The Long Dark by B.J. Farmer (important books to read .TXT) 📗

of the Ripsaw. I then wiped my boots before reluctantly reminding Avery about the EMP.

“Yes, well, I do not know why there is electricity here.”

“Really, dude, if you didn’t know, why would you bring it up?”

“I suspected you were thinking about it.”

“Well, now that we have that out of the way, I can clear that off my things to worry about list – you know, now that I know as much as I did before.”

Avery flashed a rare smile. “I am working through a string of messages I believe answers the question of why Barrow and the Patch are dark. I believe there was either a test or perhaps more accurately, a feint that took place. Roughly around zero hour, when things went dark, 997231 received two messages. They both consisted of one word: ‘maengmog.’ The word means blindness. 997231 then sent the same word to someone who I believe was higher up the chain of command.”

“We know they knocked the power out in Barrow and the Patch, but what exactly does that have to do with the power still working here?”

“A message was sent from 997231--”

“Can we call him something besides the number?”

Avery sighed. “A message was sent to Donald from who I assume was his superior that read, ‘Enemy alerted. Mobilization eminent. Success.’”

“So, you don’t believe there was an EMP?”

“I do believe there was an EMP.”

“Huh?”

“The power loss at the Patch and in Barrow, I believe, was the result of an EMP attack.”

“But why only attack…” Avery recognized that I was figuring out what he was getting at. He almost smiled. Not even smugly. He seemed genuinely happy. “It was all a trick to get our military mobilized towards a threat, but a smaller threat in the grand scheme of things?”

“Hence, why I used the word feint, formerly.”

“That means back home is probably as fucked as what it is here.”

Avery’s smile faded. “Most likely.”

Something else dawned on me. The radar dish in Barrow must’ve been important. The damn thing was on fire, yet those bastards thought it was important enough, even with bullets flying, to hitch it up and get it the hell out of there. “That radar dish… or whatever the hell it was. Could have that been the weapon?”

“I did not see it. I have no way of knowing, other than there must be a reason why, one, it was on fire, and, two, why the Russians were there and why they took it. It had to be important. That is all I can say.”

“Do you think any of that information would be on the phone?”

“Perhaps, there are thousands of messages I have not translated. If I had the internet, I could use a translator tool and expedite the process exponentially.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be great.”

“The power being on as it is, there stands some chance that the internet might also be on.”

“One of the hotels in town?”

“Yes.”

As soon as we had taken our seats inside the cab, Sam began questioning our conversation. “We can drive on down the road, away from ‘is shithole, and take a nap.  Ain’t no sense of runnin over ‘ere ta ‘at side of town and take unneeded chances. Let’s get on down the road a bit, and rest ‘ere. We can go from ‘ere.”

“The internet would quicken the process, by magnitudes, of translating these messages.”

“With all ‘is shit goin on you really thank ‘ey goin ta be internet over ‘ere?”

“The power is on. Maybe,” I told him.

“What ‘bout you, boy? You thank it will?”

“I have no way of knowing. There is a possibility.”

“We gonna take ‘at chance on a possibility?”

“I think the reward is worth it, but I want this to be a group decision.”

Sam smirked.

“Sam, is there something you want to say to me? This would be a good time as any.”

“Nah, son… Just worried ‘bout thangs is all.”

There was an uneasiness in his eyes. “You have a say in this, Sam.”

“We good. We good.”

I shook my head and sighed. “Let’s go.”

We followed Sag River Road too far to the south. Apparently, I wasn’t smart enough to use the GPS because we inadvertently got on the Dalton Highway without my realizing it. Instead of backtracking, we made a hard right and drove over the runway to get to Prudhoe Bay Hotel, which showed up on the GPS as a local attraction.

Sam crashed over a small safety barrier as he sped across the airfield, the large tracks and powerful engine kicking up a hell of a plume of snow behind us, but inexplicably, the sound of that engine along with the speed in which we traveled, declined quickly before coming to a dead stop.

“You see what I’m seein?” Sam asked.

Hundreds of lumps in the snow were scattered randomly across the airfield and surrounding areas.  “What the hell?”

“Sure as shit stanks, ‘em’s bodies.”

“Yeah…”

We drove by several large containers before turning a street that, according to the GPS, didn’t have a name. Within less than a minute later, we sat idling again, unsure of what to do next.

“Have either of you noticed the lumps in the snow?” Avery said.

“You’d get off ‘at damn phone long ‘nough, you’d already seen ‘em.”

“They are I believe bodies. They are the correct size.”

“Just shut up, Avery,” I said.

Formed in more of a statement rather than a question, Sam said, “Maybe ‘is is our chance ta leave?”

“We’re here. We might as well have a look. No one seems to be alive to attack us.”

I was clearly testing Sam’s nerves and patience. “Son… you get me killed here, I’m goin ta be pissed.”

“You will be dead if you are killed here,” Avery said.

Sam sighed, shouldered his rifle, and without a word, got out of the truck.

Weapons ready, we walked towards the closest lump. Standing over it, I cleared some of the snow away. “Fucking Grays.”

“This fucker has his eyes poked out,” Sam said, slinging the bloody snow off his hands.

I rolled the other one over. “Well, this one’s fingers are bloody. I’d guess they didn’t like each other.”

“Damn, son.”

“You