Scott Williams - The Pulse

Casey set the pace as she led the way down Magazine until they came to Philip, where she turned right, heading towards the river. “Here’s the house, just ahead on the right.” She pointed.

They pulled into a narrow drive that led into a beautifully landscaped semi-tropical garden of date palms, philodendrons, and oleander, and followed it past the white two-story mansion to a separate guest house in the back of the grounds. Joey’s black Audi was parked in front, but Jessica came to the door alone when Casey knocked.

Casey reintroduced Jessica and Grant, though they remembered meeting briefly one morning when she and Casey were walking through campus together.

“I was just getting ready to start walking home, since Joey’s car wouldn’t start this morning,” Jessica said. “He flipped out about it pretty bad. I tell you, I’ve had about enough of his temper. We both had nine o’clock classes, and by that time, whatever caused the electricity to go out and all the cars to mess up had already happened. Joey just went nuts. I don’t know if you noticed it in the driveway or not, but he kicked a big dent right in the driver’s door of his car, blaming it on his dad for buying him a used Audi. Then he took off running towards campus. I decided not to bother. I didn’t have anything I couldn’t skip today and besides, I knew they wouldn’t have class with no electricity. I went back to bed, because I sure didn’t get any sleep last night, and I was a bit hung over.”

Grant glanced back in the direction of the car and rolled his eyes. Jessica was a beautiful girl by any standard, and he was surprised she put up with such an asshole. “Did you guys see the lights last night?” he asked.

“Yeah, through the windows. We had just gone to bed and it was so bright it flashed through the whole house. I had no idea what it was. Joey didn’t either. But we were both pretty bombed from the party we went to.”

“I slept right through it. Grant was outside though, and saw everything,” Casey said.

“What in the hell was it?” Jessica asked. “What’s going on? I can’t believe everything just quit working like that. I can’t make a call, listen to the radio…nothing.”

“We don’t know for sure,” Casey said. “But the rumor is that it was some kind of disturbance from the sun. It could have affected a lot more than just New Orleans. Grant said that it could be a serious thing. A lot of people might have already died, and if the power doesn’t come back on soon, things will get bad, like after a big hurricane.”

“What are we supposed to do now, then?” Jessica asked.

“We need to start thinking about that,” Grant said. “Hey, if you’re ready, why don’t we head back over to your apartment? Mine’s close by campus too. I’ve got some stuff there we’re gonna need. Do you have a bike, Jessica?”

“Yeah, but it’s locked up by McWilliams Hall on campus. I left it there after play rehearsal and rode here with Joey in his car yesterday.”

“No problem. We’ll walk back with you. Casey and I can push our bikes so you can keep up.”

“Geeze, Casey,” Jessica whispered as they went inside to grab her bag out of the bedroom. “How come I can’t find a nice guy like that instead of a jerk like Joey?”

During the three-mile walk back in the direction of the Tulane campus and their apartments, Grant related some of what he had experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to Casey and Jessica and began speculating about what could happen next in a city the size of New Orleans with no power, no communications, and few working automobiles. He said it would likely become dangerous to stay in the city if these conditions continued for more than a couple of days. He mentioned the post-Katrina violence that took place throughout New Orleans after the levee broke and the city was flooded and cut off.

“But those people didn’t have a choice,” Jessica said. “They were stuck in the Superdome and everywhere else in the city and our own government screwed up and didn’t get them out in time.”

“It was a combination of things,” Grant said. “Yeah, the local, state, and federal governments could have done better, but it was really an overwhelming event no one could have prepared for. It’s also a fact that some of those people stayed behind on purpose to take advantage of the situation. Even members of the police department were looting stores and stealing new cars from the dealerships. The people who truly got stuck here against their will were mainly just waiting in the Superdome—in bad conditions to be sure, but most didn’t have bad intentions. People who had their own transportation and wanted to leave generally got out before the hurricane even hit, and well before the city flooded.”

“But don’t you think a lot of the looting and stuff happened because people lost their homes?” Casey asked. “This is different. Yeah, the lights are out and the phones don’t work, but I don’t see why it would get bad like it did after a hurricane.”

“When you think about it, Casey, what are people going to do for food in a city this size? You saw how long we had to stand in line just to get a sandwich and something to drink at lunch. And this is just the first day. I wonder how long shops like that will have anything left. I’ll bet that one we went to is already completely sold out. Think about the grocery stores. If the power is out everywhere and most vehicles are not running, the shelves will be stripped bare in no time, and with the delivery trucks not running, they won’t be restocking. There are a lot of people in New Orleans, Casey.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” Jessica asked.

“The only sensible thing to do is get out of the city,” Grant said. “There are simply too many people here. There’s no way order can be maintained. It’s just a short time before most people start panicking.”

“I don’t know where else I would go,” Jessica said. “I don’t know how I could get home if cars aren’t working and the airlines are shut down.”

“She’s from Los Angeles,” Casey explained to Grant. “And I don’t know where I’d go either…. It’s not as far to my dad’s house in Mobile—well, at least not in a car, where it would be like two and a half hours, but that might as well be L.A., if you had to walk.”

“What day was he supposed to be back?” Jessica asked. “Did you hear from him last night before the phones went out?”

“No. They left Martinique on Sunday afternoon. I think they were supposed to get to St. Thomas like tomorrow, so his flight back here was on Thursday. I knew I wouldn’t hear from him last night because they were still at sea, but now he has no way of reaching me to let me know when they get to St. Thomas. I’m worried about him, but like Grant said, a good sailor like Larry doesn’t need electronics to navigate. I’m sure they’ll be fine, but how will he get back to the States when they do get to land? I know he’s going to be worried sick about me too.”

“We can still hope the effects are not that far-reaching,” Grant said, as he started walking again to encourage them to keep moving in the direction of their apartment. “But they’re probably better off there than most anywhere else they could be, if this thing is that widespread. We’re the ones in a situation we have to worry about. I think we need to start getting ready to go and make a plan now. But regardless of when we leave, we had better get what food we can carry now.”

The only store along the way that was open was a small corner grocery on Magazine Street that was already packed with people buying everything they could snatch off the shelves. Like the sandwich shop Casey and Grant had stopped at earlier, the grocery could only accept cash purchases because there was no way to verify credit or debit cards. Grant had a little over forty dollars left in his wallet and Jessica had a single twenty-dollar bill.