Everyone erupted, talking at once, Aiden heard Carol and Vana scream at the same time, their eyes rolling wildly. He held up a hand until everyone had quieted down, their faces filled with fear and shock.
“The detonation would be in the upper atmosphere, or it could be a solar event, like a coronal ejection. That could kill all the electronics. Either way, that would cause the EMP. There won’t be any planes, or buses, or phones or communications. I have no idea how widespread it is. It is pretty loss of all technology. All electronics, banking, fuels, transporting food and so on. Also, no way to find our way home. We won’t have the ability to leave this country.”
“For how long?” Someone asked, though he didn’t know who’d asked the question.
“I don’t know, maybe forever. If that cable doesn’t work, we aren’t getting out of here any time soon. I don’t know if it affected the solar panel or the generator, or if it fried the components. But if it did, then there is no way to get out of here.” He said and it was deathly silent, his eyes looking around.
“That is pure bullshit, you are full of shit, Sanchez!” Connor yelled, fury and fear in his voice, his body rigid, his face pale.
“I hate to say it, but if everything went down at the same time, he’s right, Connor.” Leo McCabe said without emotion, his voice wooden. Aiden nodded at him, his own face now devoid of emotion as well, he wouldn’t let them know what he was thinking.
“What do you think Hudson, is it possible? I mean, we didn’t hear or see any explosion.” Marla asked her cameraman.
“You don’t have to see the explosion, if it detonates in the atmosphere, it will affect the whole region or even a large section of the world. If someone detonated a nuclear bomb with a high yield over China, say North Korea, then where ever it exploded would affect pretty much this whole hemisphere. I can’t see them doing it, but it also might be some kind of coronal event, like a huge sun eruption.” Aiden said simply, answering for the cameraman who nodded his agreement.
“Well, we’ll go on as we are and in four days, we’ll go to the gorge and see if the cage is sent over.” Marla said, her mouth a very thin line, her dark skin ashen, and Aiden could see that her hands were shaking, she was holding her reading glasses. He knew she was trying to keep everyone calm, keep the whole thing from blowing up and he hated it for her, but there wasn’t much that could be done, whether they knew now or in four days, they were well and truly screwed. Each of the people there would have to deal with the situation in their own way.
He’d rather deal with the knowledge now and be proactive than live in some kind of false hope and fantasy world. His dark eyes scanned the faces and he saw that it was about to blow up.
“What happens to us? What will we do if they can’t get us out of here? How will we get home?” Carol asked in a small voice.
“Then we live here, for the rest of our lives. And even if we get out of this place, we’ll most likely never get home.” Aiden said, not unkindly to her, and he saw her bottom lip quiver. He hated giving them this news, but this was their truth now. He watched as everyone looked at each other. With the millions and millions of people who lived in China, they were lucky they were here. If they’d been in Beijing when this thing hit, Aiden was fairly certain that they may have been put in some kind of prison for being spies.
He didn’t think the U.S. sent a nuclear weapon into the atmosphere, but that wouldn’t stop the Chinese government from suspecting them. Not to mention trying to find food in the city with millions, they’d all have starved to death. Here, remote and alone, they stood a better chance, though he was pretty sure these people weren’t going to see it that way.
He watched as Matt got up and walked over to the supplies and pulled out a hand full of MREs. Marla ran over and tried to take them from him. Matt shoved her hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground. Hudson and Tom jumped and grabbed Matt.
“What the hell Matt, what are you doing?” Christian yelled, his face bright red with shock, as he helped Marla up.
“Fuck you, if we are stuck here, then I’m getting what I can. This is the last food there is. You assholes will have to share with us now.” Matt said angrily and stormed off, clutching his prize.
Aiden blew a high-pitched whistle, and everyone cringed, covering their ears. Aiden, whose face was dark with rage, his body vibrated with violence, looked around him.
“Knock it off Matt, if this is it, then that food will only last a couple days and then you’re shit out of luck after that. What is wrong with you? We need to come up with a strategy to actually survive here. This isn’t a game or contest anymore. We have the combined knowledge to make it work, to survive this, but we will have to work together, not splinter apart. Not steal from each other.”
“Who put you in charge Aiden?” sneered Connor, his face dark red and contorted.
Aiden looked at him, then looked around at everyone else and clamped his mouth shut in a thin line. He then turned to Sarah and nodded at her and he turned and left the group, Sarah following him. She went ahead of him and Aiden looked back over his shoulders, his dark brown eyes narrowing at the people, they were
