How much is enough? #Thriller #ActionAdventure

H10 N1

by M. R. Cornelius

A flu pandemic has ravaged the country. Four friends are driving west, looking for a safe place to hunker down.

As Rick zipped along, Devin scanned the highway.
"This is so weird, not seeing other cars coming or going."
"I told you," Rick said. "The mass exodus is over. People got to wherever they were going a long time ago. There's no one left but us stragglers."
Devin chuckled. "They're all hunkered down now, waiting for their refrigerator to kick back on."
"Or in their bomb shelters," Judith added from the back seat, "organizing for the revolution."
Massaging his bald head, Devin said, "I'm just not sure they'll stay put."
"Why not?" Rick asked. "Either they're in a safe place, or they're dead."
"I think we're heading into Phase Two." Devin turned in his seat toward Rick, and the two women in the back. "First all the stores are looted, the spoils are stock-piled. And I'm not talking television, here. I'm talking necessities. But there are only so many cans of corn out there. Now that the stores and warehouses are emptied, people will start robbing each other, don't you think?"
"Yeah, I suppose." Rick propped his arm against the window, his hand twisting his ponytail.
"Phase Two will be all about the hysteria," Devin continued. "No one knows how long this will last. So how much food is enough? You may have twelve cans of tuna. But wouldn't twenty cans be better?"
"So people will venture out to rob their neighbors," Rick said. "I can just see it in the history books--Starkist Wars."