Bobby Akart - Armageddon

Some of these civilians came into Mount Weather after the nuclear bombs struck America. No one could say with absolute certainty that China wouldn’t respond to the total destruction of North Korea. The Beijing government was known for disinformation campaigns and breaking their word. Accordingly, military helicopters that were hardened against the effects of an EMP were dispatched around the Eastern United States to gather up these business leaders and professionals who were key to implementing the nation’s recovery plan.

Included in those who’d assist the nation’s recovery effort were top level executives from Duke Energy, which serviced the Mid-Atlantic states and Florida; Commonwealth Edison in Illinois; and ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which managed the flow of electric power to the wholly independent Texas Interconnection.

Upon arrival, following an initial briefing led by the secretary of Homeland Security, the three senior executives of their respective utilities gathered in the Balloon Shed, an aboveground bar within the secured grounds of Mount Weather. The name was a nod back to the site’s original use as a weather balloon launch station.

The three men spoke about the difficulties maintaining the Texas, Eastern, and Western Interconnections that make up America’s power grid. As they spoke, they were cognizant of the fact that a siren could be triggered at any moment, forcing them back underground.

“We’ve always worked under the two-and-sixty premise,” explained the president of Charlotte-based Duke Energy. “With the current structure of the grid, a failure in two percent of the transmission substations could cause a cascading effect resulting in a loss of sixty percent in all power connectivity.”

In terms of electric energy distribution, a cascading failure resulted in the failure of a few parts that in turn could trigger other failed parts of the grid and so on. One of the most significant examples of this in recent times occurred in India in 2012.

Two severe blackouts resulted in a power loss to most of eastern and northern India. Over four hundred million people were affected by the outage. After circuit breakers in a major transmission facility were tripped, breakers at other stations followed suit as the power failures cascaded through India’s power grid.

In the United States, negligent system operators working for regional electric supplier Akron-based FirstEnergy caused a blackout that cascaded from New York City across the American Midwest and into Canada’s Ontario Province. They’d been experiencing nuisance alarms and made the decision to turn down the volume on the warning signals. When a valid warning sounded, engineers at FirstEnergy were unaware and failed to act. As a result, for almost three days, some of the most densely populated cities in North America were without power during the heat of August. Rioting, looting, and other forms of criminal activity swept through the cities.

“We’re immune from what happens to you guys and the Western Interconnection grid,” said the ERCOT CEO. “We do have some outages reported in the Panhandle because of its proximity to Denver, where the EMP was initiated.”

The Texas power grid was not connected to the rest of the country, so the cascading failures endured in the East and West would not directly affect Texas.

The Duke Energy representative took a sip of his drink. “Here in the east, we support most of the nation’s population and deliver seventy-five percent of its energy. The western states are already dragging on our reserves. Between the EMP effect resulting from the bomb blasts in DC and New York, plus the Western Interconnection sucking the life out of us, our rolling brownouts will soon be blackouts.”

The three men shook their heads as they contemplated their predicament. The president would be meeting with them later, and he was expecting them to offer a solution to the power outages being experienced by areas outside the blast zone.

“We could sever our ties to the West,” suggested the president of Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison.

The ERCOT CEO threw his head back and chuckled. “You can’t be serious. Do you know what you’re suggesting?”

“Absolutely,” the Chicagoan replied. “I know you Duke boys have thought the same thing. We’ve identified certain transmission stations and the high-voltage power lines that run from them. If we were to cut the lines, literally, the Western grid would be on their own.”

The president of Duke Energy weighed in. “I’m aware. That said, I can’t advocate it. You’re talking about sentencing a third of the country to an extended period without power. As the EMP Commission found, ninety percent of those affected will die within a year due to lack of water and food, among other things.”

“They’re going to anyway,” the president of Comm Edison shot back. “You heard the reports of these superfires during our briefing. They’ll be in the dark soon from the smoke and soot.”

“Have you looked at the skies lately?” asked the ERCOT attendee. “It’s happening here, too.”

“All the more reason to protect our own power supply,” said the Comm Edison president. “In a crisis, you help the most the best you can. If we don’t cut off the dead weight, my apologies for the crass reference, we’re sentencing our own customers to death.”

The men sat in silence for a moment as a strong wind blew past the building. The sun was beginning to set although, from the darkness of the skies, that process seemed to have begun hours prior. Finally, the ERCOT CEO spoke up.

“Since I don’t have a dog in the hunt, I’ll tell you what I think. We Texans are fiercely independent. If the president called on us to connect to the Eastern or Western Interconnection, I can’t say with certainty that we’d do it. He’d have to send in the military to force us, and they’d better pack a lunch. Virtually every Texan has a gun or three.

“That said, it’s not our or, shall I say, your job to make the president’s decision for him. You should lay out the options without leading him in one direction or another. He volunteered for the job, and as they say, with great power comes great responsibility.”

Saturday, October 26

Fair Oaks Mall

Fairfax, Virginia

As day turned to night on the second day following the nuclear attacks, the atmosphere within the mall changed dramatically. After picking up a duffel bag and a few more things from the sporting goods store, Peter remained inside the storeroom in an effort to stay concealed from others and to avoid unnecessary exposure to any radioactive fallout. Thus far, other than the two young men who’d wandered into the store early on, he’d been left alone.

Everything changed that night. He’d been studying an Atlas that contained campground information he’d found at Dick’s Sporting Goods when gunshots rang out inside the mall. Screams filled the air as the shots continued. The gunmen suddenly stopped shooting. The cessation didn’t prevent people from screaming in abject panic.

Peter retrieved his weapon and rushed to the storeroom door. He cracked it slightly so he could hear better. A voice was bellowing loud enough that he could distinctly make out the words.

“Yo! Shut up! I got somethin’ to say!”

The man paused, waiting for compliance. When people continued to cry and talk to one another, shots were fired again, this time into the skylights above the center of the mall. Peter heard glass raining down on the tent city that had been established by refugees with young families. He gripped his pistol angrily, wanting to put the mouthy bully in his place.