Anna went to her room and Pat went to the kitchen and made coffee. He felt terribly exhausted by what Anna had revealed to him. He never suspected that was what was bothering her. He felt very inadequate and he knew that he would never really understand how she felt deep inside about the experience. He was on his second cup of coffee when Pauline walked into the kitchen.
She walked to him and put her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, "Where were you all night?"
"I slept on the bus. I needed some time to think."
Pauline looked up at him, "What happened to your face?"
Pat rubbed his jaw, "I hit my head on the door of the bus. The wind blew the door and it smacked me pretty good."
Pauline pulled away and got herself a cup of coffee, "What are the plans for today?"
"I guess we'll just keep trying to find other people that have survived whatever it was that happened to the areas that we've been in so far. I just can't bring myself to accept that six billion people are no more. If we don't start finding other people soon we should start getting things together that we'll need to survive. I want to locate a gun shop that has a good store of pistols, rifles and ammo. We're going to need them for protection soon. I think that it's only a matter of days before the animals start stalking us. In the next couple of days we should start instructing everyone on the use of firearms."
Anna walked into the kitchen as Pat finished talking, "I didn't bring my gun with me. I never liked guns and I just can't bring myself to carry it."
Pat looked at her, "Anna, you'll have to start carrying your pistol at all times. The animals are starting to get hungry and you'll have to make the protection of yourself and the girls your top priority. I don't like guns either but I also don't like the idea of being dinner for a pack of dogs."
Anna sipped her coffee, "You're right. This is going to be a different world from the one that we've known in the past. As you said yesterday, if we do meet other people we have no idea what they will be like. I couldn't forgive myself if something happened to one of the girls because I didn't have the gun with me."
Anna put her cup down, "I heard some of the girls stirring. I'll make sure that they start getting ready to get on the buses. I'll be down soon to help with breakfast."
She turned and walked out of the kitchen. Pauline watched with her mouth hanging open as Anna walked through the lobby.
"My God, what happened to her? She almost acted human."
Pat poured himself another cup of coffee, "Maybe she's beginning to realize that we all have to work together or we won't survive this."
Pauline looked at Pat with a half-grin on her face, "Is there anything that I should know?"
Pat shook his head, "Not that I know of."
Pat started to see what was available for them to cook for breakfast. He told Pauline that he was getting tired of sausage so he pulled enough steaks out of the refrigerator to feed them all and began to fix the steaks on the grill. Pauline began to fix pancakes and the eggs.
As the adults started preparing breakfast, several of the girls came into the kitchen and began to help with breakfast. Soon Pat was pushed out of the kitchen and told to leave the cooking to the women. He went to the buses and began to check the vital fluids on the buses to make sure that the buses were ready for the next leg of their journey.
When he was sure the buses were ready for the day he walked back into the motel. Most of the girls were eating and talking and giggling like teenaged girls do. When Pat walked in the dining area the girls suddenly became quiet and several of the girls started blushing.
Pat walked into the kitchen and got a plate and put the eggs and a steak on his plate. Soon Pauline walked in the kitchen smiling.
"What's the secret? I'm always suspicious when women put their heads together and whisper," he said.
Pauline started laughing and could hardly speak, "The girls were wondering if you were really the last man on earth and how you were going to rule your harem if you were."
Pat stared at her, "That's not funny. Quash that conversation if it comes up again."
Pauline continued laughing, "I'll let you talk to them about it."
Pat walked out of the kitchen and went to the lobby. He had seen a rack that had maps and the local attractions. He wasn't interested in the local attractions but he wanted to stock up on all of the local and national maps that he could. It might help in their search for others that had survived the black hole.
Pauline walked up to him still smiling, "What are your plans for today?"
"Las Vegas is about a hundred and twenty miles from here. I thought that we might try to see if there are any people left there. About a million and a half people live in and around Las Vegas so if anyone other than us is left alive we might be able to find them in Las Vegas. If we don't find anyone in Las Vegas we should try other major urban areas."
"Do you really think we'll find anyone else alive?" Pauline asked with a catch in her voice.
"I really don't know. I'm beginning to be a little pessimistic about finding anyone else. We haven't seen any signs that anyone except us survived since we walked out of the mine and the animals that I've seen are starting to act like they're wary of us. I think they're going to revert back to their wild state quicker than I thought."
Pauline looked out of the window, "Do you think all of the dogs are going to be a problem; after all, the small ones can't be much of a threat to us."
"I don't think that small dogs will survive very long. In nature it's the survival of the fittest. A small dog wouldn't stand a chance against a German Sheppard. I think that within a few months the smaller dogs will be gone and then the larger animals will start to be a problem for us. I know that you've seen small dogs that look like they could stand up to anything but bravado only goes so far."
Pauline shuddered, "You don't make our future sound too pleasant."
"We'll make it. We just have to adjust our actions to suit the new situations. We'd better get the people on the buses. I'd like to get to Las Vegas before dark."
It took longer to get everybody on the buses than Pat would have liked. The three buses got on the Interstate and began the trip toward Las Vegas. Having to thread the buses around the cars and heavy trucks that had wrecked when they suddenly became without drivers or passengers slowed the buses down considerably. Once, the pileup of cars and trucks was so bad on the Interstate that they had to find a detour around the crash site. It was two hours after dark when the buses pulled into Las Vegas. It had taken seven hours to drive one hundred and twenty miles.
Pat was relieved to see that the power was still on and other than the total absence of the normal crowds of people, Las Vegas looked like it usually did other than the wrecked cars. Almost every casino and store was damaged by a car or truck that had crashed into it. The girls began to get quiet when they saw all of the destruction. The heavy traffic that was the norm for Las Vegas resulted in many more car crashes than they had been seeing in the small towns they had passed through so far.
Pat found a parking lot at one of the larger casinos that had room for the three buses and he pulled in and parked. Pauline and Sarah pulled along side of the first bus and parked.
Pauline walked over to Pat's bus and got on, "What's the plan? Are we going to stay in one of the casinos?"
Pat looked at the large casinos, "I don't think that would be a good idea. The bottom floor is for the gambling and usually the rooms are on the upper floors. The better rooms are usually on the top floors. I want to avoid using the elevators in case the power goes off. I don't want to have to rescue anyone from a stalled elevator if the power goes off."
Pauline pointed to a motel about a block away, "That motel looks like it might be pretty nice. Do you want me to check it out?"
"Not unless you each have your pistol with you. Take a couple of the girls with you. If any dogs decide to check you out, they're less likely to attack several people than a single person. Maybe it would be smart if you took my pistol too in case you need it."
"You're scaring me," she snapped at him.
Pat handed her his pistol and she left the bus and went to get Sarah and a couple of the girls to check out the motel.
Ten minutes later the group came back and told Pat the there was a large parking lot for the buses and that the motel was pretty nice but there wasn't a restaurant attached to the motel.
Pauline shuddered, "I saw a couple of rats. I hate rats."
Pat didn't say anything in reply. He knew that rats would be another problem that they would have to face. Modern sanitation was making an attempt to control the rat population although the results were not one hundred percent successful. Now that trash pickup would be stopped the rat population would grow. It would be only a matter of time until the rats broke into the food stores that were left. The rat population would continue to grow until the food supply ran out and then the rat population would return to normal. Pat hoped that nature would help control the rat population but he had read accounts of islands in the Pacific where the rat population had gotten out of control.