Katie and Joan moved to the garage door while Lou andMort debated what to do with the four, copper, alligator clamps they held intheir hands. The women bent down and strained to lift the garage door. Itclanged and rattled as it rose upwards along the rails.
"That's good," Lou said over his shoulder."Don't want those things knowing we're in here until we got that SUVrunning.
"We could always just ride in the car," Mortsaid.
Lou smirked. "Why do that when we can ride instyle?"
"Yeah, I don't think anyone wants to be piled innext to me right now, at least not until we can find ourselves a river orsomething to bathe in. I'd give anything for a hot shower," Katielamented.
"Besides," Lou said. "I ate that can ofbeans for breakfast this morning."
The group groaned as Mort and Lou held the jumper cables farout in front of them, as if they were capable of shocking them on their own.
Clara yearned for the days when she could just pull outher cell phone and look up directions on how to jumpstart cars. They all didtheir fair share of lamenting the loss of the old days, but Clara found thatshe did less and less of that as the days wore on, and they and the worldsettled into the new reality, but now was definitely one of those times.
Katie popped the hood of the SUV and the sedan. That'sone thing that she could do. She even said she could change the oil if they gaveher a new filter and quart of 5W-30. Clara didn't think that would benecessary. How far would they get in the damn thing? A mile or two before theyhad to leave the vehicle on the side of the road?
Joan and Clara stood off to the side as they watched Mortand Lou figure out what to do. "I think we need to start the firstcar," she said, remembering the time that she and Courtney had foundthemselves stranded at the drive-in during a double feature of Toy Story 3 andGrown Ups. They had gone simply for the pleasure of saying that they had goneto the drive-in. Clara had felt no nostalgia, but Courtney had loved everysingle minute of it. The only thing that Clara liked about the experience wasthat she could smoke and smuggle in a flask. As the credits rolled for GrownUps, Courtney had tried to start their rundown Honda Civic, resulting in only achoked sigh from the vehicle.
Quickly, before all of the other patrons left, he hadstarted rushing around and asking people for a jump. It was mostly an oldercrowd with grandkids in tow, so it didn't take too long before Courtney found anice set of grandparents who were willing to help them out. She rememberedsitting in the car, waiting for Courtney to give the signal to start her owncar. She wished she had gotten out of the vehicle to see how he had hooked upthe jumper cables, but she hadn't. Now they were simply guessing in the dark...literally.
Katie climbed in the sedan, and fired up the engine.
"Let's do this quick," Joan yelled. "Itdoesn't take long to get carbon monoxide poisoning in a closed garage."
"You got it," Mort said as he clamped thejumper cables to the SUV's battery. Lou did the same on his side. Joan climbedinside the SUV and tried to start it. There was no noise from the vehicle.
Clara smelled smoke and was about to say something whenflames erupted underneath the hood of the sedan.
"Shit! Get out!" Clara yelled. She ran to theback of the garage and attempted to lift the garage door on her own. She movedit, but only barely. As the door rose up the flames in the vehicles reached higherand higher. Visions of exploding car parts filled her mind, and she threw thegarage door up as quick as she could.
Bright sunlight blinded her for a second, and then shewas staring down the business end of a hunting rifle in the hands of a gnarledold man with white hair and an "I mean business" snarl on his face.
"Put your fucking hands up, missy!" he yelled,gesturing with the rifle.
The others came boiling out of the garage, coughing upinky black smoke and stumbling out of the garage to skid to a halt in thedriveway of the ranch style home. Behind them the flames got larger.
"All of you, put your hands in the air! You're notstealing anything on my watch," the old man continued.
Clara risked a look over her shoulder and saw that theflames had reached the wooden shelving of the garage. She also noticed the niceassortment of paint cans stacked on those shelves. If the cars didn't explode,those paint cans likely would. Either way, she didn't want to be standingaround when the entire house went up in flames. She certainly didn't want to bearound when the dead noticed the flames.
"Can we move away from the house, please?" sheasked.
The old man looked at her, his knotty fingers tensing onthe trigger. He gestured with his rifle across the street and said, "Getyour asses over there."
They walked across the cul-de-sac and watched as alltheir supplies burned up. The cars never did explode, but some of the paintcans did, echoing loudly in the morning air.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. It was the only word that Claracould think of as they watched all of their supplies go up in flames.
"Goddamn, thieves," the old man said,"comin' into my neighborhood and fucking things up. Where are the Gradys?What did you do with them?"
"The who?" Mort asked.
"The people that own that house. Are they still inthere?"
"They're dead," Clara said.
"You kill 'em?" the old man asked her.
"Of course not..." Lou began before the old manturned his gun on him.
"Wadn't talkin' to you. I was talkin' to her. Youshut yer mouth." He turned the rifle back at Clara. "Well, didya?"
"We didn't kill them. They were already dead."
"And what about that O'Malley fella overthere?" The old man pointed to the ranch house that Mort and Lou hadpillaged.
"He was dead, too," Mort said.
The old man pointed the
