Dave didn't know he was lonely until his friends pointed it out. But when he gives in and tries an online dating site, something catastrophic happens - talk about a bad omen.
The Day Dave Broke the Internet
by Tara Tyler
RECAP 6:
"How many members are there?"
"Not this many, but everyone and their brother hops onto the bandwagon when something finally happens. Like you."
"Gee, thanks," Dave said as they hiked up the long drive to the house.
"Hey, no offense. I'm happy you're here. I need you. Ya think I want to start over with these weirdos?"
They laughed and stopped at the door. Nathan made a goofy face at the peephole, then flipped it off. A buzz sounded.
Dave smiled. "Nice secret code."
"After you."
7
Inside, candles lit the foyer which had stairs leading up into darkness. To the left, an elderly woman was asleep in a recliner. Nathan put a finger to his lips and waved for Dave to follow him. He led them past her toward the back of the house. Before entering the kitchen, Nathan opened a door, and they went downstairs. Voices got louder as they descended.
The gathering was like a giant basement party out of a teenage movie. But as he took a closer look, it was more like a Mad Max party. The people standing around talking wore leather jackets, Kevlar vests, and fatigues. Some had gas masks around their necks and a few even carried weapons strapped to their backs--big guns and machetes. Real weapons!
"What kind of club is this?" Dave asked.
"The end of the world scares people. The weapons aren't allowed at regular meetings."
"Oh, but they're okay now?"
"You may not mind hanging out with a weapon-toting nerd once the looting starts."
"Looting?"
"You really should come once in a while. There's a process to the-world-as-you-know-it falling apart."
"I thought we were going to try to fix the problem, not plan for the end."
"We can try, but the window for fixing a problem of this magnitude is closing."
"What magnitude?"
"Presley says it's across the whole US. He thinks someone set off an organized EMP drop. Must've taken years to plan. But if they did it right, we're SOL."
"With all the nerd brain power in this room, we could be working on a solution, don't you think?"
"We've actually presented a few procedures and plans to prevent or prepare for something like this. But you know the government. They react to things instead of planning ahead. They don't listen unless there's an immediate, proven threat. If this is what we think it is, all the nerds in the world couldn't put Humpty back together again." He held up his hand and pointed. "Hold on. Presley's about to talk. He'll get us organized."
A muscular, dark-skinned man with a beard and glasses, wearing a protective, pocketed vest stood up on a metal footlocker. He gave the group a short blast from an air horn and they quieted down.
"Well people, we appear to be in Phase One. We believe EMPs were strategically detonated at critical locations in North America. Possibly world wide."
The crowd murmured and whispered. Dave found this extreme, worst case scenario announcement a little far-fetched. He wanted to get out of there and work on a solution to getting things back up and running, not wait until people freaked out and declared martial law.
While the head nerd/apocalyptic leader rambled on about the situation as he and his counterparts across the US saw things, Dave looked around to gauge the expressions of the other members, judging how much they believed what was being fed to them.
Then he saw her. The face that launched the end of the world. The last vision from the internet that drew him to activate his profile to set himself up for rejection by hundreds. Maybe his entry was the last straw that broke the internet.
Sharon Baker. Could it be?
Her hair was up in a ponytail. She had on black jeans, a black and gray camouflage t-shirt, and a black kerchief tied around her head. The image he had of her changed drastically, but he was still drawn to her, and now she intrigued him.
What was she doing there? Was she a regular member? Well, he was there, and he was normal-ish. Maybe she was too.
Seeing her live, Dave got a better impression of her personality--her beautiful smile, her easy ability to interact with others, her strong stature. While he observed her, he liked everything he saw. She wasn't intently focused on the dramatic leader and laughed when one of her friends whispered in her ear. She seemed sane and confident. Her costumed presence at the meeting was the only thing that concerned him. He wondered how vested Sharon was in the group and their illogical delusions of the end of rational society. For all Dave knew, the crazy leaders planned the whole blackout as some kind of extreme drill. For the moment, Dave's primary objective was to talk to this intriguing woman and find out more about her.
He hoped he had the courage to take the first step and talk to her. Then, he could determine if they were even compatible. If she was logical and with no obnoxious habits, maybe he could convince her to work with him on a plan to get everyone back up and connected again. That was a lot of wishful thinking. And though Dave didn't put much faith in fanciful wishes, he was starting to believe in fate with this crazy coincidence. He definitely had to meet her. He just hoped he made a good first impression on her.
Nathan tapped Dave's shoulder and whispered to him out of the corner of his mouth.
"What are you staring at?" Once he followed Dave's gaze, he grinned. "Oh ho. Nice."
"Well, he was there, and he was normal-ish." Hahahaha!
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