Blackout • NH

Chapter 4

We begin to pack everything we needed on this journey. Marc suggested what we needed to bring. Clothes, preferably boots, pants and jackets, as much food as we could stuff in there, a rope, an army knife, a flash light, extra batteries, some first aid stuff, you name it.

Marc was happy to lend us some of the stuff since we didn't have any in the apartment.

I was scared, so scared. My dad had warned me about this before. I didn't think anything of it at first but now I see what he was trying to tell me.

After we had everything packed up, we got dressed in dark clothing so it would be hard to be seen since it's still 4am.

I put on some black biker boots, my black skinnies, a black leather jacket and a black beanie. Ellen was wearing the same thing but she had on a regular black jacket.

"Got everything?" Marc asked.

"I believe so, do we need anything else?" I ask.

"Here take this." He hands me a compass. "You'll need it to help you navigate around. And here take these, you'll need them in case you get separated. I hope that doesn't happen but you never know."

Marc hands me a set of 2 walkie talkies. "I put batteries in them for you already, you should be good. Whatever you do, make sure your conversations are short. You never know who could be listening."

Another voice comes in "Who could be listening?"

I turn around to see Ellen standing there with confusion in her eyes.

"Bad people, they are able to tap into the signal and they can listen to anything you say. Where you're headed, your names, the list goes on." Marc replied.

"Oh..." Is all she says.

I grabbed my backpack and put it on, Ellen does the same. We begging walking towards the front door.

"Marc are you sure you don't want to come? You're helping us so much but you decide to stay here?" I say, still upset.

"Jodie... I promised your dad I would do this, if something like what's going on now was to happen. Your dad was a smart man, it was like he could predict the future in a sense. I didn't believe him when he had me promise that day. But now that it's actually happening, he is right. I am supposed to help get you out of the city and stay here to help the other innocent victims leave as well"

I looked down at my boots avoiding eye contact. "So this is goodbye?" I say. It feels like someone is gripping my heart and squeezing it.

"Unfortunately it is. But Jodie listen to me..." I look up. "Your dad signed you up for those fighting classes for a reason. He knew this was going to happen, he wanted you to be prepared to protect yourself and Ellen. I've seen you fight, you're strong and brave. You can do this."

Marc pulls me into a hug and whispers, "If something does happen, to Ellen, don't blame yourself for your hardest to protect her. She appreciates what you're doing right now." He pulls back and gives Ellen a bone crushing hug.

"Ellen, make sure you stay close to your sister alright? Don't ever leave her sight." Marc tells her.

"Both of you, stay hidden and don't try to take shortcuts. Follow the map I have given you. It is the safest route out of Los Angeles. Be safe and take care." He says.

He pulls an object from his back pocket. "Take this, just in case." I look down and it's a small handgun. I look back up at him, "Jodie only use this when you have no other choice."

I hesitantly and put it in the gun pocket that was naturally built into the leather jacket. Making sure that the safety was on before doing so.

"Bye Marc. Thank you for everything." I say. Ellen hugs him one more time before following me.

Ellen and I open the door and walk out cautiously. Nobody is to be seen so we make our way to the stairwell nobody every uses in the back of the apartment complex. We head down the stairs quietly and look out the window of the stairwell.

I couldn't believe my eyes. The entire neighborhood behind the complex was lit up in flames. People were running around, some were getting attacked by others.

They were fighting over something in their hands but I couldn't see it since it was still so dark out and they were pretty far away.

We make it out the door of the first floor that leads to the back of the complex where the forest starts. Me and Ellen dash across the lawn to the fence.

"Ellen here, let me boost you up." I say. I lock my fingers together and she puts her foot in my hand and I lift her up enough so she can climb over the fence.

When she is over, I walk back about 15 feet and get a running start, jumping and grabbing the top of the fence and hauling myself over it.

Once we are over the fence, I pull out the compass and look at the map with my flash light since it's still dark out.

We are supposed to head northeast through the forest and it should take us to a river, that's where we will meet the group that Marc told us about.

We begin to make our way as quietly as possible through the forest in case someone was lurking nearby.

"Jodie, what is going on?" Ellen asks.

"I don't know, but Marc was right about dad. Dad knew something like this was going to happen to the country. It's like the people are purging for something. When we were in the stairwell, I looked out the window and saw people attacking one another for stuff that they were holding. I couldn't make it out though since it was so far away." I say.

"Why would people randomly start attacking one another for no reason? The power hasn't been out for not even 12 hours. What's got the people so scared?" She asks curiously.

I ponder there for a moment as we continue walking. Ellen is right, why are people so scared? We've had power outages before and everyone was fine.

But this is something totally different. I have a feeling that the power, may not come back on again. This is the start of something that not even a war could settle.