Come Day 25: That’ll Be When Food Becomes Scarce

I told Jenny we'd be fine as there's enough canned food in the house. For some strange reason, the infected have gone to the valley—well, most of them. There are a few stragglers, but they can be easily avoided… they walk around aimlessly, mindless of anything but finding someone else to…

Anyway, as long as we remain perched atop this hill, inside Jenny's parents' house, we should be fine… well, as "fine" as this fucked up situation allows anyone to be.

I've been thinking a lot about how the "severity of the outbreak" line the media and EBS are throwing around's just a reflection of how much the newspapers, TV and radio networks, along and possibly in league with government, downplayed or outright hid the fact this infection was getting out of hand. We, the common people, just started hearing about it when they could no longer control it and everything was well in route to go straight to hell.

So "first day", my ass! This must've been going for quiet a while now, and they never gave us chance to prepare for any of this.

Thank God for my in-laws habit of going to great lengths at buying extra food with every trip they make to the supermarket. This, they always do with the intention of making donations in case there's some poor family hit a rough patch or something, or one of those natural disasters… well, it sure looks like we're in the middle of one, right now.

But as long as we don't have to get out of the house, we seem to be pretty safe.

Until such a time when we find ourselves forced to make a run to find more food.

The first logical stop would be at the Alvarez's. Great time to plan a summer vacation, guys! I wonder if things are also this bad over at the beach. Last thing the news mentioned was that all major urban centers were "in turmoil". Now, how's that for an understatement? Everything was going bat shit crazy, everywhere! I just hope they were right and the smaller cities and towns remain safe… that gives me something to look forward to.

For I'm not going to let my family stay here indefinitely and then slowly starve to death; and I'm not going to try and make a food run to the supermarket at the foot of the hill, either. Once we've taken any and all food from the neighboring empty houses, it's time for us to fill some extra fuel cans, stow the SUVs with food and a few spare clothes, and head out to the country house.

Damn it, Jenny! I told you we should have headed straight there, but no! You wanted to visit your folks first. "They'll love spending time with the children!"

They might have… if not for this goddamned contagion.

Anyway, I've taken stock of all the cans and even separated them into categories. According to me, we've enough to go with three full meals for one week and a half, then we'll have switch to reduced rations (that's either two full or three lean meals) for another two weeks… after that, there's no other way around it: it'll be breaking and entering time.

Phil once told me he had copies of various neighbors' houses keys, in case of an emergency or to check up on the properties while they went out for the holidays. What he intended to do as a favor to them, has likely become a blessing for us.

I think that I will pay the Alvarez's pantry a visit tomorrow and see if I can extend the full meals to a whole two weeks-worth, at the very least.

It's right next door, so it should be easy enough.