36 Hours: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Fiction Series (12 page)

Madison stopped and listened to the guard. But as soon as he turned to clear another visitor, she hurried down the hall. She ducked down a corridor toward her right and began to walk briskly, hoping to avoid detection. She contemplated removing her sandals, which made a loud
clap
on the polished tile floors as she moved from room to room.

She peered through the six-inch-wide, two-foot-tall windows that were located in each of the classroom doors. At the next-to-last room before the end of the hallway, she saw Alex sitting in the second row. She reached for the doorknob and then hesitated.

Last chance, Maddie
, she whispered, referring to herself with the name only her husband was allowed to use.

She gently knocked on the door and entered, startling the teacher, who turned toward her. Alex immediately saw her and mouthed the words—
What, Mom?

“I am so sorry to interrupt, but I need my daughter, Alexis Ryman, to come with me. We have a family situation to deal with.”

The kids in the classroom started to whisper among themselves, and the teacher admonished them to settle down. He looked past Madison, apparently expecting to see a school administrator.

“Have you checked in at the front office, Mrs. Ryman?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” she lied. “I told them I knew where Alex’s class was located and that an escort wasn’t necessary. They were all very busy and told me to have a nice day.”

Madison fidgeted nervously and wiggled her hand to encourage Alex to get out of her chair to join her.

“Well, this is not the normal procedure. Just allow me to call Mrs. Grace and confirm—”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary. Again, I’m sorry to interrupt. We’ll just be on our way. Come on, honey.” Madison pushed past him and motioned for Alex to come along. Alex gathered her things, finally, and started toward the door.

“Mom,” said Alex, stopping just short of leaving, “what’s wrong? If I leave school early, I won’t be able to play in my match this afternoon. Can’t this wait two more hours?”

“No, Alex, it can’t.” The teacher started to dial the front office again. “Your dad sent me for you. We have to go,
now
!”

“But, Mom,” started Alex, but then they both heard her cell phone vibrate in the pocket of her school-issued blue blazer. Alex pulled out the phone and looked at the alert with her mom. She studied the display, which read
FlareAware Alert—G5 Extreme—Geomagnetic Storm Warning
.

“Let’s go,” said Madison and grabbed her daughter by the hand.

“Wait,” came the voice of the teacher from inside the classroom, but it was too late. Madison and Alex ran through the hallways toward the front of the building, where their SUV remained parked with the hazard lights flashing.

The security guard left his post to report to the principal’s office following the teacher’s phone call. He and a guidance counselor chased after the Ryman women as they scurried out of the building.

“Thelma and Louise!” shouted Alex as she slid into the passenger seat. Madison laughed with her daughter as they roared out of the parking lot.

“I’m sorry for the drama, honey.”

“No prob, Mom. Is Daddy okay? Is he coming home?” asked Alex nervously.

“He’s fine, honey and I think he’s on his way.”

Alex looked around the school parking lot. “Do you think I’ll get suspended?”

“Nah. Maybe detention, or you’ll write sentences. Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue for a while.”

Madison gunned the accelerator and increased her speed as she turned off Old Hickory Boulevard onto Interstate 24 toward the city. “See what you can find on the radio.”

Alex bounced through several SiriusXM channels and finally settled on CNN. She then turned her attention to the FlareAware app. She read the alerts aloud.

“An Earth-directed CME at 09:23 UTC. A G5 geomagnetic storm warning has been issued. Then there’s a link to a YouTube video.”

Madison glanced at the phone to see for herself and almost got hit by an eighteen-wheeler that suddenly changed lanes in front of her.

“Mom!” Alex exclaimed.

“Sorry,” apologized Madison.

“Maybe I should drive.” Alex laughed, partly serious.

“Not gonna happen. Are you going to the video?”

“Hang on, jeez Louise.”

Alex played the video as Madison exited westbound onto Briley Parkway. She was going to avoid downtown traffic, and the loop would drop her off near the grocery stores. She glanced over at the phone again.

“I don’t hear anything. Can you turn it up?” asked Madison.

“Mom, you’re driving me nuts. The video doesn’t have sound. It just shows this black-and-white image of a blast coming from the sun, followed by a bunch of numbers. I’m looking for Dr. Stanford’s YouTube channel for an update.”

Madison kept driving while Alex searched for more information online. She scrolled through the Sirius channels, but found nothing on the dedicated news networks.
Why hasn’t the government issued a statement? Maybe it was nothing? Did Colton panic because Alex and I were worked up into a frenzy?

“She hasn’t issued an update, and I can’t find anything else online,” said Alex, interrupting Madison’s inner debate. “I’m checking Twitter now.”

“Why Twitter?”

“News breaks faster on Twitter than anywhere else, Mom. Everybody has a cell phone with a camera. Most people have a Twitter account. The first eyewitnesses to any major news event start on Twitter.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Mom. I’ve told you this before.”

Madison shrugged and kept driving. As Alex searched for some kind of update, Madison thought about their next move. Colton’s text read
Get food
. So that was the first order of business. She and Alex would head to Kroger or Publix. Probably Kroger because she liked the fuel points.

“Wow!” exclaimed Alex. “I searched hashtag 3222 and found a lot of tweets from astronomers all over the world. Here is one from SunViewer.
Very prominent sunspot 3222 is clearly visible. Massive Earth-directed plasma. Keep an eye out for aurora
.”

“That’s it. Watch for pretty skies tonight?”

“I’ll keep looking, but that’s it so far.”

Madison was puzzled.
Where are the warnings?

Chapter 22

10 Hours

1:28 p.m., September 8

Kroger Grocery Store

West End Avenue

Nashville, Tennessee

Madison turned right into the aging Belle Meade Plaza at the corner of White Bridge Road and West End Avenue. CVS anchored one end of the shopping center and appeared to be fairly busy. As she drove toward the southern end of the center, which contained the Kroger store, she looked at the vacant storefronts and the homeless couple digging through a trash can on the sidewalk.

It was a sign of the stagnant economic times. The nation never recovered from the recession of ’08 to ’09. Over one hundred million Americans were either unemployed or had given up looking for work altogether. Sixty percent of Americans were on some form of government assistance. A malaise had beset the nation for years, and it resulted in the worst class warfare in the nation’s history. Tensions existed between the wealthy and the poor, between the races, and religions.

John Winthrop, a leading figure in the creation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century, once urged the colonists to create a
city upon a hill
, a phrase derived from the Sermon on the Mount. Ronald Reagan used a similar phrase—
a shining city upon a hill
. Ronald Reagan, like John Winthrop, saw America as exceptional.

Over time, the
shining city
began to lose its luster. The thin veneer of civilization that Americans relied upon to keep order was slowly evaporating. Rot and decay had gradually overcome morals and values. At one point, as members of a civilized society, you could expect your fellow citizens to act a certain way. America was on a steady decline in that respect, and it was about to get worse.

“It looks pretty busy, Mom,” said Alex. “Should we try Publix instead?”

“Let’s try here first. I know this store better.” Madison eased her way past shoppers leaving the store. Everything appeared to be normal, as it wasn’t unusual for Wednesday, senior discount day, to be busy. She finally found a space next to West End Avenue and backed into it.

Madison hurried into the store with Alex. She had a general idea of the things she wanted to buy, and the rest she would pick up based on the checklist from the book she’d bought that morning.

“Grab your own cart, Alex. We’ll probably fill them both up. Follow me. We’re gonna skip the produce and deli.”

“Mom, what exactly are we shopping for?” asked Alex.

“Nonperishable foods, honey. We need food that we can eat without any preparation and that will give us nutrition and energy. Think of foods that require little or no cooking too.”

Madison veered toward the left through the floral department until Alex grabbed her arm.

“What about granola, nuts, and dried fruits? You know, the stuff hikers and campers eat.”

Madison stopped as she realized Alex was right. When she used to hike, she planned on eating a snack every hour for energy, which included complex carbohydrates like pretzels and crackers as well as nuts and dried fruits.

“You’re right. Back this way.” Madison wheeled the cart around and almost took out a table of purple orchids. She headed back into the produce department, past the sushi counter, and found the wall of granola and trail mix ingredients. She and Alex began filling up the plastic bags and closing them with the twist ties.

She didn’t add to their cart in the meat and seafood department. They had a deep freeze in their garage, which was full of frozen chicken, meats, and seafood. If the power went out for a significant period of time, the deep freeze would only function for so long before the food would spoil. They would have to cook it first.

Madison led Alex past the organic foods section toward the canned goods. Once again, Alex stopped her.

“Mom, wait. We can use these too.” Alex turned down the aisle and stopped in front of the organic energy bars. She began to fill her cart with Clif and Larabar energy bars. Madison was impressed with Alex’s cool demeanor. Although the two hadn’t said it aloud, they were shopping for their survival. The choices they made in that Kroger store might determine whether they lived or died.

The next aisle, which contained canned goods and dried beans, was busy. Madison observed the usual Wednesday senior shoppers who took advantage of the five percent discount offered by Kroger. But there were others.
Like us
.

As Madison approached the dried beans and rice, she noticed a woman filling her cart with bags of beans. Her toddler was gleefully kicking his legs back and forth in the shopping cart’s seat.

Madison quickly joined her and began grabbing twenty-pound bags of rice off the bottom shelf. The woman made eye contact and nodded.
She’s doing the same thing!
Madison debated whether to say anything, but then decided the two needed to cooperate.

She whispered to the woman, “We need the same things. How about we take turns so that we both get what we need. Deal?”

“Deal,” the woman responded as she took a bag of rice. She and Madison took turns until the shelves were emptied and the bottom of Madison’s cart was full of a variety of legumes and uncooked rice. After they had finished, they looked at each other and the woman began to shed a few tears. Madison became emotional as well and moved to give her a hug.

The woman whispered to Madison, “I’m scared.”

“Me too,” replied Madison, holding the stranger tightly. “Take care of that beautiful boy, okay?”

The woman wiped her tears and smiled at Madison. The two mothers had shared a moment, rendered support to each other with love, and then moved on to the task at hand.

As they worked their way through the aisles, more
shoppers of the pre-apocalypse
began to appear. They pushed carts full of bottled water, batteries, and packaged meals. Madison continued to concentrate on food items, including spices to make their stockpile of beans and rice more palatable and varied.

In the paper goods section, she grabbed two large packs of toilet paper and paper towels, a three-hundred-piece disposable flatware set, several boxes of garbage bags, and several packages of Ziplocs.

The cleaning supplies section was almost skipped, but Alex reminded her mom that chlorine bleach could be used to purify water and sanitize things. They also bought several bottles of Purell.

Their last stop was the area near the pharmacy, which included medications and sports nutrition supplements. The store was filling up, and Madison felt a sense of urgency. The faces in the crowd said it all. People were on edge and in a hurry.

“Alex, let’s split up here. I’ll focus on medical supplies. I want you to load up on vitamins and supplements, okay?”

“Like what?” asked Alex.

Madison replied as Alex began to push her cart in that direction. “Vitamins. You know, multivitamins, mineral supplements, C, D, E and B-Complex.”

“Okay,” shouted Alex in response.

“Hey, protein powders too,” Madison yelled back. “Grab protein mixes, the big muscle builder containers.”

“Got it,” came the response over the top of the first aid shelves.

Madison pulled the EMP book out of her bag and thumbed to the appendix. The list titled
Survival Medicine
was long.

“My goodness,” she uttered out loud.
First Aid. Infection. Dental treatments. Pain
. She quickly became overwhelmed as her eyes darted from the book to the store shelves.
Why didn’t I do this years ago?

Her cart was almost full, but she started by grabbing one of everything. Bandages, ointments, adhesive tape, and Betadine. She then worked her way through the pain relievers and cold-relief medications. She grabbed a variety. She retrieved extra Benadryl from the shelf because it could be used for bee stings and bug bites.