What Comes After

We reached the far end of the supermarket, where the water was stored. There weren't many people there but that's because they were fighting over avocados and expensive chocolates, but the few that were there were dumping cartons upon cartons into shopping carts. The massive water section that was normally chock full of gallons of spring and tap water was quickly disappearing.

Unfortunately for us, the cartons they stored water in were too big and too heavy to fit into the bags, so May ripped through the plastic wrapping and started piling individual bottles in the bags. I looked around. There were people eyeing us and already, I could see more and more people heading towards the section. I was worried that they might attack us. Who knows what crises do to other people?

When we both had two bags bulging with water bottles, we both turned and began running to the entrance of the supermarket. A young woman with a child tapped my shoulder, grasping a couple of cans of vegetables. "Please, can you spare me a bag? I've got two young children at home."

I hesitated and nearly gave her my bag. She looked like she needed it more than I did. "What are you doing?" May asked. "Let's go."

I mouthed "I'm sorry" to her and disappeared into the crowd, making my way out of the supermarket. I think we were supposed to pay the cashiers, but there wasn't anyone manning the stations, and some of them probably started buying supplies too. Even if there was someone at the counter, they'd get long trampled by the mob rushing in and out of the stores. So we decided to save our money and leave the store without paying.

"Why did you stop?" May asked.

"She needed it more than I did," I said. "She said she had two kids at home that she had to take care of."

"She's lying," May replied. "Lots of people will lie to make you believe their stories. They're just like the homeless people that say they want your money for food but really they want it for drugs."

"But doesn't it feel wrong?" I asked.

"It's war in there," May said. "And she's the enemy."

"The enemy?" I said. "Really? This isn't a video game or something. This is real life."

"Look," May said. "I don't think the world is going to end, but Mom and Dad do, so if we go up to the car and tell them we gave away all our water, imagine what their reaction would be like."

"I don't know..."

"Look," she said. "If it makes you feel any better, if she was able to convince you that you should give away your bottles, then there will be other people who would also feel the same way, and they'll give away their water. Not us."

Even after May's justification, I still felt guilty, but with all the chaos that was around us, I didn't have much time to dwell upon it.

Dad was next to the car, dumping cans of food in it. I spotted lots of cans of string beans and mixed vegetables and tomatoes. I didn't see Mira anywhere, but the trunk was pretty full, so she must've come in earlier. We dumped our water bottles in the trunk and watched them roll backwards and out of the trunk. "Shoot," I said.

May and I had to chase down the cans and bottles rolling around the parking lot. The wind picked up, and the bottles and cans scattered everywhere. We tried collecting as many as we could, but we lost a couple of them.

When we came back, Dad had built a barrier using the boxes that some of the cans came in to stop them from rolling out. "Dad, I don't think we're going to be able to get any of the water bottles efficiently because they're too heavy, and there aren't many people there, so May and I are going to go to the medicine section," I said.

"Okay," Dad said, and we scrambled back into the store.

There were ugly fights happening over meat and milk along with alcohol. The floor was slippery from the sticky residue of beer leaking from broken bottles and meat bits from torn meat packages.

"Gross," May said. "I'm going to need new shoes."

The pharmaceutical section was a bit more peaceful. Most of the medicine has been left untouched, so May and I began stuffing bottles upon bottles of everything: aspirin, cough syrups, anti-reflux medicine, Tylenol— anything we could get our hands on. As we rushed through the exit, I turned back and saw Dad fighting for some juice bottles. Someone had tried to reach inside his cart and grab them. The war inside had gotten worse as more people crowded around the entrance.

Mom and Mira were there in the car, stuffing in cans of sardines and brussel sprouts. "I don't eat those," I said as I dumped bottles of medicine in the trunk.

"This is all just in case," Mom said.

"There's not much food left in the supermarket," Mira said. "Most people are fighting over the good canned foods like tomatoes or pickles. Mom and I didn't want to get in the middle of those fights, so we took the less popular choices."

"But sardines," I said. "Seriously? No one in our family would eat those."

"We were just grabbing as much stuff as we can," she said.

"Are we just going to stand here and talk?" May asked, tapping her foot. "The medicine section doesn't have a ton of people, but it won't last for long."

"That's a good idea," Mira said. "Mom, you should stay behind to guard the car. People might start breaking into other people's cars to steal supplies."

"Not really sure how a five-foot two middle-aged woman is going to scare anyone," May said and shrugged. "But whatever?"

Mom ignored May. "Remember to make sure to get vitamins," Mom said. "All this canned food doesn't have the best nutrients."

"Yes, Mom," Mira said. "We talked about this in the car."

"Okay," she said. "I just wanted to be sure."

We turned to leave.

"Toilet paper too," Mom blurted out. "And band-aids and pads and probably a million other things. Just clear the shelves."

May flashed Mom a thumbs up, and we dived back into the chaos. The front of the supermarket was clearing up as the food quickly got taken, leaving behind trashed shelves and a food splattered floor. I stepped in a puddle of red. I hoped it was ketchup or pomegranate juice, not blood.

Mira, May, and I ran into the pharmacy section and grabbed vitamins and other medications and dumped them in our cart. Many of the people were starting to wise up, and the section began to crowd up as people began using their arms and just sweeping rows of random medications into their shopping carts.

When we came back again after dropping off the first round of medications to the car, the shelves were emptier. There were still a couple of bottles left, but Mira said that it wasn't worth it. Better for us to be safe than hurt. I didn't even know if the hospitals were still working. We moved on to the toiletry section.

The toiletry section was virtually empty. People so panicked about food and water and medicine that they weren't really paying attention to the other stuff like toilet paper or shampoo. We were able to grab a couple of big bunches of toilet roll and lots of shampoos and conditioners.

"Get benzoyl peroxide too," May said.

"We're in the middle of a crisis right now and you still care about acne," I said.

"Can't you get sick if you have too much acne, and it gets infected with bacteria?" she asked. "You know what, whatever?"

She turned to the shelf, grabbing a couple of bottles. "What else did Mom say we needed?" I asked May.

"Vitamins, toilet paper—"

"We already got that," I said. "What haven't we got?"

"Let me think," she said. "Oh, yeah. We're going to need band aids too. And pads. I'll grab that since it'll be weird if you did that."

May went into another aisle to grab band aids while I took my canvas bag and went into the band aid section. There was no one in that section, and I made sure to grab all different sizes of band aids. There were also those cloth strip bandages, and I stuffed a couple of them in my canvas bag. I knew that I was probably never going to use them, but it's good to have a backup, just in case.

We made three of these rounds before Mom decided that we were going to leave. "We don't have much space in the van," she said and looked at Dad. "You want to head home first?"

"Good idea. It'll take me a while to get everything unloaded," Dad said. "May, you're coming with me."

"No," she said. "I want to go with Mom and Neal."

Dad sighed. "Fine. I'll take the van home. Where are you guys going with the other car?"

"If everything is as bad as what you saw," Mom said. "We need to be fully prepared. I'm thinking about going to get some plants for our garden, maybe some batteries or matches because our lighter at home doesn't work well."

"That's good. That's real smart," Dad said. "You've got enough cash? I can make a stop at the banks if they're still working."

"I've got about four hundred dollars. May, Mira, and Neal have two hundred bucks each. We should be fine, and we don't want to risk the van getting broken into."

"What time do you guys expect to be back?"

"In a couple of hours," Mom said. "I'll check out the city. See if there's anything else we might need."

Dad and Mom said their goodbyes, and May, Mira, and I piled into the car, and we attempted to navigate our way out of the parking lot. Mom basically used Dad's van as a battering ram since people wouldn't move out of the way of a small car, but when faced with a van, with an especially irritated driver, then they actually listened. Dad spent the whole time yelling out orders to make people move, and Mom just chugged behind him, but glanced from side to side. I think she was worried about someone smashing our windows or something like that.

When we got onto the main road, Mom relaxed a little and loosened her grip on the steering wheel. "Where are we going next?" May asked.

"There's a little plaza a couple of blocks away," Mom said. "There shouldn't be many people there, and I think there's a little nursery over there."

There was silence in the car. We sped down the streets. All of a sudden, I just started thinking about the beach. I don't know why. It just stayed in my mind, and I couldn't help but to think about it. I thought about all the people that got taken by the waves and tides and how scared they must've been. I should've been horrified about pondering about the deaths of people at our school, but everything that has happened has just felt so unreal, like a bad dream, that it feels like it didn't happen at all.

"Was the beach that bad?" I asked Mom. "I know you weren't there, but Dad talked to you about it, right?"

Mom sighed. "We didn't talk much about it," she said. "If you want to know, you should ask your father about it."

Another awkward silence. Mira was staring at the clouds from outside the window, and May stared at the seat of the chair in front of her, thinking about who knows what. I cleared my throat.

"Can you turn on the radio?" I asked.

Mira fiddled with the knob to the music station. It blasted out some pop hits and for a couple of minutes, everything felt normal. Then, Mom turned into a plaza. She was right. It was mostly empty. "Who's going to go where?" I asked.

"There are a couple of clothing shops," Mom said. "May and I will go there. You can head for the nursery. We'll probably finish a little early, so we'll go to the convenience store. They should have some spare batteries and matches. We're going to need them if the power never comes back on."

"What about the car?" I asked. "What if someone breaks in?"

"We'll cover up the windows," Mom said. "I've got the sun-reflector panels. We can put them on the back windows. You guys go ahead."