"What about Reese?"
Cami's chest tightened. "I'm sure he's fine," she said quickly. "Here, let me help you get this to your car," she said. "Amber, grab the water, would you?"
The three of them headed for Mia's car, brushing off the copious apologies and gratitude from their neighbor as they went. At last, Cami shut the trunk on Mia's little sedan, and waved as she backed out into the street. When her car had disappeared around the curve and over the bridge to the north, heading to the other side of the neighborhood, Cami rounded on Amber.
"From now on, I don't want you offering anything to anyone. You understand? Anything. To. Anyone. If someone around here is going to be giving out food or supplies, it'll be me. Okay?"
Amber took a step back. “Okay, okay. I don't get what the big deal is…”
Cami sighed, rubbed her forehead for a second, then started walking toward the house. "Honey, if things are as bad as Mia said they are, and I have no reason to doubt her, then we have to be extremely careful. In times like this, bad people will take advantage however they can."
"Is that why you're carrying?" Amber asked, unable to hide a smile in her voice.
Cami turned deadly serious. "That's exactly why I'm carrying. And we’re going to make sure that you and Mitch get trained up so that you can start carrying, too. It won't take long for the scuffle Mia described in the grocery store to turn into gunfights over bags of rice and gallons of water. Once people realize the power is out across the country and help is not coming from the next state over, things are going to get bad. Fast.”
She looked at Amber. “Your father and I watched it happen when hurricane Andrew hit south Florida in ’91. It was the same thing during Katrina." She shook her head. "Now?" she asked, holding the front door open for her daughter. "Nobody has realized yet that there is no help coming. The National Guard, the state troopers, all the government employees you can think of from South Carolina—they’re all trying to help those people along the coast where the damage is real. People like us, just out of the danger zone but without power? We’re on our own. You watch, it's gonna get bad. That's why we've got to be ready."
"I don't understand," Amber said as Cami shut the front door and locked it. "Why we can't give out some of the stuff we've got to people who need it. You know we've got way more than we need."
"That's not the point, sweetie. We have way more than we need, sure. If the emergency lasts a couple weeks, or months, we’ll be good. Shoot, we’re probably good all the way through most of the winter right now. But the point is, if we start giving out food to Mia and she talks to anybody on her side of the neighborhood, we’ll have people coming to our door all hours of the night asking for food. And there's going to come a point,” Cami said as they reentered the kitchen. "There's going to come a point where people aren’t going to take no for an answer. Starving people are desperate. Starving parents are downright dangerous. People will do anything to make sure their kids aren't starving."
Amber cocked her head and crossed her arms. "Aw, you're so sweet."
"I'm serious, Amber," Cami said, mustering as much sternness in her voice as possible. "If everything goes sideways, I will not hesitate to kill someone in order to ensure your safety. You understand what kind of statement that is?" Cami asked. "You understand what I'm willing to do to ensure your safety?"
Amber lowered her arms and nodded, hands in her pockets. She looked more like a 10-year-old than a 19-year-old. "Yeah—I guess that is pretty serious. I hadn't thought of it that way. I'm sorry, mom."
Cami stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her daughter. "Don't be sorry, sweetie, just trust me on this one, okay? You can ask questions and second-guess my decisions all you want—in private. But in front of other people, just follow my lead, okay?" Cami turned to peer over Amber's head at Mitch. "The same goes for you too, mister."
Mitch stood from the table and came to attention, snapping a smart salute. "Ma'am, yes ma'am." He lowered his arm, and the smile faded. "Seriously, Cami…I don't even know if I'd be alive right now if you two hadn’t come to my shop when you did. I'll do whatever you ask, whatever it takes. You just let me know. I haven’t been able to get through to my dad today, so you guys are kinda like…” He swallowed, his Adam's apple moving, casting a shadow on his shirt. "You guys are kinda like my only family right now," he said, his voice tightening. Mitch cleared his throat. "So, whatever you need, just say the word."
Cami reached out an arm and pulled Mitch into a group hug.
"Guys, we’re going to get through this. We just have to stick together."
"I don't know how much more together we can get without it being illegal in 37 states," Amber muttered, her face pushed into Cami's neck.
All three of them jumped back and laughed. "All kidding aside, this whole encounter with Mia has got me a little rattled. I’ll feel a lot better if we skipped through some things on our list and worked on security. What about you guys?"
"I'm not looking over my shoulder and jumping at shadows, yet," Mitch said, “but Mia definitely got my attention. What do we need to do?"
Cami narrowed her eyes out the window. "That rain is almost here. I'd like for us to get out there and get as much harvesting done as possible before the rain
