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for work.”
    Mila voiced trailed down the hall.
“Thanks for getting them off to their field trip. I know Kelly was
really excited.”
    “ My pleasure.”
    Rob turned and followed
her down the hall. “So I was thinking,
maybe we should spend some time at the cabin this weekend. Get
re-adjusted to the place.”
    “ I’d love to,” Mila said.
Then her face dropped, along with her enthusiasm. “But I have to
work a double on Saturday.”
    “ How many times are they
going to do that to you?”
    “ They’re short of
nurses.”
    “ They’re always short
nurses,” Rob said. “Tell them to hire more.”
    Mila rolled her eyes. “Not happening.
They’re supposedly stretched financially thin as it is.”
    Rob put his arms around her and pulled
her close, trying to provide some comfort to her obvious stress.
“We’ll have all our debts paid off soon. Trust me.”
    “ I know,” Mila
said.
    Rob finally got to what he wanted to
talk about. “We need to start talking about prepping. The kids need
to be out in the wilderness more. I’m concerned that they’re too
green right now.”
    With her vacant eyes and
frown, it seemed a topic Mila wasn’t in the mood to explore.
She put her finger to his lips. “We should talk about this later. I’m very
tired.”
    Rob let it drop. But it was something
he wasn’t going to let up on. Mila went off to bed while he
showered and got ready for work. The start of a normal
day.
     
     
    Adapt or Die
     
    Pro-Survival was located
two blocks from Main Street in downtown Nyack and about three miles
from where Rob lived. After parking his blue Chevy Impala , Rob got a coffee
and bagel and headed to work. The brisk morning walk down the
street from the coffee place was exactly what he needed. Rob’s shop
was sandwiched between a thrift store and a book store and seemed
to fit right into the eclectic mix.
    The modestly busy downtown
area had an assortment of restaurants, cafes, bars, markets, hair
salons, and other specialty shops. Several franchises had also
moved in over the years, but his main
competitor was the West Nyack shopping mall. Rob, however, felt he had a niche market and catered to the
needs of his customers in ways the mall couldn’t. So he
believed.
    The main issue he faced
was with his landlord, Mr. Clayton. Rent offers were coming in from
places with much deeper pockets than his own. And to make matters
worse, Clayton had increased rent every year , blaming it on the economy and other external factors. Rob
couldn’t really say that he blamed him.
    He unlocked the front entrance to his
shop while holding his coffee and bagel in the other hand. The
glass door had a Closed sign hanging above and bars on the window.
Two windows on each side of the entrance displayed camouflage
camping gear and various bug-out bags.
    The shop’s motto, written on the door said, “Adapt or Die.”
Non-preppers shopped there for camping and outdoors supplies.
Preppers, however, came for the survival gear. Next door to him was the Thrift N’
Save, owned and operated by an older man named Bernie, an antique
enthusiast. He had wild, white hair and often wore Hawaiian shirts
and flip-flops.
    On Mondays, Bernie usually swung and
talked his ear off for a little bit. That morning, he was nowhere
to be seen. Rob was relieved. His other neighbor, Carol, ran World
of Books, an independent book seller. She was a pleasant-enough,
outspoken red-haired woman. But she and Bernie never didn’t get
along. Different personalities.
    He entered in shop and flipped the
light switch near the door. A line of long, fluorescent hanging
bulbs lit up in unison, casting light across a long glass display
counter in the corner by the register. In the center of the
two-thousand square shop sat four rows of shelves stocked with
goods and a display wall in the back with various carry bags and
prepper apparel hanging on hooks.
    Rob placed his coffee on the counter
near the register and looked around. Everything was just