Behind him, two more cars pulled into the lot, blocking the city vehicles from leaving.

More doors opened, and more people got out, their faces grim.

The officer with the bolt cutters paused, looking at the growing crowd.

“What’s going on here?” the officer asked, his hand dropping from the lock.

“We live here,” Miguel said, walking toward the gate. “And we are keeping our lights on.”

I looked at Derek, and he gave me a quick, tense nod.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my hand.

I looked down at the screen.

It was a system alert from our remote monitor, flashing a bright red warning code I had never seen before.

“They are trying to kill the grid remotely,” I whispered to Derek, showing him the screen.

He stepped closer, his boots crunching on the wet gravel.

“If they send the shutdown command before we isolate the batteries, we’ll lose the entire logic board,” Derek said.

The red warning code blinked, casting a dull glow on my fingers.

I looked up at the police officer.