It took them about ten minutes of many trips back and forth. It wasn’t hard work, and it was nice to have his stomach full for the first time in a long, long while. The food made his body feel warm and whole again. He made a mental note to keep eating plenty of coconut oil. It was an easy way they could get calories, and it would keep them warm in the winter. And after the coconut oil ran out? Maybe they’d be able to render deer fat for a similar product. After all, it wasn’t like they’d ever get any more coconut oil again. It was just one of countless food products that were shipped daily from far-off countries to the United States, and as far as Jim knew, that entire shipping system was as dead as disco, which itself now had absolutely no chance of a comeback, given that there was no electricity.
With the gear in the RV, there was considerably less space than before, but there were still places for everyone to sit. Aly, though, needed more rest and lay on the bed, which was permanently installed, compared to those folding types.
Everyone agreed with the plan that Jim and Jessica had come up with, but there was some concern that they wouldn’t actually be able to reach Pennsylvania. After all, even smaller RVs like the one they had were notorious gas guzzlers. Jim estimated that, at best, it might get something like twenty miles per gallon, and that was really pushing it. He could make sure to drive slowly, keeping off the accelerator as much as he could, but the RV was heavy, and his efforts would really only amount to so much.
So if they couldn’t make it to Pennsylvania, they’d settle for somewhere out of the way in the southeastern part of New York state. How far they got depended on the availability of gas, and the condition of the roads.
They really didn’t know what they were getting into. There was no traffic report. No news channel to watch, telling them that such and such a highway was clogged up with cars sitting bumper to bumper.
They’d just have to try it out and go from there. There was only so much planning they could do without any more information. And when the time came to make the decision on where to park the RV, they’d just have to go with their gut instincts.
26
Rob was OK with the plan. He figured that they’d done the best they could, right after the EMP. Heading to the lake house had been a good decision. Just because it hadn’t worked out in the end didn’t mean it’d been the wrong thing to do.
They were still alive. And they had a chance to keep living. Those were the things that mattered most.
Rob also figured that Jim knew better than he did. He didn’t totally trust himself. He’d improved somewhat, and at times he’d felt like he’d been on the right track. He’d done some good. He’d saved Jessica, but then again, he’d frozen up at the wrong moments, crucial points where he could have been more useful, like when he and Jessica had been escaping in the Subaru.
It hadn’t been that long since the EMP, but it had felt like a lifetime. Things had changed. For all of them. But for Rob in particular. He knew that his thoughts were different now. He thought about things in a completely new way. Instead of scrambling to pay his bills, or avoid getting his car towed, he was thinking about the really crucial things in life: food, shelter, and friends.
He knew very well that if he’d been on his own, he’d be a dead man. Likely, he would have starved to death or met his end trying to find food. Maybe a knife, or a bullet to the stomach. It wouldn’t have been pretty, whatever it would have been.
Rob had always heard that humans were social animals. Back in the pre-history times, humans had roamed the earth in small groups, hunting animals and finding edible plants, making medicine from their extensive, scientific-like knowledge of the environment in which they lived.
Those early humans wouldn’t have gotten far if they hadn’t been in groups. If they’d wandered, alone, or in pairs, they would have quickly met death, and the species as a whole would have never survived.
The modern pre-EMP world had, in a way, made everyone feel that they were in their own world. Before the EMP, rates of isolation were higher than they’d ever been. For the first time in history, people felt like they didn’t need anyone else. Sure, that wasn’t everybody, but Rob had noticed it in himself. And it’d made sense. After all, he’d been responsible for his own taxes, paying his own rent, buying his own food. Basically, everything he’d done had been for him and him alone. Sure, not everyone was in that situation, but plenty were.
Before the EMP, entertainment had been a huge industry, and it just so happened that the more the industry progressed, the more individualized entertainment had become. Decades earlier, families had clustered around their one radio, and then their one television. But right before the EMP, it wasn’t unusual for each family member to have not only their own TV, but their own computer, their own individual phone, and who knew what else. Families didn’t have to watch the same programs, which was good in a way, but overall it had probably made each person simply feel more cut off from everyone else.
And feeling cut off was no way to survive in a post-EMP world. Rob realized now more than ever that he had to rely not just on himself, but on Jim, Aly, and Jessica. Together, they had a chance. And on their own? Probably not much of one.
If, before the EMP, Rob and Jim and the others had had the foresight to connect with others in an informal sort of way, things might have gone a lot differently for them. For instance, they could have planned things out so that they’d have had not only a place to head after the EMP, but similarly minded people with whom they could trade goods and services with. Maybe someone would have a patch of potatoes, and another person would have a bunch of chickens.
That wasn’t to say that Rob had any problem with individualism. It might have seemed somewhat contradictory, but he felt more like an individualist now more than ever. After all, he knew that he was totally and completely responsible for his own survival. It wasn’t like there was any government or group that was going to step in and save him when things went bad. There wasn’t just no 911 system, but there were no fire departments either, nor hospitals, nor any other social services.
It was just Rob and his little bands of friends. Each one of them had to pull their weight, or the whole metaphorical boat could sink. They were each individuals, yet all part of a cohesive group that would help each one of them survive.
“You OK, Rob?” came Aly’s voice.
“Huh?” said Rob, realizing that he’d been staring out the window for quite a while, not paying attention to what had been going on around him. “Uh, yeah. I’m fine, why?”
“You look like you’re daydreaming or something.”
“Just thinking.”
“We’ve got a lot of that to do. Here, check these out. Turns out this RV is loaded with maps. Help me with them, would you?”
“Sure,” said Rob, as Aly handed him a couple of folded maps of the eastern states.
Rob glanced at the maps, and then back out the window for a moment.
Suddenly, he realized that what he was looking at was familiar. It was the same road that he’d been on just yesterday when he’d been trying to find Jessica.
They were right near Danny and Lonnie’s house. And about thirty seconds later, Rob spotted their house.
Something didn’t look right about it. Then Rob noticed it: the front door was hanging wide open, completely visible from the street.
“Stop!” cried out Rob, reacting on instinct, rather than thinking about what he was doing.
“What is it?” said Jim, from the driver’s seat, already slowing down the RV.
“I know the people who live there,” said Rob, who was already getting out of his seat.