36 Hours: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Fiction Series (7 page)

“Sir, we are forecasting full impact to Earth in approximately twenty-four hours as an X58 solar event.”

Chapter 11

25 Hours

10:17 p.m., September 7

Ryman Residence

Belle Meade, Tennessee

“Here it is, Mom,” said Alex as she navigated the cursor onto the YouTube channel of Dr. Andrea Stanford. Using the moniker Space Weather Woman, she provided constant updates on her website and via YouTube presentations. She’d been featured in numerous television documentaries and on The Weather Channel. “Dr. Stanford just uploaded it. Look at all of the views already!”

“Does that read four thousand?” asked Madison, pointing at the bottom of the computer monitor. “And when was it uploaded?”

“Yes, Mom. She uploaded it seven minutes ago and it’s going viral. Let’s watch it.”

Alex increased the volume on her speakers and used the cursor to hit the play icon on the screen. Dr. Stanford came to life. She was pointing to a newspaper headline image, which read
Minivan destroyed after GPS leads driver onto MBTA tracks
. Accompanying the headline was a minivan ripped in half by a commuter train in the Boston area.

“
Now, we’ll start this forecast by reminding you how important it is to pay attention to space weather. This happened a month ago when a mother and two children barely escaped alive when the car’s GPS unit steered them onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train. Sadly, this event occurred while the northern hemisphere was under a G3 geomagnetic storm warning, which disrupted GPS units and radio broadcasts
.
Had a more public warning of this G3 event been given, the mother might not have relied upon her GPS as she did under normal solar conditions.
”

Madison pulled up a chair. “My God, those poor people.”

“Look, Mom, the views are approaching ten thousand.”

“
From my last update, where we announced an X2.2 flare and the launch of a solar storm, we now have a new active region that has crossed the solar disc, which has been identified as AR3222. By new, however, I mean old. AR3222 has grown in size to encompass much of the Sun’s northern hemisphere. This is an image of the far side taken a few moments ago. A huge dark coronal hole has formed, and this has the potential to slam Earth with some fast solar wind
.

“
We didn’t get much aurora from this solar storm today, which is, frankly, puzzling. But that should change as this enormous black void rotates into Earth view on the east limb tomorrow morning
.

“
We can expect the fast solar wind to increase, and this region will most likely launch solar storms in the next twelve hours. Regular viewers of my forecast know that I’m not an alarmist. My primary goal is to provide you the latest space weather forecast so you can prepare accordingly. In the past, our government agencies have chosen not to inform you of the consequences of significant solar activity. I believe you are capable of making an informed decision
.

“
There is a very strong possibility of extreme solar weather, so please take my forecast into consideration to determine how that might impact your day tomorrow. Outside of that, expect to have some amazing auroras stretching as far south as Arizona, Louisiana, and Florida. So aurora watchers, look at the skies tomorrow evening and cross your fingers that this will be a wonderful display of colors and nothing more. I’m Andrea Stanford. Thank you for watching
.”

“Alex, what do you—” Madison began to ask before Alex interrupted her. Alex pounded furiously on her keyboard—quickly navigating between Google search results and various websites.

“Mr. Stark said something today and I want to look it up. There! Look at this.” Alex pointed to an article about the 1859 Carrington Event. “Here, Mom.”

Madison read the article aloud. “What Carrington saw through his telescope was a white-light solar flare, a magnetic explosion on the sun. Before dawn the next day, skies all over the planet erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Hawaii.”

“See, Mom. Dr. Stanford said the aurora could be seen tomorrow night in Florida. That’s almost Cuba!”

Madison read more of the article before catching her breath. Alex was obviously excited about this. But being excited about some colorful skies was far different from predicting the end of the world as we know it.

“Listen, Alex. I understand your interest in all of this. It does sound exciting to see the aurora here in Nashville. I’ve never seen the northern lights myself.”

“Mom!” exclaimed Alex as she jumped out of her chair. “I don’t care about the pretty lights. Who cares about the pretty lights? A solar flare this big could cause a massive blackout.
Pretty lights?
How about
no lights
?”

Madison was concerned about her daughter’s highly charged mental state. If you read enough on the Internet, you’d go around wearing a suit of armor, if you even left the house at all.

“Alex, let’s see how this develops. We can see what the news tells us in the morning.”

“Mom,” Alex protested, “the news won’t tell us anything because the government won’t tell the news anything. Dad always says the government lies to us. They’re probably lying now.” Alex stood defiantly staring down at her mother.

“Honey”—Madison rose to her feet in an attempt to calm her daughter down—“the government is aware of this situation if Dr. Stanford knows about it. If we’re threatened in some way, I’m sure the government will tell us what to do.”

The phone rang, interrupting the debate. Madison checked the caller id. It was Colton,
thank God
.

“Hi, darlin’!” answered Madison, showing her genuine appreciation for the call. She didn’t like to argue with Alex. “How was the concert?”

Colton provided her the details of his day in Dallas. Madison listened dutifully and interjected a comment here and there. She was still on edge over her conversation with Alex, who paced the floor impatiently. Madison touched Alex on the shoulder in an attempt to calm the tenseness between them, but Alex responded verbally.

“Mom, are you gonna tell him?” she asked.

Madison nodded and raised a finger to her lips. This didn’t go over well with Alex, who didn’t like to be shushed.

“Mom, please,” she pleaded.

“Yes, Alex is still up. I’ll put you on the speaker.”

Madison gave the handset to Alex who immediately began to talk.

“Daddy, you need to come home. Are there any flights tonight?”

“Alex, what’s wrong? Madison?” Colton asked over the phone loud enough for Madison to here.

Madison took the phone back from Alex and set it on the computer desk after hitting the speaker button. She took a seat and motioned for Alex to do the same.

“Honey, there are some news and internet reports that the sun is acting up and might cause a solar flare,” started Madison. “Alex learned about them in school today, and coincidentally, the sun is brewing one up. But they happen all the time, and I’m sure there’s nothing to—”

“It’s gonna be massive, Daddy,” interrupted Alex. “I’ve been online all night. This could be the biggest in history.”

Colton relayed his conversation with the American Airlines executive tonight. He explained to Alex that these solar flares were common and didn’t affect them in the south.

Alex, who had now calmed down out of resignation rather than compliance, announced that she was tired and was going to bed. She and Colton said her good-byes, and Madison took the phone with her downstairs. They’d have to watch
Big Brother
tomorrow night.

“Colton, she’s worked up, that’s all,” started Madison after she was out of listening distance from Alex’s room. “You know how she gets passionate about certain topics. Today, it’s solar flares. Tomorrow, it’ll be whether global warming is a hoax. You’ve raised quite the conservative, you know.”

Colton, still on speakerphone, replied, “We’ve both raised a rabble-rouser!”

“That kind of activity came from your side of the family, Mr. Ryman!”

“I love you, Maddie. I appreciate Alex’s concern. But tomorrow is a big day. We have the final meeting with the lawyers in the morning, and then tomorrow night is the Cowboys home opener on Thursday Night football. There’ll be a big production about the Super Bowl lineup during halftime. You know what I mean.”

“I know, honey. Alex will be fine. This kind of stuff floats around the Internet all the time. Tomorrow night is the announcement, you’ll fly home Friday morning, and we’ll have the party Friday night. Life goes on, right?”

“Yup.”

Chapter 12

19 Hours

4:23 a.m., September 8

9:23 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

The Sun

The sun has no surface per se. It’s a huge sphere of glowing gasses in a constant state of flux. At its core, immense gravitational pulls produce unfathomable pressure and temperature, which can reach twenty-seven million degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, the incredible heat causes hydrogen atoms to be compressed and fused together, creating helium. The sun, and other stars like it, is the perfect nuclear fusion reactor.

The universe’s consummate source of energy is always producing massive amounts of energy. This energy emanates outward toward the sun’s photosphere, the lowest of its three primary layers. As this energy passes through this radiative zone, the temperature of this energy decreases by several million degrees, and, as a result, light is formed.

In the last forty-eight hours, the Sun’s magnetic field bloated, and it encroached upon the photosphere. These powerful magnetic fields created sunspots in the outer atmosphere of the sun. To observers in the universe, these sunspots appear to be dark because they’re cooler than the surrounding areas of the sun’s photosphere. But cooler does not mean better in this instance.

The dark area of the sunspot is called the umbra. The umbra can vary in size based on the power of the magnetic field. The Sun, and stars like it, are unique because the interior and exterior rotate separately. Over time, all that messy and uneven movement twists and distorts the sun’s magnetic field in the same way your bedcovers get wrinkled and bunched up when you toss and turn in your sleep.

For several days, the sun had been restless. Without conscience, the sun determined enough was enough. Its magnetic field began to wind up into a twisted mess and push its way from the sun’s core.

The magnetic field’s expansion into the photosphere was enormous. The magnetism build up was so intense that it inhibited the flow of hot gasses from the sun’s interior to its surface.

It was powerful. It was unsustainable. It would be described as the largest in recorded history.

The magnetic field lines from the sun’s interior burst through the sunspot, twisting to the point of snapping—like a rubber band wound too tight. When they snapped, they linked up again to form a new shape, but not before releasing enormous amounts of stored energy into the sun’s outermost atmosphere, the corona.

The sun erupted, creating a solar flare that heated the surrounding gas to one hundred eighty million degrees. Subatomic particles of radiation in the form of ultraviolet, gamma, and X-rays spewed into space at near light-speed.

Eight minutes after the solar flare released from the Sun, Earth’s atmosphere absorbed the initial radiation pulse. The pulse produced extra ions and electrons, causing the planet’s atmosphere to puff out. As Earth’s atmosphere expanded, there was a drag on satellites, causing disruptions in radio and GPS signals.

But the worst was yet to come.

Today, the sun had another gift—a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The coronal hole in its northern hemisphere was incapable of containing the plasma burst emanating from the sun’s interior. Billions of tons of plasma were flung into space en masse. These huge bubbles of matter were rushing towards Earth, but at a much slower pace than the solar flare. At several million miles per hour, the CME could take less than a day to impact Earth.

On this day, at this hour, the CME boosted the speed of the solar wind as it approached Earth. As it traveled through space, it created a shockwave of energized protons. The shockwave would catapult itself into Earth’s magnetic shield, and the protons would stream down on the north and south poles.

The wave of energy was much larger than Earth. It was aiming for the bull’s-eye. It wouldn’t miss.

The resulting geomagnetic storm produced dangerous currents in the atmosphere analogous to a moving bar magnet raising currents in a coil of wire. When the CME hit Earth’s magnetic field, it created a rapid oscillating effect. The powerful currents of energy passed through most conductive materials on Earth’s surface—anything containing a wire, an antenna, or similar metal.

The CME would hit Earth with a force equal to a billion hydrogen bombs.

It’s happened before.

It will happen again—at Zero Hour.

Chapter 13

16 Hours

7:13 a.m., September 8

Ryman Residence

Belle Meade, Tennessee

Madison served Alex a bowl of oatmeal topped with fresh strawberries and bananas. NewsChannel5 was streaming live on a monitor in the kitchen. There had been another terrorist attack instigated by ISIS, this time in Istanbul, Turkey. Madison couldn’t imagine living in a place where a terrorist could disrupt activities on a daily basis. America had seen terror since 9/11, but they consisted of random attacks in Orlando, San Bernardino and nearby Chattanooga. The media downplayed these incidents as isolated events, but as a mother, she always feared for the safety of Alex. She couldn’t imagine that type of violence in Nashville.