The Pulse

I was instantly awake when I heard the creak of the stair leading up to the attic. Quickly I grabbed Sarah’s arm and put my hand over her mouth in case she made a sound. I put a finger to my lips and motioned with my head towards the door. Eyes wide, she glanced over my shoulder in the direction of the door, then slipped silently out of bed. I slid my hand under the pillow and grasped the comforting handle of the hammer. Laying there motionless I kept my hand hidden under the pillow, waiting. They were coming up the only way out so we were going to have to fight to get clear.

Sarah finished dressing and threw what little possessions we had into the small backpack we had been using for the last year. I had serious concerns about who was coming up the stairs. If it was militia outside the door, we were done, but if it was the outers, then we had a fighting chance for they usually traveled in groups of no more than four or five and tended to scatter quickly if attacked. They relied on surprise to get their prey and today, that wasn’t going to happen. Militia, on the other hand, well they were much more versed in the skill of fighting and would easily overpower me and my hammer. If that happened, Sarah would be taken and sold and I would be forced to fight for them. Both options sucked.

Sarah knew what to do as we had been through this before. She lay down next to me and pulled the thin blanket we shared over her and pretended to sleep. As I lay next to her, I could feel her shaking and I reached back and squeezed her thigh reassuringly.

The handle moved and the door slowly opened. I had greased it up with petroleum jelly to keep it from squeaking, so it opened silently. A dark featureless figure moved through into the room followed by another. No one else followed and I felt more confident as this was definitely not militia. The lead figure stopped and scanned the room then quickly moved towards the bed where we lay. I kept perfectly still and kept pressure with my hand on Sarah so she could follow my lead when I made my move.

The lead figure stopped at the edge of the bed, but I was carefully watching the second one as it started around towards Sarah’s side. I couldn’t let that happen, so I suddenly swung the hammer as hard as I could, striking the knee of the first person. He let out a scream and dropped to the ground holding his damaged leg. I jumped out of bed and went after the other person who was coming to the aid of the hurt man. I ran straight on and plowed full force into their chest, driving them backwards into the wall. I’m six-foot, 198-pounds (Much more before the event) and there wasn’t much to this one. After hitting the wall they collapsed to the ground, struggling for breath.

As soon as I had moved, Sarah had leapt out of bed and moved back into the dark shadows of the room where she would be safe. Once I had the two on the ground, she ran over to the door and looked outside, then stood there silently watching.

I went quickly back over to the first man who was still screaming, put my hand over his mouth and raised the hammer over my head.

“Shut up or I will kill you right now,” I said.

He looked up at me and the hammer and ceased wailing, but kept up this mewling whimper that annoyed me. I wasn’t about to kill anyone, that wasn’t my intent, however he didn’t know that.

“Anyone else with you?”

He shook his head.

“I said, is anyone else with you?” I repeated, threatening with the hammer again.

His eyes grew wide and he nodded.

“How many?”

“One, on lookout at the door. That’s it.”

“Ok, that’s better. Whatdya wanna bet that lookout is long gone once he heard you screaming?”

He just looked at me, silently.

The other person, groaned and coughed, trying to get up, but fell back over sobbing. I was shocked to realize it was only a kid, but there was nothing to do about it now.

I stood and turned to Sarah motioning her to leave. She looked back down the stairs and left. I grabbed the blanket and rushed out the door right behind her. Fortunately, I was right about the lookout and we were able to leave without seeing anyone else. I grabbed Sarah’s hand as we ran off towards the river, safe again for now.

As we passed the park, I pulled up and stopped, looking back. No one appeared to be following us, but it was nighttime and not safe to be out. I looked at Sarah, who was looking at me questioningly.

“It’s ok. We’re safe for now,” I signed.

“Ok,” she signed back, breathing hard. “Where are we going now?”

I shook my head. I had no idea where to go, but I needed to figure it out fast. Luckily we were in a small town and not the city or it would have been much worse. We had left The Mill over two-weeks ago, almost a year to the day from the “Pulse,” and we weren’t finding any safe places to go. What a mess this all was.

The “Pulse” was a massive EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) that originated somewhere out in space. The scuttlebutt was it was sent by the Chinese, but I know that’s a bunch of bull. There isn’t anything on Earth that could have caused that massive of a wave without being detected. This thing came out of the blue and we only had less than an hour to prepare for the worst. And the worst it was.

Nearly every piece of electronics in the world was wiped out. Nothing worked after the “Pulse” hit. Cell phones, cars, machinery, anything that had a circuit board in it was toast. Power grids went down and there was no longer any electricity, gas or water. Unless you were off the grid, you were helpless.

America was hit the hardest. The politicos had failed to understand how dependent our nation was on electronics and once they were gone, there was no system in place to help the people. Within a year, the population was cut in half. People starved to death or were killed or, worse yet…eaten. There were communities that worked to get some sustainability going, unfortunately these all failed because those who didn’t have the ability to survive on their own, resorted to violence and soon mini-wars raged across the country.

The primary issue was that we had come to rely solely on machines to be able to make the parts that make the machines work. Man simply wasn’t able to start producing machinery again without the use of electronics. Of course there were those that had been prepared, however most were soon found out and killed or run off and their equipment eventually failed. Man’s inhumanity came crashing down on society like a sledge hammer.

Of course, the third world countries that had limited resources and limited reliability upon technology had fared the best. I mean, if you lived in a tin hut with no utilities, what did it matter that electronics were gone? And so much of their machinery was old and relied only on basic principles to operate which meant that they could still function, somewhat. So they gained the power. These countries had fewer deaths because they grew their own food and didn’t need the grid.

It’s not to say that those countries didn’t suffer at all, because even though so much of the population was self-sufficient, much of the infrastructure within the large cities had been upgraded to more modern technology. However, these societies pulled together and worked in unison to try and build back what they could. These are peoples that had needed to depend on one another to survive, and that enabled them to be able to sustain themselves as a society.

Sarah and I were working our way West. I had heard through the grapevine that there was a prison in Nevada that had been converted to a safe camp by the prison guards who worked there. Looking it up in a library we found out it was once the Mallon World Security Prison, but then when the big war began, they had turned it into a POW encampment. It was built almost completely underground and designed to be self-sustaining, so hopefully it was still functioning. Seeing few other options, we had headed out, hoping to make it.

The world was bad, and here in America, it was anarchy. No police, no military and no government. The strong and wicked ruled absolutely and the poor and weak had no chance. I had saved Sarah from a small group of men who were in the process of raping her. I dread to think what would have happened had I not walked past. Luckily by this time there no threat of guns. I mean there were still lots of weapons to go around, just no ammunition. So, seeing as I had a baseball bat and they didn’t see me coming until it was too late, I won that battle. I grabbed Sarah and ran as fast as could away from there.

After we ran away from the men, the only thing Sarah had was a small, silver, heart-shaped locket that hung around her neck. Whatever else she might have had was gone and so I gave her some of my things to wear, but they were huge. I needed to get her some new clothes, but every time I brought it up, she ignored me. It wasn’t until later the next day that I found out she was deaf. I still think about that often. What are the odds that a CODA (child of deaf adults) would find a deaf woman? Out of an ingrained habit, one time I signed when she didn’t speak. Seeing my hands, she smiled brightly and began signing frantically and we had our first conversation. From then on we have been together and it wasn’t long before I fell in love with her.

We had been traveling for more than three-months now and had avoided any major issues, for the most part. There had been the odd person or groups that had tried to follow, but most were unwilling to go up against me and the bat. My latest worry was once we got to the desert, what would we do for water. Now that we were on the western slopes of the Rockies, water would be getting more and more scarce. And the likelihood of us finding water was just as scarce.

We followed the Gunnison River through Montrose and into Delta. These were small towns and had few people. There weren’t any issues with anyone. If we continued to follow the river, it would lead into Grand Junction which was a much larger city and a much larger chance for trouble. We discussed the issue and decided that we would avoid the city and go overland.

On September 22, we stumbled on an old cabin somewhat hidden among the trees. It looked as if hadn’t been used in ages, and since the road leading up to it was overgrown, we figured it was a safe place. I was able to force the door without much damage and we settled in for a few days. It was nice to rest in a real bed for a change. As I lay there one night, I wondered if we would ever get back to normal, and I found, at that moment, I didn’t care if we did.