The Day The World Was Dying

The Day The Wolrd Was Dying

She looked around the store with a sense of apprehension that made her gut tighten. She'd never seen things quite like this before. People were rushing through the aisles, gathering food without discrimination, loading in cases of water bottles. A man was sweeping his arm across the shelf, causing every canned and boxed good there to tumble into his grocery cart. When another gentleman snapped at him and reached for some of the items, he received a kick to the knee that sent him to the floor.

"What was that?" Her mom spoke in her ear and Sky adjusted the phone.

"Some dude just got kicked." She kept her tone quiet as she pushed her own grocery cart past them before the guy on the floor decided to choose a smaller target.

"It's bad there, isn't it?"

She felt tears prick her eyes, "I'll be alright, Mama." She heard a scream across the store and started to wonder if she should get out before things got worse. "I gotta find Jackie and get out of here."

"As soon as the airports open again, you come straight home."

She shook her head even though her mom couldn't see her. "I think it's too late for that, we don't want to wait it out in a hotel room. The interstates are closed, but we can take backroads and smaller highways. We're coming home. We can't stay in the city." Another scream echoed followed by a dozen or so shouts. "I love you."

"I love you, be safe!"

She hung up, regret welling inside of her as she exited an aisle and another cart plowed straight into hers. They both tipped and everything she'd just stowed in it scattered. "Fuck!" She gasped and looked up at the old woman with wide eyes. "Sorry." She righted both carts and was reaching for one of the canned goods that spilled out when hands grabbed her.

"Sky, we have to leave!"

She flinched and whirled on Jackie. "You scared the hell out of me!"

"We have to go." She tugged her elbow.

"The food!" She pointed at it. Everything was going to be gone. If they didn't stock now, they would go hungry.

There was something wrong in the world. At first, the news stations just warned them to practice healthy habits like hand washing, then they started getting warnings to stay indoors. Now? The airports were closed, businesses weren't running. They saw a crazed man in the street charging police officers who were forced to open fire.

This was supposed to be her graduation trip. Visit some cool new places before she went into college and focused on her career and the rest of her life. Instead, the world chose now to fall apart and she was desperate to get back home, to her own state, her own family.

"No!" She shook her head wildly, her black hair a mess around her face, "No, do you remember that man that charged the police? There's another one of them in here, he started snarling and attacked this woman standing right next to me!" She continued yanking on her arm, forcing her to take steps with her. Those words sent a chill up her spine and she started following, gripping her sleeve as Jackie continued pulling her along.

"Another one?" She couldn't rationalize that. People were getting sick everywhere. There had been a lot of speculation that drugs had been involved, some bad strain hitting the streets, but then it turned into reports about some sort of rabies virus. Sky didn't know what to think anymore.

They were just rounding a corner aisle when Jackie drew up short and Sky bumped into her back. "Oh my god," Jackie gasped and Sky squeezed her sleeve. More screams echoed on the other side of the store, shouts. Someone was yelling for another person to stay away from him. A kid was sobbing somewhere.