From Within

by Brian Delaney

  “Yeah, they’re here. They slept in, but they are up now. I just told them a little bit ago what has been happening and they are watching the news right now,” Lea said.

  Will and Lea walked inside the house and found Lea’s parents parked in front of the t.v. Will had gotten to know Lea’s parents quite a bit over the last few months. Alejandro had retired fairly early in life. About fifteen years earlier, he worked in maintenance for the county and had gotten injured. A fellow co-worker had backed a truck into the maintenance shop and ran into Alejandro as he worked on a different truck. He received a moderate insurance payout. He was unable to work for the better part of a year while he recovered. During his now abundant free time he decided to invest the insurance money. He gave most of it to a money management firm, knowing they would need to be conservative in order to have money during his recovery. He took a small chunk to try his chances in the stock market. He studied and studied and studied every investment he chose to make, no matter how big or small. The studying paid off as his account value continued to rise and rise.

  He returned to work ten months later and was beginning to contemplate retirement. He had never imagined a scenario in his life where he’d be retiring so young. He continued investing, being successful across his diversified self-managed portfolio. He didn’t even spend a full year back at work before departing. Now newly retired, he adjusted his thinking and decided to stop being risky. They shifted all their money into the safest modes of investment they could think of. In addition, they stayed living the same way they always had. They had many discussions about upgrading their living situation and decided if they were going to stay retired that they should stay in the same house.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Navarro?” Will asked to get their attention.

  Without taking his eyes off of the t.v., Alejandro said, “Will, I’ve told you many times to call me by my white American name, Al.”

  Will laughed, “Sorry...Al.”

  “Alejo! How can you joke at a time like this? Hi, Will. It’s good to see you. I’m glad you came over today.” Juana said. “Lea was so worried. I think she was having a panic attack.”

  “I can believe that,” Will said as he smiled and winked at Lea.

  Lea smacked Will’s arm.

  “Ow! What was that for?” Will asked jokingly.

  Will enjoyed the light humor in the room. It lightened the mood. He loved Alejandro’s sense of humor. However, in light of the events unfolding around them, Will still wanted to steer the conversation more serious.

  “So...Al...what do you think about all the violence happening?”

  “It’s scary and crazy. It seems quiet here still. Small town where most people know most people, so it makes sense.” He finally turned from the t.v. and looked at Will, “I do think it will happen here too eventually. If not by people that live here then it’ll be those people.” He pointed to the t.v. “They are panicking is what’s happening. They are looting because they are scared and they don’t feel prepared for whatever is going to happen now that we are under martial law.”

  “I heard that mentioned this morning but didn’t know if it had happened for sure,” Will said. “I think you are right that the rioting and looting will be here in our town too. That’s why I came here. I think you three should come stay with us at our house. I just talked to my mom about it and she had the same idea as me.”

  Alejandro looked to Juana. Having been married for years they could communicate without speaking quite well.

  “We’ll need to talk about this first, Will,” Alejandro said and Juana nodded her head as he said it.

  “I understand,” Will answered and Alejandro and Juana stepped out of the living room.

  Lea turned down the volume of the t.v. and turned to Will, “Do you really think it will get that bad here?”

  “I do. To be honest, I’m surprised that it isn’t like that now. Some of the places they are showing on the news are small towns and it looks no different than the riots and looting they are showing in L.A. What do you think of my idea? Our place is isolated and all of us together could keep good watch over things.”

  “I like it. Of course, I am a little biased.” Lea winked at Will as she answered, “I’m not sure how my parents are going to feel. I could see them going either way on this. They definitely won’t like leaving our house empty for so long.”

  Will smiled and answered, “I’m glad you like the idea. Maybe you could help influence your parents if they are leaning towards staying here. Yes, I am biased as well wanting you there but I really do want your whole family to be safe. I really think it’s going to get rough. If people begin to flee the big cities then I think they’ll head for the hills.” Will held up his fingers to make quotation marks. “Our little town is the hills to some people and to others it’ll be on the way to the hills. Desperate people fleeing their homes might see the chaos as a reason to loot and riot. Just the fear of the change that has happened already is probably part of the reason people are rioting and looting in the bigger cities. Our property is off the main road. I don’t think people will easily happen upon it.”

  Lea stared pensively towards the floor. Will noticed she appeared sad now and attempted to comfort her. After a few minutes of asking more questions and thinking through some of Will’s answers, she began to come to terms with the situation for the time being. Her parents called her back to their room where they had been discussing the idea of holding up at Will and his mother’s home to get her opinion. Will turned the volume up on the t.v. so he could hear if there was anything new being reported.

  Chapter Eleven

  Will and Alejandro finished packing Will’s Jeep with as much as they could fit. Alejandro and Juana took a little more convincing from Lea and Will to make the decision to go. What brought them to the decision was food. Will told them he had quite the store of survival food. He let them know he was into survival and prepping and had at least a year or so supply of food stored up. He had been buying it over the last several years and had also won a few months supply worth in an online contest on a survival blog he read. The long stretch of the poor economy caused him to increase his planning and prepping. The news had continued to discuss that morning the possibility of rationing under martial law and Alejandro wanted to make sure his family could eat. The economy was already in bad shape and he couldn’t imagine it improving at any quickened pace with everything that was happening.

  They moved on to loading one of the other vehicles in the driveway. Will and Alejandro kept having to remind Juana and Lea that a lot of the basics would be at the other house already. It wasn’t like they were taking some tents out to the middle of nowhere and everything needed to live for a long period of time would need to be brought. Will said they should definitely take heirlooms and valuables too. If need be, they could always make a trip back to their house. Lea made sure that all their food, including the jerky they had just made the day before, was packed in the car.

  Juana was in tears as she got into the car. Will and Alejandro had been discussing a lot of different scenarios as they packed up the vehicles. They hoped for the best but planned for the worst. All the talk of worst case scenarios made Juana quite upset. Discussion on strategies for a stop at the grocery store is what had finally brought the tears. She couldn’t believe that they wanted to bring guns to the grocery store. They had also talked about scoping out the parking lot before entering it and once there having two people guard the vehicles while the other two went in armed. Alejandro had to remind her what they had seen on the news that morning and had said that the evening before no one could have imagined what would happen through the night and this morning. They had watched suburban America turn into what looked like a war-torn middle-Eastern country in only a few hours.

  *****

  Wanting to get a look at the situation before entering the parking lot, their two-vehicle convoy slowly passed the first entrance into the grocery store parking lot and turned onto the side street to
enter from the next parking lot access. Will had only seen a couple of people rushing into the store as he drove into town that morning, but now it looked as if half the town had arrived. It didn’t look quite like the chaos the big city stores were seeing. There was a little more order to things.

  Will thought to himself it must be the slower small town life and the fact that most of these people know each other.

  Will pulled into the parking lot and turned around and pulled his Jeep into a spot that was facing out towards the entrance they just drove in. He motioned for Alejandro to pull next to him facing the same direction. Will wanted a quick route out of the parking lot if the people began rioting. He was anticipating with the amount of people rushing to the store due to the news that some of the basics people like to keep on hand might already be out of stock. If that was the case, Will figured people might turn to violence like crowds would do on Black Friday, regardless of whether or not they knew the people around them. They all got out of the vehicles and grouped together in between the two.

  “Alejandro, I think you and Juana should stay out here while Lea and I go in and get whatever we can off of our list,” Will said as he held up a piece of paper.

  Alejandro glanced over to the store entrance and then back to Will and Lea, “Are you sure it’s going to be safe in there for her?”

  “It looks a little crazy in there but it doesn’t look like people are being violent. I think it gets worse on Black Friday. We’ll stay together and move quickly. Plus, I have my pistol.” Will pointed to the weapon holstered at his side, “I don’t think anyone will mess with us.”

  “Okay,” Alejandro said reluctantly but still nodded his head in agreement.

  “I think you two should just stay in your car for now and keep a hold on your shotgun. I can give you my shotgun to have in your car too.” Will opened up the passenger door and grabbed the shotgun and handed it to Alejandro.

  Juana gasped and threw her hands up to her face. She was beginning to tear up again.

  “This is too much. How could things be like this!” She cried out hysterically.

  “Juana, it’ll be alright. We are just trying to anticipate the worst case scenario. We don’t really think we’ll need to use these guns but we want to be prepared,” Alejandro said as he pulled his wife closer to him and hugged her.

  Alejandro and Juana got back into their car and set the shotguns resting against the seat beside them. They watched Will and Lea quickly walk into the store. Alejandro brought his window down a few inches and had Juana do the same. Alejandro kept his head on a swivel. His eyes went from mirror to mirror and out all the windows in a continual pattern. He told Juana to keep watch as well and to let him know if she saw anyone approaching their car.

  Only a few minutes after Will and Lea disappeared into the store, they heard some shouting. Alejandro darted his head around and scanned the area of the parking lot he thought he heard the commotion. He couldn’t tell exactly what was happening due to all the cars in the way of his view. He could see the tops of heads as people were rushing around. He told Juana to stay in the car and that he was going to step out to see if he could get a better view. He stood up outside his car and held the shotgun low with both hands. He was in between his car and Will’s Jeep and hoped no one would see the gun. Now that he was standing he could see more of the disturbance. There were many people gathered around a small area. People were pushing and shoving each other and the shouting was escalating. He noticed six large 4x4 vehicles, an assortment of lifted trucks and Jeeps, lined up on the back lane of the parking lot. He thought they were parked there to be ready to leave quickly like he and Will had done at this other entrance. He didn’t recognize any of the vehicles. Having lived in this small town for many years he would recognize any of those if they were from the area.

  As he focused on the fighting, a shot rang out from the direction he was watching and a cacophony of shouting and screaming instantly filled the air. The sound of the firing gun caused him to duck his head. He quickly turned to get back in his car and saw a man standing across from him outside Juana’s door, holding a large knife.

  *****

  Will and Lea had a single cart and were rushing up and down the aisles, remaining side by side the entire time. Just as Will had thought, most of the items they had on their list were already gone from the store. As he saw some items he hadn’t thought of, he would toss them into the cart. Whatever they could get would lengthen the store of survival food he already had. Most of the survival situations he imagined were more regional. The blogs he would read would base their advice on natural disasters or war zones and how people reacted to those situations. Will never imagined martial law for the entire United States. What does that mean for the possibility of more food arriving at this store? He always imagined state and federal aid eventually coming to the rescue after some point and returning things back to normal. It made him think of the history lessons on occupied areas during World War II. It took years before anyone came to the aid of the occupied people.

  Lea was surprised when Will started loading large bottles of alcohol into the cart. He loaded an assortment of different liquors from the bottom shelf.

  “What could you possibly need all that for!?” Lea asked with a baffled look on her face.

  Will motioned for them to continue down the aisle as he answered. “Lots of things. Who knows how long this will all take until things are back to normal. We can use alcohol to help with sickness, cleaning, trading, and many other things.”

  “Huh. I would never have thought of any of that,” she said.

  “Just wait until you see what else I hope to buy,” Will said and winked at Lea.

  Once they had gathered everything that they could find that was on their list, they joined one of the many lines waiting to pay. As they slowly moved forward they heard a loud bang that came from outside. Will and Lea looked at each other both wondering if they had just heard a gunshot. They didn’t have a view outside through the main entrance from where they stood so they couldn’t look to see without leaving the line and neither wanted to part from each other with how hectic is was in the store. The consistent noise from shouting and rushing of people made it hard to tell if it was a gunshot that they heard. However, Will was pretty sure that it had been. Though, he didn’t think it was a shotgun.

  As they finally made it to the cashier, Will pointed to the cigarettes that encompassed the display, “Can I also get a bunch of cartons. Camels or Marlboros, I don’t really care.”

  The chaotic sounds continued outside and Will thought he heard another shot. It could’ve been anything he considered with all the noise.

  “I didn’t know you smoked, Will,” the cashier said.

  Will was surprised that the cashier called him by name. He hadn’t looked at the lady yet because he was still thinking about the shot and also that he wanted to remember to buy cigarettes. It was Mary, his mother’s friend.

  “Oh, I don’t. They are for a friend. Listen, Mary, if you already haven’t done so, you should probably make sure you get some of this stuff too.” Will swept his hand pointing from one end of the store to the other. “Who knows how long all this rioting and stuff will go on.”

  “I think we’ll be okay.” She leaned in and lowered her voice, “The manager let us set aside some things for ourselves. Plus, he said that new government corporation is going to be coming into town sometime really soon. He said they are going to be rationing out food. He wanted us to get everything we needed before they came in and took everything. He said that technically he was supposed to close the store and wait until they got here to handle everything in the store. Are you all going to be fine?”

  “Yes, thank you,” Will answered. “I think we’ll be set for now. And thanks for the information. We’ll make sure to get set up with rations too when that group comes into town.” Will paid and helped reload the cart.

  As they walked towards the exit Lea whispered to Will, “Why didn’t you te
ll her we had a bunch of food at your house?”

  “I don’t want too many people knowing about it. The more people that know the greater potential people will want to have some if things get worse,” Will whispered back.

  “Good point. So, I understand the alcohol but you are going to have to explain the cigarettes.”

  “Well,” Will began and paused for a moment, “it’s a luxury item. If they start rationing, which Mary just confirmed that they are, I’m sure cigarettes won’t be a priority to be shipped around the country. People are addicted to these things and their value will skyrocket. We could use them to buy something we need.”

  “How on Earth do you even think of these things?”

  Will laughed, “It’s stuff that has happened during wars or other big disasters. I read about this kind of thing on the prepping and survival blogs I read. People theorize what could happen on a much larger scale. On one hand, I hope that buying them is worth it. On the other, I hope I wasted my money and things don’t get that bad.”

  They exited the store and turned to the right towards where they had parked. They both stopped abruptly. All they could see was Will’s Jeep. Alejandro and Juana’s car was gone.

  “Will?” Lea said with an anxious tone in her voice.

  “I don’t know,” was all he could say back to her.

  Will had Lea push the cart as they approached his Jeep. He had his hand ready on his pistol. There was a deep crimson pool on the ground to the side of where the car had been. Once Will had seen it, he turned to Lea who noticed a moment after him. She put her hand to her mouth as tears began to flow down her cheeks and she began screaming.

  Chapter Twelve