Rhiannon just rolled her eyes and continued eating.
“Is For and Emily coming, too?” Ben asked, spitting bits of bacon onto the tabletop.
“What have I told you about talking with your mouth full? Hmmm? And yes, they are most definitely both coming with us.”
Ben’s eyes drifted to Emily, who smiled and nodded. “Yup, we’ll be joining you guys.”
“Cool,” replied Ben as his face broke into a huge grin.
“Now, why don’t you and your sister finish your breakfast and then, if it’s okay with Emily, you can take Thor outside for a walk. He looks like he could use some exercise to burn off all that junk you’ve been feeding him, Mr. Benjamin Keller. That okay by you, Emily?”
Emily thought about it for a second. She didn’t want to scare the kids, especially now that Simon was convinced of the need to leave, and tell them to stay inside. “Of course it is. Just, don’t stray too far,” she said. Using the kids’ affection for Thor, and his equal exuberance for their company, was about as obvious a manipulation of their emotions as you could get, but it was a means to an end. What the adults had to talk about was not for kids’ ears. Even Rhiannon brightened, quickly finishing the remains of her breakfast in a couple of bites.
Emily noticed Ben sneak the final piece of bacon from his plate and slip it to Thor as the three headed out the back door, the echo of their laughter and excited chatter floating back down the corridor.
Simon disappeared into the garage, reappearing a couple of minutes later with a large red plastic gas can in one hand and what looked like a bicycle pump in the other. The pump had two long lengths of thick orange hose attached to it, one at each end of the body; on its side was a crank handle.
Emily and Simon had quickly figured out that the Honda Accord parked out front was not going to be of much use to them. They needed something larger that could carry more supplies, Thor, and the four of them. Emily had remembered the Dodge Durango SUV parked in the garage of the house across the valley, and Simon had decided he would go and try and find the keys and bring it back. While Emily wasn’t particularly happy about them splitting up, it would save time and time was their most valuable commodity right now.
“It’s a hand pump,” said Simon, placing both items on the table. “That should solve our gasoline problem, but I’ll have to siphon gas from other vehicles. SUV’s are gas hogs, but as long as we’re careful and take every opportunity to keep the tank full, I think we’ll be okay.” He placed a large spiral-bound book he’d been carrying under one arm onto the table. “This might also come in handy,” he said. Emily canted her head sideways to read the book’s title: Michelin Road Atlas—North America: USA, Canada, Mexico, it read in large black letters.
Simon flipped open the atlas, found the page for New York State, and tapped his finger against Stuyvesant. “This is where we are,” he said. “We could head north up I-87 into Canada. Or we can head north for about twenty miles and can cross over the Hudson into Albany. Route 90’s right there, and that’ll take us west all the way into Michigan.”
Emily followed Simon’s finger on the map. The Mackinac Bridge was a suspension bridge that ran for close to five miles across the Straits of Mackinac, bisecting Lake Huron to the east and Lake Michigan to the west, and connecting Mackinaw City on the southern Michigan peninsula with Saint Ignace on the northern peninsula. From there it looked like it was about fifty miles to the Canadian border at Sault Saint Marie in Ontario.
“It’s a toll bridge,” said Emily, lifting her face to smile at Simon. “Better make sure we bring exact change.”
He gave her a toothy grin back. “Ah! A sense of humor…I’ll have to watch out for that.” Simon’s eyes dropped back to the map and he was all business again, flipping across pages of the atlas as he talked. “Once we’re in Canada, we can just head northwest toward Edmonton. From there it’s basically a straight line to Fairbanks in Alaska. I’d estimate it’s going to take us about a week or so if we drive a maximum of eight hours a day, maybe less if we don’t hit any bad weather.” He glanced up from the road map at Emily, his eyebrows raised questioningly. “What do you think?”
Emily wasn’t happy about the detour. It was going to take them into areas that were more populated than she was really comfortable with, but there was no arguing with Simon’s logic. It would shave so much time off the trip doing it his way. Still, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the decision. She had already seen how fast the world had changed; who knew what had happened since her last encounter?
Emily was still studying the route when Rhiannon and Benjamin, closely followed by a barking Thor, came tearing into the house. They were yelling at the top of their voices, “Dad! Dad! You have to come see what we found.”
Emily spun around in time to see the kids almost collide with their father. He threw his hands up as they skidded to a stop next to him. “Whoa! Whoa! What’s going on?” Thor padded along behind them, ignoring the two kids and heading straight to Emily’s side. Instead of sitting next to her, he circled her, stopping momentarily to sit, only to be up and pacing again a second later.
“Dad, you have to come see,” pleaded Rhiannon, tugging at Simon’s sleeve. “Come on.”
“Kids, I can’t. We’re going to have to leave very soon, and we need to plan. Okay?”
“But, but…you have to come see this.” Rhiannon’s voice had turned shrill. Her little brother stood quietly off to one side now, silently staring up at his dad with those big hazel eyes.
“No!” Simon almost snapped, probably a little more forcefully than the children were used to, because she saw them both flinch.
Thor was still restlessly pacing back and forth around her. Something had obviously spooked both the kids and Thor.
“Simon,” she said, trying to be heard over the children’s excited chatter as they pleaded with their father to follow them.
Simon apparently didn’t hear her because he kept on talking. “Ben. Rhia. Please. Emily and I are trying to talk here. Could you give us just a little time, please?”
“Simon!” Emily snapped, loud enough that everyone, including Thor, turned to face her. She managed to force a smile through the growing miasma of anxiety she could feel settling over the room. “I think it would be best if we let the kids show us what they’ve found.”
Simon met her gaze for a few long seconds. She thought she could see anger behind his eyes, but then it was gone, replaced by a look of bemusement as he stared down at his two children, as if seeing them for the first time since they had rushed into the house. He sank down to one knee and pulled first Rhiannon and then Ben to him, kissing them both on the tops of their heads. “I’m sorry, guys,” he whispered. “Dad’s just a little stressed out right now.”
The children hugged him back, then each grabbed a hand and pulled him in the direction of the back door.
On the way out, Emily stopped by the bedroom and pulled her shotgun from the shelf in the cupboard, where she had stored it out of the kids’ reach. She checked the chamber to make sure it held a round, then slung the weapon over her shoulder and went to join her newfound family.
The kids were pulling Simon along a path that led away from the back of the house up toward the summit of the hill, still babbling excitedly. Emily jogged to catch up with them. All signs of the tension she had seen in the man just minutes ago had disappeared and he was now laughing, playfully leaning back to make their job of towing him that little bit harder.
Ben and Rhiannon were both giggling and laughing between complaints of “Daaaaad! Stop it. Come onnnnnn” as they tried to drag him faster.