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SAMPLE CHAPTER
AUTHOR’S NOTE
For all but a tiny fragment of human history, civilizations around the world prospered and advanced technologically without electricity. People learned how to understand and overcome the many challenges of everyday life through the knowledge and experience gained over thousands of years. Whether using salt to preserve food in ancient Mesopotamia, precision engineering to build the pyramids in Egypt, or aqueducts to transport water over vast distances in Rome, the ancient peoples learned how to overcome and shape their environment. They discovered ways to prevail over the many obstacles that confronted them, and perhaps most importantly, they passed along the knowledge they gained to their descendants, with each subsequent generation building upon the technology handed down to it by their forefathers.
They developed simple yet pragmatic approaches for dealing with the complex challenges of their day. For example, in order for urban centers to flourish, people built cities near lakes, rivers, and streams for easy access to water, a necessity for human life. In order to endure the punishing summer heat and humidity, homes and other structures were often built with extra–high ceilings to allow heat to rise, which in turn, enabled the air closer to the ground where people live to stay cooler.
Civilizations of the past frequently relied on animals such as horses, donkeys, or oxen to travel on land, and built ships for navigating the great oceans. Possessing an effective means of transportation enabled trade, allowed ancient people to travel vast distances, and provided a means for ancient armies to attack distant lands.
In 1879, however, Thomas Edison changed everything when he invented the light bulb and later formed the Edison Power Company, and the world has never been the same since. Today, the human race uses electricity to power almost every aspect of the modern world. Food is grown and harvested on large tracts of land using massive machinery before being processed, shipped, and stored using electricity. Water and sewage are recycled, purified, and provided to homes everywhere using electric pumps and meters, as well as many other electronic devices that measure and regulate chemicals. Very few people in the modern world use horses, oxen, or sailing ships to move people and goods around, relying instead on cars, planes, and other means that again, depend on electricity. Clearly, our entire civilization has been built upon and continues to rely very heavily upon electricity; and has for several generations now. Consequently, the knowledge and means of how to deal with many of these challenges without the benefit of modern technology, has been lost and forgotten over time, as the dependency on modern electric power grids across the globe has increased dramatically.
So imagine, for a moment, what would happen if modern technology all over the planet, in every home, business, government, and military facility, suddenly and completely vanished. What would happen if all electricity, everywhere, were gone in an instant, as if turned off by a switch?
What would you do if you woke up in the morning, and discovered that your world was gone?
PROLOGUE
It is the third decade of the 21st century, and man has achieved by far the most technologically advanced civilization in human history. Countries have launched satellites outside of the solar system, have established the first permanent base on the moon, and have even sent people to Mars.
It is the period of humanity’s greatest technological achievements, a time commonly referred to, as “the Golden Age.” Indeed, man has mastered the modern world through his technology. From almost any perspective, it truly is a Golden Age.
Very few scientists and politicians however, have considered the significant downside of this complete and irreversible dependence that humanity now has on technology, or its inherent weakness.
During the waning years of the Golden Age, the United States Congress commissioned a study of the impact of an electromagnetic pulse attack against the United States’ critical infrastructures and the aftermath of such an attack. Included in the report was an assessment of how deeply electronic components had become embedded in the country’s critical infrastructures ranging from aqueducts to power plants.
Scientists studied the likely aftermath of an EMP attack against the United States, and its impact on society. What they found terrified them…
CHAPTER 1
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven”
A magnificent, brightly colored flash of light exploded silently and without warning in the night, quite unlike anything he had ever seen before. The explosion of light gave birth to something new in the heavens. The strange and new phenomenon consisted of many colors including green, yellow, purple, and blue. It moved through the night sky, traveling in a wave. As he gazed upon the strange dance of lights in the heavens, the spectacle reminded him of something he had seen somewhere before. As he continued watching the inspiring evening performance, it finally came to him, the aurora borealis. He had come across a science program on television as he had been flipping channels one evening a year or so earlier. The narrator explained that the spectacular display is created when a coronal mass, or solar flare, from the sun collides with the earth’s magnetic field. He had no idea what the light show was that now danced across the heavens, but one thing he knew for certain, it was definitely not the aurora borealis; this was something else, something new, something different. While pondering the brilliant display of lights in the night sky, he felt his heart stop in his chest and the blood freeze in his veins as he looked down from the sky for a moment to find only blackness. The streetlights, the neon signs, the lights in buildings and homes all over the city had suddenly and inexplicably, vanished. As he pondered what he had seen, he heard a deep voice like the voice on the waters say to him, “Behold and remember all that you have seen.”
Then, there was a brilliant flash of white light, and he found himself walking the streets of a great city. Everywhere he turned, he witnessed horrific scenes. People of all ages roamed the crowded streets, begging for food and water. Fights, even murders were commonplace as competition over food, water, and supplies, grew increasingly fierce. Again, he heard the voice say, “Behold and remember.”
As he wandered around the city, he found doctors working feverishly to save as many people as they could, while trying to determine who among the sick and the walking wounded were most likely to survive. James White began to sob as he witnessed the death, starvation, and disease. Again, he heard the voice say, “Behold and remember.”
Everywhere he looked; all signs of technology had disappeared. There were no artificial lights shining in the night. Instead, he saw only candles, oil lamps, and torches, providing light in the darkness. Again, he heard the voice say, “Behold and remember.”
There was another intense flash of light, and he found himself standing at the edge of the city, where he watched as people fled the metropolitan area in massive numbers, heading for the countryside in search of food and water.
A few minutes later the scene transitioned once more, and he found himself in a jungle, surrounded by ancient ruins. He soon realized however that he was not in a jungle
at all, but still at the edge of the same great city, only at some point in the distant future. Nature had taken back much of the city, with trees breaking through concrete and grass growing through the sidewalks. The landscape had changed significantly and there were no people anywhere in sight. Then without warning, it was night once more as darkness flooded the landscape, and he found himself looking up at the night sky. His eyes fixated on the strange ribbon of light, which now looked very different. It was dimmer, weaker, and nearly impossible to see anymore. He continued watching as it started to flicker and fade, before disappearing altogether. Once more he heard the voice say, “Behold and remember.”
When he finally awoke, he opened his eyes to find himself once more in his bed at home, drenched in sweat. He sat up and saw that much to his great relief; he still had lights and electricity in the house. He climbed out of his bed, walked into the kitchen, and poured himself a cup of coffee. The coffeemaker was set to start brewing automatically, and he could tell based on the fresh aroma of the coffee grounds that still hung in the air, that it must be close to seven o’clock. As he sat down at the table and sipped on the hot coffee, he found himself deeply disturbed as he reflected on the dreadful events in the dream. He would have dismissed it as nothing more than the consequence of his over–indulgence in some pizza the night before, were it not for that voice. He knew, somehow, he knew, that the voice in the dream belonged to God. The dream had not been a dream at all but instead a vision, he was sure of it, but what had been the message? There was the strange display of lights in the sky, followed by lights going out across the city. Then there was the chaos, the suffering. As he finished his first cup of coffee for the day, James White decided that the dream had generated more questions than answers. All he could do was be patient, until God gave him another piece to the puzzle.