(There is now a donate button for Pay-Pal by the site counter in the sidebar. Although why anyone would want to donate is beyond me but there it is. Just in case.)
*** Chapter 2 Part 7
Inside the Safeway, where abandoned carts stood a kilter and
half full of food, Panda and Dell shopped for groceries. Silky and the freed
pig remained outside. Luckily there had been no other pigs trapped in vehicles
in the parking lot.
“What should we be getting, Panda?” asked Dell. She was
holding a jar of lemon curd and contemplating the kiosk of gourmet olives by
the pound.
“Well, this is a dilemma. We aren’t going to be fighting
people for the food due to shortages. But we do have to use up the stuff that
will rot the quickest. I’m thinking of taking all these meats out of the
display cases and putting them back into the deep freezers. That will keep it fresh longer but the
electricity isn’t going to last forever. Once the electricity goes then we are
going to lose 90% of what is in this store.”
Dell thought about this for a moment and headed resolutely
for the seafood case. “Then let’s have Alaskan King Crab Legs for dinner.”
***
It was odd to say the least, to load up on groceries,
batteries, pig kibble, and not go through a checkout line. Paper or Plastic? It
felt like stealing. It was stealing,
but from whom? Panda was not concerned with the idea of theft. She knew this
was a survival situation and those old rules did not apply. In all her worst
case scenarios the people were the
reason you had to be so vigilant, so careful, and so secretive.
Without people,
what were the dangers?
Wild animals, of course. Now that there were no dogs she
could cross ‘wild packs of ravenous dogs’ off her mental list. The pigs were
going to be a problem eventually—very damaging—but they weren’t likely to band
together and attack people.
People. What people? She felt the tears gather in her eyes
again and bustled to gather her things to load into her car. She just could not
allow herself to think of all the people that were gone forever. Friends, family,
community and nations. She needed to shut out those thoughts for the time being.
“Make sure the doors go
shut” she said to Dell. “We want to keep critters out of the food as long as
possible.”
***
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