Chapter 13

After the buses were parked in front of the motel Pauline and Sarah went to a restaurant a thousand feet from the motel. They found that there was a good stock of food at the restaurant and they started preparing sandwiches and salads for everyone. Anna made several of the girls pitch in and help.

Everyone ate the simple dinner and then milled around waiting for instructions from the adults.

Pat hollered out to make himself heard over the chatter of the girls, "Make sure everything is cleaned and the food is put away. Don't leave any food out."

"What does it matter?" Ruth asked sarcastically, "Who is there to care whether the place is dirty or not?"

"The idea is to make it harder for the rats and bugs to get to the food," Pat told them, "We don't want to feed the rats. They're going to be enough of a problem without us feeding them."

"Ugh," Ruth whined, "I think that we ought to stay away from the cities. I hate rats."

"They're going to be a problem anywhere we go if we don't practice good sanitation. Sanitation will be more important than ever if we want to keep the pests down. Bad sanitation will also lure predators to where we live."

After they were alone in the kitchen Pat turned to Pauline, "There's a night club across the street. Are you up for a couple of drinks?"

"Is this a date?" Pauline grinned.

"I guess it could be. Let's slip out before anyone sees us."

They slipped out of the motel and walked to the night club. Pauline walked into the club ahead of Pat and stopped at the door in shock. There were drinks on most of the tables like everyone had just stepped outside for a smoke and they would be back in a minute. The ice in the glasses had melted and the condensation that had been on the glasses had left a ring on the table at the bottom of the glass. The club had a depressing feel without people.

"This place gives me the creeps," she said with a shudder.

"Me too," Pat said, "What if I get whatever we're going to drink and we'll take it back to our rooms."

"Rooms?" Pauline sneered, "Make that room. You're not going to make me sleep alone again tonight."

Pat smiled and got up and walked behind the bar, "What do you like to drink?"

"Rum and coke for me. Bacardi if they have it."

Pat got a full bottle of Bacardi rum and George Dickle bourbon and a Marker's Mark whiskey and put them in a box to make it easier to carry them and to hide them from the girls if any were roaming the motel. He grabbed a couple of large bags of potato chips and pretzels. Pauline was still standing at the door and Pat walked over to her and they left the club.

When they walked into the motel the girls had already found rooms and the small lobby was empty. Pat was sure that the incident that Brenda had with the dog was keeping the girls from leaving the motel and exploring Las Vegas. As they walked to the suite that Pat had snatched the keys to earlier they heard many of the girls talking animatedly in their rooms.

Pat unlocked the door to the suite and Pauline walked in ahead of him, "Wow, this is nice. It's almost as big as my first apartment."

The suite had a small refrigerator stocked with sodas. There was plenty of Coke but there wasn't any ice. Pat had seen an ice machine in the hall so he told Pauline that he was going to get them some ice.

As he was filling the container with ice Anna walked out of her room, "Hi Anna, Pauline and I are going to have a drink in my room and talk. Why don't you come in and sit for a while and talk with us."

Anna hesitated, "I guess I could. The girls are settled down. Only one drink though."

Pat chuckled, "Don't worry. There's no way that I would want to be even the slightest bit tipsy around the girls. I've never been a drinker anyway."

Anna walked with Pat as he walked back toward the room.

"You and Pauline seem to be becoming close," Anna said.

Pat watched Anna's face as he answered her, "We are becoming close. Right now it's just two people that are very confused about what has happened and we're clinging to each other for support."

"That's good. Pauline is a very good teacher and a fine person. I've watched her and she will make a great educator. She has a gift although I don't know if educators will be so necessary if we are the only ones left."

"If we are the only ones left educators will be more important than ever if we expect to survive," Pat replied.

They walked into the room and Pauline smiled when she saw Anna. Pauline asked her to sit down on the sofa.

"What would you like to drink Anna?"

."I really shouldn't. Oh hell, give me a rum and Coke."

Pat fixed the women rum and Coke and himself a bourbon and water. He brought the drinks to the women and then sat down next to Pauline on the sofa. They sat for a minute in silence.

Finally Pat spoke, "I'll start this conversation. We've been through small towns and now a large city and we haven't seen any sign that anyone else survived whatever it was that happened to the earth. What do we do now? Do we wander the earth trying to find anyone else or do we find someplace to settle down and make a new life for ourselves? I feel that if we keep roaming we'll soon run out of options to survive. We won't be growing our food, we won't be making a secure habitat, and we won't be able to protect ourselves from whatever lies ahead. I think that we have to set down roots and prepare for our future. I'm not saying that we should stop searching for others but we have to make sure that we protect ourselves."