Amy turned to David. “You said before that it’s not just commercial communications that aren’t working now.”

“Right,” he said, “since about fifteen minutes before you got here.”

“That was when we left the coffee shop,” she said, looking at her watch to confirm her first impression. “What else were you talking about?”

Amy noticed Derek shift nervously. David answered, “We’ve got access to some government assets, let’s say, and they experienced a major dropout.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“That’s all we can tell you,” Derek said, turning to her. “What are you thinking, Sis?”

“Can we see the news channel again?” Amy asked Derek. She looked at the call log on her phone to confirm her suspicion. "That clock started right after I called Alex from the coffee shop. Not before, when we lost signal at the campground, or when 911 stopped working while we were in the fire at the restaurant. It didn’t happen after, when everyone’s phones stopped working, and when the police radio conveniently stayed working just long enough to force Alex to have me drive him here. And when we left the coffee shop, not before and not after, government communications began to fail.”