Absolute Darkness - A CME Survival Thriller

What if help didn’t come?
My mom had cans and boxes of food, but I couldn’t even guess how long it would last. We had shelter, but there were bugs and mice. And, of course, there was the whole problem that Sam needed to get to her daughter.
Things in the middle of nowhere were probably better than they were in the city. Were people looting? Rioting? Fighting each other for supplies?
I laughed at the thought. That kind of thing was for movies and television shows.
Then again, what would Sam and I do to get more food? There were edible things in the surrounding forests, but it wouldn’t be enough. Maybe Erik would have to teach us how to fish.
I’d managed to clean the entire kitchen table off by the time Sam got out of bed. Her flaming red hair was a messy pile on the top of her head.
“Wow,” she said, combing her fingers through the snarled mess. “Where did you put everything?”
“Out back,” I said, as the wind blew through the screen, pushing the curtain against one of the chairs.
“What are you going to do with it?”
I lifted my brows. “I’m going to set it all on fire.”
“You still have that fire extinguisher, right?” Sam asked, seriousness dripping from her words.
I rolled my eyes but held it up. “Maybe we should have a fire tonight and crack into one of the bottles of wine you brought.”
“Sounds good,” Sam said.
“I should tell you something, though.”
“Oh, oh,” Sam said as her eyebrows lifted.
I placed my hands on my hips and exhaled. “We’re going to need to find containers and boil water from the bay.”
“There are probably parasites in that water!”
“That’s why you boil it,” I said, chewing on my bottom lip.
“What is wrong with the faucet?” Sam asked.
I shook my head. “Guess electricity is needed for that too? I noticed last night there was like no water pressure.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were tired.”
“You’re going to need to tell me stuff, Mel,” Sam said, glaring at me. “We’re in this together, right?”
My head bobbed.
“Then don’t keep me in the dark. There is already enough darkness now, don’t you think?” Sam snapped.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” I said, looking away as I twisted my fingers together.
Sam exhaled. “All right then.”
We searched the house and garage for anything we could use to store water. There were several options, including two large five-gallon jugs that still had water inside.
I started to dig a pit in the backyard far from the house. Sam helped by lining it with rocks.
We filled it with wood and newspapers from the house. The fire started easily.
Sam placed down a metal grate we’d found in the garage. She placed her hands on her hips.
“Benefits to getting stranded here, I guess.”
“Lots of random items,” I said, clapping my hands and rubbing them together. “We need to clean these jugs out with boiled water before storing anything in them.”
“Agreed.”
I looked back toward the house. “We’ll use a pot, boil the water, clean out the jugs, dump it, and start again.”
“That sounds like a lot of work.”
“Do you have a better idea?” I asked with a raised brow.
“Wish I did, but I don’t,” Sam said, slapping her thighs. “Let’s get started.”
Keeping busy helped us to pass the time without stressing out about our situation. It was too bad that Dott wasn’t with us because that would have solved a lot of our problems.
Walking back and forth from the bay was exhausting. We only cleaned about half of the containers we’d found before we needed to stop for the day. The surrounding trees blocked a lot of the sunlight, making night fall quicker.
I cooked two cans of cream of mushroom soup in our water pot while Sam sat on an old plastic outdoor chair. She stared at the dancing flame with her arms crossed over her chest. I ladled the thick soup into paper bowls and handed her one.
“Thanks,” Sam said, swirling the white plastic spoon around in the bowl. “Mel?”
“Yeah?”
“This is serious, isn’t it?”
I looked down at my soup. “I think so.”
“I’m not ever going to see Dott again, am I?”
“Oh, Sam!” I said, setting down my soup. I knelt down next to her, placing my hand on her knee as her tears fell into her soup. “Of course, you will see her again.”
Sam looked to the sky, bouncing her leg. “Be real with me. It’s just not realistic to get to her. There are no planes or cars, and walking there would take the rest of my life.”
“I don’t care if it’s realistic or not,” I said. “We’ll find a way. There has to be a way.”
“I wonder what Jameson will tell her about me,” Sam said.
My hand slid back and forth over her knee as I searched for the right words. Something that would help her feel better.
The words wouldn’t come to me. Not because I wasn’t thinking hard enough, but because there weren’t any. There wasn’t anything I could say that would help Sam miss her daughter any less.
“We’re going to run out of food,” Sam said, her eyes blazing with fear.
I opened my mouth but snapped it shut when her eyes widened, and her jaw clenched.
“We can’t live on fish alone. We need fruits and vegetables. Vitamins,” Sam said, throwing her arm out at her side. “There aren’t any fruits or vegetables here.”
I didn’t want to say it, at least not at the moment, but there was a good chance there were packets of seeds in the garage. Hell, probably inside the house too.
That wasn’t Sam’s point. If we were going to try to get to Dott, it didn’t matter how many fruits or vegetables were growing.
“I won’t blame you if you don’t want