Dark Grid by David C. Waldron Page A

nose to nose with Joel.  “Unless you want to start in our room…”
    …
    It was almost 8:00 by the time Eric checked in with all of the families and they agreed it was time to go.  All three garage doors opened at roughly the same time and the trucks and SUVs started up as if on cue.  Joel would be first in line with the Suburban, so he pulled out first.
    Out of habit, Joel reached over and turned on the GPS--which would normally take a few seconds to find a satellite--and then turned on the radio.  He tried to cover his gaffe by switching to the CD player, but caught Rachael’s smile out of the corner of his eye.  “Hey, I’m not the one who tried to turn on the alarm.”
    Rachael snorted, “Ok, that’s fair.”  Then she reached over and, also out of habit, pulled up the state park from the list of past destinations on the GPS.  Neither of them expected the semi-robotic, vaguely female voice saying “In point two miles…turn left.”
    Joel came very near to causing a five-car accident right in front of his house when he slammed on the brakes.  Eric and Sheri’s tires screeched.  He and Rachael were still staring wide eyed at the GPS when Eric came running up to the driver’s side window.
    “What’s wrong?” Eric asked, more than a little concerned.
    “I don’t know,” Joel replied, still looking at the GPS.  “I mean, I don’t know if it’s wrong or not.  Just a sec.”  Joel switched from the CD changer to the radio and was met with static.  He tried a number of their FM presets followed by a couple of the AM stations he’d checked the previous morning and was greeted by a different frequency of static--but static just the same.
    “Joel, what happened, why’d you stop?”
    “Eric, the GPS is working.”
    “Huh?”
    “Eric. The. G. P. S. Is. Working.”
    “Ha ha ha.  Ok, hold on a minute.  Karen has a satellite radio in her car; can’t remember which one.  Let me see if that’s up.”  Eric jogged back to Karen’s car and had her turn on her radio.  After a full minute of ‘…Searching…’ on the LCD they gave up.
    Eric’s jog back to Joel’s Suburban wasn’t quite as quick as his first one.  “I was hoping some satellites had made it through.  It’s possible that the GPS satellites we are using were simply on the night side when the CME wave hit but there are a couple of other more likely reasons GPS is up.  Do us all a favor Joel and don’t slam on the brakes like that when we’re on the freeway?”
    “Sorry, it just caught me by surprise.  Won’t happen again.”  Joel looked a bit sheepish.  It had only been a little over a day but the lack of any communication and sense of connection to an outside world was playing havoc with his sense of normal.  As Eric walked back to his car, Joel heard Rachael curse--which she never did--and looked out the windshield.  Carey stood in the road in front of the Suburban.
    Joel laid on the horn and, although Carey flinched, he didn’t move out of the way.
    Joel rolled the window back down and yelled, “Get out of the way, Carey!”
    “You can’t leave Taylor!” Carey shouted back.
    “Says who?” Joel was still in the car but he unbuckled his seatbelt.  “Says me and the board.”
    “The board doesn’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do Carey,” Joel said, as he opened the door and climbed out.  “I can leave at any time.  Get out of the way.  Now.”  Joel was already on the ragged edge and this threatened to put him over.
    “We have to stick together, Taylor. We can’t have people just running off and doing whatever they want.  You all elected me to be in charge, so I’m going to be in charge.”
    “We elected you to be the president of the Home Owners’ Association, Carey; to make sure we didn’t spend more money than we took in with dues, and ensure that the lifeguards got paid every summer, and keep people from letting their grass grow up to their armpits.  We didn’t elect you to