Fuel (Best Laid Plans Book 1) (14 page)

Either way the RAs came out in force about that time shooing everyone to their rooms and urging them to sleep until morning. Instead Matt pulled out one of his two small but powerful LED flashlights and did a last check of his room. He was using the cart to haul most of his stuff, better organized to fit his personal things, as well as rolling his full suitcase along behind him. He'd also put Trev's Glock in his jacket pocket in case he needed it.

Once that was done he wheeled everything out to the apartment's living area and sat on the couch waiting as it got darker and darker outside the windows. That reminded him uncomfortably of Trent, who he hadn't seen all day. None of his other roommates seemed to be around either, leaving him alone in the dark.

He found himself again wishing he'd managed to get ahold of his mom on the land lines. They'd all shown a busy signal, either because the lines were down or because service had been cut off. He hoped she wasn't worrying too much. He'd sent her an email on a friend's computer since internet was still up, so hopefully she'd gotten that.

When it was finally completely dark Matt called a goodbye to roommates that probably weren't even there and left the dorm. Down the hall he could see flashlights swinging around in the lounge, students talking quietly about what was happening, but he turned the other way to leave by the side doors. It was eerily dark outside, made even more unnerving by the ruddy glow of fires on the horizons all around.

As he pushed the cart and pulled his suitcase he expected the security guard from before to come chasing after him, but nothing happened. He reached his car and quickly tossed everything in the backseat, then pushed the cart over to the sidewalk and wedged it there. After a last look at his college and dorm to say goodbye to his old life, Matt opened his car door and slipped behind the wheel.

Before anything else he closed his eyes for a moment in a silent plea. It had been months since he'd last used this car, and although he knew he still had a few gallons in the tank the gauge read empty. But that wasn't a problem, was it? He'd heard you could drive 50 miles after the gauge reached empty, and that would take him most of the way home. All the way if he was lucky.

He put the key in the ignition and turned it.

The engine sputtered, trying to start, and after a few long seconds finally turned over with a low rumble. He leaned back, grinning in relief, and reached down to put the car into gear. But just as he started to shift into reverse the engine sputtered again, tried to keep going, then abruptly died with a rattle and the squeal of a fan belt coming to a stop.

Matt sat frozen, staring at the steering wheel in blank disbelief. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised that the car was completely out of gas after sitting on empty for so long, but he still felt a little bit betrayed.

50 miles! Isn't that what everyone always said? When the gauge was on empty the car could still go 50 miles before dying. That would've at least gotten him into familiar territory where he could approach people who were practically neighbors for help getting the rest of the way home.

He punched the roof a few times, then shoved the door open and sprang out of the car, slamming it shut and leaning back against it to stare at the sky overhead. Along with fires painting the horizon in front of him red he could hear distant shouts and screams, which from far away sounded a bit like an outdoor music festival. Except it wasn't.

What was he supposed to do now? He'd waited too long to buy what he needed from the stores, so now if he tried to make the walk down like Trev he'd be stuck with almost no food or water and nothing to carry it in besides his school backpack, which meant he couldn't really carry a sleeping bag or anything very bulky. He supposed if it was literally life and death he could walk 75 miles without much food, although the trip would be brutal, but without water it would probably be impossible.

There was no help for it, he was going to have to gather up the water bottles he'd filled up for his apartment, most of them still sitting in the kitchen, and load up his backpack with everything he could find. His only hope was that he hadn't waited too long to l-

“Psst!”

Matt yelped and whirled towards the noise, unconsciously grabbing for Trev's gun tucked in his pocket. His hand missed twice going in, then the gun got caught in the fabric and he couldn't manage to tug it free. After an embarrassing ten or so seconds he was still struggling as he finally got a good look at the person who'd approached him.

Or at least her silhouette in the near total darkness. He was pretty sure it was a girl standing on the sidewalk beside his car, with long hair and wearing her backpack while rolling a suitcase along behind her. She was in a dark sweater and jeans and was really hard to see.

“Uh, hello?” he hissed, letting his hand drop away from the gun. He'd really have to find a way to draw it faster so he didn't end up dead in a real emergency.

“Hi,” the girl whispered back, raising her free hand to wave. “Um, we haven't really met before but I'm in your English class. Samantha Hutchins?”

Matt felt himself relaxing. “Oh yeah, sure. You go by Sam, right?”

“Yeah, but only because it's like the only nickname that works.” Sam hesitated. “Listen, this is going to sound weird but can I hitch a ride with you?”

Matt blinked. “I'm heading down to Aspen Hill. Didn't you say you came from back east when we introduced ourselves on the first day? New York City, right?”

“Oh, you were paying attention?” the girl said in a teasing voice, sounding a bit pleased. Matt didn't have the heart to admit that he had a good memory and hadn't specifically been trying to learn more about her. Although as he recalled she was pretty cute: petite, with long black hair and a decent tan. But it had been a big class so that was about as far as impressions went.

Sam continued. “Yeah, I'm from the Big Apple. But you know it's got to be way worse than even around here without food being delivered in, and anyway how would I even get there? I'm just happy to go wherever you're going if you'll have me along.”

He turned and kicked at his front tire. “I don't know if you noticed but I'm out of gas. This car isn't going anywhere, so unless you want to walk 75 miles with me you're probably better off looking for another ride.”

“No worries,” Sam chirped. Matt could almost hear the smile in her voice. “Don't carpoolers help pay for gas?”

Matt couldn't help but laugh. “Gas stations haven't been open for over a week. I know, my friend drove to a bunch of different places when he ditched town and that was the day of the President's speech.”

It was Sam's turn to laugh. “That's not exactly what I had in mind.” She patted her suitcase. “Can I get loaded up? Then if you've got a spare container and hose I'll show you where we can get this piece of junk topped off.”

“Sure,” Matt said, surprised but immensely relieved. He turned on his flashlight to help her see as she loaded up her backpack and suitcase, giving his hasty packing job a curious look.

It turned out it wasn't the mess she was interested in, though. “You managed to go shopping? At first I was saving my money hoping to buy tickets for a plane or bus home, and by the time I realized there wouldn't be any
or
any food coming in it was too late and all the food was gone. Looks like you got mostly other things.” She finished shoving her stuff in. “Got another flashlight?”

Matt nodded and fumbled in his other pocket. “Sure, here.”

“Okay, but we should probably keep them off until we need them. I ran into some security earlier and he was a real jerk.”

That made him laugh again. “We must've run into the same person.”

“Probably. Come on.” Matt hurriedly gathered up the gas cans and plastic tubing he'd gotten from the store, then followed Sam past the dorms and onto the eerily quiet campus. They walked side by side squinting into the darkness ahead as the dark-haired girl made a beeline for the Natural Sciences building, where she pushed through a locked door that had been left open using tape. He couldn't help but find the situation strange, although he had no reason to suspect his new traveling companion. Even so, surrounded by pitch black silence it was easy to imagine himself being led somewhere to have his organs harvested.

Luckily Sam was quick to produce his flashlight to light their way down a hallway, although as he pulled out his own light and followed he once again felt a moment of concern when she led him through a door onto a stairway that led down to an underground level. “Um, where exactly are we going?”

Her dark head bobbed slightly as she turned to look back at him. “Shared labs. Half the professors in the building have a project going down here, everything from simple tesla coil experiments to some pretty high tech stuff.”

“If you're about to tell me that my car is going to be run by a tesla coil . . .”

She laughed again. “Nope. Sorry for the mystery, it was just fun to see your reactions.” They reached the bottom of the stairs and she turned a hard left to reach a little alcove beneath the suspended steps. “I was a TA for Professor Guthrie, and before he took off for home a few days ago he had me fetching things for him from down here. Look.”

Tucked into the back of the alcove was a generator, a surprisingly large one, and as Sam finished she gave the tank bolted to the side a sturdy kick. Matt heard liquid sloshing inside. “Last time I came down here I noticed this and saw that it still had gas in it. Either the people working with it forgot it was here or they've already left like Professor Guthrie.”

Matt grinned as he crouched beside the generator, setting down his two 5-gallon cans and untucking the length of tubing he'd been holding beneath his arm. “I'm glad I'm the one you decided to hitch a ride with.”

“Yeah well I wanted to get away before these store riots I keep hearing about turn into something even worse, and considering it's the middle of the night you seemed like the least rioty looty murdery option available.” Sam paused. “Okay the only option available, but you always seemed like a nice guy in class.”

“Oh, you were paying attention?” Matt asked with a slight smile, repeating her earlier words. Her only answer was a soft laugh.

The tank was up high enough that he could siphon the gas into the cans, which meant he had the delightful experience of breathing in fumes to get the liquid flowing. Thankfully he managed to not suck in a mouthful of gasoline in the process. It turned out the tank held a little more than six gallons, aside from a few last ounces he couldn't manage to siphon out. With the miles per gallon his “piece of junk” managed he now had enough to make it twice the distance to Aspen Hill.

Sam offered to carry one of the cans but he refused. The gesture wasn't so much chivalrous as the fact that carrying two similar weights in either hand balanced each other out, which for heavier things was almost easier than carrying half the weight unbalanced in one hand. Not that the cans were all that heavy. Instead he let her guide the way with the flashlight as they hurried out of the building.

Together they slipped through the darkness back to his car, where Matt filled the tank while Sam kept watch for security guards or other unfriendly faces. Finally they got in and Matt pumped the gas a few times to prime the engine, then held his breath and turned the key in the ignition.

The engine rumbled to life and ran smoothly, and he turned and grinned at the dark-haired girl finally fully revealed by the dome light
. “Next stop, Aspen Hill.”

Sam grinned back. Just like he remembered she
was
pretty cute. “Great! Where is that, exactly?”

* * * * *

After everything that had happened that day Matt was a bit worried they'd run into trouble on the drive down, maybe car problems or roads being blocked. With the riots he even feared possible ambushes. But everything was uneventful as they left the city behind and made their way along Highway 6.

He spent the drive talking with Sam and got to know a bit more about her, and had to admit he liked what he heard. Although she qualified for student loans she'd been working part time during school and full time between semesters to keep the debts as low as possible.

She'd also picked a sensible major, although he hadn't thought so at first. When she first said she was studying food sciences he'd thought glorified cooking, at least until she explained how the study dipped into the fields of microbiology, chemical engineering, and biochemistry. He was even more impressed when she went into detail about the complicated process of creating natural and artificial flavors in labs and the research and testing required, not to mention the production end of things. It looked as if her future was in a lab or factory, not a restaurant.

Or at least would be when the world got back to normal.

He also told her a little about himself, his time on the basketball team in high school and his mechanical engineering major at the university. It turned out that their fields had some interesting overlaps that made for a lengthy discussion, and the hour and a half drive ended surprisingly quickly, so he was turning off the highway and onto the smaller road leading to Aspen Hill before he even realized it.

Sam seemed surprised the drive was already over, too, and she had nothing but nice things to say about the town. Matt had wondered if growing up in such a big city would give her a disdainful view of rural living, but if anything she seemed to love the large yards and open countryside, and especially the black silhouette of the Manti-La Sal mountains looming to the west.