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  I had very little hope of finding any food. The world had been ripped apart at the seams, how could there be anything out here for us? But, we had to try, we had to come home with something for our family.

  The first store on our list was one of the bigger grocery stores in town and it was positioned just outside of downtown. We rolled up into the parking lot and it was horrible… it was even worse than I imagined. The giant sliding glass front doors had been ripped off their hinges. It looked as if a tidalwave had come out from the inside the store, smashing the doors out into the parking lot. Inside, the fluorescent lights flickered on and off revealing the utter devastation. It was like a stampede had come through smashing everything. Shelves toppled, counters and glass smashed, then the lions must have come in afterward. The rest of the store was shredded, remnense of carnarge and refuse of the dead littered the space. We rolled our windows down for a better look and we were hit by the smell. The putrid smell of rotting fruit, decaying flesh, and spoiled milk hung thick and lingered in the air.

  This is what people can do? This is what people are like? We are not so far removed from our animal brothers afterall. Take away the thin veil of societal norms and you get this, an absolute disaster, carnal chaos. Time to go… nothing for us here.

  There is this movie called "Men in black", have you seen it?

  Liza: Dad... What?

  Hank: Will Smith, when he was super cool, played this normal New York cop until one day he is recuited by a secret agency that deals with alien activity on planet earth.

  Liza: Not ringing any bells.

  Hank: Ok, well, in the movie Will Smith askes why they dont just tell everyone that aliens exist, and not be all secretive about it. People are smart.

  The head of the secret agency says "A person is smart but people are dumb." Which feels true to me. I have seen a person sit and ponder a problem for days but people panic easy, scare into a fenzy just like a herd of cattle. Humans are amazing creatures. We can also be so dumb, even sometimes acting against our self interest.

  If I have had to pick a superpower that humanity does have, it’s our adaptability.

  Pops and I would talk about this when we were walking to the border, years later. Its like when you move into a brand new house, at first you adapt to that beautiful new space and life is good. This is what life is like now and you think this is how life is going to be from now on. Then that house has something go wrong, like a leaky pipe and all of a sudden your house becomes a construction site. Sure it's annoying and inconvenient at times and you wish life wasn’t like this but you know that it's only temporary and that life goes on. You adapt and there are some days you might not even notice the hole in your wall or the plywood countertop because it is just part of your daily life.

  Life doesn’t stop because of, well, anything, life simply goes on and so do we. We never stopped to ask ourselves 'why' in the moment, everything was just facts. Facts, the AI is turning our country into a warzone. Facts, my family is living with an active warzone. Facts, my family needs food. What's the one I can deal with right now? Food. Got it. That was the soul consumption of my brain’s output as we reached our next destination. Pops and I in the car… silent, both wondering what we were about to see next.

  Clearly, all the big stores were off the table. There was no point in even trying another one. I was thinking a small local grocery was the next possible option. Maybe the neighborhood would stay civil, a mom and pop shop can’t just be over run like that… or could it. I couldn’t stop the nightmare-ish images that I kept conjuring in my head. Tucked into a residential block was this sweet little local grocery store. It had all these awesome local organic produce, a fantastic top shelf craft beer selection and the coolest people were always working the register. They were clearly high all the time but life was awesome and they always made me feel just as cool. We kept the car moving as we drove past the shop.

  Now... imagine the barrel of a flamethrower?

  Liza: What? I don’t think that flamethrowers have barr…

  Hank: I know, I know… just imagine… that's what this place looked like as we drove past. My cute oasis of overpriced organic artisanal craft beer, reduced to violent ashes. I know it sounds ridiculous but after seeing that place, after being in the outside world for just an hour now, I knew that we were over the tipping point. There was no returning to normal life. Our city is now irrevocably changed.

  So we opted for option number 3, Pop’s sandwich guy. With a full prayer in my heart, please let there be something, we arrived at the E-Z Mart off the county road just southwest of the city. It was a shack of a place, free standing on the side of the county highway. The door seemed rusted shut and the shop seemed closed but not ransacked or torched.

  Pops convinced me to get out of the car and knock. Every move I made outside of my house now was done with a look over my shoulder first. Both Pops and I, without saying anything, scanned the area, then opened our doors slowly and stepped out. It felt like walking on a hostile alien planet every crunch of our steps every rustle of brush from the gentle breeze peaked our senses. The woodpecker choose that moment to start up and I hit the gravel of the parking lot like we were under attack from a machine gun. I got back up dusting off my jeans and cursing that stupid bird.

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  With every step I could feel my heart moving further up into my throat. By the time we reached the door I could feel every beat of my heart right behind my ears. I could taste my heart in my mouth. "This is NOT how it ends, I am making it home safe with food for my family." That was the montra in my head, playing on repeat as Pops knocked on the door soft at first, then louder until a little slat opened on the door. Pops and I barely cleared out of the way as a double barrel shotgun came out of the slat and fired just beside my head

  BANG!

  My ears were ringing, Pops was yelling something, by the time the gun was back in the door, the shopkeeper had started yelling back. My ears were still ringing as the voices slowly started to make sense again...

  George (Shopkeeper): … the hell is that? What the shit do you want?

  The shopkeeper saw my dad and he immediately switched his tone.

  George: Oh Hey! Rich how in the Sam Hill are ya? It's been a minute since I laid eyes on ya! Sorry about all that, with all this craziness going on… You can never be too careful. My motto is the same as the ol’ west, shoot first… then shoot again to make sure they ain't comin’ back. You know what Im sayin.

  Hank: Pops and I just got caught standing there for a moment. Still shell shocked with a little tinnitus ring in my ear. Im fighting my urge to give Pops a peice of my mind. I wanted to scream... what the fuck are we doing here? Let's get out now while we still can, this guy is clearly nuts… but for fear of offending the man with the gun, I do nothing but stand there and face forward.

  George: Well don't just stand there… with all these hooligans floatin’ around. Come on in and see if there’s anything you need.

  We heard a series of locks click open and the heavy door swing to reveal, what looked to us like a dusty paradise. Stocked shelves of all the essentials, a lot of it was covered in dust but it didn’t matter to us. The shopkeeper just stepped right behind the counter, could not have looked more natural as he just started chatting.

  George: I'm George by the way, I dont think Ive seen you in here before. But your Rich’s son so I trust ya, trust you as much as my ex-wife.

  George laughed a hard violent laugh. He was friendly, and spiteful in his tone all at the same time. He said he trusted us but every time I looked back at him his eyes were locked on us. It wasn’t until a few minutes in that he got distracted by his own stories that he loosened up and Pops and I were able to chat behind a shelf.

  George: Yep this place was built in the 60’s but I bought it in the ‘83. Oh ‘83 those were the…

  Pops and I made our way to the back corner of the store. I asked Pops...

  Hank: What is this guys deal? Are we safe?

  Pops: Yes we're perfectly safe, I think. He’s harmless for the most part.

  Hank: Harmless?!

  Pops: I know, a bit of a bad first impression.

  Hank: Pops… I still can’t hear out of my left one and I'm hoping he’s got shorts for sale because I'm gonna need of a new pair.

  Pops: I get it. Let's just get the essentials and get out.

  I nodded. Get your head in the game Hank. The place was picked over but it had the basics which meant everything to us. We got 2 big bags of rice, a bunch of dried and canned beans, as much jerky as we could find and a few batteries. Finally as we were walking up to counter the one thing that wasn’t picked over was the carousel of seeds, in a last move I grabbed a couple pouches of everything, carrots, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, and a whole bunch of other things. All said and done, it was a decent pile of supplies we had found and we placed it all on the counter.

  George just kept chatting away the whole time we were there, by the time we got the last rice bag up onto the counter he had just finished his story of his niece's wedding that had to be cancelled.

  George: Good for them though right… Marriage sucks. We all just wish for that bachelor life, right!?

  Pops and I just share a small look of stunned silence. George didn’t even seem to notice.

  George: Yep. So glad when I dropped my old ball and chain she was a big bitch. And I mean big, Id make her dinner and would have to back up the semi....

  Pops: Okay! That’s all for us today George.

  George looked over all the stuff. Without even touching the register, without skipping a beat he said…

  George: That’ll be 500 bucks.

  We just stood there for a moment. After everything that happened this morning, the crazy lady, the warzone tour, the shotgun blast next to my head, this was the thing that hit me the hardest. I was stunned silent in the moment. Pops broke it.

  Pops: George, whats going on here? You’re joking right? I was doing the math in my head, I only got up to $100.

  George: Well, you want this stuff? I'm aware that I'm one of the last places in town that has anything left to sell. I keep this stuff safe at great personal risk, shouldn’t I get mines? 500 dollars.

  Pops: We don't have $500. We don't have $300. This is all that we have.

  Pops pulled out an envelope from his back pocket that I didn’t know about.

  Pops: Deal?

  (George opened the envolope and looked inside. Shook his head and placed it back on the counter.)

  George: No Deal.

  Pops: Fine. George you’re a… We’re out of here. Bye George.

  It felt like I was 5 again just following my Dad around. We got maybe 3 steps before George called us back.

  George: Wait, come back. I’ll take what's in the envolope, plus a little extra. What else you got?

  The three of us just stood there. I have never seen my father more resolute than in this moment right now. He is the man! In this moment Pops stood strong. He is going to provide. Nothing will stand in the way of him feeding his family. Meanwhile I’m racking my brain but I cannot think of anything of value that I have to give. I didn’t even think of the gold band on my finger.

  Pops: Here take this.

  Pops took off his wedding ring and put it on the counter on top of all the money that was in the envolope.

  Pops: May you find peace in the days to come Georgey boy. Goodbye.

  George: (shocked) Thanks Rich.

  Somehow it felt more like George was thanking my father for his wish of peace than the money. My father had that effect on people.

  Pops: You’re welcome. Thank you.

  With that we grabbed our things, hastily threw them in the car, and spraying rocks, Pops floored it out of the gravel parking lot. As we drove away I became confused and angry. He was so strong the entire time! And the last thing he did was...

  Hank: Thank him! You thanked him. You thanked the man for robbing us!

  Pops: I know. Not what I thought my initial response would be either… but in that store, in that moment I had a realization. If everything keeps heading down this path… after everything we’ve seen today. Very soon money and material things are going to have such little value. They simply aren’t going to be worth anything. However, for a little while, the stuff we have in the back seat is going to be worth its weight in gold. If we’re going to survive this we are going to have to rethink what really matters in our lives. Those are the things we should hold onto and keep precious to us. Money, rings, all that stuff, soon may have no value at all. Family, food, shelter and water will be what we value the most.