Day Two: 11:23pm July 7th 2005 - Today was a win...if "wins" even exist anymore. Jane, one of the others that Joe let in a few days ago has a fever higher than anything i've seen before. The July heat sure ain't helping. I brought it up to Joe that we desperately need more supplies, food and meds to be specific. With no other choices he agreed, even though the voices on the radio said to stay inside no matter what. The best team we could come up with was Joe, Chris who is Jane's husband I think, and myself. In all honesty, when we started to get ready to leave my heart was pounding like crazy. The thought of leaving this makeshift safe haven with the potential of what could be out there....Fuck. I can handle this though. Hopefully the other guys can hold their own too.
When Chris opened the door we were hit with a blazing white sunlight that we haven't felt in weeks. When my eyes finally came-to, the destruction of the storm finally set in. The three of us stood in the doorway for what felt like 10 minutes. Joe takes the first step, me and Chris follow his lead. He is the only one with a gun anyways. Joe's Athletic Store is on the same strip as a pharmacy, that'll be our first stop. I never thought I would be a looter, but here I am breaking into a pharmacy. The whole place is barely touched...I haven't thought about it till now but that seems a little strange. How are we, weeks after the storm, the first ones here? In the moment I didn't think about that. The only thing I can think about is filling a shopping cart with as much food as possible. Chris heads straight to the pharmacy section. Turns out Jane and him are nurses. Maybe he has mentioned it before, maybe I just wasn't listening. Joe whispers from the front of the store where he's keeping watch, "Don't forget the baby stuff.". We trucked out of there as fast as possible. I think we were all on edge as to who could be watching us. We ended up with two carts full of food and Chris damn near took the whole pharmacy. Luckily he knew what any of that stuff was. I sure as hell don't.
Today was a win. But I think days like this are going to be far and few between going forward.
Comments