Chapter 9

Sarah was sitting on the side of the bed when they walked in the room. She smiled and thanked Pat for holding her during the night.

Sarah looked at Pauline, "My god you two are loud."

They all had a good laugh and they went down to start some breakfast for the girls. Pat found the makings for the coffee and he started the coffee while Sarah and Pauline began to fix breakfast. The kitchen had a warming table so they could keep the food warm and let the girls eat whenever they woke up.

Pat talked to them while they worked, "There's a truck stop a short way down the highway. I'm going to stop there and fill up the bus with diesel. I want to look for a couple of other buses so that we can split up if we want to explore some place. Both of you are going to have to learn how to drive a bus. It's not as hard as it looks. Just keep a safe distance between the buses and don't drive too fast. These buses are huge and it takes a while to get them stopped. Later on we'll get some SUVs and a pickup truck or two."

Both women said that they couldn't drive a bus but they knew that it was senseless arguing with Pat. The girls started trickling into the kitchen and Pauline and Sarah made sure that each girl ate their fill. Anna sat by herself and ate her breakfast.

As the women were finishing up feeding the girls they heard a scream from outside the motel. Pat ran to the front door and looked for the source of the scream. He saw Brenda at one end of the parking lot and a very large German Sheppard was slowly advancing toward the girl with his teeth bared. Brenda was so terrified that she was frozen in place. Pat pulled out his pistol and shot the dog before it had a chance to attack.

Pat walked over to the dog with his gun drawn in case the dog wasn't dead. He inspected the collar and saw that it was a police K-9 dog. Brenda ran back to the motel.

Pauline walked up next to Pat, "What caused the dog to stalk Brenda?"

Pat pointed at the collar, "It's a K-9 dog. He's been trained to attack humans and he knows that he can get the better of a human. I would guess that he was getting hungry and he figured that Brenda was an easy target."

"I guess it's starting," Pauline said, "I didn't think that it would start this soon. We'll have to keep an eye on all of the girls from now on until we train them on the use of firearms."

"Remember to carry your gun at all times. If I hadn't had my gun on me this could have turned out a lot different."

They turned to walk back to the motel and Pat said, "It's time to talk to the girls. I've been dreading this but it's got to be done."

Pat had Pauline and Sarah get all of the girls together in front of the motel. He made sure that each of the women had their pistol with them. He stood in front of the girls and waited for them to stop talking.

When they were quiet he began, "Ladies, you all know what happened to Brenda a short while ago. I hate to say this but this is going to happen more and more often. The animals, including the domestic animals that we've all relied on for our food are going to return to their wild state. I knew this was coming so I raided a gun shop and each adult has a pistol. If any of you go outside or anywhere that a wild animal might get to you make sure that you go with an adult and make sure that that adult has their gun with them. Later we'll train each of you in the use of firearms. I want each of you to remember that guns kill. Never even touch your gun unless you're ready to use it."

One of the girls raised her hand, "We haven't seen anyone since that black hole thing happened. Is there anyone other than us alive on the earth?"

Pat looked at the girl, "I can't answer that. I do know that the government has secure bunkers that are supposed to withstand a nuclear blast so there might be people left somewhere."

Another girl raised her hand, "Are we going to try to go back home and see if our parents are alive?"

"You girls have been trying to raise your parents on the cell phones but no one has been able to reach anyone. When we stop at night I've been trying to call all over the world and I haven't been able to get anyone. We have to be on our guard at all times. If there are people left in the world we don't know if they're good of if they're evil. We have to be very careful."

A girl with tears running down her cheeks said, "It doesn't make sense that only us survived. What happened to everyone else; where are the bodies if they're all dead?"