EMP – Final post
I was sitting here thinking it had been a few days since I posted and wondering what I would post tonight when the below came to me. I had wanted to finish up the EMP story and let you know how I think it might end. Remember, this is a very rough draft and I have only scanned it once since it left my fingers. What you are seeing is what I poured out over the last ninety minutes. I hope you enjoy it and please let me know if you find anything or just like it. I love to hear from you.
Owen was hungry. It had been several days since they last had anything other than a few crackers to eat. He opened the freezer looking to see if he could soak up any water for the girls. After discovering the water in the bottom of the toilet tank could be soaked up with a rag and squeezed into the girl’s mouths. He was on a quest to find water for his family. Everyone was on the verge of being dehydrated and he knew he had to do something. If only he had listen to those people who kept telling everyone to have days’ worth of supplies stocked up for emergencies. If it wasn’t for all those cans of food that Sera bought and then refused to cook, he didn’t know where they would be.
Owen opened the freezer to see if there was any water pooled in it. Getting on his hands and knees, he pulled out the bottom rack. There was a packet of meat behind the rack. He didn’t know how long it had been there or if it was any good. He reached in and grabbed the package. It was still cool. Surely that was a good sign that it was still good. If it had been warm he would have thrown it out, but it was cool. Cold even. His stomach growled and he knew Cheyenne and Dakota were miserable. He had to do it.
Owen took the steak to the porch door. Bundling up, he went outside and fired up the grill. He would just cook the steak until it was well done. That should do the trick he told himself. Cook it until no more pink showed. He put the steaks on the fire and looked around. They still needed water. It would hard to eat steak without something to wash it down with. He looked down at a bucket of water they had found in the yard. They had saved it for the dog, but it looked so good. It was clear and clean looking. How bad could it be? It was pure rainwater that had filled the bucket over time. There wasn’t even any bugs in it that he could see. It would have to do. They needed water and if they had to drink out of a bucket, then that is what they will do. He went back into the kitchen and found a large pot. Putting the pot on the fire, he reached down and grabbed the bucket and filled the pot. He thought that all he had to do was to boil it for a minute for two and it would be fine.
A few minutes later, Owen’s stomach growled and rolled. The steaks had to be done by now. The water was steaming, that should be good enough. He grabbed a few plates and called his family to the kitchen. Once they were all there, he whipped the towel off of the steaks and glasses of water. “Breakfast is served,” he said with a smile.
“What? How? Where did you get this?” Sera asked.
“Do you really want to know?”
“No. I’m too hungry and thirsty to care.”
Later that night, Dakota came into Owen and Sera’s room. “Mommy, my tummy hurts and I don’t feel good.”
“It’s probably just upset because you got to eat something today. It’s been a few days since you had anything. Why don’t you crawl up here and sleep with us tonight.”
Cheyenne came in a few minutes later and complained that her stomach was hurting as well. She piled into the bed, crawled under the covers and fell asleep. Sleep didn’t last long. Cheyenne, Dakota, Sera, and Owen all grew very ill during the night. They all felt feverish and were very nauseous. Sera and Owen both had a hard time trying to stay upright trying to find anything that they could use. They didn’t even have a thermometer that worked. There were unprepared for this. The government should have helped by now. How can people live without electricity and water? Where were the police and fire departments?
The girls cried as they tried to throw up during the night. Sera and Owen didn’t fare much better. At least RJ wasn’t crying right now. The poor thing was running out of food and like the rest of them needed water. She was afraid for her family and angry at herself and Owen for allowing their family to get this way. She knew they were all on the verge of severe dehydration and this illness was only going to make it worse.
Owen was just as miserable as the girls. He knew he had poisoned them with the steak. If only he had left it on the fire longer. What made him think that steaks in a freezer would still be good three weeks after the power went out? Sure the food lasted a few days before it thawed out. But three weeks? The steak only felt cool because it was in the freezer and without heat, everything felt cool. He was actually surprised that the meat wasn’t molded. Or did he even check? He just opened the package and threw it on the fire and fast as he could. He didn’t even pay attention to it as it cooked, he was so focus on finding water. “I’m sorry,” he croaked before falling to sleep again.
The illness lasted all night and throughout the next day. Owen, Sera, and the girls all went through periods of throwing up until there was nothing left in their systems. Dry heaves followed and with each round, precious body fluids were wasted. It wasn’t until sometime the next evening that everyone had cleared their stomachs enough to start feeling a little better. Owen and Sera knew they were all dehydrated. Getting over food poisoning was bad enough when you had hospitals, doctors, medicine, and plenty of water to drink. Recovering from it living like they had to would be very difficult. Neither Owen nor Sera were religious, but given what they had gone through the past ten days they had started praying. They needed to feel like someone cared and was watching over them. Even if it was someone they couldn’t see or hear. It gave them strength to think that they were being watched over.
Owen woke up a few hours later and looked over his family sleeping in the bed next to him. He felt so guilty for putting them through this. There had to be something he could have done. Maybe he should have spent the money on water storage instead of that new sixty inch TV that now sat unless in the living room. He used to laugh when he saw those ads for disaster kits. “What a waste of money,” he would laugh when he saw them. Why spend that money when all you had to do was go to a hotel or let the Red Cross take care of you. Hell, even the fire department or church groups would set up stations to help out. No one needed to prepare for anything that lasted more than a few hours. Now, he thought the food and equipment might have made the difference. They might not have gotten sick if they had real food.
Looking over the small figures next to him, he saw his little girls starting to look like skeletons. His wife’s face had shrunken and her bones were starting to show. It had only been three weeks? How could they have gone so far downhill so fast? Was life really that fragile? He looked over to the baby bed and knew RJ was in trouble. They had no more water and his food had ran out today. What would they do for him? He couldn’t eat the same stuff they could. He needed formula and baby food, not steak and crackers. Even as dehydrated as he was, a little tear still rolled down Owen’s cheek.
Sleep didn’t come easy for anyone. They all had headaches from the dehydration. Cheyenne and Dakota kept crying and asking for water. They might have started recovering from the food poisoning, but the dehydration was getting worse. Owen had looked around everywhere inside and outside for water. There was nothing left. Over the last three weeks, they had used up every source of water they had around the house. If only he had a chance to fill their garden tub. That thing held thirty gallons of water. They would have had water to last a few more weeks with all that water.
“The bath tub!” Owen shouted as he sat upright in the bed. “The bath tub!” Sera looked at him and wondered if he was hallucinating from the dehydration.
“What? What bath tub?” she asked.
Owen didn’t say anything as he got out of bed. He swayed a little from the dizziness, but manage to get it under control before running out of the door the fast as he could.
“Owen? What is it? What’s wrong?” Sera asked making her way out of the bed. What was going on with him?
Owen ran downstairs and into the garage. It was dark, but he knew where he needed to go. He made his way over the fifty gallon water heater in the corner of his garage. He felt around and found it. The valve used to drain the heater. He gave it a tentative turn. Then another. A few more before he felt it. Water. Water was coming out of the tank.
“Owen!” Sera yelled as she came downstairs. “Owen! Where are you?”
“In here,” she heard from the garage. What was he doing in the garage?
Owen came through the garage door with a large smile on his face. “Follow me!” he cried grabbing her hand. He walked her into the garage and over to the water heater. “Hold your hands here,” he said as he placed her hands near the tank. He reached over and turned the valve. Sera cried as the water hit her hands.
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