Looking around and then down at Daisy to see she was relaxed, Arthur had an idea and went back inside. Pulling out his flashlight as he moved to the office and taking a deep breath, Arthur looked at the two male bodies lying on the floor. Feeling Nicole squirm as the smell filled her tiny nose, Arthur shined the light around the room and saw Ford and Chevy keys on the wall.
Shining his light on the bodies, Arthur saw keys clipped to the belt of one of the bodies and quickly darted in, seeing they belonged to a Dodge. Stepping out of the office, Arthur patted Nicole back to sleep as he moved away from the door and noticed Daisy had stayed back.
“Oh, some guard dog you are,” Arthur snorted, trying to clear his nose. Seeing Arthur heading for the door, Daisy followed. When he reached the door, Arthur raised the massive key fob and pressed unlock and saw the lights flash on the massive truck.
With a huge grin, Arthur pressed the start button and heard the Dodge crank up. “I like the automatic start,” he mumbled, walking over to the truck. When he opened the door, Arthur stepped back as a blast of heat hit him in the face.
Reaching in, Arthur turned the A/C on full blast and glanced at the instrument panel and saw the truck only had three thousand miles on it. “If that Suburban cost six figures, I don’t even want to know what this one would set you back,” Arthur said, looking around.
Far to the west, he saw a column of smoke in the air. “That is near the river,” Arthur noted, looking down at Daisy. Seeing Daisy just looking around panting, “I know they call it Lake Dardanelle, but they just put a dam on the Arkansas River and the backed-up water they called a lake,” Arthur huffed at Daisy.
Daisy just looked around, apparently not wanting to get into the argument Arthur was having with himself.
When the inside of the truck had cooled off, Arthur pulled it over to the front of the store. Putting the shifter in park, Arthur groaned to see the gas gauge at a quarter of a tank. Then he noticed that the meter read ‘Auxiliary’. Looking around, Arthur found the switch on the dash and flipped it to primary.
“Suck my ass!” he said, hitting the steering wheel as the gas gauge dipped to ‘Empty.’ Feeling Nicole squirm in the sling, Arthur cringed realizing he had shouted. “Sorry, puddin’,” Arthur whispered, patting Nicole and turning the truck off.
Climbing out, Arthur headed back in and found the kids still packing storage bins. Jogging to the office, Arthur grabbed the truck keys and patted the other body down to find the keys to the minivan. “Wondered who the minivan belonged to,” he mumbled after running back out of the office.
Checking the trucks, Arthur found both had half a tank and the minivan had a full tank. Moving back into the store, Arthur grabbed some supplies and a fifteen-gallon rolling fuel can that pumped fuel. Pulling the stuff outside, Arthur hooked up a small pump and fed a hose into the first tank.
Turning on the pump, Arthur grinned as the gas flowed out into the rolling can. He turned to see Daisy sitting down and looking up at him. “Yeah, the other way is faster, but I really don’t want to destroy the trucks unless we have to. We might need them,” he told Daisy and then waved at the trailers. “If nothing else, we can get the trailers.”
After all the fuel had been put in the new truck, Arthur sighed to see he now had a tank and a half. He almost put the stuff he’d used back in the store but instead, loaded it in the bed of the truck. Walking to the back of the trailer, Arthur pressed a switch and watched the ramp lower. “Yeah, I love that,” he said and then headed to the store.
Pushing the door all the way open, Arthur went in and climbed on the forklift. Driving outside, Arthur loaded up two hybrid buggies on display that had front and back bench seats with a small bed. Driving back inside, Arthur saw Kirk on another forklift picking up a pallet that held stacked storage bins.
“What are you getting?” Shawn asked, walking over.
Pointing to the back, “Feed. I don’t like it, but we will have to bring in more animals and until we can make enough feed, we’ll have to use this. They put too much shit in this stuff,” Arthur told him.
Looking out the front of the store, “I hope you’re driving that big ass truck,” Shawn gasped, seeing the Dodge with the goose-neck trailer hooked up.
“I am, Andrea will drive the Suburban,” Arthur said as Pat ran over.
“I have my list done, want me to load?” Pat asked with a huge grin.
Climbing off, Arthur pointed at the stacks they needed and then turned to Shawn. “Can you keep watch with Beth beside you?” Arthur asked.
Chuckling as he nodded, “Yeah, I take her fishing with me. Beth listens,” Shawn told him.
“Your lists done?” Arthur asked.
The chuckle died on Shawn’s lips at the question, but he nodded. “Yes sir, but, um, I hope you don’t mind, but I loaded up another two bins for Beth and I. We ain’t never had nice clothes, boots, and shoes like this before. I was goin’ to ask, but forgot. I’ll put them back if we don’t have room. I marked the bins,” Shawn said nervously.
Stepping over as Pat took off at a crawl on the forklift,
