Legion of Despair: Book Three in The Borrowed World Series Read Online Free

theory of generator operation to Will many times and was certain that Will had been responsible for doing this in his absence. Because of the items on the dinner menu, it had obviously been working. Gary reminded himself that he’d need to check the fuel supply later and see how it was holding out. He’d had intentions of purchasing a tri-fuel generator that would run off various fuel sources, but he’d never done it. He owned a gasoline generator, which had been substantially cheaper, and he stored cans of stabilized gas in his outbuilding to run it. He kept about twenty-five gallons at all times, rotating it through his mower or vehicles as it got old and replacing it with fresh.
     
    *
     
    Later, as they were cleaning up from the meal, Gary asked Will if they’d been maintaining a watch at night.
    “Like I said, until recently, there’s not been any indication that we needed to. There just hasn’t been any trouble.”
    “We’ll need to look at that,” Gary said. “It might be time to start one. We just need to be careful. With everyone scattered out over three houses, I don’t want anyone wandering around outside where they could be shot by mistake.”
    Will nodded as he considered this.
    “How’s Dave dealing with all this?” Gary asked.
    “He’s doing pretty well,” Will said. “I don’t know if he’s completely onboard yet, though.”
    “Meaning?”
    “I’m not sure if he’s grasping the seriousness of it all. He’s still worried that he’s going to be fired for not showing up to work, even though there’s no fuel for getting there. You and I have talked about disasters ever since Sara and I started dating. We’ve always thought alike. Dave never had any idea how fragile things were until he and Charlotte got married and he started listening to our conversations. He’s trying but I think he might still be in shock or something. He just seems to think he’s going to wake up one day and everything will be back to normal.”
    “There’s a lot of people that think like that. Had a couple on our trip. I’ll talk to him,” Gary said. “Check in and see how he’s doing.”
    “That’s probably a good idea,” Will said. He looked at Gary seriously. “You know that I would kill to save anyone in this family. I would not hesitate to pull the trigger to save any one of them. I am not sure Dave is there yet.”
    Gary yawned and rubbed his eyes. “I’ll have to deal with him tomorrow. I’m exhausted right now. I think I could sleep for a week.”
    “Do you want to start a watch tonight?” Will asked.
    “I’m not sure it would do any good tonight,” Gary said. “With us scattered out in three houses, we’d need someone awake in each house to cover all this ground. We’ll figure something out tomorrow. For tonight, everyone just needs to make sure their house is locked up tight and that weapons are as accessible as they can safely be kept. And no one should come out after we’re all home for the night. Like I said, I don’t want any friendly fire incidents.”
     
    *
     
    Not long after dinner, Sara and Charlotte left with their families. The children needed to be bathed with baby wipes and those tasks were best done while there was still some remaining daylight. After that, stories would be read and the children would be tucked in for the night. While Jim’s home in Russell County had a backup water source in the way of a spring, and had a well that could provide water under generator power, Gary really had no water source other than what they stored. Their property had public water which had saved the expense of drilling a well when he built the house. It had seemed like a good thing at the time. Then, as Gary started making emergency preparations a few years back, it began to seem like a liability that would be difficult to overcome.
    For three years now, Gary had kept every two-liter soda bottle that had come his way. He carefully washed them, then refilled them with water and