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  Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long. He received a message from somebody almost right off the bat, a male voice calling out, “…again, this is Red calling out from the South Dakota border looking for anybody else on this frequency.”

  Conrad turned on the microphone and spoke into it. “I got you, Red. This is Drake. Looking for some information. All I know is that it’s pitch dark out here.”

  Red responded. “Good to hear from you, Drake. Doing well?”

  “Not in too bad shape for my age,” Conrad replied, “You shielded your radio?”

  “My faraday cage did the job,” Red said. “So, where are you right now?”

  “It’s no place big. Near a small town, few thousand people.”

  “Any unrest down there?” Red asked.

  “It’s a ghost town. Didn’t look like there was much rioting. I think most of the folks packed up and left or fled to the farms,” Conrad explained. “Do you know if any part of the country’s got lights?”

  “Nothing yet,” Red responded. “I’m in southern South Dakota, in wheat growing country. Few miles off a major highway. Heard from an operator in Canada who says the situation’s no different up there. He said there was a full-scale breakdown in Toronto. The whole city went crazy when they thought help wasn’t coming. Looters ransacked the stores for anything they could find.”

  So, this was turning out to be as bad as I feared, Conrad thought. “Any word of the government getting back on its feet?”

  “The U.S. government? God knows. It’s so bad I heard the governor is planning to send someone to Washington D.C. on horseback to get information. But everyone I talked to said this was the big solar event. The whole world may have just been thrown back several hundred years.”

  Conrad’s throat suddenly felt dry. “Yeah,” he said, “I feared as much.”

  “Hey,” Red said after a slight pause, “You got family over there?”

  “Just me, Red,” Conrad replied, “You?”

  “A wife, four kids, three of them grown. Fourth was almost done with junior year in high school,” Red replied.

  Conrad sighed. “You must have done your best to get ready.”

  “We’ve got a hell of a farm here,” Red said.

  “How’s the family holding up?” Conrad asked.

  “They’re bearing it. It’s a little tougher on my youngest. She always had more city blood in her.” Red laughed, though with a tinge of sadness. “I got to admit, I’m scared for them.”

  Conrad had to admit, being a loner relieved him of worrying about someone else. Hell, if he died tomorrow, he wouldn’t have to worry about anybody depending on him. “You wouldn’t be a man if you didn’t,” he said through the microphone.

  “Thanks,” Red said, “Hey Drake, how old are you?”

  “Sixty,” Conrad replied.

  “I’m fifty-seven,” Red said, “So, no family, or the kids moved out?”

  “It’s a more complicated tale.” Conrad sat back. “Not something I like to talk about.”

  “I understand,” Red said.

  Before long, Conrad and Red decided to break off and scan their respective dials for other radio users. Conrad soon found more talkers who shared more information about what they knew.

  Most of the stories, however, didn’t mesh. Few people could agree on who still was in charge, with rumors ranging from military occupations to the president giving an address from a hidden bunker to tales of total anarchy in the major cities.

  One thing was a constant, though. From sea to sea, nobody had power. Electronics that weren’t shielded were rendered worthless. The whole country was shrouded in darkness. The solar event had damaged power transformers everywhere, making it impossible for electricity to be restored any time soon, perhaps ever. Quite literally, the nation would have to start over again in rebuilding its power grid, which would come far too late for many people, particularly those in the cities.

  Conrad winced. All those people packed together, from Los Angeles to Chicago to Philadelphia to New York City, were powder kegs that certainly would erupt, if they hadn’t done so already. Without food distribution, there would be mass starvation. Desperate, frightened people would turn on one another for the leanest scraps.

  Finally, at a very late hour, Conrad switched off the radio and left. There was little point to hearing any more. At least he could take some comfort in the fact that he had readied himself for this calamity, and stood a good chance of riding out his last days in peace apart from it.

  Pound. Pound.

  Conrad’s eyes opened. What the hell was that? His first thought was that something had fallen onto the floor. He sat up in his bed and quickly looked around. No, nothing had hit the floor.

  Sunlight flowed through the window. Usually, he’d be up before sunrise, but he had stayed up late with the HAM radio. He gave himself a good mental cursing. Sure, he had reason to learn about what was going on in the world, but he didn’t have the luxury of staying in bed for a good chunk of the morning, not when he had a ranch to tend to.

  Pound. Pound.

  Conrad’s left hand clenched his blanket. No, that wasn’t something falling over. That was knocking. His heart racing, he turned his head toward the open doorway to the hall. He had had very few visitors in the past two and a half decades, and in most cases the person who came calling had phoned ahead.

  But that was from a different era. The EMP blast resulting from the solar event neatly separated the modern era from this new post-modern wilderness where few machines worked. Hence, there were no working phones to call ahead this time. Whoever this was had come unannounced. It could be anyone. Perhaps it was a survivor or two looking for food or shelter.

  But it also could be somebody with ill intentions. Or it could just be somebody who was desperate for help, driven mad by the sudden deprivation of modern conveniences. Conrad thought back to his imaginings of the horrors occurring in the major cities, and feared just a taste of that had found home.

  Conrad dropped back into his bed. Hell if I know who it is, he thought. Maybe if I don’t answer the door, they’ll just pick up and leave.

  But another part of him warned that if they were desperate, they probably would storm the homestead anyway. Better to stop them now at the door before they barged in and cornered him like a rat.

  Chapter Four

  Conrad picked up his 45apc from his dresser. Then he started down the hall. The newcomer could be a thug, a thief, or someone driven insane by having the world suddenly unplugged around him. For such a person, the normal rules of right and wrong would cease to apply.

  Dear Lord, Conrad thought. He had used a gun many times for practice, even on animals, but never on a human being. Quickly, he tried pushing the fear aside. No, he had to protect his home.

  Conrad passed by the first side window of his home. He had made sure to have windows that presented a clear view of the driveway and his front yard. Thanks to the red curtains hanging from the window frame, his visage should be concealed from whoever was out there.

  He couldn’t make out the face, but there was definitely a man out there. Young, from the looks of his thick black hair. There didn’t seem to be anyone around him, but someone still could be concealed on the man’s left side.

  One man still can bring trouble, Conrad thought. If he was armed, that’s all it would take.

  This still could be an ambush. One or more invaders could have gone around back. He hurried down the hall to the living room, then checked the windows on the other side. These permitted a view of the backyard and the fields. Nobody was out there.

  The man pounded the front door again. Maybe this fellow was alone after all, but he had no idea how to check him out. Perhaps he could go out back and get around him. He should be able to size him up in a hurry.

  Dammit, he thought. I can’t believe how paranoid you get about opening your own front door.

  The man pounded on the door again. It was a bit softer this time, as if fatigue
was claiming the man on the other side. Then, he spoke up.

  “Dad!”

  Conrad froze. What the hell? Did he just hear the man call out “Dad?”

  “Dad, it’s me! Liam! Please, let me in!”

  Conrad trembled. He was dreaming. He had to be. Or he was imagining it all? Did his boy really manage to come all the way out here? He crept up to the peephole. It was large enough that he got a good look at the man’s face.

  The man on the other side of the door invoked sudden memories of Liam. No, this man couldn’t look exactly like the preteen Liam who Conrad remembered, but so much of his face resembled Liam from the past that it shook Conrad to his feet. It was all so much. Conrad nearly sank to his knees. No, this is real, he thought. But he had to confirm it.

  “Liam,” he spoke with an unsteady voice. “Is that…is that you?”

  “Dad.” The man on the other side raised his voice. “Dad? Dad! Please, it’s me! Open up!”

  Conrad’s hand flew around the lock. He turned it, then undid the chain, and then finally released the lock on the doorknob, before flinging the front door open.

  Liam didn’t quite match Conrad’s height, but Conrad would be damned if his boy wasn’t almost as tall as he was. “My God,” Conrad whispered.

  “Dad.” Liam trembled. “Wow, you’ve gotten old.” He coughed and laughed together in one spurt. “Older, I mean. You know.”

  Conrad’s eyes welled up. “Well, somebody’s grown up in the years since I last saw him!” He let out a loud laugh, but it was hard to be merry for any period of time. He never thought he’d see his offspring again. To suddenly be reunited with his boy, it was too much.

  He grabbed Liam by the shoulders and held him. Tears streamed down his face. “Liam…”

  “Dad.” Liam held the older man tight.

  “Damn, how the hell did you get here?”

  Last Conrad knew, Liam still was with his mother in Redmond. Enough days had passed since the solar event that Liam conceivably could have made it out here on foot, but it still would have been a long haul.

  “I’ll talk about it later,” Liam whispered. “I’m just happy to see you’re still alive, that I can see you at all.”

  Finally, Conrad held up his head, seeing his son eye to eye. “Right. Right. Well, what are we standing here on the porch for? Come in. My home, my food, everything’s yours.”

  Liam chuckled. “Thanks. Actually, I hope you don’t mind if I share everything I have with…” He nodded to the front steps.

  After wiping his eyes, Conrad looked around his son’s shoulder. Liam wasn’t alone after all. A young lady stood on the bottom of the porch steps. The sun gave a gentle shine to her shoulder length, curly brunette hair. She was staring off in the direction of Conrad’s fields. She seemed to be keeping her distance, perhaps in deference to the father and son reunion taking place.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t notice you had company,” Conrad said, “Who’s your friend?”

  “Carla.” Liam smiled. “It’s a long story.”

  Liam’s smile and this woman’s obvious attractiveness set Conrad to wonder if Carla was more than a “friend.” The young woman wore blue jeans with some rips and wear. Brown boots covered her feet. Her jeans were tight enough to show off curved thighs that suggested this lady could run a hundred-yard dash or swim several laps. This woman wasn’t a couch potato by any means.

  “I’d like to hear it.” Conrad started toward the door. Liam followed. Conrad called out to Carla. “Hello there!”

  Carla turned around. Her face instantly lit up with a smile. “Mister Drake?”

  “Mister Conrad would be fine,” Conrad replied. “What do you think of my fields?”

  “I’ve never been on a farm before.” She walked up the steps, her boots making loud clomps as they went. “You also have cows?”

  “Goats, sheep, chickens,” Conrad replied, “Nothing big. This is pretty much a one-man operation. I’d be happy to give you the guided tour.”

  “Actually…” Liam looked at his father. “We need to get some things out of the way first.”

  Some things out of the way? What was on Liam’s mind? “Sure, sure.” Conrad turned back to the house’s open doorway. “Well, I hope you two aren’t in such a hurry that you’ll skip a good meal!”

  Carla dashed up the rest of the steps. “I’m sure not! I’m dying for a good meal!”

  Conrad leaned over the porch. A pair of worn brown backpacks lay on the ground. Clearly, these two had taken a long trek. It was probably a miracle that they had made it here. Then, as he looked up, he discovered a pair of mountain bikes by the end of the porch. So that’s it. Bicycles aren’t affected by EMPs. They weren’t fast as an automobile, but they still could carry you a good ways compared to a hike.

  He picked up the backpacks and hauled them inside. These two probably had one hell of a story to tell him.

  Conrad planted the plate with the loaf of bread in the center of the dining room table. “Now this is what we call freshly baked bread. Well, fresh two days ago.” The loaf had a chunk cut off the end, but it still was mostly intact, more than enough for two more people. “This is all thanks to the grain out back. Took me a while to learn how to make bread from scratch.”

  Seated on the left side, Carla’s mouth dropped open. “Fresh bread. I was told I’d probably never see it again.”

  Liam helped set the table with the rest of the food Conrad had prepared. “Once upon a time, people had to know how to do things. I’ve spent the last twenty-five years learning all I could about growing food, drawing wells, watching for toxins and diseases that can spoil crops. It’s like a whole other world you never knew about.”

  Liam just had finished setting the meal. The young man seemed amazed by it all. In addition to the bread, his father had prepped a meal of corn on the cob, peas, squash, and cut up apples. Three glasses of water supplied them all with drink, with a pitcher of more water in the kitchen available for refills.

  Conrad insisted on saying grace before they all began eating. Liam and Carla ate almost voraciously, as if they hadn’t eaten anything resembling a normal meal in a long time. He couldn’t blame them.

  “So, I guess twenty-five years is a long time to catch up on.” Conrad suddenly coughed. He massaged his throat a little. He had spent so much time in this home by himself that he wasn’t used to speaking to another human being for a good length of time. “Anyway, where’d you two meet?”

  “NSU,” Carla said before taking a sip of water. “Freshman year. Biology class.”

  Liam coughed. He spat out a piece of squash into his plate.

  Carla chuckled. “Yes, he doesn’t like to remember the first time he talked to me. Called himself an ‘expert in biology.’”

  Liam quickly wiped his lips. “Not my best moment, but you must admit everything after was a million times better.”

  Conrad pushed flecks of corn out of his beard. “So, what’s your story? You pedaled here on bikes, and you look as though you packed for a long haul.”

  “We came from Sapphire,” Carla quickly replied.

  “Sapphire?” Conrad stabbed an apple with his fork. “That’s near Redmond, right?”

  “Tiny as hell.” Carla ate another piece of squash. “Actually, Redmond’s almost a skip and a jump away.”

  Liam’s expression grew grim. “Sapphire got overrun by a gang. We were warned to get out. We just barely escaped.”

  “They started setting houses on fire,” Carla added. “We saw the fire burning even after we got out on the state road.”

  Conrad drank deeply from his glass. More bad news. He probably wouldn’t be shocked by anything anymore.

  Liam sighed. “Dad, I would love to catch up with everything, but we really don’t have a lot of time.” The young man bit his lip. He didn’t want to talk about whatever was on his mind, but he clearly couldn’t hold back much longer. He turned to his dad. “We need to talk about Mom.”

  Conrad’s hand
reached for his fork, but stopped. He figured she’d come up sooner or later. The fact that she wasn’t with him raised a few questions, although Conrad figured Sarah would have nothing to do with him anyway, perhaps not even in this ravaged world. Or, perhaps she had died and Liam had to break the news to him.

  So, he sat back and looked his boy in the eyes, waiting for the answer.

  “You know she’s been living in Redmond, right?” Liam asked.

  “Guess she never found greener pastures,” Conrad said wryly.

  “Yeah.” Liam wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Anyway, we never were able to get to her after things went to Hell. There was a big stream of refugees heading out of there on the main road. We tried finding a vehicle that still worked, but we’re out of luck. We’ve heard it’s gotten bad over there. We can’t go back there on our own.”

  Conrad nodded. “I see,” he said neutrally.

  Liam hesitated again, but Conrad refused to push further. It was Liam who had to advance this conversation.

  “We came here to get your help,” Liam finally said. “We need you to come to Redmond with us and get Mom.”

  Conrad carried his finished dishes to the kitchen. His son remained seated at the table with Carla. Conrad took care to look away. He knew his boy wanted an answer, but Conrad wasn’t prepared to give one, at least not one that Liam would approve of.

  He scraped the dishes clean over a garbage can. He still said nothing. The events of the past few hours were like a ton of cement had been dumped on him. First, he’s reunited with his son. Now he’s being asked to leave his homestead to find his ex-wife, a woman who left his world shattered in a million pieces. Despite all Conrad had done to build a new life for himself, he didn’t feel he was whole again. He doubted he ever would.