The vehicles had been on the road for over two hours when they encountered a landslide. Everyone got out with hoes and shovels and began to clear the road.

The temperature remained at eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit, showing no signs of dropping or rising.

The landslide was quite extensive, and it took them over an hour to clear it.

Once they were back on the road, Ronan Kendrick took the wheel, and Evelyn Ford settled into the passenger seat for a nap.

By the time she woke up, they had arrived in Sheridan City. It was already 7:30 PM. They saw a sign with four large words: "Welcome to Sheridan City." The sight brought them no joy, for behind it lay nothing but ruins, scorched black by a massive fire.

The vehicles couldn’t enter the city, so they had to find a relatively flat area to park. Evelyn Ford took out a mask and put it on; the air was thick with black ash and had a choking smell.

Still, they had to search for supplies. Even though a massive fire had razed the city, some places must have been spared.

A few people stayed behind to guard the vehicles and supplies while the rest entered the city with their tools. Worried about stepping on nails, Evelyn Ford changed into a pair of Martin boots with thick soles, figuring they’d be a safer bet.

They split into four teams, approaching the city from the outskirts. Evelyn Ford, Ronan Kendrick, Quincy, Wyatt Vaughn, and Officer Graham formed one team. After half an hour, Evelyn discovered some houses on a hill outside the city that the fire hadn’t reached.

"Forget the city, let’s head for the hill on the outskirts."

Ronan Kendrick led the way with the others close behind. A road at the edge of the city had served as a firebreak, successfully stopping the flames from spreading up the hill.

They pressed on, quickly reaching the one-story houses on the hill.

The house had clearly been ransacked countless times. Tables, chairs, and benches were overturned, and the interior was a complete mess.

It was a two-story house. They searched it from top to bottom but found nothing aside from some clothes, shoes, and a few broken bowls on the floor.

"There are plenty of other houses on this hill. Let’s search them one by one."

Though they weren’t sure what they’d find, even a single bowl would be a victory. This was the reality of being a survivor; you couldn’t afford to overlook a single thing.

Luckily, they found a jug of gasoline on the second floor of the house next door, though it was only about half a gallon.

’If we don’t find any more,’ Evelyn thought, ’I’ll have to take out the gasoline from my space.’

"Evelyn, Ronan, get over here, quick!"

Hearing Officer Graham’s voice, they hurried over. He was in the kitchen, where he had found a storage cellar set into the floor. An iron hatch covering the entrance was padlocked, and he’d been trying to break the lock with a tool for ages, to no avail.

Ronan Kendrick walked over, took the lock in his hand, and with a single, forceful tug, snapped the attached iron chain.

The cellar hatch had been covered by floor tiles. Officer Graham explained that he only discovered it because he’d stepped on the tiles and noticed they were uneven.

As they opened the hatch, a putrid stench wafted out. Evelyn Ford lit a torch and aimed its light inside, leaving everyone stunned.

"Oh my God, this is..."

The cellar was packed to the brim with supplies: grain, water, salt, cooking oil, rotting vegetables and meat, and even several drums of gasoline.

"Someone must have hidden these supplies here, planning to retrieve them later," Officer Graham surmised. "Something unexpected probably happened, and they never made it back. I checked the house—no bodies. I also found tire tracks in the yard. From the look of them, it was a van. The owner must have left and never returned." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The gasoline they found supported this theory.

They climbed down one by one. The meat and vegetables had rotted, but the rice and flour, piled to one side, were still edible despite being slightly yellowed and infested with weevils. Most importantly, both the rice and flour were in fifty-five-pound bags.

"We’ve hit the jackpot."

Wyatt Vaughn clapped a hand over his mouth, but he couldn’t conceal the excitement shining in his eyes.

"Let’s get this stuff topside first."

Officer Graham and Quincy stayed outside to receive the items, while the others passed the supplies up to them from inside the cellar.

Evelyn Ford took a quick inventory: ten bags of rice, ten bags of flour, several boxes of noodles, instant noodles, water, oil...

’There were eight drums of gasoline,’ she noted. ’The owner must have been planning on leaving to have stockpiled so much.’

"There’s a box of emergency candles, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and raincoats here too."

Everything but the rotten meat and vegetables was hauled out of the cellar. Gazing at the food piled on the ground, everyone except Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick was in a state of shock.

"I don’t think... I’ve seen rice in years... SOB..." Wyatt Vaughn couldn’t help but break down in tears as he spoke.

"Mr. Graham, you’re our good luck charm!" Quincy exclaimed, running over to hug Officer Graham tightly and startling him.

"Finding all this is a good thing, so there’s no need to cry. Let’s divide it up and head back."

"Mr. Graham, you have to take a bigger share. And for Wendy, too. She’s a growing kid, so this rice and flour is a godsend."

"All of you have always taken good care of me and Wendy. When Wendy was little, you all helped me raise her. Let’s not talk about such things. We’re like a family; there’s no ’yours’ or ’mine’ between us." Officer Graham’s words deeply moved everyone.

Once the goods were divided, everyone bowed toward the house as a sign of respect before gathering their shares and preparing to head back the way they came.

"Are we going to share this with the others?"

At Quincy’s question, everyone fell into pensive silence.

"We’ll share," Officer Graham decided. "We’ll give the others four bags of the rice and flour. The rest is for us." He had found the stash, so he had the right to decide its distribution.

Evelyn Ford carried two jugs of water in her hands, with another two jugs of water and two of oil strapped to her back. Ronan Kendrick alone shouldered six bags of rice.

When they returned to the convoy, the other teams were already back. They had managed to find a fair amount of supplies themselves, so it seemed every group had some success.

Officer Graham found Taylor Vance and told him about the rice. The other groups shared some of their finds, and in turn, Officer Graham and Quincy carried over four bags of rice.

Taylor Vance sent a few people to scout the road ahead, while the rest of the group set up a temporary camp in Sheridan City.

"Taylor says we’ll focus on gathering supplies and leave in three days," Officer Graham reported when he returned.

"Oh, by the way, they also found a lot of gasoline," he added. "Taylor Vance gave me two drums. He said he remembers that Quincy was the one who found the truck, and he wanted to return the favor. He gave us a good share of their other finds, too."

No one had expected to become so wealthy overnight. Not only did they now have rice and flour, but they’d also found so much gasoline.

"The rest of the journey shouldn’t be so difficult now."

The scouts Taylor Vance had sent out returned seven or eight hours later. The good news was that there was a road, and it hadn’t collapsed. The bad news was that it cut right through Sheridan City, a difficult stretch that would require them to stop repeatedly to clear away obstacles.

Two days later, having scavenged most of what they could from Sheridan City, the group rested for five hours before continuing to the next stop.

When they set off again, Quincy was at the wheel.

Beyond Sheridan City stretched a boundless plain. What were once rice paddies and wheat fields were now nothing but a scarred landscape of cracks and gullies.

Evelyn Ford crossed another day off in her calendar. Looking out the window, she peered through a dense swarm of mosquitos and saw that the sky had turned a reddish-orange.