But something else called her, drove her to push the wheels harder,
faster. A thing was about to happen. She didn’t know what it was. She
only knew she had to be there when it did. There was a need, some
urgency, some heat in the heart of a darkness that she knew all too
well. These people would need her, more than her own kind.

She turned down a narrow winding street, followed her instincts,
negotiating the tight drift and curve of the roadway, the wheels of her
chair grinding as she pistoned herself forward. It was only as she
levered herself over a small crest, and allowed herself to coast down
the other side, building speed, whirring past a small cul de sac, that
she realized she might have made a mistake. A serious mistake. Only one
brief moment where instinct and wariness had failed. And it
was too late to stop it now.

*****

As they came up on the first intersection along the twisted road, they
saw a tangle of cars and angry men, fists knotted, voices strained as
they screamed and accused one another. Helena nodded them off the road,
down into the drainage swale.

“*****!” Alice muttered as she stumbled and fell in the muck. Dana helped her to her feet.

Nine women crouched, covered the lenses of their flashlights with their
hands which reduced the available light to a reddish glow, and followed
the ditch past the accident, past the rage thickening in the air. They
followed two more curves before clambering back up the side of the
swale and resuming their trek on the graveled berm. They moved mostly
in silence until they came to Sunset Boulevard, eerily dark and empty
except for the occasional SUV that raced past them. They stood at the
crosswalk, mouths open, the full effect of the blackout hitting home
now.

The darkness was palpable, almost a living thing.  None but Tina had ever lived outside a city where it was never truly
dark, not like this.  No street lights or traffic lights, stores
black and cavernous without the usual security lighting.  What few
houses were visible beyond the Boulevard were equally dark, except for
the occasional flicker of flashlights and candles.  Down to the
last woman, they stood stiff and still, paralyzed by the magnitude of
this blackout, unable to comprehend something so expansive in its reach.

Shane moved to the front and stepped out into the roadway, looked
right, then left, shoulders stiff. She waved the group across with the
tire iron. “Hurry,” she urged in a hoarse voice, rousing them from their state of paralysis.

And they hurried, half walking, half running across the road, not
stopping until they’d crossed the broad boulevard and leaned gasping
for air against the useless traffic light pole. Jenny buried her face
in Marina’s shirt, thin shoulders shuddering as she let the tension and
tears release. “How far?” she asked in a small voice.

“A little over a mile,” Helena smiled wanly. Her skin glimmered in
moonlight; face drawn, her crystal clear eyes bore a haunted look that
didn’t inspire much confidence in the small cluster of friends.

The wind was carrying only the faintest hint of the panic and violence
that was spreading, not just downtown where, no doubt, the looters were
helping themselves to whatever they could carry, but out here, in the
affluent neighborhoods. The sound of gunfire was all too frequent,
making almost everyone but Bette flinch at the sound; she seemed
completely absorbed in her own thoughts and the scowl on her face
revealed just how much darkness and anger she was storing up.

“Where do we go from here?” Alice spoke up. As the nominal “leader of
the platoon,” she was taking her responsibility seriously but she was
becoming increasingly uncomfortable with ‘taking point’, which exposed
her and Dana to more danger than those who followed behind.

Helena ticked her head north. “That way. Maple Street. It’s the quickest way.”

Alice rolled her shoulders, shouldered her canvas bag of ***** toys and
god knows whatever else she thought important to take with her, and
motioned to the others to follow. “C’mon, guys, the sooner we get
moving, the sooner we’ll get where we’re going.”

Helena and Tina kept the distance between them, periodically casting
backward glances to see where Bette was. Shane gave them a broad
sympathetic grin, and wrapped one long thin arm around Carmen. They
stepped off and headed toward the next street on their route, walking
as fast as their weary legs would allow. Even Dana, as well conditioned
as she was, seemed to be tiring out.

Behind them, sirens wailed, gunfire echoed, screams rode the wind. They moved faster.