Captive Sunset

John drove to the hardware store. Gil wasn’t there but he found a long phone extension cable. He saw the local TV Cable store front on the way back. The doors where locked front and back. He figured he would have to break a window but the only place was out front in the door. So he picked up a near by rock out of the decorative front lawn and smashed it, reached in and unlatched the knob, then let himself in.

The room inside had power. He went to the rear of the building where he found an elaborate rack full of network switches and computers. The lights on the hardware were all blinking giving him the idea that they were running. There wasn’t much else he could do without some expertise, so he exited the building where the deputy was standing.

“Did you break that window,” he asked.

“Yes, my name is John Lott. I am working here in town with Gil Thompson to keep things running as best we can. Internet through the cable is not working and cellphone usage is out. I am employed by NASA and I am working on the current terrestrial problems remotely with them. I need to be able to connected to the internet.”

“Sounds a little suspicious. Who is Gil Thompson?” He pulls out a notepad and pen.

“He is the hardware store owner. He told me you stopped by twice checking on him there.”

“That is true. Why don’t we go there and make sure. I am just trying to stop criminal activity until things get back to normal here.”

John looked at him. He was a young man, tall and thin. Dressed sharply in his uniform and packing a sidearm considering the current condition. He was probably the same cop that he saw when he regained consciousness after being cold cocked. He didn’t seem to comprehend the gravity of what the town was facing. Possible extinction if they could not keep basic services running for those that were still there. He said, “Of course, let’s go check with Gil,” and John drove the truck with the deputy in the passenger seat.

They went into the store and Gil met with them. “Hi guys.” he said.

“You know him,” the cop said to Gil.

“Yes.”

“I caught him breaking into the cable company?”

“He probably didn’t have a key, right John.”

“That’s right.”

“Did you figure out the problem with the internet not working?” Gil asked supporting John’s need to break in.

“No, above my rank, I’m afraid.”

The cop said, “OK. I guess you are alright then. You can leave if you want.”

“If you see the water guy, ask him what will happen if he loses power. Will we lose water?” John mentioned.

“OK, will do. See ya.”

John headed toward home. He look Laura’s advice and started looking for satellite dishes installed at homes in case he needs one soon.

Laura sat in Julie’s car with her and Billy. “OK, we are ready to do this now. Head back away on the I-84 toward home?”

Julie had trouble committing to anything. She was fixated on the general assumption that Baker City would be worse, too cold soon. “I guess. You think we will find some gas along the way?”

“Not unless we look for it. Let’s concentrate on getting safely away from here first. They were sitting on the outskirts, not knowing where to go. The convoy went right on through into town.

Julie started the engine add pulled out onto a street. She headed back for the interstate highway,

Laura said, “Remember, if we encounter trouble, don’t stop.”

Julie was a nice looking middle younger friend with brown hair in a pony tail and eyes to match, who worked at the hospital as receptionist. “I don’t know if I’m up to this,” she nervously replied.

“Then pull over and let me drive,” Laura commanded. They swapped seats and continued on their way. She looked at the gas gauge. It was a little less than half a tank, so it took over half a tank to get here. She felt comfortable getting back close to where John suggested she should start looking for gas. “We’ve got this,” she said while reaching for her purse setting next to her on the car seat where she hid some personal protection. Lifting it slightly gave her the confidence she needed.

John arrived home and stood outside thinking about what to do next. Right now, his cellphone was dead and internet was out at the house. GAIL could not reach him anyway. He hadn’t seen any dishes installed on the way home. He walked over to Laura’s other neighbor and lucky him, there was a dish antenna on the roof. He felt somewhat relieved. Now all he had to was break in and borrow his satellite phone and the use of his dish internet. Gil would be happy if it was worded that way.

He stepped up to the rear door and jiggled the handle. It was locked but there were windows in the door so he picked up a brick from a pile in the yard and smashed it in, reached in and opened the door. The house was neat without any clutter, like a hotel room before you moved in for the evening. There was a desktop computer in the dining room on a desk. He powered it on and looked for a wireless router which he found sitting on the floor near a power outlet. The little lights were blinking which usually meant it was working. On the computer he tried to log in, but it was password protected. He wasn’t going to mess around with it.

He instead went and retrieved his laptop and set in on the table and looked for a wireless connection. There he saw it and he clicked connect. It popped up a space to enter a password. “Damn,” he said out loud. Then he pressed the return key and he was connected. Apparently that was the password. Finally he was on line again.

Laura pulled off the interstate at Hermiston where she found a gas station. She pulled in where she found the pups were off and locked. She thought about what John said and she drove around looking for vehicles. There were several located nearby but she couldn’t find a hose and there was no sign of people anywhere. She tried calling John by it went immediately to voicemail. The gas gauge was pointing at empty.

“What are we going to do for gas,” said Julie panicking. Billy sat quietly not seeming to know how much trouble they were in.

“Lets look on the bright side.”

“What bright side? We are about to be stranded in the middle of nowhere,” said Julie showed her impatience.

“There is a casino at the Pendleton exit about another 25-30 miles.”

“I want to go to the casino,” said Billy coming to life.

“Are you expecting to gamble now?” Julie asked innocently.

“No, but there is a gas station there and when I used to go there when I was married there were always people around. May be we get lucky. How far have you ever got when your car was on empty?”

“I always filled at way above there so I don’t know.”

“I have driven mine all the way to dry a couple of times. It usually has about a gallon left at the empty point. We may have to tempt fate and push to Pendleton. OK?” Laura pleaded.

“Yeah, go ahead.” Julie stared off out her window as they entered the interstate again.

John connected to GAIL and waited for her to speak.

“Hi honey,” said GAIL.

“Just checking for any updates you have.”

“The Dark Matter is calculated to be moving through the solar system slowly. It’s center of mass is closest to Earth at the moment. I have no data on it’s density or size but compared to Earth it’s mass is smaller, about a third. It’s velocity has not been determined. I can predict that as the matter moves closer to other planets they will experience anomalies as well. How am I doing?”

“Great. Do you think the matter moving away will restore the Earth’s rotation?”

“That can not be determined, but probably not,” she said matter of fact.

“Any idea how long until it moves far enough away for us to find out?”

“Again, can’t be determined.”

“You probably haven’ t tried resolving this one. Is the chance of the Earth’s spin returning to normal higher if we annihilate the matter spreading it all over?”

“Maybe, I have looked at that scenario. I’m not finished.”

“What about Harry?”

“I will message him to join us.”

A couple of minutes passed, then, “How are my two favorite astrophysicists doing?” said Harry in a good mood.

“As good as can be hoped for. How is the rocket coming?”

“It’s ready except what payload to use. There are only a couple of choices.” Harry replied.

“Amazing, I kind of expected the Red Tape to drag this out. We need enough to annihilate a mass one third the size of Earth with an unknown density. It could be large and spread out or small.”

“I will give them that data. They will know which bomb to mount on it. The question is where to aim it,” Harry questioned.

“We don’t have that data yet. Have them prepared to go on short notice.”

“Anything else?” asked Harry.

“How are things going, you know, how are the people doing.”

“The simple fact is we don’t know. Very little data is being collected as everything is shutting down. I believe people have decided to stop working and spend the remaining time with their loved ones. It is of the utmost urgency that we launch as soon as possible. Since we don’t know exactly where it is and how fast it’s traveling we can’t calculate the time it will take our device to reach it, but we assume a long travel time, maybe months. If it doesn’t launch soon it may never launch is the problem. I know it is a wild guess that it will help anyway.”

“Understood Harry. I agree. I’m having some technical issues as you might have guessed. So far I have managed to work around them. If we lose contact GAIL will take over as lead on this.”

“John, you know that she being AI can’t be in charge of something this big. They will never approve of that.”

“Then don’t tell them.” John went silent.

Harry was quiet at first. “Is that your recommendation then, John?”

“Yes. Gail and I have work to do so get that data to them right away.”

“Alright. Hope to hear from you soon.” His image in the application disappeared.

“John, I want to tell you how happy you have made me with your trust in my abilities. I won’t let you down,” GAIL responded in a serious manor.

“I know.”