Chapter One (Alone)

Even for the country, it was quiet.

She noticed right away her electricity was out, but it took a few moments longer to ascertain that, yes, her phone was black and her car wouldn’t start.

None of their vehicles would.

She hated being right, but she knew something, someday, would happen, and now it had.

The recent shut down of the world, for a virus, was scary.

She was certain this would be worse.

If she was right, it would be.

She didn’t want to be right. Not this time.

An EMP is what she guessed. Everything had stopped working. It wasn’t just the power being out. Her laptop, phone, and even car wouldn’t start. It was the car not starting that sealed it for her. It wasn’t like she could look out her window to see if other people were having the same problems. She lived on the outskirts of a town of 309 people. She’d have to check with her nearest neighbors to find out. That was a walk of about a mile. Not too bad. Holly whistled for her dog, and started walking.

She hoped not nuclear, or biological. If the worst was just an EMP, she figured she’d be ok. After all, wasn’t she better prepared than most? She and her husband had bought their little homestead just before the housing market went crazy. She knew her family might be one of the lucky ones. Or better prepared ones. They weren’t preppers, despite what some of her family thought, but now she was wishing she had done more prepping.

As Holly walked, her mind raced, nearly as fast as her daughter talked.

Her husband was an hour away.

By car.

She tried to stay outwardly calm. She had Ella to think about. At four years old their only child was amazing perceptive. Like most four years olds she supposed. She was so thankful Ella was home with her today, but she was worried about her husband who was working in the city. An hour away by car….how many days walking was that? She mentally made a list of what she had to do, alone, until Theo arrived.

She had prepared her whole life really. She had only just entered high school when AOL dial up became a household presence. Because of this, she occupied much of her free time with reading; after chores.

Her mom had been of the original back-to-the-land movement in the 60’s and 70’s….and so, she was raised “homesteading”, only that wasn’t was it was called growing up. She isn’t exactly sure what one would call being homeschooled, cutting firewood each year for their heat, being woken up at 5 am by the smell of fresh baking bread, buying school clothes at thrift stores, or using reusable shopping bags would be called.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t popular, or cool.

But now, it just might pay off.