The second load he picked up canned sauces, a ton of pasta, three cans of coffee, cocoa and all the canned meats he could get. He topped it off by grabbing all the roasts out of the meat case. He was second in line at the register and as he stood there the line grew and grew until there were at least a dozen people with full carts behind him. ‘Damn, I shoulda got that’, he thought as he noticed the man ahead of him buying bottled water, ‘I will fill up everything I can when I get home, in case the water shuts off.’

His second cart full totaled well over three hundred dollars. The parking lot was a nightmare by now, with dozens of people parked and trying to get into the little store. Still everyone was accommodating and polite, ‘This won’t last much longer.' Bill mused as he put the truck in gear and headed home.

He hit his garage door opener and was greeted by his wife and four of his five kids, who he set to bringing in all the groceries.

“How much?” his wife asked as she surveyed all the food.

“A little over five hundred.” Bill answered.

Trisha sighed visibly, “I hope this ain’t a drill, because we are going to bounce our car payment this month.”

Bill pulled her close and kissed her, “No honey, something is wrong, something strange is going on. Can you get this? I want to bring your car in and top it off, plus fill anything else I can with gas as well.”

As he pulled more groceries out of the truck Bill’s oldest son John said, “We got that barrel out back, want me to get it?”

“Oh yeah, sure, good idea.”

The ‘barrel’ was a fifty five gallon heavy duty plastic barrel from a place Bill used to work over a decade before; it used to hold soap for cleaning the machinery at his job. Bill always thought it would make an excellent place to store a keg, cut off the top and throw in the keg and some ice and you had a tail gator’s dream.