The End of the World Series (Book 1): Survive The Collapse

by McDonald, Clyde

  This aisle was lined with cleaning supplies. Jake was careful to stay away from the brooms and mops as he moved. Knocking one over would ensure his discovery. As he crept, he noticed the buckets stacked at the other end.

  One of those would be good for Megan to throw up into. I don’t know how long an emetic takes to work. Might need to treat her as we drive.

  He stepped carefully toward the stacks of buckets and selected one that seemed of good quality. If he was going to steal, then he might as well steal something that will last. It’ll make a nice shopping bag, too, he chuckled silently at the thought.

  “Yeah, I’ll grab it!” an unseen girl shouted. Her voice was heading towards the back of the store. Jake’s heart jumped into his throat as he crouched farther into the shadows of the cleaning supplies aisle. He tried to make his body as small as possible. Maybe she would walk right by.

  He heard the movement of small containers a couple of aisles ahead of his destination. She was not coming near him now but might later when he was farther into the store.

  I’m going to need to be quick.

  Her footsteps were obvious as she moved away and back to the front of the store. Jake used her noises to disguise the sound of his own movement. He managed to reach the aisle just before his target. It was the holiday display aisle crammed full of Fourth of July decorations, shirts, and small firecrackers.

  What the hell is wrong with this place? He frowned in disgust. Fourth of July is, like, two months away! I swear, these corporations start pulling out the holiday stuff earlier and earlier every year… He shook his head. Not even remotely important right now. Focus, man!

  He slid quietly into the targeted aisle. Alright. Need to find an emetic… His gaze raked across the shelves. He was not actually sure what an emetic looked like. He had never needed to buy one before. Where would it even go? Next to the fever medications or closer to the anti-nausea pills? Looking around, it appeared that he was in the cold and flu aisle.

  Guess I’m about to figure it out.

  He walked past the night-time cold medicine. Throat soothing products gave him pause, and he scanned the area. Nothing written on the boxes seemed like anything close to an emetic. He kept going and repeated the routine upon reaching the fever reducers. Perhaps one would use an emetic before a fever reducer in serious conditions? He had no idea. Aby was the medical one. He should have asked her what this stuff looked like or where it would be. Stupid, he thought.

  Again, nothing emetic-esque seemed to be on the shelves. He gave the aisle one more visual sweep before moving on to the next. This one was filled with allergy pills and anti-diarrheals. Surely emetics would be in this aisle? I can’t think of anywhere else it would make sense to stock them. He stalked soundlessly past the allergy medication. Surely it would not be there.

  Emetic… Maybe vomit medication? Is it actually going to say the word “emetic” on the label, or will it be something else? What brand name should I be looking for?

  He examined a few boxes that looked promising, but the label revealed them to be the opposite of what he was looking for.

  Dammit! I really should have asked Aby what I should be—

  “Who the hell are you?”

  Jake’s heart stopped. He turned to see a teenage boy in a thin lab coat. His name tag read “Terrance, Pharmacy Assistant,” but his face read “I Will Scream if You Come Too Close”. He must have just rounded the corner while Jake’s back was turned. He hadn’t heard him coming

  Keeping his voice low, he said to Terrance, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to barge in. My friend is very sick, and we couldn’t wait in the line. I’m just here to find something to help her. There’s no reason to be afraid. I promise I won’t hurt you.” He tried to keep his voice level and soothing. He aimed for a trustworthy tone.

  It did not work. The boy started to open his mouth, eyes wide in terror as the beginnings of a scream escaped his throat.

  Shit. Jake whipped out his pistol. The scream halted in the boy’s throat. “Listen, kid. I’m not here to hurt anyone. I just need to help my friend. Understand?”

  The assistant nodded slowly with his hands up. His eyes never left the barrel of the gun.

  “Good. Now, I don’t know what I’m looking for here. She was poisoned and needs an emetic. Do you have those here?”

  Another nod.

  “Fantastic. Will you put some in my bucket for me?”

  This time, the assistant spoke. “How… how do I know you won’t sh-shoot me when I go get it?” His pupils were enormous.

  Jake rolled his eyes. “Like I said, I’m not here to hurt anybody. I didn’t even want to take out my gun. All I want is to save my friend.”

  The boy went silent again but nodded. He made a quarter turn and searched briefly before putting several thin, yellow boxes off an upper shelf. Jake hadn’t gotten the chance to look there yet. He held out the bucket to the assistant, keeping his finger on the trigger guard. He wasn’t going to shoot the kid, but fear seemed to be an effective motivator for him. He dropped the boxes into the bucket with shaking hands.

  “Thank you. Now, is there anything else that might help her? She’s had the poison in her system for a little while now.”

  The boy paused for just a heartbeat. “Do you know what she was poisoned with?” he asked.

  “No, I don’t. She’s been seizing and vomiting. She can’t really talk, either.”

  He nodded and grabbed a few more boxes from a middle shelf. These were dark gray in color. “This is activated charcoal,” he said to Jake's pistol. “It’s like a sponge. Make her swallow some after the emetic works.”

  “And these will help?” Jake asked as the boxes went into his bucket.

  “I- I don’t know for sure,” he stammered. “It’s hard to tell without knowing what she took. B-but this is a good guess.” Terrance’s mouth closed tightly, forming a hard line on his face as he continued to shake.

  Jake sighed. “Thank you for helping me save my friend. I’m sorry I scared you.”

  The boy nodded again.

  “I’m going to leave now. You aren’t going to follow me or tell anyone that I was here.”

  Another nod.

  “I’ll go out the back door again. It wasn’t latched all the way.” He started walking backwards in the direction he came. He kept the gun pointed at Terrance. “You might want to make sure it closes and locks after I leave so no one else can come in.”

  The boy made no indication that he understood before Jake exited the aisle. He sprinted to the back of the building with his bucket of medicine. No point in staying quiet now that Terrance knew he was there. He was pretty sure the kid would raise the alarm soon, and he didn’t want to be there when he did.

  He burst out the back door. It had yet to swing closed before he heard a commotion coming from the inside.

  Shit, we gotta go, he thought frantically.

  Sliding around the corner, he spotted Aby standing outside the car. He caught her eye and made a circular motion in the air with his finger to indicate that they needed to go now. She nodded and hopped in the SUV. He could see her reach from the back seat to start the engine and unlock the doors. Just as the old thing roared to life, Jake hopped into the driver’s seat. He jerked the steering wheel around as he handed the bucket to his fiancée.

  “Here,” he grunted. They were exiting the parking lot as an employee came running out the front doors. “There’s an emetic and some charcoal in there. The guy said wait for her to finish throwing up before giving her the charcoal.”

  Aby tore open the yellow box. “What guy?! I thought you snuck through the back!”

  Jake turned left onto the main road leading to Deron’s cabin. “I did. Some kid caught me. It was fine. Just scared him. He helped me find the meds.” He didn’t feel as though Aby needed to know all the details. It would just make her more concerned. Maybe he would later, but there was plenty to be concerned about for the time being.

  She nodded. He glanced
back at her every so often. She struggled to get the first few pills down Megan’s throat. She wouldn’t swallow on her own and vomited out the first couple. On the fourth pill, he saw her lift the woman’s head and force the pill down her throat. She kept her head held up and mouth closed, stroking her neck to encourage swallowing. He had seen her do this before with their old dog, Bailey, when she wouldn’t take her medicine. This time, Megan swallowed.

  The car was silent for several minutes before Deron shouted, “Well, what’s gonna happen to her now? She isn’t puking!”

  Aby shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure how long it takes to work.”

  “Maybe she’s already thrown up too much, and now the medicine won’t work?” Deron suggested. Jake had minimal medical knowledge, but he was pretty sure that was a stupid guess.

  Just as Aby had started reading the instructions on the box, Megan exploded. Vomit poured out of her mouth in sickening bursts and the smell filled the cabin. Most of it made it into the bucket, but a large volume still splattered across floor mats and seat backs. Jake rolled down some windows to let the smell out. Whatever her abusive husband had given her must have been bad.

  That smells vile, he thought. I have no idea what that is, but it is not a normal smell.

  He opened his mouth slightly to breathe without smelling it. He turned back to look at her. The sight he saw was not much better than it had been just minutes before. Megan was still very pale with a light sheen of sweat. Her eyelids still fluttered, but at least she was no longer bubbling at the mouth.

  “Try the charcoal,” he said to Aby. “That kid said it’s supposed to work like a sponge. Soak up the extra funk so she can’t digest it.” He was fairly sure Aby already knew this information, so he wasn’t sure why he said it. Maybe it made him feel more useful than he was actually being at the moment.

  Aby opened the box of activated charcoal without a reply. It seemed poorly packaged. No funnel or anything.

  This probably wasn’t designed for use inside a moving car. He wasn’t even sure how it was meant to be administered. Swallowing it makes sense, I think. How else would it get in your gut?

  Jake was still considering whether they were supposed to mix the charcoal in with some food when Aby demanded his knife. “Can’t get the bag open on my own,” she explained.

  He pulled the blade from his pocket and handed it to her. After a few moments, he heard a coughing, choking sound. Jake peered back again to see Aby funneling the charcoal through the bottom of the bag and down Megan’s open gullet. She swallowed half before choking the remainder all over those in the back of the car. Jake handed Aby a canteen of water, and she managed to get Megan to drink a little. The sickly pale woman flopped back down onto her side. Her shallow breaths caused small puffs of dark dust to swirl in front of her lips. Everyone in the car was speckled with charcoal.

  At least she looks better already. Her eyes are staying closed and she looks a little less pale. Still shaking though… Jake worried that he was misinterpreting these signs. To his mind, they could just as easily mean she had gotten much worse. He wouldn’t know.

  “Well that was disgusting,” Deron said with derision.

  “What were you expecting, exactly?” Aby snapped at him.

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Just don’t care to be covered in her mouth dust.”

  Jake rolled his eyes. “It’s just charcoal, man. You’ll be fine. Besides, it’s not like poisoning is contagious.”

  They rode without speaking for several minutes. Aby gently stroked Megan’s hair while encouraging her to drink little sips of water. She seemed to perk up with every swallow. Color was returning to her face.

  “I want to thank you all,” she said in an exhausted whisper. “You barely know me, and you’ve saved me from my husband twice in one day.” She stopped speaking to catch her breath. After another moment, she continued, “I should have left that man years ago… Not sure why I stayed for so long…”

  “It’s okay,” Aby said soothingly. “It can be hard to walk away from someone like that. You don’t need to explain anything to us.” She helped Megan take another drink before adding, “Besides, of course we would help you. You deserve to be safe.”

  Megan gave a little smile. The charcoal coating her face made her tears visible to Jake. He thought he heard her say thank you, but her voice was too low for him to be sure if she did. He felt some of the tension melt away in that moment.

  BWIP!

  The chirp of the car brought Jake away from his thoughts. Looking down, he saw that the gas light was on. He must not have noticed they were running low during the evening’s commotion. The indicator light was flashing, signaling an extremely low tank.

  Shit…

  Eleven

  Aby

  “Isn’t there gas in the extra containers in the back?” she asked her fiancé. She would be surprised if he didn’t keep extra fuel stocked in his unused SUV, just in case. For once, she hoped he had done something so ridiculous.

  “No, it’s been too warm lately. The car heats up on the inside, and fumes escape the containers. Would’ve been accidentally building my own gas chamber. Or maybe a bomb, if something sparked,” he said casually.

  “Why don’t we just go to a gas station? None of them look too busy yet. People must be getting food and stuff still,” Deron offered. Aby rolled her eyes at the suggestion.

  “We just talked about this,” she said. “The pumps won’t work without electricity”

  “How would you know? Are you an expert on this or something?” he asked in a defensive, mocking tone.

  Jake spoke up then. “She’s right.” Aby smiled at his support. “The gas is kept in a reservoir under the pumps. The pumps change the pressure within the lines to bring it up to the surface and into the car. Only way to change the pressure is with a pump. Pump won’t work without power.”

  “Oh,” Deron said flatly.

  Aby smirked to herself for a moment before adding, “We will still need to get gas, though. Since the pumps won’t function, we’ll need to siphon the gas out. We just need the gas we collect to sit higher than the cans we put them in. Gravity will take care of the rest for us. We just need some tubing.”

  Deron looked to Jake. “Where are we gonna get some tubing? Or some gas that sits up high?”

  His continued disregard for what she had to say was beginning to piss her off. She let Jake take this one. He said, “For the gas, all we need is to find a dead car with a reasonably full tank. That reservoir should sit high enough above our canisters to do the job.” He paused for a moment, likely to think, before continuing, “I’m not sure about the tubing. Could be whatever we can find. Some garden hose or something.”

  Aby looked at the scene outside as he spoke. More people seemed to be standing outside their homes to talk with their neighbors. Once in a while, she would see one remove their phone from their pocket to stare at it blankly before putting it away again.

  “Stealing gas might be easier said than done,” she announced. They passed by a group of six neighbors running towards one another in the beginnings of a fight. “Seems to be more people out than before.”

  “We’ve still got a while before we’ll be desperate,” Jake said. “We’ll get a little farther from the crowds before stopping.”

  How much farther can we get? We’re nearly out of the suburbs now.

  They began making plans for the near future. Jake had packed an impressive amount of supplies for all of them, but they would not be able to survive off of it long-term. They would need more ammo for the guns, more knives for different tasks, medicine, tons of food… They were lucky that this had all begun in late spring. A few months earlier, foraging and hunting would be nearly impossible in the snow. A few months later, and the world would be swelteringly hot. They would have some time to start storing things in preparation for the difficult parts of the year.

  “Are there any pots and pans at this place?” Jake asked Deron.<
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  Deron had been staring out the window absently. Aby assumed he had not heard what Jake had said when he failed to respond after several minutes. “Deron?” she said. He turned to look at her. “Are there any pots and pans at this cabin? Cooking utensils?”

  “Nah, family hasn’t been there in years. I took most of those when I moved into my own place,” he said casually.

  “Well, we’re gonna need to find some once we get settled,” said Jake.

  “Can’t we just make some?” Deron asked. “Like with clay? Our ancestors used to do that, right?”

  Is he serious? Aby wondered. He can’t be. That’s too absurd.

  “I guess that could work in a pinch, but it isn’t very practical when we could snag better equipment elsewhere,” Jake finally said. Aby suspected they were both waiting for a sign from Deron indicating a joke that evidently had not been made. “Not exactly a lot of clay in this part of the country, either.”

  Deron grumbled something to himself.

  He doesn’t seem to take criticism well. She looked down at Megan’s head in her lap. And I still have no sense for her personality yet. At least she’s getting better.

  Megan had been perking up in the last twenty minutes. She had started holding the canteen on her own now. She took bigger sips with every drink, but she still looked poorly. Her forehead felt clammy, and her skin was still pale.

  “Jake, we’re going to need to find some gas before we get too far out of the suburbs,” Aby informed him. She was pretty sure he had noticed the decrease in loitering people outside, but worried whether they would be able to find a car with gas after reaching a certain distance outside the city.

  “Probably more crazies out there with guns, too, if we go too far,” Deron added.