Brooks Braving the Storm

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4835-7551-3
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 296 Seiten

When Superstorm Nicole hits the entire U.S. eastern seaboard at once, the Eastern Grid cannot handle all the damages and fails. Half the country is plunged into a blackout with no estimate of when the power will be restored. The story follows four families who join together to survive as well as explores social and economic implications of such a storm on a fragile Recession-era United States.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brooks, Jennifer

Leseproben

Chapter 4 September 16th, 2:15pm - Harry, Susan, Taylor, Ian, and Jared “Damn!” Harry exclaimed as his phone went dead. He had just been in the middle of a really promising phone call. He had seen the money signs swirling around his head, the big commission and bonus check already divided up, and the Salesman of the Month plaque already hung up in his study next to the others. This was going to be the big sale that was going to get his kids’ cellphones upgraded, those Jimmy Choo heels his wife had been drooling over, and a new scope for his AR-15. He slumped in his chair, the dream cloud dissipating as he stared into the darkness in front of him. Peering at his notes, he excitedly noticed he’d written down her phone number! Using the flashlight on his phone, he carefully made his way through the maze of cubicles to his supervisor’s desk, an increasing cacophony of cuss words and chatter filling the air with each passing second. It was very infrequent that they got even a minute to themselves between calls, their headsets practically a permanent fixture on their skulls. While they appreciated any moment they could talk to those around them rather than to the countless rude customers, many shared the exasperation Harry felt with missing out on their next sale. “Angie, can I use my phone to call back this client?” he asked desperately. “I was just about to finish the sale, and I just know I could close it if I called back right now, before she changes her mind!” His supervisor shook her head. “You know company policy wouldn’t allow that. Besides—” she held up her phone, pointing to the error message splayed across her screen, “—cellphones aren’t working either.” He huffed. “Well, what about a manual telephone, one that doesn’t need to be plugged in for power? I can hook it up to the phone line real quick and—“ Angie shook her head again. “We don’t have any phones like that here, and even if we did, you wouldn’t be able to log into the phone tree. I’m sorry, Harry. You’ll just have to try again when the power comes back on.” He stood for a moment, gazing at her pleadingly, trying to come up with another solution. She’d already refocused to trying to get her cellphone to connect to the internet, and Harry knew their conversation was over. He made his way back to his desk through the din, feeling totally deflated. Despite company policy, everyone in his quad had their cellphone out when he returned. “Does your cellphone work, Harry?” Suzanne asked, tapping hers insistently. “Mine isn’t working, either,” Sarah said as she roughly pressed the buttons on her flip phone. “I can’t even get a text to go through.” Across the wall, a few other people voiced their frustration at their lack of cellphone functionality. Returning to his chair, Harry turned off the flashlight app and tried to text his wife and logon to Facebook. Neither option worked. “That’s weird,” he muttered. “Do you think they will let us go home?” someone asked excitedly. Suzanne scoffed. “No way,” she replied. “There’s no way they’ll remove the shackles unless they absolutely have to. Our luck the lights would come on and we’d have to make a break for it before they made us come back in and make up our downtime!” Harry chuckled, but he felt uneasy. He’d seen power outages before, but it was peculiar that his cell wouldn’t work as well. He began to wonder if he could call out on a regular landline. His mind flitted to an image of his family, and he wondered how they were faring, if they had electricity or if they were in the dark like him. * * * It’d been dark for over an hour, and Susan still had no means of communicating with her family. The phone lines and cells in her office were all not functioning, and people were starting to worry. Automobiles were still working, so she wasn’t too concerned for her family; they’d all discussed what to do in the event of an emergency, where their rally point would be if their house wasn’t accessible, etc. Still, her stomach churned as she wondered how her kids and husband were doing. “Susan,” her boss said, peeking his head into her office. “Since the power’s been out for over an hour, we’re sending everyone home. Take your laptop; if you have power at home or if it comes back on a little later, you can work from home for a few hours so you don’t have to worry about as much make up time.” Susan nodded. “Sounds good, Jeff,” she said as she packed up her things. “I’d really like to get Jared out of daycare, since he still has a problem with the dark.” Jeff smiled. “He’s only 4. My little guy was still afraid of the dark back then, too.” “Oh I know, and Jared’s much better than he used to be. At least he doesn’t wake up screaming anymore.” She stood from her desk, car keys in hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jeff!” “Take care, Susan,” he said. “Hopefully this power outage doesn’t last a whole lot longer!” Once Susan got to the parking lot, she walked briskly to her car and drove a little faster than normal on the way to her youngest son. She worried that Jared was screaming in the middle of the playroom at his daycare. He’d made a lot of progress over the past couple months, but this sudden darkness may have undone a bit of that. She started thinking of ways to help Jared calm down, loading his favorite music into the CD player in preparation for his arrival. The cheerful, silly songs always made him giggle even in his crankiest moments. She kept it off for the time being; it might be his favorite collection of songs, but the syrupy- sweet vocals sometimes made her want to “lose” the CD. Traffic was much heavier than it usually was, especially for this time of day. Susan figured that she wasn’t the only one who got sent home early for the day thanks to the power outage, especially since it seemed to be the whole town that was dark. She tried calling Harry to let him know she left work early and was picking up Jared, but her phone would still not let her place a call or send a text. As she checked the time, she realized her older kids would be out of school shortly. Thankfully the high school and elementary school were connected so Taylor could pick up Ian and walk the few blocks back to the house together. Her office was only in the next town over, and Jared’s daycare was halfway between there and her house, so they wouldn’t be alone for very long—as long as the traffic didn’t impede her travel time too much. Susan sighed with relief as she saw the generators at the daycare were working. Jared was sitting quietly at the table coloring with a few other kids that were still there. Her relief increased as she saw him look over, a big smile lighting his face. “MOMMY!” he exclaimed, running over to hug her legs. “Hello, sweetheart,” she said, patting his head. “Mommy got out of work early, so we’re going to go home, okay?” “Can I finish my coloring, mommy?” he asked. “I’m almost done.” Susan smiled. “Sure, honey, hurry up. I’m going to talk to Miss Jean for a moment.” He galloped back over to the table, plopping down and grabbing his crayon. “Hey there, Jeanie,” she greeted as she approached. “How did Jared do with the blackout?” “Hi Susan! He was startled, that’s for sure, but the generators kicked on within a few seconds. He seemed to forget the power went off after a few moments and went back to coloring.” “Oh good!” Susan said. “Say, have you had issues at all with your cell phone? I’ve been trying to call my husband and haven’t been able to get through.” Jean shook her head. “No, unfortunately mine hasn’t worked, either. The landline wasn’t, either. Maybe the circuits are overloaded from too many people trying to call to check up on everyone due to the blackout?” “Could be,” Susan agreed. “All done, mommy!” Jared announced, his coloring sheet in hand, as he bounded over. “It looks amazing, honey!” Susan exclaimed as she retrieved the piece of paper. “We’ll hang this on the fridge as soon as we get home, okay?” Jared did his little excited dance, looking like a living bobble head, and Susan’s heart melted with happiness and love as she watched him. “Alright, Jeanie, I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, okay? Come on, Jared, let’s go home.” She held onto Jared’s hand, guiding him outside and he continue to shuffle excitedly. “See you, Susan!” Jean said, waving as they exited the building. After getting Jared in his car seat, Susan pulled out of the parking lot. “You want to listen to your music, honey?” she called back to him. “Yes, please!” he answered excitedly. Susan powered on the stereo,...