Cami smiled. “Of course, it does. Let’s hope we don’t have to use it.”
He grunted. “You armed?”
She looked at him sideways. “Always.”
“Good girl.”
The meeting, as it turned out, was fairly well attended by at least one person from all the currently occupied houses in the neighborhood. It wasn’t as large a group as Cami would have liked to have seen, because it meant there were more vacant houses than she’d guessed. “A lot of people didn’t make it home after the wave…” she observed.
“Things keep going the way they’re headed, there’ll be a lot less people here next time,” Marty groused. He stood next to her at the back of the crowd and leaned on his cane, his head on a swivel.
Harriet moved through the group like a bee, lighting on choice flowers and skimming just out of reach of the undesirable weeds. She greeted those she was friendly with, paused to share a quick word, and moved on like a politician, all smiles and body language. She gave Cami and Marty a brief nod-and-pass, then moved on.
“You’d think an old man deserved a chair on a hot evening,” Marty complained loud enough for her to hear. She froze momentarily and lost her stride, then adjusted her hair and continued as if she’d smelled something unpleasant but was determined to get past it as soon as possible. Marty chuckled.
“Egging her on isn’t very mature,” Cami said, unable to hold back her smile.
“Well, you get to my age and you just don’t care much anymore,” Marty shot back with a smile.
“Hi, Cami,” a pleasant voice said from behind them.
Cami turned and ran right into a full-on hug from Mia Stevens. “Oof—hi, Mia,” she replied into the shorter woman’s hair. “It’s good to see you,” she added as they separated.
“Did I miss anything?” Mia asked as she stood on tiptoes to see toward the back deck of Harriet’s house, which had been set up like a stage. Four men and women sat in chairs on the deck with their heads together, as if plotting a battle plan.
“Nothing but a waste of time,” Marty grumbled. “If they had the sense to light them skeeter torches, they’re planning on being here for a while.” He sighed. “What a waste of time.”
Cami agreed, but she was still grateful for the tiki torches. The strong scent of citronella wafted over her on the evening breeze and made her nose itch, but at least she didn’t have to worry about mosquitos. She smiled as she looked at the flickering torch nearest her. Reese always complained that the torches attracted the blood-sucking insects. Even with torches, he was always eaten alive.
“Everyone, everyone—if I could have your attention, please,” Harriet called out over the general rumble of neighborly small talk. “We’ll go ahead and get started—if you could all settle in, please.” She clasped her hands in front of her chest for a moment and watched people quiet down, then proceeded only when she had everyone’s attention. “Now, let’s begin, shall we? On behalf of the Bee’s Landing Homeowner’s Association, I want to welcome you all to my humble home. Normally we wouldn’t have a meeting under such rushed circumstances, but the board and I agreed that time was of the essence in this case.”
“Are you going to hand out food or water?” Someone called out from the front.
“We—what? No…” Harriet replied, flustered. “I—no, we’re not handing anything out at this meeting.”
“Well, we don’t have anything to eat, what am I supposed to do?”
“Have you tried going into town?” Someone else asked.
“You kidding me? It’s like a war zone. I was shot at the last time I went a few days back. There’s a bullet hole in my car!”
The mumbling increased and other helpful and not-so-helpful suggestions were offered until Harriet put her hands up and quieted the crowd again. The board members behind her rose from their chairs and stood as one to offer support.
“Please, everyone, just calm down,” she said.
“You calm down! I need to go find food for my kids,” the first speaker said as he shoved his way through the crowd.
“Tom, don’t go, please,” Harriet called, but it was futile—the man had pushed his way past enough people to escape. “This meeting is important!”
“Not as important as my family,” he shot back, and threw a dismissive wave over his shoulder as he broke free of the crowd and walked past Cami, Marty, and Mia toward the driveway. He looked worn out, as if he’d camped in his backyard for a week. His clothes didn’t quite fit, and he hadn’t bathed in several days based on the strength of the odor that followed him like a loyal dog.
“Can we get to the point, already? My old bones ain’t used to standing around this much outside the DMV,” Marty hollered. Several people around them snorted in response, but the outburst calmed everyone down enough for Harriet to resume.
“As…as you all know, things have been rather unsettled lately,” she began.
Someone barked a laugh. “You mean the apocalypse? Yeah, it’s a little unsettled.” That caused another round of snickering.
“I’ll wait,” Harriet said primly, as if she were a schoolteacher in charge of a class of recalcitrant kindergartners. Eventually the crowd was shamed into silence and she continued with a haughty look Cami figured was intended to convey her irritation and leadership. She adjusted her hair, and Cami spotted a dark area near the side of her face that only appeared for a moment before Harriet put her hair back into place.
“Did you see…?” Mia whispered.
“Looks like she’s got a bruise on her face,” Cami murmured.
“What’s that?” asked Marty.
“Harriet looks like someone hit her,” Cami whispered to the old man. He grunted.
“…things have gone downhill remarkably
