CHAPTER SEVEN
As things were reaching their darkest in centuries, some positive stories began coming in—the FDA clearing some produce to enter the food supply in limited quantities, a vaccine for the bird flu strain from the CDC, as well as new disinfectant methods to allow milk back into the food supply. Months would pass before these changes would take effect, and thousands would starve during the wait.
Life was dark and miserable. Everyone was hungry and broke all the time. Hospitals saw terrible cases of people eating things that weren't food—paper, wood chips, sawdust, plastic, cloth, and even poison—just to fill themselves one more time. Death and starvation were just a part of life, but at least the rich retreated, staying at home to enjoy their surplus there instead of in front of everyone. The Crosswire's even fled to a vacation estate, which was discovered when the mansion burned to the ground but there was no one inside, and no food either.
As unemployment rates soared, people fought for what little they had. People tried growing plants in their windows that they could eat. Edible grasses became the new craze, and while it made some people feel like they were livestock, the grass kept the hunger at bay, and it definitely tasted better than beans, which were becoming more expensive as their supplies dwindled.
Gains were being made, but slower and slower. It took weeks, days in some people's minds, for the famine to take hold, but by many estimations, it would take years for the supply to recover and the economic impact to dissipate.
After a year, Elwood City finally felt normal. The Powers reopened their ice cream shop and David returned to work. Business was slow at first as small waves of shortages came and went for certain items. But milk was back, as were eggs and chicken. Meat became cheaper as the grain market recovered, and soon cereal and bread were okay again. People ate again, and they could afford to.
But so many people were lost. Bud Compson lost his life after catching a violent stomach bug. The family knew he likely wouldn't make it, so they refused to take him to a hospital, which they wouldn't be able to pay for anyway. He passed at home, surrounded by his family. They held a small service for him, wrote a note, pinned it to his shirt, and left him at a city park so they could cremate his body without cost. The note told them everything, but the cops refused to charge them. That was the way things were then—she shifted your moral compass to accommodate the times.
Now that the hardships were over, people were taken to hospitals and funerals were attempted, not that there were as many. People had dinner at each other's houses and discussed food again, and there were no hard feelings against the rich. The Crosswire's were able to return to the town without incident, though Emily's mother decided to move back to Europe with Emily to keep her from that world. It was understandable. Many people just couldn't cope with the things that happened during that time, and they were just a pair of those persons.
Slowly people forgot the ache of hunger, the pain of watching your neighbors shrivel away into nothing, the crimes that went ignored because they were now just. Thora was able to restart her garden outside the next growing season without feeling the need to hire an army to guard it, and others had the same plan. At-home gardens and chickens became the next big thing, a safeguard in case this happened again. People would be prepared if this happened again, and they would take care of each other. Famine wouldn't be a deadly problem, just a small hurdle, and people would be okay.
~End
A/N: For my new Disasters series. This is a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but I just didn't want to dwell on people starving to death. Is this even plausible? Maybe. I mean, we do keep hearing about problems with the food supply or other things all the time, but the only thing I ever felt resonance from was the egg shortage brought on by bird flu. Everything else was just water under the bridge, something I could ignore. Can you really ignore it when everything is out, you can't afford what little you can buy, or you lose your job? Probably not, so that's what I went with.
If you have any ideas, let me know. And if you write your own disaster piece, PM me about it so I can check it out.