Grid Attack (Cyber War #1) (9 page)

Just as we were sitting down to eat by candlelight, there was a knock on the door.

I let out a gasp as I was startled by it. Tony had his pistol on him as he pulled it out of the holster, taking the safety off as he moved towards the door.

There was a louder knock this time and a voice on the other side.

“Tony? Kat? It’s Carl, lemme in guys.” He said, as we both let out a breath and relaxed.

Tony opened the door and there stood Carl, with a box full of saltines.

Chapter 12 - Anthony

“C’mon in man. You scared the shit out of us.” Tony said with a chuckle.

“Thanks, man. I could smell the chili cooking from my house. Just wondered if you might want to trade some saltines for a bowl?” he asked.

I glanced over to Kat who gave me a little glare. I knew she didn’t want to, but he was much closer a friend of ours than everyone else on the block.

“Sure, Carl. Grab a bowl and help yourself.” She said, reluctantly.

“Thanks, Kat.” He said as he made his way to the stove and then joined us at the table.

“I can’t cook anything over at my house. All electric. No heat or hot water either.” He said. I felt a twinge of guilt. But just a twinge.

I knew he had family in the area so it wasn’t like he needed us. I figured he would probably head to his brother’s house or his mother’s.

“You planning on going to your mom’s and wait this thing out?” I asked.

“Probably not. Things are actually probably better here than there.” He said.

“How do you figure?” I asked. Inquiring minds want to know.

“This.” He said, and pulled out a portable HAM radio and plopped it on the table. “I only turn it on every so often so I can find out what might be going on. But the battery is almost dead and I don’t have gas for the generator.”

Carl grabbed a scoop of chili on the top of a cracker and shoved it in his mouth. Kat’s chili was known for being one of the best.

“Even if I did have the gas, the generator is so loud, it would draw a lot of unwanted attention unless I put it inside. Of course, then I would die from carbon monoxide poisoning, so I am kinda fucked.” He chuckled at his predicament.

Kat shook her head. “I wish I would have gotten at least ONE solar panel, dammit!” she said, looking at me.

I knew what she was thinking. She had asked me a couple of times for us to set up a single panel just to use to charge things and I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to spend the money. The worst part was, it wouldn’t have been that expensive for a small setup that would at least charge some 12-volt batteries, so we could charge small things like phones, flashlights, and portable HAM radios.

“I know, I know.” I said to her. Carl had no idea what I was talking about, but Katherine sure did.

“I want to save the gas for my truck anyway. I’m not sure exactly what I need to do. Based on what I could tell, the National Guard was evacuating some places. I just don’t know which areas.” Carl said. He sighed as he finished shoveling chili in his mouth.

There was a brief moment of silence as we all continued eating, watching the one candle flicker at the movement of the air.

“Wait, I have an idea,” Kat said. “Babe, did you leave the ladder upstairs?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s at the top of the landing, why?” I asked.

She grabbed a flashlight and hurried up the stairs. I followed her up. Moving the attic door out of the way, she went up for a minute and then came back down with a box that said, ‘camping’ on the side.

After putting the door back and coming down the stairs, she opened the box and pulled out something metal. It was an inverter that she had had from years back. It had two wires on it that you could attach to a car battery and use to power up items.

“Most likely, we aren’t going to be taking both trucks anywhere. We can pull on of the batteries out, and hook this up to charge up the HAM radio!” Her excitement showed as she handed me the inverter.

“I knew you were a smart cookie!” I said as I patted her on the butt. The same place that I smacked it earlier.

We both let out a giggle, knowing exactly what I meant.

Pat was done with his bowl of chili and had moved over to the couch.

I handed him the inverter. “We can use this to charge the radio.” I said.

“Sweet!” he said, “I will go over and get the power cable. Wait…Tony, why don’t you come help me. We can get the battery I have in the car. I’m not planning on taking it with me. We can use it until we can find a way to charge it back up.” Carl said.

I was ecstatic that he volunteered his battery for this.

Kat told us both to be careful and to be watchful. It was dark out and quiet, so if there were people out trying to do harm, they would be able to hear and see us because we had the flashlight.

Fortunately, his car was in his garage. We went outside and left off the flashlight, the sliver of a moon allowing us just enough to see the pavement.

He closed the garage side door behind us before turning on the flashlight to see. It took us only a few minutes to pull the battery and grab the power cord to the radio, then make our way back to the house.

Kat had been sitting with the roller shade just opened up enough that she could see us as we walked up the stairs to the front door. Our eyes had become somewhat used to the darkness, and we were glad that she opened the door to let us in, closing it and locking it quickly behind us.

We set the battery down on some cardboard and hooked up the inverter, then plugged in the HAM radio. The red light immediately came on showing it was charging.

Carl and I bumped fists as we giggled like schoolyard buddies at the fact that we all came together to make something work.

Now, we just had to wait until it charged up enough to pull a signal.

I could tell Kat was anxious as she stared at the radio. My hope would be that we could learn what actually happened to the power, the grid and whatever else. The regular radio broadcasts had mostly stopped except one that just kept repeating itself but not really telling us what was going on.

We had no idea how long it would take to charge. I decided to try to get everyone’s mind off of it.

Going out to the porch, I grabbed several pieces of wood to start a fire. It was going to be a pretty cold night and since the radiators were now cold, this old house would be hard to get warm enough to sleep.

“Do we really want to burn that wood right now? I mean, it’s cold, but I don’t know if it will be freezing or not.” Kat asked longingly. I knew she was cold and wanted the heat, but she also wanted to save it as long as possible.

Carl chimed in. “Actually, I heard it was going to be below freezing tonight. Right before the battery died, I heard there was some kind of freak winter storm coming right for us and it was going to bring cold and wind. And possibly some ice or snow.”

I looked over at Kat. She rubbed her temples and her eyes. She used to do that when she would have a headache. I am sure she was having one now.

“Let’s get in as much wood as possible.” She said, and went to get up.

Carl jumped up. “I’ll get it, Kat, if you’ll just watch the light on the radio. Let us know if it turns green.” He said.

I was glad Carl offered to help. He usually avoided work at all costs. Perhaps the apocalypse had changed him for the better. One could only hope.

Kat stayed bundled up on the sectional as Carl and I brought in as much wood as we could stack up and still get around. There was still quite a bit left on the porch. I hoped it would last us a while.

We lit up the fire and it didn’t take long to warm the living room.

The fire lulled all of us into a quiet place as Kat and I snuggled next to each other, watching the flicker of the flames…both of us lost in our own worlds.

“We got green!” Carl said, startling us out of our sleepiness.

He turned on the radio and began to scan the channels. There were people from all over the world talking. Most of what was being said we couldn’t understand, but it was nice to actually just hear voices over the airwaves.

“I found a channel the other day that was in Texas. Lemme see…” he said as he worked the buttons.

Then we heard it. It was a Texan for sure, with a strong southern accent.

We listened intently to what he was saying.

“I sure hope you folks up in Arkansas and Missouri are battening town the hatches. There is a big storm coming your way. I just heard from someone in Oklahoma that said they lost the roof off their house from the strong winds. Ice and rain too. This is going to be a bad one folks. As if things could get any worse. We’ll be praying for ya. Gotta sign off now. Trying to save the power. This is Howard from Austin, Texas, over and out.”

Carl turned off the radio and sighed, then looked over at the fire.

I looked over at Kat as I tossed another log on the fire. I knew she was going to get pissed at what I was about to do. But I felt it was the right thing to do.

“Carl, why don’t we go gather what food, ammo and other supplies you have, and you stay with us until this storm passes. If it gets really bad, you’ll freeze to death over there.”

Kat surprised me with what she said next.

“I agree with Tony. It could get really bad out there tonight. We have no way of knowing just how bad. You could help us maintain the fire. I will bring the cot down for you.” She said.

I was more than a little surprised. Usually, she didn’t want neighbors in the house at night while she slept.

Maybe the apocalypse was changing her as well.

Carl and I went over to his house with a couple of flashlights and got as many baskets full of food, ammo and anything else that we thought would be handy and brought it back to the house. Since we didn’t know how long the storm would be, we figured it would be best to bring as much as we could.

The wind was already beginning to pick up as we hurried back and forth between the two houses until we got everything over and put into the dining room.

“You can just keep your stuff in here until we see how things go.” I said, hoping Kat would approve.

She nodded her head and smiled as we put our jackets on the coat hooks by the door.

We all settled in for the night downstairs near the fireplace. Kat suggested we put something up to keep the heat from going upstairs. We all went back and forth with ideas until the room got quiet except for the howl of the wind and the crackle of the fire.

I felt as though I had just fallen asleep when I was woken by a large rumble and a crash. It was then I heard the screams of someone I couldn’t recognize.

Chapter 13 - Katherine

Being woken out of a sound sleep is something that doesn’t happen very often to me. I usually sleep pretty lightly, but I guess I was more tired than usual.

It felt like an earthquake as the floor rumbled me awake and I heard a crash.

Tony jumped up off the sectional and looked through the side of the roller shade to see what he could.

Carl had woken as well by this time.

“What the hell was that?” Carl asked.

“Looks like one of the big trees in the neighbors yard has blown over. Damn, that wind must be strong.” Tony said. “What is going on with this weather?”

I got up and looked out the other window. It was hard to see, but I could hear the sound of sleet hitting the far west window as it tried to push its way into the house.

“I think I heard someone scream.” Tony said, as he began to put on his shoes and jacket.

“Where are you going?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“I need to go check on the Chen’s. They could be hurt.” He said.

“I’m coming with.” Carl said, pulling on his boots after holstering his pistol.

I felt like I should be doing something. I put a couple of logs on the fire and began to heat up some water for some hot beverages once they got back.