Chapter 3
"Dad?" Bella called from the top floor. "Dad?" She called louder. "Damn it." She muttered when there was no response.
"Dad?" She called again while trudging down the stairs, an annoyed stomp ringing out when she hits the bottom floor. "Dad?" She questioned, rounding the corner to the den.
Charlie Swan sat in his old recliner. Watching the news. Eyes glued to the screen.
"Dad?" Bella repeated. This time the annoyance is gone as she reads her father's pale face. "What's wrong?"
Charlie's response is to turn the volume up.
Bella shuffled into the living room and sat down on the floor by her father's feet. Knees pulled up to her chest.
Breaking News lines the bottom of the screen. 20,000 dead from a deadly virus in Indonesia.
To the Swan's, this is new information. The first case was two months ago, but the story has just reached the US news. The pair learn about hospitals being overrun, grocery stores being stripped clean, crime becoming rampant as people fight in the streets, and men and woman dying by the thousands as the days go on.
Charlie Swan is a lawman. The Chief of Police to be exact. He knows what happens when people panic. As he watches the news report he worries about his daughter. What this means for her.
"We need to go to the store." The Chief said suddenly.
"What's going on?"
"We've had our first case." He states plainly.
"We'll be okay, right?" Bella questioned with uncertainty.
Charlie Swan grimaced and didn't respond.
Instead he gathered his keys and headed out. Bella followed along diligently behind him. She knew her father wasn't one to be caught up in panic. So, she knows he's taking this seriously.
The pair walked into the store together with a cart each, buying meat to freeze, fruit and vegetables to eat, pasta, ketchup, chips, canned goods, bread. The list goes on.
They filled each cart before heading out.
They were both silent on the ride home, contemplating what they witnessed on the news.
"We have enough to hold us for a while." Charlie said when they pulled up onto the driveway. "We'll put one of everything in the house. Leave the rest by the door. I'll take it down to the bunker."
Bella nodded her head in understanding and then started to unload everything alongside her father.
The bunker isn't something Bella ever really gave much attention to growing up. She always thought it was an odd addition to the property, but understood her father was cautious man. She hadn't been down there in years. No one had as far as she knew. But as Bella unpacked the groceries she knew that just wasn't true. Whenever she would buy groceries her father always liked to get multiples of nonperishables. Only, Bella would never see them in the pantry. They always disappeared. He'd been stock piling. For years it seemed.
Bella's eyes widened at the thought of what might be down below, waiting. All this time.