Tucked into the back of the alcove was a generator, a surprisingly large one, and as Sam finished she gave the tank bolted to the side a sturdy kick. Matt heard liquid sloshing inside. “Last time I came down here I noticed this and saw that it still had gas in it. Either the people working with it forgot it was here or they’ve already left like Professor Guthrie.”
Matt grinned as he crouched beside the generator, setting down his two 5-gallon cans and untucking the length of tubing he’d been holding beneath his arm. “I’m glad I’m the one you decided to hitch a ride with.”
“Yeah well I wanted to get away before these store riots I keep hearing about turn into something even worse, and considering it’s the middle of the night you seemed like the least rioty looty murdery option available.” Sam paused. “Okay the only option available, but you always seemed like a nice guy in class.”
“Oh, you were paying attention?” Matt asked with a slight smile, repeating her earlier words. Her only answer was a soft laugh.
The tank was up high enough that he could siphon the gas into the cans, which meant he had the delightful experience of breathing in fumes to get the liquid flowing. Thankfully he managed to not suck in a mouthful of gasoline in the process. It turned out the tank held a little more than six gallons, aside from a few last ounces he couldn’t manage to siphon out. With the miles per gallon his “piece of junk” managed he now had enough to make it twice the distance to Aspen Hill.
Sam offered to carry one of the cans but he refused. The gesture wasn’t so much chivalrous as the fact that carrying two similar weights in either hand balanced each other out, which for heavier things was almost easier than carrying half the weight unbalanced in one hand. Not that the cans were all that heavy. Instead he let her guide the way with the flashlight as they hurried out of the building.
Together they slipped through the darkness back to his car, where Matt filled the tank while Sam kept watch for security guards or other unfriendly faces. Finally they got in and Matt pumped the gas a few times to prime the engine, then held his breath and turned the key in the ignition.
The engine rumbled to life and ran smoothly, and he turned and grinned at the dark-haired girl finally fully revealed by the dome light. “Next stop, Aspen Hill.”
Sam grinned back. Just like he remembered she was pretty cute. “Great! Where is that, exactly?”
After everything that had happened that day Matt was a bit worried they’d run into trouble on the drive down, maybe car problems or roads being blocked. With the riots he even feared possible ambushes. But everything was uneventful as they left the city behind and made their way along Highway 6.
He spent the drive talking with Sam and got to know a bit more about her, and had to admit he liked what he heard. Although she qualified for student loans she’d been working part time during school and full time between semesters to keep the debts as low as possible.
She’d also picked a sensible major, although he hadn’t thought so at first. When she first said she was studying food sciences he’d thought glorified cooking, at least until she explained how the study dipped into the fields of microbiology, chemical engineering, and biochemistry. He was even more impressed when she went into detail about the complicated process of creating natural and artificial flavors in labs and the research and testing required, not to mention the production end of things. It looked as if her future was in a lab or factory, not a restaurant.
Or at least would be when the world got back to normal.
He also told her a little about himself, his time on the basketball team in high school and his mechanical engineering major at the university. It turned out that their fields had some interesting overlaps that made for a lengthy discussion, and the hour and a half drive ended surprisingly quickly, so he was turning off the highway and onto the smaller road leading to Aspen Hill before he even realized it.
Sam seemed surprised the drive was already over, too, and she had nothing but nice things to say about the town. Matt had wondered if growing up in such a big city would give her a disdainful view of rural living, but if anything she seemed to love the large yards and open countryside, and especially the black silhouette of the Manti-La Sal mountains looming to the west.
They weren’t the only ones surprised at their arrival, it seemed: Matt actually saw people coming out onto the porch to stare as he drove by. Were running cars really that unusual? Aspen Hill had one gas station so the City Council should’ve had fuel to use where needed, but maybe they were saving it for emergencies.
His parents’ house was a block off Main Street near the center of town, a modest 2-storey structure with a large yard that had a few fruit trees, some currant bushes, and a small vegetable garden his mom kept up, mostly for fresh greens. The lights in the living room were on, and as Matt pulled into the driveway behind his dad’s old truck his parents came rushing out of the house to stand on the porch waving.
His mom even took it a step further, coming down to practically pull him into a hug as soon as he got out of the car. “You’ve scared me half to death tonight!”
Matt hugged her back. “You didn’t get my email, then?”
“No,” his dad answered as he came down the stairs to clap Matt on the shoulder. “No cell phones, no internet, no cable.”
The sound of the car door opening turned Matt around, but before he could introduce Sam his mom beat him to the punch. “Oh, you’ve brought a guest!”
Matt knew his parents well enough to know that in spite of the grim present situation and the lack of warning that Sam would be with him there was no accusation in her tone, just surprise and pleasure. As well as that familiar unspoken question that everyone comes to recognize when bringing a member of the opposite sex anywhere near inquisitive parents.
“This is Samantha Hutchins. She’s in one of my classes, and when she saw I was leaving town she asked to come along. She found us the gas we needed to get here, and without her we wouldn’t have even gotten out of the dorm parking lot.”
“Hi, Mrs. Larson,” Sam began, pausing hesitantly as his mom rushed around the car to literally greet her with open arms. The dark-haired girl looked surprised at the hug, but she wasn’t awkward in returning it.
“Mona, please,” his mom insisted. “Welcome.”
“Thanks.” The hug ended and Sam stepped back, shifting a bit awkwardly. “And call me Sam. Look, I don’t want to be a bother. If there’s a hotel in town I’ll go ahead and stay there until I figure out what to do.”
“Absolutely not,” his mom said, equally insistent. “We have a spare guest room and I had a big dinner waiting for my son that’s ready to eat with a little heating. There’s plenty for two and I couldn’t dream of sending you away. Besides, there’s no hotel in town. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like.”
Sam was about to answer when the lights in the house abruptly flickered and went out. Not just those but the streetlights as well, and also the few other houses in sight that had still been lit up. In the sudden darkness Matt exchanged glances with everyone.
“Well it was bound to happen soon,” his mom said with a sigh. “Ed, you’ll need fetch the camping lanterns so Matt and Sam can unload. Good thing we had them ready just in case.” She put her arm around the younger woman. “Now really, dear, I couldn’t forgive myself if I let you go wandering off in the dark. Come on, let me show you where you’ll be putting your things.”