Code EMP Read online

  Leo groaned and reached out for Kris. The bed was empty. He opened his eyes. The sunlight assaulting his eyes came from a high window, which meant it was mid-morning already and he was surprised nobody had woken him up until now.

  He swung his legs out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. The air was still chilly, and he drew on a t-shirt. It felt great to be dressed for the day in sweats and a t-shirt. No need for a shower because he’d probably swim in the lake later. He didn’t generally wear anything dressy to work, but even dark slacks and a polo shirt had to look neat and weren’t as comfortable as sweats and a t-shirt. Leo scratched his head, feeling his hair standing out in ten different directions. He’d skipped shaving yesterday morning and now his beard was beyond five o’clock shadow territory, verging on weekend bender realm. Oh well, it would have to wait. First he had to save his daughter from a gross toilet.

  Opening the door, he saw a box of cereal on the kitchen table with Amy elbow deep in it.

  Knowing the lack of water in the house, he grimaced, imagining how dirty her hands were. Good thing they had some granola bars too.

  “Listen up, kids. The power is obviously still out, and that means we don’t have any running water. Luckily, there’s a nice big lake just a few yards away.” He glanced around the corner into the great room, expecting to find his son flopped on the couch. It was empty. “Where’s Michael?”

  “He’s outside moping about his cellphone.” Amy tossed a handful of colorful crunchy cereal into her mouth.

  Leo ambled to the door, opened it, and spotted his son sitting on the steps. When Michael turned to him, Leo pointed to the second five-gallon bucket he’d left at the bottom of the steps. It had come from the fish cleaning shed and didn’t smell great, hence why it was left outside. “Run down and fill that at the lake. Squirt a little dish soap in it first and clean it out. The thing stinks to high heaven.”

  “Aw, Dad.”

  “Now. Your sister is freaking out about what you left her in the toilet.”

  Michael smirked . “Yeah, she started gagging. It was hilarious.” He stood and grabbed the handle. “Next time she’ll have to do the same when she goes—”

  Leo cut off whatever Michael was doing to say by letting the screen door slam as he returned to the kitchen. “Where’s your mom?”

  “She went over to the Thompsons’ cabin to see if they had any power yet.”

  Leo went out to the front deck and looked south toward the Thompsons’ place. A car sat out front. Had it been there yesterday? He couldn’t remember. If it hadn’t been, that was a good sign it had been driven today.

  He glanced up to the sky, hoping to see a plane or even a contrail from a jet way up high. Other than an eagle circling the north end of the lake and starlings darting about, there was nothing. The starlings dove around the birdhouse he and Michael had constructed back when Michael needed a Boy Scout project. Had that really been seven years ago?

  The lack of a plane in the sky didn’t concern him overmuch because he didn’t recall seeing many before. Maybe he had just never looked?

  Michael staggered up the small slope from the lake, water sloshing down his legs. “This is heavy,” He complained.

  “Yeah, it is. I did it twice yesterday. Hey, I’m going to head over to the Thompsons’ and see if I can find your mom. Pour enough water into the toilet so it flushes. You know how to do it, right?”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “No fighting with your sister either.”

  Despite the bright sunshine, Leo couldn’t shake the sense of doom he’d had ever since it had occurred to him the night before that what was going on was more than a routine power outage.

  He strode along the sandy road, then stopped and looked out at the lake. Something wasn’t right. Normally on a beautiful morning like this the lake would be dotted with fishing boats and the occasional water skier or a jet ski skimming the surface. Today he saw only a lone kayaker.

  His heart thudded in his chest. He quickened his pace, hoping that when he reached the Thompsons’ they’d tell him they had power and their phones worked. He could call a mechanic about the car and the power company about the outage.

  Taking their steps up to the deck two at a time, Leo bolted to the deck and over to the entrance. His hand shook as he knocked on the screen door. Although the inside storm door was open, it was too dim inside to see anything.

  “Come on in, Leo!”

  He opened the door with a squeak and let it close behind him, catching it so it wouldn’t bang shut. Blinking until his eyes adjusted, Leo looked around, noting the candles sitting out on the table and beyond the table into the great room and mantel running the width of the cabin on the far wall. A large deer head with eight point antlers held the place of honor in the center of the wall. A couple of smaller trophies flanked it.

  “Hey, Bill.” Leo stretched out his hand, clasping his neighbor’s.

  “Good to see you, Leo. It’s been a while.” Bill took a sip from a bottle of water. He was older than Leo by five years. Their kids must be in college by now.

  “Too long, “Leo agreed. He glanced around, looking for Kris. “Isn’t my wife here?”

  “She and Jenny are out back looking at our garden.”

  “Oh.” Leo took a deep breath. “I’m sure Kris already mentioned it, but we don’t have any power at our place, and we were wondering if yours is out too?”

  Bill nodded. “Yep. Went out about three o’clock yesterday. Nothing works. Phones, cars, boats. Nothing.”

  Leo had hoped he had been wrong. He’d even said a few prayers under his breath when he’d crossed between houses. Now his hopes plummeted and he thought he might vomit.

  “Whoa, dude. It’s okay. They’ll get it all fixed pretty soon.” Bill reached out and clapped a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

  “I’m not so sure.” Leo took a step to the table and pulled out a chair, plopping down. His knees had gone weak and part of his mind laughed at that symptom. If a patient had told him that he went weak in the knees with shock, he’d have told him that wasn’t possible, it might just feel that way. Now he knew the truth.

  “You want something to drink?”

  “Um, yeah.” A bottle of water was pressed into his hand. It wasn’t cold, but not too warm. He unscrewed the lid and guzzled half the bottle.

  “So what’s got you all riled up?” Bill tugged a chair away from the table, setting it at an angle facing Leo.

  “I can’t shake the feeling that this is more than a simple power outage. Our car and phones don’t work either. Nothing electronic is working. The only thing I got to work is our flashlight.”

  Bill stared at him. “I didn’t really think about it. I just thought our phones hadn’t charged or maybe a power surge got them because they were plugged in.”

  “In a way, that is what might have happened, only it was probably not local to us. My laptop wasn’t even plugged in, it was on the floor of my car. It’s totally dead.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “While I hope like hell I’m wrong, I think there was an EMP—and electrical magnetic pulse. One strong enough to knock out most electronics and the power grid.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “Yeah, my thoughts exactly.” Leo took another sip from the water, suddenly aware that this bottle, so common he hadn’t even thought about it, was something precious. How long would it be before they would be able to pull an ice cold bottle of water from the fridge and drink it without a care in the world?

  “Are you sure?” Bill stared at him.

  “Hell no. I’m guessing about this. The last thing I want to do is scare anyone. I am probably totally wrong, but did you notice that there are no boats out on the lake?”

  “I saw someone out there earlier.”

  “In a motorboat?” Leo wanted to be wrong about his theory. He didn’t even care if he looked like a fool.

  Bill shook his head. “No, now that I think about it, it was a canoe.”
r />   “Damn. I would love to be wrong on this. If I’m right though, the sooner we get busy, the better off we’ll be.”

  “Get busy?” Bill’s eyes were huge. “What does it mean, exactly? For us, I mean.”

  Leo stood and paced to the window overlooking the lake. It was a spectacular view. Better than what they had from his cabin. He turned, taking in the stone wall of the fireplace. This was a much newer home than his. When his grandparents had bought their land and built a cabin, it was only meant to be a summer place. They had bought it after World War II. He jolted, his thoughts jumping. Were they in the middle of World War III and not even aware of it? Who would nuke them? The North Koreans? China? Russia? Or it could be some Muslim terrorist group.

  His suspicions had narrowed down the cause of an EMP to something nuclear. He was pretty sure a solar flare might knock out a power grid, though probably wouldn’t affect cars and small electronics, especially if they weren’t plugged in at the time of the event. Out of habit, he reached for his phone, intending to do a Google search of EMPs.

  One of the doctors at the hospital had been a survivalist. He had bored Leo to tears more than once at lunch, rambling on and on about how Leo should prepare and what would happen if he didn’t. He wished he would have paid closer attention to the other man.

  “For starters, we need to ration our food and purify the water supply. We’re lucky we’re next to a lake, but we have to make sure it stays clean.” He jabbed a finger at the lake, calm and reflecting the blue sky. “That is now our drinking water. If we can find some generators that would be good, although finding fuel might be difficult.”

  “You really think this is more than just a power outage? And if cars don’t work, will generators?”

  “Cars don’t run because of all the electronics in them these days. Older engines and basic generators should work just fine as long as they have gas,” Leo answered, his mind racing. He stared at the lake, wondering how much of his theory he should share. Before he could answer, the door opened and Kris and Bill’s wife Patty entered.

  “Leo, you should see Patty’s garden! I wish I had a big garden like that.”

  “We don’t come up here often enough to tend a garden.” He wished they had now. It was probably too late in the season to plant one now. He pushed the thought of winter out of his mind. Whatever had happened would surely be fixed by then.

  “She has lettuce, tomatoes, squash, and I forget what else, while all I manage at home are a few straggly tomato plants.”

  “I’m not into fishing and Bill could fish all day long.” Patty smiled and patted Bill’s arm as she passed him. “I have to have something to fill my days. Kris, do you want something to drink? I have tea or…” she threw an impish grin over her shoulder, “wine.”

  “It’s a little early for wine for me. You go ahead and have some yourself. I’ll stick to water for now.” Kris gave Leo a smile, but she looked worried. He’d been hoping that by now they’d both be laughing over his wild speculation last night.

  “Does Kris know?” Bill asked, pulling Leo from his thoughts.

  “Um, yeah. Sort of.”

  “Do I know what?” Kris sipped her bottle of water and sat at the kitchen table. Patty joined her, a glass of wine in her hand.

  “Your husband thinks this is more than a power outage. He thinks something else is going on.”

  “Yes, we discussed it. It sounds crazy, doesn’t it, Bill? Tell my husband he’s being silly.” She shot Leo a smile, worry still weighing it down.

  Sighing, Leo rubbed the back of his neck. This wasn’t how he wanted to break the news. Then again, it wasn’t as if he had planned some better way. He had just kept praying he was wrong and the power would jolt back on. It was going on twenty-four hours now and they needed to start planning how to handle the basics—food, water, and hygiene.

  “I shared my concern with Kris last night, but I hoped I was wrong. It’s been almost a whole day now and still nothing works. There have been no cars, I haven’t heard or seen any planes, and other than a canoe or kayak, no boats on the lake.” He swept an arm towards the water. “When was the last time you saw the lake this empty on a beautiful Sunday morning? I think we’re having more than just a run-of-the-mill power outage. I think something happened. Something up in the atmosphere that triggered an electromagnetic pulse.”

  Kris stared at him. “How long do you think it’ll last?”

  Bill nodded and asked, “Yeah. When will the effects wear off?”

  Patty took a long sip of her wine, her gaze fixed on the table.

  “I have no idea. From the little bit I do know, I think it could be a long time. The pulse would fry anything not shielded, such as a car’s electronics. The biggest problem, though, would be the transformers and power lines. The pulse would overload them with a surge of power.”

  Bill strode to the window and looked out, searching the sky for a few moments. “Electricity goes out all the time and the power companies just go out and fix it. What’s the big deal?”

  Leo paced in front of the window. What if he was wrong and had everyone worked up for nothing? But if he was right, they needed to know and plan right now. Time was wasting. He halted beside the table. “The big deal is that the vehicles used to fix them are probably all unusable, and picture not just one or two transformers going out, but the whole damn power grid. Where are the parts going to come from? Do you think there are warehouses full of brand new transformers just waiting to go? Best case, we’re looking at weeks or months.”

  “What’s the worst case?”

  Leo opened his arms wide and shook his head, letting his arms fall back to his sides.

  Kris’s eyes welled and tears spilled down her cheeks. “How are we going to survive that long? We only have a week’s worth of food, and that’s only if we eat lightly. I’d planned that we would eat out some of our meals.”

  Dammit. He hadn’t intended to scare her. “We’ll figure something out. That’s why I want to start planning now. The only way anyone will survive is if we band together and help each other.”

  Bill looked at Leo and nodded. “We have quite a bit of food stocked up. We just made our big shopping run yesterday morning. It’s something we do monthly, but there are only two of us, so…”

  Kris swiped at her eyes. “We can’t eat your food.”

  “You’ll have to if you want to live.” Patty downed the rest of her wine and stood, crossing to the counter to get the wine bottle, gripping the neck as she tilted it back, contemplating the label. “Guess I’ll have to make this last for a while. Today, I need it.”

  “We’ll all have to pool our resources. What about other neighbors? Do you know any of them?” Leo wished he’d been around more.

  “There’s Todd Bowman down the road. He has a couple of kids. He’s a teacher in town, likes to go hunting. He probably has a freezer full of venison.”

  “Got a pen and paper? We should make a list of everything we have that could be useful, then go talk to the others around here.”

  They got word out to as many people as they could reach, and that evening gathered around a bonfire to discuss plans. Everyone brought food that would have spoiled if not eaten, so dinner was a hodgepodge of burgers, chicken, ribs and various hot dogs and bratwursts.

  Leo polished off his brat and tossed his paper plate into the fire, staring at the paper as it turned an eerie blue green before bursting into flame. Blinking, he looked up. Kris stood with several women and the kids had gathered in a few groups. The younger ones running around and playing like this was just a regular party, while the teens sat on or against one a huge weathered log resting near the fire pit for seating. The other men, most of whom seemed to know each other, spoke in a tight group, then as if they felt his gaze, turned and walked toward him.

  Bill introduced him to the other men and Leo did his best to match the names he remembered from the list Bill had made, to the faces in front of him. “Nice to meet you all. I wish it was und
er different circumstances.”

  Bill nodded. “Leo, I’ve been telling the men about how you figured out what happened. You seem to know the most about this, so we thought you should take charge.”

  “Take charge?” Leo swallowed hard, eyeing the group. “I’m no prepper. What do I know about survival?”

  Conceding Leo’s point, Bill explained, “None of us are—although we have some hunters here—but what you have is leadership ability.”

  Leo narrowed his eyes. “How so?”

  “You’re a doctor. That means you’re an authority figure, sort of.”

  A short, sharp laugh exploded from Leo. He couldn’t hold it back. “Sure—in an emergency room. Call a Code Blue, and I’m your guy, but this isn’t a Code Blue. It’s more like a…a Code EMP.”

  Chapter 3

  Leo read through the names of the other folks on the lake. There weren’t many. While the lake had a couple of dozen homes either right on or across the road from the lake, many were vacation homes and the owners weren’t around when the power went out. He and Bill had taken the bikes Bill kept at the lake and had made a circuit of the lake yesterday to see who was around.

  Only five other families were at the lake when the EMP had hit. One neighbor said that another family had been there Saturday, and had traveled to a relatively nearby town for a festival. What was “nearby” in the Northwoods was still forty miles away. Leo didn’t think they would make their way back here anytime soon.

  It was still early in the summer. His own kids had only just gotten out of school the day before Leo’s vacation had started. In fact, that’s why Michael had been sulking when they’d left. He’d wanted time to hang out with friends and only grudgingly had accepted that Leo had to work around the other ER doctors’ vacation schedules since he had been the last to put in his request.

  As he contemplated how things would be going back home, he wondered if getting caught up here had been a blessing in disguise. Their house was in the suburbs of Chicago, and he couldn’t even imagine the chaos there right now.

  They had combed through every vacant home, inventorying what supplies where there and carefully noting and crediting each home with what had been taken. When all of this mess was over, they didn’t want those people to return and feel cheated. If they showed up in the near future, they would be accepted into the group as they had already paid their dues.