There was nothing in the meat department. It wasn’t a surprise. There hadn’t been any fresh meat in over three years.
There was nothing in the dairy department either. No cheese. No milk. No fruit juice. Nothing. Again, it wasn’t a surprise. Those shelves had been empty for at least a year. Honestly, I’d lost count of how long it had been.
Paper products of any kind? None. No paper towels. No toilet paper. Nothing. Just empty shelves.
Beer? Soda? Wine? Gone.
All they had were cans. Peas, corn, apple sauce, spam, and a few other odds and ends. That was it. And it was all limited to one item per customer. They took your name and credit card information down when you paid. You couldn’t come back until the next day. They sent that information to other stores so you couldn’t shop there either.
“This is the way the world ends, isn’t it? We all starve to death. Slowly.”
I thought about the prediction of the collapse of civilization a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had made in 1972 that our civilization would collapse in 2040. It said we were using the food, land, water, and other resources of the planet, faster than the planet could replenish them, and we would run out of resources.
I knew, waiting in the checkout line to pay for my little collection of cans, that we’d done exactly that.
240 Words
@mysoulstears
It’s Week 522 of #ThursThreads, hosted by Siobhan Muir. Please go read all the stories in this week’s #ThursThreads. They are always fun to read. And there are some great writers who show up every week.
My Soul's Tears 