Fuel for Thought

[MaryN]

So, this is the scenario. The worst has happened. Cities across the country are in flames; mobs are rioting and no-one seems to be able to control the situation. Sections of the Grid are shutting down; this has affected the shops, communications... everything. People in the cities are in a panic and fear is spreading.

You are nicely prepared in your own place. You are confident that you have all you need to, at least, hold out until, hopefully, some form of law and order is restored. Your community is tense, but it is holding together. So far so good.......

Your wife has become very worried about her elderly mother. She is insisting that she goes down there to check on her, and possibly bring her back. It is a long trip and you are very concerned that it will be a dangerous one. You do not wish to leave your property - the potential for looters or vandalism while you are gone is not enormous, but it is there; but your wife will not be told "No!". She decides to go by herself, and will brook no argument.

Faced with the stone wall, you help her to load the car with what she will need, check that the fuel tank is topped and wish her, well, "Safe Journey". She is to call you as soon as she gets there.

Well, she arrives in one piece, but it was a difficult and frightening journey. She is going to bring her mother back with her. Just one problem, she was not able to fill the fuel tank on the car, and has now got less than half a tank left - not enough to complete the journey home. Petrol stations, with the Grid down, are not operating, and there is no fuel stored at her mother's home.

You have a car yourself, but it is a large beast and the problem with fuel would be the same - enough to get down there, but not to complete the journey back. Your wife's car was the storage unit for the spare fuel, and obviously that is not available.

Faced with an increasingly hysterical wife, what are you going to do..? Or, what should you have done?