Descent into Chaos

Day 12, Day

Weather: Clear, 35F

Location: Clifton, NJ

Glowing balls in a dark room danced around him.  No larger than a tennis ball, they reminded him of fireflies dancing in his backyard on a sticky summer night. He tried to reach out, to touch one, but it lay always outside his grasp. This doesn’t make sense, he thought, was he awake or dreaming?  Maybe he’s dead? He smiled as the balls started to vibrate, like the speakers on one of his amplifiers, but without any sound.

Behind him he heard the whimpering of a dog. He snapped around, forgetting about the balls for a moment to see the shape of dog outlined in a green glow.  He walked to the dog, to get a closer look, but paused when he recognized it.

“Goldie?” He said. “Is that you? Is that really you?”  The dog looked at him, with deep soulful eyes and panted when she saw him.  Justin dropped to his knees.  Tears welling up in his eyes he flung his arms around the dog’s neck.  “Oh my God, it really is you Goldie!” He cried, tears rolling down his cheeks.  Goldie let out a yelp in acknowledgement. He hugged her tightly, burying his face into her golden coat.

“I missed you so much girl!” He blubbered in between the tears. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” His crying echoed throughout the room.  He lifted his face from her fur, eyes red and blurry with tears, he whispered, “what is this place?”  Goldie whimpered again, he looked down at her but she was gone.

“No. No!” He scampered backwards on his butt. Looking around in fear, the glowing balls seemed larger and were pulsing faster. They were humming now.  Somewhere in the distance he heard Goldie whimper again.  “What is this place!” He screamed. “Where the hell am I?”

Suddenly, everything around him went dark. The glowing balls were gone, no humming and no Goldie.

“Goldie?” He said, his voice quivering. Nothing.

A bright green light exploded above his head, blinding him for a moment. He raised his hand to his forehead and screamed “what the hell are you?” The green light began to fade and grow smaller – it was one of those damn green balls. “Damn you,” he said, “damn you and this place…” It hung in the air for a moment before shooting itself into Justin’s head. Pain seared through his body.  The force of the impact shot his body across the floor in this room, depositing his crumpled body somewhere in the darkness.

“What is this place?” He gasped as the darkness overcame him.

Day: 12, night

Weather: clear, 25F

 Samuel looked around, everything was dark, everything was quiet. The snow had stopped falling earlier that day, at least another 12 inches of snow had blanketed this part of New Jersey. He sat atop his horse at an intersection of a deserted 6 lane highway - Route 23 and Kinnelon Rd to be exact.  There was a traffic light, dead now, looming over him like a giant metallic skeleton.  Pretty Girl snorted loudly and stomped her hooves into the snow.

 Sam crouched down and patted her on the neck, "there, there girl, we're almost done."  She was uneasy and Sam was on edge.  He couldn't believe what had happened to our world in just under two weeks, it all collapsed because of the flu.  A chill ran through him as he shook his head.   

 A radio crackled on Sam's belt, "Lone Wolf 7, this is Big Dog, come in." Silence. "Lone Wolf 7, this is Big Dog, come in." Sam took off his glove and reached for the radio. "This is Long Wolf 7, I read you Big Dog." 

 "Lone Wolf 7, what is your location and status?" A tired voice asked.

 "I made it to Kinnelon, so far no survivors but high probability of supplies," trails of white breath, like dragon's smoke, rolled over the walkie talkie, "I'm going to do a reconnaissance of Meadtown Center before returning to the Pack."

 "10-4. Finish your recon quickly and get back here. Over and out." The radio went silent.  

 "A few more minutes girl," Sam muttered as he put his gloves on. He pulled on her reins and headed toward the dark shopping mall. He could barely make out the lines of the building. A row of tall trees behind them made it appear that the forest was about to pounce on the buildings and reclaim their land. Perhaps they will, he thought, perhaps we'll just go extinct and Nature will take over again - as she's done for aeons.

 He turned on his flashlight and shined its light into the store fronts as he slowly rode by.  Standing like silent sentinels was a dress shop, a pizzeria, shoe store, and mattress store. He noted these things, all important places to come back too and scavenge supplies from later. He rode along the front of building and turned down its side.  Pretty Girl plodded along what was the truck access road, a place that might still have some abandoned trucks loaded with supplies.  The rear of the building sat at the bottom of an embankment, the access road kept the trees and scrub brush at a distance away from the building, far enough to allow semi trucks to turn around and unload their goods. On top of the embankment was another side road, probably leading to another residential area in town. In the weak light of his flashlight he saw no trucks except for an odd shape at the bottom of the embankment.

 Something inside him told to check out, not because it seemed out of place, but because of his dream last night.  The dream was so vivid, it stayed with him all day.  Sam climbed off Pretty Girl and pulled out a shotgun from his saddle holster - he flipped off the safety.  Looking around to see if this was a trap he walked slowly to what now appeared to be car lying on its side, the driver's side door was facing up. Brush debris and torn tree limbs were littered around the car.  Damn, he thought, it must've slipped off the road and tumbled down the embankment. He wiped away the snow from the window and shone his flashlight inside. He could make out the shapes of two people inside.

 He yanked the door wide open, making sure to lock it in its place. Inside was a man and woman, wearing down jackets and still strapped in their seat belts.  Sam reached inside and touched the man's neck, looking for a pulse. He was as cold as ice. Damn bastard, he thought, he must've froze to death.  Next he shone his light onto a woman sitting in the front passenger seat.  Streams of frozen blood had oozed out her nose and ears.  He stopped in place and let what he saw they had the flu.   was the flu he thought, they must've had the flu. In the backseat were two piles of blankets. He could make out the shape of a small leg sticking up from underneath it.  His heart sank and tears began to well up in his eyes.  This was a family, like his own. No doubt they were trying to go for help and crashed in this bad weather.

 He reached in behind the seat and grabbed the leg, but it too was as cold as snow. He pulled on it and a small boy, no older than 5, slid out. He too had frozen blood under his nose and on the side of head. A tear streamed down his face. He had seen enough for today and it was time to head back for some food and warmth.  "May God have mercy on your souls," he said bowing his head, hand on the door. He pushed on the door and it began to close, ready to seal this poor family into an icy tomb.  Before it snapped shut, he heard someone coughing from the back seat.

Weather: Overcast and cold, 48F

Still no power today.  We’ve now slept two nights downstairs next to the wood burning stove.  The electric company said they, and all the others, were overwhelmed.  Their best guess estimate is that power will be restored within the next few days, but it could be longer.  Many of their workmen are knocked out by the flu and can’t come in.

I checked on our neighbors down the street. They’re all ok, but cold.  Old man Johnson is fine but he feels like he’s getting the flu, despite getting his flu shot a few weeks ago.  He’s managing just fine, muttering something about his WW II days and fighting in the cold during the Battle of Bulge.  I offered he can stay with us, knowing that any close family of his lives several states away, but he refused.

The neighborhood is trashed.  Tree limbs and trees are littered all over the place. I’ve never seen anything like it before.  Power lines, telephone lines, and cable lines are strewn about like spaghetti noodles on a plate.

The kids have off from school again today. No electricity throughout the town.  The same goes for work, the office and VPN servers are offline.  I managed to get the text and news on my phone before it died. I now have to charge my phone in the car! Talk about old school! Called my parents, they’re OK and managed not to lose any power.

Our frozen food is thawing out fast.  Tonight we’re grilling as much meat as we can before it goes bad.

Weather: Sunny and cold, 50F.

The snow stopped sometime early this morning and we still no power. I didn’t sleep so well last night, it got pretty darn cold outside and the couch wasn’t comfortable at all, but we all were warm.  I wonder how the rest of the people down the street made out last night.

Beautiful blue sky today, lots of sun, but the yard is trashed.  Tree limbs of all sizes litter the yard and rest on the newly fallen snow.   Across the street my neighbor lost a good portion of his maple tree; what a shame, it was a nice tree.

For breakfast this morning we made Cup of Noodles, we boiled the water on the wood stove.  First thing I’m doing today is calling the electric company and getting a status on when we can expect the power to return, and then I’m going to check on the neighbors. 

The kids are happy for a snow day, we got the text last night that school was canceled.  Brenda is getting worried about the food spoilage in the refrigerator. I told her not to worry, all will be fine tomorrow. I’d volunteer to move the food outside in the snow but we have problems with raccoons and bears, so here’s to hoping the power comes on today. 

Weather: Cold and snowing, 28F

We had a freak snowstorm today and lost power today.  It was terrible outside, tree limbs were snapping and trees coming down - I think we got about a foot of snow!  The news reports indicated that over a million people had lost power and that it could take a few days to restore power.  I watched the local electric company whiz by our house, and occasionally turn down our street.  No one was outside, except for those poor souls.

Despite the bad weather, it was a perfect day to start the wood burning stove and stay inside. We lite candles and played charades, Susan was pretty good at make dog shadows!  Hopefully it won’t get too cold tonight; if it does we’ll consider sleeping downstairs by the stove.