Chapter 15

Anna hesitated before speaking, "What's ahead for us now? What do we do now?"

"Well as we discussed before, we should decide on a place to settle down and try to set up whatever we'll need to survive."

"Where do you think that we should settle down?' she asked.

"My degree is from Virginia Tech. I'm familiar with Virginia. Virginia has four seasons but the winters are relatively mild; they're no where near as severe as New England weather. The area just west of Richmond has a lot of farmland where we could grow our food and the climate is good for growing apples and berries. The area is served by several nuclear power plants and hydro installations so the power should remain on for a while; that will give us time to install solar for when the power does go off. Tornados, earthquakes and hurricanes don't happen too many times there so Mother Nature won't be much of a problem. We'd be pretty close to the ocean and the Chesapeake Bay so seafood wouldn't be much of a problem. We'd also be close to Washington, D.C. so we could continue our search of the government installations for anyone else that survived. We'd be able to find out where the secure underground installations are and see if anyone survived in them. There are several large airports in the area so we would have a good supply of fuel for a long time. There's a solar collector plant just across the Maryland line in Fredrick, Maryland so we'd have access to solar panels for when the power does go off. I'm not sure how big a warehouse BP Solar has but I'm sure that they have a large enough stock on hand for our purposes. I think that Virginia would be a good place to start our survival"

"It seems like you've been giving this a lot of thought," Anna said.

"I have, but I'm not about to demand that you all take my suggestions with blind obedience. Let's talk this over with everyone else, the girls included, and then we can make our decision. We should weigh all of the pros and cons and get input from everyone."

It was a minute or two before Anna spoke, "I think that we should have this discussion before we leave here. There's no sense driving around without making progress toward ensuring our survival."

"There's just one thing that bothers me about the future," he continued, "There are good hospitals in the Virginia area but we don't have a doctor. I've had first aid training as I'm sure you and Pauline have but if anyone gets really sick or if an operation is needed we're in trouble."

"Sarah is a registered nurse. She could take over the medical duties for a while. She could get as much additional education as she can from the reference materials at the universities and hospitals in the area. If we make our medical care her only job she'd have enough time to further educate herself. She just might become a better doctor than many of the ones that called themselves doctors."

Pauline walked into the kitchen and walked into Pat's arms, "What a night. I think that I only got about an hour's sleep last night."

She turned and looked at Anna, "What were you two talking about?"

"We were talking about what we should do next," he said, "We should be working on our survival."

Pat went over everything that he and Anna had been discussing. Pauline had a few concerns and Pat said that they could discuss them with the entire group.

Pauline untangled herself from Pat's arms and got herself a cup of coffee. She checked out the stock of food in the kitchen refrigerators and the pantry. She set out the things that she would need to prepare breakfast for the group.

"I'll fix something for breakfast," Pauline said when she had finished setting out the things that she would need, "I'm going to wait and I'll fix each person something to eat whenever they wake up. I think that we should let everyone sleep as long as they can. While we're discussing our next step, I have an idea that I'd like to throw out. I think that we should stay here for at least a day or two longer. If we leave today the girls might think that we were rushing them to where we are going to settle down. If we leave when everybody has had time to think about it, then it won't make them feel like we are pushing them. It will feel more like what has to be done."

"I'll go along with whatever everyone feels is best," he said, "It might be a good idea to let the girls get a bit more settled before we set out on a long trip."

Sarah walked into the kitchen, "I heard you all talking. What going on?"

Pat went over what they had been discussing, pausing when he finished to give her time for her input.

Tears came to Sarah's eyes, "If everyone agrees to leave this area I'll go along with it. It would be different if my husband's body was buried here but since there's nothing left of him..."

She broke down and had to hold on to the table to support herself. Pat went to her and put his arms around her.