Her mind raced. With every passing second, it was becoming clearer and clearer that something terrible had happened and there was only one explanation that fit. She looked around at the crowded streets, filled with confused, frustrated people She had never felt so alone.
And it was only going to get worse.
8. Terry
Terry frowned. He’d wondered many times if the day could get any weirder, and each time he’d been surprised to find that it could. First, it had been the gridlock on High Street where several cars had rear-ended others but nobody had stuck around to fight about it. Then the shuttered shops and pubs, and all the people milling about on the street as if they didn’t know what to do with themselves.
And even that had paled into insignificance once he arrived at the shop and eventually managed to get in via the customer door when his swipe card wouldn’t work.
He’d never seen the shop so busy. Not on Christmas Eve; not even when they had a big sale on. The place was thronged and it had been since he got in. It didn’t help that half the shift hadn’t turned up and the backup generator that the manager liked to brag about wasn’t working.
GrocerySavers was the sort of place that appealed to bargain hunters shopping in bulk. They sold a hell of a lot of frozen food, all of which was now sweating in powered-off freezers. It was getting closer and closer to the point that it would be a health and safety risk to even sell it anymore, even with a warning to cook it on the same day.
Terry had tidied the freezers earlier as he placed torches along the aisle and even then the breaded fish had felt a bit soggy in the bags, so he dreaded to think what it would be like now.
Not that it was putting people off. Terry shook his head. People were hurrying around the shop as if their lives depended on them getting the last packet of frozen peas, and the fact that they were rapidly defrosting wasn’t putting them off. He’d even had to break up a couple of fights as people scrapped over produce. By now, almost all of the milk and bread had sold out and the stock in the back was all gone.
He shook his head. He’d never seen anything like it. He spotted the manager, Charlie, hurrying around the place. Terry usually avoided any interaction with the guy—he was a recent graduate thrown in at the deep end with a bloated salary and no idea what he was doing. It was bullshit, if you asked Terry—no-one had, so he’d been focussing on keeping his nose clean and avoiding trouble. It was rumoured that the new management was gearing up to fire a certain percentage of the lowest performers. The job didn’t pay well, but it was a job. And he needed it. What else was he going to do?
But he also needed to sleep easy at night. “Hey, Charlie. Can I speak to you?”
“Make it quick. I’m busy.”
Terry grimaced. The boy spent most of his time in the office working on multi-coloured spreadsheets. It was about time he did an actual day’s work.
“Well it’s the frozen food, isn’t it? If the power’s been off since last night and the generators never came on, it’s been allowed to defrost for far too long.”
Charlie stared at him blankly.
“People are buying it.”
“Good! That’s what we want.”
Terry frowned. “But it’s not, is it? I tidied the freezers earlier and you could feel the bags starting to get soggy. People might get sick if they eat stuff that’s defrosted. We’ve been telling them to cook it straight away, but how do we know… Shouldn’t we just bin it?”
“People are buying it. That’s a good thing. They’re adults. They can make up their own minds about what’s safe, can’t they?”
It was true, not that they were acting like adults anymore. They were more like savages; acting like they’d never get another bite to eat for the rest of their days.
“They can, but if the health inspector was to—”
Charlie barked with laughter before Terry could finish. “The health inspector? Do you really think anyone’s going to be out on a day like this? They’re council workers. Jobsworths.” He paused and looked Terry up and down. “It’s none of your business anyway. I’m the one who’d get in trouble if an inspector came, not you.”
Terry bristled. “You’re missing the point.”
“Am I? You’re wasting my time. Why don’t you get out and relieve Gareth from the door.”
He walked away leaving Terry staring after him. It was freezing out there—and raining. He was starting to wish he hadn’t said anything, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.
On his way to the staff area to get his coat, he passed a pair of old ladies fighting over the last packet of smoked salmon.
It was even worse outside. He knew as soon as he stepped out the door and Gaz the security guard’s face lit up.
“Hey mate,” Gaz said, shuffling from foot to foot. “Please tell me you’ve come out to relieve me. I had to tell a customer to find Charlie and ask him. I’ve been out here for hours. I usually get to sit inside the door. It’s freezing out here.”
Terry barely heard him. He was too busy taking in the huge queue of people waiting to get into the shop. Gaz followed his gaze.
“The cold’s not even the worst thing about today.”
“It’s not?”
Gaz laughed. “Not by a long shot, mate. You’ll see.”
Terry frowned and watched as Gaz turned to the crowd, which was growing by the second. It snaked all the way to the side of the building and presumably right around the corner. He’d never seen anything like it.
“Right, ladies and gentlemen,” Gaz shouted. “Listen up. The tills are down. It’s cash only. Doesn’t matter who you are, if you don’t have cash you’re not getting served. Okay?”
There was a low murmur from the crowd. The people in front just nodded, like they’d heard it before.
“Okay, so we’re going to let the next lot in. My friend Terry here will check you’ve got cash so make sure to have it at the ready or else you’ll be holding everyone up. Alright?”
“What?” Terry hissed. “You’re making people show you?”
Gaz shrugged. “You’ve just come from inside, mate. Have you had your eyes closed? Charlie told me to do it this way. He said the old dears at the tills have enough trouble without having to turn people away.”
“They’ve been trying it on?” Terry had been going back and forth from the stockroom to the shelves with his trolley and hadn’t had time to speak to any of his colleagues. They’d all been run off their feet trying to pick up the slack from the ones that hadn’t shown up. No-one had even had a break—they’d barely even had time to dash to the toilet, which wasn’t working either.
“Oh yeah. I’ve had to send away at least four or five who threatened to burn the place down. I hope no-one realises we have no way to call the police because they’ll really try it on then.”
Terry shivered as he nodded the first few women through after checking the cash in their outstretched hands. “I can’t believe this. It’s like people have gone crazy. I hope it’s back to normal soon.”
“Yeah, well. Remember the riots? There was power then. And water. And coppers.” Gaz sighed. “I think we’re getting off lightly. See you later, mate. I’ll be back out in a while.”
Terry nodded. “Take as long as you need.”
Gaz laughed. “I guarantee you won’t be saying that for very long.”
Terry shrugged off the comment and set about working through the crowd as quickly as he could.
An older man stepped forward. He looked blankly at Terry. “Excuse me, son.”
Terry usually went out of his way to be polite to the old blokes, but now he just felt awkward. He hated stopping the man and ordering him to show his cash like he couldn’t be trusted.