of all the fuckers moving in and trying to take what they have.”
“Are any cities livable?”
“None of the big ones above the Mason-Dixon, that’s for sure. Forget all the big cities in California, except San Diego fared better than most. Atlanta, no. Nashville, Memphis, St. Louis, no. I’m not sure anyone in New Orleans noticed the power went off, so I can’t say about it. Omaha is better than you’d expect. Denver is trash, Colorado Springs isn’t. Makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Not to Sela, but she didn’t ask.
“What about the weather?”
“Nasty, even this early in the year. It looks bad, especially in the Midwest. I expect a lot of that cold air will come our way, so be ready.”
“Casualties?”
“Early estimates . . . most of Europe. Maybe two hundred million are still alive, a fourth of the population. Asia has lost at least a billion, some analysts think more. Africa and South America are doing okay, because of their warm weather, but the big cities were hard hit. Australia, New Zealand are in their warm season now, from what I hear they’re growing all the food they can. Here . . . North America has lost between a fourth and a third of the population. That’s just since September, a little over two months. It remains to be seen how many people survive the winter, and not just because of the weather.”
Sela leaned her head against Ben’s shoulder, stricken by what this man was saying. Here in the valley they’d worked hard, they’d done without, but in comparison to what she was hearing they were among the very luckiest.
“You and Gen and the ankle-biters are welcome here, you know.”
“We’ll come visit when things are better. I’m guessing a year, but it’s just a guess based on what I see happening on the military side. Even then, it’ll take years for manufacturing to recover, for jobs to come back, fuel pipelines to be functional. Save the seeds from your garden, bro, you’re going to be growing your own food for quite a while.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
After she and Ben went back down into the valley, the universe seemed to take pleasure in running her ragged, which Sela supposed was punishment for the lazy morning. She didn’t care; she’d gladly work her butt off in exchange for those hours with him.
He’d brought down an impressive collection of weapons with him, and after dropping her off at Carol’s, he left to make contact with others in the patrol unit.
As soon as she walked into the house, she was bombarded. Carol wanted her to come into the bedroom to keep her company, which Sela interpreted as meaning she wanted the skinny on what had or had not happened with Ben. Olivia was bored, and Sela’s arrival freed her to make the longish walk to a friend’s house. Barb was trying to cook, clean, and take care of Carol, which even with Olivia’s help was a lot on her plate. And laundry needed to be done.
Oh hell. Of all the things that being without electricity had made daily life more physically difficult, laundry was at the top of the list.
“It’s a trade-off,” she said to Barb. “We can run the generator long enough to wash the clothes, then hang them to dry. Using the generator means that down the road we’ll have less fuel for hot showers. What do we choose?”
“Washing ourselves is easier than washing clothes,” Barb said with impeccable logic.
“Done.”
They started the generator and Sela began doing the laundry. Funny—the washing machine felt like such a luxury now that she actually enjoyed using it. When she stepped back into the living area, Barb said, “Breakfast was really good this morning. That bacon was excellent, the best I’ve ever had.” She winked at Sela. “Too bad you missed it.”
Sela felt her face heating up, but she smiled and said, “I didn’t miss it. We had bacon, too.” We. How extraordinary, and how wonderful, that she and Ben were now we.
“What?” Carol bellowed from her bedroom.
Sela rolled her eyes at Barb. “How on earth did she hear that from her bedroom?”
“Superpower,” Barb replied, grinning. She turned back to the supper she was cooking. After her initial shock at the crisis, and fear of the unknown, Barb had settled in; cooking was her superpower, and Sela had the thought that without her they wouldn’t be eating nearly as well as they were.
“Sela Gordon! You come give me the skinny about him right now, or I swear I’ll crawl out