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Charli slid her finger up her tablet to advance her notes. “Louisiana and Texas are the exceptions. Power and communications … almost everything is down. I see it as a series of cascading problems. Power and telephone went down and, as a result, people panicked. It was a positive feedback situation; the more people panicked, the more problems they had. People stopped going to work, which just made things worse.”

“Our ads couldn’t be displayed,” Guccio said.

“That’s right. We were never able to get the message out that things would be okay. People saw a meltdown coming, and they looted. We’re dropping leaflets and sending in technicians. I hope we can turn things around.” Charli grabbed a handful of almonds from a bowl on a tray. “Most of the other states are doing well. We have a problem spot in Kansas City, and we’re not sure why. We think some gangs tried to take advantage of the catastrophe—”

“How so?” asked Jake.

“Well, we have intelligence that says that a drug lord set up systematic looting and destroyed the local power grid to hamper police. Then he sold drugs to help people stay awake.”

Jake whistled.

“Right. We’ve sent in a huge contingent of national guard troops and hope to see results soon.” She swiped her tablet again. “The bright spot is California. It’s almost business as usual there.”

Hallstrom massaged his bad leg. “Why did they do so well?”

Charli shrugged, “Well, we figure the population is a little better-educated, and we blanketed the area with advertisements—”

“Propaganda,” Jake said.

“Yes, absolutely, propaganda. Which you suggested, I might add. But it was propaganda that worked and turned out to be truthful. I mean, it came true.”

While Charli was speaking, an aide entered the room and handed Hallstrom a piece of paper. He glanced at Jake and handed it to Charli. She also glanced at Jake.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Jake sat up.

But Charli ignored him, slipped the paper into her pocket, and kept talking. “We sent national guard troops to LA to deal proactively with gang problems, but it turned out to not be an issue. And that’s all I’ve got right now.”

Hallstrom stood up. “Okay, thank you, Charli. Let’s all head down to the dining room. I’d like to talk to you all about an interesting plan I have for living arrangements.”

Jake threw a questioning look at Charli, and she put her hand on his knee to keep him seated. The two stayed behind while the others left.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Okay, spill it, Charli. What’s in the note?” Jake crossed his arms. It didn’t take a genius to know there was something in there that concerned him.

The grandfather clock ticked off several seconds. “Jake, I’m sorry. Your brother is dead.”

“Who, Louis?”
Well, duh, who else? He’s my only brother.

“Do you have any other brothers?” Charli put her hand back on his knee.

“No.” Jake looked at the floor.

“Were you close?”

“No, not at all. Well, yes, when we were young.” Jake continued looking down and pictured his time with his brother. His earliest memory was of playing with Louis at the beach.

“Do you want to talk about it, Jake?”

“No. Well, yes, but there isn’t much to talk about. I don’t mind talking about it. I haven’t seen him or thought about him for … twenty years.” He stopped talking and Charli waited.

“When we were kids, we were always together. We were just one year apart, and most people thought we were twins. Like the Carter twins, only younger. We were a comedy team.”

Jake sat quietly as memories flooded back. “Anyway, things were fine until Louis started hearing voices. I was the only one who knew about it for awhile. I told my dad, but he didn’t believe me. Then it got worse. We all thought we could deal with it—my dad didn’t trust shrinks—until Louis burned the house down. They took him away, and I never saw him again. When I grew up, I tried to locate him, but he was lost in the system.”

The old ache for his brother’s comradeship returned. Could he have tried harder to locate him? Jake didn’t try to find the tears he had to be holding back. Charli’s hand on his grounded him, and he looked up into her concerned gaze. “Did he die in an institution?”

“Ah, no.” Charli stopped and stared toward the window. She still had her hand on Jake’s.

“What?”

She turned back to him. “Remember I mentioned a drug kingpin who caused mayhem in Kansas City?”

“Yeah, so?”

“That was—”

“That was Louis?” Jake asked.

She nodded.

“Man.” Jake took a deep breath. “Well, it’s not surprising really. I could picture him as a CEO. We all knew he would be a smart guy someday. That is, until the voices started. He was smarter than I was.”

“Are you okay with it? Do you want to be alone?”

Jake shook his head. “No, stay. It’s been years since I heard anything about him. I can’t really picture him as an adult. How did he die?”

“He jumped off a building, but a helicopter pilot who watched it happen didn’t think it was suicide.”

“But he jumped? He wasn’t pushed?”

“The pilot …” Charli checked the note again. “The pilot said he looked like he was struggling with someone or something that wasn’t there, and then he just fell. As if he were pulled off.”

Charli sat with Jake while he recounted stories of his exploits with his brother. Stories that had them both laughing and crying.

* * *

July 1, 2018

Marie Keller dragged herself into the town council meeting just as Mayor Myer pounded his gavel. She collapsed into her usual chair and put her head on her arms on the aging conference table. She closed her eyes. “Wake me when we start.”

The meetings were held in Town Hall, in a small room off the main auditorium. It had been renovated years ago with limited funds. With cheap linoleum tiles, thin wood paneling, stained acoustic tiles on the ceiling, and a deadbeat piano in the corner, it felt more like a trailer-park fixer-upper than a seat of government.

Four times during the twenty days following the die-off she’d planned to delegate her sheriff duties to one of the deputies or national guard troops sent down from Bangor. Each time the plan was derailed by some crisis or Marie’s loss of confidence in the potential replacement. She had a lot of energy for an eighty-one-year-old, but she’d hit the wall.

Mayor Myer banged his gavel. “C’mon people. C’mon, let’s get organized, we have a lot to discuss today.”

Marie opened one eye and looked at the others who were sitting patiently around the table. Myer needed to see everyone else as disorganized to feel that he was in control.

“We’re all ready to go, Harold.” Doc Swanson, in charge of food and health care, frowned. Swanson was in his late sixties but looked like he followed all the health advice he gave his patients. He’d brought many of the Lipton residents into the world and ran his practice with an efficiency gleaned from his military service.

They started the meeting by holding hands and having a minute of silence for those who had died.

“Why don’t you begin, Doc?” said the mayor.

“Okay. Our existing stocks of food are about half of normal. Even with the looting of the IGA on Smith Street, we’ve done all right, given that most of the population is gone. The big dairy in Marysville is at full capacity once more. We’ve imported some farmers from Vermont. For a while they could only milk half the cows since they only had one farmer.”

“Did the others explode?” asked Myer.

“Yes, and there’s milk and cream all over the countryside.” Doc said it deadpan.

“Really?” Myer raised his eyebrows and leaned forward.

Marie smiled to herself. Did Myer truly believe that a cow’s udder would explode if she wasn’t milked?

Tom Whitman, a jolly veterinarian from the next county over, chuckled. He had a round face and piercing blue eyes. Whitman had relocated to one of the nicest houses in Lipton and set up practice in the empty animal hospital. “No, their udders didn’t explode,” he explained. “I’ve had to treat a few extra cases of mastitis over there, but in general those cows will simply dry up for the season. They won’t produce for a while, but they’ll be okay.”

Myer frowned at him. “Okay, back to Doc.”

Marie was still smiling at Doc Swanson’s exploding cow joke.

He continued. “Overall, food is not a problem. Some people have just had to change their diet a bit, that’s all.”

Myer made a note on his pad. “How about health stuff?”

“I now have a nurse from Vermont to replace Betsy,” said Doc.

“I’ll bet she isn’t as nice as Betsy was.” Marie put her hand on Doc’s forearm.

Doc squeezed Marie’s hand. “She’s actually mean as hell, but she’s a good nurse and efficient. There are no significant health issues related to the die-off.”

“Okay, how about the dogs? Tom, who let the dogs out?” Mayor Myer’s attempt at humor fell flat, and everyone pretended they didn’t hear it. Marie groaned quietly.
This is what we get for voting in a mayor based on the sound of his name.

“My main job over the last week has been euthanizing pets, mostly dogs.” said Tom. “I just got a report of another pack of feral dogs north of town, and some hunters are going to take care of that today.”

“You just shoot them?” asked Myer.

“Absolutely. What else can we do? We’d prefer to capture them and bring them in to be euthanized, but we don’t have time for that. You all know what happened in Marysville.” Tom looked around the table. Two days earlier a young orphan had been attacked and eaten by a pack of feral dogs. He’d been out alone, fishing in a remote area.

“So that’s about it concerning animals,” Tom said. “I’ve done a good bit of horse and farm animal work as well. By the way, the organic chicken farm on Dow’s Lane is coming back on line, so we’ll have a source of eggs soon.”

“Okay, next to power,” the mayor said.

Here it comes.

Myer looked around the table, “And we turn to our expert electrical power technician, Ms. Marie Keller.”

Doc Swanson rapped his knuckles on the table. “Harold, we’ve heard enough of that joke. Marie has been good-natured about it, but she is in fact not an electric power expert. She was following the directions of someone on the phone and working in a time-critical situation. It just happened that the off switch she found was not the main one. Marie has been a great source of stability in this town—in this situation.”

“Thanks, Doc.” Marie put her hand on his arm again and then addressed the group. “Power has been stable. Maine Power was able to divert power to us from other stations, and the Algashie station should be back up soon. Telephone service has also been good, with only a few interruptions.

“Moving on to law enforcement, we’ve had ups and downs. No more looting after the first day. There are some who have attempted to take advantage of the situation. Some of those are sitting in my jail. Others haven’t done anything illegal, but they’ve been warned. The state has promised me a replacement—a military policeman stationed in Germany. He should arrive any day, at which point I will be happy to retire and sit in a rocking chair. And do some slow rocking.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

August 1, 2018

Jake arrived at Dr. McGraw’s lab just in time for the briefing. His shoulder felt good. The shotgun wounds had healed well.

Nothing new had been heard from Cronkite. It was two months since the die-off—time to get proactive with the alien situation. McGraw had promised a demo of one of Cronkite’s uploaded plans.

The others milled around just inside the lab entrance. McGraw paced in front of the group, looked at his watch, and clapped his hands. “Okay. Let’s get started.”

The lab behind McGraw was as high-tech as they come. The room was huge, like an aircraft hangar but with normal, low ceilings. Glass partitions divided the different sections. Seth led them past the chemistry and physics sections and into the computer area, where chairs had been set up in front of a large screen. To the side of the screen was a desk with a video camera facing it. Everyone sat down.

Seth faced the group, bouncing a bit and rubbing his hands. “This first device is exciting because we’ve already got it up and running. This actually isn’t a device, it’s a computer program. A computer program from an alien species.” Seth couldn’t stand still and paced as he talked. Jake started to say “Stop moving!” but held back.
What’s he going to show us?

Seth crossed his arms. “You might wonder how we could run an alien software program on our computer. Here’s how we did it, and I really need to give credit to my computer people here.” Seth waved toward the members of the computer team, who were grouped around desks near the demonstration area.

He continued. “We isolated a super-computer from the rest of the world and added a few special instructions in assembly language, based on instructions in the device plans. Next, we let a program from the plans infect the computer. Like a computer virus. It was a long process that I don’t fully understand, but once we got to that stage, we sat back and watched as the foreign application booted itself into our computer and added applications to it.”