Free Grid Attack (Cyber War #1) by Emerson Hawk Page A

the radio.” I said.
     
    “Sweet!” he said, “I will go over and get the power cable. Wait…Tony, why don’t you come help me. We can get the battery I have in the car. I’m not planning on taking it with me. We can use it until we can find a way to charge it back up.” Carl said.
     
    I was ecstatic that he volunteered his battery for this.
     
    Kat told us both to be careful and to be watchful. It was dark out and quiet, so if there were people out trying to do harm, they would be able to hear and see us because we had the flashlight.
     
    Fortunately, his car was in his garage. We went outside and left off the flashlight, the sliver of a moon allowing us just enough to see the pavement.
     
    He closed the garage side door behind us before turning on the flashlight to see. It took us only a few minutes to pull the battery and grab the power cord to the radio, then make our way back to the house.
     
    Kat had been sitting with the roller shade just opened up enough that she could see us as we walked up the stairs to the front door. Our eyes had become somewhat used to the darkness, and we were glad that she opened the door to let us in, closing it and locking it quickly behind us.
     
    We set the battery down on some cardboard and hooked up the inverter, then plugged in the HAM radio. The red light immediately came on showing it was charging.
     
    Carl and I bumped fists as we giggled like schoolyard buddies at the fact that we all came together to make something work.
     
    Now, we just had to wait until it charged up enough to pull a signal.
     
    I could tell Kat was anxious as she stared at the radio. My hope would be that we could learn what actually happened to the power, the grid and whatever else. The regular radio broadcasts had mostly stopped except one that just kept repeating itself but not really telling us what was going on.
     
    We had no idea how long it would take to charge. I decided to try to get everyone’s mind off of it.
     
    Going out to the porch, I grabbed several pieces of wood to start a fire. It was going to be a pretty cold night and since the radiators were now cold, this old house would be hard to get warm enough to sleep.
     
    “Do we really want to burn that wood right now? I mean, it’s cold, but I don’t know if it will be freezing or not.” Kat asked longingly. I knew she was cold and wanted the heat, but she also wanted to save it as long as possible.
     
    Carl chimed in. “Actually, I heard it was going to be below freezing tonight. Right before the battery died, I heard there was some kind of freak winter storm coming right for us and it was going to bring cold and wind. And possibly some ice or snow.”
     
    I looked over at Kat. She rubbed her temples and her eyes. She used to do that when she would have a headache. I am sure she was having one now.
     
    “Let’s get in as much wood as possible.” She said, and went to get up.
     
    Carl jumped up. “I’ll get it, Kat, if you’ll just watch the light on the radio. Let us know if it turns green.” He said.
     
    I was glad Carl offered to help. He usually avoided work at all costs. Perhaps the apocalypse had changed him for the better. One could only hope.
     
    Kat stayed bundled up on the sectional as Carl and I brought in as much wood as we could stack up and still get around. There was still quite a bit left on the porch. I hoped it would last us a while.
     
    We lit up the fire and it didn’t take long to warm the living room.
     
    The fire lulled all of us into a quiet place as Kat and I snuggled next to each other, watching the flicker of the flames…both of us lost in our own worlds.
     
    “We got green!” Carl said, startling us out of our sleepiness.
     
    He turned on the radio and began to scan the channels. There were people from all over the world talking. Most of what was being said we couldn’t understand, but it was nice to actually just hear voices over the airwaves.
     
    “I found a channel the