The Cold Winter Series – Book Tour and Giveaway

Chapter 3:  The Neighbors.

Not far away from Thom and Carl’s office were Linda and Allen Lansbury, also residents of the small village of Galena.  A nice athletic couple in their early thirties who had been married for a couple years and trying to start a family.  At the moment though, they were trying to start the gas pump that wouldn’t respond.  The station attendant in his little room just raised his arms in a helpless fashion.  The pump had stopped working about midway through their fill-up, and both Linda and Allen were poking the buttons in frustration. 

Allen took his attention away from the pump and the reality of the situation started to sink in.  The gas station was an offshoot of the Giant Eagle grocery store and shared the parking lot. The grocery store was in an odd general location, not so much in a big residential area, more of an office park, and close to the freeway.  The big draw of the complex was its gas station and the restaurants surrounding its parking lot for the office lunchtimes.  Allen saw that people were pouring out of the restaurants — all with the same dazed look on their faces.  The stoplights were dark, the restaurant signs were dark, and so were the restaurants themselves.  Finally, Allen motioned to Linda to get back in their SUV to talk to her. 

“I think something bad happened.” 

“Oh come on!”  Linda wasn’t having any of it.  “You’re such an alarmist.”

Allen turned on the radio just in time to hear the news report that Thom also had heard: “All we can tell you now is that our sister stations in Cleveland and Cincinnati are both experiencing the power outage as well.  At this time, it appears the outage is state-wide and possibly more.”

A few minutes had passed since the pump stopped and Allen’s view of the gas station entrance showed about five cars waiting in line for the next available pump.  “This doesn’t look good.”

“No, no it doesn’t,” Linda motioned to the small group of people huddled around the station attendant’s window.  They were asking about emergency generators that could power the pumps.  The attendant was unprepared, but trying to do what he could. 

“Do you have your gun?” Allen asked.

“Come on Allen.  Just because we got our CCW does not mean that I carry it around everywhere.  It’s in my car back home.”

“Well, I have mine, and in the glove box I have a .22 auto,” Linda opened the glove box to find the tiny, chrome-plated weapon.  Upon finding the clip she turned to her husband.

“.22 hollow points?  I didn’t even know they made those. I hope I don’t have to use this.  People are going to laugh at me.” She slid the magazine in and heard it click into place. 

“Better you than me.”        

The news report repeated again, and this time it was followed with the rumor of possible cyber-attack.  An additional ten cars were now waiting for the gas pumps, and the entrance to the complex was completely blocked off with cars in line. 

“We are done getting gas, honey,” Allen concluded.  “We should get out of here while we still can.” 

Linda agreed, and they pulled away from the pump.  Another car quickly claimed their spot, obviously thinking that it was something of value.  Turning their SUV to find the best way out, they faced down the little hill to the grocery store.  Allen hesitated and stared ahead. 

“The grocery store looks pretty quiet, doesn’t it?”

“Allen.  What are you thinking?”  It was a playful scolding tone that didn’t give much away. 

“I’m thinking about going shopping.  I’ll bet nobody is thinking about groceries right now.  Maybe later, but not now.”

“Yeah, right now it seems that gas is the important thing.”

Linda looked over to see the situation around the attendant’s window continuing to escalate. 

The grocery store seemed to be quiet as they pulled up.  No one was running to the door or running out.  Allen backed the SUV into a spot to the side of the building, not wanting to be directly in front of the building at all.  The situation at the door could change at any time; he felt that being at the side was safest.  Outside the vehicle, he reached under the seat and pulled out a 9mm Glock.  The slim leather holster fit inside his pants hem.  The adrenaline of the moment started to rise as the armed couple walked away from their SUV. 

“Alright, I was in a grocery store a couple years ago when we had a short outage, and they were orderly giving away all the frozen food before it melted all over their floor,” Allen said.  “Just be nice, and let’s see what happens in here.  Regardless, we need to be in and out quickly.”

 At the door he pulled out a cart for his wife and another for himself.     

Just inside the store was the manager — an older guy, kind of heavy.  Allen looked at him and realized the gentleman was exactly what he would expect a grocery store manager to look like.  He had tried to have a career, but ended up here.  He stood there blocking the fresh produce to the left and directing people to the frozen foods area at the right side of the store. Not many people were in the store on a Tuesday morning, just the folks who happened to be there when the power went out.  Some were standing at the registers with a full cart of food – unpaid for – and wondering what to do.  The cashiers were clueless too. 

“Have you heard anything?” the manager asked Allen. “The radio is giving us nothing.”

“The entire state is down.  It looks like Pennsylvania and New York too.  I heard something about a cyber-attack, so we might be down for a while.”  The manager’s face was crushed.  “Not what you wanted to hear, huh?”

“The frozen foods are to the back, take what you want,” he said in a helpful voice, but you could tell that his mind was a million miles away.