Survivors Read Online Free PDF Page A

out the company before we meet back here.”
    Jessie added additional insight into our
problem. I was beginning to understand she had
this unique ability to think outside the box and
step out of the minutia and to see things from a
broader perspective. “We’re forgetting about the
bigger picture. I agree with our focusing on all the
things we’ve talked about, but we’re forgetting an
important thing. What we need to do to get things
back to livable conditions requires a lot of people
and a lot of skills. Where’s our expert on power
plants; where’s our expert on water filtration
plants; what about waste removal; what about telephones? We’re going to need experts, and we’re
probably not going to find survivors with all the
skills we’ll need. That means we’re going to have to
become self-educated experts. We’re going to need
a critical mass of people to accomplish all of this.
I’m thinking a couple of hundred people at least.
We need to find more survivors and bring them all
to the university.”
    Jessie was right; we needed to find more
survivors. I thought about what we needed to accomplish tomorrow, and a lot needed to be done.
“Jessie’s right, so let’s split up tomorrow and agree
on a list of things to accomplish. Bill and Stan,
why don’t you try to break into a hardware store or
Home Depot and get some gasoline powered generators.”
    Bill said, “We can borrow one of those UHaul trucks with a power lift, and Home Depot will
have a pallet truck to help us load the generators.”
    “Margaret, why don’t you and Janet take
the two boys and Carla and get us food supplies for
the next few days. Try the Fresh Market and
Wynn’s over on Route #41 and maybe those places
have emergency generators. They may have invested in them to save their frozen and refrigerated
foods, and if we’re lucky, they might still be working.
    “Blaine, Ruth, and Mary, in the morning,
why don’t you begin looking for other survivors,
and the rest of us can join you in the afternoon.
Let’s split up the area into different sectors, and
we’ll search each zone one at a time.”
    We took a break and Blaine led us to the
two wings of the house. There were a total of eight
guestrooms, each with their own private bathroom,
more than enough for our little group. We agreed
to meet downstairs in the kitchen at five o’clock,
and Blaine said he would take care of the dinner
arrangements.
Chapter 4
    Each of my fellow survivors took a separate
bedroom, and we decided to have the two boys
share a room with twin beds with Mary and Margaret staying in the next rooms. We arranged a sleeping area for little Carla on a twin bed in Janet’s
room and surrounded the bed with tall chairs to
ensure Carla wouldn’t fall out during the night.
    I was too tired to lie down on the bed. I
knew if I did, I’d be asleep in a minute. Instead, I
walked down to the main floor and found Blaine
busy in the kitchen. “I found two tenderloins in the
freezer and thawed them in the microwave. I figured we might as well use them up. At least we can
all eat like royalty for one night.”
“Can I help?” I asked.
“Sure, why don’t you fix the salad? I think
we still have some good lettuce in the fridge.”
As I was cutting up the lettuce I asked, “Tell
me about yourself.”
Blaine snorted. “Me, I’m a loser.”
Needless to say, I was surprised by his response. “What do you mean?”
    “This is my parent’s home. I normally live in
Manhattan; I run a hedge fund up there. My father
made a fortune in the commodities market. He
wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but I didn’t
want to work for him. From then on I was a loser
in his eyes, and he told me so in those exact
words. I’m taking care of their house until they get
back from Europe, but I guess that’s not going to
happen. I talked to them about six weeks ago, just
as this all started. They were stranded in Paris,
and even with all his money, he still