G Hopf - The End

Gordon grabbed every open jug, container and glass in the kitchen and filled them all with water. His hands were shaking. He was scared, too, but he knew he had to get this done. He needed to save as much water as possible. His hunch about the attack would mean that water would soon be a rare commodity.

Gordon thought of the many times he had been tempted to buy a 500-gallon holding tank of potable water, but never actually did. Before any guilt could set in, he forced those thoughts out of his mind. Times like this were not about looking backward with regret, but looking toward securing the present and winning the future. After filling all the containers he went back to his family.

As he sat on the floor next to them, Samantha grabbed his hand and asked again, trying to seem calm, “Gordon, what’s going on?”

As badly as Gordon wanted to be reassuring, to soothe his wife’s anxiety, he felt a responsibility to be honest, “There appears to have been some sort of attack that has disabled the power and all electrical devices. These sorts of attacks usually precede a nuclear attack.”

She squeezed his hand hard and they met each others eyes, “Is this it? Is this how it ends?”

“I don’t—,” Gordon paused. “Sam, I seriously don’t know. All I know is what I remember reading and some training I went through years ago, I love you and if this is it, then at least we’re here together.”

Hugging each other, they said nothing else, and listened to the surrounding silence.

An hour went by and nothing else had happened that they could tell. Gordon assumed the other shoe wasn’t dropping.

“I think it might be okay,” he said as they crawled out from underneath the desk and stretched.

“Now what?” Samantha asked.

“Mommy, I have to go potty,” Haley said grabbing herself.

“Okay, honey, go ahead,” Samantha told Haley patting her on the head.

“Hey guys, this time will be okay, but we will have to look at not using the toilets anymore,” Gordon said.

“Why?” Samantha asked looking bewildered by Gordon’s statement.

“Because if what I think has happened, the waste treatment systems will soon start to back up and not work properly. Plus, we should preserve as much water as possible.”

“So what do you suggest?” Samantha asked, now sounding irritated.

“Hey, Sam, I don’t like it any more than you do, but we might have to create a latrine outside,”

“What? You want us to start going to the bathroom outside?”

“Until we can figure out what’s going on, yes,” Gordon answered bluntly.

“Gordon, that’s ridiculous!” Samantha snapped back.

Gordon walked over to the sink and grabbed one of the many glasses of water and drank it. He set the empty glass down and said, “Samantha, enough; something bad has happened, you either adapt to the situation or you die.”

“Die?”

“Daddy, are we going to die?” Hunter asked still standing next to the desk.

“No, honey. I didn’t mean to say that to Mommy,” Gordon replied softly, changing his tone completely. Gordon walked over to Hunter and knelt down, “Can you take your sister and go play in the play room while Mommy and Daddy talk, please?”

“Okay, Daddy, but can I have some juice first?”

Gordon thought of his children’s innocence. Hunter had no idea that he could be facing the end of the world; he wants juice. Gordon touched his sons face, “Sure, son, go grab a couple of juice boxes in the pantry.”

Hunter grabbed two juices and headed toward the bathroom to wait for Haley to finish. When she opened the door, he grabbed her hand and walked her into the playroom.

“So, let’s talk,” Gordon said to Samantha.

They went over to the couch and sat down. Neither could relax; they sat rigidly on the edge of the cushions.

Gordon started in hastily, “Here is what I think is going on. Obviously, you’re more than aware of all the terrorist activity we’ve been having over the past months. Well, today we were attacked with a much larger weapon. When I was out running, I saw cars stall and stop working, street lights go out, and planes fall out of the sky. Here at home all the power is out, your phone doesn’t turn on. Nothing works. I think someone hit us with some sort of EMP weapon.”

“EMP?” Samantha stopped him.

“EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse,” he answered directly. “It essentially overloads anything electrical and fries it; that’s why your phone, the lights, and cars don’t work. I am guessing the entire local grid is down. I don’t know the extent of the damage because I haven’t gone out to see what’s going on, but I think I’m right.”

“So, when will the power come back on?”

“It all really depends if this is a local thing, regional or national. Worse case is it’s national and power could be out for months if not a year.”

Samantha interjected impulsively, “A year! How will we survive? What will happen?”

“Samantha, like I said, I don’t know. One thing I want to do is see if by chance our car made it or not. Then, since there’s daylight left, I want to try to go to the store and pick up anything we will need for the long haul.”

Gordon slid closer to Samantha and put his hand over hers. She was clearly upset and he needed to at least appear calm; he needed to be the rock. Comforting her he said, “We will make it through this, I promise you.”

Musa Qala, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

“Van Zandt, get off your ass; we have a battalion formation, right now!” said Gunny Smith, kicking his cot.

“Roger that, Gunny,” Sebastian said, swinging his legs off the cot.

When he left the tent, he noticed a sense of excitement on the base. Seeing Master Sgt. Simpson about-face, Sebastian knew he needed to hurry. As soon as he made it to his unit he saw Barone approach Simpson.

“Battalion all present and accounted for!” Simpson said while saluting.

Barone saluted him back, “Thank you, master sergeant.” Simpson brought his salute back and marched off. Looking out over the men all standing at attention, Barone finished by yelling, “Battalion at ease!”

Barone was a tall and sturdy-looking man. He had a rugged face, light eyes and thick, dark hair that he kept groomed with a flat-top haircut. His stature coupled with his personality made him appear like a giant to some of the Marines. He looked out on the 1,500 Marines in front of him. While Marine life was difficult for many, it came easy to Barone. This occasion was different, though; to have to address the Marines about any situations back home was difficult. The whole reason these Marines traveled so far from home was to defend their loved ones, but now their homeland was threatened, their loved ones in harm’s way, and they were about as far away as they could be from them.

“Marines, I am not going to stand here and bullshit you. You know me well enough to know I am a plain-spoken Marine. I tell it like it is. I don’t sugarcoat it. I don’t glaze it over,” Barone began walking back and forth in front of the assembled Marines, “So I will tell you right now that our mission here has ended, effective immediately.”

The Marines of 2/4 all started looking to one another for clarification. They still had four more months on their deployment, so they all knew something significant must have happened.

Barone stopped his pacing to drop the real news. “Marines, initial reports suggest our country has suffered a massive attack. What we do know is coming from assets we have in the air over the country. The intelligence we have received so far indicates that some type of nuclear event has occurred. One struck Washington, D.C. and another device detonated in the atmosphere above the Midwest. It also appears that major communications are down with our allies in Europe and Asia.”