F
U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The
3rd Novel )
Secret Technology,
Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© February 2019 - Written by David Wicker
Please do
not reprint without permission
 CHAPTER 88 -
"Impervious"
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This chapter is Rated: TEEN
If shopping at the store sounded like a good idea at the time, to everyone else they were in a panic !
Dad, me, and my Mom all piled into the car and started to pull out of their driveway - or tried to.
People were driving on our road at such a high speed and complete recklessness it seemed unlikely that anyone would let us out of our own driveway !
"Wow !" Dad said, his head craned behind him to see the mad dashing cars driving in their haste to get to where they were going.
Finally there was a lull in the traffic.
"Try it now, Suzy." Dad urged Mom.
She carefully pulled out in the empty road when suddenly a car down the way driving at way too reckless a speed came pummeling up to us !
They screeched on their tires and drove their vehicle onto someone's grass in their haste to get around us.
"This doesn't look good." I told Mom. And she nodded her head. There may be nothing left at the grocery store by the time we get there.
Despite the hurry and flurry of other cars, Mom drive sensibly, carefully, and slow. We arrived at the store a good 10-minutes later to see this !
Shopping carts were turned over right outside the entrance, some frozen groceries some wrapped, some burst open, in their plastic seals lay on the pavement, apparently discarded over other favorable items.
Mom didn't bother to park her car in a designated slot as apparently no-one else did. Opening the car door I could hear people yelling and screaming at each other.
"This is just awful." I told myself. Dad patted me on my shoulder.
"It does look pretty bad." he agreed. "But we're not gonna let Suzy do this alone. Let's all get out and help her and see what left there is."
We locked the vehicle and started to walk up. Fortunately apparently everyone was only interested in other people in a hurry. As we were walking so casually they completely forgot us.
We went inside to see massive checkout lines trailing all the way to the back of the store and despite the seeming organized look, people were still yelling and screaming at each other about this that and the other.
"Dev." Mom told me to bring me out of my reverie, "I want you to get me a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, a head of lettuce, and some lunch-meat, whatever kind you like. We'll meet back here in 10-minutes.
I nodded. I maintained my slow walking and everyone seemed to avoid me, almost as if I was operating in a different timezone than them. I went over to the freezie section and picked up a carton of eggs. I carefully checked them. They were all fine and unbroken.
Then I went to the produce. Strangely most of the fresh produce and frozen meat was there. It was the ready-made-meals that had been ransacked. I smiled. Mom was good working with fresh ingredients so maybe no-one would be interested in the groceries that wouldn't fit or work in a microwave ?
I retrieved a head of lettuce. Out of the corner of my eye I saw two portly women actually fist-fighting over a large box, apparently the last freezer cheesecake. As they brawled I saw a small boy sneak in and grab the dessert box, breaking up the fight as the two ladies gave chase to the rapscallion.
Suddenly an irate woman bumped into me. "Are you buying that ?" she asked me with intent ferocity.
I shrugged,not knowing what she was referring to. She pointed to the head of lettuce I had.
I nodded, "Yeah. Yes, I'm buying this. I think there are some more." I pointed to the aisles and sure enough there were several heads of lettuce remaining.
She darted off in that direction swinging a bag of other groceries she cherished around like a weapon in her muscular arm.
I had to wonder what would happen if this was indeed the last head of lettuce and she wanted it. Surely she wouldn't just take it out of my hands or clobber me with her bag ?
My 10-minutes was almost up. I ran to the bread aisle and it was clear all the store-brand bread was gone but Merry Manor was still there. I knew it was more expensive than the regular bread but it was nice to get a loaf of bread at all.
All I needed now was some lunch-meat. When I got there the entire aisle was empty. Well rats. I wasn't expecting that. I started to walk away when I kicked something with my foot. It was a package of bologna lunch-meat. I picked it up to examine, it was still sealed so despite being out of the bin it was still good.
I added it to my groceries then went back to the front of the store where my parents were waiting for me.
They each had 4-grocery items, slightly larger, like me. "How do we checkout ?" I asked them.
* * * Surely we wouldn't have to get in that awful line that trailed out to the back of the store !
Suddenly a door opened ahead of us and a person exited a raised office. The name-tag on his shirt read that he was the direct manager of the store.
He gritted his teeth seeing how the store was literally torn apart by desperate shoppers. He looked to us for a second. Then he held a finger out and motioned us into his office.
Curious as we all were, we complied.
He carefully closed the door behind us and then went to his desk. He sat down and pulled out a grocery bag from under the drawers. "That's all you're buying ?" he asked. "I can take care of that here. No need for you to get involved in that fracas. I saw you on my camera. You folks hold up very well during a crisis - so I'm going to help you out."
He then looked at Mom, "You do understand this is a cash transaction as the internet and credit cards are still down ?"
But Mom was ready. "Of course, how much ?"
The manager had a scanner attached to his computer and rang up everything.
"$65.84" he said.
Mom pulled out a $50, $10, $5, and an extra dollar.
"Keep the change." she said.
The manager laughed, "Yeah, I didn't have any change here for you, actually, so that worked out. I normally don't check out groceries this way. You're a fine bunch and you looked like you could use some help, so here we go. Be safe and careful on your drive home."
With that we carefully opened the door to the manager's office to see another fist fight had broken out between two teenage boys. This time over a big box of beef jerky.
We snuck out of the office as quietly and carefully as we could. No-one seemed to notice. Then we walked back to the car to find someone had dented the passenger side door and apparently took off as there were no vehicles near where we parked.
"It'll buff out." Dad said. "Small price to pay to get the food we needed to carry us through this catastrophe."
With that we piled back in and drove slowly and carefully back home.
But our troubles were only beginning. Back home the front door was slightly open, the lock clearly and visibly pried open with a crowbar, and someone was inside, apparently looting food from the kitchen !
I ran inside despite my Dad trying to hold me back. Inside was some tattooed teenager boy I didn't recognize but surely must've gone to my school. He looked like a member of some bad gang.
He saw me, whirled to face me, and quickly pulled out a wicked looking knife, wavering it in my sight.
Beside him he had filled a box with all our food from the cabinets and refrigerator.
"You're not going to stop me." he said confidently, brandishing the knife in front of me and started for the back door.
But there was no way I was going to let this thief get away with our groceries !
I dashed in and he instinctively stabbed me with the knife, or so I thought. I couldn't really tell, maybe the knife slipped but he managed to cut himself instead, badly - and miss me completely.
He gripped his bleeding wound hard with the other hand and abandoned the box now running in fear out the back door.
I heard Dad step up behind me. He spoke quietly and with great seriousness.
"That was a very brave thing to do, son." he said in appreciation.
But then a moment later cuffed me on my head, "But also very stupid. He had a knife ! He could've cut you, possibly killed you. Did you even think of that !?"
I looked to my arm where I could feel that he had dragged the knife across my skin. Strangely, nothing was there, not a single mark.
"I guess I was lucky." I managed to say.
Dad laughed weakly despite the situation. "Well I would say we were all lucky."
Mom then spoke, "Harold, we're going to have to fix that lock and - it would probably be a good idea to leave someone home all the time in case someone else tries to break in, we can be ready then."
Dad rubbed the back of his neck ruefully. "You're right there, Suzy. I think we've got enough tools here to fix it though." He looked over his shoulder. "We still have all that burglar alarm nonsense in the garage your Uncle brought by. We never did hook it up. I guess now is a good time as ever."
Dad started to walk to the back door where the garage was. "Let me fix the front door lock first, you can go ahead and make dinner, honey. We'll get through this."
I went into the living room to hear the announcer on the TV. Earlier he sounded pretty calm, now there was clear panic in his voice. I raised the volume one pip to hear him better.
He spoke, "Looting has broken out nationwide. Police say they are understaffed to handle the new wave of thieves who now are no longer interested in just pawning stolen jewelry but merely want to have enough food to feed their families by robbing convenience stores and grocery stores for their sundries."
As I was watching, my mind was drifting. Back to the scene where that thief clearly cut a mark across my arm, and yet, nothing was there. In a panic I suddenly remembered the weird dream I had before, where it felt like every nerve ending in me was burned and cauterized - and Darceon was there, smiling, looming over me, overseeing the whole thing.
Darceon - that devil, he did something to me ! He changed me !
I went to the bathroom and locked the door. From there I carefully took Dad's shaving razor and took out the blade from it. I held up the back of my hand and, closing my eyes and gritting my teeth I gently trailed it across my knuckle.
I felt the coolness of the razor, seemingly the sharpness of the blade, but absolutely no pain.
I opened my eyes to look and see that nothing had changed. There was no mark.
This time I kept my eyes open. I pushed the razor in deeper and watched carefully. The blade seemed to stop about a millimeter above my skin and wouldn't go any further no matter how hard I pressed the blade down.
Suddenly there was a knocking on the door. It was Dad.
"Dev ! You okay in there ? Did you get cut by that thief after all ? Need a band-aid ?"
END OF
CHAPTER 88
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