Option 3

Up until now, we've all stayed huddled near the food supplies on this floor, hoping to protect it from looters. No one has been willing to go off on their own, or even in small groups, to explore the rest of the floor, much less the building. Who knows what....or who....may be waiting in the shadows. We've all been much safer together, right here, where we can guard the food and each other.

Has anyone else been in this building? Oh, definitely. We've heard the noises coming from the floors below....crashing, shooting, screaming. Bad things have gone on just below us. We've been fortunate in that our floor is so high up. It gets hot in the south, even in the winter, and even the toughest gangs have thus far been unwilling to climb a few stories of stairs in the heat. If the power were on and the elevators working, we'd have been invaded and likely slaughtered already. Then again, if we had power, none of this would be happening in the first place. Everything would be normal, like it's supposed to be.

But now, we have no more food. We managed to dole out enough from the last two cans of black beans last night for everyone to have a spoonful. The last few bottles of water went with that meal, if you can call a single bite a meal. We can't stay here anymore, or we'll starve. Actually, in the heat and crushing humidity, most of us would probably die of thirst before starving became a distant option.

We have to leave.

It's not like we didn't know this day would come. The longer the power stayed off, the more likely it became that it would never come back on. The food wouldn't last forever, especially with so many of us. So now, we have to make our way out of town, into the country. It's got to be safer there, with wild plants to eat, free running water to drink, and, hopefully, no gangs. We might be able to make a go of it in the country, homesteading and creating society anew, without power. I mean, people did it a century ago. Why should we be any less capable?

Getting out of town safely is the key, and the hardest part of this whole thing. We have no supplies. Literally nothing to bring with us. No food, no water, no clothing but what we already wear, and no means to defend ourselves except with our own bodies. Some people here can fight really well, and are skilled in hand-to-hand combat. The problem is, most of that won't do any good against the weapons the gangs have hoarded and use with abandon.

We've taken a group meeting, and have decided the best thing to do is to divide our numbers in half. One half, the weaker ones, young, old, ill, disabled, and pregnant women will stay here, guarding each other and our empty food pantry. The other half, me among them, will search the rest of this floor. We've only just been in this small part of it. Who knows what else might be here? More food? Water? Blankets? Medicine? Clothing? Weapons? We can use any of it. Any little thing we find has the potential to help us get safely out of town.

I don't think anyone else is on this floor except us, since we haven't heard anything that sounded like it was here, but you never know. That's why so many of us are going together. Safety in numbers, you know?

The goal is to sweep the floor, looking in every nook and cranny of it, bagging what we find that may be useful, then getting out on the street and heading out of town before it gets dark. You don't want to travel after dark here.

If we're very lucky, we'll find what we need to get us safely out of town before dark, and maybe even some things to help us start a new life in the country.

We're heading out to explore the rest of this floor now. Wish us luck.