Within the trees (OC)
(For correspondence and updates, please go to : https://ricebowl70.blogspot.com/2025/08/updates.html ) Everyone remembers where they were when it happened. You had been working at the local supermarket when you were called into the staffroom to see that the capitol building was in flames, smoke bellowing out of the marble structure as you and everyone else wondered what had just happened. You weren't left with much time to speculate as people had begun to swarm the store, the first wave coming directly from the town with you struggling to keep the peace as people began fighting over cans of soup and bags of flour, talking about a “terror attack on the capitol” and an “imminent Chinese invasion.” Within the hour the store was stripped bare and the second wave of people from the city neighboring the town had washed in before you could even fill the shelves up. Eventually you were reduced to just passing cans of soup to people out of the warehouse's customers as the other employee...