Free Collapse by Richard Stephenson Page B

leaving Orlando to join the big wigs in Bentonville.
     
    The leader of the makeshift camp was a man named Benjamin Black. Ben was not a man of influence or authority; he was the manager at a nearby Jiffy Lube. Benjamin told his employees to bring their families to the Jiffy Lube so they could ride out Luther in the pit underneath the shop. A few residents did so, and Ben offered them shelter. An hour before the full force of the hurricane was due, some frightened motorists pulled into the shop and Ben offered them shelter as well. Ben and his employees emptied out the stock from the pit and they all hunkered down, shoulder-to-shoulder, to ride out Luther’s punishment. They had no idea if they would drown from storm surge; they took their chances underground anyway.
     
    When Ben and his people managed to get out of the pit, they emerged into a new world, one of Armageddon. They could stand in one place and see in a straight line to sections of town miles away. Homes and buildings should have obstructed their line of sight. Instead they saw complete destruction and devastation. They could see dogs climbing over rubble, pieces of human flesh in their mouths - fingers, hands, and scalps with matted bloody hair. Ben found two boys, both under the age of ten, covered in dirt and blood, walking down the road adjacent his shop. A few women in the group tended to the boys and tried to get them to talk.
     
    Ben knew these people were counting on him. He had to get them to a central location so they could be rescued. They walked for most of the day and set up camp in a vacant parking lot that was somewhat clean and free of debris. Ben tried to figure out what business had used this parking lot, but had no idea without any buildings nearby to use as a frame of reference. The group set up camp and built signal fires. Next they used debris to spell out the word HELP in big letters that might be seen by rescue aircraft. Slowly, people joined the group, a few each day. Safety in numbers was the key to survival.
     
    They waited for almost a week for help to come. Ben knew that all they had to do was wait and they would be saved. Much like the employees at the Kissimmee Wal-Mart Supercenter, they slowly began to realize that no one was coming. They were cut off from the rest of the world. They were alone. They must take matters into their own hands if they would survive.
     
    The first step was to find transportation. They managed to salvage a few damaged vehicles; some vans, an RV, and a SuperTruck. Next they had to find supplies. Doing so in the barren wasteland proved very hard. They managed to find enough food and water from the rubble to keep themselves alive. They sent out scouts in all directions in the hopes that they would either find supplies or someone to rescue them from this nightmare. One of the groups came back with the best news they had heard since before the storm. A Wal-Mart had survived Luther.
     
    Ben and the group packed up and headed off to the Kissimmee Wal-Mart Supercenter. They arrived to find one of the entrances filled with cars, the other heavily barricaded. Ben understood the need to keep the store safe from looters. Maybe they were rationing out supplies from just one entrance for reasons of safety. They knocked on the door for the better part of a day waiting for someone to answer. No one did. Maybe it was empty. After the sun went down, they could see the beams from many flashlights bouncing around inside the store, so they knew it was occupied. Eventually, they managed to break down the glass door but to no avail. The barricade was far too strong to breach.
     
    Ben decided to call off the attempts at getting into the store. He figured if they showed the people inside that they were civilized and posed no threat, surely they would see the error of their ways and let them inside.
     
    One afternoon it occurred to Ben that they could go around to the back of the store to gain entry. He laughed at himself