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driver’s side and climbed in. Diane had already slid over to the passenger seat.
    “The expression on your face tells me it wasn’t pretty in there,” she said. Emma and Gregory were asleep in the back seat.
    “I didn’t need this,” he said, removing the S&W and handing it to her. “Things were about as orderly as one could expect under the circumstances.” He then told her about his run -in with the cashier and the price gouging he’d experienced.
    He started the engine and drove away.
    “I can’t say I’m all that surprised,” she said.
    John didn’t agree. “A small convenience store I can understand, but a big chain?”
    “When times are tough, people get greedy. In the end, no one was shooting the place up.”
    “Not yet,” John said as he headed for home. “But it’s only a question of time.”

Chapter 9
    O nce home, John got out and manually opened the garage door while Diane drove Betsy in. The kids were awake by now, expressing how strange it felt to be missing class. Emma was staring off into the distance, likely also missing Brandon.
    All of them helped bring the water and food inside. After that, John called a family meeting.
    “Your mother and I need to make a decision,” he told them.
    The mood grew somber. He took the next several minutes to explain to all of them as best he could that the country and possibly a chunk of the planet had either been hit by a solar flare or an electromagnetic pulse. John had begun prepping three and a half years ago, so those terms were very familiar to each of them. John’s preps had been geared toward a wide array of natural and man-made disasters, an EMP being only one of them. There were plenty of ways the country could implode, or explode, depending how one viewed it. A total collapse of the financial system, civil wars over gun control, meteor strikes, earthquakes, even alien invasion had been discussed. Either way, being ready for a complete breakdown of law and order had been his focus.
    In some ways, the cause was merely academic. The EMP, however, had represented the worst of the worst since in one fell swoop the country would be sent back to the mid-1800s. Even the simple loss of electricity could be devastating, let alone the loss of ninety-nine point nine percent of all transportation and perhaps a hundred percent of communication. These were networks which bound modern society together, helped to preserve order. Now that they were gone, the thought of what might come next was frightening.
    Every so often as he spoke, the kids checked their phones to see if somehow they would miraculously switch back on. It was a normal impulse and John knew how addicted to technology the younger generation was. For these reasons he didn’t say anything. Sooner or later they’d figure out their precious gadgets weren’t coming back.
    After he explained what he thought was happening, Gregory raised his hand.
    “Say what’s on your mind , son.”
    “What does it matter if we were hit by an EMP or a solar flar e? The result is the same.”
    “That’s a good point, but there is an important difference. One is a random act of nature that occurs roughly once every five hundred years. The other involves the detonation of a nuclear weapon high in the atmosphere, say three to four hundred miles up. If that’s the case, we’re probably at war and it could mean that foreign troops are headed our way.”
    “Unless they’re already here,” Diane said, under her breath. She’d been sitting quietly until then, scratching the red polish off her nails.
    “That is a distinct possibility.”
    Emma shifted in her seat. “Dad, you’re starting to scare me.”
    “ Good,” John said. “’Cause these are things we need to be prepared to face.”
    His wife was trying hard to bite her lip.
    “So we need to make a decision but I’m open to hearing input from each of you. We have the reinforced bunker downstairs that can keep us protected and fed for about a