by Mike Kraus
“Just kidding, Mom,” the girl grinned. “I wasn’t going to say it.”
Barbara rolled her eyes at Linda and went back to organizing and putting away the groceries. They’d stood in line with three dozen shoppers as four cashiers tried to check them out and while Barbara had kept her cool on the outside, watching everyone carefully and making sure Jack didn’t wander off, she’d grown more tense with each passing second. Some impatient people simply left the line and shoved their carts toward the door without paying and two managers stood at the exit, stopping dashers before they could escape with hundreds of dollars of items, but for every two they caught, one got through, emboldening the attempts of more.
She’d spotted a young couple with ratty hair staring at Linda and the contents of her cart, and she’d glowered at the pair until they saw her looking and cast their eyes aside. Barbara wanted to avoid confrontation at any cost, but that didn’t mean she’d be an easy target. Forty-five minutes after that, they’d finally left the store, and she and Linda pushed the cart up a slight incline to the pickup truck.
Remembering what had happened to the lady at Market Saver, Barbara made the kids load the groceries in the truck bed while she kept an eye on their surroundings. By then, cars were packing the lot, and folks were hurrying toward the store in loose groups. An older couple tossed the McKnight’s a furtive look, glancing over their cart and groceries before moving on, Barbara’s gaze following them the entire way until they reached the store. Linda and Jack had picked up the pace and soon had the truck filled. Barbara hadn’t bothered putting the cart back in its corral but left it sitting in the open off to the side before getting the kids loaded up and climbing behind the wheel.
As she pulled out of the lot, she’d watched in her mirrors as the Meat King managers tried to turn people away. Frustrated shoppers filed out of the store like angry zombies, heads down and gesturing to their friends and families before turning their eyes on recent customers loading bags into their cars. The turned-away people flowed back through the parking lot, eyeing open trunks and picking easy targets out of the crowd. Not wanting to become another victim, Barbara had quickly put the truck in gear and pulled toward the access road leading from the store when a vehicle flew out of nowhere and clipped her left front bumper.
She’d slammed her foot on the brake, causing them to lurch forward, the kids crying out in surprise as the offending car had stopped in front of them, angled so it blocked her from leaving. She’d rolled down her window to address the driver when an unsettling feeling twisted in her gut. A woman sat in the passenger seat, looking back at her with a fearful and guilty expression. The way their cars were positioned, the lady couldn’t get out, and Barbara couldn’t drive forward. The driver’s side door flew open, drawing attention to a tall, red-haired man circling around the car who had pointed at her as he shouted, stalking forward. “I’m not going to hurt you! We just need the stuff in your truck!”
With a gasp, Barbara had thrown the truck in reverse and squealed away from the wreck, retreating into the lot until another vehicle pulled out behind her and laid on their horn, causing her to slam on her brakes again. The red-haired man had continued approaching, hands raised, face drawn with anger. She’d hit the gas, and the F150 jerked forward with a bark of tires. Eyes flying wide, the man spun away and slapped the side of her truck with the flat of his hand, cursing Barbara as she wove around him and his car and got the McKnights back on the road.
“Mom, are you okay?”
Linda’s voice tore her back to reality. Barbara reached behind her head and removed her ponytail holder. She’d pulled it so tight it was giving her a headache.
With a smile at her daughter, she said, “I was just thinking of the guy who tried to stop us.”
“He was super scary,” Linda agreed. “Do you think he would have hurt us?”
“I don’t think so. Well, maybe.” She blinked. “Actually, I have no clue, and I didn’t want to find out. That’s why I took off so fast.”
“You did good.” Linda stepped over and wrapped her arms around Barbara’s waist. “I guess we won’t be going out again for a while.”
She hugged her daughter back and gave a dry, humorless laugh. “You’ve got that right. We’re staying home for a very, very long time.”
“Good. I feel safer here.”
Barbara broke the embrace and held Linda at arm’s length. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For calming me down.”
“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”
Barbara didn’t expect her to understand, because she’d always tried to keep a calm demeanor in front of the kids, but just being able to talk about what happened had eased her nerves considerably and her hands and fingers had even stopped shaking.
“I like talking to you, that’s all.”
“I guess you’re okay to talk to, too,” Linda replied with an uncertain smile, then she looked at the remaining items stacked on the table. “We don’t have any room in the basement or in the cupboards for this stuff.”
“Let’s move it into the dining room.”
“Okay.”
They carried several stacks of cans and the first aid kits to the adjacent room where she’d already cleared off space in the near corner for extra supplies.
Linda straightened and pretended to dust off her hands. “What next?”
“Next is coffee.”
Barbara marched into the kitchen, dumped the old swill in the sink, and started a fresh pot brewing. As the rich aroma leaked into the air, she turned and leaned against the counter with her arms folded across her chest. Linda took a seat at the kitchen table and removed her shoes, placing them neatly next to her chair before she finally spoke up.
“What would you have done if you’d hit him?”
“The man who tried to take our stuff?”
“Yeah.” Linda’s eyebrows scrunched as she reframed the question. “What I mean is, would you have helped the guy or called an ambulance?”
Barbara’s expression turned cold, eyes staring straight ahead. “I would have kept driving.”
“Seriously?”
“Remember what we talked about with situational awareness?”
“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with helping a guy you just hit?”
“We heard the ambulances when we arrived in town, remember?”
“Yeah. They were all over the place.”
“And the woman we just talked about,” Barbara said, pointedly. “The one who almost got robbed.”
“Right, yeah.”
“Well, keeping all that in mind. If I’d hit the guy, and we got out to help, do you really think the police or an ambulance would have come right away?”
Linda paused before responding. “It was pretty crazy out there, so I guess they would have been busy with other people. No, I guess they wouldn’t have come right away.”
“I’d take it a step farther. My bet is that if we’d helped the guy, someone else would have tried to rob us, or worse.”
“That’s… kind of a good point, Mom.”
“While I would have stopped for an injured person a week ago, I won’t be taking any unnecessary chances from now on. Not if it puts us in danger. ”
The coffee maker sputtered as the last bit of coffee steamed out and Barbara took a big blue mug from the cabinet and filled it close to the brim. Adding a little cream and sugar, she put the cup to her lips and breathed in the rich aroma before sipping. “I’ll defend our property, vehicles, and animals at all costs. Because without them, we won’t survive. You understand what I’m saying?”
“I think so.” Linda gave a slow nod. “It means...”
“If anyone messes with us, I’m going to take them out. That means fight, kick, shoot, or run over them to protect you guys.”
A dark look crossed Linda’s face, and her eyes fell to the table.
“Don’t worry,” Barbara grinned. “I’ll try to give them a warning. But so
metimes, like today, there might not be time to do that. If someone comes out of their car and challenges me like that, I’m not going to play nice. It’s their fault if they get hurt.”
“No holds barred.”
“What?”
“No holds barred,” Linda repeated. “That’s what the wrestlers say when there’re no rules in a match. I learned that from Jack and Dad.”
Barbara narrowed her eyes. “They watch wrestling?”
Linda nodded. “Late at night sometimes after you and Sam fall asleep.”
“I didn’t know that.” She smiled at the revelation, then her expression sobered and she gave her daughter an appreciative nod. “That’s actually a good way of putting it, though. When it comes to defending the McKnight family and our house, it’s no holds barred from now on.”
“Sounds like we’re on the same page.” Linda grinned.
“I guess we are.” Barbara smiled back. “By the way, I loaded some more lessons into your school app, too.” She fixed her daughter with an apologetic look. “I couldn’t let Jack have all the fun.”
“No, that’s great since I already finished my other ones.” Linda tilted her head pointedly. “Waiting for you to grade them.”
She smiled at Sam’s scholastic voracity. She never complained about doing schoolwork and, in fact, she seemed to enjoy it a great deal – at least compared to Jack.
“I have one favor to ask.” Linda gave her a sheepish look. “Can I take a cup of coffee up with me?”
Barbara sighed, shook her head with a look of mock disapproval and raised her index finger. “Just one cup.”
“Awesome!” Linda came to the counter and poured herself a short cup, adding a little cream and a half teaspoon of sugar. “Thanks, Mom!”
Barbara watched her daughter pad out of the kitchen and down the hall, looking uncomfortably grown-up with the steaming coffee mug in her hand. She took a sip of her own coffee, the bittersweet brew clearing her head and soothing her nerves. Turning, she strolled to the sliding glass door and stared out across the property at their fuel shed and barn off to the right. Beyond that was their camping spot and the stretch of woods half circling the farmstead, with Smooch lying out in the grass, ears up, watching over everything.
“How am I going to protect all of it?” she murmured to herself. The dangers she and the kids had talked about since the start of the anomaly were turning into reality faster than she imagined possible. The official announcements had been prescient - there was, indeed, looting, rioting, and desperate people willing to do anything to feed themselves and their families no matter the cost to others. And, according to the president’s announcement, looters might soon be the least of their troubles, what with the weather predicted to start changing, too.
We believe these temperature changes directly result from the desalination of the waters near the anomalous zone. This will disrupt the flow of warm water being carried up from the south... In other words, we expect to see temperatures dropping rapidly in the United States.
She thought about where Virginia was in relation to everything else in the Northern Hemisphere. They weren’t so far north that they’d experience the colder temperatures right away, but they definitely weren’t in the south, either, so she couldn’t count on it staying warm for all that long.
“Weeks? Months? Days?” Barbara mumbled to herself in quiet frustration. Not one who enjoyed not knowing when things would happen or not having a solid, step-by-step thorough plan, she was out of her depth. Still, it seemed that erring on the side of moderation would be the most prudent course of action. “Okay, so we probably have some time to focus on defense,” she said with a more confident nod. “After that, we’ll kick our winter preparations into high gear.”
That meant she needed to fortify the house or, at a minimum, the bottom floor, just in case things got really bad. The good news was that the crops were harvested and mostly put away and the only vegetables left in the garden were the winter squash, which could be picked in two weeks. Between the grocery runs and their stockpiles, they had enough food and water for the entire family for a very, very long time.
But she had the animals to think about, and the green house. Her mind started going down that path when a horn honked outside. Ticking her head to the side, Barbara set her coffee cup on the counter and crossed into the dining room. She stood at the window and peeked through the blinds to see Darren and Marie’s Jeep parked at the end of the walkway and, concerned that they weren’t exiting the vehicle right away, she stepped outside and hurried to the end of the walk.
Darren sat behind the wheel, watching Barbara approach with a pensive expression, his white-gray hair uncombed and sticking out on the sides, his shirt hanging loose off his shoulders like someone had pulled it around the neck. Marie wore the same frazzled look as her husband, concerned and tired, her lips drawn tight and her hair messed up. A glance in the back showed several grocery bags piled up, though half of their contents appeared to have been scattered about and strewn in the back of the vehicle.
“Hey, you two!” Barbara called out, waving and huffing. “You look frightful. What happened?”
Marie’s expression soured. “Have you been out to the stores yet today?”
“We went out earlier,” Barbara confirmed, placing her hand on the door frame near Darren’s arm. “It’s a madhouse, but we managed to pick up some supplies. I’m guessing you did, too.”
“That’s right.” Darren chuffed. “We braved Crazy Town.”
Marie gave a pained grin. “That’s what he calls Bristol now.”
“And the name fits,” he growled back.
Barbara’s eyes lingered on the man’s stretched shirt and a red mark on his neck. “Looks like you saw some trouble.”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Darrin gave her a grim nod. “A couple of guys tried to steal our stuff. Two months’ worth of food. They scared the hell out of us, I tell you.”
“Oh, no. What did you do?”
He smirked. “What we always planned to do in such a situation. I got their attention while Marie drew her pistol.”
“The big boy didn’t like me jamming my gun in his back,” she winked.
Barbara gave an approving nod to the feisty older couple and chuckled. “Remind me not to mess with you two.”
Marie smiled mischievously and grabbed her husband’s arm. “That’s right!”
“And I’m assuming you didn’t believe the president was being totally truthful about the cold temperatures?” Barbara asked. “That’s why you were out today, right?”
Darrin raised his finger and pointed at her, growling not at her, but at the general state of the world. “Another true statement. We figured we’d get the jump on people and top off our supplies. No jump, but at least we got some supplies.”
“You want to come in and talk about it over a cup of coffee?”
“Thanks, but we need to get home and put this stuff away,” Marie said, nodding to the Jeep’s back seat.
“I understand.”
“Hey, now that things are heating up around town, we should stay in touch,” Darren said, pointedly. “I have a HAM radio back at the house. Does Tom have anything like that?”
“No, sadly not. We’d thought about getting one but never got around to it.” Barbara wrinkled her brow. “But we do have some handheld radios in the basement. Would those work?”
“Those would work great.” Darren fished around in the small console between their seats until he found a pen and scrap of paper. He scribbled something on it and handed it over with a smile. “That’s the frequency I’m on. Try tonight at 7PM, and we’ll see if we can talk.”
“Great.” Barbara took the note and held it up. “It’ll be a relief having a direct connection to you guys.”
“Sometime later I’ll bring my old HAM set over and get you set up so you can receive the same broadcasts I do.”
“That sounds like fun, and it’ll put my mind at ease with Tom and Sam being gone
.”
Marie’s expression deepened. “You still haven’t heard anything?”
“Not yet.” Barbara shook her head, the sadness resurfacing for a moment before the pushed it back down again. “But we’re not giving up hope.”
“You absolutely must not.” The older woman reached across her husband and placed her hand on the door frame, palm up. “Tom’s going to make it home. I can feel it.”
“I know.” Barbara rested her hand in Marie’s and closed her eyes at the comforting squeeze the woman gave her. “I just wish he would hurry up.”
“Well, we’re going to head out now.” Darren started the Jeep and put it in gear “You be safe, and we’ll talk later.”
Barbara bade them farewell and stepped away from the Jeep as they did a circle at the top of the driveway and pulled away in a spin of tires and spit of gravel. She raised her hand and waved as they rolled down to the main road and turned left, headed for home.
“I’m so glad we have some friends around here,” Barbara said in a breathless whisper before trudging back up the driveway to the house where she headed inside, found her coffee cup and refilled it. She grabbed a notebook from her drawer and sat at the kitchen table, looking around as she tapped her pen on the notepad. Time to make a list… hmmm.
The first, easiest thing would be to cover the windows to make it harder for someone to break in. There was some plywood in the barns from some project of Tom's, wasn't there? I'm sure I can dig up a few spare padlocks, too. While the locks wouldn't keep someone determined from getting into the house, having a bit of extra security would be better than nothing. The true defense would have been steel core doors with properly anchored frames that couldn't be broken, though something like that would be next to impossible to come by on short notice. We'll do what we can with what we've got.
After jotting down a few notes she expanded her thinking around defending the herd and flocks. Smooch was the perfect watch dog, but she couldn’t be everywhere at once, so Barbara wrote out barbed wire, improved corral, and double check the signs. The No Trespassing signs wouldn't keep anyone off the property, but on the off-chance that things returned to normal faster than it seemed they would, they'd at least provide a valid legal defense. If only they'd have passed that purple paint law last year.
