The Pulse by Scott B. Williams Page A

listening to what anyone else had to say. He didn’t have much time for her roommate anyway, Casey said, adding that he was a pre-med student barely keeping his GPA above the minimum, thanks to all the time he spent partying with his friends.
    “Sounds like she should have dumped him already, if you ask me,” Grant said.
    “Yeah, I keep hoping she’ll move on. She deserves better.”
    Casey set the pace as she led the way down Magazine until they came to Philip, where she turned right, heading towards the river. “Here’s the house, just ahead on the right.” She pointed.
    They pulled into a narrow drive that led into a beautifully landscaped semi-tropical garden of date palms, philodendrons, and oleander, and followed it past the white two-story mansion to a separate guest house in the back of the
grounds. Joey’s black Audi was parked in front, but Jessica came to the door alone when Casey knocked.
    Casey reintroduced Jessica and Grant, though they remembered meeting briefly one morning when she and Casey were walking through campus together.
    “I was just getting ready to start walking home, since Joey’s car wouldn’t start this morning,” Jessica said. “He flipped out about it pretty bad. I tell you, I’ve had about enough of his temper. We both had nine o’clock classes, and by that time, whatever caused the electricity to go out and all the cars to mess up had already happened. Joey just went nuts. I don’t know if you noticed it in the driveway or not, but he kicked a big dent right in the driver’s door of his car, blaming it on his dad for buying him a used Audi. Then he took off running towards campus. I decided not to bother. I didn’t have anything I couldn’t skip today and besides, I knew they wouldn’t have class with no electricity. I went back to bed, because I sure didn’t get any sleep last night, and I was a bit hung over.”
    Grant glanced back in the direction of the car and rolled his eyes. Jessica was a beautiful girl by any standard, and he was surprised she put up with such an asshole. “Did you guys see the lights last night?” he asked.
    “Yeah, through the windows. We had just gone to bed and it was so bright it flashed through the whole house. I had no idea what it was. Joey didn’t either. But we were both pretty bombed from the party we went to.”
    “I slept right through it. Grant was outside though, and saw everything,” Casey said.

    “What in the hell was it?” Jessica asked. “What’s going on? I can’t believe everything just quit working like that. I can’t make a call, listen to the radio…nothing.”
    “We don’t know for sure,” Casey said. “But the rumor is that it was some kind of disturbance from the sun. It could have affected a lot more than just New Orleans. Grant said that it could be a serious thing. A lot of people might have already died, and if the power doesn’t come back on soon, things will get bad, like after a big hurricane.”
    “What are we supposed to do now, then?” Jessica asked.
    “We need to start thinking about that,” Grant said. “Hey, if you’re ready, why don’t we head back over to your apartment? Mine’s close by campus too. I’ve got some stuff there we’re gonna need. Do you have a bike, Jessica?”
    “Yeah, but it’s locked up by McWilliams Hall on campus. I left it there after play rehearsal and rode here with Joey in his car yesterday.”
    “No problem. We’ll walk back with you. Casey and I can push our bikes so you can keep up.”
    “Geeze, Casey,” Jessica whispered as they went inside to grab her bag out of the bedroom. “How come I can’t find a nice guy like that instead of a jerk like Joey?”
    During the three-mile walk back in the direction of the Tulane campus and their apartments, Grant related some of what he had experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to Casey and Jessica and began speculating about what could happen next in a city the size of New Orleans with no