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way into the store.  She couldn’t believe she was going to this, go back into the room with the dead guy, but it would be worth it.  Free propane in the winter had to be worth it.  
    Making her way into the back room she covered her nose so at least she didn’t smell the old man’s body.  That was one of the things they always skipped about dead bodies in the movies and TV shows.  When someone dies, they lose all muscle control, in some situations, that includes the muscles that are holding back excrement.  This was definitely one of those situations and she tried to push the thought of what he was probably sitting in from her mind as she reached towards his waist.  Luckily, the keys were clipped to his belt for easy access.  Quickly, she reached out and unclipped them causing the body to shift slightly and fall off the chair.  Annalise supposed if she was in a horror movie she would have jumped back and screamed.  Eventually, some kind of blonde, jock type guy would come to her rescue. Instead she just looked at the body, now crumpled on the floor.  From this view, she could see the way the back of his skull had been blown out by the force of the shot and she closed her eyes to gather herself.  There was nothing she could do for him at this point.  
    She stepped over the body back into the main part of the store taking a deep breath leaning a little on the counter to steady herself.  She was about to steal from a dead guy.  Technically, she was about to steal from a dead guy’s store.  There was never a time in her life when she thought she was capable of this. Hell, she couldn’t even steal bubble-gum from the grocery store. Whenever they forgot to charge her for something she always walked back into pay.  This was different though; this was survival and the little Blue Rhino tanks could be the difference between life and death.
    Of course, cigarettes could be the difference between life and death too, she mused.  Out of the people likely to come she knew at least her, Jake and Cort were smokers.  If they all tried to quit at the same time the results could be disastrous.  Stepping behind the counter, she started to quickly gather up as many packs and cartons as she could, throwing them in a box that seemed to be conveniently waiting for her to come along.  She paused looking at the box.  Is that what the man had been doing?  Stocking cigarettes when he decided that he needed to end his life?  She had heard of epiphanies happening at weird times, but this was probably the strangest one she had ever witnessed.
    Annalise walked outside with the box and put it in her car.  Looking around, she didn’t see any other cars so she walked to the Blue Rhino tank and unlocked it.  One by one, she took as many tanks as would fit in her car and loaded them up.  Five.  That was good enough.  That should last them at least a month or two before they had to find more.  Hopefully this would all be blown over in a month anyway.  She giggled out loud.  If this was all blown over in a month, she’d have stolen from the poor dead guy for nothing.  Tossing the keys to the store by the door, she took the gas pump out of her car, started it and peeled out of the gas station.  She didn’t even stop to think it was only 5PM and there should probably have been someone else stopping at the gas station.  Or that the TVs that had been in the corners had gone black.  All she was thinking about was getting to the rally point and meeting up with Cort.  He’d be impressed that she got the propane tanks.  She just knew it.

Chapter 6:  Cort
    Route 70 outside Cumberland, Maryland
December 12, 2012
    Pulling the car off the highway just outside Cumberland, Cort couldn’t help but get a feeling that something was very wrong.  There were no lights to be seen other than the headlights from his car.  This area was normally darker than the city and its immediate suburbs but tonight it was pitch black.  The kind