Enduring the Crisis by K.D. Kinney Read Free Book Online

end table. Checking the time on her watch, it was still dark outside, but wouldn’t be for much longer. She leaned back and rubbed her face. Her eyes were still puffy from crying.
    After using the bathroom, she went downstairs to check on her kids. All four asleep and the only sounds were their deep breathing and Holly’s snoring.
    She went back upstairs and rested on the sofa. Instead of sleep, she thought about all the things she needed to take care of before they couldn’t run the freezer and the fridge on the generator. It was going to be a long few days and that was if the neighborhood stayed peaceful. It would take much longer if they had to stay in the safe room most of the day.
    Tammy stared at the door when she couldn’t run lists through her head anymore. Slivers of daylight filtered in through the slats on the shutters. She was still tired. A full day awaited her. She wasn’t going to be able to function until she knew where Amanda was. And if Amanda never showed up… Tammy had to banish the awful depressing thoughts that came to mind.
    If only she could access some news, how far the E.M.P. had spread, if it was natural or man created. She felt stupid helpless. Ben was so far and as much as she wanted him home with her, she held little hope he would ever get there. All the hope and faith encouraging talks she had with her girls had left her. Probably because she wasn’t mentally prepared to be on her own during the ordeal they’d been preparing for and she was terrified. For so long she researched everything that could happen.She’d have intense conversations with people in forums and on the street about all the things she knew.
    Suddenly she felt like a hypocrite, knowing so much and yet it wasn’t enough to settle her mind to get her through it. She’d always had a fear of the unknown, though. That was something she couldn’t cure with this situation and the lack of information was the most disconcerting. Also knowing how other people would eventually behave once things turned desperate for them. She rubbed her forehead so she’d stop thinking and mulling over it all.
    Mae peeked around the corner and Buddy bounded across the floor to greet her.
    “Always the early riser, aren’t you? Even when the room down there is totally dark.”
    Mae was already wiping tears from her eyes. Tammy wasn’t ready for that. She struggled to stop her own for the sake of her frightened daughter.
    “Amanda’s not here.” Mae tugged on her pajama top and wiped her face with her sleeve.
    “No, not yet.” Tammy sighed and patted the sofa cushion. Mae sat next her and curled up against her side. She stroked her daughter’s hair away from her face. “What do you think Amanda might be doing?”
    “She might be lying on the side of the road because she’s lost and doesn’t know how to get home.”
    “No, that doesn’t sound like Amanda. That sounds more like Zoe.”
    Mae looked up and smiled a little. “Yeah, Zoe gets lost at the mall. I had to show her how to get to JCPenney’s.”
    “Amanda doesn’t get lost. Not from school. She could walk home along the river too and then walk down the street, up the hill until she gets to our neighborhood. It shouldn’t take long.”
    “Then why isn’t she home?”
    Tammy narrowed her eyes at Mae but spoke to her gently, “That’s something I want to know too.” She couldn’t sit and talk in circles with Mae anymore. “Come help me get some meat out of the freezer. Then we need to feed the chickens.”
    That was another thing she needed to do. There was an area where they planned to keep the chickens if they needed to stay in the safe room but it wasn’t ready for them yet.
    One by one the girls joined Tammy on the main floor and each girl regretted getting out of bed. They were put to work going through the freezer, sorting foods they needed to eat soon and thawing meat so they could can it or dry it.
    Everyone stopped what they were doing when there was a