M. Banner - Stone Age

Death is Coming

His driver opened the hood, feeling a sharp pain on his fingertips. Letting go quickly, it closed, the latch engaging again. Rodrigo and two of his men stared at him and the car.

“What is the problem, punto?” Rodrigo yelled at the driver, who was sure the engine to the Cadillac was not the only thing that was dead.

“I don’t know, Rodrigo. All the engines are dead, and I just got shocked. It doesn’t make sense,” the driver replied, sweating profusely even though it was early morning.

After turning from Fremont onto Camino Playa Encanto, a dirt road two and a half miles from the beach and his target, all their trucks died at the same time. It had to be some sort of trick. Maybe Thompson was onto their plan. Maybe somebody tipped him off.

“That punto, Max Thompson is not going to stop us with his tricks. Grab your guns. We walk the rest of the way.”

“Again, I don’t think Darla and Danny are on any planes. I think they haven’t taken off — it was more of a hope but he wasn’t about to tell them this — and at this moment, we don’t have time to discuss it.” Max pleaded with Bill, Lisa, and Sally in the King’s living area. Lisa had finally settled down a little bit, her body still shaking.

“You’ll remember I told you last night that I was pretty sure that we would be hit by a coronal mass ejection from the sun. Well, we are experiencing this right now. All power is out everywhere and none of your electronics will work. And, you must watch out not to get electrocuted, which is possible around large sources of metal and water. We will survive this because I have about two years’ worth of supplies for all of us. But you have to listen to me carefully.”

Lisa already looked at her watch and then held it to her ear, just to make sure it wasn’t working. It was a gift from Bill a couple of years ago, a combo digital and regular faced watch. The digital display was definitely not working. Sally examined her iPhone and after pushing the side and top buttons, she looked up at Max. Bill was banging on the emergency strobe/radio/flashlight contraption he bought from an airline magazine last year, hoping that repeated beatings would prove Max’s words wrong.

“I know, they don’t work,” Max emoted, making plain his frustration. “I’m sorry to say this, but they may never work again. The world you knew is over. From this point forward, we all need to understand one thing and one thing only: survival.” Max looked at each of the Kings again to make sure his friends were paying attention to how serious he was at that moment.

“We have the supplies that everyone will run out of in a few days. In a few weeks, they will try to kill you for them. In a month, they will be killing each other. Then it will get really bad. Do you understand what I am telling you?”

“Max, how do you know what’s happening? How do you know it’s this bad?” Sally asked, seeming to keep her wits about her better than her parents were.

“I will tell you all of this later. Bill you already know some of this.” Lisa and Sally’s heads both spun around to Bill with questioning glances, wondering what Max meant. “But we don’t have time to talk about this right now. Under no circumstances, should you ever tell anyone about what you have here or what I have. You must lie. Your lives and mine depend upon it. Do you understand me?” Max sternly looked at each.

Bill, Lisa, and Sally just stared at Max as if he were a monkey at a zoo that had heard Shakespeare read to it. They were in shock.

“Do you understand me?” Max screamed at them.

“Yes,” they collectively answered.

“Good. Now, Lisa and Sally lock up the house and meet me by your pool in five minutes. Do not do anything else, but this.” Max looked at both of them to make sure they acknowledged and accepted their tasks.

“Bill, I need your help across the street.” Max, Bill, and Lisa walked briskly to the front door, while Sally was headed to the bedrooms to make sure its windows and doors were secured.

Max and Bill continued out the front door, when Max turned and said more quietly, “Make sure all your windows are secured too, and the blinds drawn. Lock this door behind us. Again, wait out at the pool for me. I have a job for Bill.” Max didn’t wait for acknowledgement before turning towards the street. Bill and Max jogged to the beach warehouse across the street. Max was still in his damp stocking feet.

“What the hell is this, another damned surprise?” Bill asked when they crossed into the threshold of Max’s beach warehouse. Bill had just realized when he saw the two story tank that occupied most of the inside of the house that the house was a fake.

“Holy crap, Max, you really knew this was coming, didn’t you?” Bill asked, somewhat rhetorically.

“There’s no time. Come here,” Max commanded from the spiral staircase in what would have been the dining room. Max went up first, followed by Bill. At the second floor, Max grabbed some binoculars and a pair of Tevas he quickly swapped with his socks, and then made his way to the outside terrace above. Bill followed a few seconds behind, trying to come to terms with what was happening around him. Each floor was a new level of reality mugging him. He did not want to know what was on the roof.

Bill mounted the terrace, questions about to break from his lips, but the smoke and fire outside separated him from reason. “Oh, my God… isn’t that the Anderson’s place on fire ?” Bill pointed to a beach side house four lots away from where they stood. It was ablaze, but it wasn’t the only one. There were fires everywhere in Rocky Point. A chorus of screaming, yelling, and crying mixed with a black haze of smoke which hung over the entire city, and over them was a nightmarish vision he never would have imagined possible in a place that brought so much happiness to him and his family over the years.

“Good, I don’t see them,” ignoring Bill’s distress. “We may have a little time still. Their car probably died like everyone else’s,” Max stated, in a disconnected mater-of-fact tone, back turned to Bill and the apocalyptic scene surrounding them, searching for their adversaries with the binoculars.

“Bill, let me have your attention,” Max stated calmly, but sternly. Bill turned to find Max seated on some shelf that ran around the circumference of the terrace. Beside him was the sniper rifle cannon Max had showed him only two days ago. It appeared to be set up, pointing inland, as if he intended to use it on someone. He quickly stole a glance in that direction, past Max, hoping not to see someone, and what that might mean.

“Bill?” Max waited until Bill was focused only on him.

“I am sorry to do this to you. I promise I will explain everything to you fully, but we just don’t have time right now. Here is what you need to know. First, as I told you, we have been hit by several large bursts of plasma from the sun yesterday and this morning. We see this visually with the green and red auroras. Their induced currents spark fires, like with the Anderson’s, in anything with enough conductive material. The Smith’s house should be next. Much worse, the induced electrical currents have destroyed, or are currently destroying everything that has an integrated circuit, such as a computer, an iPhone, your TV. That’s why I had you put everything into your protected room. All cars, except those made before the 80s like Stanley or my Jeep will no longer run. All power and water are down. All communications, including radio and TV are out. And it is very important you understand this. This,” Max held his arms up, extending them forward and back, “is happening everywhere. It is worldwide. There is no one coming to help us, ever .”