“What do you mean?” Maria asked. “What’s going on?” With each breath, her oxygen hissed, and the hissing grew faster and more frequent as she waited for someone to speak.
Gary stirred and shifted on his feet. Jenn assumed he was thinking of a way to keep Maria from growing even more anxious. Most likely, he regretted admitting that anything was wrong in the first place. “I’m sure it’s fine,” he said. “But we can’t get online to know for sure.”
Maria tightened the belt of her housecoat and eyed him for a moment. “Okay. Well, you guys should ask around.”
Eager to finally find some answers, Jenn started for the front door. “Let’s go check if Liam’s home. He’s a cop and only lives a couple doors down. Maybe he knows what the deal is.”
“Good chance he’ll be at work,” Gary said, “and if he was on the night shift, he might be sleeping. I’d prefer not to wake him up.”
“I’m sure his wife would’ve woken him up if the power went out. Let’s just go check. I don’t know them very well and it’d be weird if I showed up at their front door without you, so you should come, too.”
Gary put a hand on his wife’s arm. “You’ll be all right by yourself for a bit, dear?”
“Of course,” she said, projecting strength, but Jenn could sense her apprehension. “Ajax can protect me.”
Reluctantly, Gary pulled himself away. In many ways, he was Maria’s caretaker, a role he embraced, so leaving her behind now, if only for a few minutes, must be hard. “Okay,” he conceded. “We’ll make it quick.”
“See you guys soon.” Maria turned toward the couch but stopped and told Jenn, “Those dishes will be waiting for you when you’re done at Liam’s.”
“I never doubted that,” she said, hoping to reassure Maria that everything would be all right. This could all be nothing but an ordinary blackout, but that uneasy feeling in her belly thought otherwise.
Opening the front door, she breathed deep. The air in Flagstaff was crisp and clean and reminded her of wood chips, not melting asphalt and putrid garbage as it did back home. The tall ponderosas provided plenty of shade from the Arizona sun, and the temperature stayed well below the hundred-degree mark, even in the height of summer. Only two hours up the road, Flagstaff felt like a completely different world than the desert hellscape of metropolitan Phoenix.
A light breeze rustled the pine tree in Gary’s front yard, and barking echoed in the distance. “You hear that?” Jenn asked at the end of the driveway.
“Hear what?”
“It’s quiet.”
“What do you mean?”
The junction of I-40 and I-17 wasn’t far. Jenn hadn’t given it much thought before today, but the whooshing of cars on the road always carried to this neighborhood. “Listen. You can’t hear any traffic.”
Gary brushed his mustache with a finger. “Strange, especially for this time of day.”
The knot in Jenn’s stomach worsened. She pointed at Gary’s car, a sleek blue ’51 Kia with full autodrive mode, though he only ever drove it in manual. “What about yours?”
“What about it?”
“You think it works?”
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t.”
He pressed his thumb to the fingerprint pad beside the handle. Jenn clenched her teeth but let her jaw relax when she heard the click of the locks.
“Looks okay,” Gary said.
“Try turning it on.”
He pulled open the door, and Jenn rested her elbow on top of the window as he sat in the driver’s seat. One leg hanging outside, he started the motor, which buzzed to life.
“Well, why’s the highway so quiet?” she asked.
“Don’t know. Everything looks fine.”
“See if the radio works.”
Gary tapped at the touchscreen on the dash, and Jenn watched the FM channels rise: 107.5, 107.7, 107.9, then back down to 88.1. Once all the frequencies had cycled through, she said, “Well, that’s not a good sign.”
“Local stations never work if there’s a major blackout, so it might not mean anything.”
Jenn nearly asked him to try the satellite radio, but she didn’t bother. Soon after the war broke out, both sides shot down almost every civilian and military satellite in orbit. Good thing Internet cables ran beneath the ocean and cell phones used land-based towers. Otherwise, worldwide communications might have collapsed.
Gary shut off his car and tucked his keys into his pocket. “Let’s go see if Liam’s home.”
They turned left at the end of the driveway. Beads of sweat collected on Jenn’s forehead, and the back of her neck was damp, so she tied up her hair with an elastic band from her wrist. It was warm, sure, warmer than normal for the last week of April, but her armpits shouldn’t have been this soaked. Her guts did somersaults as she scanned the single-story houses on either side of the street. Many of them sat empty, even though developers were throwing up cheap, government-subsidized modular housing complexes—neighborhoods of shipping-container residences stacked three or four high—all over Phoenix. The seven-figure price tags attached to Flagstaff homes had only appealed to wealthy people seeking investment properties, not families struggling to find enough work to stay above the poverty line. By the time the real estate market crashed after years of being kept afloat by nothing but speculation, Flagstaff’s population had already more than halved, leaving much of the town vacant.
Gary’s neighbor, dressed in bright-pink workout shorts and a neon-green tank top, strolled down her driveway, cradling a newborn in her arms. “Good morning, Gary!” she chirped.
“Morning, Kate,” he said without slowing his pace.
Kate bounced her baby lightly. “You know why the power’s out?”
He shook his head. “Jenn and I are headed over to ask Liam. We’ll keep you posted if we hear any news.”
“But my phone isn’t even working.”
“Ours neither. Stay inside for now, and I’ll drop by later if I can.”
“Um, okay,” Kate said. It looked like she had more to say, but her baby fussed, so she made a cooing noise and heeded Gary’s advice.
Two houses down, another of the neighbors, one Jenn didn’t recognize, stood in the middle of the street. Hands on his hips, he scanned the sky. She followed his gaze but only saw the tops of pine trees and wispy white clouds.
“So,” Gary said, drawing her attention from the man and his staring, “when do you think you’ll head home to Phoenix?”
“You trying to get rid of me, Gary?”
He must have assumed she was being serious, because he quickly added, “No, no, of course not. Your exams are done. Just wondering when you’re planning to go back.”
“I don’t know. Haven’t really thought about it. Couple weeks?”
“That’s what I guessed, but you’re welcome to stay a bit longer if you want.”
“No, I should probably go home soon. The last time I saw my parents was Christmas.” Jenn felt guilty about that. They’d spent their retirement savings to pay for her tuition, and during high school, they paid for her to play softball. When she applied for university, the hope was that she’d receive a scholarship, but it never happened. Schools didn’t have much money these days, either, it seemed. Only a week before the tuition deadline in her first year, however, Mom and Dad came through with the payments. Then they found the Ruiz family, who covered many of her living expenses. Her mother and father had sacrificed everything for her. The least she could do was spend the summer with them.
“I’ll need to start looking for jobs at some point,” she said. “You know how well that goes.”
“Might be easier to find a job here. I’m sure I could talk to someone.”
She appreciated the offer. Gary was a fixture of sorts in Flagstaff, and he knew people who’d probably hire her for casual, under-the-table work. She loved billeting with him and Maria during the school year, but she needed to see her family as much as possible before September. Jenn had turned twenty in March, which made her eligible for conscription in the military draft this summer. Come fall, she might find herself at basic training instead of in a classroom. Then she wouldn’t see home again for years. Camila enlisted in 2057, not long after the war began, and hadn’t been back to Flagstaff since.
“Thanks, but I really need to see my parents. Sam will be down there this summer, anyway.” Chewing the inside of her cheek, she wondered if Sam Orr, her boyfriend, had even woken up yet. Did he know what was happening? He liked sleeping in, and so did she, but he didn’t have to contend with Gary starting home-improvement projects at 7:00 a.m., most of which, coincidentally, involved noisy power tools. She usually stayed at Sam’s place on weekends, when they’d wake up late and lie in bed together until noon, sometimes later. She wished she’d spent last night there, too.
“Okay, no problem,” Gary said. “We’re happy to have you again in September.”
Jenn’s throat tightened. “Well, that depends, doesn’t it? I’d love to come stay with you, but it’s not really my call anymore.”
Gary froze in his tracks, and his chin fell to his chest. “I’m sorry. That must be tough for you.”
“That’s an understatement,” she said, the prospect of shipping off to Asia, Europe, or Mexico niggling at her like a headache she couldn’t quite shake. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”
“Have you thought more about what we talked about?” Gary asked and continued toward Liam’s. “About enlisting?”
Jenn answered on reflex: “No.”
“You know how the military treats conscripts. You can’t choose your service. If you enlist, you’ll have a say where you end up. There’ll be opportunity for advancement. Being drafted will—”
“No, Gary. Just . . . no.” She’d told him this a hundred times already, but he kept pushing her. He pushed Sam, too. The last time he did, about two months ago, Sam pushed back, triggering an argument that would have most definitely devolved into a shouting match had Maria not stepped in. Sam hadn’t come over to the Ruiz house since.
“The situation’s changed. We’re moving into China, and word is, the Russians are ready for peace talks.”
Gary had a point. After five years of government mismanagement and strategic bungling, America and its allies had finally straightened out the war effort and were making headway. Last night, partisans in Hong Kong ousted the Chinese garrison and welcomed American Marines as liberators. Northern India was once again under Allied control, the Europeans had encircled Kyiv, and the Russians were running from Poland and the Baltic. The Second Brazilian Empire had all but withdrawn from Mexico and now faced pressure closer to home thanks to Argentina joining the American side.
According to Gary, these were good reasons to enlist. Jenn thought the opposite. Casualties were still high and predicted to climb even higher as American forces pushed deeper into China and Eastern Europe, not to mention how many more would die during the inevitable invasion of South America. The tide might have turned in America’s favor, but so far, this war made the one fought in the 1940s look like a schoolyard fistfight.
“All the more reason to stay here,” she said. “I think I’ll take my chances with the draft.”
“I’m just trying to help. I don’t want you spending all summer worrying and then end up getting drafted anyway. There are other options.”
She resented that argument. Both of her brothers had enlisted. Jason, the older of the two and almost a decade older than Jenn, died first, in early 2060, when an IED exploded underneath his Humvee in Mexico. Six months after Jason’s death, her other brother, Andrew, went into an Indian jungle and never came out. The war had taken enough from her family. She couldn’t risk letting it take more.
“I wouldn’t say ending up in the ground beside my brothers is really an option,” she said, then realized how insensitive she was being; Gary and Maria stopped hearing from Camila last July. They had received no official government notice about her well-being. Maria held on and thought Camila was alive and coming home. Gary, though, gave up on her almost immediately, and Jenn didn’t blame him. Camila going MIA after more than four years of regular emails meant only one thing. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No need to be sorry,” he said without any trace of indignation.
“Can we agree to not hash this out right now? I think we have bigger things to worry about.”
He gave her a friendly wink. “Agreed.”
Liam’s house was the mirror version of Gary’s: the two-car garage was on the left, not the right, and the gravel in the yard was brown, almost red, while that in Gary’s was a bluish-gray. Liam also had less of a garden, which made sense considering the water restrictions in Arizona, even up here in the mountains.
Gary pressed the doorbell, and Jenn leaned in, listening for the chime. She only heard herself breathing. He tried it a second time, but it didn’t ring.
“I don’t hear anything,” she said. “Try knocking.”
He rapped the brass knocker three times. As she began to suspect that nobody was home, the click of a deadbolt came from inside, and the door opened, revealing Liam’s wife, Erin, her orange hair wet from a recent shower. Rustling it with her fingers, she greeted them with, her voice colored by a light Irish accent, “Oh hi, Gary. Hi, Jenn. What brings you two to this end of the block?”
“Good morning, Erin,” Gary said. “Liam home?”
“No, he’s on day shift. Seventh in a row. He should be finished around 6:30.” She tugged on the bottom of her Colorado Rockies T-shirt. “Hey, is your power down? My lights are out. I tried calling Liam but couldn’t get a signal. Usually, our Powerwall kicks in and the house runs on solar during blackouts, but it’s not working. I’m starting to worry.”
“I’m sure everything’s all right,” he assured her. “Have you checked your car this morning?”
“Nope.” She raised an eyebrow. “Why should I?”
“It’s so quiet out here,” Jenn said. “You can’t hear the highway.”
Erin lifted her chin, listening for a second or two, then tugged on her shirt again. “That’s strange. Let me grab my keys.”
She disappeared inside, leaving the door open, while Jenn and Gary made their way to the car in the driveway, a white Ford Escape from the early twenties. A cord ran from an outlet beside the garage to a plug on the hood. Gary circled the vehicle, bending down to check the fenders, the wheels, everything.
“You a little jealous there, Gary?”
He stood on his toes and peeked at her over the roof. “No. Well, yes. Maybe a bit.”
“Why? This thing’s ancient.”
“Yeah, but it’s a classic. A first-generation electric. It was probably one of the biggest ones on the market when it was released.”
Black key fob in hand, Erin came outside. “Is it open?” she asked.
Jenn tried the handle. “Still locked.”
Erin mashed the fob so hard she grimaced with the effort. “How about now?”
The door wouldn’t budge. “You might need to try the old-fashioned way.”
“The battery shouldn’t be dead,” Erin said. “It was charging all night.” She manually unlocked the vehicle and climbed inside, then pressed the start button.
Gary came around the front end. “Well? Any luck?”
“It won’t turn on.” Erin tried starting the motor again before tapping at the dash-mounted touchscreen, which remained black and lifeless. “I don’t understand. The charge was at over half yesterday.”
“Gary,” Jenn said, “was your car plugged in?”
He scratched his cheek. “No, not that I remember.”
“Maybe that has something to do with it.”
Erin gripped the steering wheel and leaned her head back. “Debbie’s getting ready for school. How am I supposed to drop her off?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Gary said. “I’m starting to think there won’t be school today.”
“Really? Will the power be off that long?”
“It might be best to keep her home and stay inside. Play it safe, you know? I imagine Liam would agree.”
She glanced at the house and blew her cheeks. “I don’t want her to get in any trouble. Last time there was a blackout, the kids stayed in school until the end of the day.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Assuming other people are having the same kind of car trouble, the teachers might not even be able to get to work.”
“Okay,” she said and hopped out of the vehicle. “I hope you’re right.”
“How about this? I’ll go check on Maria and come back in about thirty, forty minutes. If the power turns on by then, I can drive Debbie to school for you.”
Erin’s shoulders relaxed a little, and she put a hand on his arm. “Thanks. I wish we had more neighbors like you.”
“It’s not a problem. See you in a bit. Take care now.”
“Tell Maria I say hi,” Erin said and headed inside.
Jenn pulled her phone from her pocket and began to text Sam, but she still didn’t have any service. Had he woken up yet? Did he have any idea what was happening? That uncomfortable tendril of worry lurking in her guts had grown, and the only way she could think to ease it was by seeing Sam. “Hey, Gary. I’m thinking I should go over to Sam’s.”
“I thought you might. You want a ride?”
“No, I’m used to the walk. Go hang out with Maria. Plus, you need to check on Erin. Doesn’t sound like she’s really getting it.”
“I’ll make sure they’re okay.” He clapped her on the shoulder. “Just try not to be too long at Sam’s. Maria worries about you, you know.”
“I worry about her, too. I’ll find Sam and we’ll come over to your place.” Poking him in the chest, she added, “And don’t even think about cleaning that pan. You always do a crappy job.”