Mark Clodi - Discovery

“Was that a lot?” Bill asked, fishing for a number to confirm his estimate.

“A very, very lot. I think this is the real deal Bill, not some minor terrorist attack. I think this could be Armageddon.”

Trisha was big on that religion stuff too, Armageddon was something she seemed to live for. Bill went along with it, after all he had his quirks as well and her focus was preparation for the end, not only spiritual, but physical as well. The kids tended to follow Bill's outlook towards religion, which was using it as a safety net, an hour a week in a meeting house with people you generally liked was a small price to pay if Occam's logic ended up being correct.

“I got you something too.” said Trisha.

“You did? What? Gimme, gimme, gimme!” Bill said imitating John when he was two at Christmas, the statement had become a bit of a family inside joke with even John saying it when gifts were mentioned.

“Not until the car is unloaded. In fact I got everyone something or three or four somethings. Once we get the stuff put away we can dole them out, or better maybe tonight after dinner we can have a Christmas in July sort of thing, to celebrate the end of days.”

Bill groaned, knowing how well that would go over with the kids if they knew they had gifts, they were like every other kid in the world and had the patience of Mayflies.

As they unloaded the car Trisha took select bags out herself and squirreled them away to the master bedroom, and she didn't mention any gifts to the kids. Almost nothing of what she had bought was perishable. The groceries were dried foods, like pasta, rice and beans or canned, mostly soups and fruits. Bill noticed that she had bought very few vegetables, which made sense, Trisha had stocked up on things not grown in Iowa. And then there was the toothpaste. Trisha had what looked like half a pallet of the stuff in the trunk.

“Why so much toothpaste?” He asked her as he hauled in yet another bag of the stuff.

“Barter. I figure things will hit the fan soon and we will not want to trade away food or ammo or clothing, so I bought toothpaste. Everyone will want it when they run out, so I got some. And a bag of toothbrushes too.”

Going through the bags Bill found some full of underwear, socks and t-shirts too. Everyone had at least three new pairs of jeans and the kids all had new pajamas, though admittedly they were summer wear as the stores were not yet stocking stuff for the cold winter months.

Sorting out the goods took them another hour, with the toothpaste and other 'trade' goods going into the basement to be stored in the back room and the other things being placed wherever they would fit. A car load of goods was absorbed pretty easily in a house as large as theirs was. At the end of the day Bill and the family were out on the back porch having a family dinner while Bill grilled up steaks.

“I called the propane company today, they said they should get out here tomorrow to top off the tank for us, even with the 'stay at home order'. I figure that will get us through the winter easy with the geo-thermal and solar array.” Bill said.

“Did you get ahold of Sun Brothers?” Trisha answered.

“No. I tried, and tried, no one picked up.” The land phone lines were still working. Bill had constructed his house four years ago and had installed geo-thermal heating when he put it up. Last year he had finally gotten enough money to put in a solar array on the south side of his property, it cost over twelve thousand dollars and had cut their electric bill in half. It also guaranteed that their house would almost never be without heat or cooling. Bill had ordered another panel to be installed this summer, it was due to in a week and Bill had tried to get in touch with someone at the company to see if it had shipped yet. He had already put in the wiring and a cement pad for the thing and the array was designed so it could be plugged into the existing power supply he had put in last year. Once it arrived he could assemble it, with the families help, and have it plugged in and working after a day or two. The idea had been to start selling the electricity back to the power company during the summer and effectively decrease their net electrical costs to zero. Most people would not spend that kind of money on something that would take about twenty five years to pay off, but Bill had a dream to live off the grid and Trisha loved the idea too. Now, worst case, they could disconnect everything except the freezer and refrigerator and still have a little juice left over for another device or two. Still having both arrays would be better.

“We'll go black out at night when the neighbors lose their power right dad?” asked John.

Bill nodded, “Yeah, no sense advertising what we got. The basement should be okay for lights and stuff. Hey Max what'd you and Trudy decide about the dog?”

“I like 'Rolf', Trudy says 'Setsu'. 'Setsu' is a stupid name.”

“Is not! It's the warrior prince from 'Legends of Lotus Blossom', it's a great name!” said Trudy, raising her voice. “What is a 'Rolf'? Just a stupid noise sound, not a warrior at all!”

The family then debated on what to name the mutt Max and Trudy had brought back from the Olson's farm that afternoon. The mutt in question, cradled in Trudy's arms, lifted his head wearily, took them all in and then lowered it to go back to sleep.

“He looks more like a 'Sleepy' to me.” said Trisha, which brought a chorus of moans from the family. They already had two dogs, named Dopey and Fargo, both names Trisha had given them, the rest of the family was united behind not giving her naming privileges on the new dog. “Hey, I'm just saying. We are all out here arguing and he is sleeping. That makes him wise, maybe 'Buddha' would be better?”

“No!” the family yelled together.

Bill reached into the cooler to pull out another beer, while the family debated the dog names, eventually deciding a warrior prince was better than a random sound and settling on 'Setsu' of Manga fame. John and Claire shuffled the younger kids to bed around ten, as Bill had warned them all that they had a lot of work to do the next day. Trisha leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You scared?" she asked.

"We haven't seen anything yet, we don't know what is going on. There is talk of a disease somewhere, I don't like that no. A man can't fight a disease with guns, canned food and toothpaste."

"No, not that. It's Max and Sarah. I've seen you checking your phone ten times an hour. I heard you try and call them last night. And now the cell phones are all out. I know you must be thinking about going out there after him…" Bill put his finger on her lips, stopping her.

"I can't. Max would understand that I can't do that." Trisha made to protest, "No Trisha I've known him for a long time, and I know he would tell me to look after my family, just like I would tell him to take care of Sarah. I won't deny I had thoughts of heading out to Colorado, thoughts of going to get him. Now." Bill shrugged his shoulders, "Well we don't know anything do we? For all I know he is already dead."

"Oh Bill!" Trisha leaned over and embraced her husband, "I wish I could say he is okay, that everything will be fine. I can't. I will pray for him and his family."

"Yeah, me too. Hopefully they are on their way here. We better go catch the news, if there is any."

The couple went in off the deck arm in arm and into their living room. John was there and they could hear Claire yelling at Max to stay in bed and for Will to stop pestering him. The house had six bedrooms, Max and Will shared one room in the basement, John and each girl had their own rooms, which left one room free for guests. The two younger boys fought like all siblings, but Trisha's attempts to move them into separate rooms always ended in dismal failure. Bill had the tv on and tuned to a local station by the time Claire came upstairs.