THEME:
A dream that I didn't want to finish last night.
Someone stole all the stuff in my get home backpack, but left me the pack. I`m in phoenix and need to get home. An
EMP or solar flare has taken out all the vehicles and there are fires everywhere.

I’m in Phoenix. This isn’t a normal day and shit just hit the fan. An EMP took out everything! Cars are on fire, I was robbed by people I trusted and now I have to get back to the White Mountains, holy fuck. I guess I had better start off by going to a supply store. If I can get through the mobs of people that are taking advantage of this insanity.
First off, water. I gotta say this is looking really shitty. People have abandoned everything and have reverted back to a state of primal survival mode. Little do they know just how prepared I am for this. Thankfully, the scum that emptied my pack weren’t stupid enough to try to relieve me of my gun and knife. Ok, so I make my way to Fort McDowell. I’m trying to get the hell outta here, so I don’t want to backtrack, and more than that, I don’t want to run into people. The less I have to deal with people the better. I’m too old for this shit. After about 50 years, you get to know just how predictable, unpredictable people can be. Throw a disaster into the mix and it’s practically world war 3.
I find the gas station on McDowell deserted. Thank God. Not a soul around, that doesn’t mean I am relaxed. I have no doubt that someone would try something stupid with me given the change. I pull my field knife, a Winchester Bowie, my best friend right now. The store is a mess, no, that’s an understatement. The store appears to have had visitors before me and they were not kind. Several shelves have been knocked to the floor. Bags of chips are scattered and trampled, in combination with other snack foods and candy. Thankfully, the coolers are intact. Most of the soda has been pilfered, but the water, relatively untouched. People, dumber than a box of rocks, lucky me.
I managed to restock my bag just from the items left in the store. Another positive, even though the lighters were robbed, an entire basket of matches were left on the counter. I added some of them to my bag too as I exited the place. One of the things about apocalyptic reality is that you can hear everything! No electronics are buzzing or humming, no planes and no vehicle travel at all. People have no clue how loud they are. A group of people were coming up fast from the south, from the city. I decided to get the hell out of there before they reached the store, probably thinking along the same lines as me. Stock up and leave.
I made my way up the highway. I didn’t bother to bushwhack it, that would slow me down and with approx 170 miles, this was gonna take some time. I would love to do more than 10 miles a day but damn… It’s all uphill and most of this country is wild. It would be great if I could hunt something. I know there’s water up ahead, good streams. I can use the road markers as a guide, at least until Payson. I will have to be very careful there, I don’t know what other parts of the state, or the world for that matter have been affected. Fuck, I wish I was home right now. I have so many supplies, I wouldn’t have to leave for months; tinctures and food and good water. I guess I needed the exercise.
I figure if I walk 10 miles a day, that’s gonna take me over 2 weeks to get back. I have to be careful. Too much can go wrong out here in that amount of time and I am really likely to come across someone while I’m out here, especially when I reach the more populated areas. God Dammit I wish I had my dog with me. What the hell is she gonna do while I’m gone? Hopefully my neighbor goes over and takes care of her.
The sun is high in the sky already which means I don’t even have a full first day to begin with. Here goes nothing. One foot in front of the other. I may be old, but I ain’t dead and I got a good life to get back to. All these other assholes are gonna have to figure this shit out for themselves.