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"What language is that?" Olivia asked She kicked at the nearest one, knocking the dust and clumps of dirt from it with the toe of her boot It was buckled on one side, the thin wood cracking as if it had fallen fro side up in a field

"Chinese?" Jude guessed "Japanese? Korean?"

I didn’t recognize the words printed there, but the sinize

The American Red Cross branches had, if you believed the news, run out of funds and supplies once all shipping to and from the United States was halted People were afraid that IAAN was contagious and could juue another, healthier country Once the econo to stay afloat for two more years

So what the hell was this stuff?

"Liv--check it out!" one of the guys called He and a few of the others had sliced through the plastic and were levitating boxes down to the ground froutted, its fire-engine-red innards sliding across the floor I picked up one of the red packages that had spilled out, surprised by its weight and rectangular shape There was a sketch of a , both printed under the words HUMANITARIAN DAILY RATION

"‘This bag contains one day’s complete food requirement for one person,’" Olivia read There were more lines beneath it--in French and Spanish, ift froe back to her

There were several sharp intakes of breath around us, but most of the others had been driven onto the next shelf, pulling down cardboard boxes printed with TEN 24-HOUR RATIONS GP NATO/OTAN APPROVED

"This stuff is from the UK, I think" Jude had ripped into one of the boxes and was exa a pamphlet that had been left inside "There’s…there’s so much stuff Matches, soup, chocolate--oh my God, there’s even tea!"

"Take e need," I said, "but look for the medicine Do you see any of it?"

"This stuff is from Russia!" I heard Brett call from the next aisle over

"Here’s Germany, Canada, and I think Japan," Olivia called back

"France and Italy, too," came another voice "They all say daily rations!"