“Membership has its privileges,” Cami muttered to Amber as they followed the lanky youth.
“How’s your dad?” called Amber as Cami started shopping.
“Oh, he’s cool. Got his hands busy with the marina right now, you know?”
“There were a lot of boats moving around out there,” Amber said as the two of them moved toward the back of the store.
Cami went straight to the freeze-dried camping foods and began to empty the shelves, throwing everything she could into the hand basket. She only half paid attention to Amber and Mitch’s conversation. He was telling her about their fathers hanging out at the marina in the good old days. As they reminisced about adventures down by the docks on summer vacations long ago, Cami set her full hand basket on the counter and grabbed another.
She slipped over into the miscellaneous gear aisle and tossed in bundles of rope, tent stakes, and a new hatchet, then moved into the fishing aisle. Spools of mid- and high-test line went in the basket, along with a few assorted packs of lures and synthetic worms, weights, bobbers, and hooks. She grabbed two hi-end collapsible fishing pole kits and added them to the stack.
Cami looked at the two baskets on the counter. Reese would kill her if things turned out just fine and she ended up spending all this money for nothing. “No, not for nothing,” she muttered. If everything blew over—as she hoped—all the gear and supplies she bought today would easily fit right into her normal expenses for the guide season coming up in the fall. It just meant less shopping later.
Cami frowned, staring at the local maps and trail guides. On the other hand, if she was right and a mega-tsunami did hit...there might not be any shopping for a long, long time. At least not by the coast.
“...taking things pretty serious, you know?” Mitch said as he and Amber returned to the front of the store.
Flashing lights lit up the store as a cop car slowly worked its way east toward the coast, loudspeakers blaring. Though muffled, the cop’s voice was clear over the din outside. “...urging everyone to evacuate the city at this time. Governor Wilson has ordered a mandatory evacuation of all coastal cities and towns. Please leave as soon as possible. Emergency services will not be available to anyone who refuses to leave. The mayor is urging everyone to evacuate the city at this time. Governor Wilson has ordered a mandatory evacuation of all coastal cities...”
“Yeah...I think it’s serious,” Mitch said to Amber. “You about done, Cami-san? I wanna get outta here, you know?”
“Yeah,” Cami said, hands on her hips. “I guess this’ll do it.”
“Hey, because it’s you,” Mitch said, his teeth flashing in his bushy beard, “I’ll give y’all my employee discount. Sound good?”
“Sounds great,” Cami said, smiling.
Amber tucked a lock of hair over one ear and leaned against the counter. “So, Mitch...where are you going after you close up? You wanna...I mean, we’re going to try and get some lunch on the way out of town—”
“Uh, change of plan,” Cami said with an apologetic look at Amber. She inclined her head toward the people in the street. “We need to get out of here.”
Mitch cleared his throat and focused on scanning the items in Cami’s first basket. “I, uh...yeah, I was just going to head west and get out of here. Pops doesn’t want me in town,” he said, as he emptied her basket. “He says he’s going to lock down the marina soon and head home, anyway. Now that they’ve called for the evacuation, I should just head out to Givhans Ferry, probably camp out till this all blows over.”
Cami nodded as she handed over her credit card. She didn’t even look at the price. “Sounds like a good choice,” her eyes on the crowds of people on the sidewalk outside. “You’d be plenty far inland.”
Mitch grabbed the bags and walked them to the front door. He unlocked it and opened the door with a grimace as the noise hit them. People hurried by in the dense crowd, all talking to each other or on cell phones.
“This is intense,” Amber observed.
“Uh, maybe I’ll just grab my stuff now…” Mitch said. “Be right back.”
“Mom,” is this for real?” asked Amber.
“I think it is, sweetheart,” Cami said as she scanned the crowd. She peered east toward the coast but couldn’t see anything except a sea of worried faces.
Mitch returned a moment later with a large backpack and and the rest of Cami’s purchases. “I’ll lock up and we can get out of here.”
Cami turned and joined the flow of pedestrian traffic heading west. “Well, that settles it. Let’s go. Mitch, why don’t you come with us, we’ll get lunch west of town—but right now, we need to get gone.”
“Good enough for me, y’all,” said Mitch with a glance at his phone. “I don’t like the way everyone is so spooked,” he added. “Lemme let dad know.”
“Yup,” Amber said quickly. “Yup—let’s go.”
“So how much time, exactly, would it take for this thing to reach us?” Mitch asked over the honking horns, eyeing the crowd as they walked.
“If it started when I think it did,” Cami replied over her shoulder, “maybe six or seven hours.”
“I heard it was moving faster than they expected,” Mitch offered. “On the news,” he said to Amber, his ears going pink again. “They said it hit up north, like Nova Scotia and it’s curling around the shoreline as it goes…”
“If it takes six or seven hours to get here,” Amber said, then glanced at Mitch, “and
