“All we did was break pieces off the rock which are coming along with the main rock. We’ve done everything we knew how to do and we’re sorry to say, we’ve failed. We can’t stop the rock. Yes, we know what you’re feeling, but the truth is the rock is coming and it’s going to hit the Earth. We are plotting the course of the rock and where it will hit. Once we have it calculated, we will let you know. It’s taking more time than we expected because its course was shifted from our nuclear strikes, just not enough to miss us. We believe we’ll have the information tomorrow. In the meantime, we believe the best advice we can give is, if you live within fifty miles of a coast, prepare to move inland. If you live in the extreme northern hemisphere, we suggest you prepare to move. If the rock strikes land, which is what we expect, it will throw over a billion tons of debris into the atmosphere. This will block the sun from reaching the ground, thus the temperature is going to fall, plants will die, and the supply of food is going to decrease. Thus, both President Aristov and I have signed executive orders freezing the price of food, fuel, and medical supplies. We’re also freezing all rents.
“Please do not run out and strip the food shelves, we’re releasing restrictions on what can be purchased per person. These will be posted in every food store, as will be a number to call to report any price gouging. We will not accept people taking advantage of this situation to enrich themselves.
“We want every family to prepare themselves for whatever may happen. We’ve spoken to most of the leaders of a hundred fifty plus countries and all have agreed to prepare their countries. We have alerted our militaries to assist our first responders in keeping the peace and to prepare whatever may be needed.
“I will now spend a moment to speak to the Americans. I have recently signed a series of executive orders. These cover using the military to support our first responders. We’re going to purchase on the open market at least one billion barrels of oil. We’re also going to purchase freeze dried food, medical supplies, PPE supplies, and hundreds of millions of doses of common drugs. We expect the factories which manufacture the items we’re purchasing will work around the clock to fill our orders. I am asking everyone not to rush out and clean the shelves. I have faith in us. We’ve survived and come out stronger after Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and the attacks on our grid. We will come through this stronger than we were before. I’m asking God to bless the entire planet. Good night and may God bless all of us.”
Millions didn’t wait to hear the end of the President’s speech. They went to their local Walmart, food stores and other big-box stores. Fights broke out in the middle of the shopping aisles; fists flew over a jar of peanut butter. People tried to fill their shopping carts with everything they thought they’d need. They ignored the new signs saying only one or two of certain items were allowed to be purchased per shopper. The cashiers didn’t want to get into fights with the shoppers, so they didn’t stop anyone from purchasing any number of items on the restricted list.
Some criminals waited for shoppers to exit with full shopping carts then they jumped them. Some were killed by gun shots from armed shoppers. Thousands of police departments were called over gunshots, carjacking’s, and theft of filled shopping carts. In many areas, shoppers didn’t stop at the checkout. They simply pushed their full carts out of the stores. When some security officers tried to stop the rush out, they were knocked down and in ten cases run over by the angry shoppers who weren’t going to allow anyone to stop them from getting their supplies while the stores still had some. Many remembered the pandemics of 2020, 2022 and 2025. They swore they’d never get caught shorthanded again.
Toilet paper, peanut butter, canned tuna, and chicken were stripped off the shelves as soon as they were filled. In many cases, shoppers took the items out of their cases or just tossed the entire case into their carts. Shelves were stripped bare of all OTC medical supplies. Energy bars and protein drinks were also sold out. When the stores closed, they realized too late many of their shelves were empty and they hadn’t ordered enough to refill all of them by the time they reopened. Most of the supplies on the delivery trucks never made it to the shelves because the stock people and store workers took them for themselves. Some sold the supplies at double the price before they even reached their homes.
In the morning, when the gun stores opened, there were already lines that had started forming at midnight the night before. Hundreds of people spent the night waiting for the chance to buy a new gun and ammo. The NIC firearms background check system crashed within ten minutes. People waiting in line to finalize their purchases got so angry, and many grabbed their weapons and left to the screams of the store employees. Police were called but they said due to their reduced numbers after the 2020 elections they couldn’t respond. Since most semi-auto rifles had been made illegal, shotguns and high-powered hunting rifles sold out in an hour.
Within an hour of opening, most stores and the few remaining websites sold out of ammo. Although the
