One Second After

By 6 pm, John has finished grilling and is starting to wonder where Grandma Jen has gone and when Elizabeth will be home. Jennifer tells her father that there’s no sound of cars coming from the highway, and he turns to listen: “[The road] was concealed by the trees … but she was right; there was absolute silence” (34). John also notices the absence of any overhead air traffic.

Grandma Jen returns from a short trip to the nursing home to visit her husband. She says the power is off there as well and that cars are stalled all over the interstate. John grows apprehensive when Jen compares the eerie feeling to the 9/11 terrorist attacks: “There was a thought, but it was too disturbing to contemplate right now. He wanted to believe that it was just a weird combination of coincidences” (37).

John plans to drive into town to find Elizabeth, but his car will not start. He suggests they take Jen’s Edsel instead. When John tries to tune the car’s radio, all he gets is static. The family finds Elizabeth and her boyfriend walking toward them from the highway, where their car has stalled. After Elizabeth climbs into the back seat with Jennifer, other people stranded from the interstate gather around. A woman in a business suit asks for a ride, but John declines, fearing a riot: “The interstate, at that instant, had become the wrong neighborhood” (43). Four construction workers threaten to take the car, but a truck driver with a pistol discourages them from starting trouble.

When the Mathersons returns home, John thinks Grandma Jen should stay overnight, and she does not argue. The group enjoys the darkness and quiet, pretending it is a camping trip. John goes to his office to find an old reference work that might apply to the current situation: 

He stood gazing at the bookshelf for a moment, pulled several books from the outer layer aside, found what he wanted, and fished the volume out. He had not opened it in years, not since leaving the war college (48). 

He reads the material, then loads a revolver and keeps watch for the rest of the night.

The next morning, John learns there is no hot water when Elizabeth complains about having to take a cold shower. John makes a pot of coffee on the grill while the girls put together a makeshift breakfast. Since the power is still out, John drives the Edsel into town to find out more about the situation. On the way, he stops at a quick mart to buy cigarettes for himself, advising the owner to hide his remaining supply because the value is about to go up.

As he passes the city center, John notices a crowd gathering outside the fire and police stations. Charlie Fuller, the town’s director of public safety, flags John down to find out why his car is working. Just then, an ex-hippie named Jim Bartlett drives up in his old Volkswagen van. Tom Barker, the chief of police, beckons the men inside the police station for a private conversation. They go to Mayor Kate Lindsey’s office. She looks bleary-eyed from a night of crisis management; several people have died at the hospital and nursing home because of the power outage.

When Kate asks why the Edsel and the Volkswagen are still running, John explains that someone has used an EMP to knock out all the technology in the area. Older vehicles that do not run on computers are immune. When the town leaders wonder who might be responsible, John speculates that it might be North Korea or a smaller terrorist organization. 

He says the government has known about the potential EMP threat for decades but has done nothing to protect the nation’s infrastructure: “‘In constantly making computers and electronics faster and better we made them smaller, more compact, and more and more vulnerable to an EMP strike’” (70). 

The group begins to prioritize ways to deal with the emergency. The town will commandeer any operating vintage vehicles, though John insists on keeping the Edsel. John then makes a quick trip to the college. The administration seems to have matters well in hand, but John tells Washington Parker, the head of campus security, that he can borrow Jen’s Mustang, another functioning vehicle.

As he passes the Holiday Inn on the way back toward town, John spots the attractive woman who needed a ride the night before. Her name is Makala Turner, and she is the supervising nurse for a cardiac surgical unit in Charlotte, North Carolina. When she asks what is going on, John offers her a lift while he explains the problem. Makala already thought the cause might be an EMP blast. 

When John stops at the local drugstore to get insulin supplies, Makala follows him in. The other customers are anxious; one man threatens the pharmacist, and John subdues him after a short brawl, sustaining an injury to his hand. John pleads for additional supplies for Jennifer, and the pharmacist complies. John next drops Makala off at a food stand as he continues home. Elizabeth’s boyfriend, Ben, is there with John’s daughters and Grandma Jen when John gets back, and John confides to Ben that the situation could get much worse.