36 Hours: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Fiction Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

right now. ”
    “ Thank you, Janice. Keep us posted. In any event, not to worry, folks. The Canadians will get the pretty light show and we’ll get more blistering heat . Same old, same old .”
    Alex tapped on the window. Madison was lost in thought and didn’t realize her daughter was there, causing her to jump a little. She fumbled for the lock switch and relocked the doors before finally unlocking them.
    “Hey, Mom, it was a little warm out there,” said Alex as she threw her book bag in the back seat. Alex immediately adjusted the air-conditioning vents, stealing all the cold air for her face.
    Madison pulled out of line and made her way to the exit of the parking lot. “Sorry, honey. I was off in zuzu land for a minute. Where are we headed?”
    “We’re playin’ at Hillwood today,” replied Alex; then she added, “I’m pretty excited about it. Their home course was where the U.S. Senior Women’s Open was held this summer.”
    “Cool. You can compare your scores to theirs and see how they stack up.”
    “Different tees, Mom,” replied Alex.
    Madison wasn’t sure what that meant, so she shrugged it off. “I’ll make a few stops while I wait. There may be some things I missed for the party Friday night.”
    Alex studied her phone for a moment as she received a Snapchat notification. Her thumbs rapidly tapped a response. Madison was still mastering Bragbook and her latest passion, Instagram. She liked Instagram better because the users were friendlier. On Facebook, everybody seemed mad about something. She hated the negativity and the bullies.
    “Are you nervous about the party?” asked Alex, continuing to multitask, as young people called only paying half-attention to the person they were talking to. “You seemed like you were in a trance.”
    “No, I was just listening to the news. They were talking about solar flares and auroras.”
    Alex abandoned her socializing and immediately turned to her mother. “Really? That’s what we discussed in Mr. Stark’s class today.”
    “Apparently, there’s a potential for a solar flare that will create an aurora as far south as Maine. They didn’t act like it was a big deal, but I found it odd that it was being discussed on the news at all. I mean, don’t we have more important things going on in the world besides auroras?”
    “It could be important, Mom,” said Alex.
    Madison pressed her thumb on the steering wheel volume control and turned up the volume on the radio. Fox had two people yelling at each other about politics. Angry .
    “Try CNN,” she said to Alex, who pushed the preset on the dashboard. Madison turned up the volume further.
    “… an electromagnetic surge from a solar storm is a realistic threat. Scientists expect a major solar storm to reach the earth about once a century .”
    “ Didn’t we have a near-miss in 2012 ?” the CNN host asked.
    “ Yes. In fact, my colleagues submitted an analysis of this solar event to Scientific American magazine. It took nearly two years for the government to release the full details of what could have been the worst solar storm in our history .”
    “ Was it a close call? ”
    “ The coronal mass ejection that occurred in July 2012 sent eighty billion pounds of energized particles toward our planet at the speed of several million miles per hour. Luckily it barely missed Earth. Had it occurred just one week earlier, our planet would have taken a direct hit .”
    “ What would that mean in real terms ?” the host asked.
    “ Given our current state of readiness, we’d still be picking up the pieces ,” the guest replied.
    “ How bad? ”
    “ A major solar storm containing X-class flares sends these blobs of particles toward the earth, which carry their own magnetic field. These missile-like groups of matter are capable of opening a gate in the earth’s magnetic field, allowing the energetic particles to enter the atmosphere and send currents all the way down to the planet’s surface. They