The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 (10 page)

“Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call,” the recorded voice interrupted. Elliot picked out and deposited another six quarters, their drop into the hollow chamber inside the phone unsettlingly loud.

“I don’t have a lot of time, Dad. About another two minutes’ worth of change.”

“Why don’t I call you back? I have the number from caller ID.”

“Payphone sticker says no incoming calls. I have no other way to talk to you.”

“I’ll make this quick, then. Stay where you are. I’ll send Brian to you, and when he arrives, do as he says. I will give him instructions on how to get you to safety. I’ve spoken with Deputy Commander Oliver McGinn at Fort Hamilton, and the military is mobilizing.”

“Military?” Elliot asked dumbly, suddenly cold despite the pleasant, sunny afternoon. “Did the city get that bad already? The power’s been out less than twenty-four hours. Surely people can be patient for a day.” It was never a good idea to show confusion in his father’s presence, even over the phone, but Elliot couldn’t help it.

“Son, listen. It’s not just New York City, or even the state, that lost power.”

“I know. We drove through parts of Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the interstate was dark the whole way.”

“It’s the entire eastern half of the country, Elliot.”

A high, buzzing whine settled in Elliot’s ears, blotting out the conversation as he gaped at Ash, who looked at him in puzzlement.

“What did you say?” he said, voice cracking.

“They don’t know what started it, but the worst of the damage is in D.C. When the power failed in the capitol, it caused a domino effect, and everything from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean is in a blackout.”

“Holy god,” he muttered, clutching the phone with a sweaty hand. “What do we do? Dad,
what do we do now?
” The import of the situation had yet to sink in, but Elliot knew, without a doubt, this was bad. Epically bad.

“Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call.”

“Dammit,” he muttered under his breath, plinking his remaining change into the box.

“When Brian gets there, you do exactly what he says.” Steven Davenport hadn’t gotten to be a billionaire without being able to think quickly on his feet. “I’ll send him to you, and from there, you’ll get in contact with McGinn to find out the best course of action. Is your friend willing to drive you to wherever McGinn tells you to go?”

Elliot looked at Ash, who’d remained quiet, not interrupting due to the shortage of time for the call. “He’s got a plan of his own, Dad.”

“No, Elliot,” Steven replied sternly. “I’m getting you to the quickest and safest pocket I can. Unless your friend’s plan involves finding a military base and taking shelter with other civilians, you’ll do as I say.”

Elliot closed his eyes. Holy balls,
half the country was without power
. There was absolutely no way this would be resolved in days or even weeks. His mind whirled with possibilities and responses, but his time was running out.

“What’s the government saying?”

“They’re urging people with power in the western portion of the country to sit tight, let the military respond with emergency management and not take matters into their own hands. The president and his staff, plus key members of the cabinet, have been moved to an undisclosed location. There’ve been reports of several crashed planes, mostly in the Maryland, Washington, D.C. vicinity, so the speculation is a weapon of some kind was detonated. They’re investigating, as well as calling all active duty and reserves to check in with their commanding officers. Some of the places near major military installations are under martial law, but other areas, like New York City, haven’t been neutralized yet. The looting has already started. As soon as people realize the extent of the problem, it’ll get much worse before it gets better. Do not go home.”

“Okay,” Elliot agreed readily, sick to his stomach. Unconsciously, he began his panic breathing.

“I’ll speak to Brian, and we’ll formulate a plan, son. I’m not leaving you to fend for yourself. You need to stay calm. Are you somewhere safe in case…?”

“I’m with Ash. I’m okay right now. We’re not hurt, and he’s gathering food and supplies to get us through the next few days while we wait.” He said nothing of Ash’s desire to go west.

“Ash who?”

Elliot cleared his throat. “Asher Caine, Dad. My chem lab partner. I’ve told you about him before. We’re at his sister’s.” He rattled off the address while Ash raised a brow at him.

“Who are his parents?”

“Seriously? At a time like this, you’re worried about
pedigree
?”

“No, Elliot,” his father snapped. “I merely wondered if there was someone I could contact to alert them of their son’s safety.”

“Oh,” Elliot said, chagrined. The knowledge that Ash’s parents were both dead bothered him more than he cared to admit. Thankfully he had Charlotte. And their uncle in Seattle. “I think we’re okay there. Ash grew up here, and we’re staying with his sister, Charlotte. I’ll just—”

“Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call.”

“Dad, I’m out of change. I gotta go.”

“What’s the address again?”

Elliot repeated it.

“Okay. Wait for Brian. I’ll get you to safety. Your mother and I are going to the—”

“Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call.”

“—condo in L.A. If you can get your hands on a satellite phone, do it. I’ll make sure Brian has his when he arrives, so you can call McGinn.”

“All right.”

“Be careful, son. Have you got your medicine?”

“Yeah, I—”

“Your call will terminate in ten seconds. Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call.”

“—have about three weeks’ worth.”

“Try to relax, El. We’ll get you help with a medical priority.”

“Okay. I love you both,” he finished, but the line had gone dead.

Feeling disconnected from reality, Elliot hung up, his hand shaking.

“Everything okay?” Ash asked, no longer giving him space, standing right beside him, one hand caressing Elliot’s back. Raking his eyes up Ash’s chest to his throat and then his handsome face, Elliot shook his head in slow motion, fear nearly swallowing him whole.

“No. Nothing is okay, and it never will be again.”

T
he car stood sentinel
, parked illegally in the fire lane in front of the movie theater at the Five Fingers Mall, Elliot’s passenger door still ajar from when Ash had grabbed change for the payphone. They’d sat at the foot of the phone when Elliot’s legs gave out, and Ash caught him. He explained what Steven Davenport had relayed, and they hadn’t moved, dumbfounded and absorbing the catastrophic information.

“Holy shit, Elliot,” Ash nearly whispered, staring at this feet, his legs splayed in front of him and his hands linked as he hunched forward. The cool from the cement seeped through his jeans, helping to keep him grounded in a reality that scared the living shit out of him.

“I know,” Elliot answered, sounding just as wrecked as Ash felt.

“This could take
years
to recover from.”

Elliot looked up with haunted eyes. “If we ever
do
recover. Think about it.”

“I
am
thinking about it,” Ash said, numbness giving way to restlessness. “We have to get out of here.”

Elliot put his head between his raised knees and breathed. “We’re now worse than a third world country.” His voice was muffled by his body.

“We gotta get out of here,” Ash repeated, quickly standing. “C’mon. We need to get Charlotte and
go.
If we leave now, we’ll get a jump on all the other people who have no fucking clue life as we know it is over.”

“My dad said stay put,” Elliot protested, even as he let Ash pull him to his feet.

“Forgive me for saying so, but fuck your dad, Elliot. If you want to stay, fine. I’ll even leave you some supplies. But me and my family are getting the fuck out of here and going to Seattle. As soon as I can get my sister off her ass.”

Elliot’s eyes flashed at that. “Hey, my dad is no slouch in the planning department. He said he’s been in contact with some army guy, who told him we’d be better off waiting for the military to move in and then hooking up with them. Every service member in the nation has been called to respond, so we’ll be seeing them in the next day or so anyway. What’s the difference if we take shelter with the guys who have the guns and are sworn to protect us, or we go to the other side of the country, which might as well be the other side of the world right now?”

“I’ll take my chances. You can come with me, or you can stay here and wait, but make up your mind, because I’m not sitting around to find out how this’ll play out.” He rounded the front end of the Audi and got in the driver’s seat.

Elliot didn’t hesitate to get in the car, for which Ash was grateful. He really didn’t like the idea of manhandling the guy into his seat, and he certainly wasn’t going to leave him to fend for himself in a town he didn’t know.

“Shouldn’t we at least consider that going to a military base might be safer than crossing the country? The drive will take days, and we may not have that before the shit hits the fan.” Elliot sounded terrified, and he wrung his hands in his lap to the point where his knuckles were white. It didn’t stop his visible shaking.

“What do you think will happen when the military mobilizes?” Ash kept his voice even and as detached as possible. Concentrating on sounding normal made him feel more normal than his quivering insides indicated. Ash was
scared,
and he hadn’t been in touch with that emotion since the day in 2003 when the marine officers had come up the front walk to inform them their father, Sergeant David Caine, had been killed in combat in Afghanistan during his second deployment since 9/11.

“If it’s anything like what happened after Hurricane Sandy, the National Guard will move in with generators and fuel to get temporary power up and running for FEMA and the Red Cross to use. There’s no damage to structures or flooding, like with Sandy, so….” Elliot trailed off.

Ash gripped the steering wheel tighter. “They’ll implement martial law. This isn’t a hurricane that hit the eastern seaboard and moved on. This is two-thirds of the entire country. And how long do you think the fuel to run generators for temporary power will last? People are going to go apeshit when they see military personnel moving in. But here’s the thing, Elliot. Are you listening?” His fear swallowed his patience, and he gulped before continuing.

“Yes,” Elliot said meekly, eyes glued to Ash’s face. Because he was driving, Ash couldn’t look back, which was a blessing. If he had to see Elliot’s terror, he’d probably lose it. As it was, his stomach seemed insistent on returning his meager breakfast.

“There are approximately three hundred million people in the United States. The eastern two-thirds is more populous than the western third, but for ease of argument, let’s say all those people are evenly distributed. There are
two hundred million people
without power right now. We’ve all heard that if the power grid went down, it would take months or even
years
to bring it back online. The troops aren’t just going to be providing gas and temp power. They’re going to be keeping us from descending into chaos. FEMA isn’t going to have enough meals to feed everyone indefinitely. They’re going to be policing us because normal law enforcement is not equipped for this. Hell, we don’t have enough
troops
enlisted for this. There are only about two million people signed up at any given time.”

“How do you know that?” Elliot squeaked.

“My Uncle Marvin is a retired marine, and he watches shit like that. He’s kind of a crackpot but….” Ash stopped.
Maybe he’s not such a crackpot after all.
“When people find out how screwed we are, all hell is going to break loose, and even with everyone pressed into service, it’s not enough. Hell, they may reinstitute the draft. You want to be forced into enlisting? I sure as hell don’t. I want to put as much distance between me and the military as possible.”

Elliot didn’t immediately respond, and Ash gripped the steering wheel tighter as he waited for him to connect all the dots.

“This is it, isn’t it?” Elliot warbled. “It’s all over.”

“Not for the whole world.” The nausea which had been poking at the back of his throat for the last fifteen minutes surged, and Ash pulled over down the street from Charlotte’s, at the edge of a weed-choked field where a hulking transformer sat behind chain-link fencing. In the unsettling calm where a buzz of live wires should have been, Ash stumbled from the car and threw up in the shadow of dead machinery.

He couldn’t catch a breath between heaves, and with his hands on his knees, bent over with his back to the car, panic for his sister, for her ten-year-old son whose childhood would never be normal, and doubts about his ability to keep them safe in the face of all of
this
crept over him. God, could he get them to Marvin’s? Would they be able to cross the country like this? How would they get gas to drive that whole distance? Were roads passable?