Brain.
“Duh really? I just thought it was hospital car park magic - of course it was the fucking swathe, but fuck knows how it did that!”
Brian pulled the keys off the railing and looked at them. “I guess it wasn’t straight EMP, it must have had some other properties, stuff we haven’t seen before; which explains the larger number of electrical fires and the affect on people. EMP doesn’t usually have any impact on us. We have a small amount of iron in our blood; but not enough that would allow our brains to fry like a micro-chip.”
He scanned the smoking horizon, while his mind scanned through the possible physical properties of the swathe. What the hell could have caused what they were seeing before them? Neither he nor Marius could come up with a rational answer based on the science they knew, nor an answer based on pure speculative guesswork. “So where do we go from here? Where are your parents and what about that girl I heard when I called your place?”
Marius kept his eyes fixed on the horizon. “My parents are in Berlin, and I don’t think I will be flying home soon, do you? The girl, I didn’t really know her – we met at a club last night and she left last night when I did. She gave me her number, but you know, they say you should wait three days…”
“Well,”
“That was a joke Brian, I don’t think her number would work and I didn’t even know her second name, let alone her address. If nothing had happened I don’t think I would have called her back anyway – she told me science was just a ‘belief’ and should be placed equally alongside all other beliefs! Ha!” He shook his head. “What about you Brian? Family?”
“My sister is, was, teaching English in Taiwan. Mum died a few years back, well you know that.”
“No I didn’t, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Marius, we had a twenty minute conversation about it six months ago, Jesus do you listen to anything I say?”
“Sorry Brian, you know I’m a terrible listener. What about your Dad?”
“I haven’t seen Dad since he came-out and moved to San Francisco. I think that’s what really killed mum and why Suzanne moved to Taiwan. It wasn’t the whole gay thing; it was the way he did it. I have no interest in tracking him down.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh, I mean he is your dad?”
“Look, even if I wanted to find him I have no idea where he might be or who he’s been shacking up with these days. He had his chance to make amends and he failed us, so no Marius, I don’t think it’s a little harsh.”
They were silent for a few moments, before Marius finally said, “So just us then, yah? Nobody to ride off into the sunset with and nobody we care about that we have a hope in hell of getting to within a year.”
“I don’t know about you Marius, but I do have friends you know - and no not just on the internet.”
“Any in Redding?”
“Uh no, but I have an ex-girlfriend who I do kind of still care about in Sacramento.”
“Sacramento is over two-hundred miles from here and from the looks of things we’d be lucky to make two miles with the roads as they are. Try a car, go on try it, if you think they will still run. You saw the door to the MRI room, even that was fucking fried Brian.”
He began to feel angry; with Marius; with the whole situation. “Well we should at least try to save some more people around here - the fires are spreading, the smoke is spreading - there’s enough dry trees in this town to fuck things up pretty well for these people.”
A groan came from one of the men they had dragged out of the hospital who was lying on his front ten feet from them. They both jumped and stared at him. The man was heavily built, in his mid-forties and wearing a tool belt. Brian recalled tripping over a hardhat, which had been on the floor beside him in the waiting room. The man had a large nail driven through his left hand,
“Duh really? I just thought it was hospital car park magic - of course it was the fucking swathe, but fuck knows how it did that!”
Brian pulled the keys off the railing and looked at them. “I guess it wasn’t straight EMP, it must have had some other properties, stuff we haven’t seen before; which explains the larger number of electrical fires and the affect on people. EMP doesn’t usually have any impact on us. We have a small amount of iron in our blood; but not enough that would allow our brains to fry like a micro-chip.”
He scanned the smoking horizon, while his mind scanned through the possible physical properties of the swathe. What the hell could have caused what they were seeing before them? Neither he nor Marius could come up with a rational answer based on the science they knew, nor an answer based on pure speculative guesswork. “So where do we go from here? Where are your parents and what about that girl I heard when I called your place?”
Marius kept his eyes fixed on the horizon. “My parents are in Berlin, and I don’t think I will be flying home soon, do you? The girl, I didn’t really know her – we met at a club last night and she left last night when I did. She gave me her number, but you know, they say you should wait three days…”
“Well,”
“That was a joke Brian, I don’t think her number would work and I didn’t even know her second name, let alone her address. If nothing had happened I don’t think I would have called her back anyway – she told me science was just a ‘belief’ and should be placed equally alongside all other beliefs! Ha!” He shook his head. “What about you Brian? Family?”
“My sister is, was, teaching English in Taiwan. Mum died a few years back, well you know that.”
“No I didn’t, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Marius, we had a twenty minute conversation about it six months ago, Jesus do you listen to anything I say?”
“Sorry Brian, you know I’m a terrible listener. What about your Dad?”
“I haven’t seen Dad since he came-out and moved to San Francisco. I think that’s what really killed mum and why Suzanne moved to Taiwan. It wasn’t the whole gay thing; it was the way he did it. I have no interest in tracking him down.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh, I mean he is your dad?”
“Look, even if I wanted to find him I have no idea where he might be or who he’s been shacking up with these days. He had his chance to make amends and he failed us, so no Marius, I don’t think it’s a little harsh.”
They were silent for a few moments, before Marius finally said, “So just us then, yah? Nobody to ride off into the sunset with and nobody we care about that we have a hope in hell of getting to within a year.”
“I don’t know about you Marius, but I do have friends you know - and no not just on the internet.”
“Any in Redding?”
“Uh no, but I have an ex-girlfriend who I do kind of still care about in Sacramento.”
“Sacramento is over two-hundred miles from here and from the looks of things we’d be lucky to make two miles with the roads as they are. Try a car, go on try it, if you think they will still run. You saw the door to the MRI room, even that was fucking fried Brian.”
He began to feel angry; with Marius; with the whole situation. “Well we should at least try to save some more people around here - the fires are spreading, the smoke is spreading - there’s enough dry trees in this town to fuck things up pretty well for these people.”
A groan came from one of the men they had dragged out of the hospital who was lying on his front ten feet from them. They both jumped and stared at him. The man was heavily built, in his mid-forties and wearing a tool belt. Brian recalled tripping over a hardhat, which had been on the floor beside him in the waiting room. The man had a large nail driven through his left hand,
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