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background noise. It was too quiet; terrifyingly quiet.
    His mind was racing. He was thinking about all the things he needed to do to bug out. All the things to pack. How to tell—not ask, tell—Lisa they were going, and right now. Grant started to think about all the things that needed electricity. Everything. Life in America ends without electricity. No food storage, no gas pumps to fill up the semi-trucks, no medical equipment keeping people alive, no communications. Grant had planned for the things he could reasonably prep for; economic and political collapse. Those things could be handled with a cabin, stored food, guns, and a network of friends. But, no electricity? That was the one thing he could not prep for and expect a good outcome. Oh crap. He had prepped for everything except this.
    Don’t worry.
    Then the power came on. Grant and the kids cheered out loud. Thank God.
    The TV came back on, and in a minute or two was airing reports of temporary power outages on the West Coast and the Northeast.
    That was weird. Grant thought a person who wanted to cripple or blackmail the United States would screw with their electrical grid. Was it just a coincidence? Shut up, Grant told himself. There were no more “coincidences” lately. Not on a day like today. Someone had either tried to take down the power grid and failed, or, worse yet, had the capability to turn it on and off at will. Oh God.
    Don’t overreact, Grant told himself.
    Right about then, he heard the garage door open. It was Lisa. She came in and said, “The traffic lights weren’t working. What a mess. But I’m home. How are you guys?”
    “Mommy, the lights went out,” said Cole. “We were scared but they came back on.”
    “No need to be scared, Cole,” she said. “Everything is OK now.”
    Grant wanted to just be with his family at this time. He wanted to forget about the electricity, the Red Brigades, WAB vandalism, and crime patrols. He just wanted to be with his family.
    However, at the same time, Grant had a burning desire to get the family out to the cabin right then. He fought that urge, although he knew that every second they waited, the harder it would be to get through the traffic. But, he had to ease Lisa into this. He couldn’t be seen as overreacting even in the tiniest way.
    “Let me cook you dinner,” Grant said to Lisa. They had a great dinner together. It had been a while since they did. They were always so busy. They all really loved just having a nice meal together. Things were surprisingly good in that moment.
    Grant was getting ready to bring up the subject of going to the cabin. He winked at Manda to signal that it was time for her to play along with what Grant was about to say.
    Then his cell phone rang. It was Pow. This wasn’t good.
    “Yeah, man, what’s up?” He asked Pow.
    “Come down to Capitol City right now,” Pow said. “Bring some heat. Discreet.”
    “Roger that,” Grant said. Pow hung up. Grant assumed whatever he was going to do wouldn’t take too long and then he could bring up bugging out to Lisa.
    “Who was that?” Lisa asked.
    “Ron,” Grant said. “He needs me to go over to Len’s. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
    “OK,” Lisa said, “but try to be back to tuck in Cole. You know how he likes his dad to tuck him in every night.”
    “You bet,” he said. “See you.”
    Grant went into the garage and hoped Lisa wouldn’t follow him for some reason. He opened the trunk. It still had all that food from Cash n’ Carry. His gun stuff was on top of that. He put on his pistol belt, with a light jacket over it. He left the shoulder bag of magazines and his AR in the trunk. Pow said “discreet.”
    Grant opened the garage door—yet another thing using electricity, he thought—and headed over to Ron’s house in case Lisa was watching. After a minute in front of Ron’s, Grant left for Capitol City Guns. He had no idea what he was heading into, but Pow needed him and he was very well