When Pat walked into the motel Sarah met him in the lobby, "I think the girls are ready to travel any time that you're ready."
"Let's meet with Anna and Pauline then," Pat said, "I'd like to get moving. I'm afraid that it's going to take a while to get to where we want to settle down. If everyone is ready we can leave tomorrow."
After the adults had discussed it, they decided to leave the next day. Pat got Pauline off to the side and told her what had transpired with Cassie. Pauline had a worried look on face.
"Do you think that you've calmed her down?"
Pat shrugged, "I think that her problems are deep-seated and I doubt that a simple discussion will solve what's bothering her. I think that we had better keep an eye on her for a long time and be there whenever she needs us. I think that you women should get involved in her life and try to draw out her feelings and be ready to discuss them."
The next morning they started out on their trip to the place that they were going to settle. Pat was worried that he didn't have all of the skills that would be necessary for their survival. He had discussed his fears with Pauline after they went to bed and she had dismissed his fears as groundless.
As they made their way east the accidents began to get more numerous. One of the girls questioned why they were seeing more accidents and Pat explained that the east coast was more densely populated than mid-America and as they got closer to the east coast the accidents would become more numerous.
By the end of the second week since they had left on the final leg of their journey they had only gotten to Kentucky because of all of the accidents that had blocked the roads.
Everyone was getting tired and Pat pulled into a large motel adjacent to a large National Park. Several of the girls cheered at the chance to sleep in a bed for a change. Pat found that the electricity was off but he found that the motel had a large standby generator but that it had run out of fuel.
Pat walked to the gas station across the road from the motel and began carrying fuel to the generator in a bucket from the gas station that used to hold water for windshield service. After several trips the fuel tank was full. He had trouble starting the generator and he remembered that diesels often were hard to start when you let then run out of fuel. After working on the engine for over an hour he got the generator started and the power came on in the motel. The girls cheered when they saw the power come on.
The girls began to pick out rooms and Pat made everyone stay grouped so that he could turn off power to areas of the motel that were not needed. They found enough non-perishable food in the motel kitchen to prepare a meal for everyone and the women had dinner fixed in a couple of hours.
After they ate Pat walked outside. He looked around at the majestic forest ahead of him. He wondered if the park had a camp ground and visitor center or if it was a park that was left natural. He heard someone walk up behind him. He turned just as Pauline reached him.
"Gosh, it's peaceful here," she commented.
Pat put his arm around her shoulder, "I was just thinking about taking a walk a little way into the woods. How about I get a rifle out of the bus and we check it out?"
Pauline nodded and he walked back to the bus and got a rifle for each of them. He checked to make sure that the safety was on and that each rifle was loaded. He walked back to Pauline and handed her a rifle.
They began to walk into the woods. They found a stream about a hundred yards into the woods and they sat down to enjoy the beauty. Pat lay back on the forest floor and closed his eyes.
"I can't see the motel anymore," Pauline asked with a worried voice, "Are you sure that you can find your way back?"
Pat kept his eyes closed and answered her, "I've been marking the way that we came. We won't have any problem finding our way back."
Pauline sniffed the air, "I smell smoke. I hope nothing is wrong with the generator."
Pat sat up and sampled the air, "That's wood smoke. There might be a forest or brush fire somewhere."
Pauline got a worried look on her face, "Do you think its safe here? The smoke smells strong. Maybe we should get back to the others."
Pat lay back again and closed his eyes, "We're okay. If there is a fire, it's not that close to us."
Pauline tensed, "Did you hear that?"
Pat kept his eyes closed and he was almost asleep. "I didn't hear anything."
Pauline shushed him, "Quiet! I think that I heard a voice. Do you think that one of the girls followed us?"
Pat kept his eyes closed, "I didn't hear a thing. It's probably the wind."
Pauline stood up and cupped her hands to her mouth, "Hello?"
After several seconds a voice answered with a hello. Pat almost jumped off of the ground and grabbed his rifle. He shoved the other rifle into Pauline's hands. They both stood and listened to discern where the voice came from. Pauline shouted again and was answered again.
Pat grabbed her arm, "Let's try to find out what's going on. Be careful! We don't know if whoever is there is dangerous or not."
They made their way as silently as possible toward the voice. Pauline began to shout again but Pat stopped her. The voice called out a hello several times giving Pat and Pauline a direction to find whoever had called out.
The smell of the wood smoke began to get stronger and Pat signaled to Pauline to get down and stay where she was. Pat began to inch toward the smell of the smoke.
Pat almost walked into the camp where a young man stood getting ready to shout again. Pat crouched down and tried to see if the man was armed or not. He couldn't see a gun on the man or anywhere in the camp.
Pat stood up with his rifle pointed at the young man, "Don't move. If you even move a muscle I'll shoot you."
The young man froze, "I'm not armed. God damn, you mean there are other people alive?"
Pat cautiously walked toward the young man, "What are you doing here in the park?"
The young man grinned, "Stupid government shit. I was working on a project and when I came out of the cavern everyone was gone. I haven't been able to find anyone else for a couple of months. What happened? Where is everyone?"
Pat called out to Pauline and told her to come into the camp. Pat kept his gun on the young man. Pauline cautiously made her way to where Pat was holding his gun on the man.
"Sit on the ground and put your hands on your head," he ordered.
The young man sat and did as he was told. Pauline walked into the camp and looked at the man as if she had never seen a human before.
"What kind of government project were you working on?" Pat asked.
The young man smiled, "As I told you, a stupid one. There's a big cavern deeper in the park. Not many people know about it. Somebody in Washington decided that it would be a good place to store nuclear waste. I was with a crew that was sent here to go deep into the cavern and build a large room to store the waste. The government wanted it kept all hush hush so we had to camp here while we were building it. I think that Washington thought that they could store waste here and no one would be the wiser."
Pat didn't believe the man, "That doesn't sound right. How could you get all of the lead shielding you needed down into the cavern?"
"It wasn't hard," the young man continued, "Whoever thought this up had everything sent in by helicopter. We built a large room as deep into the cavern as we could and then used the lead covered sheetrock, like they use in x-ray rooms, on each side of the studs as shielding. Real dumb!"
Pat looked at the man as if he was out of his mind, "That won't work. There's not enough shielding to stop the radiation of the waste. Whoever even got close to that room would die of radiation poisoning."
"I know," the man continued, "We all told them that but it seems that some Congressman thought that it would be a good idea. None of the government slugs had the balls to tell him that it was dangerous and it would wind up killing a lot of his constituents. We argued with them every day."
"Why did you get on the project then?" Pauline asked.
"Sorry lady, but when you have sixty thousand in student loans you take whatever job you can to get out of debt. I figured that I would let the newspapers know about the room before I let them put any nuclear waste in there. I'm sure that the newspapers would love to get their hands on a story like that. This was is my first job out of college and I don't want to make too many waves until I get the loans paid down."
"You can put your hands down," Pat said.
"I haven't been able to find anyone for a couple of months," the man said, "Where did you people come from? Is anyone else with you?"
Pat didn't answer his questions, "Where is everyone else that was working with you?"
"I don't know. We've been working here for a couple of months. One of the guys got hurt and the others got him out and they were going to call in a helicopter and have him lifted out. I kept working and when I came out of the cavern there was no one around. I have no idea where they went. I've been trying to find them but it's like they just vanished from the earth."
Pat looked at Pauline and she nodded in answer to his silent question.
Pat took his rifle off of the man and walked toward him, "They did vanish from the earth. You don't have any idea what happened?"
Pat and Pauline filled him in on the black hole and what effect it had on earth. At first the man didn't believe them. After he had a chance to digest what they had told him he didn't completely believe them but he decided that he would check it out for himself.
When they finished telling the man what had happened the man said, "I guess that's why I couldn't raise anyone. They gave us satellite phones but after I came out of the cavern I couldn't raise anyone. I thought the phone was broke. I dropped it once and I thought that I sent it to satellite phone heaven."
They laughed and the man continued, "Is there anyone else with you?"
Pat told him how they had avoided the effects of the black hole and he told the man about the others.
"Could I come with you all? I haven't seen anyone in months and, after hearing what you've told me, I'm wondering if there's anyone left other than your group and me."
Pat and Pauline agreed to take the young man to the others. Pauline was thinking to herself that having the young man along would increase their chances for survival of the human race. The young man's genes would be a huge addition to the gene pool.