the road a ways. There’s no place to turn my truck around for at least half a mile.”
“I know.” Ben didn’t offer assistance, or express sympathy. Kilgore would spread the word. He wouldn’t be back, and neither would anyone else he talked to about Ben’s lack of hospitality. And the shotgun. Perfect.
He stood on the porch and watched Kilgore leave. After the other man had trudged out of sight, Ben went back inside and stood the shotgun in its place beside the door.
He thought about Sela Gordon being in charge of the valley, and couldn’t quite picture it. She was so damn quiet it was hard to tell, but he figured she was competent and probably better suited to the job than most, if she could develop a sense of command.
Ben’s way of organizing would be to tell everyone they were on their own. Those who were unprepared had only themselves to blame. Those who had prepared would be okay, for the most part. People would die, and soon, but here in this part of the world, most would probably do just fine. They could hunt and forage, fish and barter with neighbors. Those who were so inclined would band together and make it work.
They didn’t need him, and he sure as hell didn’t need them.
Ted Parsons sat on his screened-in porch and looked out over the valley. It was always quiet here, but at the moment the silence was deeper than usual, more complete. Even the birds seemed to be hunkered down, waiting for the solar event to pass.
Most of the neighboring houses on his road had been vacated; they were rentals, though there were a few locals who lived here, like John Dabbs, the widower who lived up the hill a ways. John was a pain in the ass. Whenever Ted and his wife, Meredith, were here, John would come knocking on the door asking for something, anything, from coffee to a screwdriver or to borrow the lawn mower. John was a mooch. The fact that he hadn’t been around likely meant he was visiting his daughter in Memphis. There were a couple of other full-timers, people Ted knew from the neighborhood association where they discussed things like upkeep on the road, and maybe doing some landscaping at the entrance, putting up a security light there. Ted was against both the landscaping and the security light. He didn’t want to make the road look more inviting, or easier to find.
His vacation house was located in what he considered a prime spot on the side of the mountain, not so high that it was difficult to get to, but high enough that he had a nice view. He and Meredith tried to drive down from Ohio at least one long weekend a month, and they’d talked about retiring here when the time came. He considered himself as much a local as anyone else in the area. He contributed with his dollars, in taxes and purchases made in the valley and beyond. He made legitimate complaints to the agencies who managed the rental cabins on this road, when the grass grew too high or repairs needed to be made, or when renters parked on the street or worse, in Ted’s own driveway. Why the hell would people think they had the right to park in someone else’s driveway?
Yesterday a sheriff’s deputy had knocked on his door and asked him to leave, because “tourists should go home while they could.” He was still pissed about that. He wasn’t a damn tourist, he owned this property, and so what if he didn’t live here full-time? This was still his property and he belonged here as much as anyone else did. They should’ve been asking for his help, not attempting to run him out of his own house. He knew how to run things, how to take charge and give orders.
If nothing happened, he and Meredith would go home when they’d originally planned to, on Sunday. If the CME did hit and it was as bad as it had been predicted to be, then they were in a good place right here. He’d never admit it aloud, but he’d be disappointed if the scientists were wrong and when this was all over nothing changed. There were opportunities to be had in a crisis, if someone—like himself—was smart enough to seize those opportunities.
Meredith walked onto the porch, phone in hand. “My texts won’t go through. It just keeps spinning and spinning!” Her voice trembled