Countdown to Armageddon Read online

  “And the two way radio was to contact your husband and tell him not to worry?”

  “Oh, there is no husband. No, the two way radio would be to contact a couple of close girlfriends who were also preppers.”

  Scott’s eyebrow went up when she mentioned that she was single. She noticed. Both filed away their information for later.

  “I think it’s very interesting, Mr. Harter, that you know what a Faraday box is. Does that mean that you’re a prepper too?”

  “No. Well, at least I wasn’t during the 2012 Mayan thing when the rest of the world was going nuts.”

  He caught himself, and said, “No offense.”

  She smiled and said, “None taken, Mr. Harter.”

  “Please, call me Scott. I didn’t believe in the whole end of the world in December 2012 thing. But I have done some research on sun spot activity since then. And I believe it’s only a matter of time before a major solar storm sends EMPs that are capable of doing great damage to the power grids. In fact, I think it’s inevitable. If I were you, I’d hang onto this Faraday box. Just in case.”

  “Well thank you… Scott. And thank you also for not thinking me looney, like my friends did.”

  “Oh, I don’t think you’re looney at all.”

  He smiled, and wondered… Then he came back to reality.

  “I won’t be home much the next couple of days, but I’ll have my cell with me twenty four seven. Please let me know what the Ryan family thinks of my offer.”

  Joyce held out her hand for his, and once again appreciated his strong grip. She wondered what those hands might feel like exploring her body.

  “Thank you again, Scott. I’ll definitely be in touch.”

  -6-

  Scott sat at his desk and looked over the reports he’d gotten from Joyce. Water wasn’t going to be a problem. Neither was electrical power. He had seen an unused room in the partially finished basement. It would be ideal for placing several industrial sized batteries for storing power. He’d looked at plans he found on line for a self-contained power system, and he planned to install one in the basement of the Ryan house.

  His plan was simple. When the wind was blowing, the wind turbine generated more power than the house used. So with battery storage available, the excess could be stored for whenever the wind wasn’t blowing. Likewise, on a bright sunny day, the solar panels generated more energy than the house needed. That excess power could also be stored in the batteries, for use at night and on cloudy days.

  Scott planned to purchase a good sized diesel generator for backup, but according to his calculations, it would only be needed occasionally. When, say for example, there was no significant sunshine or wind for more than two days. By his estimates, that shouldn’t happen more than a few times a year. And it would only be for short periods of time. A diesel generator would ensure uninterrupted power as long as his supply of diesel fuel held out. And he planned to stock a lot of it.

  He got in his car and drove to the Hobby Lobby in the strip mall near his house. It took him awhile to find what he was looking for. But finally, on the bottom shelf of a kitchen nick-knack aisle, he found small tin boxes for holding oversized recipe cards. They were just the right size for holding a walkie talkie and eight AA batteries. He bought three of them, a large sheet of quarter inch thick rubber, a bottle of contact cement and a pair of scissors. And a Snickers bar at the register. Preparing for the end of civilization worked up a powerful hunger.

  He got home and settled in at his dining room table just a few minutes before Zachary walked in the front door.

  “Hi, Dad! What are you up to?”

  “I’m making survival packs for you and your brother.”

  “Oh, okay. What’s for dinner?” Zachary had stopped being surprised years before of his father’s occasional odd habits. If he was at all curious about the “survival packs” he didn’t let on.

  “Call Papa John’s and order a couple of pizzas, will you?”

  Zachary didn’t have to be told twice. His father was a passing cook. But Papa John’s was so much better.

  Scott carefully measured the inside of the small tin boxes he’d bought from Hobby Lobby. Then he cut the rubber and lined the inside of each box. Once pleased with the fit, he glued the rubber into place with contact cement.

  Then he opened up a package of three Motorola 22-channel two way radios that he’d bought a few days before. He set each one on channel 5, and placed one in each of the boxes. Each radio needed four batteries to operate. He doubled that amount and put eight batteries in each box as well. Then he closed the lid. It was a perfect fit.

  He pulled out a large Target shopping bag which contained three identical black backpacks. He placed a tin box within each of the bags. Then he took six bottles of drinking water from an open case behind him and placed two in each backpack. He added four granola bars from a package in the cupboard.

  Lastly, he took a black sharpie and a 5” x 7” index card and sat down to write:

  Dear Zachary,

  “Wherever you are when the power goes out and the cars all stop, take this backpack and make your way home immediately.

  Move only in daylight. If you cannot make it home before dark, spend the night in an abandoned car. They will be everywhere. All the streets and freeways will be covered with them. Find one that is unlocked, crawl in and sleep there. The next morning continue on your way home.

  Do not talk to anyone. You will not know who is friend and who is foe.

  Place four batteries in the radio and turn it on. Do not let anyone see you do this. They might try to take it away from you. Leave it on channel 5 and call me when you can do so without being seen. The best way is to crawl inside an abandoned car and duck down.

  When you get home I may or may not be there. If I am not, wait until I get there. If anyone tries to rob the house, do not resist them. Let them take whatever they want. I don’t want you getting hurt trying to protect the house. The house is not worth your life.

  I love you, Zachary. This will be hard, but we will get through it together.”

  He made a second note, identical except that this one was made out for his oldest son Jordan. He placed one note in each of two backpacks and set them aside.

  He was finishing up when Jordan walked into the house and said, “Hey, the pizza guy pulled up right behind me. All right, no Dad cooking tonight!” Zachary laughed and they high fived each other.

  Scott handed Jordan two twenties and said, “You guys start without me, I’m in the middle of something. Jordan, let me borrow your car keys.”

  While his sons got into a lively debate at the dinner table about whether Canadian bacon and ham were the same thing, Scott went out to the garage. He rolled a brand new ten speed bicycle into the driveway, took the wheels off of it, and placed it into Jordan’s trunk. Then he placed the wheels on top of it. He took the back pack he prepared for Jordan and shoved it into the back part of the trunk, where it would be out of the way.

  Then he went back into the house.

  “You guys finished yet?”

  Zachary had pizza sauce on his chin. He wasn’t the neatest of eaters.

  “Nope. Not yet.”

  “Well, then, grab another piece and come outside. I have something to show you.”

  Each of the boys grabbed a slice of pizza for the trip and followed Scott out into the driveway.

  Jordan looked inside the trunk of his car and saw the new bicycle and backpack.

  “Hey, cool, but why…”

  “Okay, boys, I want you to listen closely, this is important.”

  Jordan and Zachary sensed a seriousness in Scott’s voice and gave him their undivided attention.

  “You guys know I am not the kind of person who freaks out unnecessarily. But I have a very good reason to believe that a major change is coming to the earth sometime in the next year or two. I don’t know exactly when. It could be five minutes from now, or next year, or the year after that. But I am certain it is goi
ng to happen. At some point, there will be a major solar storm on the surface of the sun. It will produce a series of solar flares the likes we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. In fact, these will be greater than any we’ve experienced since man started developing machines.

  “Do you remember a couple of months ago, when there were some solar flares that disrupted the communications satellites, and our cell phones kept dropping calls and the TV picture kept going out?”

  The boys looked at each other and shook their heads.

  “It’ll be like that, only a thousand times more powerful. Instead of just messing with our communications satellites, the massive storm will send electric static waves that will bombard the earth. They won’t do any damage to humans, but they will be strong enough to short out anything that has a battery, or anything that had a circuit board which can be short circuited. That means no cars will work, no computers, no electronics. Nothing you plug into a wall or put batteries into will work anymore.”

  He took out the small metal box from Jordan’s backpack.

  “There is, however, one way to protect things from being destroyed. I made this based on what scientists call a ‘Faraday cage.’ Somebody named Faraday invented a concept whereby electronics were stored within a metal container, but were insulated from direct contact with the container. The idea is that when solar flares send electromagnetic pulses, or EMPs, toward the earth, they will hit the box and run around its surface. But the electronics inside are insulated from the EMPs. Therefore they are protected and can still be used.”

  He opened up the box so the boys could see the rubber insulation, and took out the radio.

  “As I said, I don’t know when it’s going to happen. It could happen while we’re at home. That would be the best thing. But it might happen while you’re at school, or while you’re en route.

  “Jordan, if you’re at school and all the lights go out, try to call me. If the lights at school don’t work, and your cell phone doesn’t work, and none of your friends’ phones work either, then it’ll be time. When you go out to your car, you’ll notice cars on the streets in front of the school have all died.

  “There will be people getting out of their cars and looking under their hoods and scratching their heads, trying to figure out why everybody’s cars all died at the same time.

  “When that happens, leave all your books behind. You won’t need them anymore. Take this bike out of your trunk and put the wheels on it. It’s a racing bike. The wheels have thumbnuts so they can be installed quickly without wrenches. Put the wheels on the bike, put your backpack on, and ride home as quickly as possible.

  “People will try to flag you down, or ask you to get help. Do not stop. They may be friendly, or they may want to take your bike. People will be desperate and scared. Keep moving.

  “If someone does succeed in taking your bike, don’t put up a fight. Give it up without getting yourself hurt. Then walk home. Your school is just over twelve miles from home. I clocked it. You should be able to make it home in one day. If for some reason you can’t, find one of the cars on the road that is unlocked and sleep there for the night.

  “At some point, I want you to duck behind a building or some trees and take the radio out of the backpack. Put the batteries in it and turn it on, and then call me to tell me you’re on your way and when I can expect you. Do you understand?”

  Jordan’s lip quivered, but he nodded his head yes. Scott turned to his younger son.

  “Zachary, the same applies for you, but without the bike. Your school is only six miles away. You can make it in one day. You’ll have to take this backpack with you every day, but there is still room in it for your books and such. There are two bottles of water and some granola bars for each of you if you get hungry or thirsty on the way.

  “Zach, if you’re at school when everything goes out, walk out of school and head home. If any of the teachers try to stop you and say it’s just a power outage, ignore them. Walk right past them and out the door. Your life will depend on it. The same thing applies if the bus dies on the way to or from school. You’ll know it’s happened because all of the other vehicles on the road will die too at the same time. And your cell phone won’t work.

  “I don’t want either of you to worry or be scared. Once we meet here, I’ve got a safe place for us to go, and I will protect a vehicle that will get us there.”

  Zachary thought of his mother, who lived with her boyfriend a couple of miles away.

  “What about Mom?”

  “I will talk to your mother. She is very stubborn, but I will tell her if she can get here within a few hours of the blackout we will take her with us.”

  “Dad, I’m scared.”

  “That’s why I’m telling you all of this, son. I know it’s a lot to absorb, and it’s a scary thought. But me telling you this is a good thing. You can put your mind at ease, knowing that while the rest of the city is panicking and going into chaos mode, that we’ll have a safe place to go, and we’ll survive while many others won’t. All you have to do is make it home. I’ve got everything covered after that.”

  Scott went to sleep that night wondering if he’d done the right thing by telling his boys. They were likely to mention it to some of their friends, and it might open them up to ridicule. They might be called crazy.

  But no, he finally decided he needed to tell them. Mostly because they had a right to know that something that would affect them to such a great degree was likely to happen soon. Also, if they were caught by surprise, they might panic. If it happened while they were in school, they might go to the home of a friend who lived close to the school. And while they would surely be safe there, without telephones they’d have no way to tell Scott where they were.

  Now he just had to figure out a way to tell their mother without her freaking out.

  -7-

  A couple of weeks after he closed on the old Ryan place, Scott was there, in the main house, unloading a truck full of furniture and dishes from one of his abandoned storage lockers. There was a knock on the door.

  He opened it up to find Joyce, carrying a house plant and bottle of wine.

  Scott wasn’t surprised. At the closing, she kept catching his eye. It was obvious she was interested. And, Scott had to admit to himself, he was too.

  “Hi. I hope this isn’t too much of a bother. I just wanted to drop off a housewarming gift, and…”

  She left it at that, afraid to go further.

  But Scott wasn’t quite so shy.

  “I hate to drink alone. I’ll accept your generous gift, but only if you stick around long enough to share it with me.”

  She smiled a warm smile. She was quite attractive, Scott had decided. And definitely his type.

  “Why, thank you, Mr. Harter. I’d love to, but… I’m afraid the wine isn’t chilled.”

  “First of all, no one calls me Mr. Harter. Mr. Harter sounds like a stuffy old codger. Call me Scott, please. And the wine isn’t a problem. I have a friend who’s a wine snob from Europe. He insists that only American fools chill their wine before drinking it. He insists that wine and beer taste better at room temperature. Let’s find out. And while we’re finding out, we can get to know each other.”

  It was her turn to smile. She’d already decided she wanted to get to know him a lot better.

  “Okay, but you’ll have to keep an eye on me to make sure I don’t drink so much that I can’t drive home.”

  Scott’s expression told her he was thinking the same thing she was.

  He took the bottle out of the gift bag and read the label. An Eifel spatlase. She had good taste in wine.

  “Have you been to the Eifel region?

  “No, I’ve actually never left the States. An old friend got me hooked on German wines several years ago.”

  She looked around.

  “I was expecting to see your boys, Scott. You said you had two of them?”

  He saw right through her. She was fishing.

  “Yes, but you
won’t see them today, I’m afraid. They are with their mother this weekend.”

  “But you have full-time custody? Pardon me if it sounds like I’m prying, but that’s unusual in Texas. For a father to have custody, I mean.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind. It’s no secret. Linda had some problems about the time we were going through our divorce. She gave me custody without a fight because she knew they were safer with me. And because she had her own personal demons to fight, and she couldn’t do that while raising the boys. She’s been clean and sober for five years now, and she’s changed her bad habits. So even though I have custody, we have a very liberal visitation arrangement. And she and I are still good friends.”

  “It’s nice when you can end things amicably. I wish my own marriage had ended as well. But he’s gone forever, and I haven’t seen him for years. So that’s all water under the bridge, I suppose.”

  “Do you have any children, Joyce?”

  “No, not me. I always assumed it was Ron. My ex. But then after we divorced I got tested. I’m unable to. But that’s okay. I’m too much of a space cadet to have kids. I’d probably leave them at the supermarket by accident or something. That’s how scatterbrained I am.”

  “Oh, I doubt that. You strike me as a woman with a great head on your shoulders, who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it.”

  He smiled and she blushed. It was at that point she realized that all pretense was gone. He knew she wanted him, and his warm smile told her he was more than willing. They’d just dance around the subject a bit more. Play the waiting game. But before the night was over she’d be sharing his bed. She was sure of it.

  Scott found a couple of wine glasses in one of the boxes and washed and dried them. He poured them each a glass. This time he abandoned his easy chair and sat down on the couch beside her. He liked the way she smelled.