EMP (The Districts Book 1) by Orion Enzo Gaudio

habit to keep her only protection close by in a time of uncertainty. She opened the back door, closed it, and made her way through the house.
    As she neared the front door, the voices grew louder. She froze as a hand rapped on the front door. Sandra lifted the shotgun to her shoulder and pointed it at the door. The buckshot she had loaded in it wouldn’t kill a man, most likely, but if the door opened she was ready to shoot whoever stepped through it.
    “Sandra? You in there?”
    Her mind raced as she tried to recognize the voice. There was a familiarity to it, a man’s voice that she felt she had heard many times before, yet she couldn’t quite place it. The floor of the porch creaked as whoever called out moved to the right… toward the window that Sandra had forgotten to close the curtains of. She swung the barrel of the shotgun to the right and waited for the man to show himself.
    The footsteps on the wooden deck halted. The deck creaked as the man made his way back to the door and knocked again. Sandra let out a sigh of relief. She was a lot of things, but she wasn’t a killer and didn’t want to test the limits of the human condition.
    “Sandra, if you’re in there, it’s me, Nathan.”
    A smile crossed her face as her brain put the name and voice together. Nathan had been a summer farm hand when she was growing up. Her mind drifted back to when she was a teenager and Nathan was a strong, strapping man and she was sure he was the most beautiful creature that had ever walked the earth.
    She rested the shotgun against the wall and reached for the doorknob. As she turned the worn brass, she remembered what her father used to tell her. He would say "Be cautious and don't trust just anyone," but she quickly pushed the thought from her mind and pulled the door open.
    Nathan, who was standing with his back to the door, spun around and flashed a smile at Sandra. She smiled back as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. For the first time since the power went out Sandra felt safe.
    Sandra peered over Nathan’s shoulder. He moved so that she could get a better view of his companion. She looked the man up and down and turned back to Nathan. She had never seen the other man before. He looked old and worn out, Sandra thought, but when she looked into his eyes she could tell that he was much younger than his body led her to believe.
    “This is Manuel.”
    Sandra nodded at him and he returned the gesture.
    “We’ve been working together for the last six months as roughnecks on the rigs out east. He’s real quiet to be around too, seeing as how he’s mute and I don’t know sign language,” Nathan said.
    “Well, any friend of Nathan’s… they are a friend of mine, too,” she said.
    Manuel smiled at her and nodded. She stepped back inside the house and held the door open.
    “Well, come on in… you both look like you could use some water.”
    Sandra closed the door behind them and they followed her into the kitchen. She retrieved three glasses from the cabinet next to the sink and filled them with her water pitcher.
    “Still using the hand pump well I see,” Nathan said.
    "Yeah, and thank god for that."
    Sandra handed the glasses to the men, which they promptly finished.
    Nathan had stopped by a few years earlier, the last time they had seen each other, and he had bugged her to upgrade to a more modern well. Sandra smiled because she knew he was thinking about the same thing.
    "You never did like listening to me."
    She smiled. He was right, she was stubborn and tried to desperately grasp onto the things on the farm that reminded her of her parents.
    “And I’m glad that I didn’t listen to you, for once… otherwise we wouldn’t have water.”
    “Speaking of,” Nathan said, looking down at the empty glass.
    Sandra shook her head and got the pitcher. She was glad to see Nathan again and she knew things were looking up. She refilled their glasses and sat down across from Nathan.
    “So,” she