June 8, 2020

9:00 P.M.

CVS Pharmacy Co.

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"Well, shit." Angie punches the dashboard. "This is bad."

"Don't say I didn't tell you so." Adam glances up from his phone. They had made it to the nearest drug store. Finally. "Made it", meaning almost getting hit by multiple cars only to end up stuck in a massive line barely off the main road.

"Not helpful, Adam." Angie sighs. "At this rate, they're gonna close before we can even find a space in the parking lot."

"We could always try another place?" Adam shrugs. "There's gotta be someplace that isn't packed like this."

After about twenty minutes of waiting around aimlessly, a man a few cars in front of them exits his vehicle. He starts running for the store.

"Hey, what's up with him?" Adam points the man out. Angie looks to the front and notices him too.

"Probably thinks that he can get in and get out with what he needs before the line moves again." Angie rests her head on her hand. A moment later she snaps back to focus and turns to Adam.

"No." Adam cuts her off before she can speak. "Someone will break into our car or something before we get back."

"Not if we're fast. And if that does happen, I got enough to replace a window." Angie unbuckles her seatbelt and opens her door. "It'll be fun."

"What the hell have the Marines done to you to make you consider this 'fun'," Adam groans while forcing himself out of the car.

"Valid question." Angie crosses her arms on the roof of the car, a wicked smile on her face. "I'll race ya."

"You're kidding, right?"

"C'mon, track star." She changes to a mocking voice, tying her brunette hair into a ponytail. "You afraid your older sister is gonna smoke you in a race?"

"Nah, I just don't want to get beat up for winning," Adam puts his phone in his pocket and closes his door. "Besides, you're just 'dumb muscle' now anyways."

"Bitch what?"

________________

Adam leans against the outside wall of the building, panting. The wonderful humidity, a perk of the south, caused him to sweat a bit during the run. He wipes a hand across his forehead, as Angie finally catches up.

"I wasn't too far behind you." Angie yawns. "Maybe I'll actually try next time."

"Whatever, let's just get the medicine and go home. I'm starving."

"Dude we just had dinner."

"It was Eddie's."

"Fair point," Angie nods.

The store was even more crowded up close, with people even parking on the curbs and grass around the parking lot. As they enter the store, it becomes clear why there was such a long line. The cash registers were being overworked. Poor employees didn't know what to do. Shelves were being stripped. Adam and Angie made their way back to the medicine isles and started grabbing whatever they could find that wasn't picked over. A man takes the last box of some ibuprofen next to Angie and almost immediately, another man decks him and runs off with the box.

"Damn, Black Friday came early this year," Adam raises his voice so Angie can hear. She glares at him while she kneels down to check on the man, but he's out cold.

"Let's just head to the front and--," Angie receives a text on her phone and glances at it. She does a double-take and raises it closer so she can see it more clearly.

"Angie, what is it?" Adam notices her fixation on the message.

She doesn't respond.

"Damnit Angie, what--."

"Just shut up, Adam!" Angie raises her voice, not looking up from the phone. "I heard you the first time."

She finally meets his gaze. Adam notices a distinct change in her expression. A shift from her normal, charismatic demeanor to something else. Fear.

Now that's something Adam hadn't seen his sister express in a long, long time.

"Listen to me," Angie leans in close, thinking for a moment. "Grab a few containers of water and meet me at the front. I need to go get some supplies."

"What supplies?" Adam asks, confusion in his voice. "Angie, what the hell is happening?"

"You remember my best friend Sarah right?" Angie asks him.

"Yeah, yeah. Didn't she get a job at the CDC or something?"

"Yep." Angie responds. "She just told me to get somewhere safe. She said that the government might be declaring a state of emergency soon."

"Shit." Adam puts his hands on his head. "About a few people getting sick in the outskirts of New Orleans? Why's this happening so fast?"

"Apparently it's widespread." Angie grabs another couple boxes of medicine and stuffs them in the pockets of her jacket and looks back at Adam. "I don't have any more answers yet. Let's just hurry up so we can get back to the car in case people start going anarchy mode."

They split off and meet back a few minutes later, Adam with the water jugs. Angie, on the other hand, procures a shopping basket containing a variety of flashlights, radios, batteries, and energy bars. The other customers in the store have become more restless. Some argue while others start to physically brawl each other over items. Angie gets another text. She rubs her hand over her eyes and grunts in frustration.

"What is it this time?" Adam asks while hoisting the jugs into a small cart shopping cart.

"We only have a minute." Angie grabs his jacket sleeve and starts pulling him. Away from the registers and towards the exit. "They're about to send out the alert. Everyone is gonna know."

"What if someone tries to stop us?" Adam panics, looking around. More people keep flooding into the store. Some clearly sick while others were fine.

"Doesn't matter. We're leaving, now." She insists.

They make it out of the store, no questions asked. Which wasn't a surprise when given how overwhelmed the staff was. They technically closed ten minutes earlier, but who was going to politely tell the equivalent of an angry mob to go home? The alarm of a firetruck can be heard speeding through the strip mall where they were headed. The flashing piercing through the dying light. Suddenly, a large number of people in the area begin coughing uncontrollably, some falling to their knees or on the ground.

"Almost there!" Angie shouts from in front of her brother. She unlocks the car door and the trunk starts to open. Only 50 meters away.

The firetruck veers swiftly as if its driver had simply disappeared. Smashing through a number of cars in line. They watch in horror as theirs is one of the unlucky few, getting picked up like a toy and thrown to the side, tumbling and spinning as glass shatters.

Adam gets the text. Angie gets the text. Everyone gets the text.

And all hell breaks loose.