“Massive blackouts in China point to US — Chinese tryst,” she read from the Conspirator’s Daily eZine. The author postulated a cabal between the Chinese and US Governments to sell more oil or some strange theory, which made no sense. However, in between the nonsense were two interesting points: blackouts affecting 17 million people, with some power stations down for potentially weeks, and sightings of auroras in areas as far south as North Korea.
She remembered seeing some story earlier which she paid no notice to before, but with this information, she was captivated by the potential of that story. “Where was it?” She asked herself while scrolling through her feeds.
“Bingo,” she yelled out loud, abruptly stopping and looking up sheepishly, hoping her words were not as loud as she knew they were. She realized it was later in the morning than she assumed, and remembered hearing her mom making noises in the kitchen not long ago. Her sense of smell confirmed this, taking in the glorious aromas seeping into her room from the kitchen.
Looking back at her screen, she read the headline, “One of the largest Coronal Mass Ejections in years causes disruptions in China.” Not many details, but she knew she had found the trail she was looking for. She searched now for all news stories mentioning auroras or strange lights. This yielded quite a few results from the last 24 hours: Beautiful aurora light show over India and China by an Indian newspaper; Strange lights reported in North Korea by an alien conspiracy newsletter; Vladivostok Ravaged by Fire — Many Deaths Feared. She opened this one and read about large fires consuming almost a third of the city of Vladivostok Russia, causing power outages throughout the city. Only one reported death, but many more were expected. Then she saw what she was looking for, “Several locals, just outside of the city reported seeing strange lights in the sky just before fires started ravaging the city.”
Sally scanned through a few more stories, with more than enough to post, but drawn to the magnitude of what she was finding. This was a big deal, but it hadn’t really made the news in the States. She was about to type out her post, when she came across one more story, from thirty hours ago, before the auroras and CMEs: Noted Solar Astrophysicist Predicts Global Apocalypse? Not expecting this kind of story from her query, she clicked on the link and ate up the article.
A scientist named Dr. Carrington Reid, who founded a research center that only studies solar storms, flares, and coronal mass ejections or CMEs being interviewed about a recently published paper. He posited that the most current solar cycle would likely bring about one or more CMEs that would be equal or greater than the Carrington Event that occurred over 150 years ago. He also stated that if a similar Carrington Event were to occur today, it would cause worldwide destruction and lead to the death of hundreds of millions of people or far worse.
Sally pondered all of this, ignoring her growling belly, and typed out her post, “Beauty & the Beast — CME causes auroras & destruction in Southern Asia/Russia.” Pointing to two of the best stories, and the Dr. Reid interview, she typed, “A freak of nature or a harbinger of bad things to come. What’s your take?”
Now she only needed the photograph. She learned early on that the old motto “A picture is worth a thousand words” is even truer when posting on Google+ or a blog. She first uploaded a stunning picture of a blue green and red aurora photographed in Alaska, since there was none yet from this event. But, then she ran across an HD video of a similar aurora in Alaska. Using Auto Awesome software, it pulled multiple frames from the video and turned it into an animated gif, more literally a moving picture. It was stunning.
Very pleased with her post, her hashtags and links, and now the picture, she reviewed it, making sure there were no errors. She then clicked Share to send her post to the 2.5 million computers and smart phones of her followers worldwide, as well as the millions of the Google searching public.
“That should get the nutters out as well. Always a fun crowd,” she said, smiling and feeling good about this find.
She sipped some of the remnants of her coffee and watched the comments flood in almost immediately, one after another. Bing followed by another and another; her computer ringing like a penny slot machine in Vegas.
“Great find, +SallyKing,” said Felicia James from New York.
“Wow! You rock, +SallyKing,” said Brian Santana. Her Brian, who was always monitoring her posts, even on his days off.
“It’s got to be the Chinese. They want our oil,” said Frank Gomez from Texas. His profile picture was of a mustached and goateed young man wearing a Stetson and a vapid smile.
“I’ve been saying all along, it will be a massive CME that will take down society,” said Wilber Wright, one of her favorite conspiracy followers and one of the many of her sources, in some unknown place in Illinois.
Sally closed her laptop and considered whether to walk out to the kitchen, knowing breakfast was any minute, or to go outside through her patio door and see if Uncle Max was around. She could smell the spicy fragrance of chorizo calling her and her now ravenous stomach. Instead, she chose the patio door. She was dying to see if Max was coming to breakfast and his take on the CME story.
9.
Wilber
“All right, Preppers,” Wilber started his shared post for the Apocalypse Preppers community page on Google+, This one is hot, coming from one of my favorite sources… 75% chance of a solar flare that will end all technology on Earth. If you haven’t started your preparations, it’s already too late!!! This was linked via a shared post on his blog where he described the details of the CME Research Bulletin he received and read about an hour ago.
“Wilber,” his wife’s voice coming from outside into his open window, “I think Petunia’s got a cold.”
Nut house! After a long exhale, he pushed himself up from his computer. “Coming,” he yelled to the window and headed towards the back of the house to deal with yet another pig that probably had Colibacillosis; the fourth one now. He dreaded the thought of having to isolate her from the healthy ones, give her antibiotics and fluids, and clean out the pen once again. Olivia was on sick-pig-watch, as she called it, quick to announce if one had diarrhea, the sure sign of this illness.
He walked the hundred or so feet from the back of their home down to the pigpens, Jumbo Jet, his favorite pig, already broadcasting Wilber’s imminent presence to the others. He stopped for a moment and took in the view. Although not as incredible as from the front of their home, with its views of the main valley and town, his favorite view was out the back. The little stream which wrapped around their home, below the pens and the stalls, and the sheer rocky face leading straight up to where their windmill stood as sentry over the whole valley. They owned the biggest property in Ottawa County, some 1290 acres left to him by his family, and the only place he ever called home.
Since taking over the homestead ten years after both his parents died in a car accident, Wilber made quite a few improvements. Oil income from three wells in the valley had been taking care of their family’s expenses for a lifetime. From the beginning, the Wrights were off the grid, as those from his prepper community would say, not because of planning on his, or his parent’s part, but because of the great distance from the town and its services. They had a windmill and solar cells providing all of their power needs, water storage tanks filled by filtered water from their stream, food grown, harvested, pickled, and stored. He was just thankful that his family could take care of itself, which was much more important now more than ever.