Maya and Reno checked people as they arrived, alerting them that they were paramedics, but everyone seemed fine, and more interested in watching the obelisk rising.
“What is that thing?” a woman asked.
“Where did it come from?” another wondered.
The tip of the obelisk poked through the dark clouds above and then it stopped—now rising taller than any other building in the city. An ominous silence fell upon them, and even the crickets stopped chirping. Everyone continued to stare at the stone structure towering over Nashville.
A low hum shook the earth beneath her feet then, and a vibration came through her feet and shook her jaw. Maya watched as the night sky pulsed, a light coming down from the clouds that was bright enough to cast an eerie, blue tint over the entire area. And then, the sky exploded in silent flashes of purple and white. The subterranean trembling continued.
“We’ve got to get everyone away from this thing,” Reno said.
Maya heard her partner, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the light show dancing around the obelisk and reaching into the sky above them. The silent lightning came again.
“Maya!”
She turned to him.
“Help me! Now!”
Maya turned away from the visual spectacle above and began directing people out of the park and toward West End Avenue. She grabbed the hands of a young woman and her son, leading them away from the historic Nashville landmark.
Sirens flashed up and down West End Avenue. Dozens of emergency vehicles had followed the dust to the destruction at the park.
Maya and Reno guided people to arriving rigs as a cop approached the two of them, having sighted Reno’s uniform.
“You two see what happened?”
“Not fully,” Maya said. “By the time we made it over here, that thing had already destroyed the Parthenon.”
“Do you know if everyone made it out?”
“Mostly, I imagine,” Reno said. “But there had to have been cleaning crews and security in there.”
“All right. We’ll get a search and rescue team inside.”
The cop ordered some of the other officers on the scene to cordon off the area around the strange, new obelisk even though most people had already been running away from it. He then stood next to Maya and stared up into the sky.
“What is that thing? Did it shoot up from underneath the Parthenon?”
“I think so,” Maya said. “I need to call my family.”
Maya stepped away and took her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled through text notifications from her mother, Laura, and Gerald. She cringed at seeing his avatar on her screen, in particular, and didn’t want to hear what he had to say quite yet. She tapped her mother’s name.
After a long silence, the phone beeped and the call dropped. She tried again with the same result. Checking the top corner of the screen, she saw it read, “No Service.”
Great.
Maya crossed the street, moving away from the chattering people and emergency lights. She continued staring into the corner of the phone’s screen, holding it up in the air and hoping to catch a few bars. No Service.
She had been in one of the most populated areas of the city, sandwiched between two hospitals and some of the best restaurants and bars in Nashville. Maya could see at least two cell towers from where she stood. She turned around and looked at the obelisk again, feeling a pit growing in her stomach.
She opened the messenger app. The message from her mother sat at the top.
Haven’t heard from you recently. Just want to make sure everything is all right. Love you.
Maya looked at the one from Laura next. She grinned as an image filled the screen. Laura and Aiden had taken a selfie together. Both had their lips puckered up for a kiss.
We love you and miss you, Mom!
Maya brushed a tear aside and blew a kiss at her phone. “I miss you guys, too.”
She backed up and opened Gerald’s message without reading the preview.
Weird. Your mom isn’t home. Convenient. Good job, Maya. I hope you realize the mistake you made.
Maya groaned and shook her head. Gerald had gone to her mother’s house looking for the kids. What if he was looking for them right now, while she was here dealing with this… situation?
“Maya!”
Maya lifted her chin and saw Reno standing across the street.
“Get over here! Now!”
Maya hurried across the street. Several first-responders talked on radios while others stood around pointing at the sky.
“What is it?” Maya asked Reno.
“Listen.”
EMD calls came through in rapid succession.
“Multiple vehicular accidents outside Nissan Stadium. Any available units.”
“Vehicular accident at Hillsboro Pike and Glen Echo Road. Any available units.”
“Vehicular accident on Clarksville Pike crossing the Cumberland. Any available units.”
Maya wiped her clammy palms on her pants. Her heart raced.
“What the hell?”
Maya shook her head, unable to give him an answer. “We’ve got to get back to the rig. Now.”
11
After sprinting past groups of panicked people and pushing their way through throngs of onlookers, Maya and Reno ran through the open bay door and climbed into their rig. Maya didn’t even bother going inside the firehouse to grab her uniform. Proper union dress code seemed slightly insignificant compared to what she had witnessed a few minutes ago, and they weren’t on the clock anyway.
“Which direction we headed?” Reno asked. “There are so many calls coming into 911 that dispatch can’t keep up.”
“I’m going to drive to the river. We can check the areas near the stadium. From what I’ve heard on the radio, there’s a lot of accidents happening over there.”
She pulled out of the bay and into traffic, where other rigs led the way down Charlotte Avenue and toward the Cumberland River at the eastern edge of downtown. Many people had decided not to drive, leaving their cars parked at odd angles and up on curbs—some even leaving their vehicles in the middle of the street. People lined the sidewalks, gawking and pointing at the mysterious obelisk towering over Centennial Park and now the tallest structure in Nashville—man-made or otherwise.
“Seriously, Maya. What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Shit don’t just pop up out of the ground. How could that even have gotten there?”
“I’m not sure. Can you please keep checking for service?”
Reno glanced at the screen. He tapped one of his contacts and put it on speaker phone. Like Maya’s earlier, his phone wouldn’t dial.
“Dammit,” Maya said, slamming her hands on the steering wheel.
“The network will come back up. Maybe the earthquake knocked down a cell tower?”
“Or maybe it’s related to the obelisk.”
“What do you mean? You think that thing could have knocked out cell service?”
“You saw what it did, Reno. That low hum and the blue lightning storm? Maybe it fried the circuits.
Reno stared off, his lips slightly parted. “What?”
“Maybe it sent out a signal. Like one of those things the preppers are always talking about.”
“You mean an EMP?” he asked, resorting automatically to the common abbreviation for an electromagnetic pulse—the type of energy wave which could come from a comet strike or a terrorist weapon and that had the potential to knock out the world’s electrical grid. “We wouldn’t be driving if that was the case. An EMP blast would’ve fried the rig’s electrical system.”