Chapter 2

Shortly after the USA launched it's missiles the world's Cold War arsenal was rapidly expended in the oh so wonderful M.A.D. ( Mutually Assured Destruction) Most of Europe and Asia as well as parts of Africa and South America were now competing with the Chinese and Koreans for the largest piece of glass. The only reason that North America was spared is because it was already considered to be fatally wounded. Over three weeks while the entire world population dropped to below 12% of it's original 7 billion inhabitants, my brothers and I sat in front of the television watching the news, eating canned food and drinking bottled water. Soon our food and water began to run low. We had no choice but to go outside and get more food and water. We decided that it would be best for Nate and I to go and see if we could raid the local Wally World, while my youngest brother, Dean, stayed inside. We loaded up my .45 and AK-47 and Nate's Mini-14 and Buckmark with plenty of extra magazines for all. Hopefully, they wouldn't be needed, but as my father always said "Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

We broke the duct tape seal on the front door and passed the rotting remains of my father, with an empty pistol and shell casings surrounding him. We tried to ignore the smell and sight of him and jumped in our 2003 Dodge Ram Crew Cab with Nate riding shotgun. I turned the key and the fuel gauge jumped to the "Full" indicator. We made our way the three-quarters of a mile to the Wal-Mart, dodging the various vehicles parked haphazardly on the road. I pulled up outside and noticed that the the glass doors had been smashed in. I checked my rifle and we carefully made our way into the store. We were about half of the way back from the front doors when we heard a loud crash, like a pan hitting the floor. We moved towards the sound, covering each other in our best imitation of the leap frogging we had seen in movies. I turned right, going in between the aisles when about 50 feet to my 10 o'clock I saw movement behind a pallet in the produce department, the kind that you can normally find water melons in. I pointed it out to my brother and we argued for a short time. Nate said " I should go, you're the better shot and I'm a smaller target if he decides to start shooting." I argued "Naw, I should go, you sound like a herd of morbidly obese elephants when you walk." I ended up being the one to see just what was moving. After doing my damnedest to get a clear line of sight behind the pallet I saw a ragged looking man with a shotgun leaning against the side of the pallet, feasting away on a can of beef stew. I yelled to him " Hey you!" "Don't even think about touching that gun, stand up and let me see your hands!" It was at that point I learned a valuable lesson, make sure that you are far enough away from the person, that you have enough time to react if they decide to charge at you. Being only 25 feet away, I didn't have a whole hell of a lot of choice in the matter, when he started running at me I put 3 rounds in his chest. He went down like the proverbial sack of potatoes. I yelled at my brother to stay where he was and make sure he didn't go for his weapon. I moved towards him, keeping my rifle trained on his chest. When I was only a step or two away from him he reached for something as he was wheezing. I put another two rounds into his chest, he fell silent and lay still. I walked up to him and nudged the hand that was under his jacket. He had reached for a revolver. That was the first time I ever had to kill a man, hopefully the last.

We grabbed the weapons he had and left him there to rot. We went to the front of the store and grabbed a cart. First we headed over to the sporting goods department and grabbed all of the guns, knives, and ammunition they had. We first loaded in the ammo, then laid a sleeping bag we had snagged open in the bed. On top of that we set all of the guns and knives. After loading the weapons we went back in and proceeded to fill the rest of the truck bed in canned beans, vegetables, water, chili and the like. After cramming both the bed and the back seats of the truck to the gills we went back home. We unloaded our loot with the help of the youngest, Dean. The power had gone out while we were raiding the Wally World, so even if the news was still running we couldn't tell.

For obvious reasons we couldn't stay in Phoenix, it just wasn't healthy. Sooner or later we would run out of stores to raid and all of the decomposing flesh couldn't be remotely healthy. We decided that tomorrow, we would check the homes of our friends, and if anyone was alive we would see about grouping up and working together for our survival.