Grid Attack (Cyber War #1) (3 page)

At the moment, the grocery store was what I would call a civilized madhouse. People were frantically filling carts full of anything that was available not aware that unless they had cash, they wouldn’t be taking much with them.

Then, there was always those few entitled ones who had lived off the government teet so long that they expected things to be given to them regardless of ability to pay.

That system just died. And a lot of people have yet to realize that this little bump won’t be that little anymore. This was probably going to be permanent at least for the next several months depending on what really happened and how easy it would be to get the power back on again.

There was a security guard that already had a woman in handcuffs that was yelling that she needed her food and they should just give it to her because she had an EBT card.

I kept my eyes open and watched as I took a small basket instead of a large cart. I knew that trying to take a lot of stuff would not allow me to leave as soon as I hoped, so I just got the things that I knew I could make last as long as possible and also have a decent shelf life of at least a few weeks without power.

Potatoes, onions, a loaf of bread. I grabbed nuts and dried fruits, too. It was fall, so keeping things cool outside would be pretty easy. Half a gallon of milk and some cheese and beef log. Small amounts of protein can do wonders.

Plus, I already had been storing water and canned goods, rice and beans.

As I scurried through the store, it dawned on me that I needed to start filling up barrels, the tub and anything else I could with water as soon as I got home.

I got in line with the others that had just baskets as the girl looked over my things. I pulled out a two twenty’s. She looked at it and nodded as I bagged the few things up and made my way out the door as soon as I could.

I knew I overpaid, but I wasn’t there to haggle. Cash would work well for now until people realized it may stop being worth anything other than fire-starter in the near future.

The time spent in the store was focused but tense and I found myself holding my breath a lot before exiting. I was glad to be making my way across the parking lot and into my truck, quickly locking the door as I got in.

Getting back home should be easy as there were no gas stations on that side of the street so there wouldn’t be traffic backed up waiting to try to get fuel.

As I started the truck, something caught my eye. There were a bunch of people gathering in the parking lot. You know the ones…the ones who’s parents never bothered with discipline. The ones you see in the videos running through stores, knocking stuff over and looting. The ones who pants are down around their knees.

I pulled towards the back of the parking lot and waited to see what was going to happen next with the mass of agitated people gathering. I took out my phone and put it on the car charger, hoping it would be able to pull some kind of signal.

At least we could charge the phones in the vehicles, for however long they would work. I tried to text Tony and let him know I was okay, but there were no bars at all.

I turned on the video just in time. There must have been 200 people storming the grocery store. They went in screaming and yelling, knocking people down as they stormed through.

“Why on earth do people have to act this way?” I said, exasperated and frustrated at how our society has deteriorated. I let the video run as it filmed the chaos that ensued.

Masses of people began running out of the store, screaming. Then, I heard gun shots.

“What the hell?” My heart was racing.

That was my queue to leave. I wasn’t about to be taken down by a stray bullet because some kid was on a rampage. I sped out of the parking lot just in time as I heard something hit the back of the truck.

Not wanting to waste time, I looked for ways to get around the snarled traffic, almost pushing my way through the intersection ahead and onto the side street.

I decided to take the other route home that would take me through the residential area as opposed to the main roads. I figured it would be safer…for now.

As I made my way block by block, I finally relaxed a bit. The roads in the residential neighborhoods were still quiet at the moment. Who knows what they would be like by nightfall.

I went as fast as I could home, and was so relieved when I turned onto our street and could see Tony’s truck in the driveway.

“Made it.” I said to myself, almost proud, but feeling kind of silly for actually taking the chance I did.

As I pulled up into the driveway, Tony came bolting out of the door yelling at me as he ran towards me.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” he yelled, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me at first, before pulling me into a big, tight bear hug. “You should have waited for me.”

“I did!” I replied. “But I knew things were getting hairy and time was of the essence. I figured it would be easy right now and harder later. Plus, I figured you’d get caught up in some kind of traffic as well. I just didn’t want to wait. I’m sorry, babe.”

I decided not to mention the riot and looting that came a little to close for comfort.

I hugged him back tightly. He felt good in my arms. I felt better knowing we were together now.

Heading to the back of the truck, I grabbed the couple of bags of food I managed to get. That’s when I noticed it. The bullet hole.

Tony came around to help me and I turned my body enough to conceal it as I handed the bags to him and we made our way up the stairs to the front door.

Locking the door behind us, he went and pulled the shades down just so we could see slightly outside. This wasn’t typical for Tony.

“What are you doing?” I asked, hoping to see where his head was.

He took my hand and sat me on the couch, sitting next to me.

“Don’t freak out.” He started, “The boss pulled a few of us managers into his office before letting us go today. Apparently he has a high-up retired military friend. He was told this wasn’t just state-wide, but nation wide. There was an attack on the grid. This could go on for quite some time.”

My head began to swim with all the things I had heard about prepping. I wasn’t a hard-core prepper, but I had felt things were getting a little crazy over the last year so I began to buy a little extra food and bottled water, just in case.

“Did he say how long?” I asked. Tony shook his head and furrowed his brow.

I knew we had limited time to set up things up to try to live as normally as possible. Mainly, I wanted to get as much water as I could while the city water was still pressurized. I wasn’t sure if the city had a generator to keep pumping water up into the tank, but I knew that once it was empty there would be no water coming from the tap. Things would really get scary if there was no water.

“Babe?” I called out to Tony, “I need you to do me a favor. I need you to get every possible container that can hold water and fill it up. Every barrel, bucket, trash can. Wash the rolling cans out and fill those too.”

Since we didn’t know how long this would last, I wasn’t about to take any chances. We could always use the water for the chickens, or the yard if things were fixed and back to normal in a week.

He looked at me funny. I knew what he was thinking already.

“We probably won’t be drinking that water, but we still need the chickens to drink, and we need something to wash clothes in and use to clean our bodies.”

I saw a look of relief on his face. I hated to tell him that if things got really bad, that he probably wouldn’t care about what was in those cans before.

Still, I gave him the soap and a scrub brush.

“Get it as clean as you can. Imagine if you would have to drink from it. Even though we probably won’t have to. Just get it as clean as you can.” I insisted.

“And do it behind the fence and as quiet as possible. I don’t want anyone to see you or hear you if possible.”

He rolled his eyes smirked. I gave him a stare. He knew I was serious.

Then he nodded his head yes, and went out the door.

I always wondered what went on in people’s heads who were looking at the end of the world as we know it right in the face, and not take it seriously. It was almost like they had to be hit over the head to ‘get it’ and sometimes even that didn’t work.

I gathered everything and anything that would hold water and began to fill it.

Since the washer wouldn’t fill the normal way because of the power outage, I pulled off the hose and just filled it with that.

Bowls, pots, pans…even plastic tubs that I had used to store clothes in got filled. They were heavy so I took them to the basement before filling them and figured we could dip out of them when we needed and it would be clean water.

I didn’t know if I was wasting my time doing this, but it seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. And since rain wasn’t in the forecast for weeks, who knows how long it would be before the water stopped, and then things really started to get crazy.

As I worked, I began to think maybe we should be packing up and heading down to my mother’s house instead. I know it was drastic, but it would be easier to get out of the city now than it would be later.

I just had to convince Tony that it was the smart thing to do. He wouldn’t want to do it. He would say to wait. I knew him well enough to know how he worked. But this time, I was right and I knew it. We really needed to get out of the city now, and not wait until all hell broke loose.

I just had to convince him.

Chapter 4 - Anthony

I knew by the look in her eyes how serious she was. She was moving around the house like a madwoman, trying to find anything that would hold water.

Wash out the trash cans? C’mon! I thought, as she handed me the soap and scrub brush.

Her face said all that needed to be said. I went outside and pulled the smelly rolling trash bins into the back yard and began to clean them.

Man, I sure hope we don’t have to drink out of these, I thought, as I poured soap into the can. But as I looked around, I realized we had cats and chickens to tend to. They needed water, too.

She moved as fast as she could, gathering and filling. I would see her come in and out of the house, with more containers that could be filled and lined up along the back of the house.

“Babe, do we really need all these too?” I asked, trying not to whine.

She just looked at me. Then she cocked her head to one side and asked, “Do you like to drink water? Do you like to bathe? Do you like clean clothes?”

“Okay, Miss Bossy Pants, Okay!” I said with sarcasm and sweetness. I thought it was overkill. But this was stressful enough without me questioning her motives.

I knew she was trying to get us in a position to be a safe as possible for as long as needed. I figured if things calmed down in a week or two, then we could just use the water for the chickens or the yard. No big deal.

I just couldn’t imagine that it would get so extreme that we would be worrying about where to get water. That just seemed so foreign to me.

I lined the trash cans and the large barrels we had along the inside of the fence to where the sun couldn’t get to them. I knew that sunlight would grow algae so it was better to keep it cool and dark.

Kat came out as I was finally filling up the buckets. She had filled everything including the bathtub.

“Guess we are spot bathing for a while,” She said. “Glad I showered this morning.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “But do you really think we will need all this?”

She was so patient with me. I was always the one who waited until the last minute to do things. It’s just how I was. She was the planner, I always just flew by the seat of my pants.

I still managed to live life just fine like that, but it never made her feel secure. And there were times when I was glad she had planned ahead. Other times, she obsessed about things needlessly. I didn’t want her to be stressed, but I knew this would be stressful for both of us.

“Yes, I do, and I think you will be glad that we did this as well. Actually, before you fill up that last rolling trash can, let's put it over here next to the gutter.” She said. “I will grab a hacksaw. We need to cut the downspout so that it will fill the trash can up when it rains.”