Anna hesitated before speaking, "What's ahead for us now? What do we do now?"
"Well as we discussed before, we should decide on a place to settle down and try to set up whatever we'll need to survive."
"Where do you think that we should settle down?' she asked.
"My degree is from Virginia Tech. I'm familiar with Virginia. Virginia has four seasons but the winters are relatively mild; they're no where near as severe as New England weather. The area just west of Richmond has a lot of farmland where we could grow our food and the climate is good for growing apples and berries. The area is served by several nuclear power plants and hydro installations so the power should remain on for a while; that will give us time to install solar for when the power does go off. Tornados, earthquakes and hurricanes don't happen too many times there so Mother Nature won't be much of a problem. We'd be pretty close to the ocean and the Chesapeake Bay so seafood wouldn't be much of a problem. We'd also be close to Washington, D.C. so we could continue our search of the government installations for anyone else that survived. We'd be able to find out where the secure underground installations are and see if anyone survived in them. There are several large airports in the area so we would have a good supply of fuel for a long time. There's a solar collector plant just across the Maryland line in Fredrick, Maryland so we'd have access to solar panels for when the power does go off. I'm not sure how big a warehouse BP Solar has but I'm sure that they have a large enough stock on hand for our purposes. I think that Virginia would be a good place to start our survival"
"It seems like you've been giving this a lot of thought," Anna said.
"I have, but I'm not about to demand that you all take my suggestions with blind obedience. Let's talk this over with everyone else, the girls included, and then we can make our decision. We should weigh all of the pros and cons and get input from everyone."
It was a minute or two before Anna spoke, "I think that we should have this discussion before we leave here. There's no sense driving around without making progress toward ensuring our survival."
"There's just one thing that bothers me about the future," he continued, "There are good hospitals in the Virginia area but we don't have a doctor. I've had first aid training as I'm sure you and Pauline have but if anyone gets really sick or if an operation is needed we're in trouble."
"Sarah is a registered nurse. She could take over the medical duties for a while. She could get as much additional education as she can from the reference materials at the universities and hospitals in the area. If we make our medical care her only job she'd have enough time to further educate herself. She just might become a better doctor than many of the ones that called themselves doctors."
Pauline walked into the kitchen and walked into Pat's arms, "What a night. I think that I only got about an hour's sleep last night."
She turned and looked at Anna, "What were you two talking about?"
"We were talking about what we should do next," he said, "We should be working on our survival."
Pat went over everything that he and Anna had been discussing. Pauline had a few concerns and Pat said that they could discuss them with the entire group.
Pauline untangled herself from Pat's arms and got herself a cup of coffee. She checked out the stock of food in the kitchen refrigerators and the pantry. She set out the things that she would need to prepare breakfast for the group.
"I'll fix something for breakfast," Pauline said when she had finished setting out the things that she would need, "I'm going to wait and I'll fix each person something to eat whenever they wake up. I think that we should let everyone sleep as long as they can. While we're discussing our next step, I have an idea that I'd like to throw out. I think that we should stay here for at least a day or two longer. If we leave today the girls might think that we were rushing them to where we are going to settle down. If we leave when everybody has had time to think about it, then it won't make them feel like we are pushing them. It will feel more like what has to be done."
"I'll go along with whatever everyone feels is best," he said, "It might be a good idea to let the girls get a bit more settled before we set out on a long trip."
Sarah walked into the kitchen, "I heard you all talking. What going on?"
Pat went over what they had been discussing, pausing when he finished to give her time for her input.
Tears came to Sarah's eyes, "If everyone agrees to leave this area I'll go along with it. It would be different if my husband's body was buried here but since there's nothing left of him..."
She broke down and had to hold on to the table to support herself. Pat went to her and put his arms around her.
"You have to be strong Sarah. I have some idea of what you're feeling but you have to remember the baby that you're carrying. You're baby is the future of mankind."
Pat started talking to her to get her mind off of losing her husband, "Anna tells me that you're a registered nurse. You're going to have to be the doctor for our group for a long while. Anna suggested that you continue your education and get to be the best health care practitioner that you can be. I think you're going to be very busy with this group. I hope that you have some psychological training. These girls are going to be a handful for a long while. I doubt that they're going to want to take direction from us since we aren't their parents and since their parents are gone the girls are going to think they're on their own."
Sarah gave him a half-smile, "I always wanted to be a doctor; I just couldn't afford the hefty medical college fees."
Pat let go of her, "Well, you're our doctor whether you like it or not. None of the others have any medical training to speak of."
Several of the girls came into the kitchen and when they were asked what they wanted for breakfast they all said that they didn't want anything but Pauline convinced them to have cereal with fruit. It was early afternoon before all of the girls had awakened and gotten something to eat. The girls were much quieter than they had been and some of the girls would start crying if anyone even talked to them. Several of the girls hung out in the kitchen after they had eaten.
Pat started to get another cup of coffee but then decided against it, "Pauline, how about you and I and Sarah scout around town and pickup three vehicles for the trip to Virginia? We can take one of the cars in the parking lot. I'll check the registration at the front desk and find out who owns the cars. We can look in the rooms for the keys. I'd suggest getting two four-wheel drive pickups and a large SUV. I'd get diesels for the pickups because we wouldn't have to fill them up as much. I'm sure that some people are getting tired of riding on the bus by now. They can alternate between the bus and the other vehicles."
"So, I guess it's decided that we're going to Virginia," Ruth snapped, "Don't we have any say in it?"
All of the girls that were in the kitchen looked at Ruth; waiting to see how Ruth's outburst shook out with the adults. They didn't voice an opinion but it was obvious that they were waiting to see who the winner of this little debate would be.
"That's very unfair," Pauline said in a loud voice, "We've discussed whatever actions that we've taken so far. Every thing we've done so far has been done to protect you girls. We only came back so that you girls could have some closure to what has happened. Without Pat's actions to protect you we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now; we'd be where ever everyone else went to when the black hole passed."
Pat interrupted before it escalated, "Do you know how to drive Ruth?"
"I've been driving for over two years. I started driving a pickup truck on our farm," she said haughtily.
Pat turned to Pauline and said to her, "How about you, Ruth and Sarah look for the vehicles then. That would work out better for me. It would give me time to make sure the bus is ready for the trip."
Ruth and the other girls walked out of the kitchen; Pat waited until they were out of earshot, "Talk to her when you get her alone. Find out what her problem is and try to impress on her that if she starts a rebellion that someone is going to get hurt or even worse; someone could die."
Pauline, Sarah and Ruth left to see about getting the vehicles. Pat went to check the vital fluids on the bus and began to do a little housekeeping on the bus. Soon he had several of the girls standing around and getting in his way. He finally had to ask them to give him room to work. He suggested that the girls go swimming in the motel pool while the power was still on and they could still enjoy a pool with clear water. Once the power went off wherever they were, it would be hard to keep a swimming pool sparkling.
Pat finished up the maintenance on the bus, grabbed his suitcase, and went back into the motel. He got keys from the desk and went to take a shower. He picked a room on the second floor so that he would have some privacy in case he wanted to take a nap.
As soon as he entered the room he heard the girls squealing at the swimming pool. He went to the window and looked down. There were several of the girls in the pool but most of them were either on the pool furniture or on towels on the grass. None of the girls had any swimwear on. He backed away from the window before any of the girls saw him. He walked over to the bed and laid down on it.