“I have not a single doubt that your men will make it back here, Luna. Getting back to you will be their number one priority. They love you even if you can’t see it.” I duck my head as heat fills my face. Gigi has been trying to set us all up in some kind of harem situation for the last six months. I blame her smutty romance obsession. She carries on, ignoring my reaction.
“We can’t sit around waiting until they get here to start preparing. We need to move quickly if we want to beat the herd. This will be a worldwide disaster that no one will be spared from and a lot of people will die. We. Will. Not. Be. One. Of. Them.” She takes a deep breath. “So, we are going to go to Savemart right now before they close and buy as much food and supplies as we can. Then tomorrow, we will hit as many other stores as we can as soon as they open. We need to be ready for what I think will happen soon and we don’t have a lot of time.”
My brows crinkle in confusion. “How do you know what’s going to happen and how are you so calm about all of this?”
She laughs. “I might look calm, but believe me when I say, I’m freaking the hell out. However, I’ve survived four husbands up and dying on me, so the apocalypse should be manageable. As for how I think I know what’s going to happen? Well, my second husband was a bit of a kook. He was what people now call a prepper or a survivalist. In my day, we just called them tinfoil hat wearing crazies.” She pauses and her eyes go dreamy for a moment. “God, I loved that crazy psycho. He could really throw a girl around in bed and he had the biggest…”
“Gigi! Please! TMI!”
She shrugs one slim shoulder and rolls her eyes at me.
“Anyway… besides his bedroom prowess, he also had contingency plans for all kinds of disasters. One of which was if Yellowstone blew. There’s a massive volcano just sitting there, long overdue to erupt. With the moon dragging on the earth the way it is now, there’s a good chance that will happen. That means ash. Ash will be everywhere. All the crops will die and most of the animals too. So…food, food and clean water, will be in short supply around the world.” She pushes to her feet and motions for me to stand but my knees feel weak and unsteady at the picture she’s just painted of a possible hellish future.
“Up, Luna, up! We need to go shopping before Savemart closes. Hopefully, we can get what we need before the rest of the town figures this out.” She grabs the keys to both the Escalade and Jeep and I follow her out to the garage in a bit of a daze.
“We’ll take both vehicles so we can fit more. Help me put the back seats down.”
She lifts the hatch on the big SUV but I just stand there staring at her, completely overwhelmed until I finally find my voice.
“It w-won’t be enough. If what you said happens, it won’t be enough, Gigi. If the guys make it back, that’s six people to feed. We could never buy enough food from Savemart for that many people to survive for very long. It just wouldn’t be enough.”
She sighs and then comes back to me and rubs up and down my arms, making me realize that my whole body is trembling.
“You’re right. That alone wouldn’t be enough, so we will need an even bigger plan to go further. I have an idea for that. But right now, we need to take this in steps, and the first step is to buy as much as we can before it’s too late. Okay?”
I slowly nod my head in agreement so she drags me over to the back end of the SUV to help her lay the seats flat. She asks me questions while we work.
“Do you remember when your mom wanted to have that hiking food supply store?”
I laugh and nod as I flip the third-row seats flat. My mom was what you would call a free spirit, or in not so kind words… a flake. She would come up with these big plans to start a business or a hobby, go crazy about them for a few months and then lose interest. Thankfully, my dad was so in love with her that he always supported her every single time.
“Those two big freeze-dryer machines she bought? Do you still have them?”
I move to the second row seats and start flipping them down as I reply.
“Yup, they’re in the basement along with all the other failed hobby supplies. Why do you ask? Do you think they’ll help with all this?”
“Absolutely, they will! When we get back, we need to slice up as much of the meat as we can and get it going in the freeze-dryers. Actually, go run inside and pull all the frozen meat from your freezers and set it out to thaw while we’re gone. I can do the Jeep’s seats myself. Hurry, though, we need to get going!”
I run into the house to do as she says, taking a quick look at my watch and wince. Savemart closes in just over an hour, if it’s even still open after the whole moon thing today. I mean, if I were making minimum wage as a retail worker, I sure as heck wouldn’t be sticking around to finish my shift right now. I shake my head at how surreal all this is and dump all the frozen meat from the fridge freezer on the counter and in the sink, and then grab a laundry basket and fill it with the frozen meat in the stand-up freezer we have in the laundry room and leave it all on the kitchen counters before running back to the garage.
Chapter 35 - Luna
Gigi is already waiting in the Jeep so I jump into the Escalade and follow her down the hill and across the bridge that separates our small city. There’s hardly any traffic on the roads but there are still smashed cars here and there from the earlier accidents. My guess is most people are sticking close to home and their loved ones right now. I try not to look directly at the broken moon that hangs over our heads like it’s going to crash on us any minute. It should be dark at this time of night but the moon has brightened everything by being so close. It makes me think about what that will mean. Will our days be longer now? I remember what that guy on the radio said about the coastlines getting swamped and I swallow down the vomit that surges up my throat at the thought of Jules and Reid being washed away by the tides. I have to push it from my mind or I’ll collapse in despair like I did when I lost my parents and brother. I can’t let myself think of any of them right now if I want to be able to function.
The Savemart parking lot only has a scattering of cars and the lights are still on. Hopefully that must mean someone has decided to stick around to work until closing. Gigi and I park right at the curb, forgoing a regular parking spot. Pretty sure the police will have more important things going on right now than handing out parking tickets. We race to the doors and I almost bounce off them when they don’t automatically slide open as they usually do. Gigi spits out a string of curses that has me flinching and then she starts banging on the doors.
“I see you, Shelly Anne! Open this door right now!” She yells against the glass, making me look deeper into the store through the glass and spotting a woman scowling our way from the produce section.
“You know that lady? Will she open up for us?”
She keeps banging on the glass and waving at the woman to come over.
“Mmhmm, she’s in my book club. Made us read a stupid closed-door sweet romance when it was her turn to pick. Not a single spicy scene in the whole damn book. Ridiculous!” Her voice goes loud again. “Shelly Anne, I swear to God, if you don’t open the door right this second, I’ll drive my car through them!”
That seems to get her attention because she stomps over to the doors and pulls out a set of keys with a glare at Gigi through the glass as she unlocks it and pulls one side open.
“Damn it, Elenor, we aren’t open! Most of the staff took off after the moon did its thing. The only reason I’m still here is in case corporate checks in with what we should do.”
