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“Courage is not having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” Theodore Roosevelt
He wished he could say they’d been happy that day. But the fight was already brewing between them, Hannah tense and Noah closed off. But they’d been happy for their son. On all those miserable sleepless nights, he clung to that truth.
“I’m just gonna . . . sleep awhile,” Gramps rasped. His breath was shallow and uneven. “Don’t mind me. I’m gonna dream up some tropical beaches, maybe a cruise, some fine ladies in bikinis to keep me company . . . don’t tell Gran.”
“What the hell is happening?” Noah breathed. “I told you,” Quinn said, but there was no triumph or glee in her voice, only a broken resignation. “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”
winter garden where she grew hardy vegetables like turnips, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, garlic, and Swiss chard. She grew everything in cold frames—portable wooden frames with clear, rigid polycarbonate covers.
“The United States has most likely been hit by an electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear bomb.”
“The federal EMP commission predicted up to 90 percent of the population would die off within a year.”
“In a nutshell,” Jamal said, “we’re screwed.”
All you gotta do is visit the DMV to understand how incredibly inefficient the government is. Do we really want to put all our trust in that?”
“I don’t need a . . . a millennial to explain life to me!”
“Do you have a terracotta flowerpot and small candles, like tea lights? Steel washers and bolts? You can make a small heater with that.”
“Then you flip it over and support it on a few bricks to position the center bolt directly above a small candle or three. The flame heats the steel bolt directly, causing it to heat the clay pots and trap the hot air rising from the flame. The clay radiates heat. You’ll have to huddle close to it or use it in a small space, though. You can also use a couple of Sterno cans and a larger pot to get even more heat.”
I grew up on a farm not twenty miles from here. We did everything ourselves. Grew our own crops. Made our own milk and butter. Butchered our own deer and cattle.” “Walked six miles to school every day, uphill both ways,”
Clorox bleach. A three-quart bottle of six-percent sodium hypochlorite costs about two dollars, and will treat nearly forty-eight hundred gallons of clear water. A drop per pint is the recipe.”
“Remember, that’s clear water. For cloudy river water, tell ’em to filter it through a clean cloth like a T-shirt first and double the bleach. Then let it sit for an hour or so.
“They can build an Amish bucket—a manual, hand-operated well bucket—out of four-foot-long by four- or five-inch wide PVC piping with a check valve cap on the bottom. Use a rope to drop it down and haul it up, and it’ll bring up about a gallon each haul.”
How easy it sounded. How difficult it would be.
Why did anyone need to believe in a devil when humans were evil enough?
“This is my calling. God put me here. God is still here, despite what you may think. He may have allowed my family to pass out of this world, but my faith is not shaken. I still believe. I will always believe. He has not forsaken me, and I will not forsake Him. I will not abandon my calling to help this town through its darkest days.”
“Keep your eyes open, my friend. The devil is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he is not always who you think.”
“I’ll do whatever I have to,” Noah vowed aloud, speaking into the endless icy silence. “Whatever it takes.”
