Surviving the Fall (Book 1): Surviving the Fall by Kraus Mike

Author:Kraus, Mike [Kraus, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction | Post Apocalyptic
Published: 2017-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Los Angeles, CA

Once Rick was certain the three cars weren’t coming back, he resumed his walk in the direction of what he hoped was the eastern edge of the city. As he went along, he starting mulling over the events of the day, piecing together the clues of what he had learned. While an EMP—an electromagnetic pulse—had been high on his list of possibilities, the sight of the relatively modern vehicles and the lights in windows of various buildings made it clear that was not the answer. Whatever had caused Rick’s phone and car to self-destruct and caused planes to fall out of the sky couldn’t have been a terrorist attack either, since the scale was far too large and the circumstances had been wrong.

The more Rick thought about the order of the events that had occurred, the more worried he became. Dozens of vehicles all sitting in the road wouldn’t start leaking gasoline all at once. And a phone shouldn’t just explode in his pocket. Plus planes don’t normally fall from the sky—at least not multiple planes at the same time.

“It was an attack.” Rick spoke out loud to himself as he walked along. “But not an ordinary one. It targeted computer control systems. Vehicles started leaking gasoline, phones shorted out the batteries, the planes were probably diverted intentionally and caused to crash as well. Who would have that sort of ability, though? Russians? Chinese?” Rick stroked his chin and shook his head. He had worked on vehicle control and communication systems for long enough to know that there were always weaknesses in computer systems, no matter how well designed they were. “But what’s the connection to them all? Those three cars driving by were only a decade or two old; they would have had computer systems in them. So why weren’t they destroyed?”

The answer hit Rick like a bolt of lightning from the smoke-filled sky. “The systems that were destroyed were all interlinked!” He stopped in the middle of the street and ran his hands through his hair as he drew the connections in his mind. “The government’s mandate for all newer vehicles to talk to each other necessitates that they have a connection to the Internet. Phones and planes, well of course they would be connected. But if this is something that’s wreaking havoc using Internet connectivity, then…” Rick trailed off as he realized the implications. “This isn’t something that’s confined to the city, is it?”

Rick’s question went unanswered by the empty street, and he slowly started walking again, shaking his head in disbelief. “This has to be some sort of terrorist attack; a series of complex viruses designed to infiltrate key networks and wreak havoc across the country. But…how? How could it possibly be done?”

Rick’s theory brought him more questions than answers, and after a while he began to doubt himself. He second-guessed, came up with alternate theories and tried to find any other explanation that made an ounce of sense. The more he thought

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