Grayson breathed in relief when he realized Rickey, Dusty’s stepson, was with him. Emma would have his hide if he didn’t bring the kid directly here if this was the real deal. Yeah… he’ll come here first; police business next—if ever.
With no way to communicate with his family, he hoped they’d all figure it out if this wasn’t a typical power outage. If they waited too long to leave and head home, there was no telling what they’d run into. Especially the women. And his little girl.
A chill ran down his spine.
He slowly shook his head from side to side.
If this was it, his long-awaited plan had failed on the first day.
3
“SHIT… MEET FAN,” Gabby announced as she hovered over her twin sister, Olivia, casting a long shadow.
“Shit meet sand, don’t you mean?” Emma said and laughed.
While they tried not to look around, it was hard not to see several people squatting out on the dunes. Men. Women. Children. No one was exempt from bodily functions, and after days of being stuck in their rooms, many had realized house-keeping wasn’t coming back. If they wanted to continue to sleep in their hotel rooms, they’d have to use the bathroom outside. All the public restrooms in the hotel were beyond ‘out of service,’ too.
Mothers had confiscated their children’s sand shovels to dig cat-holes, while the kids stood wiggling in place uncomfortably, tear-stained faces shining. Make-shift screens were thrown up with daddies holding beach towels or umbrellas and then taken right down. Everything was valuable now. Couldn’t afford to leave it up to help others who may not have a towel or umbrella. It was every man for himself and this was the hardest part—so far—for the children, especially the young ones who not that long ago were trained to only potty in a private toilet. Teenagers were even more hesitant. They’d rather plan their own funeral than poo in public. It was hard on everyone.
Several small groups of people were clustered around pots or large bowls covered in saran wrap. Inside the pot or bowl would be another smaller bowl, in which to catch the excruciatingly slow dripping condensation from the salt water they were trying to desalinate to drink. Right now, it was mostly all fun and games and wannabe survivalists tried to show off their skills.
Soon, it would become deadly serious.
Emma and Gabby exchanged rueful glances. Neither one of them wanted to get involved with strangers but someone should tell them it would take all day to fill a small container up like that, and it wasn’t enough for even one person to survive on. They were only making things worse for themselves sitting in the hot sun and sweating. They needed more containers. Lots more, and set out in a safe and sunny place that wouldn’t require people standing over to watch in the hot sun.
Like maybe on their balconies?
Duh.
And then there was their sister, Olivia, doing her own bit of avoidance. In the resort, they were sheltered from the madness and chaos running rampant in the already-crazy tourist town of Myrtle Beach. But several people had left the resort and reported back that things were nucking futs out there; looting, fighting, and worse was going on outside the resort gates. Emma and Gabby had wandered out themselves and hurriedly returned. After what they saw, there was no doubt it was time to get out of Dodge, before things got worse. They certainly weren’t going to get any better.
Gabby crossed her arms, fuming that Olivia was just sitting there on the beach, paperback in her lap, enjoying the sights and sounds of the ocean, while she and Emma had worn themselves out walking in the hot sun. They had hoped to find at least one gas station nearby that still had gas and a generator to pump it. Or water. They’d found nothing. Gabby had wanted to venture out further, but neither of them had wanted to leave Olivia behind in her little bubble of denial for too long.
Olivia gave her identical twin sister a bored look. “What now, Gabby? Fire and brimstone raining down from the sky?” She looked from Gabby to their little sister, Emma, and took a long sip of water.
Great. Now we’re down to three bottles, Gabby thought. They were the lucky ones. They’d brought along a case of water to keep in their room for the trip. But their supply was quickly dwindling down.
Emma smiled at Olivia patiently.
They all knew it was time to leave. Olivia was just being stubborn, refusing to believe this could possibly be the event that her own husband has been preparing for; that they’d all helped to prepare for. Apparently, she had thought it had all been for fun and games for them to learn to shoot, and to can veggies and the other dozens of survival skills that her own husband, Grayson, had insisted they try. A fun hobby. Something to do to bring them together as a family. She probably never thought this would really happen.
Gabby swung her long, brown hair over her shoulder and put her hands on her hips. She looked to her little sister, Emma, who stood beside her for support. Emma was their little mini, except she was eight years younger—in her mid-twenties—and four inches shorter. She shared the same slender build, long dark hair and blue eyes. If it wasn’t for the height, they could pass as triplets, even with the age gap between her and the twins.
Emma shrugged, not yet ready to choose sides between the twins.
“Olivia, I’m serious,” Gabby said. “I think this might really be it. Remember those loud noises we heard after the power went out? Some of the other guests said it was transformers exploding. This is more than just a power outage. If you walk out of the resort and up the road, you can still see smoke. There’s buildings on fire. Things are crazy out there. They’re going to get worse. We need to get home.”
Olivia shook her head. “It’s been two days, Gabby. Give them time to find the problem and get the power back on. Let’s wait it out, get a good night of peaceful sleep tonight and see if things are back on tomorrow. I’m not leaving our vacation. Don’t be silly. What are we going to do, walk two hundred miles home?”
She faced the ocean again, watching the waves roll in and break against her feet. She wiggled her toes, poking the carefully manicured red tips up out of the sand, as though she didn’t have a care in the world… just another day at the beach, la-la la-la la…
Gabby wanted to slap sense into her. They needed to get moving. Grayson had always predicted if this ever happened, it would probably be only two or three days before all hell broke loose and people lost their minds—and their humanity. Then it would be TEOTWAWKI: the end of the world as we know it. And Emma’s husband, Dusty, had agreed. He was a cop for Pete’s sake. How much more validation did Olivia need?
“It’s not just the power. It’s the internet, too. And phone service. All communications. We’re cut off here from the world. Ever known that to happen before? So yes, that’s exactly what we’re going to have to do. Walk. Because you didn’t want to fill up with gas before checking in and now, there is no gas to be had. And that’s not all, either. Not only is it the electricity, phones, air-condition, and internet. It’s water, too. Water is the game-changer. We really have to leave now because the hotel is out of water—and food. All the water we have is what’s left in our room. And here you sit in the hot sun, drinking it. We’ve got to head home,” she insisted.