A Mountain Of Beans

By Samson Gruss

A magnetic polar reversal has left a gaping hole in the earth's protective magnetosphere, and harmful electromagnetic radiation from the sun has stricken the unprotected earth. All electronics, including electronics on cars and trucks, have been fried. Even transformers on power lines and batteries have been disabled.

All traffic on the freeway has come to a rolling stop. Pete, a trucker, is sitting on the freeway stopped, along with dozens of cars and other trucks. There is no way to know how big the affected area is--could be the size of a small city or county or could be half the planet facing the sun. There is no way to know and no way to find out.

Pete, an atheist, meets another trucker, John, a humble Christian family man. John's truck is loaded with canned beans, which gives them a food source. But there are dozens of other cars and trucks in the vicinity, and Pete and John know they cannot feed that many people for very long. Help may not come for days or weeks--may not come at all.

What do they do? Do they hoard the food, or do they pass it out to as many people as possible for as long as possible? Does help reach them in time? Do they survive?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889824428

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

About the Author

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A Mountain Of Beans

Samson Gruss

Copyright © 2024 Samson Gruss

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2024

This is a work of fiction. Although the cities and towns mentioned in the story actually exist, as well as the truck weigh station at Cambridge, Ohio, everything else in the story is fictitious, including all the characters. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

ISBN 979-8-88982-441-1 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88982-442-8 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Chapter 1

All the traffic on the freeway suddenly rolled to a stop.

The old-timer was just entering the truck weigh station, Interstate 70 westbound, Cambridge, Ohio.

The windshield-mounted GPS had gone blank. He checked his cell phone—completely dead, as if the battery had been removed.

He checked his battery-powered wristwatch—stopped, one forty-five.

There were dozens of cars on the freeway that he could see—all stopped dead—along with two trucks in front of him and one behind. There were four trucks stopped at the eastbound scale.

This can't be what I think it is, he said out loud to himself. It just can't be.

He sat there, waiting. Wondering. The truck was completely dead. No lights. No radio. Nothing. He watched a guy in a car get out and open the hood.

Nope, that's not gonna help, he said to himself, again out loud. Even if you're the best mechanic in the world and you have your tools in the trunk, you ain't fixin' nothin'.

The driver's side door of the truck in front of him opened, and a guy got out and started walking back toward the old-timer's truck. He looked to be about thirty, maybe thirty-five, a little overweight, as most truck drivers are, but he had a chubby, friendly, boyish face. Stitched above the right pocket of his short-sleeved company denim work shirt was John.

He walked up to the driver's side of the truck and said, Hidy.

Hello, John.

Truck just died, along with the GPS, even my cell phone.

Mine, too, even my flashlight's dead.

I didn't check my flashlight. Whaddya figure's happened?

Well, he paused. Should I tell this guy what I really think? What's the point? What are ya haulin'?

Beans.

Beans? What kind of beans?

Canned beans, all kinds: kidney beans, green beans, lima beans, baked beans, pork 'n' beans—all kinds.

Easy-openin' cans or can opener?

John gave him a puzzled look. Can opener. Why?

"Do you have a can opener?"

No. His face showed something else—maybe fear. Why?

Climb in. I'll explain. But why should I explain? There's no point. No conclusion.

He walked around the front of the truck, climbed into the passenger seat, and held out his hand. John.

Pete. They shook hands like old friends. So where ya headin' with those beans?

Cincy, picked 'em up in Hanover, Pennsylvania. You?

Rolls of paper. Newsprint. Wish it was toilet paper though; we could use that. Pete smiled.

John laughed, Where ya takin' it to?

Appleton, Wisconsin.

It was the usual conversation a couple of truckers might have at a truck stop over a plate of greasy spaghetti—except for this strange…shutdown.

So what do you think this is, Pete?

Well, John, he paused again. "Well…what do you think it is?"

I hate to say it, but I think it's some kind of terrorist attack. They've hit the power grid—knocked everything out.

And how would they do that, to affect cars, trucks, even wristwatches?

I don't know, some kind of electromagnetic field or something.

Well, you're not far off there, but it's not a terrorist attack. I don't think terrorists could do it. This is a perfectly natural occurrence.

Whaddya mean?

Well, I guess I've got to tell him now. I saw a program on the History Channel a year or so ago. Really interesting. I've thought about it a lot ever since. Did some research on the Internet, and learned a lot more. There's disagreement on what would happen, of course, but some things everyone agrees on. Would you like a cold Pepsi? Got a couple in my cooler, which is no longer working. They're gonna get warm.

No, thanks. So what did the program say?

Well, it described a CME during an MPR, Pete said flatly.

Huh?

Here goes. A coronal mass ejection during a magnetic polar reversal.

What does that mean?

A coronal mass ejection is a solar flare—you know what that is, right?

Yeah.

That breaks away from the sun and travels through space. It packs a massive electromagnetic charge. The earth, however, is protected from CMEs by the magnetosphere. It's an electromagnetic field that surrounds the earth. It travels from the north magnetic pole (positive) to the south magnetic pole (negative) and reaches far out into space.

That's what makes a compass work.

Exactly.

John smiled.

Anyway, CMEs strike the magnetosphere and are deflected around it, like water around a rock in a stream. The magnetosphere is weakest around the poles, and you can actually see the electromagnetic energy—in the aurora borealis—you know what that is, right?

The northern lights.

Right. There's lights over the south pole, too—the aurora australis. Same phenomenon—weakness in the earth's magnetosphere.

So you think some, what is it—CME?—broke through the magnetosphere here today?

Could be, but I doubt it. It almost never happens, but it did happen in 1989 in the entire province of Quebec, Canada. The power grid failed for about a day during what became known as the Quebec Blackout. But I doubt that's what this is though.

Why do you doubt it?

Well, it's too powerful. This has knocked out everything—even the truck's batteries, my flashlight battery. That didn't happen in Quebec.

Then what is it?

A CME has struck the earth during an MPR.

An MPR?

Magnetic polar reversal. It's an extremely rare occurrence, but perfectly natural. Every so often, according to the geological record, the magnetic poles switch polarity—the north becomes negative, and the south becomes positive. A compass would point south.

How is that shown in the geological record?

Good question. Tiny metal fragments in lava flows line up with the direction of the flow of the magnetosphere and then solidify. At seemingly random intervals, the metal fragments switch positions. The only logical explanation is that the poles reverse. It has to do with the solid iron inner core of the earth, floating within the liquid outer core, which causes the magnetosphere in the first place. When the core hits a certain tipping point, the poles reverse. Most scientists think it would happen over thousands of years, but a few think it could be much shorter.

So how does that lead to cars and trucks stopping on the freeway—and cell phones and GPSs and flashlights not working?

Well, this is all theory, of course. The last MPR was 780,000 years ago. They usually occur every 250,000 years or so, but the interval varies. We're overdue. The last reversal was during the Stone Age. It would have made no impact whatsoever on animals or plants, except maybe migratory fish and birds and stuff. Things are different today, of course. Electronic devices are extremely sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. Thanks to the magnetosphere, we're protected. But during a magnetic polar reversal, there would be a moment of flux.

A moment?

"Could be a split second. Could be a thousand years or longer. Whatever the time span, the theory is that during that moment of flux, the magnetosphere would be weakened. Most scientists agree that there would be spots where it would be very weak. Maybe even nonexistent. The earth would be much more vulnerable to a CME, should there happen to be one, which would strike the unprotected earth full force. The damage would be devastating to anything electronic, but nothing else. Computers would be fried, as would cell phones and GPSs; computers on cars and trucks would be rendered useless, and any vehicle with an onboard computer wouldn't run, which is virtually every vehicle nowadays. That's what's happened here, apparently. Even transformers on power lines would blow. The entire power grid and anything electronic would fail for the entire area with a weakened magnetosphere hit by the