The unarmed, thirty-ish man unlocked the door, but didn’t invite them in.
“I’m so glad to see you! I’m Chloe Thorne. This is Caleb Jacoby.”
“Sorry to drop in—we’d thought we’d come meet the new neighbors.” Caleb flashed a warm, engaging smile.
The two men exchanged a glance, the one with the gun nodded, and thirty-something stepped aside and motioned them in. “I’m Mike.”
“Bill,” said the fifty-ish guy with the gun.
“I’m Duncan,” called the young man at the rear of the store.
“Annabelle,” said the lady, who was about Chloe’s grandma’s age.
“You been in the area long?” Bill asked.
“A few months for me and two friends. We met Chloe the other day,” said Caleb.
“So, no sign of the Progg?”
“Not so far—” Caleb replied.
“They’re at the Arch!” she interrupted. He’d lied to these people!
Caleb looked at her.
“That’s what Zack and Sandy said.” Unsure who or what to believe, she would err on the side of caution.
“I meant, they’re not close,” Caleb amended.
“The Arch is downtown. That sounds close to me,” Bill said.
Her feelings exactly.
“Did you hear?” Mike said to Duncan and Annabelle.
“Yeah,” Duncan said. “Shit.”
“Guess we’ll be moving on again,” Annabelle said. She and Duncan came forward and joined the group.
“You stayed for months with the Progg that close?” Mike asked. The newcomers’ reaction validated her own sentiment.
“Better to know where they are so you can avoid them,” Caleb explained. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
If the goal was to avoid the aliens, you didn’t stick around. “I’ve only been here three days,” she said, trusting the newcomers’ judgment a whole lot more than she did the trio’s.
“Speaking of friends, Zack and Sandy were headed this way. Let me check on them so you can meet them,” Caleb said.
“We were together, then Sandy stopped to look at clothes,” Chloe explained.
Bill and Mike looked at each other and then at Duncan and Annabelle. “Sure,” Bill said.
“I’ll be right back.” Caleb left the store.
Now she could speak to the foursome privately. “Listen—” She glanced at Annabelle. She looked fit. “Are you guys traveling on foot?”
“Can’t drive. The highways are a mess,” Duncan said.
“There’s a bike shop about half a mile around the corner.”
