A few seconds later, another plane hit, farther away. Then another one, closer again, a massive explosion that dwarfed all previous impacts.
“Oh my God, Thomas! Oh my God!”
“I think that one hit the terminal. Imagine all the planes parked there, the fuel trucks…”
“Can we get to your house? Is that where you’re headed?”
“Yes. I think we can make it there. As long as the roads aren’t blocked.”
“Thomas,” Sky finally said. “This…this is just like your screenplay, isn’t it? Your car is still running because there aren’t any computers in it.”
He nodded. “The pulse must have come from that thing in the sky. I’m not sure but I think it might be a supernova. I read about them during my research, but they don’t happen very often. Everyone assumed if an EMP got us it would be a solar flare or a nuclear strike.”
“So that means everything is off? Power. Cars. Phones. The Internet.”
“Hopefully not. Maybe it’s not as bad as we think.”
Another plane hit then, this one to their southeast, a couple of miles away. Within seconds, a giant plume of smoke rose above the tree line, and now the entire southern sky behind them was apocalyptic. The horizon itself seemed consumed by fire.
“It looks pretty bad, Thomas.”
THREE
It had occurred to Natalie Black only recently that she’d wasted too much of her life relying on men. And it was no secret why. Her father, a strong, old-world patriarch, had ensured the women in his life never wanted for anything, so when lung cancer took him before Natalie could finish college, she felt as if she was left floating in space, untethered from reality. At that point she’d been dating Dan only three months. He was a gorgeous, wealthy kid with confidence to burn, and it wasn’t long before she pressured him into a short engagement and an even shorter, disastrous marriage.
The experience with Dan had opened her eyes to a different kind of man, one who might not be handsome on the outside, or even confident, but who would direct his energy toward loving her deeply. It was this niche Seth had leveraged to win her heart, and for many years she had enjoyed stability that reminded her of her father. When the twins were born, and Seth found a way to let her stay home full-time, Natalie realized she was finally living the life she’d always dreamed of as a little girl.
But that long run of peace was over. By the time Natalie summoned the nerve to snoop through Seth’s phone, she realized it had been over for some time, and once again a man she trusted had played her for the fool.
She wasn’t proud of her actions with the phone, but at least she finally had proof of his infidelity. Because surely if “JJ” were one of his male friends there would have been other natural details of the relationship, like text messages or posts on Facebook, or maybe Seth could have said something to her about it. Instead, he had never breathed a word about anyone named JJ, even though this person (this woman) had been calling him repeatedly for days.
All this was made more annoying by how jealous Seth had recently become about Colin Scott, her manager at the nonprofit. He was convinced Natalie was attracted to Colin, that rather than perform any actual volunteer work she spent all day flirting with him. And while Seth’s suspicions were mostly unfounded (her tiny crush on Colin lasted all of two seconds and was completely harmless), the fund-raising golf tournament complicated her defense.
Colin, after all, was in charge of tournament staffing, and the role he’d given her each year was to pass out free drinks to generous donors of the Deckard Foundation. What the job actually entailed was permitting loudmouthed, poorly dressed idiots to flirt with her and gawk at her boobs.
Natalie had never relished her role as “cart girl” and had always made herself look as plain as possible. Last year she’d worn a baggy white T-shirt and khaki shorts and giant black sunglasses that covered most of her face. But this morning she was dressed in a sleeveless pink top and cute plaid skirt and had put on extra mascara. She was tired of feeling unloved and unwanted at home, and if her sexy golf outfit attracted a few extra glances and better tips than normal, wasn’t that something she deserved? A little attention?
She had expected Seth, before he left for work, to notice her outfit and maybe accuse her of dressing up for Colin. In fact she’d been hoping for a confrontation that might lead to some truth about JJ. Instead Seth had barely glanced at her, which wasn’t a surprise. When her husband was in town, he was either ecstatically happy or dark and sullen and she could never find the courage to mount an offensive against these extremes. Increasingly, though, he’d been traveling for work, and on those days he barely spoke to her at all… probably because he was with JJ doing kinky things in a faraway hotel room.
Natalie was on her way to the eleventh hole when her cell phone buzzed. She reached into her purse and glanced at the display and was surprised to see Thomas had called her. She’d given him her number on the last day of the reunion, before she drove home, but in the intervening weeks he’d never bothered to use it. Why would he? She was married, and he was a single, wealthy screenwriter surely interested in younger, hotter women than her.
“Natalie. You need to—”
The message was interrupted then, like it went to dead air, and when Natalie looked down at the screen she saw the phone had turned itself off. When she tried to switch it back on, nothing happened. This made no sense because she’d charged the battery all night specifically so it wouldn’t run out during the tournament.
Eventually Natalie reached the eleventh tee and set her phone aside. She was already stepping out of the cart and ready to reach for the beer cooler when she noticed none of the golfers were looking her way. Instead they were all standing near the cart path, facing the same direction, looking at something above the trees. Natalie followed their gaze and saw a star in the morning sky, very bright, sitting below the sun. She’d never seen anything like it and immediately began to worry.
“What is that?” she asked.
An older man turned to face her. He was wearing a red Oklahoma University ball cap and an ancient white golf shirt that was too large for him. He smiled a creepy smile and involuntarily glanced at her boobs.
“I dunno. Maybe a spaceship.”
“It ain’t a spaceship,” said another of the men, who didn’t turn around.
“I just saw it,” Natalie said. “How long has it been up there?”
“Not long. Twenty or thirty seconds. We were just getting ready to tee off when Blake thought he saw a blue flash in the sky. We figured he was full of shit until we seen that light up there. I’d say it’s getting brighter by the minute. Like it’s getting closer.”
“I can’t get my phone to work,” she said loudly, hoping one of the others would notice her. “I wonder if that thing messed up the satellites or whatever?”
Finally, another guy pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket and looked at her. He was tall and bookish and wore glasses with thick brown frames.
“Cell phones don’t talk to satellites,” he said. “They talk to towers. Either way, mine doesn’t seem to be working, either.”
“Is that bad?”
“I don’t know how it would be good. What cell phone company are you with?”
“AT&T.”
“I’m on Verizon. So it’s not just one. Definitely not good.”
Natalie’s vague sense of worry was becoming more like dread. Her two sons were in drop-in daycare this morning because school was out. It figured that something terrible would happen on the one day she wasn’t home and her boys were in an unfamiliar place.