Chapter Two

Chapter Two

     Olive woke up earlier than she wanted to. It was her day off and she couldn’t sleep in. She approached the coffee pot and prepared it for its daily brewing.  

     “I feel like I’m being tortured,” she grumbled as the water dribbled into the pot.

     “It only takes a few minutes,” mom said as she reached out of the front door for the newspaper.

     “Are you going shopping?” asked Olive.

     Mom sat at the table, “I’m staying so I can relax. I really do not feel like getting trampled.”

     Olive grabbed two mugs from the cupboard. She poured hazelnut creamer into the mugs and then poured the coffee. She handed one of the mugs to her mom and she sat down.

     Olive brought her mug up to her lips and whispered sweet nothings to the coffee, “Oh, my God, coffee!”

     “Want some breakfast?” asked mom. “I can make some waffles.”

     Olive smiled and nodded. She hoped the silence would last, but the siblings would be up soon. Her mom did say that she didn’t feel like being trampled, but it looked like she had no choice.

     “Jason said how weird the traffic was yesterday,” Olive mentioned. “He also said how weird it was that we still did not have any reception on our cell phones when we got home.”

     Her mom mixed ingredients in a mixing bowl, “I didn’t really notice the traffic. It’s always terrifying. I imagine there may have been technical issues with the towers.”

     “That is what I told him,” said Olive as she began to browse the Internet on her Kindle.

     People were already lined around stores. She found it ironic that people flocked greedily to stores the very next day after giving thanks. Pretty soon the annual riots were going to begin.

     She looked on Facebook for any news posts from her friends. A couple of her friends complained about not having cell phone or television service during Thanksgiving. So far, there was nothing on the news. The phone and television companies did not provide information about losing coverage.

     “I wonder what Wolfe said yesterday,” she muttered.

     “Happy Thanksgiving?” mom said. “I could care less about what he says.”

     “Don’t you worry about him saying something that will affect dad’s life?” asked Olive.

     Mom poured a spoonful of batter on the waffle iron, “Of course, I worry. I already have enough to worry about.”

     Olive continued to search online for any news about Thanksgiving. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. There weren’t any reports about technical problems or about what Wolfe said. No news about service being down was the only news that was out of the ordinary.

     She saw the president went on his normal tangent about football players disrespecting the flag. He was also going off about how much better he was than everyone else. She also saw an article about Joowon Yoon stating Wolfe was asking for war.

     Joowon Yoon carried out more missile tests over the weekend. The missiles seemed to be getting too close for comfort. Wolfe threatened him online that he would retaliate if the testing continued. The news articles seemed to be a brief synopsis of what may be happening.

     Jason entered the kitchen and dragged his feet over to the coffee maker. He poured a cup of coffee and sat next to Olive. Olive helped set the table for breakfast.

     “We have a paper?” Jason grabbed the newspaper and removed the rubber band.

     Mom shrugged, “It’s probably been sitting there for a couple of days.”

     Jason unrolled the paper. Sheila walked into the kitchen as she rubbed her eyes. She sat next to Jason as Olive placed a glass of juice in front of her.

     Jason checked his cell phone, “Looks like the signal is back. It’s still kind of low. I can’t believe how much I pay for this crap.”

     “Can you call them to see what happened?” asked mom.

     “Can I at least eat some breakfast before I start messing with these guys?” he groaned. “It’s too early to be dealing with some halfwit that I can’t understand. Besides I will probably be stuck on hold. There are probably a ton of people calling to ask what happened to the service yesterday.”

     Martin finally entered the kitchen. He grumbled as he sat down at the table. Mom placed a couple of waffles on each plate and sat down.

     “There are already people beating the crap out of each other at the store,” Jason gazed at his phone as he ate. “Someone was just shot in the parking lot at one store.”

     Mom patted his hand, “Please put that away.”

     “It’s almost as good as watching football,” Jason muttered as he continued to watch. As more stores opened across America more chaos and violence ensued. Jason sat up in horror. There was a flash of light and the video was gone.

     “What was that?” Jason searched on his phone for any news online. He soon discovered that it wasn’t a problem with his phone. “Something just happened.”

     The ground and the walls shook. Everyone stood up and began to rush out of the kitchen. The windows in the house shattered. The cold morning suddenly turned as hot as a summer day.