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He nodded. “Thanks, Carly. I’ll do that.” His smile told her he understood what a big step she was taking toward trusting him by allowing him to stay in her home.
Carly shuffled her feet for a moment and then headed back into the kitchen. She was a little nervous about it, truth be told. No man had ever stayed in her apartment with her, and she still wasn’t certain she could trust him. But he’d been good to her, kind to Sam, and helpful in ways she didn’t fully comprehend yet. She was thinking about her situation with a clearer mind since they’d talked about it.
Carly opened two cans of pork and beans and poured them into bowls. A cold dinner, but at least they’d have something. If it had been left up to Carly, she would probably be staring with dull helplessness into her empty cabinets, wondering what to do next. She owed a lot to Justin already.
“What’s for dinner, honey?” Justin asked with a grin.
“Pork ‘n’ beans. Eat it while it’s cold.”
He chuckled. “If you’d prefer, I could go outside and start a fire, and we can heat it up and eat hot food like civilized people.”
“Too much effort.” Carly shoveled in her first bite.
“Have you given any more thought to your situation here, Carly?”
She set the bowl down on the counter, no longer hungry. “I have. I think you’re right. I don’t have what I need here to survive. And as much as I hate it, I think I’ll have to leave. I don’t know if I want to go to Florida, but I have to find a better place to live than my apartment. Maybe a house with a fireplace or something.”
“Do you know how difficult it is to keep a house warm using only a wood fireplace or stove?”
“No, not really.” Carly admitted it with a bit of reluctance. “I know there are lots of people who do it, so it can’t be too bad, right?”
Justin shook his head. “For one person? Chopping all that wood?”
“Chopping. What do you mean? Like, cutting down trees?” She had been leaning more toward finding wood to burn. There was a hardware store on the other side of town that sold lumber but she’d still have to cut that up, wouldn’t she?
He chuckled, and Carly felt a flare of anger. “Look, I’m sorry I don’t know this stuff. I may look stupid to you, but I—”
“Wait, Carly, no, I don’t think you’re stupid.” His humor vanished the instant he realized she’d been stung by his comment, and his voice gentled. “You just don’t have an inkling of what it takes; most people wouldn’t if they had no experience with it. But, you need to understand we’re talking about life and death here. You could freeze to death if you didn’t know what to do, or if you weren’t able to get enough wood split to keep you warm over winter. Even with chainsaws and log-splitters, it’s a lot of work. That’s why I suggested a warmer climate. It would be better for you in the long run.”
“I’ve never been out of Alaska,” Carly said. She wasn’t sure she could explain to him how awful a prospect it was to leave everything behind, to give up on the idea the world might return to normal if she just waited there instead of abandoning her hope and home.
“I’ve never been to Florida.” Justin took a large bite of his cold pork and beans and chewed with relish. “Here’s the thing.” He pulled a paper towel off the roll beside the sink and used it as a napkin. “We need to leave soon. It’s going to be a very long journey, and I don’t think we’ll manage to make it all the way to Florida, or even south of the Mason-Dixon for that matter, before the winter sets in. So we have to hurry and get as far as possible in the time we have left.”
Carly hesitated before asking, since she knew it was another dumb question, but she had to know. “If we can’t take a car or a motorcycle, what are we going to do?”
“Ride bicycles. Walk.”
“Justin, you’re talking four thousand miles here.” The idea of moving into a house across town had been daunting enough, let alone the idea of traveling across most of North America.
“I know. It took me about one hundred and thirty days to do the entire Appalachian Trail, and I was going a lot faster by myself than I’ll likely be able to go with you.”
“How many miles did you hike in a day?”
“Most days, about fifteen to twenty, depending on the roughness of the trail. Since you’re not an experienced hiker, I’m expecting us to make five to ten, at least at first.”
“What about if we ride bicycles?”
“Double it. Maybe twenty miles per day, at first. More, as you get stronger. Some experienced cyclists can do eighty miles in a day.”
Carly shook her head. “You’re talking about more than half a year, maybe more.”
“Do you understand, then, why I want to leave as soon as possible?
“Couldn’t we go somewhere else, somewhere closer, like Los Angeles? It’s always warm down there.”
“But arid. The irrigation systems might not work without electricity and regular maintenance. We need to go somewhere we can grow enough food to sustain ourselves. Florida has an excellent climate for farming. I’m not saying we have to get all the way to Florida. There are other states in the South that would have a good climate for us, but I’m thinking of Florida as my goal. We may be able to use different vehicles during sections of our trip, but that’s not a guarantee. The ones we find may have dead batteries, or the fuel could have gone bad. If we encountered a roadblock or traffic jam, we’d have to unload the vehicle and try to find another. Bikes are more reliable.”
“Do you actually have this planned out, or is it just an idea you have?”
