FFFW #5: Jack K.

The Day The Electricity Died

Sizzle!! Crash! Boom!!!!!! All around me things were falling and sparking. It was so smokey that I could barely see 5 ft in front of my nose. I kept going forward and I tried to avoid all the bodies and debris on the ground. “So this is what happens when the internet dies!” I screamed to the world yet I’m sure no one could hear me. Finally after a few more strides I hit a curb that I could only hope was the front entrance to The White House, because if it wasn’t then I was in trouble. I felt my way up the curb and through a gate and as I went up the steps I saw four small red lines hit me in the chest. “Don’t move or you will be shot where you stand!” A gruff voice shouted at me through all the commotion. Two of the lines went away and the next thing I know I’m being forced onto the ground with my hands above my head. “If you don’t have the proper ID to get into The White House then I will have to turn you back and you’ll have to wait with the other refugees.” “Wait a second they…Oh come on they think I’m one of the refugees from the terrorist attack last week in Baltimore.” All these thoughts were racing through my head as I tried to stay awake. The smoke kept getting thicker and thicker. “All right your papers look good, sorry for the hold up sir but with everything that’s been going on, we’ve had to increase security.” As the guards let me up I heard a rumble behind me and I turned to see what was left of the Washington Monument falling towards me. “Go Go Go!!!” The guards picked me up and we all ran towards the front gates. There were 4 guards with me: The gruff voiced one in front of us, two on either side holding my arms and one in the back of us. As we got to the fountain in front of The White House I felt my left arm go slack and then my feet got tripped up. As I fell to the ground I saw the guard from my left side bleeding uncontrollably from his head and then suddenly a cool blast of water hit me. Then it all went black.  

 12 hours earlier. “This could be the worst earthquake the east coast has ever seen since the 5.8 one that hit Virginia a few years back. Just as a safety measure, we are evacuating all civilians and non essential personnel from Maine to Georgia. Anyone with houses on the coast or within 5 miles of the coast should leave now.” I chuckled and said “This guy’s an idiot.” “DC won’t get hit. Everyone is just worried because of what happened in Baltimore last week and now they’re panicking and making everyone leave.” I turned the news off and as I poured myself a glass of water, I felt a hum of electricity surge through the floors and then everything went dark. “What the heck was that!” I felt around for my coat and then ran outside to see what happened. My apartment overlooked the Washington Monument and was within a block of The White House so I usually had a pretty clear view even at night but now everything as far as I could see was dark. I felt around in my pocket and grabbed my phone. I hit the home button but nothing. I hit the power button but nothing. I ran back inside my kitchen and tried all the light switches. Nothing. The light in the fridge was out. Nothing electrical worked! I grabbed a flashlight and flicked it on. It worked and I used it to find anything important. I grabbed all my papers and ran out the door. I didn’t bother to shut it and started running down Pennsylvania Avenue. After all the President would want the Speaker of the House with him at a time of crisis. Sizzle!! Crash! Boom!!!!!! All around me things were falling and sparking. It was so smokey that I could barely see 5 ft in front of my nose. I kept going forward and I tried to avoid all the bodies and debris on the ground. “So this is what happens when the internet dies!” I screamed to the world yet I’m sure no one could hear me. Finally after a few more strides I hit a curb that I could only hope was the front entrance to The White House, because if it wasn’t then I was in trouble. I felt my way up the curb and through a gate and as I went up the steps I saw the small red lines hit me in the chest. “Don’t move or you will be shot where you stand!” A gruff voice shouted at me through all the commotion. Two of the lines went away and the next thing I know I’m being forced onto the ground with my hands above my head. “If you don’t have the proper ID to get into The White House then I will have to turn you back and you’ll have to wait with the other refugees.” “Wait a second they…Oh come on they think I’m one of the refugees from the terrorist attack last week in Baltimore.” All these thoughts were racing through my head as I tried to stay awake. The smoke kept getting thicker and thicker. “All right your papers look good, sorry for the hold up sir but with everything that’s been going on, we’ve had to increase security.” As the guards let me up I heard a rumble behind me and I turned to see what was left of the Washington Monument falling towards me. “Go Go Go!!!” The guards picked me up and we all ran towards the front gates. There were 4 guards with me: The gruff voiced one in front of us, two on either side holding my arms and one in the back of us. As we got to the fountain in front of The White House I felt my left arm go slack and then my feet got tripped up. As I fell to the ground I saw the guard from my left side bleeding uncontrollably from his head and then suddenly a cool blast of water hit me. Then it all went black.

“Sir, sir can you hear me? Mr. Speaker sir can you hear me? Are you alright?” The first thing I saw was the gruff voiced guard looking at me. I looked around and saw that the guard from my left was clearly dead. The hole in his head was so deep that I could see what appeared to be brain matter. I then looked ahead of me and saw the guard from my right attempting to revive the guard who was running behind us. He had a piece of what looked like the fence surrounding The White House jutting out of his throat. He was making a nasty gurgling sound and nothing seemed to help him. Finally I stood up and the gruff voiced guard said “Sir I’m Special Agent Cooper and we need to get you inside now. McMann move we can’t save him!” McMann looked up and then looked back down and then sprinted toward the front door of The White House. We made it inside and as a few guards helped us in, I turned to Cooper and said “What happened? I was in my apartment and I felt a surge of electricity go through the floors and then everything went dark.” “We aren’t sure but we have an idea that Washington D.C was just attacked by the same people who attacked Baltimore. We were cyber-attacked.” “I’m not going to even begin to process what you just said but why us?” At that moment a guard came up to me and asked me to follow him. I was lead to the command room in The White House. “Do we have any idea who these guys are?” I was so forward that the President gave me a double take before responding “No but we know the damage: We lost any survivors from the Baltimore attack, all of Rhode Island and Connecticut and two thirds of New York. We’re still trying to evacuate the people more inland but it will only be a matter of time before the quake catches up to them.” Now I had to do a double take. “If it’s going to hit them soon then we must be directly in it’s line of fire!” The room seemed to go quiet after I said this, maybe because I screamed or maybe because they all realized how hopeless our situation was. “Tom, there’s something else”, the VP said to me, breaking the silence. “These people, whoever they are, coordinated their attack so perfectly that the combined forces of them and the quake caused the electricity to die.” We’ve lost all means of communication and all lights are gone. With the roads out of commission, we’re stuck here.” I think at that moment, everyone was doing the exact same thing as I was: contemplating how bad our situation actually was and how long of a time it would take to dig ourselves out of this deep hole.

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