G Hopf - The End

“I’m such an idiot!” Gordon said out loud as he watched Jimmy’s truck vanish over the hill.

It took Gordon another 30 minutes to complete his journey home. He parked the bike in front of his house and ran to the door. The ride had really taken a lot out of him, but he needed to unload as soon as possible so he could go back out.

He opened the door and yelled for Samantha. He walked down the hallway to the kitchen and grabbed a towel. He was drenched with sweat.

“Daddy, Daddy!” Haley yelled from upstairs.

He could hear her running down the steps.

“Daddy, Daddy!” Haley yelled again as she ran into the kitchen.

Gordon bent down and opened his arms. Haley ran straight into him.

“Yucky, Daddy, you’re all wet!” Haley squirmed away from Gordon.

“Sorry, sweetie, Daddy was working.”

Samantha walked up to Gordon and hugged him too. “Thank God you’re safe.”

“Thanks, honey. Not to cut the homecoming short, but I have to get the bike inside and Jimmy’s stopping by anytime.”

“Why is Jimmy coming by?” Samantha sounded very curious about this newest development.

“I ran into him on the way home from the store. By the way, the trip was a huge success. I told Jimmy my theory on the situation. He has a working vehicle, so we’re going to take it to Ralph’s in 4S Ranch to see if we can get more supplies,” Gordon wiped sweat from his face as he laid out his plan.

“What should we do while you’re gone?”

“Why not go down to Jimmy’s house and spend some time with Simone? The kids will love it and you can help her with any prepping she hasn’t done,” Gordon said. He tossed the towel down on the counter and walked to the garage.

He manually unlocked and pushed up the garage door. Just as he stepped outside an elderly neighbor from two doors down ran up to him.

“Did you hear?” The man was very clearly stressed, “The blackout is due to some sort of terrorist attack.”

“How do you know that?” Gordon asked. He placed his hands on his hips and looked at the older man, feigning skepticism.

“I have a hand crank radio and heard the emergency broadcast system put out an alert. They’ve been repeating it every few minutes. Something about an attack on the power grid and some kind of attacks back east. Right now the info isn’t clear.”

“What else did they mention?”

“That’s it; they recommend that we all stay inside and that the power may be out for a few days or more.”

Gordon scoffed to himself, knowing that it would be a lot longer than a few days; then he remembered that the man mentioned other attacks on the East Coast. He wondered what that meant. Knowing the news would eventually get out and once it did it would spread quickly; he couldn’t waste time.

“Maybe I can come over and listen with you later or maybe you could help keep me informed if you hear anything else,” Gordon said to his neighbor as he stepped over to his bike.

“Looks like you were thinking this thing could last longer,” his neighbor commented, noticing all the food and supplies.

“I always like to be prepared,” Gordon answered; he still couldn’t come to an agreement with himself whether or not to share his opinion until he could secure more food and supplies.

The rumbling of Jimmy’s truck interrupted their conversation. The neighbor turned quickly, surprised.

“Your truck works?” he asked while jogging up to Jimmy.

Gordon parked his bike inside and noticed Samantha standing there with Haley.

“Where’s Hunter?” Gordon asked.

“He’s upstairs standing watch.” Samantha said.

“Good,” Gordon said nodding.

Gordon then heard his neighbor ask, “Can I go with you?”

Gordon turned around and shook his head at Jimmy. Who raised his shoulders and told the neighbor, “Not enough room, sorry.”

Jimmy was short, lean and always looked like he had slept with his clothes on. His shoulder-length brown hair was hardly ever styled. Gordon just assumed that Jimmy’s focus was not on himself but on his business and family. Jimmy ran a successful business near downtown San Diego.

“Gordon!” Samantha said loudly.

Gordon turned back around to face Samantha and walked up to her. He stood in front of her and whispered, “We don’t have the room.”

“We have to start helping our neighbors—” Samantha said, interrupting him.

Gordon interrupted her, and finished, “…again, we don’t have the room, Sam. We need to get as many supplies as possible. He is not my concern right now, you and the kids are.”

“I’m sorry, Gordon, this is not how we’ll survive. We need to help our neighbors,” Samantha said.

“Sam, I don’t even know his name, do you? Listen, I need to get going and get more supplies. Please trust me and don’t interfere.”

“I think you’re wrong, but I’ll leave it at that. I’m going to go inside and get Hunter. We’re going to go over to Jimmy and Simone’s house,” Samantha turned and walked back into the house with Haley.

Gordon watched her walk back inside. He respected his wife, but he would not budge on this. Protecting his family was his priority; helping neighbors would come a distant second.

“Sorry, maybe we can pick you up some ice but we don’t have room for you,” Jimmy kept insisting to the neighbor standing outside his truck.

“I’m sorry, I’m Gordon,” Gordon walked back up to his neighbor with his hand stretched out.

“James,” the neighbor said, shaking Gordon’s hand.

“What do you need? Maybe we can pick up some items for you. That’s if we can even get in a store; it could be closed.”

“I want some ice for my freezer items and some batteries, D’s and AA’s,” James answered.

“Okay, we’ll see what we can do. We’ll let you know when we get back,” Gordon said.

“Thank you, can I give you my credit card?” James asked.

“Don’t worry about it, let’s settle up later.”

“Thank you very much,” James said then walked off toward his house.

Watching James, Gordon thought that he would soon have to let everyone know what he thought, but that would have to wait till tomorrow. Today and tonight was about getting more supplies for his family.

Gordon turned toward Jimmy and said, “Give me a minute.”

Gordon then jogged into the garage, closed it behind him, locked the door, and made his way to his office. He unlocked his armoire and pulled open a drawer, inside were several handguns. He grabbed an HK 9MM and two full magazines. He tucked it into his pants and locked the armoire back up.

On his way out the front door he ran into Samantha. She was bringing the kids down the stairs.

“Sam, I heard you out there. I know you think that I don’t listen sometimes but I do. I hear what you’re saying and my plan, our plan, is to eventually come together as a community and work together to survive this,” he said with a softer tone than he had spoken to her just moments before.

She reached the landing of the stairs; holding Haley in one arm and a bag in the other. Hunter was following close behind with a small backpack, “Sweetie, I get it, I do understand what you’re doing and I appreciate you for doing it. I never doubt your commitment to this family. I guess I just hate knowing that others will suffer and here we are stocking up.”

“It does suck for them, but they are not my responsibility. You all are,” he said looking and feeling better that she was on board.

“Stop wasting time and get back out there,” she said with a grin.

“Roger that. I love you,” he said, winking at her. He walked up to her and kissed her then kissed Haley.

“Love you, Daddy,” Haley said then followed up with a quick request. “Can I come with you?”