Alone: Book 1: Facing Armageddon (2 page)

     “But what in the world could Mother Nature do that would knock out all the machines of the world? A hurricane or a
tornado could certainly destroy a city, but it would have no affect on the machines in another country, or on another continent.”

     Sarah believed she found the answer when she was at the library one evening, looking through a picture book of the ancient Mayan temples. She noticed that many of their carvings portrayed the sun. So many, in fact, that she got the impression they worshipped it.

     “Okay, just hear me out,” she’d said when returning home that night.

     “We know that they believed there would come a time when something would stop all the machines in the world, presumably all at the same time. And they said it would be a naturally occurring event of some type.

     “But they never said it would originate on earth.”

     She smiled an accomplished smile, certain of her discovery.

     “So, what are you saying? A meteorite or an asteroid hitting the earth? That would send a lot of dust and particulates into the atmosphere, and the earth would cool, possibly for many years. Most of the animals and plants would die. But how would that keep a gasoline engine from working?”

     “No, honey. I said nothing about asteroids or meteorites. I think the threat is our own sun.”

     Dave scratched his head.

     “Okay, I’m lost. I don’t follow you at all.”

     She pulled out a book called
Electricity and the Cosmos
. On its cover was a rather magnificent photograph of a lightning filled sky setting a tree on fire.

     “Still lost.”

     “Be patient, my love.”

     Sarah turned to a page she’d marked with a post-it note. And she read aloud to him.

     “Electromagnetic pulses, or EMPs, are brief discharges of electricity which by themselves pose no health threat to man. However, they have the unfortunate effect of sending electrical current across positive and negative poles of batteries, across oppositely charged electronic components, across oppositely charged wires. The effective result is that anything an EMP touches is permanently shorted out.”

     She looked at him as his jaw dropped.

     “Now you tell me, honey, what all modern machines have in common.”

     Dave thought for a moment and replied, “They all have batteries, or circuit cards, or some type of electronic components.
”

-3
-

     Sarah spent a whole week of her vacation time that year at the public library. The internet was a valuable source, but much of the reference material on the Mayans was not digitized. She felt almost like an antique as she pored over old fashioned hardback reference books and encyclopedias dating back to the 1950s.

     Every evening, after the homework and chores were done and the girls were tucked safely in bed, the couple did more research on the internet.

     In the end, they were convinced the earth was due a massive EMP, generated by a huge solar storm on the surface of the sun.

     But when? The Mayans merely said the window opened for the event at the end of December, 2012. They didn’t say how long the window would remain open.

     The only clue they had was the Mayans’ fascination with the number twelve. For some reason, the number was almost Biblical in Mayan seer and scientific circles. Most of their earthquake predictions went something like “On the one hundred and twentieth day after the twelfth day before the summer solstice.” It seemed almost nonsensical, yet it obviously made great sense to the Mayans.

     “What if they estimated the date of the EMP, and then counted back twelve months? That would mean the EMP would be December 21, 2013.”

     “Maybe. But then, they could just as easily have estimated the day and counted back twelve
years
. That would make it December 21, 2024.”

     In the end, they just didn’t know.

     But they did believe.

     They believed the Mayans had proven themselves capable of many amazing things.

     They believed that a primitive civilization that was familiar with the planets and their moons might also have a fascination with the sun.

     They believed
that a civilization intelligent enough to predict earthquakes with no modern equipment could do other things equally as amazing. Say, for example, have the ability to predict cyclical storms on the surface of the sun.

     Lastly, they believed it was their duty to protect themselves and their family from the turmoil they were sure was coming.

     It was on that day, in the spring of 2010, that they made the decision to be preppers.

     Over the weeks that followed, they shared their findings with Sarah’s brother and sister
-in-law in Kansas City. They were cable television junkies and had already seen the prepper shows. It didn’t take much to convince them to start prepping too.

     They also discovered something the Mayans never mentioned. There was a way to protect some items from the effects of the EMP. It was called a Faraday cage, named after its inventor. The Faraday cage was basically a frame with a wire enclosure built around it. Items inside the cage were safe from electrical discharge even when electricity came into direct contact with the outside of the cage. The electricity didn’t penetrate the cage. It simply encased the outside of the cage itself.

     In 1961 a University of Texas student named Kit Foley discovered that the Faraday cage wasn’t infallible. Metal items placed too close to the wire exterior of the cage could allow a small arc of electricity to fly across the space between the items and the outer skin of the cage.

     Foley solved this problem by modifying the Faraday design, and lining it with foam rubber or with plywood. It was a more efficient, but costlier way to protect items from electrical surges.
He called it a Foley cage.

     Dave and Sarah knew how to protect the items they deemed essential.

     And they had a plan in place to start prepping by stockpiling supplies that would help them survive after the EMP.

     The only real obstacle they had left in their path
was funding. Dave made a pretty good living in the construction trade, and Sarah made a pretty good salary as a fifth grade teacher. But in a troubled economy there just wasn’t much left over for prepping.

     So Dave started looking for a second job.

     “It’ll just be for a year, maybe a year and a half,” Dave had said. “All the pay from the part time job will go to buying supplies and prepping materials. After we have everything we need, I’ll quit.”

     They weren’t counting on two things, though. First, prepping is an endless process. Every time
Dave bought a new weapon or tool or generator, he saw something else he wanted. Like dried food, or night vision goggles, or a few cases of MREs.

     The second thing they hadn’t counted on was Dave falling in love with his part time job. He hit it off very well with the other workers. He had fun. It was more a hobby than a job, since he loved working with his hands.

     At the end of the year and a half, he and Sarah sat down and discussed whether it would be a wise move for him to quit.

     He still had a list of things he wanted to buy for their prepping mission.

     Sarah said, “Well, I’ll admit it hasn’t affected your quality time with the girls. I mean, you gave up your softball and bowling leagues, so you’re able to spend at least as much time with them as before you took the job.

     “And as for me, I still get plenty of quality time with you. Even on the nights you work, you still make it to bed on time.”

     She giggled.

     “And it darn sure hasn’t affected our love life. Almost every night you work, you come home ravenous, anxious to make love to me.”

     She looked him square in the eye.

     “And by the way, why is that, anyway?”

     He shrugged his shoulders.

     “I don’t know. Maybe hanging around that small shop with all those guys for four hours makes me hunger for female company. Are you complaining?”

     She purred like a kitten.

     “Who, me? Oh, no, baby. Not at all.”

     So for a variety of reasons, Dave kept his part time job and continued to spend every dollar he earned there for prepping.

     Right
up until the day Sarah and the girls got on that airplane.

-4-

     Dave checked his watch when he walked out of the cabinet shop. It was 4:35. He hadn’t eaten anything since the cinnabon at the airport that morning, and he was famished.

     He figured he had just enough time to stop by the Taco Cabana on his way home.

     It was the closest he’d ever come to cheating on Sarah. His father had died prematurely, as had his grandfather. Both from heart attacks. Clogged arteries, his father’s doctor had said.

     He admonished Dave, “If you want to live longer than your father did, eat a low fat diet.”

     In most cases, Dave followed the doctor’s advice. But there were certain things he just wasn’t willing to give up.

     Like barbacoa.

     Barbacoa was slow roasted shredded beef. For hundreds of years, the vaqueros of old Mexico took the head of a cow and spit-roasted over a very low heat until the meat just peeled off the bone. They knew that the most tender and most flavorful of beef came from the cheeks and jowls.

     And it made excellent tacos.

     He stepped up to the counter at Taco Cabana and placed his order.

     “I’d like two pounds of barbacoa to go, with refried beans and an extra dozen tortillas.”

     In the back of his head, he could almost hear Sarah admonishing him:

     “David Wayne Speer Junior, what are you doing to yourself? You know that grease is going to go straight to your arteries!”

     As the cashier handed him his change, he smiled in the knowledge that he’d be able to eat all the barbacoa tacos he wanted for at least the next four days. And as long as he got rid of the evidence, he’d get away with it. Sarah would never know.

     For a brief second he felt guilty. He hated keeping secrets from his beloved Sarah. But, he reasoned, it could be worse. He didn’t drink, like a lot of men did. He didn’t do drugs either. Never had, not even as a kid. He didn’t gamble or chase other women like some others did. Sarah was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. He’d never seen another woman who could hold a candle to her. And even if he had, he wouldn’t have strayed.

     He enjoyed sports, but he wasn’t one of those men who was addicted to sports and spent every waking moment in front of the television screen.

     No, he decided. This was a relatively harmless vice, and really the only one he had. He might not be perfect, but all in all he was a pretty good husband.

     After he got his order, he rewarded himself for being a pretty good husband by opening up the box and making himself a taco for the road.

     Dave put the box of barbacoa and the trimmings onto the passenger seat of his Explorer and noticed that his right rear tire was low. He’d always had a bad habit of picking up nails on construction sites, so it didn’t surprise him. In fact, he half expected it to happen regularly. Two days before he’d been scouting out a tract of land where he’d just signed a contract to build three single family homes in the summer.

     It was a minor inconvenience,
and no more. He knew the guys at the Zarzamora Tire Shop quite well, and they’d plug it for a six pack of Corona. He’d swing it by there on his way to the cabinet shop in the morning, he figured. And if it went flat before then, it was no big deal. He always carried a portable air compressor behind the driver’s seat.

     He checked his watch again as he drove down
Royal Valley Drive. He was a block and a half from home. The girls should be landing any time now. In fact, if they had a tail wind, they may already have landed. And any minute now his cell phone would ring, and the girls would announce they were in Kansas City.

     Little Beth would be all giggles and have stories to tell of their great adventure so far. And he couldn’t wait to hear them.