closest, but others had had the same idea and a steady stream of headlights was snaking toward them. Others were arriving on foot, plastic gas cans in hand. So much for waiting until about nine. On the other hand, with everything that had been going on, no one was getting any sleep so they might as well start pumping gas.
Ted Parsons and a couple of other members of the community patrol were the first few drivers to arrive. Ted got out of his car and stood looking around, his mouth open in astonishment. To save fuel everyone had turned off their vehicles, but there were plenty of spotlights and flashlights at hand and the scene was lit well enough to see that something had happened. Ted had his own flashlight, and he shined it at the large open spaces of the store, where the windows had been.
“What the hell? What’s going on?”
“Someone tried to steal the gas,” Mike told him. “Sela and Olivia were standing guard and kept it from happening, but the store took some damage.”
Ted turned to look at Sela and Olivia, sitting huddled by the gas pumps. “When did this happen?”
“Just guessing, but four, maybe five hours ago. What time is it now?”
Ted didn’t reply. He shook his head, looked around, looked back at Sela and Olivia. He opened his mouth a couple of times, shut it, then turned to Mike. “Why are all of you here? How did you find out it happened?”
“I heard the shots,” Mike said.
“So did I,” Trey added.
“What woke me was someone driving by my house,” Harley Johnson said. “That’s a sound you don’t hear very often now. I got up and went outside to listen, and was about to go back to bed when I heard the shots. I threw on some clothes and hightailed it in this direction.”
Watching from her safe distance, Sela could see Ted’s jaw clench. She imagined he was turning red, though that was impossible to tell in the beams of flashlights.
“Do you people not want me in the patrol?” he bellowed. “This is the second time no one has come to notify me when something important is going on!”
“You live kind of out of the way,” Mike pointed out, though it was obvious he was struggling to be reasonable. “And I didn’t know what was going on until I got here. We don’t have phones, remember, and everyone who is here is someone who heard the gunfire and came to check. No one notified anyone, we didn’t single you out. Besides, by the time we got here, it was all over and whoever was trying to steal the gas had left.”
“But you’re still here, keeping watch. Someone could have come to my house.”
“That’s true, though we aren’t exactly keeping watch.” Mike sighed, and glanced toward Sela in an obvious plea for reinforcements.
She sighed, too, and got to her feet. She was the acting community leader, so she had to act. She went over to them. “While everyone was here—”
“Everyone wasn’t here, is my point!” Ted barked.
“It’s a figure of speech.” She paused and reached for patience, which wasn’t as accessible as it usually was. “While we were here, Trey decided to see if the suction pump would work. It didn’t. Ben went back to his house to get some parts, came back, and they got it working.” Hoping he could be redirected, she said, “Why don’t you pull your car up to the tank and get some gas now, there’s no point in waiting.”
He paused, and for a few seconds she hoped the redirection had worked. Then he looked around and said, “What about everyone else? I’m not the first in line.”
“Almost everyone here already had a full tank, me included.”
“Almost?”
“A few have topped off their tanks, and filled some fuel cans.”
She might as well have said they’d handed out hundred-dollar bills, and all he was going to get was a couple of ones. “Thanks for waiting for me,” he said sarcastically.
“Ted. We’ve pumped out a small fraction of what’s in the tanks. The community patrol gets it first. You’re in the community patrol. Some members were ahead of you, some will get gasoline after you.” She could hear her voice getting tight, her words clipped, but damn this had been a tough night, a tough two nights with a stressful day sandwiched between them, and normally she didn’t even think this way but stroking his ego was way down on her list of things to