Excerpt 77 days in September
High above the sun-baked prairies of Lawrence, Kansas, the missile
reached its target. No one on the ground
even noticed the blast. Perhaps had
someone been looking at precisely the right location, at precisely the right
time, they might have noticed a tiny, momentary spark in the bright afternoon
sky. Had they seen the flash, it likely
would have been attributed to the glint of sunlight reflecting off a passing
airplane. From every vantage point below
the detonation, there was no sense of the destructive capacity contained in
that tiny speck of light. More than 300
miles above the earth, a nuclear explosion impacts nothing with the force of
its blast. It is merely a large bomb
going off in a vacuum, creating no shockwaves, no fireballs, no radiation, not
even any sound.
Despite the lack of explosive destruction, this was now the most lethal
weapon to be unleashed in the history of the world, but it was a weapon that
would have had absolutely no discernable affect on mankind 200 years ago, other
than creating a more colorful aurora.
Upon detonation, the bomb expelled an intense wave of gamma radiation in
every direction. The gamma rays
traveling earthward interacted with the upper levels of the atmosphere and
created a chain reaction of displaced electrons that rushed towards the surface
of the earth at the speed of light. Most
of the these displaced electrons passed rapidly through the atmosphere and
grounded themselves harmlessly in the earth.
A small percentage, however, encountered conductive materials: metal, antennas, copper wiring, and silicon
chips. As these conductors absorbed
untold billions of free electrons, they experienced sudden surges in both
voltage and current. In simple items,
like a garden rake, this surge was manifested as a harmless static
electricity-like spark. But in larger
networks and sensitive objects, the consequences of the electron overload were
devastating.
******
They sat in silence, lost in their thoughts and watching the
pandemonium. Ed spoke after a long period
of silence. “I don’t think we’ll be
flying out of here today, even if we want to.
I don’t think anyone is. This is
completely different from anything I’ve ever seen or heard of. With all those crashed airplanes, there
should be hundreds of emergency vehicles from all over the city out there, but
I didn’t see a single one. There should
have been enough help for us, even with the other planes down. I bet we’d still be waiting out by that
airplane if we hadn’t come in on our own.
Something is wrong at a level I can’t fathom.”
Kyle nodded. “I’ve been thinking
the same thing. I think everyone
is. You can see it in their faces;
there’s a fear and helplessness that I’ve never seen. Of course, how are you
supposed to act when you’ve seen an airplane fall from the sky?”
“It’s not just one plane wreck, Kyle.
It’s multiple wrecks. It’s no
emergency assistance to our flight, and no response for those other
planes. It’s no power in the
terminal. It’s total confusion with the
airport employees. You saw them. They had no idea what they should be
doing. Some of the smart ones are faking
it, but most of them look like they want to cry. And the passengers…they’re freaked out
bad. There’s a deeper fear there than
just the power being out, more than a plane crash. Have you noticed that no one is using their
cell phone? We tried mine, but it’s
dead. They’re all dead. In a situation like this, everyone would be
on their phone. It’s like…I know this
doesn’t make any sense, but it’s like we’ve been attacked.” Ed paused a moment before continuing. “You remember 9/11?”
Kyle nodded. “Who doesn’t? I’ll always remember it. I was listening on my car radio 2,000 miles
away from New York when it happened, but I’ll always remember it.”
“It feels like that, but ten times worse. Remember how unreal everything felt that
day? How you couldn’t believe it was
happening, even as you watched it on TV?
This feels the same way. I don’t
know why, but it does.”
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