Blackout: Chapter 9

Previously

From the Journal of Jason Forrester

27 August 2013

It's been nine days now, and the city is starting to quiet down again.  It is amazing how loud desperation can actually be.  It is amazing that I have gone nine days without writing in this thing.  I simply haven't had time to even stop and think for the last nine days.  A lot has happened.

The city is quiet now, but just a few days ago, that wasn't the case.  I heard constantly, before the blackout, that civilization is only nine meals deep.  They weren't wrong.  It took seven days before civilization collapsed.  And it fell hard.

People in this part of the country are used to power loss, but this is something else.  Previously, other systems still worked.  Enough systems that food was still delivered, water could be found, and people could still talk to their families.

This is different.  I watched a grocery store burn to the ground last night.  It was the single most eerie and creepy thing I have ever seen.  Grocery stores used to be a crown jewel in the tiara which graced Columbia's brow.  Now, angry people hungry for food which wasn't there have burned a store out of pure desperation.

However, at this point, all I want to do is find out where the National Guard went.  They have not been seen since, but I know they are still in town.  I just want to know why.

The Sun

18 August 2013

A massive sunspot - up to five times the size of Jupiter - appeared on the surface of the sun.  It sat around for five minutes, shifting and moving as it grew ever larger in size.  The magnetic field lines fluxed as it grew, sucking in more and more plasma into the region.  It darkened and darkened as the area fluxed ever stronger and hotter.

As the system collapsed in on itself, it released a massive flash of radiation across the spectrum from Microwaves to X-Rays.  The cloud of gas rose up, fed by plasma as the magnetic field which contained it collapsed in upon itself and expelled the super-charged plasma at massive speeds.  It was large enough that the flare eclipsed the sun for a time, and the STEREO system showed it rose almost out to the orbit of Mercury.

And then, it finally let go of the sun and blew outward at very high speeds.  It would reach the planet by sunset in Hawaii.

Greenbelt, Maryland

18 August 2013

Dr. O'Rinn saw the reports from SOHO and STEREO regarding the Coronal Mass Ejection.  He almost fell out of his chair.  With the interstellar medium out of the way, it was moving fast.  Based on the images from STEREO and SOHO, the CME would hit in less than 16 hours.

Running through the data from the various instruments, he did not like what he saw.  The SOHO Cameras designed to track sunspots had failed to alert him the sunspot which had generated the massive Coronal Mass Ejection.  The camera had registered the size and off shape and not been able to classify it.  Having decided it was an anomaly of some kind, it had filed a trouble ticket and ignored the sunspot.

It was the middle of the night, and few if any scientists were in the building.  In fact, Dr. O'Rinn had been only minutes from going home and catching some rest when the alarm had gone off.  Had it waited, it is almost certain no one would have noticed anything until the morning.  And by that point it would have already been too late.

"My God, that is larger than Jupiter."

Dr. O'Rinn picked up the phone and dialed every number he could think of, but no one was in their office.  Finally, he fished the number the new FEMA Director had given him when he took office out of his jacket and dialed the number.

"Director Marshall's office, who may I ask is calling."

"Dr. O'Rinn for the Director, it is urgent."

"One moment please," the receptionist said as the hold music began to play.

"Go for Director Marshall."

"Director, its Dr. O'Rinn with the Goddard Institute."

"Goddard Institute…" The Director's voice trailed off at the sound of ruffling papers, "You are the NASA Guys tasked with Space Weather right?"

"Yes, the NASA guys.  Sir, we might have a major emergency.  The Sun has just kicked off a massive CME."

"Hold on Dr. O'Rinn, I don't have your file in front of me, and I want to make sure I have that.  Julia, can you grab the files on - what did you call it doctor?"

"A CME, a Coronal Mass Ejection."

"Thanks.  Julia, can you get me the files on Coronal Mass Erections?"

Dr. O'Rinn could hear the amazement in the Director's voice with his next comments, "That can't be right.  Julia, I asked you to bring me a file, not a 3-inch binder."

A muffled, apologetic voice on the other end made a short statement, before the Director said, "You're kidding me.  It wasn't that big last time I looked at it."

"Sir, DHS has been conducting an ongoing survey of our vulnerabilities.  If you have a three inch binder in front of you, that sounds about right."

"My God…" the Director's voice trailed off as he flipped through the file.  "Doctor, what is the current threat?"

"Sir, I believe we might have just seen a repeat of the Carrington Event."

The Director must have swapped over to speaker phone, because his assistant could be heard clearly this time saying, "Appendix A, Page 1 sir."

"Thank you Julia."

Dr. O'Rinn repeated much of the same things he had when he briefed the Director back in January as the man flipped through the binder to find the information.

The Director's repeat of "My God" told Dr. O'Rinn he had found the information.

"Sir, we need to begin warning the public immediately.  We are down to 15 hours before the start of the worst disaster since Krakatoa.  Sir, we need to act fast."

"Okay, I am going to contact the President and the cabinet and put the meeting together.  I will want you on the conference call."

"Yes sir."

Low-Earth Orbit

18 August 2013

Milstar Communications Satellite USA-164 fired a short burst of hydrazine from its maneuvering thrusters.  Across the Houston Space Center, heads popped up one by one or in groups as several more satellites ticked over into a station keeping maneuver.

"What in the…"

"Why are they ticking over?"

"I don't know, check the Space Weather Reports."

"Nothing reported yet."

"Then why do we have this many satellites turning on their maneuvering thrusters?"

"I don't know, but I can't think of any other reason."

The problem was increased air resistance.  Even up to a Geosynchronous Orbit, there was enough trace gases from the atmosphere escaping the loving embrace of mother gravity to create drag.  Most of the time it was not enough to effect the orbits of the satellites.  But the increased amount of solar radiation had increased the atmospheric temperature enough that the atmosphere had expanded outwards and began to increase the drag.

It was enough for the Milstar to kick in its maneuvering thrusters and try to maintain altitude.  But there was not enough hydrazine in the reaction mass storage chambers.  After a gallant fight, the satellite succumbed and slid into the gravity well.

Power and Light District, Kansas City, MO

18 August 2013

Lisa was dancing.  She knew Rebecca and Jayce were staying in to catch a movie at the dorm, so she could find a nice guy to go home with tonight.  As the music pumped out, she almost missed the satellite as it flew overhead.

She turned in the arms of some guy, she couldn't remember his name but he was a great dancer, and caught sight of the Milstar as it tore through the sky.  The sonic boom of its passing caused the glass ceiling to shatter the glass ceiling over the Kansas City Live district, showering the crowd below in the shards.

Lisa ducked away from the glass as whats-his-name covered her head to protect her from the shards.  Yeah, he's a keeper.  She thought.  I need to figure out what his name is.  The glass had stopped falling in time for the crowd to look up and watch the satellite crash into One Kansas City place.  The subsequent explosion sent glass and clear fluid raining down on the partiers below.

The smell of ammonia filled Lisa's nostrils as the crowd surged in a gestalt panic away from the burning tower.  Lisa tried to keep her feet, and felt her self getting dragged to the floor when whats-his-name picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

"Don't worry miss, I'll get you out of here!"  She could barely hear him over the still pounding music and the sound of screaming.  So, she thought, he doesn't know my name either.  Figures.

"I'm Lisa!" she called out, next to her ear.

"Hank," he replied, "It was fun dancing with you while it lasted!"

"Thanks!"

All potential conversation cut off as some of the clear ammonia like fluid began to spark.  Someone had snuck in a cigarette of some kind and dropped it in the panic.  A spark touched the liquid and it burst into flame instantly.  Not ammonia, Lisa thought to herself, surprised her Chemistry class had actually come in handy.  Ammonia wasn't that unstable.  This was something else.

"Hank, we need to go, now!"

"Already on it!"  His words were punctuated by an explosion.

The old military comm satellite still had enough hydrazine vapor within one of its fuel tanks to catch fire and explode.  The blast ripped a whole through the building and sent glass and steel shards down onto the panicked crowd below.

Lisa watched as a young man went down with a piece of steel through his shoulder.  His scream and the glowing of the steel told her all she needed to know.

Looking up, she saw still more sharp and heavy shards of steel coming down from the sky.  One of them was heading for her.

"Hank, Left!"

He instantly juked to his left, as a piece of steel plunged into the floor and skidded, burning a gash in the ground as it went.  Hank sidestepped it as it skidded across his path and charged on.

"We have to get to cover!"  He shouted, his head turning every way to try and find some shelter from the rain of broken glass and shattered steel.

Looking over her shoulder, Lisa realized they were near the supermarket.  The owner had the door open and was urging people to take shelter within.

"There," she shouted, "In the supermarket!"

Hank complied and used his size and strength to fight the crowd and get into the supermarket.  A small crowd followed him in.  It was semi-dark within, only a few lights had been on and the large halogen lights overhead took a moment to warm up.

As they got away from the doors and the panicked people who were now spilling in, Hank set her down gently against an aisle.  Lisa smiled her thanks to him and slumped back, tired.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his face slowly dripping blood from a small cut over his left eye.

"Yeah, I am fine.  Thanks for getting me out of there."

"My pleasure.  A gentleman never leaves a lady behind if he can help it."

"A gentleman?" Lisa's smirk was comically surprised, "I couldn't tell from the way we were dancing back there, before the rock hit the skyscraper."

Hank looked sheepish, "What can I say, you are pretty and I just got back from a tour of duty in Iraq."

"Oh, your in the military?"  Lisa's eyes brightened.

"Yeah, Captain Hank McNally, United States Marine Corps Force Recon."

"Captain, do you want to grab some coffee?"

He just started to laugh, but in those gales of laughter, he agreed at some point.

Osaka, Japan

18 August 2013

"KIX, this is Japan Airlines Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy out of Seattle, requesting permission to land, over."

"Roger, JAL Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy, this is Kansai Tower, you are cleared to land on runway 2.  Wind is out of the North-West at three knots, over."

"I copy KIX.  Cleared to land on runway 2.  Wind is out of the North-West as three knots.  Out."

"Be advised, JAL Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy, landing is India Foxtrot Romeo due to heavy fog.  Please acknowledge, over."

"Landing is Instrument Flight Rules, I copy, over."

"Roger that, JAL Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy, handing you over to ATC Landing Control, over."

The radio chatter was routine as Captain Narita brought his plane in for a landing.  The first time he had landed a plane on Kansai he had been nervous as hell.  He hadn't landed on an island before, and his first time had been nerve-wracking.  Now, after seven years of flying the Kansai to Seattle route, ferrying tourists to and fro, he found it routine.  It was unusual for Kansai to be shrouded in fog, but it wouldn't be his first time.

His feelings of relaxation of comfort were shattered when the GPS system began to malfunction.  His inertial compass and navigation system began to diverge.  It was a small divergence at first, but it grew quickly as they gained speed and continued to fly towards the artificial island.

"That's odd, why is the inertial nav system acting up?" his first officer asked.

"I don't know.  It could be the GPS instead."

The first officer shook his head.  The kid was young.  He had only just gotten out of the Air Self Defense Force two years ago, and he had flown an E-2 for the JASDF, and technology like that was magical.  In fact, so far as Narita could tell, the kid to his right was one of those New Age folks who worshipped electricity.  The irony was lost on Captain Narita, though it would not be on Lieutenant Ono's famiy.

"Check both system, see if there is a fault somewhere.  KIX ATC, this is JAL Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy, please respond, over."

"I copy, JAL Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy, go ahead, over."

"KIX ATC, we are having problems with our GPS or Inertial nav system, please advise, over."

"JAL Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy, be advised we are…" the radio cut out in a burst of static which made Captain Narita pull his headphones off.

"Ow, what was that?"

The Lieutenant looked a little dazed, "Don't know sir.  But our GPS is completely on the blink.  What should we do?"

"We don't have enough fuel to make Narita, we are going to have to land now."

"Roger that."

Captain Narita reached over and flipped on the intercom, "Folks, this is your Captain speaking.  We are experiencing a few technical difficulties.  It is nothing to worry about, but if you could please return your seats and tray tables to their upright position, turn off any electrical devices, and please hand your trash over to the flight attendants, it would be much appreciated.  We should have you folks safely on the ground in a few minutes."

Narita flipped off the intercom and turned to his First Officer.  "Continue trying to reach Kansai ATC, see if they are back on the air yet."

"Wilco."  The young Lieutenant held the microphone up and began speaking, "KIX ATC, KIX ATC, this is JAL Three-Niner-Five-Seven-Heavy, do you copy, over."

The Lieutenant was still speaking into the radio when the Purser stuck her head in, "Captain, is everything alright?"

"I don't know, Nishimura, but make sure the passengers are strapped in, just in case."

"Hai, Captain."

She disappeared back into the cabin as the door to the flight deck locked behind her.

The GPS and Inertial Nav system seemed to stabilize, but there was a discrepancy of five meters between them.  That wasn't unusual, the Inertial Nav System wasn't perfect but it usually was closer than that.  And it was showing a difference of altitude more than height.  That worried him.  With the amount of fog apparently around the airport, he needed his instruments to be in synch.

He settled in and decided to land anyways.  He had the airport to himself, not that unusual at that time of night, and there was no other traffic in the area.  It was almost Sunday after all, and few people flew on Sunday.  Even in Japan.

It was time to make a decision, should he trust his inertial nav or his GPS.  His instincts were conflicted.  If the GPS was wrong, and he trusted it, he would slam into the near side of the runway.  If his Inertial Nav was wrong, and he trusted it, he would skid off the rear side of the runway and into the ocean.

Going with his gut, he decided to trust his GPS system.  Following the flight path the computer projected, he didn't realize until he was too late that the GPS was wrong.  With not enough time left to pull up and save the 351 lives aboard his plane, it slammed into the bulkhead.

The aircraft landed far enough forward that a portion of the fuselage, roughly a fifth of the plane including first class in the nose and much of commercial, separated almost cleanly and skidded along the tarmac.  The rear three-fifths of the plane separated as it sank beneath the waves.  The middle one-fifth in between was crushed, violently, as the force of the plane slamming into the bulkhead killed everyone aboard.

The fire department rushed to the scene, but it was too late.  The paint of the forward section of the fuselage caught fire, trapping those still alive in the A380's upper deck, while the lower deck crumpled under the forces it was subjected too.

Only Nishimura, the Purser for the flight, survived, less an arm and a leg.

Kansas City, Missouri

18 August 2013

Jayce listened in horror on his drive in to work to the story of the downed plane in Japan.  Though no one knew for sure what had happened, it was suspected its instruments had malfunctioned.  The tower at Kansai had reported the plane was having difficulties with its nav system when it lost contact with the tower, and ATC had been unable to contact other flights in the area either.  It was thought local weather conditions had knocked out comms and nav systems and caused the plane to crash.

Jayce might have accepted that, if the radio's signal wasn't full of static.  It wasn't a local weather condition, he was certain of that much.

Somehow, lost in his thoughts, he had missed the story about the satellite which had crashed into One Kansas City place, and he had missed the call from his boss telling him not to bother stopping by work today as the floor was inaccessible.  With his offices near the top floor, the giant hole in the middle of the tower, there was no way he would be able to make it in to work.

When he made the turn and caught sight of the KC Skyline for the first time, he noticed the smoke but failed to notice the location.  The skyline was lost to him again as he rounded a corner.  The next time he had a clear view, it was painfully obvious where the smoke was coming from.  His office.

"Well, frak." He responded.

He decided to make his way downtown anyways, hoping to find some information on the situation.  He needed to know what happened.  He was an accredited private law enforcement agent in both Kansas and Missouri.  If there was an attack, he had the ability to join the investigation.  He wanted to know what had happened.

When he arrived and found HazMat crews surrounding the area and de-contaminating the people who had been partying last night, he thought better.  What if it was a heat tolerant airborne virus or a radiological bomb.  He might be contaminated.

He pulled out an N95 Respirator Mask with a respirator valve, and hopped out of the car.

"Sir, I need you to get back in your car and turn around," an officer told him.

"It's alright, Jason Forrester, Helios Security.  We have the contract for this building, what happened?"

"Satellite slammed into the tower, spilled hydrazine all over the place."

"Any idea what happened?"

"Space weather?" the officer shrugged.

Jayce's reaction to the news caused the officer to raise an eyebrow, but Jayce just waved it off and turned away.  Once out of hearing, he picked up the phone and dialed his father.

"Dad, I think it's here.  Check SOHO for me, would you?"

"Sure thing, give me just a moment."

Jayce could hear the tapping over the phone.  "Wow.  That thing is massive…"

"What is it?"

"Solar flare.  It was larger than the sun when it lifted off."

"How dense did it look?"

"I don't know.  Hold on, NOAA is making an announcement on their website.  They are stating this flare is believed to be a Class X.  A high class X.  Is that bad?"

"Yeah, it’s the storm I have been worried about.  When does it hit ACE?"

"ACE?"

"The satellite which determines the strength and orientation of the storm?"

"They don't know yet, but they said the CME should hit around…hold on for a moment."

Jayce could hear his father muttering to himself as he read.

"Ah, here we go.  They think it will hit around 7 pm local time."

Jayce could vaguely hear his father speaking to him in the background.  It was 8 am right now.  That meant he had eleven hours at most to prepare.  He wasn't ready.

Rushing back home, he told his father to begin gathering the supplies and prepare to get out of town.  They had eleven hours before the storm hit and knocked out the power forever.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah Dad, if it is moving this fast, it is big and it is powerful.  We don't have much time.  We have to move, now."

 

ACE Satellite, Earth-Sun L1 Point

18 August 2013

The storm was more powerful than NOAA originally thought.  When it hit the ACE Satellite, the storm hit with a power of over 170 nT.  And its magnetic orientation was south.  The data was transmitted to the Goddard Institute with no time to spare.  The CME had sped up, and there was mere minutes before the storm hit.

The satellite lost power.  For a while it would be fine.  But with time, the satellite would drift out of the L1 point and the asteroid would slide into the sun.  It was too late to save the grid.  The storm was two hours early.  It would slam into the planet during Rush Hour in Kansas City.

Lenexa, Kansas

18 August 2013

Jayce was at home, loading his supplies into the back of his truck, when the alert flashed up. The storm was strong enough that it would wipe out the grid, and it was moving far too fast to take down the grid in time to protect it.

"Oh, frak! Guys, we are out of time, we need to move. Now!"

Even as he shouted it out, he knew they were too late. The storm would hit during rush hour. They were stuck in the city. They were probably doomed.

Rebecca arrived with her mother her car stuffed full of clothing, blankets, and toiletries.

Jayce smirked at here, “What was that you said about not worrying?”

Rebecca rolled her eyes, “Not now, babe.”

Arturius was right behind her in a brand new truck loaded with all kinds of power and food supplies. He could see Codie in the back seat, while Jessie had her parents in the car behind his truck.

Michael looked over the group, “Is everyone here?”

“No, where are Grandma and Grandpa?” Jayce asked, looking around.

“They were outside the loop already. I told them to head south for Pitt State, they should be safe there,” his mother replied.

Good, Jayce thought to himself. If they were outside the loop, they would be more likely to survive. And they had family in Frontenac they could take shelter with, they would be better able survive that way.

Arturius’ parents were down in the Ozarks, they would need to head south anyways. They would be able to pick up both groups before heading out to Hoisington. Which reminded him.

“Art, did you get the paperwork on that house in Hoisington finalized?”

“Yeah, and I brought the paperwork.”

“Good. It’s prolly too late to leave before the storm hits. We need to shelter in place for a while, and then leave when we can.”

Rebecca asked the question she was sure Jayce already had an answer to, “I take it you already have a plan on where to go?”

“Yeah, the High School. It’s got a machine shop, a water supply, a medical station, a Chem lab with supplies, might even have some food laying around.”

“And it has a Library,” Arturius pointed out with a knowing glance.

“True.”

“Okay, let’s head out.” Michael responded, jumping into the Explorer.

Electrical Park, Lenexa, Kansas

18 August 2013

Booker Savage grabbed the rail, and slid down to the floor of the Fire House.  He pulled on his gear and ran towards the engine.  He hopped in the back of the truck and plugged his head phones in.

"Captain, what's the word?"

"Electrical fire.  The Transformer at Electrical Park exploded."

"Sir, that is not a five alarm fire?"

"Not a pole transformer, one of the ground-level sub-stations.  A number of the nearby apartments 

have caught fire."

Booker just stared at the Captain.  The thought of a ground sub-station exploding had never occurred to him.  The fact the explosion had been powerful enough to set nearby homes on fire was even more shocking.  That should not be possible.  It just shouldn't.

As the engine pulled out of Fire House Number 1, it became blatantly obvious that it had happened.  Pillars of oily black smoke were rising across the city.  He could see places where it was a mere smudge, the smoke from a damaged transformer on a power line, but he had never seen so many fires before.  It was like watching Jarhead and seeing the smoke rising from the burning oil rigs in Iraq.  It was like looking at a war zone.

He was so mesmerized by the pillars of smoke, that Booker completely missed the red lights which had begun to dance across the sky overhead.  The Coronal Mass Ejection was here.

I-35 and I-435 Interchange, Overland Park, Kansas

18 August 2013

Harlan Norman had never seen the northern lights before.  He was from Alabama, and this was the farthest north he had ever come.  He had just gotten the job with a national trucking company, and he was on his way back from his first run with a load of oranges.

It distracted him.  Instead of looking at the road, he was looking at the sky.  He wound up smashing into a barrier, and tipping his truck over.  Two cars crashed into his truck, and it started a chain reaction which shut down the entire interchange.

I-435 and Roe, Quiktrip, Overland Park, Kansas

18 August 2013

Sarah Weisner pulled into the Quiktrip and noticed the problem immediately.  The line was far too long for this time of day.  And people were not pumping gas.

"What is going on here?"

She watched as the store manager walked out and put a sign up reading, "NO POWER.  PUMPS DO NOT WORK."

Swearing, she jumped back on the road and drove to the next exit.  The gas stations there weren't working either.  They had the same problem.  This was not good, she was running out of gas quickly.  She kept jumping from exit to exit, looking for a working gas station, until she ran out of gas at I-435 and US-69.  Right in the middle of the road.

It did not take long for a car to slam into the back of hers, sending her car spinning into traffic.  The pile up was massive, and it cut off access to southbound US-69 from I-435.

Shawnee Mission Northwest Highschool

18 August 2013

As cars tried to get off the highway and onto the side streets, more accidents began to stretch the lines, trapping more and more people on the highways.  In one place, a distracted driver drove off a bridge, crashing down onto the highway below and setting several lanes on fire.  The roads out of the city were now effectively blocked.  The people living inside the I-435 loop had only a few choices left; leave by foot, carrying as much food and water as possible, in the hopes the land would not be swept clean by the golden horde marching before you, try to get north and exit the city by car via the sparsely populated regions in that direction, or shelter in place.

For the majority of the population all three options were death sentences, and only those living on the north side of town would be capable of escaping.

For Jayce and his family and friends, the options had been considered and contingency plans had been made.  Everyone converged on the High School where Jayce and Arturius had gone, hopeful that it would be open.

They needn't have worried.  With the power off, the electro-magnets which locked the doors had deactivated.  The building was wide open to them.

Jayce led the way in with his AK-108 shouldered, followed by Arturius and his father, both similarly armed.  The chances of meeting someone were slim to none, but Jayce was already flashing back to his experiences in Afghanistan with the columns of smoke rising in the air.  It was all too familiar to him this day, and he couldn't not go in armed.  He would not have been able to enter without a weapon in his hand.

As they swept the building, Jayce went upstairs to check the classrooms, they were clear as well.  The entire building was clear.

"Let's get the supplies inside, stack them in the lunchroom until we figure out what to do with them.  Everyone sleeps upstairs and with their families.  We will not be claiming individual rooms, we cannot afford that kind of security risk.  Art, Dad, you are with me.  We need to secure the other entrances.  Find something heavy and large we can use to barricade them with."

"Will the trophy shelves work?" Art asked, gesturing to the photo of himself and Jayce from when they had won State.

"Yeah, those should work for the front door.  We need to keep at least one door open, so we leave the backdoor open."

The rest of the afternoon was a fever pitch of activity as the gathered families brought in supplies and bedded down in three classrooms on the top level.  Sally resisted at first, but her parents reminded her that Jayce knew what he was doing, and that he had a reason for everything.

Michael already suspected that Jayce was worried about security, but that wasn't his big fear.  The coming winter was.

As night began to fall, Jayce climber up to the roof and stared out across the cityscape.  It was odd.  The city was normally brightly lit with street lamps and house lights; but now it was dark and quiet.  A long line of cars could be seen in the distance, stuck in gridlock and immobile.  They would never be able to leave at this point.  As he watched, he could see a few cars inch forward, but their rate of travel was nowhere near fast enough to be able to escape before the gas in their tanks ran out.  At that point, they would abandon their cars, gather up as much as they could carry, and descend upon the country side like a golden horde.

Much to his surprise, he saw a line of HMMWV's roll in, lights bright and the gun turrets manned.  What where they doing here, was that the National Guard?  Maybe there was hope for the future yet…

Shawnee Mission Medical Center

18 August 2013

Lt. Shane Marston stepped out of the hummer and donned his helmet.  He had a hand on the M16A2 slung along his hip, with the other closing the door.  This was not a mission he had ever expected to have, occupying a hospital in his own country.  To make matters worse, all of the Guard's families were here.  Including Top's wife.  That old battleaxe scared him worse than Top did.

Still, given the nature of their mission, it made sense to bring in the families of the Guardsmen.  They were here for the long haul, this was a permanent mission to secure and protect the Hospital for as long as the disaster lasted.  So far as Marston could tell, that meant forever.  More than likely, he would die here.  Either with a bullet in his head or from old age, it didn't matter.  All that mattered was that it would in fact be the place he died.

All around him, members of his platoon stepped out and formed a loose perimeter around the vehicles as women and children stepped out of the trucks, carrying bags of clothing and food.  The families milled around the area, uncertain where to go.  Lt. Marston grabbed his Platoon NCO, Sergeant First Class Manuel Harris.

"Sergeant Harris, take charge here, the Captain wants me and the other Platoon Leaders to go talk to the administrators."

"Better you than me, LT."  Sergeant Harris responded, a look of pain on his face.

"Have fun with the families, Sarge."  Harris tossed a lazy salute, the kind of salute only an officer who has the respect of his NCO's would get.  Marston returned the salure, just as sloppy, and strode into the hospital after the Captain and his XO.

Inside, an insane frenzy of chaos came to a screeching halt as Captain Blair strode in the front doors, M4A1 in hand.

"Who is in charge here?" he asked.

"I am," a man in a business suit responded.

"Sir, my name is Captain Blair Bauers, Kansas Army National Guard.  I have been sent here by the Governor to provide security for this hospital in the coming days.  I know you have a lot of questions.  I am uncertain that I have the answers you want, but they are the answers you will get.  Do you have someplace we can talk?"

"Yes, Captain, right this way…"

"Marston, go supervise the erection of the vehicle barriers and start fortifying this place.  We need to make sure this hospital stays open.  It is the only lifeline most of these people have.  Now, if you will excuse me, I need to inform the administrator that his entire staff have been drafted into the Kansas Health Service.  Cole, Walter, Top, with me.  The rest of you, start finding spots for our families to live."

Chapter 10