Midnight by Anna Dove (books for new readers .TXT) 📕

and then wonder why they do not feel happy. Look at all the likes. Look at all the followers. Look how beautiful I am. Look how perfect my life is. I really do have it all together. Love me.

         A withdrawal from technology leaves our minds in a restless state, tossing and turning with loneliness and disconnection. Lying with our heads on the pillow, wide awake and staring at the ceiling, we realize that perhaps our loneliness has been assuaged by the benevolent glow of the electronic pocket companion. Perhaps we have, in the crusade to fill our souls, turned to something quite dead while ignoring the living.

Our pocket companions feel very alive. After all, like small children, they speak when spoken to. Like rational beings they follow patterns. Like brilliant scientists they instantaneously perform calculation, like a videographer they record at any moment, like the postman they send our messages. Like any person consuming a beverage, they recharge from a power source. They make noise; they respond to our touch; they seem, quite honestly, quasi human.

And, in an even more fortunate turn, they do not have emotion. While they perform many tasks that humans can do, they are not encumbered with the inconvenience of feeling anything. They will not cry if dropped and cracked; they will not voice an objection to any command. They are silent until you need them. They are compliant, obedient, subservient, non-confrontational. With our pocket companions we avoid all the horrible messiness of real human relationships —the arguments, the competition, the disagreements, the awkward moments, the uncomfortable encounters that are inevitable when a human relationship deepens. What is best of all is that we no longer need to worry, if we focus on our pocket companions, about developing our capacities for love—laboring in sacrifice for others’ gain, learning from heartbreak, crying because a child spontaneously hugs your neck. Love is the greatest inconvenience of all, and now we may avoid it entirely.

         Americans have an Achilles’ heel, he realizes. Americans are too distracted by and dependent on technology. They have lost connection with the real world. It seems so glaringly and deceptively simple, but perhaps it is true. Their defense against warfare is supreme, the best in the world; but their defense against their own selves is weak. It is too tantalizingly easy--but it must work, he continues in his train of thought. Robbed of their technology, on what will they rely?

An electromagnetic pulse is caused by a nuclear explosion that detonates in the atmosphere, rendering useless the power grid. The higher in the atmosphere the detonation, the more widespread the results. It is one of the few events that would have not just disastrous, but totally catastrophic consequences. The United States’ integrated and interlocked critical national infrastructure is particularly susceptible to this attack. All control, communication, implementation, storage and management that use electricity would be incapacitated. Nearly all U.S. civilian systems use electronic methods; the basic supply and distribution of water, food, and fuel, as well as communications, transport, emergency services, financial transactions, government services, business, international and domestic trade, all depend heavily on the existence of the electrical grid. The detonation of an EMP would cause extreme damage to the very core of most U.S. infrastructure, from which recovery would be uncertain.

We peer through the lens as the earth laboriously turns, like a slumbering, groggy giant. Now the western hemisphere is approaching dusk. As the shadow encroaches, our fears are confirmed; Mexico, South America, Canada all glow with the electric web emerging, but the United States is as black as midnight.

PART 2

THE SURVIVORS

 

12.  By the Light of the Moon

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

The three young escapees sat on the carpeted floor of the Arlington apartment, a candle on the counter to their right. They stared in front of them with a sort of dullness.

“We can’t stay here,” said Haley. The candle flickered and spasmed, casting shadows on their faces.

“No, we can’t,” agreed Elizabeth. “The grocery stores will be empty by the end of the night--and the risk is so high in the congested areas. We shouldn’t risk going to get more; we would be risking our lives. We need to move to where we can sustain ourselves.”

“Let’s go north,” responded Haley after a moment, her eyes watching the flame as it danced. “That’s what we need to do. If we can make it up to my family’s house in Havre de Grace, we can join with them. If they haven’t been hit, fine--if they have, it doesn’t matter as much. They have access to farms and my mother has a giant garden and chickens. There are sustainable, reliable food sources up there, and my family knows how to survive without depending on infrastructure.”

“How far is it?” asked Carlos, and Elizabeth nodded.

“It’s two and a half hours by car.”

“We can’t drive,” pointed out Carlos. “Electric cars won’t work. Even if we could, we wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the roads.”

Haley paused, thinking. The candle lept and danced as if it were alive. A drop of wax dripped off the side and onto the carpet.

“What other modes of transportation would be safe? And off the road? And faster than walking? If we walk, we risk encountering bands of people larger than our group.”

“Horses,” said Elizabeth. Haley’s gaze snapped up.

“Can you ride?” Elizabeth asked Carlos.

“I know how,” he responded. “I haven’t in a long time but I’ll manage. I agree, that’s the fastest, safest way to work through the woods and fields.”

“Where will we find them, though?” asked Haley.

“I used to ride at a farm nearby,” answered Elizabeth quietly. “We take them from there at night.”

Elizabeth and Haley had both grown