The Light

Two-2

I summoned the strength to get out of the car. The cold seeped through my thin tunic and leggings in an instant. The knee-high boots offered some warmth, though no comfort, thanks to the three inch heels. I shivered and wrapped my arms around my body. I hadn’t brought warm clothes; none of us had. The forecast for Palm Beach had been in the upper eighties. I’d packed three bikinis and no winter coat.

Blaise was still wrapped in the blanket she and Josh had been sleeping under. Sara and I joined her. We huddled together as we stared at the car. Josh had an arm around Blaise’s shoulders.

Without the beams of headlights, I could see the light of the moon clearly. How long had it been since I noticed moonlight? There was enough light for me to see the barren silver trees that surrounded us.

Looking at my friends, I saw the same fear and confusion that I felt. I thought of Sara’s words and wondered if she was right.

I turned toward the north, the direction the light had come from. I detected movement.

“There are people walking toward us,” I whispered, trying hard to stay calm.

Sara and I moved closer to each other. Josh stepped in front of us. Blaise dropped her end of the blanket and stood next to him. He edged himself in front of her, his body tense.

“Come on,” Sara whispered. We stepped forward and stood next to our friends, the blanket still wrapped around us.

As the figures neared I could tell that they were about our age. He was older and she was younger, but neither looked older than twenty-five. He carried a duffel bag. She wore a backpack and dragged a rolling suitcase behind her. He was about Josh’s height, maybe a little taller, six foot two or so. She was also tall, probably five nine. As they neared, he opened his hands toward us in the universal “I come in peace” gesture.

Sara whispered in my ear, “He’s cute, really cute.”

“Shh,” I hissed back. But she was right. He was way above average on the cuteness scale, and, for that matter, so was the woman with him. They made an attractive couple. Beneath the purple dye I could tell her hair was blonde. His was light brown. Unlike Sara and me, they were dressed for warmth and comfort. Neither wore something you could buy in a department store or boutique. Perhaps a camping store, but I had never been in one to know for sure.

“I’m Jonah and this is East,” he said, stopping a few feet from Josh.

Josh introduced each of us. It was funny to watch the interaction. Josh wasn’t the tough sort of guy. He was the sweet, lovable “call for Blaise when there was a big spider” kind of guy. But tonight he seemed to be channeling his testosterone-laden ancestors. He was ready to protect us. I loved him for that. I could tell Blaise did too. She was staying calm, trying to be as threatening as her yoga-teaching self could be. Yet, I could see her glance at Josh with a new appreciation.

“Where were you headed?” East asked, her voice cautious.

“Palm Beach,” Blaise responded, her tone matching East’s. Blaise grabbed Josh’s hand, and his body visibly relaxed.

“What about you?” Blaise asked.

“Home,” Jonah responded, appraising Blaise as he spoke.

“Where’s that?” I asked, pulling the blanket tighter around me while eyeing Blaise’s heavy winter coat, jeans, and sneakers with envy.

“The next exit and then about twenty miles east,” Jonah answered. The way he looked at me caused me to shiver, or maybe it was the cold.

“I’m sorry, but you look familiar,” he said, realizing he’d been staring.

“Do I? I don’t think I have ever seen you before,” I answered, knowing there was no way I had. He was someone I would not forget.

“No, I guess not,” he said, still looking puzzled.

Sara pulled the blanket tighter around her body, our hands meeting between us as we attempted to stay warm. She said, “Do you know what happened? We saw a light, and then everything stopped working.”

“My brother thinks he knows,” East said, nodding her head toward Jonah.

Sara said nothing, but I knew she was jumping up and down on the inside, realizing they weren’t a couple.

Josh turned to Jonah. “What do you think it was?”

I relaxed as Jonah’s gaze shifted from me to Josh. “An EMP,” he said.

“A what?” Sara asked in her “stupid girl” voice, the one she used when she was into a guy. I rolled my eyes before I could stop myself. How she could go from thinking we were going to die, to being totally focused on a cute stranger in five minutes was beyond me.

Jonah answered, “Electromagnetic pulse. I think that’s what this must have been. It disables everything electronic.”

“I’ve heard of those,” Blaise said, “but this couldn’t have been one.”

“Why not?” Jonah said, setting his duffel bag on the ground.

“There’s no way there could be one that huge. For it to knock out all of our things, that would mean—” Blaise stopped. She pulled in closer to Josh.

“A nuclear reaction,” Jonah said, finishing her thought.

She nodded, holding Josh’s hand tighter. He put his arm around her.

“Here? In the U.S.?” Sara asked, her voice back to normal.

I knew that the idea of a nuclear explosion in the U.S. was an impossibility to all of us.

Jonah nodded. “Not necessarily on the ground, but in the atmosphere above us,” he said.

“How?” I asked. “How could that happen?” I stared at him in disbelief.

“Not by accident,” East said, anger in her eyes.

“An ... attack?” Blaise said, almost unable to say the words.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Jonah said.

Josh looked up to the sky. “But it doesn’t make sense. We aren’t at war with anyone,” he said.

“We’re always fighting someone,” East said. “Even if our government doesn’t call it a war. And since when do terrorists need a war to attack us,” she said, her voice harsh and cynical.

She was right. We all knew the possibility of an attack was real. But one that knocked out our phones and cars? That seemed impossible, no matter how probable these strangers thought it was. Regardless of what caused the light, the result was the same. We were stranded on the side of a freezing highway.

“So what do we do? Wait for someone to find us?” I asked, tired of the cold.

Jonah turned to me, his expression confused. “Wait?” he asked.

“For someone to give us a ride,” I said, confused by his confusion.

“Who do you think is coming for us? Who do you think can?” He sounded frustrated and sad at the same time.

“Eventually someone is going to drive by,” I said, irritation in my voice. “I mean, it’s the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, so it might take a while. Plus, if some cars on the road got zapped by whatever this was, then it will take longer. But tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Someone is going to drive by soon.”

Jonah exhaled. “If you had a weapon big enough to knock out all things electronic, where would you set it off? In the country, where there aren’t many people, or in the cities, where there are millions? I don’t think we haven’t seen anyone because no one decided to drive down the interstate. I think we haven’t seen anyone because everyone else’s cars are as dead as ours. And the fact that we haven’t seen anyone come from the south tells me the range was either really far or there was more than one,” he said.

My knees buckled. I leaned on Sara. My mind raced—the thoughts were fleeting and made no sense. I saw images of cities with no lights, no power. Places with unchanged structures whose inhabitants had lost all sense of what the world was. I thought of my dad and wished I was with him.

“We are walking home,” Jonah said, “If you want to come with us you can.” His words were tense, but I could sense the kindness beneath his tone.

“Thank you. That’s very nice of you,” Blaise said, her voice somber.

She was the steady one of our group. She neither minimized nor exaggerated experiences. She took them as they were presented to her, with as little judgment as possible. She often said things weren’t good or bad, they just were. I wondered now what she thought of all that was happening around us.

Sara looked from East to Jonah, her eyes pleading. “What about our families?” she asked.

“Where are you all from?” East’s tone was softer and less cynical.

“We go to school at Columbia,” Blaise said, “but our families are all over. My parents are in Pennsylvania and Josh’s parents and sisters are in Nebraska.”

“My mom and sister live near DC,” Sara said, looking down as she spoke.

I was supposed to say something, but I couldn’t. The lump in my throat grew as I realized that if Jonah and East were right, if this was an attack, then our nation’s capital would’ve been a primary target in the attack, and my father with it. How would it defend itself now, without machines or electronics of any kind? Even if the city had survived, the chaos brought on by the food and water shortages would cut it to its knees. The place I was raised. The place my father still lived would be destroyed and my father with it.

Blaise spoke for me. “Bria’s dad is in DC too.”

Sara lifted her head and turned to me. “We can’t just leave them,” she said, her voice shaking.

“What can we do?” I asked, barely loud enough for my own ears to hear.

“We have to try,” she replied in a pleading tone. “We can’t leave them in DC. It was probably the target.”

I knew Sara was right. But I also knew there was nothing we could do.

East stepped toward us. “For now you should come with us. You can figure out what to do when we know more,” she said.

Sara stiffened. “No, we can’t abandon our families,” she said. “I can’t abandon my family.” Tears were running down her face.

“Sara, we don’t have food or water. Or any way to stay warm,” Blaise said, putting her hand on Sara’s shoulder.

“We wouldn’t make it,” I said, looking at her, my voice stronger.

“We have to try,” Sara said again.

“We would die. There’s no way we wouldn’t,” I said, my voice firm.

Josh stepped toward us. “I think we should go with East and Jonah. From there we can think it through more, and prepare,” he said, his voice emotional yet steady.

Sara said nothing. I took her hand. She pulled it away.

Josh held tightly to Blaise’s hand. They were to become each other’s family in a year, but now, with their parents so far away, it seemed they had just become the only family they had. Sara and I were alone.

* * *