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The Vault
Location: Undisclosed

“Look, Charlie, if I count them that way, the answer is the same as in table 3-5, and I don’t think we are adding…”

Before Pat could finish the sentence, the computer they were studying died. The lights went out, leaving the room only lit by a small emergency light over the door – a battery-powered escape light, glowing red, “Exit”.

“Oh, Mist, I hadn’t saved that thing yet,” Pat exclaimed. “But we only lost an hour’s worth.”

“Moron,” Charlie said, “Save early, save often. It is like voting.”

Pat laughed. “Yeah. If you are a democrat. Looks like time for a smoke break.” As he got up to leave the vault, he said to the facility manager, “I will be back in a few – don’t sign me out.”

“No problem,” Andrew said, “See what else is down outside. Just our building, or the whole post?”

“Ok,” Pat replied, “I will scope it out.”

The hallway lights were out, too – so it wasn’t a breaker. Pat grabbed his cell phone from the locker in the hall, and headed for the stairs, thinking it was funny that the emergency lights in the hall were not working. He used his lighter to navigate downstairs, and outside.

In the fenced-in courtyard, he headed over to the smoking area by the concertina wire. As he lit up, he noted that the traffic light in front of the building was also out – so it was the whole post, or at least the immediate area, not a fuse in the building or some such. He also noted that the intersection, normally busy, was completely empty of cars, except for one that appeared to have broken down just shy of the stop line. That will be a hassle later, he thought – traffic on this particular post was almost as bad as at home, in the DC suburbs.

Flipping open his phone, he noted that it was deader than a rock – no battery. Well, that was no surprise – it was, after all, a number of years old, and he had forgotten to plug it in last night.

“No lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury,” he mumbled to himself. “Dang.”

It was oddly quiet outside – no traffic noise, no aircraft, no machine background noise of any sort. That was – unusual. The post was normally quite busy. And the diesel backup generators were not running.

With a troubled look on his face, he headed back to the front door. Of course, with the power out and no generator, his badge would not open the door. So he banged on it, until the receptionist, Tom, let him in.

“Thanks, Tom. This place is a pain without power.”

“No kidding.” Tom laughed. “You guys might as well go home.”

“Yeah. Let me get everybody out of the vault.”

Heading upstairs again, lit lighter in hand, he noted that the emergency battery lights were still out. At the vault door, he knocked, and waited for Andrew to let him in.

“Houston, we have a problem,” he said to Charlie and Andrew, both, “The whole post is down – or least as much of it as I can see from here. Time to secure everything and pop smoke.”

Andrew looked glum. “I can’t – until the power comes up, I can’t leave. No alarm.”

“Roger that,” Charlie said, “And I really wanted to get more done today, having driven two hours in DC traffic to get here. Pat, let’s go find some lunch, and see if it comes back up. Andrew, can we bring you back a sandwich?”

“Nah. I brown bagged today. Go – find something, take an hour, and come back and relieve me.”

“Ok, will do,” said Charlie, as he stuffed his working papers in the safe. “C’mon, Pat.”

“All right,” Pat said, “But you drive. I want to ride in that limo of yours.”

Charlie snorted. “What, tired of your old jeep? What is it, twenty years old?”

“More like 30,” Pat said. “I bought it when I was a young pivot in the Army.”

Outside, and outside the wire, Charlie and Pat approached the shiny Cadillac Escalade ESV that was Charlie’s pride and joy. He made a point of claiming that his wife had bought it, it didn’t belong to him – but, somehow, he always seemed to drive it. Odd, that.

“Damn clicker is not working – I have to actually use the key!” Charlie exclaimed, “My wife will hear about this!”

Pat laughed, “So use the key. What are you, blond?”

“No, you are, you stupid hippy. At least the bits that aren’t grey, like your damn neck-beard. Now get in, as soon as I reach across this ark and open the other door.”

Pat laughed, as he climbed into the ark and buckled in. “The best part of this job”, he thought ,”is the humor of it.”

Charlie put the key in and tried the ignition – nothing happened. Not a click, not a whir, nothing.

Pat looked at him, and said, “Wiggle the shifter – your parking lockout may be off.”

Charlie wiggled the shifter, and tried the ignition again. Nothing. “Dang,” he said, hitting the Onstar button. Nothing happened. No response, no sound of the usually-friendly operator, nothing.

“Solly, Challie – I guess we drive the Jeep to lunch,” Pat said. “Sucker. Sucker with a dead limo.”

At the Jeep, they both piled in, and Pat tried the key. Nothing. Looking at Charlie, he said, “Sir, will do me an immediate favor? Try your cell phone - it was in the old wooden locker, outside the vault, right?

“Yes, of course –you saw me take it out.” Charlie slid his phone open. “Nothing. No battery.”

“You know, Charlie, the Vault is a faraday cage – and the only battery light that works in our building is in the vault.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Charlie asked, with his usual ironic cynicism.

“Sir, I think we have been EMP’d.”

The School
Location: Fairfax, Virginia.

The lights went out, and the emergency exit light did not come on.

Alicia pulled out her lighter from her purse, and flicked her bic. “I am tired of teaching in this CLOSET …”. She bit her tongue, to keep from completing the sentence in front of the kids. No windows, no air flow, just a special education teacher in a janitor’s closet, with a few needy kids. Trying to do her best, and, against all odds, succeeding.

Stumbling over to the door, she flung it open, and said, “Nancy, get up – I need your desk.” When Nancy moved, Alicia used the desk to prop open the door.

“All right, kiddos – fire drill. Everyone form a line, and we go to the cafeteria. Jenn, please bring up the rear with Bobbie’s wheelchair.”

In short order, the kids were in the cafeteria – but there was a problem. All of the teachers were bringing their classes to the cafeteria – but they could not fit the population of the school into that one room.

Harry Shovlin, the principal, soon appeared – and made an executive decision. “Ladies and gentlemen, please return to your classrooms – it is just a power outage.” Still, he was bothered that the computer-controlled back-up generator had not kicked in. “Shoddy government contractors,” he thought.

Alicia kept her class in the cafeteria – why sit in a dark closet, when at least the cafeteria has windows? At least she could do some teaching, in the window light.

At 3:30. the teachers took the kids out front, to put them back on the busses, send them home, and thank the heavens for another uneventful day. A power outage is a little thing, in the grand scheme of things.

But the busses did not show up. None of them.

Again, Harry made an executive decision – “Let the walkers go, take the bus riders back inside.”

By 4:00, some of the teachers had to excuse themselves – for school, or their own family commitments - so they arranged with other teachers to take their kids, until the parents could retrieve them.

None of their cars would start. The phones in the building did not work.

And their cell phones did not work.