Chapter 10 #2
Airports have been shut down indefinitely as engineers rush to figure out why the engines won’t start, the reporter on the radio says.
“Planes again? Weren’t they crashing like crazy when Hermes was weakening?” Kira asks.
“At least this time they won’t even start so there’s no crashing into each other,” I say.
“This is what the Kourai warned us about. All of the inventions Hephaestus inspired in humans are going to fail,” Draven says. “How many pieces of human technology did he inspire, though? Is it going to be like a damn electromagnetic pulse hit the entire world?”
“Not if we hurry up and get the hammer. Once Hermes was back to full strength, he was able to fix the traveling problems. We just have to hope for the same with Hephaestus.” I shrug.
We’re getting reports now of an abnormally large number of cars dying while on the road in every major city, a woman says on the radio.
A man responds to her comments. The world is unpredictable recently. Just last week you couldn’t even drive down the road without people disappearing and now they are all having engine failure simultaneously? This really doesn’t make any sense.
Some people are calling it the end of days. I mean, where did the moon go? And the recent spike in seismic activity is completely lost on the scientific community. They have no idea what’s causing long dormant volcanoes to suddenly be showing signs of life again.
“Fuck,” I shout. “It’s happening faster than we could have thought. This can only mean that we were right before and Hephaestus hasn’t had his hammer for some time.”
“At least since Typhon was sent to the underworld.” Raven shakes her head. “How could she have had his hammer this long? We spoke to him while helping Ares.”
“I don’t know, but everything breaking at once is a red flag.”
“I think we’ll be okay,” Kira says. “I did a magical diagnostic on the SUV before we left so I could make sure it was protected from anything. It may just hold on until we get to the forge.”
“I hope you’re right because look.” I point out the windshield at several sets of flashing hazard lights pulled off to the sides of the road.
“Should we stop?” Draven asks, slowing the vehicle.
“We can’t. Humans all have cell phones, and that kind of tech is dangerous. Monsters will swarm us all before we can get a chance to help. It could cause a major supernatural incident. We can’t be the reason humans find out that supernaturals exist.”
“It feels wrong somehow to eat while we drive past stranded humans,” Raven mumbles. “But I used too much magic, and we all need to eat.”
“Me too. My stomach feels like it wants to eat itself.” I pick up another piece of meat and pop it into my mouth.
We eat in silence as we drive through Utah and then east into the Colorado mountains. More cars are pulled over to the side the farther we go and once we get to Grand Junction, chaos reigns.
Sirens blare in the distance heading toward us as we come up on a vehicle crash with a semitruck. People’s panicked screams fill the silence as we turn onto a side street with barely enough room to get the SUV through because of all the cars stranded on the sides of the road.
“We need to get to the pack house as quickly as possible. You know what happens when crazy phenomena like this happen. People start looting and trying to steal whatever vehicles are still working.”
“Um, what’s wrong with the lights?” Draven asks as he swerves around an abandoned car.
I glance at the buildings around us but none of them seem to have electricity and the stoplights are dark, not even flashing red. Draven blows through one and a car horn blares at us as it swerves to miss hitting us.
“Yeah, power appears to be out right here, but that could be because of the diesel accident we passed. Keep going but try not to run any more stoplights.” I pat Draven on the shoulder.
“I can’t see anything with all the flashing from the cars’ hazard lights.” Draven shakes his head.
“We’re almost there,” Raven says. “Just slow down a little. It might help.”
“What would help is if this all wasn’t happening on the worst possible streets for a car to break down on the side of the road.” Draven hisses.
“I get it. This sucks but we’re almost there and it looks like there are lights up ahead, so hopefully the power isn’t completely out. Just from the accident. They may have hit a transformer or something that took out a couple blocks.”
“We can’t be sure the electricity won’t be next, Beth.” Kira leans forward in her seat. “Hephaestus loves humans and has inspired many inventions over thousands of years. It’s very possible this could send everything into the dark ages if not corrected.”
“That’s not comforting in the slightest.” The window is cool against my temple as I lean into it.
We pull up to the gates outside the pack lands a few moments later and roll down the window.
“Beth, from Halfling Academy here to see your alpha,” I say to the shifter guarding the gate.
“How do you have a working vehicle? It seems like everything within a ten-mile radius is no more than a hunk of metal now.” The shifter stares, wide-eyed.
“We’re from Halfling Academy. We don’t do electronics. I’m pretty sure your alpha knows this. Can you let us in? We’ve been on the road for a long damn time.” My nails dig into my palm.
“Sorry, I was shocked. Yes, Beth from Halfling Academy has an open welcome in our pack.” The shifter waves for the others to open the gate.
“One more question,” Raven says.
“Of course, how can I help?”
“How long have the vehicles in this town been dying?” she asks.
“Over the last day, every vehicle in our pack has broken down. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them that we can tell, but they are all dead.” He taps his thigh nervously. “We don’t know what’s happening, but I have a feeling that you do. You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”
“Your feeling is absolutely correct,” I say. “It may be even worse than we expected.”