UPSIDE DOWN THREE OF RODS, KNIGHT OF CUPS AND AN UPSIDE DOWN FOUR OF SWORDS

Today's source of fiction

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The man carefully drew back the curtain and peered out through the dirty window. He tilted his head to look up the street and then turned to look down the street. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary other than the random car parked at odd angles in streets and yards. In fact, the street was relatively quit, particularly compared to the last few weeks. No one was running down the street screaming or on fire. That was a plus. He did not see groups of young men walking around with guns and knives and axes. The man didn’t even see a stray dog. From his window view, it appeared that the chaos and riots of the last few weeks had ended. He turned to the woman who was sitting on the floor in the middle of their living room, twisting the antenna for an old transistor radio around and fiddling with the dial.

“I’m getting nothing but static.” She said as she tossed the radio aside in disgust. The woman reached for the remote and turned on the TV. Test patters flickered on the screen as she flipped through all of the channels. “At least we still have electricity.” She turned the TV off and tossed the remote onto the coffee table. The man looked out the window again and then said “I think we should go out, go to the grocery store or just drive around the town and see if we can find someone who knows what’s going on.” The woman shook her head. “This is the first morning you’ve looked out there and it has been quit. The day hasn’t even really started. We don’t know what is going on out there. I’m staying put.”

The man walked away from the window and crouched on the floor in front of the woman. “Maybe nows the best time to go. All the crazies are sleeping off their rampages. We can’t stay here forever. Eventually we are going to have to go out and get food. We should take advantage of this moment of quit.” The woman sighed. The man did have a point. They were not set up to stay here indefinitely, but at the same time she wasn’t so sure they should rush out at the first sign of stillness. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. We should give it another day at least.” The man dug in his heels. He was going crazy with not knowing and being cooped up inside this house. “No. We should go. Now.” The woman, against her better judgment, nodded her head and said “Fine. Let’s go.”

They put on sturdy shoes, grabbed a couple of backpacks and some water. “Do you think we should make some sandwiches incase we get stranded?” the woman asked. “Nah, just throw in a couple of those granola bars. We’ll be back soon enough.” the man replied as he headed to the garage door in search of some sort of weapon. They were not gun people, so they’d have to make do with whatever they had on hand. He found his old baseball bat in a corner, covered with dust and cobwebs and grabbed it up. He took a few practice swings before placing it in the car. The woman stepped into the garage holding the backpacks and a couple of their largest kitchen knives. The man nodded his head in approval of her choice of weapons. She pointed to his golf bag. “What about a couple of those golf clubs? I bet those could do some damage.” The man balked. “Not my clubs! Those were expensive.” The woman leaned up from putting things into the car, placing her hands on her hips, she said “Really?!? When’s the last time you golfed? You’re going to have discernible taste for a weapon now? We gotta use what we have.” The man made a face and then pulled out two of his clubs. He was sure to grab his least favorite ones. He loaded them into the car and then pressed the button to raise the garage door. The woman started the car and slowly backed it out of the garage. Then the man closed the garage door. He motioned the woman to move over so he could drive. The woman rolled her eyes and then climbed over into the passenger seat.

They fastened their seatbelts and the man backed the car down the driveway. He turned the car west and they headed towards the mega-shopping center near the center of town. The woman stared out the window, gripping the handle of one of the knives she’d brought along. Her whole body was tense and her eyes darted around the landscape searching for any signs of movement or danger. The man carefully maneuvered the car down the street, occasionally driving up on the sidewalk in order to get around a randomly abandoned vehicle. The neighborhood was a wreck. Cars and trash littered the streets and yards. They passed a number of burned out homes, smoke still billowing up from remains. There were houses with broken windows and a few burned out cars. The woman looked for people, but saw no one. On one lawn, she saw a shoe, lonely and just laying there, and she worried about what had happened to the owner of that shoe. They continued to make their way out of the neighborhood.

“See. I told you. Everything’s going to be fine. No one is out. Everything’s calmed down. We’re going to get to the grocery store and find everything in order and probably full of happy people who have no idea about the chaos that’s been going on in our neighborhood.” the man said with confidence. The woman just looked at the man. Then she replied “Sure, we’ll run into Bob and Sue and tell them about what’s been happening in our neighborhood for the last three? no , four weeks and they’ll be all ‘Oh my God! We’ve heard about none of this! Everything has been kittens and rainbows for us.” The man scoffed at the woman’s sarcasm and just said “Just wait. You’ll see. Everything is going to be just fine.” Except that the closer they got to the mega-shopping center the worst the destruction became. They finally pulled into the giant parking lot of the shopping center only to see a well looted area. Broken windows and smoke rose up to greet them. The woman looked at the man and said “Now what?”

The man put the car in park and stared at the grocery store in the center of the shopping complex. He looked for signs of life, signs of danger. “We should go in and try to scavenge some food.” The woman shook her head and replied “No way. We are not going in there. We don’t know who or what is hiding out in that place. All of those isles and shelves, we’ll be like mice in a maze. I’m not going in there.” The woman crossed her arms and turned her head to look out the window, away from the man. “Come on. We’ve made it this far. What could go wrong? We’ve got weapons. We’ll be fine. I’m going. Are you just going to let me go in there by myself? You know I’ll only come back with cans fo chili. If you don’t go with me, you won’t have any of that healthy food stuff you like to eat. It will all be Cheetos and chili.” The woman snorted a laugh and said “Right, like they still have fresh vegetables and tofu.” The man opened his car door and replied “Oh, I’m sure they still have tofu. No one’s going to loot that crap.” The woman rolled her eyes. She was beginning to feel eye strain from all of the eye rolling she’d done in recent days, but she opened her car door and tentatively stepped out.

They both slammed their car doors at the same time and then ducked and looked around to see if anyone was coming towards them or poking their heads up at the sound. It seemed clear. The woman moved her body while wielding the knife, making a few practice jabs. “Okay. If we’re going to do this, let’s go and get it over with.” Then the man with his baseball bat and the woman with her kitchen knife made their way to the grocery store with no knowing of what they may find or what might greet them.