“We need to get off the road and out of sight. We can work on a fix after that. Give me a hand with the Jeep, will you?” Ben lowered the hood and instructed Allie to stay in the driver’s seat and put the Jeep in neutral.

  “I’ll help.” Brad ran to the back of the Jeep and got ready to push. Gunner leaped from the passenger seat to the rear of the Scrambler, keeping an eye on Brad.

  “All right.” This was a job Ben was more than happy to let his youngest help with. He and Joel joined Brad at the back of the vehicle, and in no time, the trio had the Scrambler rolling toward the hardware store’s parking lot.

  “Sandy, why don’t you head over and check the place out for us?” Ben shouted over Joel’s and Brad’s grunts.

  “All right,” Sandy answered and drove off toward the disheveled hardware store.

  “Be careful,” Ben warned, but she was gone. Sandy didn’t need him reminding her to keep her head on a swivel. That was the world they lived in, and she was well aware of the dangers. But all of a sudden, he regretted not sending Joel with her and Emma in the Blazer. He and Brad could have managed with the Jeep, although with the added weight of the recovered supplies, it was nice to have the extra help.

  Ben lost sight of Sandy as she drove around the rear of the building. He put his head down and pushed with all he had, although at this point, Brad might have contributed more to the Scrambler’s movement than him. It was too early in the day to be this beat. Of course, thinking back to what had gone down back there at the barn, Ben was surprised he had the strength to help at all. If it wasn’t for the knee brace Dr. Julia had given him, he might not have.

  Allie steered the Jeep into the hardware store lot and off the highway. They weren’t out of sight yet, but Ben already felt better than he had a minute ago when they were sitting ducks in the middle of the road.

  “Around back, Allie.” Ben felt the Jeep change course and follow in the direction Sandy had gone in the Blazer. He hoped there were some open bays in the covered lumber yard. They didn’t need much space, just a spot out of the sun and out of sight where he and Joel could get the Jeep patched up.

  Ben was already running through several possible fixes in his head, the most promising of which involved some duct tape and the two spare hose clamps he had in the toolbox.

  After the patch job, they’d fill the Jeep with water from the five-gallon container. There was enough left, and he wasn’t overly concerned with using it all if they had to, not with a water source a couple of miles down the road. There was some risk with that plan, however. Using all of the precious resources could backfire on them, especially if Twin Lakes turned out to be polluted or dried up. Based on the obvious drought-like conditions in this area, that was a real concern.

  Unfortunately, they had little choice in the matter. He was sure they hadn’t limped in here unnoticed; he just hoped whoever saw them wasn’t brave enough or desperate enough to investigate. Maybe the heat of the day would keep the nosey survivors in town and at bay. Eventually, though, they’d probably have visitors. But Ben had no intentions of sticking around long enough to find out.

  He had to admit, it wasn’t looking good for them right now, though. The day was a loss. There was no debating it now. Whatever fix they could come up with would be temporary. They’d still need to find a hose and coolant. Even in the cooler hours of the day, running on just water was dangerous to the health of the Jeep’s engine.

  Ben started looking for Sandy as they rounded the corner into the fenced lumber yard and was surprised to see the Blazer already parked. But there was no sign of Sandy, Emma, or the dogs. They pushed the Jeep through the open gate, and Allie aimed for the bay next to the Chevy.

  Suddenly, the Jeep stopped, and Ben’s shoulder drove into the unyielding sheet metal.

  “Hey, Allie, what are you doing? You’ve got the brakes on,” Joel groaned.

  “Guys… get up here.” Allie sounded different. Ben reached for his Glock as he and Joel locked eyes.

  Joel reached for his pistol but then hung his head. “I left it on my seat.”

  “Stay here, both of you.” Ben made sure Brad was looking at him before rolling around the side of the Jeep, pistol at the ready.

  “What’s going—” Ben stopped mid-sentence when he saw why Allie had put the brakes on. There, alongside the Blazer, stood Sandy, arms in the air, staring down the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Don’t take another step.” The man looked in Ben’s direction but continued pointing the shotgun at Sandy. Ben couldn’t make out his face very well; the man’s features were well-hidden under the shadow of a wide-brimmed straw hat and scruffy beard.

  Ben stopped advancing when he reached the driver’s door of the Jeep. Allie was breathing heavily and clenching the wheel with trembling hands. Ben wasn’t sure if she was scared or mad, but he was worried she might do something to set the man off.

  “Easy, don’t do it.” Ben spoke quietly when he saw Allie eyeing Joel’s pistol on the passenger seat. Gunner loomed over Allie’s shoulder from the back of the Jeep. No longer panting, the big dog was fixated on the man with the shotgun.

  “We just need a place to fix our Jeep and we’ll be gone.” Ben ignored the order to stay put and moved slowly to the front of the Jeep, putting himself in a better position to shoot, if it came to that.

  Sandy was looking at Ben now and shaking her head apologetically. He shot her a tight-lipped smile and nodded in an attempt to reassure her that everything would be all right. He searched for Emma but didn’t see her or the dogs. Was it possible she’d gone unnoticed in the back of the truck? She was probably struggling to keep the dogs quiet, at least Sam anyway.

  “Hey, I said stay there. Not a step closer, and put the gun down.” The man waved the shotgun, threatening Sandy.

  Judging by his voice, Ben assumed the guy was older than he initially thought. But that was no reason to believe Ben could be quicker on the draw. The man had his finger on the shotgun’s trigger, and even if Ben managed to get off the first shot, there was no guarantee the guy wouldn’t shoot anyway.

  Trying to take the old man out was too risky, especially with Sandy standing less than twenty feet away from the business end of the shotgun. They’d have to talk their way out of this. And that was something Ben had neither the patience nor the energy for while being baked alive in the hot sun.

  As Ben laid his Glock on the hood of the Jeep, Sam broke into a chorus of barks and snarls from the back of the Blazer, causing the man to turn his attention away from Ben.

  “Who else is in the truck with you?” The man stepped closer to Sandy, keeping the sawed-off 12-gauge pointed in her direction. Before Sandy could speak, the Blazer door opened and Emma slid out.

  “Keep those dogs in the truck and come stand by your mother where I can see you,” the man ordered. “You too. I want all of you where I can see you.” He motioned with his gun for Ben and the other kids to join Sandy and Emma near the Blazer.

  “Emmett, what are you doing to these people?” a woman called out from the shadows of an open loading dock bay on the back of the hardware store. Moments later, an older woman sauntered into view. She had an AR-15 slung over her shoulder and was accompanied by a multicolored mutt of a dog similar in size to Bajer. They both stopped just shy of the sun’s reach on the loading dock platform.

  “I thought they might be with those looters, back to steal more stuff.” The man relaxed his grip on the shotgun and let the barrel drop a couple of inches.

  “Do they look like looters to you? Can’t you see they need help?” She continued scolding the man, hands on her hips. Ben froze, as did the others. The old guy seemed to be mulling things over, and a few seconds later, he lowered the shotgun until it hung at his side.

  Ben restated their case. “Like I said, we can get the Jeep patched up and be out of your way in no time. We were just looking for a place to get out of the sun.”

  Emmett looked at the woman, then at Ben. “I’m sorry. It’s just been pretty tough around here.”

  The excitement was gone from his voice, and his toughness shriveled away like a deflated balloon. He tipped back the straw hat and whipped a bead of sweat from his brow with a rag, and Ben saw his face clearly for the first time. The man’s tan and weathered face was strewn with the type of wrinkles that only came from spending too much time in the sun. He was old but seemed capable, and Ben imagined he’d lived a life of hard work.

  He ambled toward Ben and tucked the sawed-off shotgun into a custom holster that hung from his body by a leather sling. Ben recovered his Glock from the blistering-hot hood of the Jeep and tucked it away as well.

  “Emmett.” He stuck out his hand. “And I am truly sorry about the, ah… the misunderstanding, let’s call it.”

  “I’m Ben.” He accepted the man’s outstretched hand cautiously. “But I think she’s the one you owe the apology to.”

  “Right, yeah.” Emmett grinned sheepishly and turned to face Sandy, who was fast approaching and looked like she was doing her best not to lose her temper about being held at gunpoint just a few seconds ago. Ben was still apprehensive about the couple but could only imagine how Sandy felt.

  “I’m sorry, miss. I really am. But if you had any idea what we’ve been dealing with around here…” Emmett tipped his hat to Sandy, then to Emma, in an earnest apology.

  “You’ll have to forgive my husband. He can be a little overzealous. But when you’ve had as much trouble as we’ve had lately, you can’t afford to take any chances.”

  “I can understand that.” Ben eyed the building and wondered how these two had managed to defend the hardware store on their own.

  “We’re tougher than we look.” The woman noticed Ben looking around and turned toward the doorway behind her. “Samson… Delilah, hier.”

  A few seconds later, two jet-black Cane Corsos materialized from the shadows and joined the woman and the other dog at the edge of the loading dock.

  “Sitzen,” she added.

  The dogs split apart, taking opposite sides of the woman before sitting down like perfect obsidian statues. The smaller dog that had come out with her originally stayed close by the woman and looked tiny compared to the other two. The Cane Corsos’ fur glistened in the sun, highlighting their muscular frames and rigid postures. And Ben no longer wondered how the couple had been able to keep the looters at bay.

  Gunner whined from the back of the Jeep at the sight of the additional dogs.

  “Easy, boy.” Allie did her best to calm him.

  “I knew you weren’t looters, though,” the woman said. “I had my eye on you all coming through town until the Jeep broke down. Where you headed?”

  “Colorado,” Ben answered.

  “Oh, you’ve still got a little ways to go, then,” she said.

  Ben nodded. Her words cut like a knife. It was easy to think they were closer to Durango than they were, especially when he considered where they started. But they did still have quite a ways to travel, and standing here with a busted Jeep wasn’t getting them any closer to home. Today had been frustrating, to say the least. And even though they weren’t being held at gunpoint anymore, he still felt like a hostage to their circumstances.

  “If it’s alright with you two, we’d like to park somewhere in the shade and try to get our truck fixed, if we can.” Ben was glad the encounter with the couple had taken a turn for the better, but that didn’t mean he was in the mood to chat or learn about anyone else’s struggles in a post-EMP world. They could have been the nicest couple in the world, but they were wasting daylight.

  “Yeah, push it on up in here. You can leave the Chevy there if you like.” Emmett pulled his hat back down to protect his eyes from the sun and pointed toward the loading bay. Ben didn’t hesitate and motioned for the boys to get back behind the Jeep with him. By the time they reached the shaded area of the loading dock, Sandy and Emma were talking with the older woman.

  Ben noticed a wall-mounted mechanical thermometer above the loading bay door as the Jeep came to rest. “No wonder,” he muttered. He wiped the sweat from his face and looked again to make sure he was reading it right. “A hundred and twenty-six? Is that right?”

  “I’m afraid it’s working just fine,” Emmett reported.

  Ben was hoping the thermometer was broken. It was no mystery now why they were so easily exhausted from routine tasks or why the trucks were running hot. It was some of the most intense heat he’d ever felt, but this confirmed the misery they were experiencing was legitimate.

  “You guys rest up a minute. I’ll be right back.” The old man struck off into the big dark warehouse with a purpose. That was okay with Ben; he needed a minute in the shade before getting into the repairs. Besides, the Jeep needed to cool down before anyone could lay a hand on it.

  Allie climbed out of the Scrambler and closed the door so Gunner wouldn’t follow her. The smaller dog’s tail was wagging with anticipation, but the two black dogs remained motionless.

  “Better bring those dogs in before they melt. I’ve got some water for them.” The woman looked at Emma.

  “Thank you.” Emma headed for the Blazer to gather Sam and Bajer.

  The woman turned to Brad, then looked at Gunner sitting in the driver’s seat of the Scrambler. “A Chesapeake, huh? Is he friendly? If so, he can come in, too.”

  “Yeah, he’s friendly,” Brad answered.

  “What’s his name?” she continued.

  “Gunner.” Brad glanced at Ben nervously, then at the two somber animals flanking the woman.

  “Don’t worry about these two. They only do what I tell them, “The woman assured him.

  Ben nodded at Brad. “Go ahead. Let Gunner out.”

  Brad opened the driver’s door and Gunner wasted no time unloading. The smaller dog ran to meet Gunner halfway, and the two proceeded to sniff each other from head to tail. Gunner dropped down low on his front paws and sneezed. He wanted to play. Moments later, Sam and Bajer joined the fray. They’d been couped up in the vehicles all morning, and in spite of the temperature, they had energy to burn. The two Cane Corsos were clearly curious about the newcomers but faithfully remained at the woman’s side.

  “That’s Sam, and that’s Bajer.” Emma pointed out the dogs to the woman.

  “Well, guys, meet Samson and Delilah.” The woman put a hand on each dog’s head as she named them. “And that’s Charlie.” She pointed to the mutt. “And last but not least, I’m Amelia.”

  Ben introduced himself, and the others took turns doing the same.

  “Go ahead, Charlie. Show ’em where to get a drink.” Amelia waved toward the warehouse. Charlie tilted her head, and seconds later, the medium-sized brown and gray mutt took off into the building with Gunner, Sam, and Bajer giving chase.

  Amelia gave each of the beasts at her side a few scratches before releasing them from their duties with a few more foreign commands. Brad and Emma watched with amazement as the two muscular animals bounded off into the shadows of the warehouse. Ben was a little concerned about the dogs getting along, but there were other things to worry about right now. And if the dogs could fill up on water here without depleting their current supply, even better.

  Now that it was quiet, Ben could hear a low rumble coming from inside the building. His eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the relative darkness of the shade, but eventually, he was able to make out Emmett. The man was wheeling a massive multi-drawer toolbox toward them.

  “Joel.” Ben glanced at his son, who took the cue and ran to help the old man push the toolbox the rest of the way to the edge of the loading platform.

  “If it ain’t in here, you don’t need it.” Emmett chuckled.

  “Nice toolbox. Thank you.” Ben admired the shiny red toolbox; it must have been at least six feet wide and was almost up to Joel’s chest in height.

  “So you think you can get her going again? What happened?” Emmett stood back and used the rag in his back pocket to wipe the sweat from his face again.

  “I think so. There’s a split in one of the coolant hoses.” Ben moved to the hood of the Jeep, and Joel jumped down off the loading dock to help him get it unlatched and propped up. Ben pointed out the hose leading from the thermostat housing to the intake manifold. Emmett took his time getting down to their level, but when he arrived at the side of the Jeep, he had a small flashlight and his eyeglasses ready to go. Fixing a beam of light on the section of hose Ben was pointing out, Emmett stood back and rubbed the scraggly white beard covering most of his face.

  “Let me see what I got.” Off he went, back into the warehouse, without another word. Ben was anxious to get started but had the overwhelming feeling Emmett would be disappointed if he wasn’t in on the repair.

  Who knew? Maybe the old guy actually had something that would be a longer-term solution than duct tape and a couple of hose clamps for reinforcement. This was a hardware store, after all. Ben wasn’t sure what goods they had left, but it wouldn’t hurt to see what the old guy came up with. In the meantime, he and Joel could work on pulling off the split hose.

  Now that they were in the shade, Ben had relaxed a little and the initial urge to get out of there as quickly as they could had begun to wane. They had to wait out the heat of the day somewhere. And these people had water for the dogs. That meant they must have an energy source and a well. He wasn’t sure if the couple would be willing to top off their Nalgenes and five-gallon container, but it was worth asking before they left.

  Ben looked over at Emma and Brad. They lay flat on their backs, soaking up what coolness they could from the smooth concrete floor. He was going to have a hard time convincing the others to get back out on the road right away. But he couldn’t blame them for that.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Sandy rested on a set of concrete steps that led up into the building while Amelia had excused herself to run inside for a moment. Allie had joined Ben and Joel at the Jeep’s engine bay while they worked. Ben didn’t realize she was there at first, and he was surprised to see her.