The Blackout by Stephanie Erickson

Author:Stephanie Erickson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
ISBN: 9781481033244
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2012-12-04T07:00:00+00:00

That night, she took some dinner over to Jimmy’s house. She hadn’t seen much of him lately, and missed him. She found herself needing him more than she probably should, but she couldn’t help it. Without Gary, what else could she do?

Dug trotted happily beside her as they walked up his driveway. She balanced her canned-good casserole concoction in one hand and knocked on the door with the other.

“Hey, Molly. What’s up?” Jimmy said through a partially opened door.

“Nothing. Wanna have dinner?” She offered her food.

“Oh. Sure. C’mon in.” He opened the door wide to let her in, and scanned the street suspiciously before closing the door behind her.

“So, how’s the Watch going?” Molly asked, collecting plates from where he pointed.

“It’s…” he paused. “We’re weak, Molly. And the Wanderers know it. At least a few of them do.”

She looked up from distributing the silverware. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, Burt doesn’t want people to know, because he doesn’t want to start a panic, but a group of Wanderers has been casing the place, making threatening movements, and just...I dunno, acting suspicious. I think they’re up to something.”

“Who are they?”

He looked at her, and she knew. Craig. “What does he want?”

They sat across from each other as he spooned some casserole onto his plate. “Who knows. Revenge? His home back? Food? Your guess is as good as mine.

But I’m pretty sure he has friends on the inside, so if he wants to do some damage, he will. It’s simply a matter of when he will strike.”

They sat in silence for a while after that, with Dug at Molly’s feet, thumping his tail if she moved slightly. Molly quit asking him about the radio, hoping he’d speak up if it was important. But she couldn’t help wondering as she sat in the same house with it.

Eventually, Jimmy cleared his throat. “So, tell me about this school they have you running.”

She talked about it for a bit, telling him about the day’s lesson and what Chase had said. She appreciated the distraction from the grim news he’d given her.

“One of my students tried to claim that we were living in a time very similar to that of Hester Prynne. Remember her? From The Scarlet Letter? Anyway, he made some valid points. Some that I wasn’t too comfortable with.”

Jimmy grunted. “Like what?”

“Oh, just that the world had shrunk, similar to the size it was then, and things had slowed down.”

“I don’t see anything upsetting about that. It’s true.”

“No, I know. But I don’t really want to recede back to such a dark time of superstition and that ‘accuse now and ask questions after the person is dead’ kind of mentality, ya know?”

He chuckled. “I don’t see what’s funny about that,” Molly said.

“It’s just a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

“Obviously I don’t.”

“Well, don’t you think we’re more logical than we were then? That we have more information? Yes, our immediate world is smaller, but we know a larger world surrounds us. We have explanations for things like eclipses, not superstitions and angry gods.

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