The Borrowed World: A Novel of Post-Apocalyptic Collapse (3 page)

“I agree.  Let's get everyone together then and tell them what we know.”

Gary went one way and I went the other, each of us waking up two sleeping women and thereby sharing the danger equally.  All of the women, seasoned travelers, responded to my knocking by calling through the door rather than opening it.  We each gave them a condensed version of the little we knew, telling them that we needed to assemble in my room in ten minutes and get a plan together.  They were not happy campers.

Gary and I were sitting in my room talking as the women began showing up.  I could hear Lois Green, the head of the accounting department, complaining all the way down the hall.  She would no doubt blame me for all of this.  As far as she was concerned, I was the root of all evil. 

“What’s this all about, Jim?” she demanded.  “Gary said it was a national emergency and he would tell us more when we got here.”

She sounded very put out by being dragged out of bed and not given time to prepare herself.  She was a minister’s wife and the two of us did not really get along.  She represented a lot of the things that I disliked the most in people.  She gossiped, back-stabbed, and lied while maintaining a facade that she was above such things.  I was pretty sure she thought I was the devil incarnate, but I wasn’t losing sleep over it.

“We don’t have a lot of information,” I told her as everyone else came in.  “There’s obviously no power here but my wife says we still have it at home.  I heard a broadcast on the Emergency Broadcast System a few minutes ago that said there had been terrorist attacks last night.  The fuel supply has been affected and the power to more than half of the country is out.  They are telling people to limit travel and stay off the roads.”

“What do you think we should do?” Alice Watkins, the Human Resources Director, asked. 

She and I got along pretty well most of the time but she was a stickler for the rules since she wrote a lot of them.  She and I were part of a policy team and had spent hours developing the policies that bound our agency.  She was the one who had written that particular policy about carrying weapons in agency vehicles that I had been breaking on a regular basis.  I was hoping she wasn’t going to advocate for staying put just because the government told her to.  If that was the case, I’d have to leave her ass in the parking lot.  Taking orders from the government was not my style.

“I’m not interested in staying in Richmond,” I said.  “I think that would be a dumb, potentially dangerous move.”

Gary, ever the more tactful and polite speaker, took it upon himself to act as my translator.  “What Jim is trying to say is that there are a lot of risks with staying here,” he said, trying to put a friendlier face on things.  “The government could institute Martial Law or curfews, particularly here in Richmond.  Jim heard that they are going to limit the fuel supply.  Then we’d have a long walk home.  It's almost like we have to go before they get organized and tell us we can't.”

The women soaked this up in silence.  Jim looked at the other two women, Rebecca Dowdy and Randi Ward, both from the clinical side of their agency. 

“Any opinions?” he asked the women.

“What about staying put and waiting to see what happens?” Randi asked.  “That might be the safest move.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I repeated.  “Do you remember Hurricane Katrina?  Imagine that devastation on a national scale.  People are civil now and things are relatively stable but things will get much, much worse before they get better.  Richmond in particular will have more people than food and things will get very bad in a few days.  As stores run out of food, people will get desperate, and desperate people become violent.  Meanwhile, our families will be home worrying about us.”

“Run out of food?  Stores won’t run out of food that quickly,” Lois snarled at me as if I were some vile creature.

“It’s called ‘Just In Time’ inventory, Lois,” I said.  “Most stores don’t keep more than three days’ worth of food.  If there’s panic buying, the stores may be empty within a day if they don’t receive trucks.  If fuel sales are limited, those trucks may not come.”

Lois was ignoring me, as she often did, and was fooling with her phone.  “I couldn’t get through to my husband,” Lois said.  “I tried to call him while we were walking down here.”

I wasn’t sure what was relevant about that, but Lois seemed to think that whatever passed through her head was important to the rest of us.

“You might try texting,” I suggested.  “That will sometimes go through when a call can’t.”

Lois looked at me like I was personally responsible for her call not going through.  “Must be nice to be an expert on everything,” she said.  “But I guess I'll try that.”

I rolled my eyes at her.  “Try it or not,” I said.  “I don’t care either way.”

As H.R. Director, Alice was used to mediating disagreements, often involving me.  “Arguing won’t get us anywhere,” she said.  “Are we in agreement that we want to try and get home now, or do some of you want to stay?”  She looked around.  “Lois?  Stay or go?”

Lois shot me a nasty look.  “Go, I guess.”

I shrugged.  She continued to act as if I had personally brought this down upon us.  I was so glad we were in separate cars.

“Rebecca?” Alice asked.

Rebecca was a tall, dark-haired triathlete who ran our drug treatment center.  She was blunt and tough as nails from working with manipulative substance abusers every day.  “Go,” she said.

“Randi?” Alice asked. 

Randi was short and fiery-tempered.  She ran residential programs for folks with disabilities and hated meetings as much as I did.  “Oh, I don’t like Richmond anyway,” she said.  “I want to get the hell out of here.”

“I’m assuming you guys both think we should go, too?” Alice asked Gary and me. 

We both nodded.

“Well, I’m in agreement with everyone else,” she said.  She looked at me.  “Anything else to decide or do we just get in our cars and go?”

“Well, we could ride together in one car,” Gary said.  “That way we wouldn’t get separated.”

Lois snorted.  “I’m not riding in a car with him,” she said, nodding in my direction.  “I prefer not to listen to his foul language.”

I bit back any smart-ass comments.  It would just be a waste of time.  I would take the high road.

“Fine,” I said.  “Let’s just ride back with who we came with then.  Grab your stuff and let's be out of here in five minutes.”

While the women went to get their bags, Gary and I stood in the hall.

“Lois,” I said, shaking my head.  “I don’t know about her.”

Gary held up a hand to silence me.  “I can’t be mean to her,” he said.  “It’s like mistreating my mother.”

“If your mother acts like that, she deserves mistreatment.”

He scowled at me and changed the subject.  “I don't recall you filling the car up when we got here.”

“I didn't,” I replied.  “I usually prefer to, but I just didn't.”

I hated leaving a car low on gas and fussed at my wife about it all the time, but I'd just done the same thing.

“How much gas did we have?” he asked.

“A little more than a quarter tank.”

“Not nearly enough to make it home.”

“Let's hope we can find a station with power and get more.”

Gary nodded grimly.

After the text from her husband, Jim’s wife Ellen picked up the remote and turned on the TV in their bedroom.  Some of the cable channels were out, but CNN was still broadcasting and she stopped there.  The scale of devastation was almost too much to take in.  Explosions and attacks had taken place across the whole country and there was little information.  No one knew who was responsible or if it was even over yet.  She saw enough though to recognize signs of the “cascading systems failure” that Jim always warned against.  The warning signs were all there.  Enough things were failing that the whole fabric of society could come undone.  The question no one could answer was for how long.

Jim talked about this stuff enough that even the kids were well versed in disaster preparation.  They'd seen a lot of programs on The Learning Channel, Discovery, and The Science Channel about how disaster scenarios could play out.  By now, the entire family was aware of certain facts about disasters.  Disruptions in communication led to panic, rumors, and fear.  Disruptions in the fuel supply led to food shortages, interruptions in various services that people expected, and high costs for what fuel was available.  Disruptions in power led to fear, looting, and deaths.  In the winter, people froze without power.  In the summer, they suffocated from a lack of air conditioning.  Without power, people who relied on medical devices would likely pass away if the interruption was of any duration at all. From what little Ellen could see, she knew there could be long-term disruptions in all of these areas.  Jim's worst scenarios were playing out in living color.

She got out of bed, put on her robe, and went to the gun safe that Jim kept in their walk-in closet.  She knew the combination by heart.  She had been practically forced to memorize it, and Jim drilled her on the importance of being able to get weapons to protect the children in an emergency.  Inside the gun safe was a red binder that Jim had shown her many times.  He had never made her read it, just made sure she knew where it was so that she could get to it in an emergency.

She took the binder out of the safe, took a seat on the bed, and opened the book.  Inside were neatly typed tabs and dividers.  There were sections labeled Insurance Policies, Finances, and Home Information.  It was the kind of stuff that a responsible husband left for his wife to make sure that she would know where things were if he died suddenly.  Toward the end of the binder were red tabs with labels that read Situation Normal, Situation Elevated, Situation Critical, and BUG OUT. 

Situation Normal dealt with everyday emergency preparations that Jim normally took care of but wanted her to be able to handle should he not be there.  They were things he felt were very important to assure their safety, such as making sure that they had a supply of emergency water, emergency food, and emergency fuel.  Included was a schedule for rotating those items to make sure that the oldest was used first and to make sure those items were continually resupplied so that they didn't run out.  There were also instructions for turning off the water and power.  Basic stuff. 

The list Jim wanted her to look for this morning was under Situation Elevated.  She knew that from many, many reminders over the years.  She opened that section and began reading.

In an elevated situation, there may be reason to suspect that access to resources may be compromised for the short or long-term.  Stores will face an interruption in supply if fuel is limited.  We have made preparations for this, but efforts should be made to secure more of the following priority items if it can be done without substantial risk: 

1. ADDITIONAL FOOD

2. ADDITIONAL FUEL

3. ADDITIONAL CASH

As you will be carrying cash to make these purchases, and since panic/rioting could occur at any moment during times of fear and high emotion, you should make certain that you have your concealed weapon and permit on you for your protection.  It should be carried in an available, easily accessible manner, and not buried in a glove compartment or purse.  A round should be in the chamber so that the weapon can be fired quickly without having to rack the slide and chamber a round.  As long as you handle the weapon in the manner that we have discussed and trained on, it will not be dangerous to carry the weapon “hot”.

If times and conditions permit, proceed with the following:

Take cash from the emergency money in the gun safe in case power is down or debit card processing technology is down.  If cards can be used, do so and save the cash for later.

1. Load all empty fuel cans into the back of the Suburban.

2. Go to bank and withdraw $2500 from savings in smaller denominations.

3. Go to gas station and fill cans.  Gas in red, diesel in yellow.  Pay with card if it will work, use cash if needed.  If there is a line of panic buyers, go ahead and get in line.  It will only be worse and more expensive later.  Be alert that your vehicle does not get penned in.  Always leave room in front of you to get out if you need to.

4. Remove list from the next page and buy what you can.  Take the kids and have them each push a cart to allow for more purchases.

5. Be careful.

Ellen took the list from the sleeve and looked it over, then went to wake up the kids.

Fifteen minutes later, she was driving down the road with two sleepy and unhappy children.  Pete and Ariel were thirteen and eleven and a pretty good mix of their mom and dad's looks and personalities.  Pete took more of his mom's temperament, though, with his soft heart and sensitivity.  Ariel was a no-nonsense, spitfire of a girl.  Clearly her father's daughter.

Ellen filled them in on the news of the day and the task their father had laid out for them. 

“Is this the apocalypse?” Ariel asked, rolling her eyes.

“No,” Ellen said.  “There's just an emergency and Dad wants us to be prepared in case the stores run low.”

“When is Dad coming home?” Pete asked.

Ellen composed her reply carefully.  “Dad is starting home now but it may take longer than normal.  Traffic may be slow because of the emergency.”

Pete sat back and thought about it.  Ellen could tell that this would worry him.

“Sounds like the crap hit the fan,” Ariel said.

“Ariel!” Ellen said.  “That's no way for a little girl to talk.”  In the rearview mirror, Ellen could see Pete grinning at this sister.  He was always amused by the things that came out of her mouth.

Ellen got the money from the bank without incident and crossed the street to the convenience store where she frequently bought gas.  She thought there would be a line already, as any sort of crisis pushed people to buy gas before they did anything else.  There were a few farmers and early risers getting coffee and breakfast biscuits, but she only had to wait behind one vehicle at the pump.  When it moved, she filled her tank, then the red gas cans, letting Pete lift them back into the vehicle for her.  She was glad that he was getting big enough to help with these kinds of things.  He was as tall as she was now and a big kid.  Once the red cans were all filled, she moved around to the diesel pump and did the same with the yellow cans.

Wal-Mart was about five minutes away and that was her next stop.  When she pulled into the parking lot, she saw that it was no more crowded than any other morning about this time. 

“I guess no one else got the memo,” Ariel said. 

“It's only 6:30 in the morning,” Pete said.  “Most people are still in bed.  Reasonable people, anyway.”

“I wish I was one of them,” Ariel muttered.

Ellen parked the Suburban and they headed toward the entrance, Ellen reminding the kids of why they were there so early.

“The problem, Ariel, is that most stores don't carry more than three days’ worth of inventory now.  They have trucks coming in all the time.  Those trucks can be delayed by power outages, fuel shortages, or damaged roads, and then the shelves will be empty.  What will people do for food then?”

“I guess they eat those old cans of beets and lima beans from the back of their cabinets,” Pete said with a grin.

“Bluuck,” Ariel said.

“I agree,” said Ellen.  “Bluck.”

As Jim's binder instructed them, each of them took a cart, although Ellen was not sure Ariel could manage one if it was very full.  She made a mental note to give her paper products and lighter items.

Ariel looked at the list as Ellen read over it, trying to get a picture in her head of how to go about this.

“What are we going to do with all this junk if this isn't the end of the world, Mom?” she asked.

“It's all stuff we'll use eventually,” Ellen said.  “Just think of it as shopping in advance.”

“I want some bananas,” Pete said.

“Sorry, Bud, we're focusing on items that last a long time today,” she said.  Then thinking better of it told him, “Go ahead.  If things get hard we might not see any bananas for a while.”

“Why? Where do they come from?” Ariel asked.

“South America,” Ellen said.  “That will be a long way to go for a banana if you have to walk.”

After Pete added his bananas, Ellen went to a display of packaged nuts, trail mixes, and dehydrated fruit slices.  She threw an assortment in the cart, then skipped frozen foods and picked up a few loaves of bread, some of which she would freeze when they got home.  She got a half-dozen of the largest jars of peanut butter they had, several large jars of jelly, fifteen pounds of coffee, and several boxes of tea.

“I love peanut butter,” Ariel said.

“We all love peanut butter,” Pete chimed in.  “I hope that's enough.”

“I hope it is, too,” Ellen said.  “But if it’s not, there’s powdered peanut butter in the basement pantry.”

“Sounds nasty,” Ariel said.  “You guys can have it.”

“You might be singing a different tune if we go through all this,” Pete warned.

They continued through the aisles, filling the carts with twenty pounds of rice, twenty pounds of beans, two dozen different kinds of noodles, dried soup mixes, ramen, flour, sugar, salt and other spices, pancake mix, syrup, ketchup, tomato sauces, tuna,  and dozens of other items.  They bought several canned hams that had a ten-year shelf-life.  They filled Ariel's cart with toilet paper, paper towels, aluminum foil, paper plates, plastic ware, garbage bags, and baggies.

“I thought Dad already had all this stuff,” Ariel said in complaint as she pushed her cart through the store.  “Why do we have to buy more?”

“He does, honey,” Ellen replied, “but he's concerned we'll need more and he wants us to be safe and well-taken care of.  He doesn't want us to run out.”

“Where are we going now?” Pete asked, fighting to push his cart due to a bad wheel that rattled as they walked through the store.

“Camping section,” Ellen said.

Once there, they collected green propane cylinders, five gallon cans of Coleman fuel, isobutane canisters for Jim's backpacking stove, and extra mantles for the propane lanterns.  They picked up ten boxes of kitchen matches, several dozen cheap butane lighters, and two-dozen slow burning candles.  Their carts were full by now and they were all struggling to push them.

“Are we done yet?” Ariel asked, groaning.

“There's more on the list,” Ellen said.  “I think we'll go put all this in the car and then I'll come back and get the last items.  Shouldn't be more than a single cart full.”

“Good,” Ariel said.  “I need to rest.”

They proceeded to the checkout, where Ellen was a little self-conscious about the quantities they were buying.  However, this was Wal-Mart and they were used to seeing everything.  The three carts didn't even raise an eyebrow.   Ellen was able to pay with her debit card, preserving the cash.  Once she had her two-foot-long receipt tucked into her purse, they struggled out the door, across the parking lot, to their vehicle.

Ellen looked around the nearly-empty parking lot and felt like it was reasonably safe. “You guys unload this,” Ellen said.  “It will be faster if I go run back in now while you two are taking care of this.”

Ariel groaned again and rolled her eyes, but Pete took charge and they had a system going by the time Ellen turned her back and began walking back to the store.  She got another cart and headed for the pharmacy section of the store.  Despite knowing that Jim already had much of this stuff, she followed his instructions to the letter and purchased more peroxide, alcohol, antibiotic ointment, bandages, and over-the-counter medications for everything from colds to diarrhea.  She bought hand sanitizer, soap, large bottles of shampoo, and deodorant.  Realizing she'd missed a few things, she ran back to the grocery aisle and bought three large bottles of bleach.  She had to make a trip to the automotive department to pick up fuel stabilizer for all the gas they'd purchased.  A few more small items and she was done.

Checking out, she was again self-conscious, especially since she was in the same line she'd been in earlier with the same checkout girl.  However, there was perhaps no employee anywhere in the working world more jaded than a Wal-Mart checkout girl, and not an eyebrow was raised, not a question asked.

“I'll need three propane cylinders for the grill,” she told the girl.

Ellen left the store, waiting by the propane rack.  Before long, a sales associate with a ring of keys came out, unlocked the cage, and removed the cylinders.  Noticing that her cart was full, the boy offered to carry them for her.  He made a big show of picking them up, but she could see that he was struggling the entire way to the car.  Once they got there, he set them down by the back of the vehicle.