Chapter 1: chapter 1: the boogey man

The news broke fast, "an illness making people extremely violent has broken out acrost the united states, seemingly out of no where", they babbled on and warned viewers about graphic content before showing them pulling people down into the street and biting into them. Everyone in the restraunt froze before a few people started laughing "looks like the broadcast system got hacked again warning us to stay in our homes, do they expect us to believe some bed time story like the boogey man is out to get us?" many people start to laugh, quieting a little as the emergency broadcast system comes up, and people start to ask for checks. My grandfather asked for ours as soon as he heard "violent" and "illness" in the same sentence. The silent communication between us is subtle but almost excited in nature. Our entire lives have been leading to this moment, the moment that no one else ever believed in, but we knew. whether it be natural disasters or war or anything in between, we were going to be ready. Our drive to the grocery store was spent in planning, a last minute stock up before going home isnt a bad idea at this point. the virus is two states away as is but spreading fast. I have my card out of my wallet before i even get out of the truck, going immediently to the atm and him going inside the store, team play. sams club has always been our idea of a grocery store and at this point im betting others wish it was thiers. shoving the cash into my pocket I run inside, quickly finding him in the bulk grains aisle and helping lift in the different 50 pound bags into a massive cart he chose. aisle by aisle we dump things in until its full and then getting another cart, and repeat. I managed to get everything out of my bank account but at this point it would be smart just to use my credit card. Not like ill have to pay it later. the store is a little more crowded by time we go to check out even though its only been about a half hour through help of team work. four carts and a pallet scanned later an employee helps us take our things to the truck, and after locking it under the bed cover and stuffing the back seat i tip him a small amount for his kindness but sparing alot of money right now would be a mistake. My credit card has a 10k limit but just this one stop has almost maxed it. with 2k left for credit charges and very little space left I start making calls, informing our people about the situation as we are on our way to the gun shop. few people are inside, others most likely storming grocery stores in a panic right now. a maxxed credit card and over half of our compiled money later we are walking out with crates of ammo and a few new guns. stuffing them into the tool box in the bed, above the food in the back seat, in the dash and in my floor board still leaves me holding a crate in my lap and a crate being in the middle seat. the way home has alot more traffic on the highways we have to take, when we get onto the back roads things go smoother but there are still more cars than wed like to see. its already been an hour since the news broke, in the next 20 minutes we will make it to our last pit stop, a rural country store to buy a few last minute things, herb plants, tomato plants and the such along with stocking up more seeds. After that its 40 minutes home. Everyone should be there by time we arrive except Charles, my sisters husband, and Vincent my partner. Both men are truckers, and while they are heading home now they should arrive home from oppisite directions approximately an hour after we arrive. it was a worthwhile investing the money to get them each thier own big rig so they could come straight home and also served well in our plan that we would have both of them plus the two used trailers kept here. the house having been modified for a mass variety of occurances had two secure seal docks, one on either side, both sealed on to those trailers. it was my idea, because they would work like emergency escape pods if the farm was somehow made unsafe which most of us severly doubt even though we've practiced each plan a million times it seems like. the ride home after the shop is spent in review and with myself doing research on the current situation on my phone since my grand father who i call dad is driving and tech impaired. I have no clue how the warning signs got past me, i am the tech specialist, im constantly online looking for signs of anything. This truly seems to be a mass explosive outbreak. overnight.