the required bits and pieces, and the dog, which jumped out of the truck to a chorus of “Good-looking dog” from the hunters in the group, and “Oh! A dog!” from Olivia, who sat down on the concrete curb around the pumps and entertained the energetic animal with lots of petting and ear scratches.
“Where’d you get him?” Trey asked Ben. In some dim recess of memory, Sela recalled that Trey used hunting dogs.
“He wandered up several weeks ago, hungry and lost. I thought I’d give him to the Livingstons, so they won’t be scared about staying by themselves after what happened yesterday.”
Yesterday? Had it just been yesterday that Jim had shot the home invader? She looked at the dog and fought against a surprising welling of tears. Ben had stubbornly not named the dog, but she’d seen him with it and knew he’d become reluctantly attached to it. For him to give it to the Livingstons said something about him, because instinct told her he was a man who had lost too much to easily give up now what was his. Giving away the dog would cost him, emotionally, though she thought he’d rather eat ground glass than let people know.
He gave her a quick glance, as if keeping track of her location, then he and Trey began working on the suction pump. She knew nothing about mechanics and probably the best thing for her to do was stay out of the way. If she was less tired she’d have gotten the broom and started sweeping all the broken glass out of the store, but when the flood of adrenaline had drained away it left her feeling almost comatose. Olivia had to be feeling the same way. Sela sat down beside her and played with the dog for a while, then worked up the energy to offer, “Do you want me to take you home?”
“Not yet,” Olivia replied, after giving it some thought. “I’d rather wait until you can go in with me.”
Sela softly laughed. “Coward. I understand completely.”
After what seemed like a couple of hours of tinkering, Ben asked her to move her Honda away from the tank access ports. The request made her realize she hadn’t once checked to see if the Honda was damaged, but then she’d been sitting beside Olivia in something of a stupor. Getting up, she trudged over to her vehicle.
Amazingly, it seemed to be okay. She started the engine and pulled forward without closing the door, stopping when Ben barked, “Right there,” though she’d moved no more than ten feet.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, leaning out to look at him.
“It’s your gas. You get first go.”
She’d had pretty much the same thought but was so tired she’d forgotten about it. Then she looked at her gas gauge and shook her head. “I filled up right before the CME, and I still have a full tank.” She had started the SUV a few times to keep the battery charged and the fluids moving, but until she’d driven it up Cove Mountain the day before to see Ben, it hadn’t been moved at all in about two months. Not only that, she still had the small tank of untapped hundred percent gasoline to fall back on, but she’d save that news for later.
“All right.” He waved her on, and she pulled forward out of the way. As it happened, almost everyone there had also filled up beforehand, but had brought five-gallon cans to get extra. Ben and Trey opened the access to the largest tank and in short order had gasoline flowing. Mike wrote down who got how much, for Sela’s records.
Generators would be running tonight, she thought, glad for everyone in the valley. Those who had their own wells would have running water, and be taking hot showers—and likely letting their neighbors who were on a water system and thus had no water, because there was no power to pump it from the reservoir tanks, use their showers, in exchange for whatever they had to barter. She thought about making sure portable generators were taken around to warm the houses of those who didn’t have fireplaces, which reminded her of the possibility of making braziers. There was so much to remember, and she was so tired . . .
“Someone’s coming,” Olivia said, rousing to look down the road. Her voice sounded half-drugged. She had been half-asleep, too, leaning against Sela’s shoulder.
“A whole bunch of someones are coming,” Sela observed. The headlights Olivia had seen were