CHAPTER TWO

"Hey Maddy, are you feeling well, sweetie?" Carter's voice buzzed through the receiver, oozing with the kind of insincere charm he always applied in dealing with his corporate connections and Ann Fletcher. "You seem... different, this morning?"

Madison leaned against the kitchen countertop, staring through the large window towards the garden outside, where the early morning sun was beginning to caress the meticulously maintained hedges of the luxurious suburban estate. "Different? Maybe I'm just finally waking up," Madison answered smoothly, her voice laced with icy sweetness, which caused her mother to throw her a curious glance. "Don't worry about me. I've got some serious business to take care of today. Just do your job... you must be really busy."

"Yes. I have a lot of meetings today with Reed and the corporate partners," Carter said quickly, trying to finish the phone conversation fast.

"Take all the time you need, Carter." Madison answered with soft, cold laughter. Enjoy your meetings while you can, my dear husband. By the time I'm done with you, not a single stitch will be left on you.

Madison disconnected the phone call and turned towards her mother. "Mom, I need you to stay with Belle today. I need to pay a visit to the municipal offices downtown, to sign the commercial property lease contract for the clinic, and to meet the suppliers of some medical equipment. Our lives are going to change soon, Mom."

Her mother, dazed from the sudden resignation and announcement of ambitious plans, could only nod. "Maddy, just be careful. Don't try to do too much."

"Believe me, Mom." Madison replied. "I've never been more careful and, uhm... certain in my life."

In less than an hour Madison was sitting in her SUV, heading out of the gated community and straight towards the commercial and industrial parts of the city. She had ninety days until the end of December 31st, 2026, when the global electricity grid was going to collapse, turning everything outside of the estate into a lethal wasteland covered with deadly spores.

She had no time to waste.

Her first stop was the municipal zoning and medical licensing office. Using her years of experience as a senior nurse at the public hospital, Madison had managed to accumulate all the necessary credentials and connections to get the permits for her private health clinic really fast.

Utilizing her personal savings, a series of strategic high-interest bank loans she took out under the guise of expanding a private wellness clinic, and liquidating her minor stock investments, she secured the commercial licensing and zoning rights to build a state-of-the-art private quarantine hospital right on the footprint of her estate's auxiliary properties.

Bureaucrats thought she was an ambitious nurse who was planning to open her concierge clinic for the residents of her estate, while Madison was establishing legal groundwork for the impregnable medical stronghold.

After getting the permissions, Madison was ready for the heavy lifting: The Supply Spree.

Driving straight to the biggest industrial wholesale distributors, medical supply warehouses, and bulk food depots, Madison needed supplies to feed and medicate her family and to create a base to dominate the health care of the estate once famine arrives.

Firstly, she went to the largest medical supply depot of the city.

The manager of the depot, a burly man named Dave who was accustomed to dealing with hospital procurers, raised his eyebrows as Madison showed her requisition list.

"Let's see here..." Dave muttered, reading the list after adjusting his glasses. "Five hundred boxes of surgical masks, two hundred HEPA air filters, fifty cases of nitrile gloves, thousands of bottles of antibiotics, IV fluid bags, sterile suture kits, trauma gear, and mobile diagnostics equipment? Miss Langley, are you trying to equip a full-fledged disaster relief operation?"

"Something like that." Madison replied calmly, her face devoid of any emotion. "I need you to deliver this shipment within a week on my commercial warehouse storage and my suburban estate's territory."

Dave chuckled and shook his head. "You know, Miss Langley, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and desire to be a nurse with a fully equipped clinic, but this is enough medical supplies for a medium-sized county hospital to survive for five years! Do you expect some plague or something?"

Madison looked at him directly, lowering her voice to almost whispering level. "A famine and severe respiratory contagion are coming, Dave. Believe me, take your savings, buy all the boxes of antibiotics and filtration masks you can, and save your family from death later."

Dave laughed loudly, assuming it to be a dark medical joke. "Alright, alright, alarmist nurse protocol acknowledged! The shipment will be delivered to you ASAP, Miss Langley. Your credit card will feel it!"

From the medical supply depot, Madison went to the biggest agricultural and wholesale food warehouses. Repeating the same pattern for the next several days:

Tons of non-perishable food: rice, dried beans, oats, vacuum-sealed meats, high-protein military-grade ration packs, and powdered milk.

Equipment: industrial-grade water filtration system, solar generators, fuel drums, thermal clothing, heavy-duty canvas, and reinforced security hardware.

Medical supplies: extra pharmaceutical precursors, disinfectants, and specialized respiratory medicines.

At each stop, forklift workers started stacking towering piles of supplies into transport trucks; vendors wiped the sweat from their foreheads and shook their heads in amazement.

At the largest grains and dry goods depot, the head vendor leaned against the forklift and laughed, handing Madison the last electronic receipt. "Miss Madison, I swear, with the rice, flour, and canned goods you've bought this week, you could feed an entire army during the nuclear winter! This would serve your family for fifty years!"

Madison signed the tablet with her steady hand, handing it back with a faint smile. "Fifty years might be an exaggeration," she replied quietly, gazing at the huge warehouse filled with supplies. "But believe me, sir... before three months pass, people will be ready to trade their whole mansions for a single bag of this rice."

Vendors laughed, writing it off as the eccentricity of some rich suburbanite. "Well, your money is as good as anybody else's. The delivery will be at your gates on schedule!"

Having returned to her estate with the long line of supply trucks trailing behind her, Madison felt a deep sense of power rising from the depths of her soul. She wasn't hoarding the supplies anymore; she was building her kingdom one brick and one crate at a time.

And she wasn't doing it alone.

With the supply lines and legal framework established, it was time to recruit her elite core team, starting with the uncorrupted doctor who would help her operate the quarantine hospital when the world outside gets dark.

The first problem now was how to get her hospital.