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Kendall
There are several reasons why I shouldn’t stop and go inside the store that has it all. But the most important reason I am is who is inside and the fact that my best friend would have my ass if I didn’t stop by, even with the world going through so much as it is now.
I park my car, grab my backpack and head to the front doors.
“Ma’am, can I see your membership card?” the pimply teen asks when I attempt to barrel past him. I stop in my tracks and rummage through my backpack for my oversized wallet.
I flash him the card and he waves me through.
I pass by people with carts full of cough syrup, toilet paper and… water?
Really? Why are people buying water? All of the plastic that is going to be thrown away after use, with so many issues breaking down, our world is already fucked up with climate control.
Oh yeah, and the current pandemic that has taken over the world.
Yes, there is a pandemic and here I am doing what the government is telling us not to do.
Travel and be out in the public.
Either way, I am on my way home from visiting my dad and I didn’t want to stay in Texas any longer than I had to.
A month ago, when the virus took its first victims, people called it a hoax. They called it fake and not something outside the common cold.
That was the first month.
That’s when I made the decision to go visit my dad, just in case something happened. He’s the only person that I have left in the world that is related to me by blood, and I needed to see him. My mother died when I was young, I have no siblings and both my grandparents have passed, so my dad is the only person that I have left that I’m related to, that I need to keep in contact with.
Currently, states are closing its borders, government officials are doing interviews from a bomb shelter with full shelves behind them with supplies that the common person cannot seem to get no matter how fast stores stock their shelves.
There is a limit now for how much and what you can purchase to assure that people who actually need items can obtain them.
But here I am today, trying to keep up with tradition and make a stop that I take each time.
Janelle, my best friend, moved from Phoenix to New Mexico the year after we graduated high school. She worked at the super store in Phoenix back in the day and was able to transfer, so she could move. Since I travel back and forth between Phoenix and Texas every other month to visit, my father—she knows my schedule well enough to know that if I don’t pass through, she will indeed leave me a voicemail with enough anger that I will be able to feel it through the receiver. Every time I’ve driven through this part of the country, I stop here, because it’s just a promise that I’ve made. .
I take my time walking through the front of the store, straight to the staff break room and when I don’t see her, I take a deep breath with my hand grasping my strap of my backpack.
Where is she? I was hoping that I would find her right away, and that I wouldn’t have to wait around here any longer than needed. A simple, hello and maybe a hot dog, then get back on the road, type of thing. She would understand, after all, it’s tough times.
“Attention shoppers, attention shoppers! May I have your attention please?” A large sound of doors sliding closed and then a few additional lights turn on overhead. The excited voices throughout the space hush and everyone that I can see around me looks up as if there’s someone, other than speakers looking down and speaking to us.
“We apologize for this in advance, however the military has shut down this facility effective immediately. Just within the last hour, there has been several community-based occurrences of infection. For your safety, we will be confined in this space until further notice.” The voice says.
Several gasps echo through the quiet and I’m stunned, I really wasn’t expecting this.
“For your protection and safety, we will have members of the local military to serve you. The quarantine has now begun. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause to you and your families. You will have full access to these facilities, and you will have several individuals that you will be able to ask questions of and receive up to date information of the status during our time here. We ask that you please remain calm and know that this is just a precaution.”
Suddenly, my attention diverts to several individuals who are both wearing suits and military fatigues that I didn’t notice before. I see my best friend, looking solemn as she looks out into the crowd standing in between uniforms. She passes over the crowd and passes over me, but she must have registered my face while in passing and with a shocked expression she comes back to me.
I give her a small wave with an awkward smile and she gives me a forced smile with a shake of the head that basically says ‘damn you’.
I’m eager to talk to her, but I know that she needs to remain professional and stand up there with the rest of management and the other scary looking people with guns.
I scan the perimeter of the store that I can see immediately and that’s when my eyes land on him.
He has a beard, it’s short and manicured. His expression gives nothing away, none of his internal thoughts and he just looks… deadly and sexy as sin.
