CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5: Liquidating and Hoarding

The light from the system screen went away. I could still feel the warmth in my chest. Infinite Dimensional Storage was real. I was standing in my living room staring at the words floating in the air. I took a breath and it sounded loud in the quiet apartment.

"LUS " I said quietly. "How do I use it? How do I put something inside?"

[Just touch the object with your hand and think of the word 'Store' Host Eva.]

I looked down at the small plastic trash can that Marcus had kicked over. I walked over to it, got down on my knees and pressed my hand against the side of the can.

“Store.”

The air seemed to ripple. The trash can disappeared. It did not move, it just vanished. I gasped, my eyes wide as I stared at the spot on the carpet. I closed my eyes and focused on my mind. I could see a big empty space inside my head. The gray trash can was sitting right in the middle of it.

“Oh my god," I breathed, a genuine smile breaking across my face for the first time in two lifetimes. "It works. It really works.

[ Of course it works. Time is frozen inside the storage. Anything you put inside will stay the same forever.]

I stood up feeling a lot of energy all of a sudden. I did not have time to sit around and be happy. I had thirty days to get ready for the end of the world. Every second I wasted was one second closer to the end.

"I need money " I said to myself, my mind racing as I walked back to my bedroom. "A lot of money. Right now."

I grabbed my laptop, opened it and looked at my accounts. I had about five thousand dollars in savings. It was okay for a normal person but for what I needed, it was not enough. I looked around my apartment. I owned this place. It was paid off.. A home meant nothing when the world was ending.

I found a website that bought properties for cash. I typed in my address. I uploaded the papers. I hit the submit button.

"Eva what are you doing?" I asked myself, my fingers shaking on the keyboard. "You are selling your house."

"I am saving my life, " I said firmly.

Next I opened a car-selling app. My SUV was sitting in the parking garage downstairs. I took a breath, uploaded the papers and listed it for sale.

By the time the sun was coming up my phone was buzzing with messages. The real estate company offered me two hundred thousand dollars for my apartment. The car company offered twelve thousand.

"LUS " I said, rubbing my eyes. "Is this enough?"

[It is a sufficient start for basic supplies, Host. But remember, money will become worthless paper in exactly thirty days. Spend every single cent.]

"Watch me, " I said.

By noon the papers were signed. A man came to my apartment, looked around and handed me a check. Two hours later a truck. Took my SUV away. I stood on the sidewalk watching it disappear. In my past life, losing my car would have made me sad. Now I just felt relieved.Marcus would never get his hands on those keys again.

I took the subway to a warehouse. When I walked in I smelled cardboard and hot dogs. The store was full of families laughing and shopping. They had no idea what was coming.

I grabbed three carts and pushed them to the food aisles. I started with the basics: rice, beans, flour, sugar and salt. I did not buy bags, I loaded the carts with big sacks until they were heavy.

A worker stopped me in the canned goods aisle. "Miss, are you opening a restaurant or something?"

I looked at him, keeping my face blank. "I am opening a convenience store. I need to stock the shelves."

"Oh cool " the kid said, smiling. "Do you need help loading more?"

"Yes, " I said, handing him my credit card. "Bring me the pallet of canned tomatoes and beef stew.. Every single case of bottled water you have."

For the four hours I moved around the city buying supplies. I went to a store and bought bandages, medicine and gloves. The cashier gave me a look but I did not care.

After the store I drove a rented truck to a fuel depot. I bought ten drums of diesel and gasoline.

"I need ten fifty-gallon steel drums filled with diesel and ten filled with gasoline " I told the man behind the counter.

The man took his cap off and scratched his head. "Lady, that is a lot of fuel. You got a permit to store that liquid at a residence?"

I slid a stack of hundred-dollar bills across the counter. "I am taking it to my farm. I have a private storage shed. Can you load them into the back of my truck or not?"

The man looked at the money and grinned. "Sure thing, boss. Pull the truck around to bay four. We will get you fixed up in five minutes."

When the truck was full it was midnight. The back of the truck was packed with food, medicine and fuel. It was worth a lot of money. If anyone saw this they would think I was crazy.

I drove the truck to an alleyway, turned off the lights and climbed into the back. The only light came from my phone.

I stood in front of the pile of supplies as my breath caught in my throat. This was my future. This was my fortress.

"LUS " I whispered into the dark. "Let's do this."

I pressed my hands against the pallet of canned stews.

“Store.”

A soft purple light rippled over the crate. It vanished into thin air then I moved to the one.

“Store.”

The rice vanished.

“Store.”

The medicine vanished.

“Store. Store. Store.”

Every time I touched an object I felt it connecting to my soul settling safely into the darkness of my mind. It did not feel heavy. It felt like I was just checking items off a list. Within ten minutes the entire back of the truck was empty. Nothing was left but a few pieces of dust on the floor.

I sat down on the floor of the empty truck, my back pressed against the metal wall, and let out a long, exhausted laugh. It was a beautiful, freeing feeling. In my past life, I had been completely helpless. I had relied on Marcus to protect me, and he had thrown me to the wolves. Now, I had enough food and fuel to live like a queen for years, and nobody could ever take it from me.

"We are just getting started " I whispered to myself, my eyes shining in the dark. "Tomorrow I will buy weapons. I will find a fortress. I will.."

Suddenly a sharp alarm echoed inside my brain. It was not the chime, from before. It was a screeching siren that made my vision flash red.

I gasped, falling forward onto my hands and knees as the pain shot through my skull.

I was really scared. My head was hurting a lot.

"LUS!" I said, clutching my head. "What is that?! What is happening to me?!"

The blue screen appeared in front of my face. The letters were not gold or blue anymore.

The letters on the screen of LUS were pulsing in a scary red color bleeding light into the empty truck.

The voice of LUS. For the first time the voice sounded very urgent.

[Warning, Host Eva. A massive temporal anomaly has occurred. The virus mutation has leaked ahead of schedule in the hemisphere. The timeline has collapsed.]

My heart stopped beating.

I could not breathe my fingers digging into the floorboards of the truck until my nails cracked.

 "What? No... No, I have thirty days! You said I had thirty days to get ready!"

[Correction. The previous calculation is no longer valid. The virus is spreading across the global transit lines at speed.]

The red screen of LUS flashed violently, a clock appearing in the center of my vision, the numbers spinning backward very fast.

I was getting really scared.

[Outbreak countdown accelerated. New time remaining until societal collapse: Twenty-four hours. Prepare yourself immediately.]