Nuclear Pulse

Full short story

Nuclear Pulse"

Chapter 1

The snow really did turn the outside world very quiet. Only the thunder of a truck's exhaust broke the silence. Once the truck had passed the village, then everything went dead silent again. No birds sang and no squirrels chattered in the forest. Jenny could hear her heart beating and her ears seemed to buzz ever so slightly. Her boots crunched on the frozen ground and she held onto the wooden fencing posts in case she slipped.

Her mother called from the kitchen door. "Jenny! I'm making porridge!"

Jenny held onto the fence and spun around like an ice skater. She called out, "Coming Mom!" Her breath puffed from her mouth like fog. She blew out a few more times, just for fun.

Jenny screwed her eyes up against the glare from the snow. The land was frozen white as far as she could see. Nothing moved. Something rumbled above her. She held her hand above her eyes and squinted up into the murky grey sky. An aircraft of some sort crossed the sky, heading east. It left a white trail behind it.

Jenny thought about the aircraft. She used to see aeroplanes all the time, until a few days ago. Then that missile from outer space had hit the earth. It had happened far away, on the other side of the world, but the night sky had lit up like daylight and summer had turned to winter almost overnight. Other strange things had happened. The North Pole was no longer where a magnetic compass would point. Jenny's little girl guide's compass now pointed completely the other way. But the worst part was the way everything had stopped working. No electricity and no telephone since the hit.

Jenny slipped and skidded across the frozen yard towards the kitchen. She scraped the mud and slush from her boots and kicked them off at the door. Crossing the kitchen floor in her socks, she stepped on something hard. It was her cell phone. She thought of picking it up and then decided that she couldn't be bothered. The phone was of no use to anyone now. Nothing that used electricity or magnets or computers worked anymore. Everything electronic or digital had stopped working. It wasn't because there was no electric power. It was something to do with the earth's magnetic field. Jenny went over the list of useless things in her head; cell phones and computers and microwave ovens and televisions. They were all silent. Everything modern was now just a useless piece of expensive metal and plastic.

Mom stirred the porridge over the gas flame and served the steaming cereal. Jenny added syrup to her bowl and ate carefully from around the edge. Mom sat opposite Jenny and sipped at a mug of coffee. The electricity had gone off a few days earlier. They were fortunate to be living out in the countryside. At least they had firewood and paraffin lamps and gas cookers for heat and light.

Old Mister Dent next door had delivered a load of firewood to the city. He returned with frightening stories of mobs of people rioting in the streets. Mister Dent had said that they were zombies. At night the city was dark and cold and dangerous. There was no food for sale. People were unable to contact their families or to find out anything. Anyone who was able to was planning to get out of the city. Most people just started walking, because the trains and airports were not working and petrol could not be bought anywhere.

Mister Dent had brought back a newspaper from the city. It had been put together by a person with an old typewriter and then copied somehow. The printing was a bit wobbly and there were no pictures. Mom held the newspaper up to the light coming in through the window. 

Jenny licked the last of the porridge from her spoon. She asked her Mom. "What do they say about our stuff working again?"

Mom squinted through her spectacles at the page. "Scientists say that all digital and computer information on earth has been wiped out, destroyed. This means that no modern technology will work." Mom should have been shocked by this news, but she just looked confused.