Stephani’s eyes welled up with tears. “What happened? How did it all just go away so fast?” she demanded, her words tumbling out between a couple of sniffles.
“I don’t know, it just did,” Jared rasped as he glanced over his shoulder, ensuring no one was sneaking up on them while they had their silver-lining talk.
The coast was clear, and soon, Stephani had dried her tears, wiping her face with the front of her filthy T-shirt, which made her look worse. Jared wisely held his tongue, not wanting to take a step backward in their healing process. Stephani smiled at him, knowing full well by the look on his face what he saw and how he’d chosen to keep it to himself. She really was past caring about how she looked or smelled, but she also appreciated Jared’s kind gesture.
When Stephani appeared ready, Jared moved out, picking his way closer to the shopping center. Jared was still acclimating to the post-event time perception. Before, he could plan out his day based on the speeds at which he could travel about the campus or the Bay Area, with traffic being the only major factor. Now he was trying to calculate travel times that were all on foot with the amount of delays he would experience contingent on security halts or hostile encounters. This was almost incalculable due to all the unforeseen factors. There could be other humans who could cause delays for hours. There were open areas and gut feelings that held Jared up longer than he would have liked.
One thing he was sure of was they couldn’t sleep outside Solar Green; that was not an option he wanted to explore. If they were caught in the dark, he would keep moving until they got back to the rest of their party. They hadn’t brought sleeping bags, and the two of them were ill suited to keeping a security detail awake throughout the night after moving all day. They’d both be exhausted, and the likelihood of someone falling asleep while on watch was high.
Jared pushed forward, knowing they were running out of daylight. They’d left Solar Green sometime after 0900 hours, and it was now close to 1500 hours, yet still they hadn’t reached the shopping center. Jared knew the sun would be down shortly after 1900 hours, almost guaranteeing at least some nighttime walking. As this inevitability became more of a reality, Jared began game-planning in his head.
Thirty minutes later, he saw the large red sign and pointed Stephani toward it. Wordlessly they crept along, making their way through the landscaping not more than ten feet off the sidewalk, but still better than walking out in the open and attracting unwanted attention. Jared considered anyone out and about three months after the event to be extremely hungry, which translated to extremely dangerous.
Once Jared and Stephani reached a position directly across the street from the shopping center, Jared guided Stephani into a large bush, where he dropped his pack and pulled out the binoculars. Stephani was learning and remained quietly by his side, waiting for Jared to finish so they could go shopping. She also watched down the street in the direction they’d passed through, searching for any sign of being followed.
Shadows were beginning to creep across the sides of buildings, letting Stephani know they would be losing the luxury of light in a couple of hours. The thought of being out at night gripped her with fear. Stephani shivered involuntarily, shifting an inch closer to Jared, who continued his methodical dissection of the parking lot through his binoculars, oblivious to the woman’s angst.
It bothered Jared that he was unable to see into the front of a single store across the street, but then he remembered something Bart once told him. At some point no matter how you feel about a certain task, you just have to go get it done. His gut was telling him to stay put and not cross the street, while his brain told him to move out and finish the mission.
“Fuck it,” he murmured under his breath as he turned, seeing Stephani’s pale face. Jared leaned in close to the woman. “You okay?” he asked, wishing he hadn’t voiced his earlier expletive.
Stephani seesawed her head up and down as she clutched her weapon so tight, Jared double-checked to ensure she didn’t have her finger on the trigger. The last thing they needed was an accidental discharge letting anyone in the area know they were here.
“Keep your finger off that trigger unless you want to kill something,” Jared reminded Stephani, smiling in an effort to reassure the woman. With pursed lips and a knitted brow, Stephani seemed to steel herself as she rolled her shoulders as if readying herself for some athletic endeavor.
“Let’s go shopping. My feet need a break,” she quipped, a slight grin appearing at the corners of her pretty mouth.
Chapter 30
Jared stowed the binoculars and pulled on his pack. He felt better when he didn’t have to worry about the mental well-being of his charges. This thought almost caused him to laugh out loud, thinking had he dared refer to Stephani as his charge, he was sure to have received either a kick or punch from the woman. Truth be told, in the new world order there was a pecking order that actually mattered.
Jared was sure John considered Jared his charge since Jared was far less capable of taking care of himself than John was, and in turn, Stephani was less able than Jared. Prior to the event, not many people cared about such matters. The wealthy paid people to protect them and their families while the rest of society relied on the police to be the barrier between themselves and the underlying criminal element of society.
Jared guessed there was a certain number of Americans in more rural areas who were fine taking care of themselves without the assistance of local or federal aid.
