Darkness upon the Land

The boy began wailing “Ma-ma-ma!” as the woman cried out again, and Alexia believed that what she didn’t understand the first time was the name Emmet. As the child waddled toward the woman with his arms up and outstretched, she started to step closer as well. But Reuben seemed to slide right in front of her, which brought her to a standstill.

As the woman scooped up the boy she kept bawling statements that ran the gamut of “I’m so glad I found you!” Her tunic-style dress was as filthy as the rest of her, and like the boy it was hard to distinguish her natural brown skin tone and dark hair from the oily residues. Her bare feet concerned Alexia, but most disturbing was the patch of blood that soaked the left side of her head and down her shoulder.

She took a step to one side of Reuben as the woman warily glanced toward them with a bit of a wild gleam in her eyes.

“Do you need any help?” Alexia offered.

She noticed that he stiffened slightly, but the woman regarded them for only a couple more seconds before blurting “No – thank you.” And she strode away with the boy.

She looked at Reuben. “Shouldn’t we stop her?”

The look he returned was almost incredulous. “Why on earth would we want to do that?”

“She’s hurt. Badly.”

“So are most of these people.” He turned to face her directly. “We do have resources, but what we have is very limited. I made a promise to Liana that I was going to get you home. Safely. If you give away all our food and medicine and snatch up every lost urchin that crosses our path, how am I –” Reuben suddenly straightened and took a deep breath.

“We can’t spare even one bandage?” Hearing him invoke her mom’s name only added to her contentiousness.

He shook his head. “It wouldn’t stop at just one bandage. We’ve seen it over and over again already. People want what others have. That woman who was just here – I don’t know if she said ‘No thank you’ or ‘No, I don’t need your help, and thank you for getting my child safely across the bridge.’ I do know she looked at us like she thought we might be planning on eating him for dinner, and she was absolutely right to do so even though you and I are the nicest people in the world. She knows that right now no stranger can be trusted. And that’s a fact you need to remember from here on out. We can’t trust anybody.”

She studied him for a few seconds as she allowed his words to soak in. “Your lack of faith in humanity is appalling.”

“It’s not flesh I put my faith in.” He let out a long exhale. “I know, it’s a difficult balance. But you need to keep your guard up. You can’t help anybody if somebody else ... harms you. C’mon, let’s find out what we have left.”

Closer inspection of her duffel bag revealed how bad the damage really was. Her jacket was charred and had a hole in one sleeve and along part of the waist. All the food at the point of impact was crushed and soiled. They sorted out what was unsalvageable and set those provisions on the ground, which was most of what was in her bag. She knew the loss of all that food was going to make him apprehensive.

He rolled his shirts up dirtiest side in and stashed them in her duffel bag, which he carried like an infant in his arms while Alexia slung his gear bag over her shoulder. As they walked down the road with a few other stragglers scattered about, she wondered if the other travelers were so dazed and introspective none of them seemed to notice Reuben’s bandage, made obvious by his decision to remain shirtless, and approach them for first aid assistance.

“By the way,” he muttered as they strolled side by side. “What you did back there on the bridge was admirable. I was so focused on my promise to Liana it didn’t occur to me to rise to a higher challenge. On the flip side, we’ve got no business starting a family.” He glanced toward her and offered a crooked grin. “So don’t ever do that again.”

“Sorry, can’t make you any guarantees.”

“Somehow I figured that.”

She remembered that instant on the bridge when she wondered if the two of them were so selfish they would leave others to perish in order to save their own lives. His near apology for not rising to a higher challenge made her conscience twinge as she also recalled how he consistently placed himself between her and danger. And she didn’t miss the irony it was Reuben who recently told her she couldn’t help anybody if somebody harmed her. Okay, she could be a bit hard on him at times, but darn it all he sure sometimes seemed to earn it.

The widely differing opinions of Mѐre and her stepfather didn’t help a bit. It wouldn’t surprise her if Mѐre believed he should become a candidate for sainthood, despite the fact he was a Noachide for whom the term “trinity” only meant peppers, onions and celery. Her stepfather made it no secret that he believed any young man who had more interest in matters of theology and academia than bagging loose women could only be completely weird.

The worst part of the next leg in their journey was the fact it took them probably over half an hour to reach the more secluded area. It was a rather open meadow that stretched for about seventy-five yards between the highway and the canal. And then Reuben had to spend a few minutes scouting around for what he generically referred to as “varmints” before he finally decided it would be safe for them to stop here.

“You can clean up first.” He offered as he pulled a travel-size bottle of soap and a superabsorbent mini towel from the gear bag. “This is the good stuff, so all you’ll need is about a quarter-sized drop for your body. Dime-sized should do your hair.”

Alexia was suddenly self-conscious. Although he was probably about the only guy in the world she wouldn’t suspect of trying to sneak a peek and getting ideas, there were still occasional stragglers on the highway.

“Rube, there’s not even so much as a bush growing along the bank for me to hide behind.”

“Which is why you’ll be hiding behind me. And when it’s my turn, you’ll return the favor. I’ll stand guard out here while you clean up, and you don’t have to wash everything at once. The trick is to do your upper body first and then the lower, that way you don’t have to completely strip. We can be more thorough tonight when we camp, but I really think we need to get these toxins off us.”

She wasn’t about to argue with him on that point. Alexia still felt a little woozy, which could be the result of both the morning’s events and the crud that still clung to her. The researchers still hadn’t traced everything that could adversely affect her, but the consensus was pretty much anything manmade didn’t agree with her.

So Reuben, slingshot at the ready, stood with his back turned to her while she kneeled beside the water and pulled off her shirts.

“Eeyew,” Alexia groaned as she realized how much of the filth had soaked through. “It’s going to take scrubbing with a wire brush in boiling bleach to get this crap off.”

He kept his attention toward the road. “Well … we did just evacuate.”

If she had something to throw, she would have been tempted to hurl it at his head. “That’s not what I meant, you twerp!”

The soap didn’t suds much because it was a biodegradable formula, but she definitely noticed an improvement in her feeling of well-being after washing her hair and arms and torso. The yellow towel she dried off with was small but as effective as it was supposed to be, and she pulled on a light blue tank top and a green tee shirt before removing her filthy pants. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. Luckily her legs weren’t as dirty, so she got the job done quickly. It was a relief to pull on a pair of lightweight khaki slacks and transfer the rosary in its pouch to one of the pockets.

“Done,” Alexia announced as she gingerly took the few steps to Reuben in her bare feet.

He turned toward her and his gaze swept from her face to her toes and back again. “I hope I clean up as good as you did.”

“I definitely feel better.” The little burn marks on her arms still felt a bit hot.

“That’s high enough a recommendation for me.” He slipped the slingshot off his left wrist. “Here. Just try to look mean if anybody starts to come this way, but it’s been pretty quiet out there.”

As she took the slingshot and four pellets from him she felt a ripple of uncertainty. She’d shot this thing before, but only at inanimate targets back home. Even if she had enough nerve to point this weapon at a person, she would probably start shaking so badly her aim would be worthless.

“Don’t worry.” He seemed to read her hesitation. “I’m still only four steps away. If anybody makes you uptight I’ll be able to leap right into the fray. And if I’m bottomless at the time, it’ll only serve them right.”

She couldn’t resist a quick smile. Reuben squatted down at his gear bag to retrieve his own change of clothes, and as he approached the bank she turned her back to him to watch the road.

He was right about things being pretty quiet right now. Only a few people occasionally walked by on the highway, and any that bothered to glance in their direction didn’t seem inclined to approach and investigate the couple. After he washed up and changed into gray cargo pants and a purple tee shirt, they decided to make some repairs on the duffel bag.

There was a small sewing kit in the gear bag, which he’d apparently stocked with the idea of making tent repairs and the like because it had plenty of heavy thread. After he stitched her duffel bag enough that it didn’t have to be carried in somebody’s arms anymore, they had a quick snack and resumed their trek down the highway. Although they drank plenty of water along the way, they stopped only once to eat.

Late in the afternoon they reached a two-lane highway that by car had been about fifteen minutes from the bridge at Baton Rouge. This was the “shortcut” which was rarely taken in the past, because although it was fewer miles it was a “slower” road when travelling with a vehicle. About an hour after they switched to the smaller byway, Reuben determined it was time to set up camp.

There had been hardly any cars left on the road and no people around for some time. They hiked several yards away from the blacktop and into the shelter of the forest. He erected a low-profile, pop-up tent while Alexia gathered wood, even though they planned on having a cold camp that night. He didn’t want to light a fire until morning, when it would be less noticeable. They scrubbed out their original set of clothes in the bayou on the other side of the highway after eating, and before darkness was due to settle over them, sat beside each other on a log he’d dragged up near the tent and discussed their plans for the trip ahead.

Sundown was shortly after seven o’clock, and she had assumed the only light they would see tonight would come from the nearly full moon. But as they started to argue a little over whether to stay to the byway or cut through an old logging road they knew about, she noticed something different about the sky.

Her heart fluttered upon seeing a phenomenon she’d never witnessed before.

“Rube!” She rose to her feet. “What’s that?”

He looked in the same direction and slowly rose to his feet as his expression changed from surprise to awe to contemplation in a matter of seconds.

Much of the sky was aglow. In fact, it was bright enough to keep the fainter starlight at bay. It was green with red accents and seemed to hang in the heavens like a thin gauze curtain, which even undulated slowly as though a gentle breeze were stirring it.

Alexia reached out with her left hand and grasped his upper right arm. “Is that ... that’s not ... radiation?”

“Not the kind you’re thinking of.” There was still a hint of awe in his voice. “It’s the aurora borealis.”

It took a few seconds for the term to register with her. “You mean the northern lights?”

“One and the same.”

“But what are they doing down here?”

“Because we now know why all the power went out.” He continued to gaze at the phenomenon. “It’s got to be a coronal mass ejection – or multiple ones – of such magnitude and in whose path we’re directly in, that all our technology got fried.”

“What’d you call it?”

“Think of it as a solar outburst.”

“Like a solar flare? But we never lost power like this before.”

“Not on this scale. Remember the Orient Crises over two years ago? That was caused when we were just clipped by a small magnetic storm.”

“But all that did was knock the power out in part of Asia for a few hours. Everything on the grid went down, but it didn’t affect the traffic satellites and planes.”

“Because we were just brushed by something small, which has happened plenty of times in the past. But this – this one must be the granddaddy of them all. They had called the Carrington Event a solar superstorm, but it was probably a love tap compared to this one-two punch.”

“The what event?”

“Another big outburst that happened back in eighteen-fifty-nine. Our technology was a lot more primitive then, but it wreaked havoc on the telegraph system, shocking operators and causing fires. When the northern lights lit up, people in the Appalachians thought it was dawn. But I never heard anything about the aurora being this spectacular this far south before.”

Alexia stood transfixed by the beauty of the shimmering light show. “Is that why you think this one’s so large?”

“That, plus the fact the effects of this one seem to be spread globally. And it got here before any warning got out, which would take an extremely large storm to travel so fast. Just think ... we may be witnessing something that happens only once every several thousand years or so.” Reuben also couldn’t seem to stop gazing upon the lights. “It’s possible the last time we had one this big, it got incorporated into ancient myths and legends.”

She wasn’t elated about getting to experience such a rare, spectacular event. So there were no bombs or any threat of an imminent attack by an enemy nation. But his mention of the global effects meant everybody was on their own. There would be no help coming from anywhere. And she’d heard enough about the frailty of the grid to realize there would be no rebuilding right away.

“So how long do you think it will take them to get the power back up?” She asked.

He continued gazing northward. “Years.”

Any modicum of relief she’d tried to harbor evaporated. “Everywhere? I mean, won’t there be pockets with high importance that will get their power back on fairly quickly?”

“Good question. I guarantee if there is, they won’t be sharing it.”

“But it would be the military and the government.”

“The military would be too overwhelmed by the demand for food and supplies, and the civil unrest will only make the job harder. And politicians look out for themselves.”

A chill rippled through her as she managed to fix her attention upon Reuben. “But ... we have organizations designed to help people in disasters.”

“They aren’t prepared for anything on this scale.” He continued to watch the sky. “People will begin to starve long before winter comes. And disease will run rampant. Desperate and dangerous people will go on the prowl.” He sighed. “And the sad part is, it doesn’t really have to be that way.”

“You’re not exactly comforting.”

“I’m sorry.” He finally glanced at her and offered a gentle smile. “But it won’t be so hard for us, at least not in regard to keeping ourselves fed and dry and healthy. We’re already accustomed to a sustainable lifestyle. It’ll just be more manual labor now. You’ll make your living in the swamp just like your ancestors did.”

“My ancestors were originally prairie Cajuns. Mѐre is the first one to move to the swamp.”

“I’m sure there’s swamp water in your blood.”

“What about you? Are you going to be staying with us now?”

He looked like she’d just asked him an indelicate question, and returned his gaze to the light display. “No. I need to go home.”

“That’s hundreds of miles away.”

“I have ancestors that trudged all the way from Georgia to Oklahoma. I can make it.”

“Are you crazy? You’re still planning on walking all the way to Donnick?”

“The weather’s good. I should be able to make it in six weeks. And that’s factoring in any possible delays.” He returned his attention to her. “C’mon, let’s finish setting up for the night. You should try to get some sleep, so I’ll take the first watch.”

While Alexia sat in the tent and took off her tee shirt so she could sleep in the tank top, she thought about the conversation they’d had. And those thoughts kept sleep from coming easily while she lay on a thermal pad with Reuben’s heat-reflecting “emergency” blanket pulled over her. He claimed it would be warmer than her stadium blanket, which only helped to remind her that they were eschewing the comforts of a campfire in order to remain hidden from prowlers.

Collapse, starvation, disease, endangerment ... this was surely what the end of the world would feel like.