Member-only story
A Sudden Apocalyptic Day
#100StoryChallenge №55
I awake to the sound of panic in my younger sister’s voice.
“Shannon, the toilet won’t flush. Water’s not coming out of the sinks at all and the lights won’t turn on. What do we do?”
I get out of bed and enter the bathroom to check.
I sigh. “Guess I’ll have to call the plumber then. And maybe the electrician too, but we can hold off on that for a bit.”
I pick up the phone, but to my dismay, it’s not working either.
I check my iPhone, but there is no service. I can’t even access the internet.
I go into my younger brother’s room and nudge him. “Hey. We got a big problem. Nothing’s working and we can’t get in touch with anyone.”
“We can’t even call mom and dad,” my sister adds.
My brother wakes up. “Shit. I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Should we ask our neighbors?”
I know my dad would decide against it if he were here. He keeps to himself and doesn’t trust anyone.
It’s been 24 hours since dad left for a business trip to Australia. Mom wanted to go with him too, so it’s up to us to figure out what to do next.
I see a bunch of people gathered outside. One look at them tells me all that I need to know — this isn’t normal and something disastrous happened earlier today. Problem is we have no idea what.
My brother turns on the portable radio, but all we hear is static. Normally we could count on the radio during emergency situations, but today, it’s different.
“Let’s go check out the gas station,” my sister says. “The car’s tank is only half-full.”
I almost decide against it but figure that it’d be best to get gas now than later. “Patrick, make sure you go with her. Bring a baseball bat please,” I yell.
“Okay sis. Be back in a bit.”
As they walk out the door, my head spins with options — with none of them being particularly pleasant.
Drive out to our grandparent’s house that’s four states away? But what if all the roads are blocked? Or what if we find ourselves in the middle of a war zone?
