After the Fall: Jason's Tale Read Online Free PDF Page A

soon.
    “Well, we’re out of the insulin, but I have the blood
pressure medicine in stock.”
    “I’ll take it,” Jason said quickly. The line behind him was
becoming restless. He didn’t relish the pharmacist’s situation as his supplies
ran down. The tension was growing. The girl at the checkout counter up front
could not process any credit cards which upset some of the customers who
refused to give up their supplies but didn’t have enough cash to cover them.
With the blood pressure medicine in hand, Jason pedaled away in search of
insulin. It took three more visits to drug stores and their pharmacies to find
one with insulin, but he was finally successful.
    After the medicine, Jason went to a gun shop for additional
9mm and .223 caliber ammunition. The lines there were beginning to grow and the
shop was posting its own armed guard. He was limited to purchasing one box of
each type of ammunition, cash only. Jason pedaled off to two more gun shops and
was able to purchase more rounds for each of the guns. Later in the afternoon,
he headed back home. In the distance, back in town, he heard gunfire. It’s
started already.
    The next morning, he was in the garage working on an old
generator, trying to get it to run. Jason figured this older engine, with no
electronics, might be made to work. With it, he could not only run some lights,
but also an electric motor that could be made to pump water from his well. A
steady supply of clean well water would be invaluable over time. He paused as
he heard someone walking up the driveway. It was Jim Miller, the only other
neighbor Jason knew on the road. Jim and his wife, Cathy, lived a mile down the
hill with their two kids, Tim and Carrie.
    “Jason, are you around?” he called out.
    “In the garage,” he responded. “Come on in.”
    “What can I do for you?” Jason asked as Jim entered the
garage.
    Jim was in his thirties. He and his wife both worked. Their
kids, Carrie, twelve and Tim, nine, were both bright and enthusiastic. Carrie
idolized Maggie and had made her promise to help her get a job as a fashion
model when she graduated from school.
    “Just wanted to get your thoughts about what has happened. I
can’t figure it out for the life of me.”
    “Did you get the kids back to the house?”
    “Yeah, Cathy and I wound up meeting at the school; I came
from work. It was her day off, so she rode her bicycle from the house. The
school was holding the kids until parents could come for them.”
    “I hope all the parents were able to pick up their kids.”
    “I think some of the staff were planning to stay overnight
with the kids if their parents didn’t come. Hopefully everyone got picked up by
yesterday. So, you have any clue as to what’s up?”
    “I do. I think it was an EMP burst, possibly over the
eastern half of the US.” Jason went on to explain the effects of such an event.
    “If it shut power down all over the east, we’ll be quite a
while recovering.” Jim was going where Jason had already been.
    “I think this was an attack; it didn’t happen by accident,
and if it was, there might have been multiple bursts to cover the whole
country.”
    “Holy shit,” Jim murmured, “That would be a first class
disaster.”
    “More than you can imagine. I went to town yesterday to get
some prescriptions for the Phillips. There are already lines at the pharmacy
counters for medicine and that will only get worse. It’s good your family is
together; I think I heard gunfire late yesterday when I was coming home.”
    “Rioting?”
    “Maybe, or looting.”
    “What do you think we should do?”
    “Fill your tubs and any containers with water while there’s
pressure. That’s the first thing. Next you should inventory your food supplies
and, this could be dangerous, you should go out right away to buy what you can.
Food and water are going to become scarce soon, get what you can now.”
    “You’re freaking me out, you know that.”
    “I’m telling you how