Page 45 of Heart of the Sun

I felt a clunk in my stomach as though something heavy had dropped. “So, it does stretch east.” I said, my mind spinning. At least as far as Pennsylvania, but that might mean it also affected states farther than that. I raked a hand through my hair and looked away, not wanting to consider how big this might truly be.

Charlie heaved out a breath, his phone clattering to the ground. “It goes all the way to Pennsylvania?”

“And possibly beyond,” the sheriff said.

Charlie brought his hands to his head and gripped his hair. “How the hell is that possible?” He paced one way, then pivoted and took a few steps in the other direction. “No power grid? No satellites? Nophones?Anywhere?” He stopped, gaping down at his phone on the ground. He let out a loud gust of breath and shook his head. “No, no, that can’t be right. That’s impossible.”

We all stared at him for a minute. It was very clearly possible. We had at least some proof, notably the fact that our plane had fallen from the sky, and also, the useless phone currently lying on the ground. Add to that the highway jammed with broken-down cars, the corpses, and the killing we’d witnessed, and you’d think Charlie might have already grasped some reality. He turned and resumed pacing a few feet away.

Emily let out a nervous laugh, her eyes slightly glazed. “That’s only the report of one man,” she said. “Maybe he got it wrong. Maybe he was lying. Maybe you misunderstood,” she said, pointing her finger at the sheriff and then quickly dropping it. He just looked at her, but not with anger. With understanding. He’d clearly been dealing with people having trouble accepting an onslaught of bad news since this had all started.

My heart was speeding, and I felt slightly clammy all of a sudden, despite the cold weather. Mass fires? No gas stations open? Across multiple state lines that we knew about?

“Why no gas?” Emily asked, turning back to the sheriff. “If most vehicles aren’t working at all, then why did gas run out so quickly?”

“They can’t pump without electricity,” I said, turning my gaze back on the sheriff. “So, this outage stretches east at least as far as Pennsylvania, but what about in other directions?”

“I couldn’t tell you. I haven’t had a lot of time to go out to the highway and I don’t feel comfortable being gone for long. My boy broke his arm right after the lights went out—tripped down the damn stairs. There’s a hospital twenty miles from here, but even their backup generator is out of commission. They managed to find a couple of working vehicles and moved their critical patients to a hospital a few hours away with a generator that’s running. That one will be operational as long as they can acquire gas, but only for critical needs. Even so, it’s a total catastrophe there too, from reports I’ve gotten.”

Christ.Who was making the determination about who was critical and who was not? I didn’t even want to think about what was going on in a hospital after days without any electricity whatsoever.How many had already died? “There are no medical personnel in town who could help your son?” I asked.

“They’re at the hospital. It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation there. Not only do they have the regular patients, many of whom are dependent on machines, to deal with, but there were burn victims from the fires that broke out, and some serious injuries from falling infrastructure. From what I’ve been told by those who’ve tried to seek help and been turned away, staff is being asked to sleep there for now and take shifts. So medical professionals who live in town haven’t been home in days. And unfortunately, that leaves anyone contending with what’s considered a minor injury out in the cold, literally and figuratively. I’m hoping that changes in the days ahead, but for now…” He sighed. “Anyway, we’ve got my boy in a sling, but he’s in pain and all we can do is dose him up on Tylenol for now.”

“Shit,” I said. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Shit, shit,shit!” Charlie swore, picking his phone up from the ground. It appeared mostly undamaged. “You’re telling me there’s no form of communication in the entireworld?”

Apparently, the pacing and muttering hadn’t helped much.

“I never said that,” the sheriff said. “Highway traffic was a mess inbothdirections, but I only managed to talk to people who were traveling from the east. Several I tried to wave down didn’t stop—people are less than reasonable when they’re trying to get to loved ones. Can’t blame ’em. What it did make clear was that we need to set up a patrol at the borders of our town. That starts this evening. You three were the last unchecked visitors here. We simply don’t know what’s coming and can’t be complacent.”

My head was reeling. I was having a hard time grasping this. But the sheriff was right. There was no room for complacency in a situation where the scope might be…too colossal to imagine.He was right to protect his town in whatever way he could.

“How are we going to get a ride out of here?” Charlie asked. “Do you have a vintage car we can use? I’ll purchase it from you.” He dug around in his pants, pulling out his wallet, and holding up a credit card. “You can write down the number and charge it once the power’s back up.”

The sheriff’s gaze held on him a beat. “Sorry, son, I don’t have a vintage car and anyone in town who does is gonna want to hold on to it. You can understand that, I’m sure.”

Son.Under other circumstances, Charlie’s offended expression would have made me want to laugh. But I couldn’t muster so much as a chuckle at Charlie’s expense. And hadn’t he just heard what the sheriff said about dwindling fuel and the main highway at a standstill? Even if wecouldfind a car like Leonard’s, we’d be out of gas after a couple of hours. Not to mention that it’d been made clear to us that a vehicle was in high demand and quickly becoming a dangerous possession. My thoughts halted and then sped, moving in every direction randomly.

Emily’s gaze darted from Charlie to me, hanging there as she blew out a huff of breath. We could ask the sheriff if we could stay here. The town seemed like it was making do and banding together in the ways they were able. Maybe they’d allow us to stay, especially if we had something to offer. I was strong and fit and suddenly realized that all the workouts I’d done in prison to keep myself occupied could be put to a greater use. A small trickle of purpose made me straighten my spine. A disaster. This was a clear disaster, perhaps of epic proportions. Sharp minds were necessary to figure out how to get by until normalcy was restored. Able bodies would be needed. I could barter with my physical and mental assets.

But…the idea of staying put, staying safe, also meant that Emily’s parents would be left to wonder where she was and what had happened to her—a torturous prospect for any parent.I understood why even the people the sheriff had mentioned who owned a home and a business here in this town had left it to get to their daughter. Even before I’d understood the scope of this, I’d planned to get Emily home safely. And as for me personally,safetyhad never been a strong motivation. I craved purpose.

I held my gaze to Emily’s and paused as I brought my bottom lip between my teeth. She seemed to be waiting for me to say something, as though she knew that I was making a decision about our next move. “Your parents will be panicked when they don’t hear from you, Emily. I bet they’re already panicking.”

She blinked. Nodded. “Yes, my mom is probably climbing the walls.” Her throat moved as she swallowed.

I glanced to my left, out to the horizon. “I think we should stick to our original plan and get on the road.”

“To California?” Emily asked.

California felt like a universe away. So many bad things had happened to me there. I’d made such terrible mistakes within its borders. But I couldn’t help remembering what Mrs. Swanson had said about my mom the last time I’d seen her:We once promised each other that if anything happened to the other, she’d look out for Em and I’d look out for you.My mom wasn’t around anymore to look out for Emily, but I could do what she would have done if she’d been able. Right now, I was the only one who could. Plus, my uncle was there, and I wanted to make sure he was okay too. Not to mention the other people in the neighborhood, two in particular. “Yeah,” I answered.

“Get on the road to California?” Charlie blurted. “Using what?”

“Our feet,” I said. “We have no way to know from here what’s up ahead. I think we should find out. The alternative is do nothing, and I’m not cut out for that.”

I also had this deep sense that we needed to get on the road now before things really crumbled.The longer the power was off, the more desperate things would become. At a certain point—one likely approaching fast—it wouldn’t be safe to travel at all. Either we set off pretty immediately, or we hunkered down here. Again, I wasn’t cut out for sitting in place—I’d done far too much of that for too many years. But also, whether I could barter with my willingness to work and chip in or not, I didn’t feel entirely right asking these people to put us up when basic supplies might become extremely stretched. “It’d be best if we get a night of sleep and some food, if possible, and take off in the morning. Do you think we might buy some basic camping gear somewhere in town?”

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