Pow remembered the “badge” hanging around his neck and that Lisa thought he was a cop. He would use that. “Ma’am, I’m a professional and I’m telling you it’s not safe here.” He hated lying to her, but knew she’d thank him later.
Lisa stood there and thought. She knew it wasn’t safe at her house, but it just seemed so weird to leave. Plus, if they left their house, it would probably get robbed and all her stuff would get broken. She couldn’t just leave and let that happen.
But how could she stop robbers? Grant was gone. And she wouldn’t touch that gun he left. Those things were dangerous. Ron and the other guards would prevent any robbers from coming in. And so would the police. After all, there was a police officer right now at her house; this proved to her that the police were still on patrol. The protests, or whatever those sirens were all about, would be over soon and things would get back to normal. Then Grant would figure out that he was just overreacting. He’d come home and things would be normal.
“No thank you,” Lisa said. “We’ll be fine.
”Pow was speechless. He never even considered the idea that she wouldn’t come. He figured she would view him as a hero.
He had to think of something to say since this wasn’t going like he thought it would. “Well, OK,” he said, “but Grant has Manda’s phone so you can communicate with him that way.” He got out a piece of paper and a pen. “Here is my cell phone number. When you change your mind, call or text me. Me and my team will be here, no matter how rough things are. Grant is a teammate and I’ll risk my life for him. All of us on the Team will. We made a pact, ma’am.”
That floored Lisa. Grant was on a “team”? What? A “pact”? This was all just too weird.
“OK, I’ll call if I need you,” Lisa said, “but I doubt I will. What I need is for Grant to come back home. Tell him that. His home is here, not out in the boonies somewhere.”
Pow, the insurance salesman, felt like he was losing the biggest sale of his life. She and those kids would be dead in the city. “OK, ma’am,” he said, not wanting to leave just in case he could figure out something to say to get her to come along. “But please call me when things get scary. They will.” He reluctantly left.
Lisa closed the door and started crying again. This was all too much. Why couldn’t Grant come back home? Why did he have to “win” by having her come out there? Why was he acting this way?
*****
Manda came downstairs. “Mom, you should call that police officer. We need to go. Dad is right.”
Lisa cried more when she heard Manda say, “Dad is right.” Lisa was starting to realize this, too. But it was impossible to admit that they needed to go. She wanted “normal” back. She just wanted normal. And leaving for the cabin with an “armed escort” was not normal.
A few minutes later, Lisa heard gunfire in the distance. Then she heard a car horn honking and a car speed past her house. Then another. Was it another attack?
Manda went up to her room and came back down with the revolver Grant had left. Lisa was horrified that there was a gun in her house.
Manda said, “Mom, I’m going to have this with me. I don’t care what you say. I have to do this.” She sounded like an adult saying that.
Lisa didn’t know how to respond. Her daughter was holding a gun. People might be attacking her neighborhood. Her husband was gone. A police officer had just been at the door offering them an armed escort out the cabin, and telling her that Grant was on the officer’s “team” and had made a “pact.” Lisa was getting dizzy. She needed to sit down.
After about twenty tense minutes, Sherri Spencer, Ron’s wife, came to the door and said there had been a false alarm; it was only some shots a few subdivisions over. Lisa was relieved. See, nothing bad was happening to them, she thought.
Right now. But there were several more hours left before the sun came up. Lisa was praying for the sun to come up. It was the longest night. She was terrified.
Lisa took the police officer’s phone number out of her pocket. She couldn’t dial it. It was late and she didn’t want to wake Grant up. She kept staring at the piece of paper.
“Call him,” Manda said. Lisa didn’t know she was standing there. “Call him, Mom.”
“Go back to bed,” Lisa said. This was not happening. This was not happening…
Chapter 59
Alone
(May 6)
Grant was on guard duty that night. He was alone; they had stopped the two-guard shifts because things were so peaceful out there. Besides, everyone was getting tired.
It was beautiful out there. It was May and the spring weather was fabulous. A clear night. But his mind was elsewhere.
He felt Manda’s cell phone vibrate. It was Pow, who would be telling Grant when Lisa and the kids would be arriving. Grant couldn’t wait to read that text.
The text said, “She wouldn’t leave. Won’t leave house. Said you need to come home. Sorry, man. I tried super hard. We’re coming out soon. We can go back and get her if she calls.”
He felt like someone kicked him in the stomach. He couldn’t believe it.
Then it hit him: he was on his own. He no longer had a family. He was alone. He started crying and couldn’t stop
His life was over. He had failed. He hadn’t gotten his family through what he had known was coming for years. He had done all the preparing he could, but he still lost because his family wouldn’t make it. He’d rather be dead than have them go through what was ahead of them. How could this be? He had plenty of food and a safe place, but no family to share it with. What good was that?
You’ll see. They will be fine. Have faith.
Was that just wishful thinking? The outside thought had not been wrong so far. It had told him to prepare when the rest of the world continued to live obliviously. It told him a crisis was coming even when that seemed preposterous.
Grant remembered that survivors of various disasters always said the same thing: once you quit trying to live, you will die. You have to believe that you’ll make it. And making it was not just that Grant himself lived; it meant Grant and his family surviving. So he decided that he would find a way to get his family. They would come out to the cabin. He would figure out a way.
He sat there the rest of the night. Alone. He immersed himself in constructive thoughts. How to guard the cabins. How to get food. How to introduce himself to other neighbors so they could start a bigger and bigger common defense and food sharing system. It didn’t take long before he fell asleep.
Chapter 60
Power
(May 6)
“It’s time to go,” Tony, Menlow’s chief of staff, said to Jeanie. She picked up her single suitcase and followed him.
Tony and Jeanie got Menlow and met Trooper Vasquez. They went to the parking garage, which was nearly empty. An unmarked police car pulled up, and the uniformed trooper opened the doors and trunk. Vasquez loaded the suitcases, said something to the driver, and motioned for them to get in the car. Tony took the front passenger seat so it was the Menlow and Jeanie in the back seat. It felt surreal.
Everyone was silent for the first few minutes. They saw the capitol campus go by out their window. They were heading onto the freeway, to who knows where.
Menlow finally broke the silence. “You know, Jeanie, the Governor called me and said that the State Legislature will be on recess for the foreseeable future. There are things going on in D.C. that would boggle your mind, too.”