AN: I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month! My goal: 30 days, 30 stories. I will be trying to reach 30,000 words this month. Don't forget to review, and favorite.

Writing prompt: TV is interrupted by an emergency news broadcast. The anchor says: "Please remain calm and stay indoors..."

Much Love,

MrsA.

I've always been a firm believer that, one day, introverts would rule the world. What I didn't realize was that it would happen so soon or that I would be one of those survivors. When it all began, I was happily enjoying a Hobbit and Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon; I was fully stocked up on hot pockets, soda, popcorn, frozen pizzas, and chocolate ice cream. You know, pretty much all of the essentials somebody could ever want while binge watching one of their favorite movie series of all time. Of course, this also meant that I missed all of the warnings, and I mean all of them because of my complete and utter idiocy.

I'm told that, just before the outbreak hit its peak, there was an announcement on television, the radio, and every other medium possible in order to spread the word. Still, I missed it. I was enjoying myself some bagel bites at the time, I think. Apparently, the transmission went on for maybe thirty seconds. The usual multi-colored screen appeared and the grating klaxon noise resounded throughout the country. Finally, Anderson Cooper appeared on the screen. There were no graphics, stock tickers, or flashing backgrounds. You could even see the green screen behind him. No pomp or circumstance was given at all during what would become the last television transmission before the world changed forever. In a somber voice, he opened his mouth and took a deep breath. His greying hair seemed stark white instead of its usual distinguished silver, and the worry, clear as day on his face, aged him ten years in an instant. "Please remain calm and stay indoors…" Then, the reception was cut. There would be no other forthcoming information. From then on, all mass media was dead.

Being on my summer vacation, I didn't notice the changes immediately. Really, I had no reason to leave the house for a few days, and it wasn't abnormal for me to just not hear from somebody for days at a time. Life is busy. I don't expect somebody to check in everyday. I probably should have been more concerned about some of the sounds that I heard from the neighborhood, but I just turned up the volume on my surround sound instead. I don't normally get involved in my neighbor's domestic disputes unless it's to call the authorities. Why would I pick today of all days to start?

After my twenty hour long Tolkien marathon ended, I pried myself away from the couch and passed out on top of the sheets in bed, enjoying the cooling feeling of the bedroom fan as it spun lazily above me. The next day, I decided, would be a Harry Potter marathon and the day after that I binge watched Daredevil on Netflix. By the fourth day, I was starting to wonder why I hadn't gotten a single text or call from family or friends, but it also wasn't entirely unheard of. So, I did what any sensible introvert would do: I stalked their facebook accounts. There wasn't much on most of the profiles, but there were a couple of weird posts on my news feed that should have triggered the notion that something abnormal was up. You know, things like, "I just got bit by one of those things" and "I feel funny". But, I didn't find a video of that emergency broadcast or anything that would trigger the notion, so I shrugged it off for the most part. Everyone knew that I was on vacation. Maybe they were just letting me enjoy my time to relax? In my opinion, that's one of the better gifts that I could ever receive.

When the power went out the next day, I was more than a little aggravated. It's summer in the middle of Phoenix, Arizona. One does not simply go without air conditioning in Arizona, so I decided to call the electric company, hoping that they would give me an estimated time of arrival on that good old AC kicking back on. In the meantime, I opened up all of the windows in my third story apartment before I called APS. So, I'm sure that you can imagine my surprise at this point when not only did the power company's line not even connect, but I looked outside for the first time since the outbreak.

Now, I live in a gated community, so my apartment complex wasn't hit as hard as others. However, there were almost no vehicles parked around the portion of the complex that I could see, and those that were still around were either out of commision or they were a family's second vehicle from what little I could tell.

There were marks on the pavement and cement where tires had burnt out, and there were seemingly random singe marks on the walls and vehicles all around. Why the heck were there burn marks anyway? Did somebody have a flamethrower that I ought to know about?

It had taken me four days. FOUR DAYS to realize that I was living in an apocalypse scenario. What could possibly be so wrong with me that I didn't realize this until now? So, I was standing on my lonely balcony, coming to this realization when I finally decided to look further into the issue. I used my phone's data, which had surprisingly kept running up until this point, in order to learn as much as I could about whatever it was that had happened. When I was finally done, I realized how lucky I was that I was on vacation this week. How lucky I was that I didn't leave home. How lucky I was to have enough supplies to last me even longer.

My eyes grew wide as I realized that I didn't have very much water on hand, so I bolted to the bathroom and stopped up the sink and tub, running them until they were at their fullest. I did the same with the kitchen sink and all of the buckets and other liquid holding vessels in the house. With this added layer of supplies, I felt comfortable enough to last a couple of more days in my own home while I decided what would be my best plan of action.

To be continued...