Pat woke up just as the sun was starting to rise. Pauline was still asleep so Pat slid out of bed as quietly as he could. He went across the hall and took a shower so that he wouldn't wake Pauline. He was relieved that the water was still on.
He knew that it was only a matter of time before the systems that they relied on would start shutting down. Probably the sewage systems would be the first to shut down as keeping them running was labor intensive. Now that no one was around to service the sewage systems they would start to fail.
When he went downstairs he saw that several of the girls were huddled together discussing, with fear in their eyes, the possibility that they were the only people left on earth. The two adults were sleeping.
Pat quietly asked the girls that were awake if they wanted breakfast and the girls all said yes. He led them into the kitchen and told them to see what was available and if something had to be cooked, he would cook it.
Soon the girls were sipping Coke's and going through the refrigerators and pantries. Pat cautioned them to make sure that the refrigerator doors were closed and to make sure that all of the pantry doors were shut tight to keep rodents out. The girls found sausage links and eggs and asked Pat if he knew how to cook them.
"Just watch me," he smiled, "I was the cook in my fraternity."
The girl named Brenda got a look of awe on her face, "You went to college? How come you're driving a bus?"
"Long, boring story. Now call out how you want your eggs."
Within a half an hour, Pat and the girls were standing at the prep table in the kitchen eating sausage and eggs and toasted English muffins. The food took the girl's minds off of their predicament and they were talking animatedly when Anna walked in with a look of rage on her face.
"What's going on here? I'm warning you, stay away from the girls. Girls, come out into the lobby. Bring your food with you."
Anna stood by the door as the girls moved into the lobby. Pat waited until the last girl left the kitchen and then shut the door. Anna got a look of terror on her face when she realized that she was alone in the kitchen with Pat.
"What the hell is wrong with you woman?" Pat snapped at her, "These girls are terrified and they're one step away from panic. We adults have to act like adults or we're going to have real problems and we'll be spending most of our time just calming them down. Now get out there and try to act like a human for a change. I'll cook up some breakfast for the rest of you all. I'll call you when it's ready and you can serve the girls."
Anna lowered her eyes a bit, "Stay away from the girls. We don't know what's going on yet and the girls are in my care."
Anna left the kitchen and Pat began to cook sausage and eggs for the rest of the girls and the adults. When he started cooking the sausages Pauline walked into the kitchen and walked over to him and put her arms around his waist.
"What's with Anna? She's all teary-eyed."
"We had a few words. She more or less insinuated that I was making moves on the girls. I'd love to know what is wrong with that woman."
Pauline grinned up at him, "Well, were you making moves on the girls?"
Pat pushed her away and snapped, "Help me with breakfast."
By the time that breakfast was ready for everyone the rest of the girls were awake and ready to eat. Pauline served the girls and made sure that everyone had enough. She admonished them to keep the motel lobby clean and to make sure that the girls cleaned up after they had finished eating.
After everyone had a shower and a potty break it was almost one o'clock. Pat and Pauline had cleaned the kitchen and had put everything back the way they had found it.
Pat turned to Pauline, "Go ask Anna to come into here. I want to tell her what I'm going to do."
Pauline left and returned with Anna several minutes later. From Anna's look on her face Pauline probably had to force Anna to come to the kitchen.
"Anna, I know that you don't trust me or maybe it's just that you don't trust any man but we have to keep the girls calm as long as we can. We haven't seen another human since yesterday. I don't know what's happened. I tried to call my mother in Oregon last night and my brother in Germany but there was no answer. We have to find out if there is anyone else left on earth. I know that you planned on taking the girls to camp but..."
Anna folded her arms across her chest, "Go on."
Pat continued, "I want you to go out and tell the girls that I need to have a very minor repair done to the bus. Tell them that I need to find a truck stop with a mechanic. We'll keep driving for a while and try to find someone else that survived whatever it was that happened yesterday. I don't want to let the girls know that I'm looking for anyone else that survived."
Anna turned and walked out to the lobby without saying a word to Pat. Pat heard her calling the girls to listen to her. She told the girls roughly what Pat had told her and all of the girls began to get their gear together.
Pat found a huge colder and loaded it with all of the lunchmeat and prepared salads that he could and stored it in the baggage compartment of the bus. By two o'clock they were on their way to the next town.
By nightfall they had passed four small towns and in each town they found the same thing that they had found the day before. The girls were starting to get very quiet and most of them had a look of terror in their eyes.
As they neared a fairly large town Pat pulled into an up-scale motel. He went though the motel but found no sign of anyone. The electricity was still on and the water and sewage were still working. He checked out the kitchen and found that it was fully stocked.
Pat climbed on the bus, "We'll stay here for the night. There's no lobby so you girls will have to find rooms. Each room has a lock so you'll be safe. I forgot to check to see if the phones work but you can check once you get in your room. I'd like to request that the ladies fix something for dinner. The kitchen has anything that you need and everything is first class. The pool is still on if any of you want to make use of it."
Everyone got off of the bus and the girls began to get a little more animated at the thought of staying in a room at an expensive motel. Anna was herding the girls toward the motel like she was afraid that the townspeople were going to come back and snatch the girls.
Within an hour the women had fixed spaghetti with Italian sausage and a salad and the girls ate like they hadn't eaten all day. Anna made a show of making sure that the girls each had a room. She kept an eye on Pat as if she expected him to carry off one or two of the girls.
Pat leaned over to Pauline, "I saw a gun shop as we drove in. I'm going to check it out."
Pauline started to say something but he shook his head and she kept quiet. When Pat got up and left the motel Pauline was walking beside him.
"What do you want with a gun?" she asked.
"We have no idea what we're going to run into," Pat said, "If there are people left in the world we have no idea how they are going to react to us. Any people left might be the dregs of the earth or hardened criminals. Another thing is the animals. As soon as the animals begin to turn back to their wild state they are going look at us as their next dinner. If we're the only ones left, everyone will have to learn how to use a gun and be armed at all times.
"You're scaring me," Pauline said.
"I hope I am. This can get right serious and we have to make sure that we're prepared."
"I don't know if I'd want those girls to be carrying guns."
Pat walked into the gun shop, "Right now, I wouldn't either. If the time comes, we'll have to make sure that everyone is trained in the proper use and care of firearms. Remember that even dogs that have been household pets are going to turn vicious once they get hungry and their survival is at stake."
Pat began to look through the inventory of the shop. He shortly found what he was looking for. He pulled four of the pistols out of the inventory and put as much ammunition for the pistols as he could carry in a cloth bag.
"Pauline, I'm going to load one of these and give you a quick course on how to use it. This is the Walther PPS. The magazine holds seven shots and I'm going to make sure that we adults each have four extra magazines. This pistol has a unique safety feature. If you remove the back strap it can't fire. I would advise you to always have the safety on but you'll have to decide if you want to use the back strap feature. It would be terrible if you needed the gun and you couldn't find or had dropped the back strap. The safety can be pushed off pretty quickly and you might want to unload the gun and practice with the safety a few times."
Pat loaded one of the guns and handed it to Pauline. She hesitated for a few seconds before taking it. She was holding the gun like it had billions of germs on it and the germs were about to devour her. Pat grabbed several high-powered rifles and ammunition and headed for the motel.
When they got back to the motel Pat stored the rifles and ammunition in the storage area of the bus. He concealed the pistols and magazines on himself and went back into the motel. The women were just finishing cleaning up.