What I am about to describe happened. It solidifies that I may have serious problems. What is even more bizarre is that I am going to divulge them here for your enjoyment. I may need to seek help after this. In my eyes what I am about to describe was a battle to stay alive. I will not have nicknames like The Chosen One. Today, she is simply my wife.
It is 1:00 in the morning. I awake to a sweat like no other. It is deep into the summer and I sleep with the fan on and the A.C. cranked as cold as my wife allow. However this is different, she and the kids are not here. They are spending ten days in New York. I am alone. I hate being alone no matter what time of day. 1:00 am makes it no different. Why am I sweating?
I take the covers off and try to go back to sleep. It's not working. I usually have a hard time falling asleep anyway and now, after being awake for what seems like hours I realize the fan is off. I didn't turn it off. I know I had it on. I always have it on. I pull the string...nothing. I check the clock that basically rules my life, it is blank. I reach for my cell phone, turn it on and it reads 1:27.
We are lucky enough to have an early warning system in two dogs that bark if they hear needles fall. Nala, our yellow lab, begins to go in a frenzy and starts barking. She had to sense my uneasiness about the current situation. I grab my police style Maglight. A Maglight is a baton shaped flashlight that police use. We used to use a much smaller model in the Marines. I have upgraded mine to the bigger, longer and heavier ones that the police forces around the world use. It is like the ones where the cops come to your car door and shine it in your face when they are pulling you over. If the light goes out and the shit really hits the fan you can always use it to hit someone over the head. They are extremely effective.
With flashlight in hand I unlock the case for my trusty side arm, a Sig P229 with two ten round magazines and night sites. Night sites are three dots located on the sights of a gun. For about 30 seconds I shine the flash light on them and now they are bright as can be. I practice shooting all the time and with this weapon I am very confident at 25-50 feet I can bring something down with ease. A .40 caliber handgun has good stopping power, however I want to upgrade to the HK USP .45 models that the some branches of the military use. A .45 caliber handgun has good killing power. Maybe after these events come out my wife will allow this upgrade.
Loaded and chambered, I go downstairs. Light is off. If someone is in the house I will not give away what direction I am coming from. The night sites fully illuminated will assist in aiming at anything or anyone I need to hit. With Nala finally calmed down I make my way downstairs. Nothing. No one is around. I get to the circuit breaker in the garage and use the flashlight to determine if any one of the circuits was blown. All seems to be in working order.
Our garage has no blinds on the two windows that directly face the door to get into the house. Up until this point it made no sense to me to check outside. While I am in the garage I see through the windows that the street lights are off. I get into the house and look out the windows down the other street, same thing, nothing. No power. That explains why I am now getting flashbacks of all the hurricanes and the outages that they brought with them. I remember being in Florida and really seeing what darkness is like when all the lights are out for miles and miles. Man has taken the ability to see all the stars at night with the lights we keep on. It is truly awe inspiring to see a nights sky with all the stars. As inspiring as it may be it can be equally frightening if you are not used to it.
A rational person would have put everything away and rode out the outage in the coolest place in their house. I have never once said I am a rational person. I decide to take Nala outside with me and see if there is anyone or anything roaming the streets. I leave the Chow-Shephard mix of a dog, Bear. She is old but still packs a mean bark. Her job is to guard the house while I am seeing if the end as we know it is upon us.
As I have said earlier, my wife and kids are in another state, away and somewhat sheltered from what I think is the apocalypse. Something in my head is sure that something to facilitate the end of the world is just around the corner. I try to think responsibly. I try to think like an adult and realize it is just a power outage and nothing else. but all the movies I have watched throughout the years tells me that this is "life imitating art." This is something I have seen before in a cinematic masterpiece that has entertained me throughout my life. I am sure something is wrong and since my family is "safe and away from here" I want this to be a fight for survival.
Cargo shorts, t-shirt and sneakers I venture through the neighborhood looking for some resemblance of life, some movement. Nothing. All is quiet, to me, too quiet. I can't understand why no one else is out looking and seeing what the problem is. If there actually was a problem I don't know if any one who would be out looking had a solution. But nonetheless I searched.
My vast search of the neighborhood revealed nothing. Nothing happened except Nala relieved herself and took a big shit on the neighbors lawn. I had no bag so I left it. At this hour I would have left it anyway. I was happy to leave it. This guys grass was greener than the greenest moss in a Seattle forrest, a little fertilizer from one of Mother Nature's beings may do it good, or it not.
I get back to my house. Since the power is out, I realize that the garage will not open unless I unlock it from the top and open it manually. The thought of pulling the garage door open with my hands seems foreign to me. Another realization that technology makes us extremely lazy and takes away our basic instincts as hunters and gatherers. Other preparations are made because I still feel that this is it. This is my armageddon. I pack my jeep with some basic items such as the case of water I purchased from the grocery store earlier in the day. Some power bars, a few "p.b. and j.'s" (on wheat bread of course, just cause this is the end doesn't mean we can start eating unhealthy), some bananas, three apples, a couple of cans of tuna with an opener, my ipod, two lighters and a flask of 18 year old Elijah Craig Kentucky Bourbon make the cut. By no means will this sustain me for an extended period of time but it will do for the time being. I pack all the supplies along with a back pack containing two of my daughters walkie talkies (who I will talk to I have no idea, but I got two), some extra batteries and clothes. I throw it into the front seat of my jeep and go back inside, and I wait.
I look at my phone and realize I am in good shape because if the shit was really going down, the cell phone towers would be out. So I sit by the front window and wait. I wait and wait and wait some more. I look out the window and search for any movement whatsoever. I waited so long that I fell asleep and when I finally woke up by that same window it is now 6:48 am. I must have been there in that position by the window for a good three hours. I'm totally soar from leaning against the wall and I feel like a complete dumb ass for going through all this trouble. The power is now on and all seems to be right in the world. I look in the jeep and see a cooler, a back pack and my own embarrassment of the previous nights actions.
To be honest I was a little disappointed that it did not come down to a battle for survival. I was sure that I would see the undead lurking around the corner. I was certain there would be apes at the park yelling "DEATH TO HUMANS!" and begin to chase me.
I am left with the notion I watch to many movies regarding the end of the world. I don't want it to end. I love life. I want to live forever. The movie industry has done us all a disservice by polluting our minds by glorifying a zombie or robotic apocalypse. But the Hollywood in me wants to shoot zombies. It wants to struggle and ultimately it wants to be in a fight for survival.
My first therapy session with Dr. Tillman is this afternoon at 3:00 pm.
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