Mitch put an arm around his father's shoulders, and the simple contact caused Gary to break down and sob. As his shoulders shook, Gary buried his head in his arms on the table.
Cami and Amber glanced at each other, and Amber wiped at the corner of her eye as she reached out to put a hand on Mitch's arm. Cami cleared her throat. "Gary you don't have to tell us anything…”
He blew his nose into the washcloth from the basin and looked up. "No…no I've got to. I can’t…I can't not tell you how bad it is out there. You have to know what's coming. People are starving—they're getting desperate."
"It's only been a week," Amber observed. "How is that even possible? This is the United States, not some third world country…”
"I know, and everybody you talk to knows, too…but that doesn't change the fact that most people only had a couple days worth of food in their pantries," Gary said. "Every single person I've come across was either out of food or almost out of food. That's all anybody can think about when you meet on the road. Do you have any food you can trade for? Do you have any water? Do you have any way of getting food?"
Cami nodded. "Food, water, weapons. The top three things preppers plan for."
"Well, then I should have been one." Gary said sullenly. "A lot of people should have been ready." He wiped at his face again and rubbed away the last of the tears. "Don't even think about looking for help at grocery stores. Everything's been cleaned out. What wasn't bought was flat-out stolen. I passed a Food Lion just on the outskirts of town—“
“On Prospect Avenue?” asked Cami. When Gary nodded, she continued. "I know that place, I shop there every now and then."
"Well nobody’s shopping there now. Looks like somebody drove a truck through the front wall. There's trash everywhere and most of the shelves are picked clean. Must've been some fighting in there too, because I swear I found blood splatters on the walls by the cash registers." He shook his head. "I have no idea when it all went down, but it's just as empty as the other places."
"What other places?" asked Mitch.
"Everything—not just grocery stores. People went nuts. I saw hardware stores ripped open, electronics stores, cell phone stores—everything. And it's only getting worse. Some places—like the electronics store—still have guards or employees. I don't know who they are, but there's people there keeping an eye on the place. I don't know if that's discouraging the looting or if people just ignore those kinds of places because they don't have any food…but it's bad. The last three nights I don't think I got any sleep because of all the gunshots."
"Yeah…we heard the first shots fired in this neighborhood on the second night," Cami reported. "We’re starting to have issues with criminals scouting out empty houses."
"And Amber and I were jumped by a couple guys who stole some food we were delivering to another family across the neighborhood," Mitch said.
Gary looked at his son and gently turned Mitch's face to the side. "I wasn't sure if that was just a shadow or dirt. Somebody hit you?" he asked.
Mitch nodded and gently disengaged from his father's hand. "The guy only won because he had a baseball bat."
Gary shook his head. "Son, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," Mitch replied. "It won't happen again. He stood and tapped the pistol strapped to his side. "Cami gave me this. We’ve been practicing with shotguns and rifles."
Gary looked from Mitch to Amber, then to Cami. "I've never been a big proponent of guns and shooting sports—I’m like Reese, I prefer the wind and the open water—but I tell you what, the crap I've seen in the last week has changed my mind on a lot of things. Thank you for keeping my son safe. I can't thank you enough, Cami." He blinked, then looked around the kitchen. "Hey, wait a minute—where is Reese?" he asked, and narrowed his eyes at Cami. "He's not…? Oh, no, Cami…”
Cami swallowed and nodded. "He's not…here. Well, obviously," she said with a flick of her wrist. "Honestly—I don't know where he is. We haven't heard from him in five or six days. I haven't heard from him since the day of the tsunami."
"Where was he?" asked Gary.
"Boston.”
Gary hissed as he drew in a breath.
“Or close enough that it doesn't matter," Cami said with a sigh. "He won some stupid sales contest at work, and they took a bunch of the top reps on a four-day deep sea fishing cruise. The last day of the cruise was the day the tsunami hit. They were fishing about a hundred miles off the coast."
Gary leaned back in his chair and exhaled. “I haven't been able to watch the news lately, but the rumor mill is working fine out on the roads." He looked from Cami to Amber. "I'm sorry to bring bad news, but Boston was hit really hard.” He swallowed. “They say there's not much left of the city."
Amber's lip trembled, and she put her hands over her mouth to hide it. Her eyes glistened, and a tear leaked from the corner of her left eye. She shook her head vigorously. “No…”
Cami reached across the table and took Amber's hand in hers. "We heard something similar before the power went out, and even saw some pictures that were…disturbing…but we didn’t know it reached that far north…” Cami said, unable to let herself break in front of Gary. “Until I hear otherwise, I have to assume that Reese is alive and making his way back to us." She looked at Amber. "I have to."
Gary nodded. "Of
