The Connected System

“It launched,” Kelly said.

“What?,” Loch mumbled.

He was and wasn’t paying attention to the road. Driving, tired, after spending the weekend up in the White Mountains camping with the wife and two teen daughters. He was the driver, so he was paying attention.

But he’d driven this stretch of Route 4 so many times, he knew every turn and every bump. Not every bump. This was New Hampshire, frost heaves in the roads were a regular thing. No road was safe.

So the bumps changed.

But Loch still knew the road.

He was somewhat zoned out, trying not to hear the arguing daughters in the backseat.

“The rocket,” Kelly answered, not looking up from her phone.

The ride home had been the first time she’d gotten a chance to look at it. The weekend had been tech free. It was something they did a couple times a year. Go camping up north and turn off the electronics. Loch would have left the devices at home, but they did need at least one around for emergencies.

As soon as the SUV had been packed up, and they’d gotten somewhere with service, the girls had immediately gotten their phones out. Kelly had waited a little longer. It was a three hour drive home, Loch couldn’t really blame them.

They all liked their devices, but they weren’t as bad as a lot of the families they knew. Some of the girls friends lived on their phones

Rocket, Loch thought, but remembered. It had been all over the news before they’d set out. One of the private companies, that had gotten into space aviation, was going to launch the first manned rocket to Mars. They’d gotten a couple of rockets up there, but this was new. Very high tech. Very exciting. It was history in the making, or so the media was saying. The race to the stars was back on.

It was exciting, Loch was as into it as everyone else. The talk was everywhere. No one could escape. Unless you did what Loch Brady and his family had done, and go deep into the mountains where there was no signal. Even on the field, when the girls were playing, and Loch was talking with the other fathers. It was all they could talk about.

Like many, Loch had wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up, along with a dozen other possible jobs. He’d read about exploring alien worlds. Fantasy was Loch’s choice, but he still read and watched the occasional Sci-Fi. There was something about sending people to Mars.

It was a new era.

“No issues,” Loch asked.

“None.”

Loch was about to ask something else when he was interrupted by teen angst.

“Mom! Tell Piper to turn it down,” Harper grumbled.

Fifteen, just gotten her learner’s permit, Loch had been thinking about letting her drive the last couple miles home, Harper was the splitting image of her mom. Not just looks, but personality too, according to Loch’s father-in-law.

Piper, the thirteen year old, had turned up the music on her phone. Loch didn’t even know what band. There had been a time when he’d known every band his girls listened to. At that time, the playlist had been controlled from his phone. As they got older, and got their own phones, he’d lost touch with what they listened to. He missed the days when he’d sneak in one of his songs onto their playlist.

Loch looked into the rearview, seeing his daughters. Piper was looking out the window, with the music too loud, pointedly ignoring her older sister. Harper was glaring at her.

“Pipes,” Loch said, using the middle tone of voice.

The one that said ‘there’s no trouble yet, but keep it up and there will be’.

Piper dramatically sighed, but did turn the volume down.

Kelly looked back at the girls for a couple more seconds, just to make sure Piper would keep the volume down and Harper didn’t raise the volume on her phone. With a last look at both girls, she turned back to her phone.

“The Turners are having a cook-out next weekend,” she said. “They invited us over.”

Inwardly Loch groaned. He wasn’t a huge fan of the Turners. At least the husband, Ed. Suzanne was okay. She was pretty good friends with Kelly.

“Awesome, haven’t seen Ed in awhile.”

Kelly glanced at him. Loch tried to keep a straight face. He knew she had detected the sarcasm. Kelly knew how he felt about Ed Turner. It wasn’t that he disliked Ed, it was just that Ed was rather boring. He was one of the town’s Selectmen, with aspirations to move onto the state and eventually national political stage. All Ed ever talked about was politics, always asking what Loch thought about every issue. All Loch wanted was to drink a beer and hang out.

Loch looked into the rear view to see if Harper had heard. She hadn’t. The Turner’s had a son, Mike. He was the same age as Harper and she did not like him at all. Loch would have to remember to warn her so she could either take a shift at work or find other plans.

The rocket was forgotten, as was the question Loch had been going to ask.

He thought about putting some music on. The road was empty, strangely empty for a Sunday afternoon in the spring. Where were all the tourists? He didn’t because that would have been a sure way to get the girls going. It was quiet now.

Peaceful.

He wasn’t looking forward to going back to work in the morning. And it was an office day. No working from home. The girls didn’t want to go back to school, they had both tried to talk him and Kelly into staying another night. Everyone takes Monday off. Loch had wanted to, but he had a deadline next week. He had to go to work.

They’d pull a four day weekend later, before the summer and the heat really hit. There were still plenty of weekends. The spring had been unusually warm.

And windy.

Very windy.

Trees lined the two lane road. There were still sections of Route 4 where no houses or businesses were visible. Part of why Loch loved where they lived. Basically midway between Concord and Portsmouth, close to Dover. Everything was close by, but it still felt like they were out in the middle of nowhere sometimes. Lakes and woods. And mountains within driving distance.

What else was needed?

Still it was weird that there weren’t more cars.

The corner ahead was sharp, the road disappearing out of view. Loch slowed down a little, just lifting his foot off the gas, no need to apply any braking. The SUV easily turned the corner, the road revealing itself.

Lots of trees. No traffic.

Just one car coming at them.

No.

One car stopped on the side of the road.

Loch slowed down as they approached, checking his mirror to make sure no one was coming up on his tail quickly.

The car had its hood up, a man standing there looking into the depths at the engine. At least there wasn’t smoke.

Loch slowed down, moving over into the thin shoulder of the road. The passenger side tires ran over dirt and rocks.

The man, maybe six feet tall, wide with a gut, looked over at them as Loch hit the button to lower the window. He was bald, very round face. Maybe someone that had once been solid but had lost some of that over the years as more and more beers were drank. The eyes were piercing though, not friendly but not glaring. Loch had run across people on the side of the road that were actually annoyed when someone stopped to ask if they needed help. This guy was neither.

“You good?,” Loch asked.

“Yeah, got Triple A on the way,” the man drawled. His accent was hard to place. Loch wasn’t sure if he was slurring his words or not. “Damn thing just broke down.”

“Okay, as long as you’re good.”

The man just waved, telling Loch that he could go.

Loch obliged. He’d done his duty as a good citizen.

He put the SUV back into gear, giving it some gas to get it back on the road.

The car didn’t move.

Loch looked down at the shifter. It was in drive. He gave it more gas. Nothing. He even checked the emergency brake. Just to make sure.

The guy looked up, hearing the SUV engine strain and the vehicle not moving.

“What’s going on,” Kelly asked.

“I don’t know,” Loch answered, playing with the shifter.

He put it back into drive, hitting the gas. The SUV didn’t move.

It just shut off.

“What the hell?”

The window was still down. Loch saw the other guy standing up, taking a couple steps forward.

“Looks like you need some help now,” he said, chuckling.

Loch wanted to say something, but again he was interrupted.

The world started to shake.

***

The whole car shook. Not just a little, but a lot. The other man fell to the ground, cursing.

“Dad,” Piper shouted.

“It’s okay honey,” Loch said, but wasn’t sure.

The car kept shaking. He heard a loud crack. In front of them an old tree fell, slamming into the road, branches and splinters exploding into the air. They fell to the quaking ground.

“Just an earthquake,” Loch said, trying to sound calm.

Another crack, deeper in the woods, signaled another tree falling down.

A deep rumbling came from beneath them. The car didn’t just shake, it shifted.

“What the hell?,” Loch said again.

Kelly screamed.

Loch watched as the road in front of them split.

The crack grew wider and wider, pieces of asphalt and dirt falling into the new chasm. A jagged and twisting line grew down the road, heading toward the car.

“Loch,” Kelly said, calm but with an edge of panic.

“Dad,” both Harper and Piper said, a lot of panic.

Loch didn’t respond. He just watched the widening and growing crack in the road come toward his family. He felt helpless. There was nothing he could do. He turned the key, trying to get the car to start up. He slammed on the gas.

He wished and prayed, something he hadn’t done in a very long time.

He also cursed. Loudly.

The crack was wide enough to swallow a car. He looked to the other guy, who was backing up as fast as he could. The crack would come between the two vehicles. The road wasn’t wide enough. They’d be swallowed up.

Loch reached a hand out, taking Kellys. He watched the crack, seeing nothing but blackness in the chasm.

A bright light filled his vision, his head pounding.