Dark Days Rough Roads (2 page)

Haliday
slowly lifted his head and saw a wall of flames and a pile of machinery. There
would be nobody coming out of that wreckage alive. He grabbed the radio mic
again and called for dispatch to call the fire department. Again there was no
response, so he took it upon himself to use his cell phone. A quick push of the
power button revealed there was nothing but a dark screen.

He ran
over to the beast and charged the system while holding the hose. He dumped every
ounce of extinguisher agent on the flames, but it was useless. Looking toward
the people who stopped to watch the landing, he could see them trying the same
exact thing with their cell phones. This is when he realized what had happened.
Life had changed drastically in a matter of seconds.

As he
walked past the folks, they asked him why he wasn’t helping and his response
was very unsettling. He simply told them there was nothing he could do. Not for
the people in the helicopter and not for them. They had no understanding of
what he really meant and just looked at him with puzzlement.

Haliday
continued to walk back toward the hospital in a very quiet neighborhood with no
noise, but the slight dull roar of flames from the burning wreckage made the
only sounds anyone could hear. There was no music, no cars, no hum from the
electric lines, no noise from anything at all.

Haliday
walked past the ER and saw staff running around like chickens with their heads
cut off. It was almost as if they would be able to do something about what was
going on. It would have been comical, if it wasn’t for the fact that they
really had no clue what would be transpiring in just a matter of a few short
hours.

As he
approached the dispatch office, he ignored those who were asking him questions.
The dispatch officer was standing at the open door as a handful of people were
asking her questions. Questions she could not answer. “What happened, was it a
power outage, would the generators come on, why didn’t they, how come the
phones didn’t work?” and many more. She shrugged her shoulders and said, “I
don’t know, I don’t have any answers myself.”

Haliday
looked her in the eyes and said, “You need to leave.” She looked concerned, but
not frightened. It was at this time, by telling her to leave, that he confirmed
what she thought had happened. Thanks to Haliday, she was ready for the event.
She grabbed her personal items and left the dispatch area. Haliday grabbed his
personal items and left as well, passing by the people who could not believe
the campus public safety officers were leaving them at a time like this.

Haliday
walked into a bathroom. The bathroom was dark so he hit the surefire flashlight
on his belt to light it up a bit and was slightly startled when he heard a
voice, “Hey man, what’s going on in here? I came in to drop a deuce and the
power went out. Everything ok out there?”

Haliday
told him, “Don’t worry, everything will come out ok.”

The guy
missed the joke. Haliday went back to doing his own thing. He commenced to
quickly change from his uniform into regular old gray man camo. He put on
jeans, a shirt and a ball cap. It would be stupid to look like any type of
police officer, soldier or government agency robot. That would get you in deep
trouble soon enough, so he decided long ago to just blend in. He knew elsewhere
that the dispatcher either did the same thing or was doing the same thing.

Quickly
stripping the gear off his duty belt and taking what he needed, Haliday then
left the bathroom. He had his pack, which was dark maroon in color to blend in,
and started toward an exit door located near the administrative hallway.

A voice
called out and he walked down the darkened hall to talk to the public safety
supervisor who had been helping set up the hospital’s incident command center
in a small conference room. This was limited to a dry erase board and easel
with paper.

The
supervisor asked him where he was going. Haliday looked around in the room to
see the admin staff with various managers and staff from other departments milling
around. Haliday looked at the supervisor and said, “You have no idea what just
happened and what’s going to happen around here.”

With a
puzzled look the supervisor said, “What do you mean, it’s a power outage; we
get them now and again.”

Haliday chuckled
and said, “Not like this.” One of the managers heard the chuckle and took it
upon herself to ask what was so funny.

She said,
“This is no laughing matter; there will be a lot of inconvenienced people who
will be upset.”

None of
these people still had a clue. Haliday coughed loudly, in a very exaggerated
manner, and asked for everyone’s attention. Most everyone stopped and looked at
him.

“What you
people fail to understand here is the fact that this is no regular power
outage. This was an EMP, electromagnetic pulse from who knows where,” Haliday
said.

Immediately,
the maintenance director interrupted and said it was irresponsible to even
mention an EMP, that it was simply a power outage. Haliday looked him in the
eye and told him he could only hope. He briefly explained what an EMP was, and
then commenced to explain how he knew this was what it was. The explanations
were simple enough, but you would have thought he was trying to explain rocket
science.

First off
he explained the lack of power and the fact that none of the emergency lights
came on. Next were the generators, which were sitting quietly. After that he
explained the lack of land lines and the lack of cell phones, not having power let
alone a signal. Even the basic of all types of items was dead. As soon as he
explained the helicopter crash, which they hadn’t even heard about yet, their
jaws dropped.

More
people started coming in and also gathering in the hallway to either listen to
or add to the confusion. They started complaining about the fact that this
didn’t work, that didn’t work, the staff needs this, and the staff needs that,
the maintenance crew isn’t fixing anything, etc. They had no idea how far up
the creek they were without the proverbial paddle.

The CEO
asked the maintenance director when they could get power back and everyone
awaited the answer. He stood silent, then repeated the question, which had an
answer nobody wanted to hear. The maintenance director simply said that he
honestly believed it was now indeed an EMP and there would be no power any time
in the near future. He said there was simply nothing that could be done and
then he turned and walked away. People were still dumbfounded and did not know
what to do, so they just sat there. One lady spoke up and said that things
could not be that bad.

Haliday
moved toward the front of the room and everyone focused on him. He looked
around, saw the infectious control officer and asked her how long the rooms and
patient equipment could last without being cleaned. She responded by saying
that in some of the isolation rooms, it would have adverse effects within a
day. Within two days, about a fourth of the hospital would have undesirable
consequences, and by the end of the week it would be a pure hell hole filled
with far too many infectious diseases to even start naming them right now. This
did not even include waste handling, lack of water for toilets and sinks, and
linen exchanges that would not happen.

He looked
over at the housekeeping director and asked him how long before the trash cans
were full, the outside dumpsters overflowing and the rodent control would
lapse. “Two days. That’s all,” he said. Haliday said, “You could add that to
the infectious disease issues and realize things would be getting far worse
much faster than anyone could expect.”

The food
services department piped in and said the spoiling of fresh food would start
within days, the freezer would stay cold a few days and the fridge maybe two.
Haliday informed him the food would be gone in a matter of 2-3 days tops anyway
with this many people looking to eat and more people surely to show up thinking
a hospital is a safe haven. There wouldn’t be any food deliveries each day like
they normally had.

Haliday
looked around once more and told them these were basic issues that people took
for granted. “Look around,” he said. “Look how dependent we are on technology.
IV pumps no longer working, pain med pumps not giving people morphine and other
drugs, no blood pressure monitors, no pulse ox meters, no telemetry, no nothing.”
Haliday continued, “What you now have is a lot of people who need to leave
before a lot of people start a slow painful death.”

It
wouldn’t be a good place to be and he started heading for the door and said, “I
surely won’t be here more than the time it takes me to get my personal stuff
out of my truck and leave myself. That brings up another point, good luck
starting your cars and making it home.” Some of the people commuted 30 to 50
miles one way. He paused only briefly to look around at the folks who still
didn’t get it, although a couple of them had excused themselves for one reason
or another, most likely on their way out the door as well.

In the
meantime, during this little meeting, all hell was breaking loose around the
facility. The surgical center and outpatient procedures center were trying
desperately to wrap things up and stabilize patients. Unfortunately for one,
there was no hope. As soon as the equipment stopped, there was no suction for
clearing the surgical sites, there were no blood pressure monitors to alert
anyone of low blood pressure and old fashioned cuffs were a thing of the past
due to mercury content. Most of the OR equipment was electronically controlled,
so it had failed. It was a fast crash and thankfully the patient had not woken
up from the anesthetic.

Up on one
of the long-term care floors, they had six people on ventilators. The nurses
and patient care associates were all trying to manually vent these patients,
but were tiring very quickly. Screams for more staff to come and help fell on
deaf ears. There were simply too many patients to care for in a situation like
this. The staff was tiring out very quickly.

Too many
patients needed care and too little staff was in the facility. Someone needed
to triage now and make a determination of who would live and who they would
have to let go. The grand idea of saving everyone was just that, a grand idea.
If they knew what the next few days would be like, they would walk away now. It
was a noble idea to try and wait things out, to help the patients, but it was a
risk they shouldn’t take.

Some of
the staff already started leaving. A few years back, they had had a massive
power outage in the state and even with the emergency generators running and
limited power, they left in droves to go home and take care of themselves.
Roughly 30 percent had left then and almost the same amount refused to come
into work.

Housekeeping,
food service, maintenance, and other support staff. They were underpaid and
would not care about working to keep the place running. Knowing it was a
permanent problem they would care even less. These workers would impact how
quickly the facility would fail.

Haliday
stopped just before exiting the building as another guy was shaking a snack
machine. He looked at Haliday and asked him if he knew how to get a refund.
Haliday pulled out his knife, which had a window punch on the end, and pressed
it against the glass. The glass shattered. Haliday reached in and grabbed a few
candy bars, and told the guy to help himself.

Haliday walked
out to his car and passed by a few others doing the same. The only difference
was he was going out to get his pack and gear and they were sitting there
trying to start their cars. He heard an engine start and looked in the
direction of the noise where he saw an old Ford F100. As odd as it was to see a
running vehicle; it didn’t surprise him.

As it
slowly crawled through the parking lot passing a few cars dead in the aisles,
the driver stopped just as Haliday put his pack on and loaded his rifle, readying
himself for his walk home. The driver was an older guy in his late 60’s and he
looked at Haliday and asked him where he was heading. Haliday said, “East.”
Shockingly the driver told him he was heading that way and offered him a ride.

Haliday
was not too sure about the proposal, but eyeing the passenger seat he saw a
smaller bag and an empty pistol case for a pistol which he noted was strapped
on the old guy’s thigh. Good company to be in. Haliday started to refuse and
the old guy said, “Hey, I’m looking for a little security until I get out of
this crack hood and you seem to be one of the only ones who knows what’s going
on, so I’m taking a chance.”

“I saw a
gal in uniform get in her car, change, then pull a bike out of the trunk with a
pack and she took off before I could call to her. I’m thinking by your squared
away looks you two were friends,” he said. Haliday smiled and nodded, then told
the old guy he could stay with him about 20 miles due east and that was it. The
old guy said that was fine with him. There was a different setting altogether in
that direction.

The two
pulled out onto the road, dodging cars here and there and drove a bit in
silence as they passed by people standing in the road and on the sidewalks.
There were actually a couple other cars running, older, but it was evident they
were just old, not selected or prepped like this old Ford was. They talked a
bit about just a little of this and that, no real subject and neither brought
up the EMP or the future. After about 30 minutes, Haliday said he was ready to
bail and the old guy stopped the truck in a clear area of the road as no one
was nearby.