The End Read Online Free Page A

computer reiterated to nobody in particular that the contents in the bag did not match the weight of the item scanned.
    He started to second guess his decision to come at all but then began to relax again.  Fact of the matter was that he was alone.  There wasn't some creature waiting to consume him in the frozen goods section or a horde of zombies in the baked goods area.  There were, on the other hand, hot pockets and ho-ho's.  He grabbed a few of each but tried to stay practical.  He grabbed a manual can opener, a ton of canned goods, a basketful of beef jerky, bottled water, and all the multi-vitamins they had on the shelf.  They even had an entire rack of first-aid kits so he grabbed a few of those as well.  The cart was heavy and became difficult to push near the end but push it he did.  Straight out the front door waving as he went to the security cameras.
    He began to unload the goods into the trunk of his car when he noticed smoke was pouring out of the drive-thru window at the KFC across the street.  His instincts were already adapting to the circumstances.  Instead of running to help or calling out or picking up his phone to call the fire department his thoughts went straight to fleeing.  Who knew how long before a fire, probably a grease fire no less, would begin to spread. And with no emergency services to put it out, maybe holing up in his house wasn't the best idea after all. 
    He checked the gas gauge and eyed the station across the street.  He'd have to maneuver through a several car pileup to fill up but if he was going anywhere he'd need to fill up.  Evan wasn't even sure where to go.  He didn't really have any friends or family left to check up on.  As far as he knew, for whatever reason, he appeared to be the last man on Earth.  Should he try and figure out what happened?  Or how wide spread it was?  Or if it could be reversed?  Was that his responsibility now?  He stared at the pile of snickers bars on his passenger seat and felt a little guilty.  When he looked up he also saw one of those new hybrid SUV's sitting a few spots up—the keys still sticking out of the door.
     
    . . .
     
    Evan pulled his newly acquired Toyota Highlander into his garage.  He left all the groceries in the back intending on grabbing some clothes and a few personal items before heading... somewhere.  He packed his clothes, some toiletries, a pack of plastic 1 gallon zip lock bags just in case (just in case of what he wasn't sure yet).  Not being much of a survivalist he didn't have anything like a wind up lantern or solar battery packs or anything like that but they did cross his mind.  He also didn't have any weapons.  Even the pistol in his pocket was pretty useless since he didn't have any ammo.  Hell he wasn't even sure where to buy ammo. 
    He didn't winterize the house or shut the power off figuring such things just didn't matter anymore but he didn't see any reason to leave the TV on.  As he picked up the remote to shut it off he noticed something.  The TV was still showing footage of the empty stadium in Philadelphia.  Only now the jumbotron wasn't showing player statistics or txt to vote for your favorite player ads.  It said in large letters from top to bottom, WTF?
    "Nice."  Evan sat down and stared at the screen.  The screen changed to the empty field again.  A moment later it flashed to the empty stands and was several more minutes before the jumbotron was in view again.  This time his heart skipped a beat.  As if someone were erasing characters from a command prompt he watched the ? F T W leave the screen one at a time and in its place appeared L E O  I S  A  T O S S E R.  Paranoia began to seep in.  Had he gone crazy?  Did he just steal groceries AND an SUV?   Maybe this wasn't as widespread as the entire world.  Or maybe this was just an elaborate prank programmed by some bored employee of the stadium to appear only during off hours.  He'd been known to insert trick