Jared shifted his weight to the opposite butt cheek and reflected on how the world had operated just a few months ago. No one planned communities by determining how many men and women would be part of the population. Now, Jared felt he had to consider this factor since humans were dying at a far greater rate than they were being born. Sure, babies would be born at a fairly normal rate for eight months or so after the event, but many of those births would result in the death of the parents, the child, or some combination of the two.
Even after the solar flare, Jared couldn’t see people in America forcing men and women into marriages in order to sustain or elevate the population, and pondered whether this was why families in less civilized countries still practice this tradition. Maybe it wasn’t so barbaric; possibly it was for the survival of their race. A practice to ensure people were producing the most precious commodity of all—more people. John kicked Jared in the thigh, breaking his thought process.
“What the fuck are you doing?” John hissed.
Jared shook his head as he returned to the here and now. “Thinking, man.”
John eased his attitude and laughed softly at Jared’s candid response. “’Bout what?”
Jared just stared back at John, not wishing to answer truthfully. John raised his eyebrows to draw the answer out of his partner.
“About babies and arranged marriages,” Jared answered sheepishly.
John hadn’t the slightest clue how to respond to that. He’d been running through scenarios ranging from Barry being shot to a peaceful walk up to the house, not babies and arranged marriages. It would be a high-end miracle, like a walking-on-water-type of miracle, if they all made it back to the ranch house with everyone. This kept John’s mind focused on tactical affairs and not thinking about babies and arranged marriages. John’s failed attempt to fathom how Jared could be thinking of such off-the-wall topics was interrupted by Barry’s voice.
“Hey, guys, come on up the driveway.”
“’Bout fucking time,” John said as he climbed to his feet and walked out onto the driveway. “Watch yourself though. Don’t know if he was forced to say that,” John said, wishing they had set up a password or at least a distress signal of some sort.
Jared stepped gingerly out on the pavement and peered up the narrow roadway towards the house and what he hoped would be a friendly welcome from a man smart enough to help them with their great many problems.
Chapter 16
As the house came into his view, Jared saw Barry standing with a man near the large mahogany front doors to an even larger house. The residence was surrounded by trees, and Jared doubted any of the man’s neighbors could see the structure through the heavy vegetation. The man was perhaps fifty-five years old with a shock of white hair reminding Jared of Doc Brown from Back to the Future. He wondered humorously to himself if it were a prerequisite to master this look in order to be part of the supersmart club of people who can survive new and unexpected situations. He also wondered if Dwight had a stash of plutonium and a dog named Einstein. Dwight was also carrying a rifle Jared had never seen before. The weapon looked like it belonged in some futuristic science fiction movie.
As John and Jared approached, Dwight shifted uncomfortably, glancing about the property and muttering to Barry in a tone so low that neither Jared nor John could hear what he was saying as they approached.
“No matter what, stay cool,” John murmured, trying not to move his lips.
Cool? Jared thought. This mad scientist with the laser gun had better stay cool. For all of Barry’s intellectual bravado, he seemed more than a little nervous in the presence of this Doc Brown–looking character.
“Hey, guys,” Barry began, “this is Dwight, the guy I’ve told you about.”
Both Jared and John stopped in front of Barry and Dwight and nodded. Jared leaned forward and extended his hand. “I’m Jared and this is John,” he said with a short wag of his head.
Dwight looked right past Jared, scanning the driveway they’d just walked up. Jared wasn’t about to stand there like an idiot with his hand hanging, waiting for Dwight to exercise manners, so he let it hang at his side and straightened his posture.
“And you are alone?” Dwight asked, still searching the driveway.
Jared looked puzzled and questioned Barry. “Didn’t you tell him?”
Barry pumped his head up and down. “I did, yeah, I told him—see, Dwight, it’s just the three of us.”
“Armed—why’d you come up here armed?” Dwight demanded, staring straight at John and Jared.
John took a non-menacing step forward, allowing his rifle to hang by the sling as he turned his palms up. “Look, my man, there’s a lot a bad going on right now as society tries to find its balance. No one has food, and a lot of people probably don’t have water either. Some of those people think it’s okay to take what they need from other people, and most of the time the people who are getting their possessions taken are not armed like we are. We just walked all the way across San Jose to get here, and no one took a thing from us—that’s why we’re armed.”
Dwight stood chewing on the inside of his lip as he mulled over what John had said. When he finished gnawing at whatever loose piece of flesh had ignited his interior mouth-munching session, he spat on the ground and looked back at Barry. “So what do you want, Barry?”
Jared spoke up. “Can we come inside and talk?”
“No, you cannot come inside and talk. I don’t know you, and I hardly
