Daria walked back to the office and sat the bookbags on the desk as Jane wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "Jane, when we leave, maybe we should take anything we can possibly use, and not just the clothes. All the food, for instance--"

"Especially the Ultra Cola," Jane interrupted her. "We can't abandon any caffeine to be neglected. That would just be wrong, evil and totally uncivilized."

Daria smiled at her and said, "Too bad we didn't have an IV set up for you to get your Ultra Cola that way."

"Is that so wrong? What can I say? I just need my caffeine." Jane then gave her a weak smile. "It's not working, Daria. I can't get them out of my mind."

Daria sighed. "Neither can I. But we can't do any more for them now except mourn and we've already done that. What we have now is a responsibility to ourselves. Now, as I was saying, we take all the non-perishable food we can, all the blankets and anything we need that isn't nailed down. Toilet paper, Kleenex, soap, towels, washcloths. Too bad this place didn't also have a food or soap pantry as well. There's so much health and hygiene items we need that they don't have. Especially medicines." She looked over Jane's head. "Didn't they have disposable diapers?"

"Is there something you haven't told me yet?" Jane asked, a smile breaking out on her face. "Did Trent give you a little 'gift'?"

"Lane, I still have my boots on and I do kick hard. Keep it up and you'll find that out personally. As I was getting ready to say, we also need bandages, not just the ones for little cuts, but big ones for really bad injuries, like they used on MASH. Until we get some, 'clean' disposable diapers will make a reasonable substitute."

Jane grimaced at the thought. "Would they even be sterile?"

Daria shook her head. "No. But if you don't have sterile bandages, then sanitary ones are your next goal. After that, just plain clean would have to do. Then after that, if you get injured, I'll be forced to use your dirty socks and underwear."

"As long as you don't use yours, Morgendorffer. I want a chance to survive." The two smiled at each other and Jane continued, "They had several packs of diapers, as well as rubbing alcohol and pain reliever that hasn't expired yet," Jane said.

"That's still just scratching the surface," Daria replied. "We vitally need potassium iodide, not to mention any good sport drinks, cold and allergy medicines, and anti-bacterial ointment."

"The sport drinks I understand, but why potassium io-whatever? What is it?"

Daria leaned against the office wall and said, "Potassium iodide. Basically, it's a salt used in radiation treatment. It protects the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine, especially in light of a recent nuclear attack. It also has uses in photography and in the making of cough syrups."

"How do you know this?"

Daria sighed and looked up. "I always believed that there was uranium in the drinking water at Highland when I lived there. I researched what I could, especially effective preventative treatments for radiation sickness." She then looked at Jane. "Given the closeness of Three Mile Island to Maryland, I'm surprised that potassium iodide wouldn't be commonplace here."

"Maybe it was when that accident happened. I wasn't around then and Mom and Dad never said anything about it." Jane stood up quickly. "Wait a minute. They have iodine here. Could we use that instead? Or would table salt help us out there?"

Daria shook her head. "Regular iodine is poisonous to consume and table salt doesn't have enough potassium iodide in it to help." She stretched and coughed briefly. "Then, there's our weapon situation."

Jane pulled the pistols out and laid them on the desk. "When you were asleep, I checked out how many bullets we have," she said. "We have half a box of .357 Magnum shells, plus two still in the pistol itself, while the .38 caliber has four shells period. We use them up and that's it. Oh, and we have one switchblade."

For several seconds there was silence, then Daria laughed hard and sat down on the couch beside Jane. "I said yesterday that a pistol would give us some security. I still believe that, but we need even more than that. More bullets for the pistols, a couple of shotguns and shells for them. Suppose that there are no emergency shelters or that there is no room in ones that exist. We'll be totally on our own." She sighed. "Most of the people we run into may be nice and helpful. I think what happened with those two yahoos and Carter was just bad luck and Murphy's Law. But if the government doesn't keep or restore somewhat normal order, then we'll end up meeting more men like them." She covered her eyes and sighed again. "We may not be quite so lucky next time."

Jane touched Daria's right shoulder gently and said, "Then we need to be extra careful. You watch my back and I'll watch yours."

Daria gave Jane a sideways glance. "As long as you watch my back and not my butt."

Jane smiled. "Spoilsport."

They laughed together.

oooooooooo

Outside, Daria pushed the last box in the back seat and asked, "Is that everything? I wish I had made up a list before we came out here. We'll have to do that or we'll lose track of what we have."

"I think so, Daria. It's almost one. Let's make tracks." She got behind the wheel and Daria got in the passenger seat. She started the car and revved up the engine. Then she put the car in drive and accelerated out of the parking lot and back onto the road.

"You got the toilet paper, didn't you, Jane?"

"No, you did."

"No, I didn't. You were supposed to."

Jane slammed on the brakes and put the car into reverse. "Amiga," she said as she backed the car up to the church and parked it. "That's dangerous to do. If I had to use leaves, I would become violent and anti-social."

"I see you've already used leaves before."

"Statistics show that sarcastic friends would be the first to die in such a rampage. I do not want to ever use leaves. See, there are three things that are vital to life itself. Caffeine, pizza and toilet paper. Everything else is just secondary."

Daria held up a canister of potato crisps. "These are pizza-flavored. I found them in a cabinet in the kitchen."

"Not good enough, Morgendorffer," Jane said and waggled her right index finger at her. "But they have my name on them. Hand them over."

Daria pulled them to her chest. "Do I know you?"

Jane smiled. "You're about to find out. I'll hold and protect them and the car while you go inside and get all the toilet paper."

Daria got out of the car. "There better be some left when I get back."

"I'll save you some crumbs, Daria."

It took Daria nearly two minutes to come back to the car with two plastic shopping bags filled with toilet paper. She tossed it in the back with the other supplies and took the canister from Jane. It was half-full with potato crisps and Jane simply grinned at her sloppily as she chewed on her food. Daria rolled her eyes and muttered, "You're hopeless, Jane."

Jane pulled back out on the road and drove back to the highway.

The atmosphere of the area seemed to change from the day before, Jane noticed. She saw that most of the houses they passed either seemed quickly evacuated or somewhat blocked off by vehicles or debris in the driveway. At no time did they see people at any of the houses.

Daria suddenly said, "Is it just me or does things seem...off out here?"

"I noticed that," Jane replied. "It wasn't like this yesterday when we came through."

Daria looked up at the sky. "The skies are gray and the look of those clouds isn't very good."

"That's not it. It feels like...we're being watched when we get near some of the houses."

"We probably are." Daria leaned back in the car seat. "Most of those who stayed at their houses are probably scared and seeing an unfamiliar car doesn't help the situation." She then looked out the back window and gasped. "We have a new problem, Jane."

"I don't see anything, Daria," Jane replied as she looked out the rearview mirror.

"'Anything' being the operative word here."

Jane looked again and muttered, "Oh, boy." Louder, she said, "Snow?"

"Try 'blizzard' and you'll be closer to getting a prize."

"Shit!" Jane sped up and asked, "Is it...could it be radioactive?"

Daria nodded. "It's possible. We have no way to tell." She laughed briefly and nervously. "Make that four things that are vital in life. Caffeine, pizza, toilet paper and Geiger counters."

"Maybe we should stop at the house up ahead," Jane said. "It's not blocked off and it doesn't look evacuated either. Maybe they'll shelter us until the snow passes."

Daria looked at the home carefully and said, "The front door looks like it's partially open. Maybe it's empty, but then again, maybe it's not. Might as well check it out."

Jane pulled into the driveway, parked and turned off the car. They got out, each with their hands on a weapon and carefully advanced on the porch. "I don't think anyone's here," she said quietly.

"We'll see," Daria replied and lightly knocked on a storm door.

"No one's answering," Jane said and squinted to see better through the window.

Daria looked at the approaching storm, shivered in her uncertainty and finally said, "We might as well check it out. It's better than nothing."

They slowly entered through the front door, with their pistols now drawn and cocked. They stood on what had once been a porch years before, but was now an entryway into the house. The sound of static came from a TV set in the living room and Daria saw a man sitting in a recliner in front of the TV. "Hey!" she called out. "Mister!"

Jane looked around, lifted the pistol and moved closer to the recliner. She looked at the man and let out a deep sigh. "He can't hear you, Daria," she said softly and carefully released the pistol's hammer.

Daria did the same with her pistol and walked up to where Jane was. She saw the frozen, pain-filled expression on the man's face and his glassy-looking eyes and the right hand clawed at his chest. For a second, she froze in shock, then looked the scene over a little more. He was heavyset, appeared to be in his sixties and was dressed in a sweat suit. A bag of potato chips and a six pack of beer sat on a table at his side; one can was opened and apparently partially drunk from. His left hand held a remote control. "I'd say he died of a heart attack," she said. "Probably getting ready to watch a ball game when the bombs went off. He must have been alone when it happened."

"Pretty damn quick for a heart attack," Jane commented. "He never even dropped his remote."

"Sometimes they are. I know of one guy in Texas who just closed his eyes and died in his kitchen chair. Didn't even fall over."

Jane shivered at the thought of that and said, "I'm going to check out the rest of the house. Keep an eye on him."

"Oh? Do you expect him to go somewhere?"

Jane stopped and smacked her head. "O.K., smart ass, that didn't come out right. But the snow's almost here. If we're going to stay here awhile, then we'll have to get him out of the house or he'll be stinking within the next day or so." She left the room.

Daria moved away from the body and turned off the TV. A part of her wanted to bolt from the room and the other part wanted to toss his body outside. She felt ashamed at thinking that, looked down and said, "I'm sorry about what happened to you, but your house will protect us. So I guess I thank you as well."

A minute later, Jane came back in the living room and put the Colt back in its holster. "Are you two having a good conversation?" she asked.

"I was just thanking him for...oh, never mind. What did you find?"

"He lived alone, but had a wife at one time. A couple of the rooms still had a woman's touch to them. She probably died sometime back." She motioned towards his body. "We might as well get him out of here."

"Where are we going to put him? Every place I think of seems so wrong. Just being here with him feels so wrong."

Jane put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Yeah, I know. But it can't be helped. He's dead and we can't help him, so we have to help ourselves, like you said at the church. So, let's just put him outside on the back porch."

Daria pocketed the .38 and the two of them pulled the man onto the floor with the aid of the recliner's slipcover. His body was still partially rigid; the hand retained its claw-like position, and the legs stayed bent. The head lolled around slightly as the body was moved, but the eyes remained open. The girls drug him through the kitchen door and onto the back porch.

As they went back inside, Daria stopped and looked at the man's body. "This reminds me of that scene from the remake of Night of the Living Dead, when they drag the fat zombie outside." She looked around the yard quickly, shivered and turned away from the door.

"Yeah, but we're not dealing with zombies," Jane replied as she shut and locked the door. "He wasn't that fat either."

"He was heavy enough."

Jane looked at Daria and pulled the car keys out of her pocket. "I'm going to check out the garage and see if we can put the car in it. That way, if the snow is hot, then at least it won't get on the car."

"Good idea," Daria said and nodded. "I'll see about what there is to eat here." She stopped and blinked. "Jane, what we just said sounds so wrong on so many levels."

"This stuff won't help him anymore, Daria. He's dead, just as dead as all those church members are."

"It's just going to take a little getting used to." She laughed, lifted her glasses and eyepatch and rubbed her eyes. "So I guess we're looters now."

Jane nodded. "Something I heard in a movie once went like 'we're thieves and we're bad guys, that's exactly what we are.'" She held up the Magnum. "We'd better be damn tough ones. But our motives are better than others."

"Are you so sure of that?"

"Of course. We're dealing with our survival. We aren't going to hurt anybody who doesn't try to hurt us first. Others can't say that." She looked over the pistol. "I never shot anybody before yesterday. I know it's odd, but I can't say that his death bothers me at all. It was like stepping on a cockroach."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Jane, because I still think of his wife and family alone in New Jersey, waiting for him to come home and be with them."

"They're better off without him. Hopefully, she thinks he died in Philadelphia. Then she can find a better guy to take care of her and her kids." She stepped out the front door.

Daria nodded and opened the freezer door, then smiled. There were three frozen pizzas inside, as well as French fries and ice cream. "Bingo," she said and pulled the pizza and fries out.

oooooooooo

Ten minutes later, Jane came back inside and locked the door. "Hey, we're may be in luck!"

"Why's that, Jane?"

"There's an SUV in the garage, with a nearly full gas tank. I put all our stuff in it and locked up the garage." She sniffed the air. "You're fixing something, but I can't tell what it is yet."

"French fries," Daria said. "After they're done, then I'll bake us some frozen pizzas."

"Pizzas! What kind?"

"Pepperoni, combination and a spinach mushroom."

Jane made a face. "That last one doesn't sound too good, but I'll try it. Hey, it's pizza."

"I was going to fix all three anyway," Daria pointed out. "We may lose power at any time."

"This area may get its power from a nuke power plant. I'm fairly certain that Lawndale did as well."

"Yeah, and knowing that just comforts the hell out of me. Not only do we have to deal with fallout from nuke bombs, we may have to deal with more and more nuke waste when the power plant's reactor core finally melts down."

"So we'll glow in the dark, Morgendorffer." Jane laughed. "Admit it. Nuke power or not, you still enjoy having electricity, don't you? It makes life just a little easier. Besides, we could always be cooking our meals outside at an open pit. Imagine what fun that would be in the snow. We still may end up doing just that. Or we could be dead within the next week. Who knows?"

"Jane, what if our...what if Trent and my family are all dead?" Daria asked, her voice fearful. "What do we do then?"

Jane stopped, looked at Daria silently, then turned away. "I don't want to think about that," she said.

"But there's a possibility that--"

"I said I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT!" Jane yelled and glared at her. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "I'm sorry, Daria, but I can't talk to you about that. Part of the reason I cried about those children from the church was because I also thought about Trent. He...he can't be dead. He's been the one relative who's always been there for me, even if he was asleep through most of it." She wiped her eyes. "He can't be dead. Your family can't be dead, either. They can't be. They just can't be. We just have to find all of them." She laid the front of her head against the freezer door. "We just have to find them."

Daria's face was red from Jane's sudden burst of emotion. "I'm sorry," she said quietly and moved behind her.. "I didn't mean to upset you."

Jane turned and put her head in Daria's shoulder and they wrapped their arms around each other. They stood there in silence for more than five minutes, then broke the embrace to look at each other. Both of their faces were tear streaked. Jane looked away, cleared her throat and said, "I'm going to the bathroom. Be right back." She walked out of the kitchen.

Daria checked the time on the fries and wiped her eyes with her hands. She heard a spattering sound from outside and looked outside to see snow coming down heavy and wet.

oooooooooo

After dinner, the two girls double checked the locks and kept off the lights except in the living room. In there, they stapled blankets over the windows and turned up the heat. But the real surprise came when Jane found several different firearms in a gun rack located inside a closet. She carried several into the living room to show Daria.

As Daria looked over the newfound guns, she also searched the TV channels for news, but there were no stations broadcasting, at least none that the TV could pick up. "Not bad, Jane," she said. "It looks like we're covered when it comes to firearms."

Jane smiled. "We're better off, at least."

Daria picked up a double-barrelled .12-gauge shotgun. "Kinda heavy to lug around," she said, "but I'll get used to it. The strap on it helps."

"What if it kicks?" Jane asked as she picked up a .22-caliber single shot rifle. "This might be closer to your speed."

"Nah. I kick, too, so it fits my personality. What about that bigger shotgun?"

"It's a .10-gauge." She looked it over. "I think it's an antique. It's certainly not new. There were only five or six shells for it upstairs."

"We can still use it, Jane, or trade it later on for something else we need. Oh, I almost forgot the radio." Daria laid the shotgun down and turned on a radio that she had found earlier. She searched for the same station they had listened to before. Suddenly, they heard the familiar voice of the president as he spoke to the nation, "...ask you to pray for our nation, to be patient in this time of trial and to help one another as best you can. It has been said that America shows its greatest strength in its times of adversity. So may this time be our time of greatest strength..." The station squealed and went out. Daria tried for nearly a half hour to get the station back and finally gave up.

"Damn!" she said and exhaled loudly. "The only thing we were able to find out was that the president is still alive."

"We still have a government," Jane said.

"That brings up my next question," Daria said. "Suppose we get to a shelter and they take our guns away from us? What do we do then? I don't plan on staying in a shelter the rest of my life. We'll have to leave some time and those weapons will still be needed in a lot of areas."

Jane thought on it for several seconds, lightly touched her nose and then said, "Maybe we shouldn't go to a shelter. My nose is just tender and not broken as far as I can tell and your eye looked like it was healing."

"We still need to check out shelters," Daria said, "to see if our families are there. Here's my idea. We stop at one of the shelters at Cumberland to get any food and more importantly, potassium iodide, they may give us. We still try to get a doctor to check us out to be safe. Maybe we can get more news than we've gotten so far. Now I doubt that Trent or my family will come that far. Maybe they'll go to Westminster or even Frederick or somewhere around there. Maybe even somewhere in Pennsylvania, but I really don't know for sure. I know they won't go to Annapolis or the other side of Chesapeake Bay, however."

"Why not there?"

"Fallout from Washington."

"Oh."

"Before we leave here, we need to take anything of value that can help us survive."

The two sat on the couch and started making out lists. On the wall behind them, a clock struck ten in soft chime-like tones.

oooooooooo

Outside on the road in front of the house, a car slowed in the raging snow. Inside sat three men in their late twenties or early thirties, looking at the house. All three were dressed in winter wear and looked at the house with unfriendly interest. The front passenger smacked his left palm with his fist and said, "I've been waiting for a chance to get that old bastard for getting all of us fired before Christmas. Now's our chance."

"What if he ain't alone?" the man in the backseat said. "I heard he had a daughter in Virginia. She and her family might be with him now."

The driver pulled an automatic pistol out of his coat, looked at it and said, "It doesn't matter. We'll take care of his guests first so that he can watch them die. Then we'll finish him off." He pulled the car into the driveway slowly.