Standing on the sidewalk that ran in front of their bungalow style home they could clearly see an enormous cloud of black smoke drifting up into the air. A few neighbors had emerged from their homes and were looking in the direction of the smoke as well. Everyone looked scared and was sticking to themselves. Drew looked around suspiciously wondering which of the people standing out on the sidewalk may have been the ones who broke into their garage and stole their food.
“It’s the shelter.” Bart said gauging the distance and direction of the smoke billowing into the air. Once he’d said it out loud it was obvious to everyone. The huge high school that’d been turned into a shelter was the only thing in that general area that’d be big enough to burn like that.
“It could be the stores.” LeBron pointed out. The plaza with the Publix he’d worked in was right next to the high school. Even as he said it though he could see that the angle wasn’t right. It was most likely the high school.
“It’s the school for now. If they don’t get it put out, then the stores will be burning too pretty soon.” Bart paused as the sound of gun shots drifted to them from the same general direction as the smoke and the sirens. Without another word they all walked back into the house locking the door behind them.
Chapter 8: The Greater Good
They took turns standing watch the night the high school burned. They kept all the house lights turned off to make it look like no one was home. When Nancy asked where all the people who’d gone to the shelter were going to end up no one had an answer for her. Bart was worried about the former shelter residents showing up at their house. His fear was realized the next morning.
Yue had started a pot of coffee then gone upstairs to do the rounds. The rounds consisted of going to every window in the house and staring out the holes they’d drilled in the plywood to see if they could see anything. Yawning as she looked out at the road by their home, she noted the sun was finally coming up. She was pretty happy about that since it meant her shift was almost over. What she wasn’t happy about was seeing the small mob walking down the street in their direction. She watched as the group went to the house a few houses down from them. The group stood back while the leader walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.
The group waited patiently in the street for a few minutes. When no one answered the door, they began beating their way into the home. There was about twenty of them in all. They were carrying a wide variety of bats, crowbars and rocks. It didn’t take them very long to get in the house. Yue was shocked by the sheer brazenness of the group. Their plan of ignoring anyone who rang the doorbell wasn’t going to work very well in this situation. Fighting to control her fear she rapped quickly on LeBron and Drews doors to get them to wake up. When she didn’t immediately hear a response to her knocking, she called out as loud as she dared for them to get up. To their credit neither of them asked why they just hopped out of bed and fell in behind her as she took the stairs two at a time down to the foyer.
“Mom. There’s a group of men breaking into houses outside. I’m going to wake dad up.” Yue tossed the frightening words over her shoulder as she made her way past the kitchen to the hallway leading to the master suite. The door was open, and her dad was sleeping on top of the covers. He was fully dressed except for his shoes and gun belt. He had those on before he even had his eyes fully opened when Yue poked him to try to explain what was going on.
“Calm down. Take a deep breath, count to three in your head then start from the beginning.” Bart told his freaked-out daughter. Yue did as her dad instructed and was able to get out the whole story. The rest of the family had gathered outside the door to listen in as well. Before they could come up with a plan the sound of the doorbell ringing caused Nancy to gasp and point her shotgun towards the front door. Bart walked past Nancy and gently nudged the barrel of the shotgun, so it was pointing at the floor before he walked over to the door. He opened the door as soon as he got there.
“Hello. How can I help you?” Bart asked the disheveled looking man standing on his doorstep. The man had been in the process of getting ready to smash the window beside the door and let himself in. Thrown off by the door swinging open the man took in the calm demeanor of Bart. His eye scanned down to the pistol hanging off Bart’s hip. He looked into the room behind Bart and saw Drew and Nancy holding their weapons in nervous grips.
“We’re not trying to start anything. The shelter we were staying in burnt down yesterday. We brought pretty much everything we had to the shelter with us so now we’re in serious need of supplies. We figured we could just check abandoned houses for food. We’re not trying to rob anybody. If you happen to have any extra though we’ve got women and children with us.” The man wheedled.
“How’d the fire start?” Bart ignored the request for food and asked the question that’d been bugging hm since he saw the smoke the day before.
