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Chapter 11 – Griff
A week passed in a strange blur of excitement and monotony. Some of the excitement came from piecing together just how they’d found themselves in this unexpected and unprecedented predicament. From radio reports, Griff learned that the blackout was the result of a gigantic solar flare – one that shot into Earth’s atmosphere like a billion hydrogen bombs and took down the power grid in the entire Northern Hemisphere. In a weird way, there was something exhilarating about this, that something so big and radical was going on, something significant enough to rock society to its core and cause a large-scale disruption of the status quo. Everyone knew that the…
Chapter 10 – Helios
Alan pushed back his chair and approached the whiteboard with a distant look in his eyes, marker in hand. Liz knew what was coming. She had seen that look before: Alan in his zone of thought. He began writing numbers, formulas, and equations and didn’t stop until the white board resembled a distant solar system. Every now and then, he would pause and turn his head just a little so his peripheral vision would pick up some signal from Liz or one of his other colleagues in the room – William, Kiara, and Abby – sitting comfortably around the high school conference room table. They, in turn, would nod their…
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Chapter 9 – V
Nine PM. People were leaving the meeting, mostly in groups of two or three. Some were chatting about the meeting, but most were talking about their plans for the weekend. The man, simply known as “V,” moved the “Caution Wet Floor” sign once again before picking up his mop and going back to work on the floor. Damn high school kids, he thought. Dirtier than pigs. Truth is, he kind of enjoyed the repetitive, mind-numbing work. He kept his back hunched, head down, a baseball cap covering his eyes. No one ever noticed the janitor. It was the perfect cover. Shame about the previous janitor. Luckily, when the school was desperate, V…
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Chapter 8 – Alice
Alice staggered off the bottom stair and opened the industrial door to the building lobby. She and Daisy, panting from their rigorous stair workout – running up and down the building’s nine stories four times in a row – emerged glowing, not just from sweat-soaked skin, but each from that inner victory light that comes with surviving torture. They took long pulls on their water bottles, and Alice cast a lusty look toward her favorite perch, the leather couch near the window, blissfully unoccupied at the moment. In the last few days, she’d spent so much time sitting there that Leo teased that her butt left an indentation. “Whoa! Whoa!”…
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Chapter 7 – Helios
Kiara Forrester drove her recently washed and waxed silver BMW down North Scottsdale road 15 mph above the speed limit on her way to Liz and Alan’s home, barely pausing at stop signs. She had meant to leave her reputation for lateness back in the lab in New Jersey, but it wouldn’t stop following her. She sighed and looked at the dash where the clock read 4 PM. Great. Liz’s email said the birthday BBQ started at 3:30 PM, and Jace was already nervous about meeting everyone for the first time. Pulling Jace out of the old neighborhood and moving to Arizona sounded exciting and adventurous at first, but as…
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Chapter 6 – Jace
The evening morphed into the kind of late summer night that picks up seamlessly where day left off. In the fading light, students tossed Frisbees on the green. Others sat on the grass in small groups, speaking in hushed tones, an occasional laugh carried on the light breeze. “This is just so weird.” Clare gazed at the field in front of her, elbow planted firmly on a small table, chin cupped in hand. “Don’t you think, Jace? Everything looks so normal, right?” A few muffled piano notes drifted through the stone walls of Mathey College. Sick of being ignored, Clare sat up and banged a hand on the table. “Jace? … Jace!” “Oh,…
Becoming Nothing
Day 53, November 1st Reykjavik, Iceland An explosion of greens, reds and purples prismed through the darkened windows bathing the small office in a cocoon of soft, disconcerting light. It was a spectacular demonstration of the sun’s power, but Lilja payed it no mind. She had seen it all before, every day and night since the beginning. Instead, sitting on the edge of her office chair, she stared at a clump of long grey strands of hair in the palm of her hand, the roots weeping with droplets of bright red blood. Voices reached her through the locked door. Scared voices. “I’m telling you she’s sick, she’s changing.” “She’s just depressed.”…
After Summer comes the fall
Day Zero, September 9 Utqiagvik, Alaska In the dream, the sun shone brightly and the day was cold. Rosemary walked the tundra alone on her way into town. She was nowhere near town. There was noise in the distance, but she resisted the intrusion and focused on her walk. Her boots trudged through haphazard lanes between proud pines that refused to lean under the weight of snow. She was in a place that she had never been before, but everything was familiar. She was on her way to town for – “The grocer’s shipment,” Philip said, suddenly walking beside her. “Yes.” Rosemary gave a nod of confirmation, her purpose suddenly…
