The Solitary Man’s Refuge (13 page)

“I
wonder how long these stupid lights have been
out.” Janice said to herself and opened the fridge to get a
less than cold beer out and open it. Bleh! That doesn’t
taste that great on first swig. Well, at least it’s not that hot
yet, she thought while grimacing after taking another sip
and then set about getting the cats dinners ready for them.

When she was all done feeding the cats and had
finished most of a cool but not cold can of beer, she
remembered she had some freezer packs in the freezer
that were still probably frozen enough that she could add
to her cooler. I better do something about all my frozen
food she decided and wrapped the freezer with an old
surplus military wool blanket as well as put a few
foodstuffs and some beer in the cooler. Janice pulled her
cell phone out to call and invite her neighbor over and
noticed its screen was totally black.

“
Damn! When was the last time she had charged
this thing? Oh well, she would just walk on over there and
visit then.” Janice thought as changed out of her scrubs in
the darkened house into some jeans and a clean blouse.

Janice walked over to her friend’s house a couple
doors down and although she carried a flashlight she didn’t
need it because the moon was bright out tonight and pretty
much illuminated the way. She knocked on the door and
then waited for a response.

“Hi Betsy! You up for a little lights out party?”
Janice asked, wiggling a plastic bag with ice and a six
pack in it when she opened the door.

“Sure, Janice, come right on in, I am just sitting
here in the dark, taking it easy. Any idea what has caused
this power outage?” Betsy asked, motioning Janice in.

“Not off hand I don’t, I have been at work all day
and was hoping you would know. Care for a beer?” Janice
replied.

“I already have a glass of wine, thanks anyway. I
haven’t heard anything. I was grading papers around noon
and poof, the power went out.” Betsy related.

“Oh well, hey, later on can I borrow your cell
phone for a couple minutes and call my sister? I guess I
forgot to charge mine or something.” Janice asked her
friend.

“Oh sure you can, it’s in on the charger. I will go get
it for you in a minute. We haven’t had a little get together
since I guess when the last hurricane knocked the power
out for a week.” Betsy said taking a sip from her wine
glass.

“Yea, we got to quit meeting like this and try for
better days when we got some lights.” Janice said,
laughing and having a seat while opening a beer.

“Well, at least the weather’s pretty good this
evening. Let me go and get my battery-powered radio out
of the van and get us some tunes to listen to. Maybe they
have something on the news channel about when they are
going to turn the power back on.” Betsy said, walking down
the stairs of her porch to retrieve it. Betsy would take off
whole summers and camp in her van visiting parks all over
the US and had it rigged up for sleeping quarters. The old
girl was pretty spry for 62 and enjoyed kayaking and
parasailing also.

“That’s funny, it won’t come on. I usually keep
pretty fresh batteries in it. Oh well, I have some more in
the house. You can call your sister while I get more
batteries.” Betsy said, leading the way with a flashlight.

“Phone’s right there and I have some more
batteries in this drawer.” Betsy said motioning for Janice to
retrieve the phone, while she rummaged in the drawer.

Both girls returned to the porch and Janice
attempted to call her sister while Betsy was changing the
batteries in the radio.

“It’s supposed to be on. Let me see it. Can a power
surge knock out a phone on a charger?” Betsy said looking
puzzled as she tried a few things to try and get it working.

“I don’t know, sounds like maybe it could. You think
something ruined your phone?” Janice asked, looking
concerned.

“Well, something did. It was working before I
plugged it in to charge after breakfast this morning. Could
be whatever knocked the power offline, messed my phone
up also. Damn! It’s always something isn’t it?” Betsy said
disgustedly and went back to changing the batteries in her
radio.

“Oh, great! This damn thing is not working either.
What is it today?” Betsy exclaimed as she futilely twisted
knobs trying to get the radio to play.

“Yea, that’s another reason I am so frustrated with
things breaking today. The check engine light came on for
no reason and the digital is flashing on the dash, so I
guess I will have to take it to the shop in the morning
tomorrow.

“We need to go back to my house right this instant,
Betsy! We need to try another radio and see if it works. I
am afraid I think I know something about how serious
whatever happened to the power is and it’s bad, real bad...
There is a thing called a solar storm or Carrington event
that might have just occurred and it can totally take the
entire electrical grid out.” Janice said suddenly standing up
and feeling rather panicky.

“You mean something the Sun did? I saw an article
online that mentioned we were having a solar flare or
storm or something like that, but I thought those things just
temporarily messed up GPS systems and some radio
communications.” Betsy said, following Janice back to her
house worriedly.

“No, it can be much worse than that believe me
and I think what has happened is something called a CME
or Coronal Mass Ejection. See let me explain. For reasons
that are not yet completely understood by scientists
(although the currently held theory points to the cause as
interaction between magnetic fields), the Sun will often
launch bursts of energy out into space via solar flares,
which send billions upon billions of charged atoms out into
space. Flares originate from sunspots and are rated in
power by letter-based classes, with the X-class being the
most powerful. This stream of energy continually launched
by the Sun into space is known as the solar wind. If there
is a particularly strong flare that releases a lot of energy,
the burst is then known as a coronal mass ejection (CME).
If it was a CME, it will be many years before we get power
back. That means the end of the world as we know it is
here.” Janice said.

“Really? That bad? What’s this radio we’re looking
for going to tell us? Janice, you’re starting to scare me.”
Betsy said, all a twitter and edgy.

“I am not meaning to try to scare you, just inform
you and I sure hope I am wrong about the cause of this.
But that is what happened today I am pretty sure. I think I
am right, after all, it has happened before, back in 1800’s
all the telegraph lines went down. Ok, here goes nothing.”
Janice said and hit the ON switch to the old battery
powered transistor radio sitting next to the computer.

They heard NOTHING, not even a little static
crackle to indicate the set had some power from the
batteries.

“What do you mean screwed? Let me try that radio.
You mean this radio by not working proves your theory a
solar storm destroyed most electronics?” Betsy said
nervously, turning the dials over and over like something
magic would happen.

“Geomagnetic storms can take out anything
dependant on circuitry or electronics. This was a strong
storm it seems but not all that strong really because it
seems to have had little effect on vehicles engine
computers. Well, at least the ones I have seen so far. If it
had been just a little bigger solar storm your car wouldn’t
have even started at all. ZAP! That would be it. But even if
a car runs you won’t be able to get any gas for it. The
pumps are all shut down. You had better sit down with me
for a while and let’s have a long talk about all the
implications of this thing and what we can do about it.”
Janice replied, heading for a seat.

“Ok,” squeaked Betsy and she settled into a chair
listening as Janice gives her a crash course in prepperdom
living and solar storm disaster survival explanations.

“You didn’t ever finish explaining what you thought
might happen to society after 4 weeks?” Cat said looking
forward out the windshield of the motor home and helping
Bubba navigate through the dangerous intersections.

“Well, obviously, we don’t know exactly what will
occur as it will be different for everyone depending on their
own personal circumstances. This was one big, nasty
surprise that will only keep producing more trials and
troubles, though. I am thinking that most people by the
fourth week of the power being out will already have had to
depend on the kindness of strangers and the competence
of government officials the first few weeks so most likely in
the fourth week none of that will be happening much
anymore.

Most people will be in desperate straits just to find
their next meal. A full collapse of the financial and political
system has basically just already occurred also to
complicate matters more so. Socio-political and economic
instability trigger psychological instability or uncertainty,
and all this, I believe, will contribute a great deal to rising
brutal crime and some full scale looting.

The “every man for himself” syndrome will take
over as humanity suffers unless you have access to a
close community. I guess this would be the beginning of a
“without rule of law” or WROL situation in the country and
an attempted Law Enforcement harder crackdown of
martial law in the cities. Law enforcement and the National
Guard are going to be eating regular and requisitioning
food warehouses so there is some rule of law going on but
who is to say what form it will take as people grow more
desperate and resources get overwhelmed.

The cities will be emptying of those people with a
rural place to go to or relatives to stay with and the
housing projects will probably go up in flames with turf
wars amongst the gangs as arguments heat up over food
instead of drugs. Oh, drugs will be a big thing still to now,
going to be lots of crazy junkies looking for their fix and not
caring how they get it or who they got to go through.
Unfortunately, we already know that daily stresses and
events of the world today can set off psychological
instability, so, certainly, can a mass disaster like this that
causes our social networking and power structure to
collapse. One thing that causes this is the sense of chaos,
resulting in the person’s pervasive sense that “nothing
works any more.” So they have lost everything and they
mentally lose it.

Regular city people will start leaving for the country
in search of food and water because they have an
unrealistic view of farms. Lots of bad decisions will be
made and people’s misinterpretation of actions or
intentions as threats is going to get lots of folks killed as
well. Most people won’t have hardly any choices at all but
to migrate like locusts to the countryside and find what
they can, where they can.

Luckily, we have got enough preps to give us time
to carefully assess the situation and choose our best
options. I think we are going to stay with Donald at least 8
weeks, maybe through the whole summer even if it makes
sense and he don’t mind having us that long. This first
winter is going to be the big grim reaper on anyone who
survives the coming summer months so bugging back then
when less folks are around, might be the answer. We are
just going to have to play it by ear for now and stay at
Donald’s little safe haven as society unravels.” Bubba said,
glad he was finally on the main highway and headed out of
the city limits and towards his friend.

“I will feel better when we finally get safely there.
Wow! Did you notice the number of trucks and cars stuck
on that bypass we just went by?” Cat said, looking at
Bubba in disbelief they could be so backed up

“Yea! I couldn’t tell what caused that bad snarl up
or if those vehicles were even operating. There are some
trucks pulled over up ahead, I bet the solar storm played
havoc with all the electronics them things carry.” Bubba
said, pointing at three big rigs pulled over on both sides of
the road and their befuddled drivers looking at the engines
with the hoods raised.

Donald has always said that after the
disappearance of money, law, and government, it’s pretty
much apocalypse now and all bets are off. In more other,
more practical terms, we can say that the second big die
out phase will begin when money is no longer accepted as
a means of exchange. We are facing a global famine the
like that’s never been seen on this earth. People will be
forced to fend for themselves and their families, by any
means necessary. Basically, national anarchy and a
regression of civilization will be occurring at an astounding
rate. Society has broken down irreparably for now and will
retrogress into a new Dark Age.

Donald tried his best to imagine and anticipate what
was inexorably going to happen next as the solar storm
ran its’ course and dismantled technology as well as
civilization as we know it. In the immediate aftermath of a
disastrous breakdown of the social order, if you are in an
urban area, there will likely be many, many people looking
for the same basic things you are when stuff gets scarce.
Looting will be rampant and widespread. What Donald like
to call the three” C’s” -crime, cults, and craziness would
become the order of the day. The world would see an
increase in superstition, ignorance, cruelty, and intolerance
as people just lost it. The events occurring now are exactly
like cascading dominoes; all parts of the collapse have
more to do with causality than with chronology, although
there is no great distinction to be made between the two in
reality.