Power Outage

Power Outage

Updated & Revised Edition

May 2015

Douglas H. Plumb

Smashwords Edition, Published by Douglas H. Plumb

License Notes

This e book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e book may not be resold or given away. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Copyright 2015 Douglas H. Plumb

ISBN: 9781310930287

This book is dedicated to political and moral truth seekers everywhere.

This book is about law. My other published and much shorter science fiction comedy, Dr. Treekenstein, is about science, propaganda and history. My next one will be about money and it's relationship to law and the fact that both are the same thing and that honest money leads to law. Funny money gives us a Legal system and that is why we are in so much trouble today. If everyone could shut off all the noise, learn and think honest money, all these wars, drug dealing, torture, corporate welfare, phoney environmentalism, police state, etc, etc, would just end. Lot's of people in very high places know this and it's easy to learn. Humanity could live in peace.

Knowledge can save us, electing the right person never will.

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

About Douglas H. Plumb

Chapter 1

Bob had been trying to get some sleep on his living room couch early in the afternoon. He was a busy engineer and found little time for himself and one of those rare times was this afternoon.

He and his two associates, Joe and Dave had started secretly building sub basement underground shelters for people with enough money to pay dearly for them a few years ago. They had built two already for themselves and to show potential clients plus one for their first client. He was just finishing the process of debugging and wrapping up that job, their third shelter, and he needed some rest.

He had just got back from a seventy mile drive to flip a switch for the new customer and had been wondering why the customer wouldn't just pick up the manual and even just look at it. He could have learned about the switch on the third page. The manual even had a picture of it.

Someone was knocking at his door and interrupting his nap. Whoever it was at his door would not stop knocking and had even tried turning the door handle so he had to get up and see who it was. Who the hell is that?, he said aloud. No one else was home, he hoped whoever it was on the other side of the door interrupting his nap had heard him and would somehow disappear before he got to the door. He wasn't expecting anyone today, not even by phone and certainly not at his house.

A woman was standing at the door with a young girl carrying a large backpack as he opened the door. He noticed a pole transformer on fire down the street as he opened the door and turned away from the woman to look at it. Dark smoke poured upward toward the sky from a bright blue heat source.

Immediately the woman spoke and had his full attention.

Are you OK? Where is Jennifer?

He looked at the woman, not recognizing Joe's wife at first, having not seen her in over two years. Her hair style was different and she somehow looked different.

He was struck by the beauty of the older lady. Her casual and straight short dark hair and casual dress could not hide it, although she tried. Her presence at his doorstep began to set off alarms as she spoke. He thought for a moment: Susan was not ever supposed to be here.

Part of the agreement between them was that he could no longer be seen socially in the company of Joe, Dave or their wives, Lisa and Susan. He lived in the house that had their flagship shelter under its basement, the one potential clients were driven to see in a windowless van. No one could know where the house was or find it by watching Dave, Joe or their wives, or their friends and he and his wife were always gone when Joe showed the shelter to a potential client.

It had to be this way so that no one could connect him or his house to the shelter they were blindly led to after demonstrating an ability to pay in cash or liquid equivalent. The business was under government radar, one of the benefits of purchase. No one knew the whereabouts of these shelters except their owners, only a few had known of their existence.

The genius of the shelters was shared by the three partners. Joe did the civil engineering design work, Dave managed the project and knew how to keep it a secret from anyone who would be looking at the house, a skill gained from his military experience. Bob was an electrical engineer who had known Dave since he was a child. He did the systems for air, water and electricity and the entrance hatch using off the shelf components, all paid for in cash, with no special orders or unusual parts from hardware stores.

Susan was breaking all the rules just by being at his doorstep.

Bob looked over at the burning transformer again. What are you doing here? he asked as he continued to look at the transformer, pretending to ignore her. Susan spoke sharply to get his attention back Joe and I were in a bad car accident and Joe didn't make it. This girl here was alone and she had come over to help after the accident. She is from Bellingham and was driving through the city to get to Portland. She doesn't know anyone even remotely from around here..

She gave him a hard stare.

The young girl stayed silent. Susan asked him incredulously What have you been doing for the last two hours Bob? Do you even know what happened?. Bob replied I was trying to get some rest, at least that's what was happening as he looked again at the transformer. He turned to look at Susan again. She looked differently from her usually calm, collected, and smiling face. She looked like she was about to fall apart or kill him out of frustration. Bob just wanted her to go away, he could find out what she wanted through their regular means of communications and did not want to see her at his doorstep.

Susan turned toward the young girl and said Wait here. Do not move. Do not go anywhere. If something happens you are to enter this house and sit in the living room. You wait there but only for an emergency. If you have to, lock the front door and lock yourself in the bathroom and wait and stay quiet. We will deal with whatever it is so just stay quiet until we come and get you..

Do you understand me? she said sternly.

Susan waited for a response, staring at the girl. The girl just looked at her and said OK after a moment, then sat down on the steps holding onto her backpack with her back to both of them. Susan opened the door all the way. A confused Bob, while looking at the girl, moved out of Susan's way as she walked in the house past him and into the living room, tracking mud and dirt on his floor with her dirty bare feet.

He walked into the sunlit living room behind her and remained standing, watching her as she sat down on his couch. Her pants were ripped and she had bloodstains on them and her top. One of her knees was scraped with blood and dirt. He remembered the girl outside had dirt all down the front of her T-shirt. He had thought it was some kind of modern art when he first saw it and had not really recognized it as a soiled stain. The two women looked like they had been on a hike and had fallen a few times in the moments he had to review it all.

Susan remained quiet as Bob looked her over. She knew Bob needed a few moments. OK Susan. You have to tell me what's going on. Take a deep breath. Why are you here?. Bob took a deep breath. Susan took a deep breath. Joe didn't make what? What are you talking about? he said.

She said Bob she paused to think for a moment then said Try your lights.. Bob just looked back at her, not understanding why she would say that. Is there a switch in here? she asked, to hurry him up.

Bob went over to the light switch. No power. He went over to the end table in the living room and picked up his cell phone. Nothing. No indication of power. He quickly checked the battery of the phone, it was in there and he had charged it over the previous night. Susan remained quiet.

He went into the kitchen to check the laptop he had left on earlier that was running on battery. It had a blank screen and its fan wasn't running. He hit return button, the power button. Nothing. He turned on the stove, the kitchen light. No light and no heat came from the element. Water trickled from the kitchen sink and then stopped. He looked out the kitchen window at the pole transformer on fire.

He ran back into the living room and said Stay here and don't move! I'll be right back.. He ran toward the basement door and down the stairs. Susan yelled out to him None of the cars work! They are all dead sitting in the middle of the roads in the city! Transformers are burning all over the place!. He yelled back at her Where is Joe!? She didn't answer.

He grabbed a magnet from his tool room to try the shelter hatch switch, magnetically activated and hidden behind drywall. Nothing. Its power was not working. He ran back upstairs and down the hallway and into his bedroom to the closet. He threw a few boxes out of his way from inside the closet and onto the floor. He found a carefully hidden package. He ran back down the stairs, leaving his closet shelf contents on the bedroom floor, with the small cardboard box in one hand and opening and ripping layers of tin foil from its top with his other hand.

He ran down past Susan and to the basement, grabbed a screw driver and opened the light switch box on the wall. He reached in and pulled out a circuit board and replaced it with one from the box. He moved the magnet across the wall and the hatch slowly began to open.

He knew as the hatch began to lift that the power system in the shelter was working. He felt relieved to feel the wind from the cooler and higher air pressure air inside the shelter blowing out on him. He saw the dim LED light coming from the hatch opening to illuminate the stairs and knew all the electronics in the shelter would be working.

He would not go down into the shelter yet. He knew everything was working inside.

He waited as the hatch lifted, unable to think of anything else. What didn't Joe make? Where is he? His mind shifted from one thought to another as he took deep breaths. Something happened to all the power everywhere and he had to stay in control.

When the shelter door had finished lifting he hit another switch to lower it. He stood there and thought about the situation as the hatch lowered and disappeared into the tiled patterns of the basement floor. He had Susan and the girl to deal with and Jennifer would be a few more hours having almost twenty miles to get from where she was attending a seminar with some colleagues from work.

It was early afternoon and she would arrive before nightfall. Jennifer would be home before any real panic set in. The electricity would not be coming back on anytime soon. Everything was different now.

Maybe it was some kind of weird electrical effect that no one had heard of or experienced. He thought about how in the useful sense science understands electricity very well, but in another way it didn't. No one really knew anything more about electricity than they did gravity or God. It just worked.

Maybe it was a giant sunspot, maybe a giant wave of magnetic energy coming from outer space like Dave had talked about. He only really understood the useful kind of electricity as an engineer. Maybe everything would soon return to normal but with long line-ups of people arranging to get their hydro, cars and computers working again, he thought but then he doubted that, nothing worked.

Society had blown a fuse.

Cars were not running, his unplugged cell phone didn't work and his stove wouldn't turn on. No massive power distribution failure could kill his unplugged cell phone or his car. The shelter was built to protect them from anything, but they had a massive economic collapse or a war in mind when they had built it, so did their single client when he bought his.

What had happened was completely different from anything they expected but they had put a fine copper net around the sub basement shelter, the expense of which was lower than the risk of a sunspot or electromagnetic storm or event, or atmospheric nuclear device that Dave had gone on about during the design phase. His wife, Jennifer had them thinking like actuaries sometimes, she was one. After all the arguing about building the shelter, all of her objections, she was the one that was right about the most important thing. The extra expense of the copper netting that shrouded the shelter probably saved them and it was probably a giant sunspot or atmospheric nuclear device that killed all the power.

He wondered when or if Dave and Lisa would arrive, he had no idea where they were or exactly where Dave was working through the week, he was a project civil engineer and was supervising road construction. Lisa would be at her car lot which was several miles away. Dave would get Lisa before coming to his house. They had planned for Dave and Lisa to live in the shelter with them in the event of an emergency, Susan and Joe had the other shelter they had built under their basement.

He continued to wonder if this was a local, national or international event. Time would tell. He swept around the hatch opening and then went back up the stairs. Sweeping was automatic and paramount in importance and he had been doing it ever since he had started going down into the shelter nearly every night during the past year. Sweeping prevented dust patterns from exposing the perimeter of the sub basement shelter hatch that lay hidden in the cracks of the tiled basement floor. He was in control.

His and Jennifer's regularly use of the shelter ensured that it was both ready and well tested. They were going to be safe for years if necessary.

He knew he didn't need to go into the city himself to see, he had more immediate concerns. He saw the burning transformer, he believed Susan about the cars. He took some deep breaths to get calm and cool and began thinking steps ahead of his actions. He ran outside to try his car, rushing past but without speaking to the girl sitting on the steps. Nothing, no ignition sounds, no dashboard lights.

He ran back in, ignoring the girl again on his way. He told Susan that the shelter was fine and everything was working. He explained that she would have to replace circuit boards with spares he had given them. So the electrical system will be working in your shelter too. Relax for a few minutes OK?.

He sat down in a chair beside her and let out a deep breath. She was now laying on the couch. Bob said So what happened? Where is Joe? What didn't he make?. Then he knew, as soon as he said it. She sat up and wiped tears from her face, and began to explain.

She and Joe had been driving through downtown when the power went out. They were going through an intersection and the driver ahead of them slammed on his brakes the instant the cars went dead. Joe hit his brakes to avoid a collision but the car at an adjacent light didn't stop. That car had ran into theirs in the intersection and hit Joe on the driver side door. Joe was badly hurt and had gone unconscious. He was bleeding profusely from a compound fracture and open wound in his leg. His body was twisted. Joe's side door and Joe's body absorbed almost all of the impact of the oncoming car.

The girl that she had left outside his door sitting on the step had come over to help her with Joe right after the accident. People had gathered around her car but shortly left, unable to help or call an ambulance. There were several accidents and a few people had slight injuries but most cars and people remained unharmed. Joe was the only one around seriously hurt. The girl wasn't hurt, she was just shaken up from seeing what the accident had done to Joe. She explained that he soon died after going unconscious, his breathing steadily grew more and more shallow until it was no more. He had lost too much blood and she couldn't stop the bleeding. Tears were in her eyes and she had to keep wiping them away from her face as she continued to explain.

Bob didn't know how to react to the news. Everything was so sudden and it was too much to digest all at once. He put that on pause and continued to listen to Susan, giving her what she needed, a sense of calm and control. He reached over and took her hand as she continued to talk.

She let go of Bob and explained that the girl had realized that her cell phone didn't work after trying 9-11. When other people had come over to the accident scene they had talked about their phones not working. Pole transformers were on fire and all the traffic lights were dead. She explained that it took the girl a while to realize what had happened but she seemed to be handling it.

The girl had stayed with her and Joe after Joe had died, having sat in the back seat and trying her best to comfort her. Susan said that she began to explain what had happened with the power and what an electromagnetic pulse event was to the girl, as she learned from Dave and Bob. After finding out where she was from and that she was alone too, she offered the girl help. She didn't want to be alone. She had no one and neither did the girl.

Susan said that she asked the girl to walk with her, that Joe was gone and they could leave his body, and that she would explain more as they gathered their things and got out of the car and started the walk toward her house. She said that she had stopped and ran back to the car to kiss Joe goodbye and started crying again. She collected herself and said that she explained everything that she knew to the girl with the exception of the two shelters that she and Joe and Bob and Jennifer had. She only told the girl that she was prepared for this, leaving the details out.

Susan explained her ideas about what to do with the girl. She said that the girl should stay with her and that it would take a few days for the reality to sink in for both of them. She told the girl that she had food, water and a place to stay. She had been thinking about telling the girl about the shelter but decided to stay quiet until they arrived at the house and met with him and Jennifer.

I will explain your shelter to her and tell her that I will be along shortly to join the two of you. I won't really come over right away but the fact that I didn't show up will scare the girl out of wanting to leave your shelter. You will give her ideas of the chaos that will be happening outside the shelter. Maybe she has seen a movie and you can tell her that it will be much worse than any movie. Get in your shelter as soon as you get home and do not leave it..

He paused to think while Susan looked at him in silence.

You know that if we tell her about your shelter and you let her in she cannot be allowed to leave. Me not showing up should scare her out of leaving. I will tell her that I will stay at this house and wait for Jennifer and we will both come over to the shelter as soon as Jennifer gets home. We cannot tell her about this shelter without talking with the others first..

Bob stopped to think.

I will come to your shelter and bang on the basement three times, pause for a few seconds, then seven times in a few days, maybe a week. Make it five days from today so today is...Monday. It will be Saturday...unless I cannot for some reason.... and it could be any reason we can't even imagine right now..

He paused for a breath and put his hand up to stop Susan, who was about to speak. "You open the hatch for me and I