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and Alex would take any help available.
    Mrs. Moore was talking to Mrs. Davis and broke away to speak to Alex. Mrs. Davis was gesturing to the remaining students to get up and get ready.
    She walked up to Alex and surprised her by taking her hand. With a very intense stare she exclaimed, “I believe in you. I know you and the others can do this. You will make it home.” Shaken by Mrs. Moore’s intensity but also strangely more confident Alex gave a firm nod.
    “I want you to take this Alex.” Mrs. Moore reached into her huge purse and pulled out Mr. Carter’s wallet and money belt. She handed them to Alex and then took out her own wallet.
    “Take out the money and give the rest back to me and take this as well.” she ordered Alex and handed her the money from her wallet.
    “Mrs. Moore I can’t take this! What will you do?” Alex cried.
    “Hush now and listen! Mrs. Davis has two thousand on her and all the other students and adults have money so that is all I need. Besides, this paper will be worthless by the end of the day. So take it and use it as soon as you can. Find a sporting goods store and get bikes and camping gear and water and food. Give all of it to get what you need and then get out of this death trap city fast. Now, one other thing before you go. When you get home and I know you will, if I’m not there that means I didn’t make it,” Alex tried to interrupt, “No hush and listen. This is important! Go to my home. Do you know where I live? It’s not that far from your farm. Good. Go to my home and check the basement. It is full of supplies. If it has been cleaned out don’t worry about that. Go back behind my old shed and there is a set of storm doors with a pad lock on them. The key is under the kitchen sink. The storm cellar was enlarged and it is just as full of supplies and there is also a living space in it. Now this is very important. Tell no one! No one! Not even your family. It is only to be used in dire straits. You must keep it safe for a time that is life and death. Do you understand? Being a little hungry from rationing is not an emergency. Starving to death is. There is food and medical supplies but if it is all used up, it cannot be replaced. Do you understand Alex? This is so important to your future.”
    Stunned, Alex agreed. “Do you really think it will come to that Mrs. Moore? Starving?”
    “It is hard to say but people do terrible things when they are scared. There is plenty of livestock and crops where we live so it should be fine but there may be a lot of refugees from the cities. Then again, Canada might not even be touched by this but I doubt it. Anyway, time for your group to go.” and Mrs. Moore surprised Alex again by pulling her into a tight hug.
    Quinn and the rest were all standing and waiting for Alex, so she headed towards them and they all started for the front gates. Alex thought that it was ironic that here she was in Disneyland for the first time and she hadn’t even gotten more than 300 feet inside and she was leaving again, never to return. Suddenly she whirled around and called out to Mrs. Moore, “Thank you! I always looked forward to your classes! Good luck!” Alex could see Mrs. Moore standing alone watching them leave, then she slowly turned away.
    Alex caught up to Quinn and gave a brief smile and nod to Dara and Cooper as she passed them. He looked down at her and asked, “Ready?”
    “Ready!” she replied.
    Alex checked her watch and was again surprised to see that only an hour and a half had passed. It felt like forever since this all began. At only 9:40am it was promising to be a very long day. She told Quinn the time and he suggested they plan to have bikes by no later than noon. While the students had been organizing themselves, there had been a steady stream of people leaving the park but it had been fairly quiet. Some crying kids but no one seemed to be panicking. Alex guessed that it helped that it had happened so early and the park