Chapter One - Before the Lights Went Out

He found the emergency disconnect and shoved it down with his full weight. Half the building went dark at once. The blackness rolled over them like floodwater. Somebody cursed him. Somebody else started crying. Someone kicked the wall and shouted that he had killed them all. Then the fire pumps came back on at low pressure. Sprinkler mist dropped from the ceiling and shoved the flames back a step. Elliot did not have time to breathe before the emergency radio in the corridor spat out static and a woman's voice. Not the building's internal channel. City alert. The signal was chopped and ugly, but the message was clear: widespread power failure, water pressure below threshold, nonessential roads closed, seek underground shade immediately, avoid