by Mariah Lynde
No one put it better than Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black. A single person can be intelligent, calm, and rational. Put us in a group and we’re irrational, stupid, and over-reactive. In the face of impending death and horrendous hazards, people will panic. In their haste, mistakes will be made and people will die. Me personally, I’m not so willing to throw myself on the express train to death anytime soon, which meant I needed to put a lid on my panic, at least for a little while longer.
“So I see you’re now four and oh.” Mitty’s voice had my already tense body jumping. Still, it could have been worse – he could have tried to touch me, and then I’d be in a whole world of trouble. Turning to face him, I noted a small smirk on his face that annoyed me to no end.
“Surprisingly, it seems so. Guess there’s always tomorrow.” Replying softly, I moved to pull my phone out of my pocket for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there would be something soon I needed to catch, and with each passing moment, I gained a healthy bit of paranoia that I would miss it.
“For someone who has shown remarkable amount of common sense and moxie, it surprises me that you seem so eager to find yourself in cuffs.” While he had a valid point, I couldn’t help but snort in response.
“Yeah, well, what can I say? It’ll help with my street cred if I have a rap sheet.”
I honestly thought that would be the end of it. General conversation, a couple of laughs to some sarcastic quips to ease the tension, and both of us would go our own way. Though, for some ungodly reason, Mitty chose that moment to sidle up next to me and invade my personal space.
I’m not talking, standing room in an elevator space. I mean completely in my face, there is only four inches between us space. It was skeeving me out something fierce, and I took a step back.
“You really don’t like me, do you?” I couldn’t really tell if Mitty had said it as a statement or a question. Considering the context, I went with question.
“It’s nothing personal, I pretty much dislike everyone up there in the ivory tower.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and peered up at him.
“So it’s not me personally you despise, it’s everyone in management? Did you ever stop to think that if you controlled your mouth a little better, you’d be right up there with the rest of us?” His question was sincere. I almost felt sorry for the poor bastard. Here we were, on the eve of a zombie apocalypse type situation, and he wanted to offer me career advice.
Sorry, bub. I seriously doubt that it’s going to matter come tomorrow.
Not that I could really tell him that.
“Wow, did you just hear yourself?” Brushing off my darker thoughts, I decided the best way not to raise suspicion was to play along. After all, if I was right (which I was) then anything I said tonight couldn’t really help or harm me either way. Still, if I happened to be wrong, well, at least someone knew the truth about my position in IT.
“Yeah, I did, and I mean it. You’ve obviously got the brains, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t…”
“Shouldn’t what? Be working in the upper offices? That was exactly where I applied when I came to work here five years ago. Thing is, what got between me and those big offices in the sky is a size two skirt and blond hair.” As I slowly backed away from Mitty, I moved to pull my car keys out of my pocket. The universal sign of, I’m going to go away now.
“Wait.” Mitty surprised me when he stepped close again. Honestly, there was an initial urge to punch him or knock him away, but he only moved his hand to hold my own as I flourished my keys. “Seriously, you can’t really think that. I mean, if you do good work…”
“It means EXACTLY jack and shit,” I finished softly. Peering up at him, I slowly began to peel his fingers back off my hand while fighting the urge to shudder. I couldn’t stand being touched most of the time. Not even by my own family, it was a ‘thing’ that I would one day conquer. Today just wasn’t that day. “Look, I get it, I do. You want to help, but you’re up there in the thick of it. You don’t see what happens elsewhere, or how things actually work in this place.”
“Oh, is that so?” There we go. I knew that smirk, it said he thought he knew better than me, what took place in the upper floors and God help me, I began to consider if it would be worth it to go to jail for smacking him.
“Yes, it is. Are we really going to debate this now? I’d like to go home.” Really, I just wanted to leave so I could get to the store before the panic began, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. None of this shit would matter tomorrow, and I wanted to be prepared for the shit that would.
“Just a couple of more minutes, that’s all. I promise. So tell me, what is it you think you know?” Gray eyes stared down at me, and I could see they had cooled quite a bit. Much like the steel that formed the framework of this building, his eyes were cold and unyielding as they bored a hole through mine.
“Fine. I’ve been here five years. Despite excellent reports on my evaluations every four months, I have never moved up one slot in the IT department. Did you know, I’m not even trained in computer science? I just knew enough to read manuals, so that’s where they put me, because I’m not the ‘right fit’ for the offices upstairs. That is a direct quote, by the way.” Stepping back, I rolled my shoulders, trying to eliminate that creeping feeling on my skin from having his body so close to my own.
“Other than that, there are the other obstacles,” I continued. Gray eyes had darkened, which told me he disliked just what I had to say. Oh well, he shouldn’t have asked. “Our conversation earlier is typical of how everyone on the upper floors treat people in the IT department. We’re dismissed and ignored as unimportant specks of dust that deserve about as much thought as how many packets of sugar someone needs for their morning coffee. Half the time we spend on the phone is trying to get whoever needs our help to stop ignoring us and pay attention so we can handle the problem. The other half is listening to people like you telling us how important their job is, and how we are stopping them from doing it. All in all, it’s a no-win situation, and even if you don’t have incident reports, it is hard as hell to move up the ranks. Hell, if I’m honest, it’s hard to make a shift even in the horizontal direction to a different department. Believe me, I’ve tried them all.”
“It can’t be as bad as all that,” Mitty said softly, turning his head to look at the few remaining suits in the lobby and then back at me. “Can it?”
“Go look at my file for yourself, hotshot.” I knew exactly what he would find in there. A lot of positive evaluations, a lot of transfer requests, but no action on any front…that was the working legacy I would be leaving behind when the world ended. Honestly, I can’t say that it broke my heart.
“I think I will.” I watched him carefully, watching as his brows furrowed together and a frown crossed his lips. Whatever he had meant to say or try to point out, he seemed kind of shaky about. If I hadn’t known better, I would have said I just won some small battle. In the end, I thought better of it and just nodded.
“Can I go now?” I asked.
“Mitty seemed to peer down at me for a moment, as if trying to gauge why I seemed so willing to abandon this conversation. I can understand the sentiment. I mean, someone in upper management says they’ll look into your file…well, it’s something most people would give their eye, teeth, and first born for. So, when you were willingly trying to disengage and leave, it didn’t seem kosher.
“Can I call you? After I look at your file, I mean?” He stared at me intently and for a brief moment, I considered that he might actually be trying to help.
“Sure, I suppose that’s fine.” While it might seem plausible enough, I knew that I wouldn’t be receiving that phone call. We were hours away from the possible end of the world, so advancing my career did not seem all that important. “Take care of yourself, sir. Have a good night.”
It seemed the polite thing to do. Plus, I was pretty sure if I had just walked out, he would have suspected som
ething and kept me around to ask more questions that I really didn’t want to answer.
“See you tomorrow, Miss Warren. And call me Cal.”
I stopped, turning to look at him. It almost seemed a damn shame not to warn him about what I knew was on the horizon. Cutting my gaze over to the security desk and to Isaac, I saw the barely perceptible shake of his head. No, I couldn’t warn Cal, but at least he seemed like a pretty decent guy.
“Alright, Cal it is, then. You take care.” I turned and walked out the lobby door, knowing full well that it was the last day I would ever spend in the McGinley building for the purpose of work.
Chapter Eight – Plans Within Plans
By the time I made it back to my car, I had already wasted nearly two hours since I had gotten off work. It could have been worse, I supposed. Cops normally took an hour and a half to show up anywhere, so I had been lucky in that department. Speedy handling of a somewhat complicated situation gave me a little bit of wiggle room.
I knew I would be hard pressed for time; Robbie would likely begin spam texting or calling anytime now. Considering the fact that even with bumper to bumper traffic on I-85 out of Charlotte, it would have only taken me about forty-five minutes to get home. Then again, if he had seen something like I had, there was every possibility he expected me to be a little late.
For once, I was grateful I had chosen not to live in the metropolis that was Charlotte. As one of the biggest cities in North Carolina, it was packed to near capacity with people. That could only spell disaster in my book. Score one for social anxiety and a lack of people skills. Those may very well turn out to be what would save my life in the coming days.
Traffic on the interstate seemed unaffected. From all I could see there were no accidents on the road, and cars seemed to be travelling freely in either direction. To be honest, that alleviated one worry I had. Pressing down on the gas, I ramped up my speed to an even seventy and weaved through traffic like the hounds of hell were on my heels.
I made it to my exit in about twenty minutes. Considering I had a job in the center of Charlotte and I lived in a small suburban community that was more rural than suburb, I was making good time. As I made it to the stoplight, I remembered my plan to stop off at the grocery store. A jump start on supplies seemed to be in order, especially since news had not broken on just what this outbreak seemed to be. Almost no one would be thinking they needed to hunker down, which meant this would work in my favor.
Taking into account that it was a Wednesday didn’t hurt my chances either. Most people got paid on Thursday or Friday, so they would do their shopping on one of those two days. Personally, as far as streaks of luck went, this one seemed to be pretty good. Shifting over to the left lane, I forced myself to take a calming breath. The last thing I needed to do was end up in the hospital over a panic attack.
I can only imagine how I looked to the people in the car next to me. After the day I’d had, Medusa probably would have been an improvement on the picture I presented. What I do know is that when the light changed to green, I slammed my foot down on the gas so that my back tires produced a horrid screeching sound, accompanied by the smell of burning rubber as I peeled through the intersection. I’ll admit, that embarrassed me enough that my cheeks burned red hot and I actively forced myself to ease up on the gas pedal so I wouldn’t repeat the mistake.
I bypassed any of the large chains, as they were bound to be filled with people. Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco…all of them were places that seemed to be filled with people no matter the time of day. Instead, I kept heading towards the outskirts of our little town and pulled in at a nice, small shopping center.
Food Lion was the grocery store of the area. There were more than enough of them peppered throughout town and I had chosen this one because it was in a relatively quiet and subdued area. Pulling into a space, I slammed the Explorer into park and shut off the ignition. If nothing else, I would not breakdown until I made it home. I couldn’t afford to.
Now, for all of you out there who had doubts about people who are penny-pinchers, I have one thing to say to you. Ha-ha!
If ever there is a time you are grateful for people considering you to be a Jew with your money, make it to the day before an impending apocalypse and know you need supplies. Where others would likely spend the next few days panicking, I had the means available to me that I could get a jump on things. Such forethought could be considered a godsend when you were single and trying to make sure you could cover the cost of emergencies. While others might nitpick over my rather frugal lifestyle, that money I’d saved in recent months to try and plan for the move home would be saving my bacon now.
Stepping out of the car, I made my way into the store and grabbed a shopping cart before proceeding towards the aisles. Making my way towards produce, I mulled over my options. Anything here would be perishable and, more than that, if we lost power they would be the first things to rot and become useless. There were some options, such as canning and preserving which could help elongate their shelf life, but my knowledge was limited to certain things. It also occurred to me that it might not be a great idea to get everything I wanted to acquire in one place. Giant red flag, and the possibility of people asking questions I didn’t want to answer.
True, I could just be paranoid, but at this point who could really blame me?
I was not too keen on taking any more chances than I needed to, so I shored up what knowledge I had. First, I knew for a fact that tomorrow I would be getting a phone call telling me not to come into work. Second, I knew that the something happening, which would be influencing my day tomorrow, had been labeled an outbreak of some kind. Third, if my place of work would be closed, a whole lot of other places would be too. Last, but not least, when the news hit that something was going on, people would panic and there would be a ton of confusion, chaos, and craziness. If I could avoid any of the crazy that was sure to come out, I would. Unfortunately, it meant a little more work tonight.
Looking around the produce, I decided to stick to the simple things. Grabbing a couple of ten pound bags of potatoes, I turned and made my way towards the other aisles. Canned goods and dry staples would likely be safest to stock up on, and they would last longer. I threw a bunch of random things into the cart, idly ticking off in my head the meals that could be made with all of them.
I can admit that there was a certain undercurrent of panic running through me. More than anything I wanted to wipe out the shelves and horde as much as I could, but I knew that would bring questions I didn’t really have an answer to. On and on this continued, up and down every aisle while I let my eyes roam the shelves, weighing the worth of each item I came across.
Three hundred dollars later, with an explanation to the cashier about a family picnic, I was on my way back out to my car. It took me less than five minutes to pack up the back storage of the Explorer and without a second thought, I again pulled out onto the road, making my way back into town. I had been lucky, the store was fully stocked so I had a good head start on supplies. Still, my night was nowhere near over.
Seeing people were still out and about, I felt a momentary relief. The longer people were sticking to their normal routines, the more time I had to move unnoticed in and out of stores. Where a short while ago I had been loath to stop at Wal-Mart, I couldn’t deny that there were some things that I could only acquire there.
Sighing, I pulled in to the parking lot wondering the best way to go about this. The last thing I wanted (or needed) was to raise suspicion. So, I did what I could to appear relaxed and casual. I pulled the Explorer in near the lawn and garden section, mostly because it was the least populated area after dusk, but it also put me close to the section I needed to explore most in the store.
Let me tell you, it is a surreal experience to walk into a store and know that it could be the last time you ever set foot there. On all fronts, stores would become a bad idea for scavenging or a place to survive when the shit hit the fan. Between freaked out people sh
ooting or fighting anything that moves, or zombies roaming for fresh meat, it would become a damn nightmare. That is just common friggin’ sense.
I would miss the conveniences offered by the modern world – that was for damn sure. Life was going to get rough pretty quickly. Fortunately for me, I had never been afraid of hard work. There was also a lot to be said for patience. Where most people would go stir crazy if they tried to wait something out for longer than a few days, I had no problem parking my ass in one spot and letting the worst of the storm pass me by.
I pulled my mind into focus, reining in my thoughts as I made my way down the main aisle heading into sporting goods. To me, it seemed only practical to try and prepare for possible scenarios that I could face.
First off, what good would food and supplies be if I couldn’t prepare them? What about if my home was overrun with freaks or zombies? What would I sleep on? Where would I stay? What if this event lasted a good long while? Without stores to provide easy access for food, what options would there be?
I needed a list, but I was running out of time. This is something detrimental to a planner like me. Without a mapped out plan of attack, your mind goes into overdrive and you come up with the most ridiculous scenarios you can possibly imagine. It is exactly this reason which caused me to spend well over six hundred dollars. Yeah, you are reading that right, six…hundred…dollars.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not rich, but at least I could indulge this zombie thing if it was even real. If not, well… I had new cool equipment in case of a natural disaster and food to last me several months and cut down on my trips to the store.
Sadly, the trip to Wal-Mart had yielded more material comforts and necessities than food. By now, the weight of the day was already pushing me into exhaustion and I still hadn’t made it home to speak to Robbie. Despite all of that, I knew I needed to hit at least one more grocery store. Just one. I could fill in the blanks on what I believed I had missed, and then head home happily. Well, maybe not happily, but well stocked and supplied at the very least.