“Get this through your head right now,” said Jim. “The entire population of the Rochester area isn’t just going to suddenly keel over and die. They’re going to fight each other for food, water, and medical supplies. That’s assuming the systems don’t come back on, and I don’t think they will…”
“And then they’re going to leave the city,” said Aly, cutting Jim off and finishing his thought for him.
“Exactly,” said Jim, glad that his wife was getting it. “It’s not like all the cars don’t work. And, plus, people can walk and ride bikes. Even horses, like the cop we saw. We’re a little far back from the road and lake, but we’re not invisible. We’re going to have visitors, violent ones. It’s just a matter of how long it takes them to get here, and how many of them there are.”
“So what do we do?” said Rob, fear coming into his voice. Despite his huge frame, he could be like a little kid inside sometimes. “We’re screwed then, right? We’ve already got to worry about having to eat, and now we’ve got to worry about attacks or something?”
“We prepare,” said Jim. “It’s that simple. Now get to work.”
“And what are you going to do?” said Aly.
“I’m going for a walk,” said Jim.
“A walk?” said Rob, almost spitting out his words. “What about all this preparing? You really think this is a good time to take a little stroll?”
“I’m not just going for a walk,” said Jim. “I’m going to scout out the surroundings. We’d be foolish to bunker down in here without knowing what’s immediately around us. Aly, do you remember who any of the neighbors are? Or if they’re vacation homes or full-timers?”
“Uh, I don’t know. I think most of the houses are part-timers. Or they’re rented out. The only full-timers other than my uncle are the Carpenters.”
“The Carpenters?”
“It’s their last name. Two or three kids, I think. They’re kind of a weird family. Tight knit and secretive. I don’t really remember them well. But I think they got in a fight with my uncle once.”
Jim nodded, and turned to head towards the door.
“Jim,” said Aly.
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
Jim nodded.
“If I’m not back,” he said. “Don’t come looking for me. And Jessica, as of now you’re the only one who knows how to shoot. So you’re in charge of safety while I’m gone.”
She gave him a nod.
“You two will have to learn soon enough,” he added, before heading out the door, patting his Ruger in its holster just to make sure it was there. He hoped he wouldn’t need it.
18
It was strange, after so much confusion, activity, and violence, to be sitting fairly calmly in a living room.
It was almost as if, in a way, nothing had happened. That was mainly because there was no way to know what was happening in the city.
Obviously, the TV and radio didn’t work. And neither did any of their cell phones.
“It feels like we’ve gone back in time,” said Aly, making a passing remark. “Before there was internet and TV.”
“Don’t forget electricity and all that,” said Rob. “We’re going to live like the Amish.”
“With one key difference,” said Jessica.
“What’s that?”
“We’ve got guns.”
“The Amish have guns,” said Aly.
“They do?”
“Yeah. Hunting rifles, I think.”
“Huh,” said Jessica. “Didn’t know that.”
The time passed fairly slowly. It wasn’t particularly exciting work, but that in of itself was a nice change. Jessica would definitely have rather been sitting on the floor here than battling for her life out on the highway.
The three of them had already made fast work of the bottles. Aly had gotten a broom and simply started sweeping them away. Many of them were broken, and the floor smelled like dried alcohol.
“I guess he drinks a lot?” said Rob, apparently trying to make a joke.
Aly didn’t even respond to that.
The sky outside remained cloudy, and now that it was later in the afternoon, not much light filtered in through the windows at all. But it was enough to see by, and to arrange their gear and supplies by type.
They’d gotten a good haul from Aly’s mother’s house in Pittsford. When they had it all laid out on the floor, and sorted into rough piles, it was easier to see what was there.
Rob had gotten a lot of tools from the basement. There were the typical things, like screwdrivers and wrenches, and Jessica wasn’t sure how much good they would really do them. But at the very least, they could serve as improvised weapons.
There was the food from the kitchen. About enough for a month or so, if they didn’t eat very much. Roughly fifteen hundred calories a day, more or less. They wouldn’t maintain their weight on that much food, but they wouldn’t starve either, or waste away.
There was plenty of medicine, but Jessica noticed that there weren’t any antibiotics.
“My mother didn’t believe in them,” remarked Aly. “She thought you’d get resistant to them and they’d stop working.”
“But if you never take them, what’s the difference?” said Rob.
“I’m pretty sure antibiotic resistance happens across populations,” said Jessica. “Then again, I’m not sure. And I’m not a doctor. I wish we had some, though. If we get injured, we’re going to have to be very careful about infections.”
“Speaking of which,” said Aly. “What about those cuts on your leg?”
“They’re nothing,” said Jessica, brushing off the comment.
“Even so, I think I should check them out later. Get them cleaned up.”
“All right.”
For the most part, Aly was a little quieter than Jessica and Rob. And they weren’t talking that much, either. So it was like a strange silent little party, where they examined what materials and food they had to survive with.
Among the gear, there were a couple cheap plastic flashlights, the kind that are sold at the grocery store. To everyone’s surprise, they worked.
“I thought all electronics were knocked out?”
“Me too.”
“I guess not the flashlights.”
“Yeah, I remember Rob’s worked.”
“Huh.”
Jessica saw Rob taking out his cell phone, to see if it still worked.
Of course, it didn’t.
“It’s weird not being able to look this stuff up on the internet.”
There were mumbles of agreement.
Among the piles of gear, there was also duct tape, plumbers tape, bottles of detergent, bottles of soap, bars of soap, bleach, a couple drops of which could be used for purifying water, saws, axes, kitchen knives and utensils, an array of vitamins, a couple industrial dyes in small bottles, and a collection of glass jars.
And there was plenty more than that. Categorizing it all would take even more time. And Jessica wasn’t sure how much good most of it would do them.
There wasn’t much in the way of useful stuff in the lake house. Aly’s Uncle Jordan definitely hadn’t been someone who thought about preparing for disasters. By the looks of it, he hadn’t even thought about the following day, or the following hours. It didn’t seem that he’d even bothered taking out the trash most of the time.
No matter how many trips they took outside, loaded down with trash, there was still more trash in the house. And it smelled like trash, too. Jessica hadn’t noticed it when they’d first entered. Maybe she’d been preoccupied. But now after spending a few hours in the house, it seemed to be intensifying.
An hour or so went by, and the three of them went to work on the rest of the house. There was too much mess to really make headway that day, though they did uncover, under mounds of old clothes and trash, three perfectly functional beds. Plenty of room for them to sleep on.