Sudden Blackout (The Blackout Trilogy Book 1) by Chris Murphy

Author:Chris Murphy [Murphy, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2021-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

Town hall was only a five-minute car ride from their house. Heather hoped it wouldn’t take too long to ride her bike there. She pedaled until she reached Union Road and made a right, the road they avoided on the first day. After the things she noticed on the other end of town, she couldn't imagine what the town’s main road would be like. Heather still feared for her safety riding on it. Fortunately, she wasn’t the only one who thought of cycling to the meeting.

The ride to town hall was uneventful, something Heather thanked her lucky stars for. It seemed everyone had the same destination, and nobody threatened anyone. A sense of pride hit her. West Seneca was a peaceful town that came together in times of need. It wasn’t the first time. She couldn’t count how many snowstorms passed which caused neighbors to help neighbors dig out cars or shovel driveways. She hoped this wouldn’t be the last time either.

A pipedream. Heather knew better.

They gathered on the grass outside the police station. Traffic became difficult to get through after the light on the corner of Seneca Street. She knew anyone standing there couldn’t possibly hear what was happening, other than word of mouth. She got off the bike and held onto the handlebars. “Excuse me,” she said repeatedly as she made her way up to Main Street and town hall.

Some people complained about it, but she wasn’t the only one trying to get as close to the building as possible. It took some doing but she made it to the lawn. Heather looked around at the grim faces. Most were strangers to her but friendly faces she recognized scattered throughout the crowd. A woman she knew from PTA meetings approached her. She looked frightened and it made Heather wonder if she wore the same face.

Moments later, a man stepped up on the platform with a megaphone in his hand. He tried to get the crowds attention and his lips tightened and curled when he knew he couldn’t be heard. He picked the megaphone up and screamed into it. “This will be a whole lot easier if you all could be quiet for a moment and listen.” People started to calm down and pay attention, but it wasn’t enough. Finally a man dressed in a police officer’s uniform held a pistol in the air and fired.

Everyone hushed. Heather stood too close to the firearm and a buzz in her ears caused her to cover them. After a couple of minutes they felt better, and she could listen. The other man spoke loudly to the crowd.

“Thank you for coming today. I realize it must have been a hard trip, which would normally be an easy one. As you know, there is a widespread power outage.”

“Bullshit,” someone in the crowd screamed. “It was an EMP, and you know it.”

“What’s an EMP?” someone else called out.

Heather looked down at her dusty shoes and shook her head. There were people gathered who knew nothing of electromagnetic pulses.

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