02 Power Out

Jack wakes the next morning to find the power is still out

02

Power Out

 

 

It was hot, as usual. The sun shone through the blinds of apartment 217, Jack was glad it was morning now; burnt out candles were scattered among the place, he had fallen asleep around 2 or 3 o’clock, his solid brown dog, Rusty, curled tight to his side. He looked around his apartment for any sign of electricity, but there were no lights, the oven did not read the time, the low hum from the air conditioning unit was completely silent. In fact, the only noise Jack could hear now was the sound of birds outside, singing from their trees, delighted that their homes were still intact.

Jack threw on yesterday’s clothes and went to leave his apartment, besides reading books or studying, there was little to do at home with no electricity.

Storms were not uncommon where Jack lived, heavy snowfall for half the year, and unbearable heat for the other half. The radical seasons called for radical weather patterns, it was truly unpredictable. It could be hailing in the morning, and 40 degrees Celsius by the afternoon. There was nothing exceptional about last night’s storm, or the fact that the power was out; it happened all the time. It was however notably larger and moved faster than usual, and the people in the village would be talking about it today for sure, but not by the evening, and certainly not by the next day.

Jack opened the front door, which lead to the corridor. When storms took out the power, his building had emergency power that would close all the fire doors and provide lighting to the corridors as there were no windows. This time however, something had gone wrong, and there was no emergency lighting to the corridor. He stood in his doorway looking forward, the window behind him in his own apartment had illuminated the wall in front of him, but as he looked left, and right, there was nothing. He stared into the pitch-blackness for 10, 20, 30(?) seconds. He didn’t know why the darkness made him so sick, it just did.

Jack pulled himself out of the doorway and back into his apartment. It was only about 50ft to the exit of the building, and he would be back in daylight. All he had to do was step out, turn left, spread his arms to feel the walls, and walk forward toward the exit. He considered using a lighter to torch his way, but he knew it would only make things worse; being able to see just a couple of feet in front, and trying to walk with a lighter, shielding the flame with your other hand, hoping that you wont burn your thumb from pushing the gas too long..

His apartment door was heavy, self-closing and self-locking, he would have about 4 or 5 seconds of light from his apartment after he let go of the door and started walking. And so he did.

Jack stepped into the abyss, turned left and let go of the door. He took a few steps and as the door cut off the light to the corridor, Jack became completely blind. It startled him, he was surrounded by nothingness, unaware of where the closest object might be; a wall, a door, (something else)?

He took a sharp sigh and frowned in the darkness. He tried not to imagine what might be swimming around in the black, waiting for him to walk into its trap. He nervously spread his arms and (thought briefly about crucifixion) he felt both walls with his fingertips, and started walking in a straight line. He closed his eyes and imagined that he was walking down a brightly lit corridor, but it didn’t make a difference, he could feel (there is someone else in here) the darkness. It’s the same place in the darkness that it is in the light, he told himself (I’m trapped in here with something else). One foot in front of the other, the rubber soles of his shoes grinding against the carpet floor, every little detail of wall passing over his fingertips, and he felt that at any moment (someone was about to touch him) he might bump into something. Then after what seemed like an eternity of feet shuffling, his right foot kicked the exit door. He calmly twisted the handle and pushed the door open, though despite his efforts to stay cool, the door slammed against the guardrails outside. He turned and looked down the empty corridor, the first 5 feet glowing from the morning sun and beyond that, it wasn’t worth thinking about again. He closed the door behind him and walked down the steps to his blue 4 door.

Author's Note

subject to change, work in progress