Apocalyptic Coming: I Hoarded Tons, and Scumbag Regrets

Apocalyptic Rebirth: I Hoarded Tons, and Scumbag Regrets 1 Thirty days into the deep freeze apocalypse, Scott asked me to marry him. I said yes. We had been together for five years, and with the world freezing to death around us, I wanted one thing before the end came. I wanted God to recognize us as husband and wife before we took our last breaths. But on our wedding day, Scott arrived with a group of men. Then he tore away my veil, stripped me naked in front of them, and traded me for a few drums of diesel fuel. Was that really how my life was supposed to end? When I opened my eyes again, I found myself ninety days before the deep freeze apocalypse began. I had been given a second chance. And so had Scott. The difference was that he still thought I was the same Sandy he had known before. The woman who gave him everything she had and still worried she wasn't doing enough. So I let him sweet-talk me out of my savings. I watched him gamble everything on stockpiling supplies until an entire warehouse was filled to the ceiling. And while he was busy preparing for the future he thought belonged to him, all I had to do was wait until the day before the apocalypse arrived and sign my own name on every delivery receipt. My wedding was scheduled for Day Thirty of the Deep Freeze Apocalypse. By then, temperatures had plunged below negative seventy degrees Fahrenheit. The cold had turned my veil stiff and brittle, and weeks of hunger had drained nearly all my strength. Our wedding venue was an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town, a place that would have been laughable before the world froze over. None of that mattered to me. After five years together, I was finally going to marry Scott Carter. The warehouse door swung open, and I turned toward it with a smile already forming on my lips. For one brief moment, all I saw was Scott. Then my gaze shifted to the six men walking in behind him. Their eyes reminded me of starving wolves. "Who are they, Scott?" Instead of answering, he flashed a fawning smile at the scar-faced man leading the group. "So, what do you think?" Scott asked. "You can do whatever you want with her." My mind went blank. The scar-faced man looked me over slowly, his expression souring. "She's skinny as hell." "But she's obedient," Scott said immediately, lowering his head so eagerly it was almost embarrassing. "She does whatever I tell her to do." Then he looked at me. "Sandy, come say hi to your new owners." My stomach dropped. "What? But... today's our wedding..." The words came out broken. I could hear myself crying. Scott's face hardened with irritation. "Forget the damn wedding. We're trying to survive here." He grabbed my jaw and squeezed. "Look at you. You even got dressed up for the occasion." His grip tightened. "Be nice to these guys. Make them happy, and they'll give me food. Then we'll both stay alive. You understand?" I stared at him, unable to process what I was hearing. Then a memory surfaced. The night before, Scott had been lying with his head in my lap, looking up at me with those soft, affectionate eyes that had fooled me for years. "If I freeze to death tomorrow before we get married," he'd said quietly, "I'll regret it forever." His voice had been gentle. His smile had been warm. Everything about him had seemed sincere. Had he already been calculating my price when he said those words? The realization hollowed me out. My silence apparently annoyed him. Without warning, he kicked my legs out from under me. I hit the concrete floor hard, and before I could recover, he used the toe of his boot to roll me onto my back. He shoved my hair aside, yanked down my pants, and spread my legs apart for the others to inspect. "See?" he said proudly. "She's healthy. No diseases. She's worth five drums of diesel, right?" The warehouse erupted with crude laughter. The men's eyes roamed greedily over my exposed body. I lay there on the freezing concrete while flashlight beams swept across my face and between my legs. By then, I had cried all the tears I had left. The pain remained. It twisted through my chest like broken glass. This was the man I had loved. For five years, I'd given him everything I had. And this was what it had earned me. He was displaying me like property. Like a toy. Like something meant to entertain other men. No. Absolutely not. "She's still too thin," the scar-faced man said impatiently. "When's the last time she ate?" "Two or three days ago," Scott replied casually. Two or three days? If he meant the last month, during which I'd handed him nearly every scrap of food while surviving mostly on water and whatever roots I could dig out of frozen ground, then sure. Two or three days. The scar-faced man exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke. "Whatever. Deal." A grin spread across his face. "But I've got one condition. We do it here." Then he pointed at Scott. "And you hold her down." For a second, I thought I'd misheard him. The men immediately broke into whistles and laughter. Scott, meanwhile, looked delighted. "Whatever makes you happy." He reached for me without hesitation and pinned my wrists to the floor. From this close, I could see frost clinging to his eyelashes. I could also see the thick winter coat he was wearing. My coat. His had torn weeks earlier. I'd given him mine and taken his damaged one instead, spending night after night shivering inside a jacket that couldn't keep out the wind. I had nearly frozen to death for him. And this was how he repaid me. The worst part wasn't the betrayal. It was the smile. The smile was exactly the same as before. The same smile I'd fallen in love with. The same smile that used to greet me after long days at work when he'd wait outside with a hot cup of soup and walk me home. Then he spoke, and every word drove deeper than a knife. "Don't look at me like that." He patted my cheek the way someone might pat a dog. "Come on, Sandy. A woman isn't making it through the Apocalypse alone." His voice remained gentle, almost affectionate. "If they take you with them, what's the worst that happens? You spend a little time keeping them happy, and in return you get food, shelter, protection. You'll survive." His smile never wavered. "I'm doing this for your own good." For a moment, it felt like we'd slipped back into our old life, back when everyone called us the perfect couple and I still believed everything he said. Back when I obeyed him. Would I do that again? Not in this lifetime. I lunged. My arm wrapped around his throat from behind, locking against his windpipe as I threw my weight onto his back. Scott choked instantly. His hands clawed at my arms. "Let go!" He slammed backward with all his strength. My back crashed into a diesel drum, and pain exploded through my ribs. The impact forced my grip loose, and I fell to the floor. Scott spun around and slapped me hard across the face. The taste of blood filled my mouth. Then something slipped from inside his coat. It hit the concrete and landed beside my hand. A lighter. I stared at it. Less than three feet away stood several open drums of diesel. For one heartbeat, nobody moved. Then I grabbed the lighter. The flame flickered to life. Every face in the warehouse changed. And only then did they finally stop looking at me like merchandise. For the first time, they remembered that I wasn't an object. I was a person. A living, breathing person with a choice. "Sandy, wait!" Terror cracked through Scott's voice. Real terror. The kind I'd never heard from him before. "Listen to me. We can work this out. We can still get through this together..." "Together?" I looked straight into his eyes. Those eyes I'd kissed countless times. Those eyes where I'd once imagined my future. A smile touched my lips. "No, Scott." I tightened my grip on the lighter. "There is no us anymore." Then I let go. The burning lighter dropped into the fuel. The explosion hit a fraction of a second later. Fire tore through the warehouse. The men disappeared inside a wall of flames. So did Scott. The blast hurled me into the air, and as the world dissolved around me, I felt lighter than I had in years. Free. So this is what freedom feels like. All I had to do was let go of Scott. Darkness swallowed everything. Then an alarm clock started ringing. I opened my eyes. Sunlight filtered through sheer curtains, and the sudden warmth against my skin was so unfamiliar that I almost flinched. For several seconds, I simply stared at the room around me. Outside, birds were singing. People were laughing. The world sounded alive. Those were sounds I hadn't heard since before the apocalypse. Slowly, I reached for my phone. The date on the screen stole my breath. Three months before the Deep Freeze Apocalypse.