Travis stared at his TV screen, a mixture of irritation and dejection on his face. He wasn’t a gamer by any stretch, but he had been doing pretty well this round on his favorite war game. He thought about the old surge protector everything was plugged into; it had shorted out before.
He didn’t immediately notice the lights were out, since the lights were currently off. He preferred natural light, and so had his blinds open. He glanced at his digital clock, a battery operated model that showed the time to be 12:28 p.m.
Putting the controller on his desk, he realized that his ceiling fan had stopped working. Reaching his hand down into his pocket he pulled out his phone and tried to text a friend, only to get a no signal message. He opened his door and walked out into the house. His mom left the blinds open in the house during the day to cut the cost of electricity. None of the fans were on, and his mom sounded pretty irate in her office.
“Mom, I’m gonna ride over to Brian’s house. I’ll be back shortly,” Travis called out, walking out into the garage. He pulled his bike down off the rack; it was a mountain bike that he had rebuilt himself when he was twelve. He chuckled at the bike, remembering nearly a decade of fun and injury that he and the bike had sustained.
Brian’s parents lived three blocks over, and it was a nice day out. Travis made quick work of the ride, and pulled up onto the driveway, laying the bike over in the grass. He walked up to the front door and knocked.
Brian’s mother answered, “Oh, Travis, hello.” She stammered.
Travis tried not to notice that her hair was askew, and that her shirt was inside out as he asked for Brian.
“He’s not here. He went to Debbie’s. You want me to tell him something?” she asked
“Umm, just, uh, ask if he wants to go to the arcade at six. Tell him to bring eighteen bucks. Umm, bye. Thanks,” he stammered, trying to end the interaction as quickly as possible. He jumped on his bike and took off back towards his house.
**********************************************
Brody Chapman watched as his crew stripped the asphalt from the road bed. He shook his head in bemusement. His number two man looked up from the blueprints and shot his boss a questioning look.
Still shaking his head Brody said, “I’ve worked for the city for nearly twenty five years, you know how many times I’ve worked on this road?”
A smile cracking his face, number two shook his head no.
“Twelve. I’ve repaved, repacked, and rebuilt it twelve stinking times, and it’s still the worst road in town.”
“One day they’ll figure out that you’re messing it up as a form of job security. Maybe they oughta let a strapping, intelligent young man to take over,” Joey, the number two, joked.
“Yeah, too bad huh? Those requirements would keep you out of the running,” Brody shot back.
As the two laughed, there was a sudden loud crash. Two cars had hit each other at the intersection to their backs. Two other cars plowed into the mess as the men turned to see what was happening.
“Call for an ambulance!” Brody yelled, heading for the work truck and its large first aid kit.
“Boss, my phone won’t call, says I don’t have any signal,” Joey called back.
Pulling his own phone out, Brody noticed that his also had no signal. Pulling the kit out of the truck, he told Joey to go get the crew and see if anyone’s phone was working. He reached the accident in time to see that everyone was getting out of their cars, mostly unscathed. He treated a couple of scratches, and a cut, but there were no serious injuries. Joey came up, and whispered that none of the crew’s phones had signal. Looking at the people gathered Brody realized that several were waving phones in the air, or wandering around in circles looking for signal.
Stepping back toward the truck, Brody looked at Joey solemnly, “I don’t like this. Did you know that the stop lights are out? Same with the bank sign over there. Tell the guys to shut it down; we’re going to see what’s happening.”
Joey strode off, walking down the line of heavy machinery, signaling the workers to stop for the time being. Five minutes later, they were in trucks heading back to either the yard, or in the case of Brody and Joey, headed to the office for answers.
The Flip Side (How They Became Marauders)
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