If there’s no electricity my security system won’t work; anyone can break in with no warning, and I won’t be able to call for help, either. Our cars will run out of gas, there won’t be enough food, I don’t have a fireplace for heat and can’t cut firewood anyway—”
“You’ll move in here,” Carol promptly said, breaking into Barb’s panicked litany though she darted a concerned look at Sela even as she said it. She gave Carol a small nod, telling her it was okay she’d asked Barb instead. Okay? Sela was downright relieved.
Barb’s face crumpled with relief. “Really? Is there room?” She looked at Sela. “I thought you’d—”
“No, I’m staying in my house,” Sela said firmly. “Carol and I are combining supplies and I’ll eat here, but I’m sleeping at home.”
“Won’t you be safer here?” Bless her, despite her deep gratitude at being invited to stay with Carol, she was persistent in trying to take care of Sela, too.
“I’ll be as safe as I’ve ever been, living alone,” Sela said practically. She had a small portable generator, but it made more sense to move it to Carol’s house since three people would be here, and she herself would mostly be here except for the nights. She would keep warm with her wood-burning fireplace for heat, backed up by her kerosene heater. She’d be stingy with the heater because she didn’t have an unlimited supply of kerosene . . . and that reminded her they should get down to business. In a pinch, she could share a room with Olivia or Carol, but that would be a last resort. She needed her own space.
She tapped Olivia’s sheet of paper. “Number two: we need more wood. Oh crap! I forgot about getting gas and kerosene! I’ll fill a few five-gallon cans at the store, so we’ll have enough on hand to run the generator until we use everything in the fridge and freezer, but we have to buy kerosene.”
Olivia dutifully wrote it down, and the three older women looked at each other with worry in their eyes. Everyone else would be thinking the same thing, and the window for acquiring those supplies was rapidly closing.
“Dear God,” Sela said, getting to her feet. “I need to be working on that right now.”
“I’ll help,” Carol said, also rising. “First things first. Barb, go back to your house and get what you want, bring it back here. Olivia, go with her to help. Bring all your food, Barb, batteries, flashlights, oil lamps—”
“And ammunition and whiskey,” Sela added, with a quick smile at her aunt.
“I don’t have any ammunition,” Barb said smartly, and smiled. “Get all the produce you can grab, and we’ll work all night canning it. I have lots of jars and lids. I meant to put up a lot of food this summer but always found something more fun to do. That’ll teach me.”
All over the valley, Sela thought, people were probably coming to the same conclusion and hauling out their pressure cookers. She hoped they were, anyway. She’d never done any canning herself, but that was about to change.
“Chop-chop,” Carol said, and they all headed out on their assigned errands.
Carol had two fuel cans at her house and got them; Sela had one at hers, which she fetched, and five new ones in the store. She stopped there, darted in to get them, then she and Carol evenly divided the cans and went their separate ways.
She half expected someone to pull up to the door, looking to clean off her shelves. But the cars that were on the road didn’t even slow down. There weren’t enough supplies in her little store to tempt anyone. If there was, she wouldn’t be heading to town herself.
Sela could barely pay attention to her driving. Her thoughts were doing the crazed rabbit thing again. What else would they need? Duct tape. She didn’t know why, but duct tape seemed important. Salt, lots of salt; sugar, flour, cornmeal, powdered eggs, powdered milk, any basic food stuff that wouldn’t need refrigeration. Anything canned—literally, anything.
She imagined before this was over, people would be eating whatever they could get, even things they never would have touched before. She’d bought what seemed like a ton of stuff earlier in the day, but viewing it from the other side of the official warning, she knew they’d need more.
Town was chaos. The grocery store parking lots were full, with people driving up and down the aisles looking for parking spaces. She couldn’t