“Wow, the lot sure filled up,” Amber observed when they emerged outside again. “What was she talking about, with all that about Yankees leaving?”
Cami led them to their car, an older Nissan Pathfinder, and popped the tailgate. “There was a...well, a volcano exploded over near Africa. In the Canary Islands this morning around 5 o’clock…”
Amber paused, her bag halfway between the cart and the car. “Cumbre Vieja?”
Cami almost dropped her own bag. “How…?” As they got to the car, she felt her phone vibrate, nestled against her side in the purse. She unlocked the car for Amber and pulled her phone out, juggling a bag in her other hand.
She’d joined a Zello group—SC Emergency Comms—that used the popular app like a digital ham radio network. Alerts and messages could be passed, and group chats held, just like on regular ham radios, all at the push of a button. As long as she kept the app active and the phone charged, it was an invaluable source of information—but the net wasn’t very active. That meant something too, but what?
Amber smiled and put her bag in the car, then reached for another. “Mom, just because I think most of your disaster theories are a little far fetched, doesn’t mean I don’t listen.”
Cami smiled, and gave her daughter a one-armed hug. “Thank you,” she whispered into Amber’s hair, closing her eyes in relief. It felt good to have at least one person on her side. Normally, she was fine with people rolling their eyes at her. She knew Reese paid attention, but outwardly, he affected an aloof attitude that hurt sometimes.
This time, Cami knew it was going to be different. She just didn’t know how different. “That helps, sweetie—a lot. Thank you.”
“Of course, mom!” Amber chirped, reaching for another bag. “Besides, if it means you keep buying me stuff…”
“Excuse me,” a man said, shocking Cami at how fast he’d appeared behind them. “Are y’all done with these carts? They don’t have any more inside...”
“Oh,” Cami said, recovering quickly. “Oh, yes—yes, of course, here you go.”
“Thanks,” he said, taking the carts. “I wanna get stocked up before it hits, you know? Heard it’s getting bad in town and figured this was my best shot at finding anything good.”
“Good luck,” Cami said as the man walked off, dragging the noisy carts with him as he muttered about toilet paper.
“Okay, that was weird,” Amber muttered, watching the man head into the store with a small group of people.
“No doubt,” Cami muttered, closing the Pathfinder’s dented rear hatch, eyes still on the people in the parking lot.
A steady stream of shoppers flowed into the store now, while only a few at a time exited. She shielded her eyes from the late morning sun and scanned the lot. It was nearly 3/4 full—hardly worthy of the level of anxiety radiating off the people heading toward the storefront. Horns honked in the distance and the traffic heading west didn’t even look like it was moving, despite green lights.
“Can we hit Bath and Bodyworks now?” asked Amber, climbing into the front seat.
Forgotten in her hand, Cami’s phone buzzed again. She glanced down and her heart skipped a beat. Several notifications lit up the screen. People on the net had finally chimed in to report the announcement of tsunami advisories along the New England Coast. As she skimmed the notifications, another alert popped up -- from a man in Delaware -- who posted a copy of the National Tsunami Warning Center’s advisory for Cape Henlopen, at the mouth of Delaware Bay.
Breathe, Cami told herself. Advisories for New England and the Mid-Atlantic aren’t warnings of imminent danger…and they don’t apply to us.
Cami watched the westbound traffic sit through another green light. The flow of cars heading east had dropped to a trickle.
“Hang on a sec,” she muttered to Amber as she pulled up her maps app. She checked their location and noticed solid red on just about every road in Charleston. Traffic was snarled all over the city. She zoomed in and found a sizable, maze-like neighborhood just south of the Walmart that emptied out at several points onto roads heading west. A few of them showed no traffic—likely because the only time they did have traffic was rush hour.
Cami put the phone away, secure in the knowledge that they had a way west that didn’t seem to be clogged with traffic. She checked her watch. It had taken them about 40 minutes to get to town. They’d spent over an hour in Walmart. It had been almost six hours since the volcano erupted in the Canary Islands. Even if a tsunami had been created, it still wouldn’t be close to the US...yet. Cami figured they had another hour or two at least, before anything happened.
“Come on, honey, we’ve got one more stop to make.”
“Um, why aren’t you getting in then?” asked Amber from inside the car.
“Well, it’s such a nice day, I thought we might walk. It’s not far, and I don’t want to sit in that mess over there,” Cami added, pointing across the parking lot. “We only need to go a couple blocks.”
Amber sighed—loudly—but got out of the car. “I’m not wearing sneakers, you know.”
“You’ll be fine,” Cami said, throwing an arm around her daughter’s shoulder as they stepped into the sun again. We just need to walk over that bridge right there,” she said, steering Amber toward the rear of the Walmart.
“Oh, wait, isn’t that sushi place I like over there?” Amber squinted. “Right next to the marina? Dad used to bring me here all the time in high school.”
Cami grinned. “It might be,” she teased. “I think it’s another block east, but yeah, maybe we could get a bite to eat after I’m done shopping.”
“Sold! So where are we going that’s so important?”
As
