Fuel (Best Laid Plans Book 1) (2 page)

“To put it bluntly, the nation has run out of gas. We were entirely dependent on what was produced from our refineries just to keep up day to day operations.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “Now let me stress that we are maximizing production in our remaining refineries, and massive construction projects have already begun to get more refineries up and running as quickly as possible. We estimate that in three months' time we'll be back up to 45% production.”

He said that like it was good news. Trev had his doubts whether that timeline was accurate, but whether it was or not in three months winter would have set in and half the population could be dead from cold and hunger. And that was just assuming that further attacks or even riots didn't impede the efforts. By the time fuel production got up to speed the infrastructure that relied on it might not be around anymore.

Or for that matter the government might not be around anymore as the nation descended into chaos.

The President continued firmly. “We've got a lean winter ahead of us, my fellow Americans, but we
will
pull through. To aid with that I'm issuing an official crisis alert with the following mandates: First, all local and state governments and Federal agencies are authorized to purchase or requisition all remaining fuel from any private sources that may hold it, to be used for emergency and national defense purposes. I want to see it in public hands where it can do the most good.

“Furthermore, it's time for us all to become more responsible about energy consumption. The nation's consumption barely decreased following the Middle East Crisis in spite of our reduced fuel production, forcing us to deplete our reserves. That option is no longer available to us so we have no choice but to tighten our belts. With the suggestion of my advisors and feedback from state governors we've decided to hold off on imposing martial law or calling this a state of emergency, but I am still calling for all citizens to reduce consumption to the bare minimum needed for survival.

“That includes only using water for drinking or washing, only using electricity for lighting at night, reducing heating and air conditioning to the bare minimum and learning to live with more extreme temperatures, and being more prudent when it comes to waste and unnecessary usage of any goods or services. Beyond that, those with necessities to spare are strongly encouraged to donate to their local communities.”

The President stood, planting his fists on his desk and fixing the camera with a piercing stare. “I do not say this lightly, citizens of this great nation. We will be facing harder times than we as a nation have ever faced before, but if we pull together we
will
pull through until the situation can be stabilized. Until then w
e must all swim together to stay afloat.”

Trev shook his head at that. He was all for encouraging words, but the President's sentiment sounded like a bad one. If half the people couldn't swim then all they'd manage is to drag those who
could
swim down with them. Thanks to Lewis and his forward thinking Trev had done quite a bit of preparing, and he didn't like the idea of being rewarded for that by giving away all the food he'd prepared, enough to last him for over two years if necessary, in order to feed hundreds of people for a few days.

He'd made sure he was ready for something like this. It wasn't selfish to live when the alternative would barely help the unprepared and would just guarantee he'd starve to death too.

The President had a few more words to say, mostly specific comments to local and state leaders about procedure moving forward, and then he closed with “May God protect and provide for us in these dark times,” and sat back down. A moment later the screen winked back to the Seal of the United States.

There was a long silence as the people in the classroom digested the reality of a situation that was worse than they'd thought, and then the professor abruptly stood. “Class dismissed. See you tomorrow.”

Not likely
, Trev thought. He'd wasted enough time saying goodbye to just one person and it was time to go.

Matt followed him as he headed for the door. “Well I'm sure that set your mind at ease. It sure made me feel a lot better about the situation.”

“Why?” Trev asked with a shake of his head. “The only thing the President could've said that would've really gotten us out of this mess is that he'd somehow convinced the Gold Bloc to give us aid. Since he didn't mention a word of that everything else is just false optimism and reassuring words to a terminal patient. You do realize that when someone says “tighten our belts” they could mean anything from missing a meal or two to spending a winter eating rats and boiling leather boots and jackets to keep from starving to death, right? From the way he described the situation it's sounding more like the latter.”

His friend nodded doubtfully. “If you say so. I'm going to wait a few weeks before I pass judgment, give the nation a chance to pull itself back onto its feet.”

“Why wait? You could come down to Aspen Hill with me right now and get a head start on preparing for what's to come.”

“How, by sitting around my house fretting about things I can't change while I burn my bridges at the university by skipping out partway through a semester?” Matt laughed. “I'll stay, although I suppose if things don't get back to normal I'll see you down in Aspen Hill in a month or so.”

“I have a feeling I'll be seeing you sooner than that,” Trev replied. He shook Matt's hand one last time before making his way back to his dorm as quickly as he could.

Chapter Two

With A Whimper

Before Trev headed for his car he ducked into his dorm room just long enough put on the underarm holster for his 1911 and slip on a light jacket to cover it. Bringing the reliable .45 might have been bordering on paranoia just for going shopping, but he had no idea how quickly chaos might descend and preferred paranoid to dead. Besides, with his concealed carry permit he was perfectly within his rights to wear the pistol, even though it would be the first time he'd taken it anywhere outside his room since coming to college, aside from to the car on breaks when he went down to Aspen Hill to practice with it at the range.

With its somewhat unfamiliar weight constantly drawing his attention, not to mention making him feel awkward and conspicuous, he made his way to his car and pulled out of the lot.

As he drove he didn't see any signs that the world had noticed the abrupt change in the status quo, even after the speech they'd just heard. No panicked people in the streets, no rioters or looters. No gunshots or sirens in the distance, no screams of horror and cries for help. Just like it had over the last year, America would sink into its final oblivion blissfully unaware.

Sure, there were quite a few more vehicles than usual on the road, people out to do whatever last minute preparations they thought would help for the lean times ahead. He also saw more people than usual out on their lawns or front porches in small groups, talking about the recent events. Some were looking up at the sky, as if idly hoping to catch a glimpse of some major disaster while they stood there gawking.

This trip was intended to be a short one, since much as he'd like to just drive straight for home he couldn't go just yet. He still had a ton of stuff in his room, stuff he'd lugged around all this time and barely used, keeping it for no reason other than that in a situation like this he'd be glad he had it. And he was.

But at the moment he was headed to the nearest gas station. Technically he had enough fuel in his tank to travel the 75 miles to Aspen Hill and then some, a deliberate decision on his part just in case he ever had to make the drive without the opportunity to refuel. But with the local, state, and Federal governments seizing all the remaining fuel he wanted to get as much as he could before it couldn't be got for love or money. Not only would he fill up his tank but he also had four 3-gallon gas cans in his trunk he'd been meaning to fill up before gas prices got too outrageous, and then it had been too late because gas prices became outrageous.

It didn't matter now. Any money left in his wallet, in his bank account, and under the limit of his credit cards would soon be worthless. The economy had barely been limping along as it was, and with zero fuel sure to grind commerce to a halt it was about to crash and burn.

To his dismay when he reached the nearest station he saw it was filled with vehicles. That wasn't the problem, though: on every single gas pump an “OUT OF ORDER” sticker had been put over the fuel type selector buttons. And if that didn't get the point across, judging by the blank screens the pumps were all turned off.

Trev grit his teeth as he took in the sight. He should've expected that the government would act first to secure the sources of fuel and
then
make the announcement. Specifically for the purpose of preventing people like him, and the dozens of people crowding the station lot with their cars and trying to make the pumps work who'd had the same idea, from snatching up all the fuel before it could be seized.

He was tempted to go in and talk to the station attendants to confirm his suspicions, but the poor employees were already being harried by a crowd of customers demanding they turn the pumps back on. Trev had a feeling that could become a potential source of violence, and he assumed the City Council would soon send a tanker truck around to all the gas stations and other places where fuel could be found to pump it all in and take it somewhere more secure.

As for Trev, he had a feeling it would be a waste of time but he wasn't ready to give up yet. There might be some stations that were slower to respond and were still selling gas, or at least hadn't turned off the pumps so he could pay with a card before they did.

He signaled and edged out of the turning lane, continuing on to the light and reentering the turning lane there. He hadn't seen the roads this crowded since before the Middle East Crisis, and while he'd cursed the bureaucracy that had kept the streetlights on their stupid high-traffic timers back when the streets were deserted and he was forced to wait for several minutes at an empty intersection for them to finally turn, now they were actually performing their function again.

So he sat waiting at the light, cursing the waste of gas but with traffic this dense not wanting to turn off his engine to save fuel and end up pissing off everyone behind him.

Although it looked as if the driver of the SUV in his rearview mirror was already pissed off enough, considering the vehicle was lurching forward then easing back in an obvious display of impatience. The SUV was riding his tailgate so hard Trev expected to be nudged at any moment. If he hadn't already assumed some uncharitable things about the guy from the fact that he was driving a vehicle that had to get less than twenty miles to the gallon when gas was over ten dollars at the pump, this display would've confirmed it.

Finally the driver backed up a bit, but only to roar past everyone in the turning lane on the oncoming traffic side of the road while everyone at the intersection was stopped by red lights. His impatience allowed him to turn left about two seconds before their light turned green and the cars in front of Trev started going. The driver also flipped everyone a rude gesture as he passed. In spite of the situation Trev did feel a bit of satisfaction since, unlike the SUV, he had seen the patrol car sitting in the gas station lot.

The patrol car roared out after the miscreant, lights already on as he wove through traffic and forced the SUV to pull over for a ticket. Unfortunately that meant everyone who'd just turned left had to shift lanes to accommodate the slowing vehicles, which wasted more time than if the asshole had just waited two more seconds.

In spite of his satisfaction at seeing the SUV's immediate karma Trev had to wonder why the police were bothering with traffic stops in this situation. With fuel so scarce all law enforcement and emergency vehicles should've been back at their respective stations, only brought out when they were truly needed. Maybe the local government had decided that keeping order on a day like today was important enough to justify the waste of gas.

Or maybe they were just super eager for the extra revenue from that ticket in an economy that was about to collapse.

Either way Trev had his own problems as he drove for the next nearest gas station only to find it also closed down even though its lot was packed with cars searching for fuel. He kept going to another one just down the street and it was closed too. Common sense told him today wasn't the day for exercises in futility, but Trev wasn't about to give up on his idea just yet so he kept going looking for more stations.

It was the same for the next one he tried, and the one after that. On the sixth gas station he finally gave up and turned at the next light to make his way back to campus by a different route so he could try the gas stations along it and maybe get lucky, although at this point he wasn't holding his breath. The change had been too sudden, and he'd been caught unable to adjust from a world of plentiful, if expensive, gasoline to one where it couldn't be found anywhere for any reason.

Sure, there'd probably be a burgeoning black market for the stuff soon, but he had no idea how to even go about finding that sort of thing, and anyway he didn't need it enough to justify the effort. He had enough to get home, which meant the extra he'd been driving around looking for was just his hoarder instincts kicking in to stock up on something that was no longer available that he might have a serious use for later but probably wouldn't.

Once he got to Aspen Hill he didn't plan to do much traveling until this all blew over. If it did.

The dense traffic certainly wasn't helping his mounting frustration as the minutes ticked slowly by and the rumble of his engine reminded him that precious gas was being burned away the entire time. Trev did his best to control his temper as he drove past another packed station with a row of closed pumps. All that time, and more importantly fuel, wasted searching for an open pump when he should've realized it was pointless in the first place.

The street he was on took him past a supermart, and on impulse Trev pulled into the parking lot and searched for a spot close to the entrance. If he couldn't get gas he could at least use his remaining funds to purchase some stuff he might need to survive while stores still had stocked shelves, before the trucks stopped coming in and everyone realized how much they needed those necessities and began hoarding them towards their own survival.

Which may already be happening. Since the gas stations had been crowded it was unsurprising that the store, too, was crammed with people looking to stock up for lean times. People who in retrospect had probably made the right choice compared to everyone still trying to find any gas that hadn't been seized.

He made his way into the store, and in spite of himself was a bit surprised by the commotion.

Over the years he'd seen videos from before hurricanes where people descended on stores like locust swarms to fill their carts with every single edible thing on the shelves, even pet food. He'd assumed since this current disaster wasn't quite so obviously immediate people wouldn't be as voracious. But from the long lines of customers waiting to go through checkout with food items spilling from their carts, it looked as if even if they didn't realize just how bad things had gotten they'd still decided to err on the side of caution.

Trev grabbed his own cart and made a beeline for a specific aisle. From what he could see the locusts still hadn't picked the store bare just yet, but more importantly they were going for all the wrong things. The carts around him were filled with perishables from around the edges of the store, fruits and vegetables and dairy and meats, as well as heaping piles of freezer bags and cartons from the frozen food aisle. Stuff that was easy to prepare, especially if you had a microwave, but would eventually go bad even if their fridges kept working.

And with no fuel there was no telling how long the power would be on.

A few of the more levelheaded shoppers were going for canned goods, which was obvious from the huge bare swatches on the shelves when he arrived at his aisle of choice. Unlike the other shoppers who'd grabbed specific items Trev was indiscriminate as he shoved his arm to the back of a shelf and literally swept the cans from it into his cart as he walked down the aisle.

Near the end the shelves were lined with plastic bags of rice and dried beans which looked as if nobody had taken any at all, a regrettable oversight on their part considering how long those foods would last if properly stored. And they were also some of the cheapest products in the store! Trev abandoned his hunt for cans and gathered up as much rice and beans as the cart could carry, making a hill that rose over its walls so bags threatened to slide off with every movement.

Not finished there, he began gathering the boxes of cans tucked at the back of some of the upper shelves and shoved them into the bottom space above the wheels. A part of him wished he'd grabbed another cart, but he was pretty sure that would've been unmanageable. Besides, he didn't know if he had enough money even for what he had here.

At long last he made his awkward, wobbly way to the front with his cart, catching bags as they fell and stopping once to adjust everything. His only other stop along the way was to pick up a few cases of bottled water that he awkwardly balanced on the pushbar leaning against his chin. By that point the cart was so weighted down it was actually slightly difficult to push and the wheels squeaked alarmingly as he went, and he couldn't help but notice a lot of people giving him odd or amused looks. Although some were looking at their own carts piled high with junk food and cereal as if having second thoughts. Those odd looks made the wait in the checkout line uncomfortable, but finally it was his turn to start stacking things on the conveyor belt.

The cashier gave him a dirty look as she finished ringing up the previous customer, which Trev ignored as he piled the belt higher and higher. He had a feeling she was going to be even more annoyed with him soon.

With gas prices doubling over the last year prices for just about everything else had jumped up too, in some cases several times more than they'd been. Food especially, which he was seeing at the moment as his purchases were rung up and he saw the outrageous numbers flashing across the screen. Ironically smaller stores that tried to draw from local sources of dairy and produce were now competing nearly as well as the retail chains that shipped things a far greater distance. He'd heard that some of those big name stores in smaller towns had begun closing in droves, as many as one a day, while business was still thriving for the local marts.

Of course since trucks didn't have fuel to bring in goods it wouldn't be long before every store closed, and even before that the outrageous prices he saw today would look reasonable compared to how they'd skyrocket as the shelves emptied. Assuming store managers reacted fast enough.

“Can you just ring me up to $143.00?” he asked the cashier as she whipped things across the scanner, the total already over $50.00. She paused to glare at him, forget that the customer was always right, and he felt almost bad as he continued. “And then can you ring me up another $275.00?” That was the cash he had in his wallet and the balance on his debit card, respectively. “The rest you can ring up on my credit card.”