“Why aren’t you with the force there?” said Aly.
He waved his hand. “It’s a long story,” he said. “For another time. Tell me what’s been going on here.”
Aly told him briefly about the Carpenters, how she’d been shot, and the battle that had taken place with them.
“And nothing else happened? No one else is around here? No gangs? No police?”
Aly shook her head. “We’ve been lucky so far.”
“Hey!” shouted a male voice from outside the bedroom.
Aly heard the front door squeaking on its hinges. It took her a second to realize it was Rob’s voice.
“Rob?” she called out.
Rob appeared in the doorway, sweating from head to toe. His hair, a little longer than he normally kept it, was drenched and plastered against his forehead. In another context, his appearance would have been funny.
But now, it made her heart leap with fear.
“What is it?” she said.
All heads were turned, facing Rob.
“There’s someone out there,” he said. “Someone with a gun.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Where’s Jim? And Jessica?”
“They’re off to investigate some RV thing.”
“Shit,” muttered Rob.
“Well,” said Jordan, standing up and tapping Andy the cop on the arm. “You’re the cop. Why don’t you get out there and see what’s going on? Give him your gun, Rob.”
Rob shook his head. “No way,” he said.
“Well, how’s he going to defend us without a sidearm? As I understand it, his was taken in the line of duty.”
“Uh, that’s right,” said Andy, looking nervous. “Look, I don’t think going out there in uniform is the best approach. Maybe he’ll just leave.”
“What?” said Jordan. “What happened to bravery and all that? Bravery in the line of fire?”
“Well, it’s just that…”
There was a loud knock at the door.
“Anyone in there?” came a rough, male voice.
“He’s here,” whispered Rob.
Jordan didn’t sound nervous. He wasn’t talking like he was nervous, but when Aly glanced at him, she saw that he was sweating. Beads of perspiration had accumulated on his brow. And his hand, which he was trying to conceal close to his body, was shaking almost violently.
“I’ll deal with this,” said Rob, taking a deep breath and turning back around to head out of the room.
6
Jim didn’t want to approach them with a gun drawn. For all he knew, they weren’t violent people and weren’t armed themselves. And if that was the case, the presence of a gun might cause them to become fretful. And even violent.
No, it was better to try the peaceful approach first.
He knew he was taking a risk approaching them like this. It was just him against a group of an untold number.
But at least he was just risking himself.
Then again, if something happened to him, it’d put the rest of the lake house group, his wife included, at greater risk.
He sighed. Everything seemed wrong, no matter how he looked at it.
He tried not to think about Aly’s uncle and the new cop stranger. It was strange. A strange situation, and the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t like it.
He’d have to do something. Think of something. Come up with some plan.
But he’d worry about that later.
Up ahead, he could see the RV folks more clearly. It looked like they were setting up a grill.
They didn’t look dangerous. One of the men wore shorts and boat shoes. He looked like a guy on vacation.
If there hadn’t been the EMP, it would have looked totally normal. Just some friends with some RVs gathering around a nice lake for a cookout.
But that’s not the way things were.
“Hey there,” shouted Jim, when he was within earshot of the RVs.
He waved his hand. A big wave. Trying to make it look as friendly as he could.
He didn’t want to catch them off guard.
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
Jim held both hands up in the air, trying to show that he wasn’t holding a weapon. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
It took them a long moment to respond. All of the men and women seemed to look to one man who was taller than the rest, as if he was the leader. He had short, close-cropped hair on the sides, and was bald on top. He was clean-shaven, wore flip-flops and a polo shirt along with khaki shorts. He looked like he might have worked at a bank or a credit union, or even in one of the financial institutions on Wall Street.
The tall man stepped away from the grill that he was setting up and beckoned Jim to come over with a wave of his hand.
“What can I do for you?” said the man.
The others parted as Jim approached. They stood around the tall man and Jim in a semi-circle.
It seemed like a strange question, given the circumstances.
“I saw your RVs approaching from my house,” said Jim. “And since it seemed like you were setting up camp, I just thought I’d come by and see…”
“And see what our intentions were?” said the man, with a slight frown.
“Basically,” said Jim. “Don’t take it the wrong way. But you never know who’s going to be peaceful and who isn’t.”
The man nodded, as if he was deep in thought. “Well,” he said. “What can I say? We’re in the same boat as everyone else.”
“Were you on vacation when it happened?” said Jim.
“Yeah, a summer thing for folks with RVs.”
“Where were you?”
“Up in Canada.”
“And what’s happening up there? We haven’t had any news of the outside world at all.”
“It’s the same everywhere, from what we’ve seen. We kept away from the cities. But there are people everywhere, stragglers, wandering the roads. People in distress. People in bad shape. All sorts of injuries. Starvation.”
“Any sign of the police? Of the National Guard? Or whatever Canada’s equivalent is?”
The man shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “Nothing.”
“And what’s your plan?” said Jim.
“Well, basically to stay here. We can fish here and it’s relatively peaceful. I’m assuming that’s why you chose this spot as well.”
“Well, that and we already had a house here.”
“I figure there’s plenty of fish for all of us,” said the man.
“Yeah,” said Jim. “It’s a big lake. The thing I’m worried about is others coming. People who are less friendly. Did you run into anyone like that?”
“Well, we’ve been driving around the country for years. We know the area well, and we stayed out of the trouble spots. But we heard rumors.”
“Rumors of what?”
“Gangs, basically. Criminal organizations taking hold. Controlling the remaining resources.”
Jim nodded. “The cities are going to be a disaster.”
“It’s not just the cities. It’s all over. They’re spreading out.”
“Hey,” said Jim, switching tracks. “I guess you managed to get fuel for your RVs?”
The man nodded. “My friend over there is a very clever engineer. Worked for a top firm in Canada. He rigged up a hand-crank pump that could get the fuel up from the tanks in the ground. But…”
“But what?”
“It was getting too dangerous.”
“Too dangerous just being out there, on the road?”
“Well, that, and the gas stations were getting dangerous. Plenty of people hanging around, either trying to loot the stores or just trying to rob and kill those who came by looking for gas.”
“So there are plenty of vehicles still working on the road?”