After society falls
Could it be that all this has come down? Just when the market started really spinning. Right when the wealth began to really turn around. A warm energized glow uplifted the nation. Production like never before. Store shelves bulged with food and tech goodies. Everyone worked forty hours or more, with a few exceptions. No wars to slow progress down for several years in a row. During this time there was big talk about sending the first Man into interdimensional space. Lou Gorlite was to visit an alt-world location in the same space he was sent from. The plan was for him to grab a sample of something or several things from the alt world and bring them back for study and verification. But when he was transported a blue quake shook the sixty-mile radius doing massive damage and taking hundreds of lives. A seven-foot wide green ring of misty energy flashed across the globe disrupting everything from weather to switching out flora and faunas from many alt-worlds. The governments crumbled almost instantly, the only structures of society being small groups and mid-sized or less towns of people who banded together. All broadcasts and internet stopped and never returned. That's for another age, some seven thousand years from now. News of these events was word of mouth. And it was 98% wrong. Plenty of food. The stores bulging with it, people were wealthy in general and they bought so much groceries, before the fall that getting enough to eat was no worry. A much bigger worry was the crime that exploded. Murders all over, roving gangs, killing rapings, robing, even though robing was not really necessary when looting could produce the same or better results. It seems best at these times to keep guns handy and stay out of sight in general. I went into the city to get some supplies. The most fashionable clothes were gone, but serviceable clothes were abundant still. Too many assholes casting off their clothes and putting on a fresh unworn set rather than washing in time, brought the supply down. Mostly food. Still a lot of good food around. I even scored a couples cases of three-two beer. I grabbed some tech toys, but I could not find any traditional backyard clothes washing apparatus. I grabbed three cots, a little axe, loads of toothpaste and brushes. I didn't plan to stick around in the city long. I grabbed what I could.