How come you have a bike and I don't?

Concerns of EMP attack threats had gained steam over the years.  This rather familiar doomsday scenario was a certainty in her mind. It could have been behind the explosion she heard earlier that day. Hell, it could have
been
the explosion she heard. If this was true, then they country was indeed under attack. Her husband, Randall, at home, waited for her to return. Once their power went out, and Alice realized their car wouldn't start, she grabbed her son Brian's bicycle against Randall's wishes and rode off into town to get her children and bring them home. She had quite a few miles to go to reach both schools, and wasn't even sure of the logistics of going into separate schools, getting both children, and taking them back to the house, primarily on foot. This wasn't going to deter her mission, however. It was something she had to do.  

Brian and Tobias continued on foot throughout the woods. Their encounter with a crazy suicidal man who they unexpectedly came across had tired them. There wasn't much to do but walk, and now that they were deep into the woods, they had little option but to keep moving.

“Man, I'm thirsty,” Brian said.

Tobias, walking a few steps ahead, turned towards Brian. “Yeah, me too. We're almost there.”

“This sucks, we should have brought some water,” Brian said 

“We didn't have much time to go to the store if you remember,” Tobias said looking ahead.

“Whatever.”

“You're making this worse than it needs to be.”

“How much longer?”

“We should be coming to a clearing soon.”

“Miles? Feet? Yards?”

Tobias pointed ahead. “Just right ahead some.”

Brian began to suspect that Tobias might not be too sure himself. He could never get a straight answer out of him. It was getting darker by the minute. They were woefully unprepared to be in the woods after dark. They had no light source, they had no food, and Brian was starting to think that they were lost.

“It's getting dark, Tobias,” Brian said.

“What's that?” Tobias asked pointing ahead, “Look, over there. What is that?”

Brian squinted and tried to make out the foreign object ahead. Whatever it was, it was blue and concealed by trees. Tobias quickened his pace. Brian followed. As they grew closer, the figure revealed itself as a car. “Wow,” Tobias said, “This car must have been here forever.”

It was a junk car. Or the remains of a junk car. Mainly just the fame. There were no windows, tires, doors, or seats. The faded blue was nearly rusted to the core. There was no denying that the car had been there for ages, but the main question was: how? How did the car get in the woods?

Even with night time approaching and a questionable amount of distance remaining, the boys couldn't help but to take some time and examine the car. Tobias leaned in through the driver’s side and touched the vintage steering wheel. “Too bad this doesn't work, we could really use this now,” he said.

“You see any roads around here, genius?” Brian said as he circled the car observing the cracks, rust, and weeds sticking out from holes in the floorboards. It was interesting to look at, but Brian wanted to keep moving. His headache had worsened. “Okay, let's go,” he said, “I don't want to be sleeping tonight.”

“I should get a picture of this,” Tobias said. He reached into his pocket and pulled his cell phone out. “Shit, I forgot, my phone is dead.” He cradled the phone in his palm in disbelief, as if it was looking at a person who had deserted him. He put the phone back in his pocket, shrugged and started walking. Brian was glad they were moving again. He glanced back for one last look at the car. It was still there. It would probably always be there.

It was dusk, and Tobias's house was nowhere in sight. To make things worse, the path was getting thicker and rougher. The branches and vines more thick, the clearing narrowing. Weeds started to reach their knees. Brian's face hurt. He felt the swollen bumps from his earlier school fight. His soreness and dehydration had made him impatient and irritable. It seemed like they had been walking forever and he was done with it. Over it. He wanted to be home, no more bull shit.
This was stupid plan,
he thought.
Why did we come in the woods?
Tobias is an idiot. Look, he doesn't even know where he's going
. Brian's last nerve was nearing as they hunched over to avoid the branches and vines surrounding them. 

“Tobias,” he said. Tobias turned around. “What?”

“Do you have any idea what you're doing?” Brian asked dryly. He could feel another argument coming on. His irritation would ensure that. Tobias glared at Brian, unresponsive. They were surely about to have an argument now.

Suddenly, another explosion shook the ground. This one seemed closer. It sounded like something accidental, or maybe it was intentional. How do you tell? Even though it seemed close, the aftershock would indicate that it was much farther away than presumed. But the boys didn't know any better. It instantly jolted their consciousness, and made them alert, not to mention afraid. For a moment, they didn't feel tired at all. A siren sounded in the distance, and then faded.

“What the hell was that?” Tobias asked, after moments of silence.

“I don't know, man,” Brian said.

Tobias's eyes lit up.  “Look, there's a path over there!” he said pointing. Brian turned and saw a path to their right. It felt like a blessing.

The boys raced through the branches, sticks, leaves, and vines until they made it to the other side. They felt home free. “This is the path, all right. Just the one I was looking for. We take it straight through and we'll be home in no time,” Tobias stated confidentially. Brian was too exhausted to argue any other plan. He wanted nothing more than to get home, drink thirty gallons of water, and put some ice on his face. He also noticed that his sneakers weren't really cut out for all this nature hiking. True, he had them for about a year now, but the soles were really starting to wear since the beginning of their little journey.

“Follow me!” Tobias said. And he was off, down the path. Brian didn’t want to run, but he made an attempt to walk as fast as he could. His headache was growing, and running certainly wasn’t going to help. He looked a few feet ahead. The back of Tobias's head was in central focus. A thought flashed momentarily of being carried by Tobias the entire way home. It was a funny thought and almost a real possibility. After all, they were out here because of Tobias's own doing. If he hadn't tossed his trash near the jock, the jock would have never started with them. Then, rather than stumbling through the woods, they'd probably be home right now playing video games. Of course, all those cars on the road might have prevented that. Brian wasn't sure.

His mind drifted back further, playing the fight incident in his head again and again, like a movie scene. He wondered if he could have done more, or done better, or what everyone was going to say about him the next day. If he was going to get suspended. If his mother was going to find out. If Tina Carridine liked him.

“Oh shit,” Tobias said, stopping dead in his tracks.

Brian's daydreaming ceased. “What?” he asked. Tobias didn't respond. When Brian looked ahead, he could completely understand why. In front of them sat the blue junk car. At first Brian thought,
maybe there is more than one.
Tobias verbalized this sentiment, “Do you—do you think this is the same car?” he asked, slightly panicked. They both knew that it was, but didn't want to admit it.

“Let's go back the other way,” Tobias continued. Brian knew then that his earlier suspicions about Tobias were right. They were lost.

Chapter 2: Jeremy’s Journey

Jeremy Rafelson didn't get far before his truck failed. This had little to do with a supposed EMP attack, but instead with a blown radiator hose. Something so stupid and preventable, that he should have easily been able to avoid it. He had spent precious hours trying to fix it, but nothing would work. He needed a replacement hose. If he had a cell phone, the problem could have easily been fixed. All he would have to do was to call for a tow truck. But Jeremy didn’t have a cell phone. Why a man would put so much focus on stocking the necessities without considering purchasing a cell phone was a paradox in itself.

The world ran on cell phones. Instant communication at their fingertips at all times. Not Jeremy. He didn’t believe in them. It was an irrational belief about being tracked by the powers that be that fueled his paranoia. After being relentlessly hassled by Linda to purchase a cell phone as to be a part of the 21
^st
Century, Jeremy complied. He purchased a “pay as you go phone,” which disappointed Linda greatly. “You’re such a cheapskate,” she would say. After they split up he threw his phone in the garbage and never got another one. It was now, however, when he desperately needed it.

His truck broke down in the middle of nowhere, outside Charleston, West Virginia.  Even leaving the night before, after receiving an alert to evacuate the city from his disaster preparation group, he failed to get out in time.  It shamed him to think that he had been meticulously planning for a disaster for so long, that when the time came, he was taken slightly off guard. He did, however, have the necessary supplies on-hand for his travels. There was no way he could have taken everything he had packed into his truck, but he took what was necessary for survival. He carried a “bug-out” bag on his back that weighed about sixty pounds. This was a tolerable weight, for foot travel, though Jeremy would take a bag that weighed nothing if he could.