15 Miles From Home (Perilous Miles Book 2) Read online

  "You can say that again. By the way, this metal trailer is freezing. Isn't your butt getting cold?"

  "My butt's been cold for the last several hours. In about five minutes, I'll be standing in front of a roaring fire at home. I can last that long."

  Chapter 22

  Carly's mind was spinning with information overload and unanswered questions. How could something like this happen? She knew how it happened, or at least what her dad thought of the situation, but how could the government have let them be put in this position? Why didn't they try to protect the power grid from something like this? If they couldn't, why didn't they let the people know it was a possibility? More important than any of that … how was she going to get to her boys? Were they okay? The not knowing was driving her nuts — and making her very cranky.

  "Carly? Did you hear what I said? Carly!" Lauri said loudly.

  "What! No! What did you say?" she replied rudely.

  Lauri put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me — I don't believe I raised you to talk to your mother that way."

  Carly rolled her eyes. What am I, twelve? she thought. Sullenly, she said aloud, "Sorry. What did you say, Mom?"

  "I said, what do you think about going ahead and bringing some bedding in here for us to sleep tonight? The fireplace basically heats this room. If we do it now while there's still daylight, we won't be rummaging around in the dark later."

  "Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Where are they? I'll get them," Carly said, rising from the sofa.

  "Sheet sets are in the linen closet, and pillows and blankets are in the closet in your old room. Come on, I'll show you." Lauri started down the hall and Carly followed.

  When they walked into the room that Carly had grown up in, she stopped and stared as Lauri walked over to the closet door. Not that she hadn't seen them before but seeing the two twin beds that her sons used when they would spend the night there brought a flood of emotions to her. Sitting at the foot of the one closest to the door, she started crying again. Lauri turned at the sound.

  "Why? Why did this have to happen today? Yesterday they would've been home. They'd be here with me, with us. I don't think I can make it through this, Mom, not without my boys. And I can't figure anyway we can get to them. I can't, I just can't do this without them. I can't think about anything but them, wondering if they're all right, crazy with not knowing. What am I gonna do?" Carly was sobbing uncontrollably, almost gasping for air. Lauri set the blankets and pillows on the other bed and went to her daughter. She put her arm around her and Carly laid her head on her mother's shoulder.

  "I don't know why this happened today or any day. Crazy people do things sane people can't understand. I do know this though. We will get to Aaron and Cameron, and Elliott. We'll figure something out. That's a promise." The conviction in Lauri's tone was so strong that Carly raised her head and looked at her mother.

  "How can you promise that, Mom? We have no way to get there. And don't say the riding mower, because that's ridiculous. We need a car or a truck that works. Do those things even exist anymore?" Her breathing was calming down with only slight hitches every couple of minutes as she tried to get control of herself.

  Lauri stood, leaned over to kiss her daughter on top of her head, then walked over to retrieve the blankets and pillows. She carried them back to Carly, who stood as well, and took the load from her mother. Lauri calmly replied, "Because your dad won't rest until we're all together again. If there's a way to get there, he'll figure it out. Until then, we just have to trust Elliott to take care of the boys — and you know he will. If we can't have them with us, that's where I'd want them to be. Take that bedding to the living room and go wash your face. I'll get the rest of what we need."

  "Yes, ma'am," Carly said as she headed down the hall. Lauri closed her eyes and sent up a silent prayer.

  Lord, please keep our boys safe while we're not with them, all four of them. Amen.

  Joel was coming in from the garage when Lauri entered the living room with the sheets. She looked up at the sound of the door from the garage closing.

  "What were you doing out there, dear?" she asked as she laid the sheets on top of the blankets Carly had set down earlier.

  Slipping off his duck boots and sliding into his house shoes, Joel hung his coat on the doorknob and went to the fire to warm up. "I went ahead and shut the generator off and brought it in the garage. Carly's cooler has quite a few drinks in it — sodas, juice, that sort of thing — so we can use out of that for tonight. If I remember right, the forecast was gonna keep us pretty chilly over the next few days temperature wise, so we should be able to utilize coolers on the patio and in the garage to keep stuff cold, especially things you go into the refrigerator a lot for, like drinks. We should probably get the sandwich meat and cheese out tomorrow first thing and put it in a cooler outside. It will keep it colder there than in the fridge."

  Lauri smiled at him. "Already done. I pulled it out when I got the roast together. The ice in the ice maker had apparently started melting before you turned the generator on, because it was a big block of ice when I checked on it. I pulled it out, put it in a cooler, and put the lunchmeat and cheeses in with it, along with the milk. Lucky for us our eggs don't come from the grocery store since we don't have to refrigerate them if we haven't washed them. I set the cooler by the patio door just a few minutes ago."

  "That's my smart girl. Let me warm these old bones a minute and I'll put it out back with Carly's. Speaking of Carly, where is she?"

  Lauri's smile disappeared. Lowering her voice, she all but whispered, "She's in the bathroom cleaning herself up. She had a little meltdown a few minutes ago. She's just beside herself about Aaron and Cameron not being here. I tried to reassure her that we would find a way to them but honestly, Joel, I'm right there with her. The not knowing about Will — where he is, if he's okay, if he's on his way home — I have to keep myself busy, so I don't dwell on it or we would be sitting next to each other sharing a crying jag. I truly believe our grandsons are in the best hands they could be in during something like this, and I'm a lot less worried about them than our son at the moment."

  Joel wrapped his arms around his wife. The top of her head came to just below his chin as she returned his embrace. They stood like that for a moment comforting each other. He took a step back, looked down into her eyes, and said, "Our son will get home. I expect he'll be here before dark, if not sooner. For now, let's get that cooler on the patio and check your roast."

  "Did someone say cooler?" Carly asked as she was coming into the room. "I'm pretty sure there's still some beer out there, if anyone wants to join me."

  "I will," Joel replied. "It may be the last beer we see for a while." He grabbed his coat and boots and went to the sliding door that led out to the patio. Lauri followed with potholders. Joel set their cooler beside Carly's, then reached inside hers and pulled two beers out. He held one toward Lauri, who shook her head. Passing the beer bottles to Carly at the door, he went to the grill and opened the lid. The aroma was wonderful. Lauri took the cover off the Dutch oven and smiled.

  "I do believe it's done. I'll take it inside and make sure, but I think you can go ahead and turn the grill off."

  "Oh my God, Mom, that smells amazing! Now I'm starving!" Carly exclaimed.

  "Well, it needs to rest for a few minutes, but I think supper is ready. My goodness, it's getting colder out here. Let's get this inside before it cools off."

  The three of them walked in and stamped the snow from their shoes onto the towel Lauri had left by the door in an attempt to keep the floors as dry as possible. Joel had carried in the heavy cast-iron cooking pot and was just about to set it on the table when they heard a key in the front door lock. No one said a word as the door opened and Will stepped through with a woman they didn't know. Lauri's sharp intake of breath was the first sound anyone made. Will grinned, threw up his hands, and said, "Surprise! Merry Christmas!"

  Carly, Joel, and Lauri all but ran to the front door. Laur
i got there first and hugged her son fiercely. "Thank you, Lord, for getting our boy home. Oh, honey, you made it, you're here! We've been so worried! Are you all right? Are you hungry? Come in, both of you. Hi, I'm Lauri, Will's mother."

  Will laughed. "Hi, Mom. If you'd let me get a word in edge wise I'd show the lady I have some manners. Amanda, this is my mom, Lauri; my dad, Joel; and my sister, Carly. Guys, this is Amanda Frye. We met on the road, and I'll tell you the rest of it after I get in front of the fire and get a hot cup of coffee in my hand, although that beer Carly is holding looks pretty good, too."

  Amanda closed the door behind her and stood watching the reunion between Will and his family. Once they had welcomed their son and brother home, they pulled her into their embrace as well. Carly held her for a moment and whispered in her ear, "Thank you for helping my brother get home."

  Amanda whispered back, "We helped each other."

  Will and Amanda were pulled into the living room and relieved of their packs and coats. They stood side-by-side in front of the fire, warming first their hands and front and then their backs. Lauri asked Amanda how she took her coffee.

  "Heavy on the Baileys if you have it. It's been that kind of day, you know?"

  Carly laughed as she headed for the kitchen. "Oh, I like her already. I'll have what she's having. The beer can wait."

  The next hour was spent recounting each other's day, though Will and Amanda's was much more eventful. When Will described the blast he'd seen, Joel nodded solemnly. "Yep, sounds like my theory is correct. If it lit the sky like that, we're definitely gonna be in the worst-case scenario."

  "Which is?" Amanda asked.

  "The end of the world as we knew it, at least for the next few years," Joel replied.

  Amanda's jaw dropped. "Years? Did you say years? Why years? Oh my God, I'm never getting home!"

  Joel explained about the grid and transformers and sub-stations. When he found out home for her was Rhinelander, they spent a few minutes talking about that before Will turned to Carly. He had noticed the boys weren't there.

  "Aaron? Cam?"

  Her bottom lip started to tremble. Lauri reached for her hand and looked at Will. "They're safe. They're with Elliott."

  Picking up on the tension, Will replied, "Hell yeah they're safe if they're with him. They're probably safer than we are. At least Elliott can defend himself and his place. After what we ran into on the road, we're going to wish we had some of his guns."

  Joel turned sharply to his son. "What happened out there?"

  Will told them about the encounters on the highway, how some people had turned desperate quickly. Then he told them about the mobs on Stage Road. He told them about the attempted muggings — the first they were able to talk their way out of, the second they fought their attackers off. He looked at Amanda as he retold the story, while his family sat staring at them in shock.

  "Amanda here turned out to be an accurate kicker," he said with a smile.

  Amanda shrugged and replied, "Most guys are easily distracted by a well-placed knee to the junk."

  "Dear God, Will. You were mugged in broad daylight, right up the street from here?" Lauri asked in a fear-tinged tone.

  "Yeah, Mom. It's going to shit pretty quick out there. With all the people we saw on the streets, I'd bet the stores will be empty of any food in twenty-four hours or less. After that, it's probably going to get even uglier."

  When he relayed the story of the hold-up and the shooting at Kroger, Carly interrupted. "Did you say Lauren? The girl who got shot … her name was Lauren?"

  "I think so. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what I heard."

  Lauri looked at Carly. "What is it, honey? Did you know her?"

  Carly replied, "She checked me out Saturday. She was young, like barely older than Aaron. Why would they do that? Break into the store, shoot at people, kill a young girl like that?"

  "Because when people are scared they do crazy things, Carly," Joel answered. "Lots of others would have figured out when the cars and electronics wouldn't work this wasn't an ordinary power outage, even if they didn't know exactly what it really was. The strongest instinct in human nature is to survive. Survival means food, water, shelter, and protection. I'm sure those people would have been more than willing to pay for the food they looted, but unless they had cash, they wouldn't have been able to buy it, so they took it. In a few days, the cash won't be accepted anymore, once folks figure out it isn't worth anything now. You say all the stores you saw were being looted, Will?"

  "Yep. They hadn't broken into Dollar Tree yet, but my guess is they have by now. I don't think our cash will do any good, Dad. Everything close will be cleaned out tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest."

  "That's fine. We aren't going to use our cash for food anyway. We need something else, much more important," Joel said.

  "What's that?" Will asked his father.

  Joel replied resolutely, "Guns."

  Chapter 23

  "Nana is never going to let you give up your bed, Pap," Aaron said as they talked about how to make room for four more people in the three-bedroom home. The twin beds the boys slept in were actually bunk beds that hadn't been stacked for years. Elliott had them put the bunks back together, leaving half of the room open for a pallet on the floor, as Elliott called it.

  "I'm not sleeping on those wooden things, Pap," Cameron had commented at Elliott's phrase. "Just put me a sleeping bag on the floor or something."

  Elliott laughed at his younger grandson. "Not a wood pallet, like for shipping things. A bed of blankets on the floor is called a pallet, too. And, yes, you being the youngest, you'll probably end up there so your Uncle Will can have one of the beds." He turned to Aaron. "As for your grandmother, she's not the only one who can be stubborn. There's no sense in me having that big bed all to myself. I can sleep in my recliner in the living room. Lord knows I've done that more than once. Then your mother can have the other bedroom." Elliott had worked it all out in his head earlier and was sure they could all fit in the house — if not comfortably, at least securely.

  His biggest concern was how they would get out there with no modern vehicles running. They couldn't walk it. There was no way Joel or Lauri were in shape for something like that, any more than he was. He could go after them on his tractor. He had a ball hitch on it and a large trailer that would haul them and a lot of their stuff. The problem with that idea was they would all be exposed. If someone wanted to steal whatever they happened to have with them, the tractor wasn't built for speed and they could easily be overtaken, lose everything, and possibly get someone hurt. He was still considering it, but for now he felt like they should just stay put and hope Joel came up with a remedy.

  He went to the kitchen to start supper. He called out, "Boys! Get in here! I'm fixin' to teach you how to cook fried pork chops and taters!"

  After they ate and cleaned up the kitchen, Elliott heated water for hot chocolate for the boys. He had kept a pot of coffee on the back of the wood stove all day. It was strong, but he liked it that way. They sat in the living room enjoying their hot drinks and the warmth from the stove, each apparently lost in his own thoughts. Kerosene lamps that were sitting on tables close by cast a warm glow over the room. The lack of ambient noise caused by appliances that used electricity seemed very obvious. The silence was thick, like a fog inside the house.

  "Wow, it's really quiet now," Cameron said softly from the couch, as if the sound of his voice could somehow disturb the stillness.

  Elliott nodded. "Yep, you don't realize how much noise is around you all the time until it isn't. I'm betting a lot of folks are going to have trouble sleeping for a while, especially the ones who left a TV on all night in their room."

  "No TV for me, but I did have the radio on my alarm clock on when I went to sleep. Definitely going to miss that," Aaron said.

  Cameron sat up and exclaimed, "No more alarm clocks! No more school! Holy sh— um, cow … no more school!"

  "Oh, there'll be scho
ol, just a different kind," Elliott commented. "You'll be going to the school of 'Your Life Without Electricity.' There will be classes in 'How to Hunt, Grow, and Preserve Food if You Don't Want to Starve', 'How to Fix Your Own Leaky Roof', and 'How to Patch Holes in Your Clothes Because Nobody Is Making Them Anymore' for starters. The stuff they don't teach you in school is everything you're going to need to know now."

  "Yeah, school was definitely not preparing us for this life," Aaron added. "In fact, I said something to that effect to Mom when she told us we were coming out this week, that I always learn things from you and Nana and Pops that I don't get in school. I already learned a bunch of cool stuff from you today."

  Elliott grinned at his oldest grandson. "That's good, son, because we're just getting started. Tomorrow I'm gonna teach you guys how to milk a goat and clean out her stall."

  "How come you never taught us how to milk her before? She's been here a while and we've been here lots of times." Cameron scrunched up his face when he said, "And that stall cleaning sounds gross. It's got goat poop in it, doesn't it? I'll probably hurl."

  Aaron laughed at hearing his grandfather cackling as he replied, "Well, if you hurl, Cam, you'll have to clean that up, too, just so you know. Until your mom and grandmother get here, we're bachelors. We gotta take care of ourselves." Elliott paused for a moment, then went on. "And the reason I never taught you the milking before was … well … the only thing that comes to mind is that I didn't think it was something you were gonna need to know to get through life. I sure never expected anything like this to happen. Now that it has, all our priorities are changed. Before, we were just going along taking everything for granted: electricity, grocery stores, gas stations, that kind of stuff. Now, everything we do is going to be about our survival, or it should be. No time to waste on stupid reality shows or video games, which are gone for who knows how long. We'll be working all day on living and will probably be so tired at night we pass out asleep. But, in case you have a hard time falling asleep, I have some good books you can read. Outside of regular checkers and Chinese checkers, or card games, that's the closest thing to leisure time we'll probably see."