Funding the Apocalypse

Stepping out of the darkness, Elora did not hesitate. She swept her leg out, catching Tessa behind the knees. Tessa crumpled to the pavement with a sharp gasp, her head striking the brick wall. She joined Caleb in a deep, oblivious sleep on the cold concrete.

Standing in the shadows of the alley, Elora let out a small, contemptuous snort. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of disposable plastic gloves saved from a Cajun restaurant. She snapped them over her fingers and bent down.

She retrieved Caleb and Tessa's dropped phones from the grit of the alley floor. Utilizing their unconscious bodies, she grabbed Caleb's limp hand first, pressing his thumb to the sensor. The screen glowed to life, unlocking the device. She repeated the process with Tessa’s phone, using the woman's limp index finger.

"Looks like I scored a good deal too."

She whispered the words to herself with a cheerful lilt, her fingers moving with precision over the glowing screens. She opened the app store and began downloading every single high-interest payday loan application available. Her hands worked over both screens simultaneously, a blur of motion in the dim halogen light.

The predatory loan algorithms were more than pleased to extend credit. The digital process required nothing more than a phone number and a quick credit check. Within seconds, notifications chimed as massive funds were approved. Elora navigated the interfaces, draining as much money as the platforms would allow. The apps took a large cut in processing fees, but the sheer volume made up for it. By utilizing the stellar credit lines of both Caleb and Tessa, she pulled in nearly two million dollars in predatory loans under their combined names. She transferred the massive influx of cash directly into her own secure bank account.

To finalize the trap, she navigated into the account settings and set the repayment deadline for a mere seven days. The loans would default right as society collapsed. Before the apocalypse even registered to the masses, that treacherous couple would experience the brutal reality of ruthless loan sharks hunting them down for millions they never spent.

She wiped all digital traces from the phones. She deleted the apps, erased the verification texts, and cleared the browser histories. She then rummaged through their bags, tossing their credit cards and lipsticks across the dirty ground, staging the alley to look like a random robbery. Satisfied with her handiwork, she left them unconscious on the freezing ground and slipped away into the night.

Much later, Tessa groaned, her eyelids fluttering open. The harsh glare of the flickering streetlamp made her head throb. She sat up, her hands scraping against the rough pavement, before the memory of the alley rushed back.

"Caleb! Caleb, wake up!"

She slapped his shoulder until he groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. They scrambled to their feet, scanning the scattered mess of their belongings. They hurriedly checked their pockets and bags.

"Are you sure nothing is gone? That doesn't make sense."

Tessa frowned, holding her pristine phone in her trembling hands.

"Maybe someone tried to rob us, but gave up when they realized we didn't have any paper bills."

Caleb brushed the dirt from his jeans, wincing at the dull ache in his skull. Almost no one carried physical cash anymore, making muggings a frustrating endeavor for street thieves.

"Yeah, that must be it. Phones really are the best invention ever."

Tessa breathed a sigh of relief. They briefly discussed calling the police, but the alley lacked security cameras, and without missing property, filing a report felt like a waste of time. Dismissing the incident, they grabbed their bags and hobbled out of the alley.

Elora returned to the safety and warmth of her apartment. The moment the deadbolt clicked shut, a familiar soft snorting sound echoed from the hallway. Her pet pig, Pearl, waddled over, her little hooves tapping rhythmically against the hardwood floor. Pearl circled Elora’s legs, nudging her snout against her shins in a warm greeting.

"I am home. Are you happy to see me?"

Elora smiled, crouching down to rub the coarse, bristly hair on Pearl's head. She felt incredible. She poured fresh feed into Pearl's bowl, her mind buzzing with the thrill of the day. With millions of dollars secured in a single day and a devastating financial trap set for that shameless duo, a heavy weight lifted from her shoulders. She stripped off her jacket, washed her face, and fell into her soft bed. She allowed herself to sleep deeply, the tension draining from her muscles until morning.

When her eyes opened the next day, bright sunshine filtered through the window blinds, casting warm, golden stripes across her blankets. The morning felt peaceful. Life outside moved at its usual, ignorant pace. But she woke up aware that this calm would not last. The countdown to the apocalypse ticked away in her head. She needed even more funds to reach her ultimate 'Big Spender' achievement.

She sat up, grabbed her phone from the nightstand, and placed a call to her eldest adopted brother, Gavin Voss.

The line rang twice before he answered.

"Well, look who it is. Elora. This is rare. I was starting to think you had forgotten about us."

Gavin's voice came through the speaker with a faint, mocking tone, laced with the casual arrogance of wealth. Elora pressed her lips together. She was the adopted daughter, a lingering obligation placed upon the Voss family by her late guardian, Arthur. She kept her distance for years, knowing the family viewed her as a nuisance. Now, she needed to exploit that exact dynamic.

"How could I forget you? Gavin, are you interested in buying the company shares Arthur left me?"

She laughed lightly, cutting straight through the pleasantries and offering the one thing he wanted most. Eager to eliminate a perceived rival from the family business, Gavin wanted those shares back under his control.

"When are you free?"

His tone shifted instantly, the mockery vanishing, replaced by sharp business interest.

"This afternoon?"

Elora narrowed her eyes, calculating the timeline. The faster the transaction cleared, the faster she could turn that digital wealth into tangible survival gear.

"Alright."

Gavin agreed. They finalized a time and hung up.

Hours later, Elora sat in a sleek, glass-walled office downtown, watching Gavin slide a thick folder across the mahogany desk. She signed the transfer documents with practiced ease. Within minutes, her banking app pinged. She traded away her shares for an additional 700,000 dollars in liquid cash.

Gavin tucked the signed contract into his briefcase, his face glowing with relief. He had bought her out of the family legacy. She kept her expression casual, packing her own copy of the paperwork into her bag before standing up.

"Oh, right, Gavin. There is something I would like to ask you for help with."

"What is that? Tell me about it."

Gavin frowned, a momentary flash of wariness crossing his features.

"Do you have any empty warehouses? I only need one for a few days. A friend of mine wants to open a small convenience store and needs a place to store some supplies temporarily."

Elora met his gaze with an innocent, unbothered look.

"I have an empty warehouse in Weston. I will have someone send you the key later."

Relieved by the favorable share transfer, Gavin granted the small favor. Handing over a temporary storage space was nothing to him.

Armed with a huge pool of capital and a secure, private delivery location, Elora wasted no time. She drove straight from the corporate district to the city's largest wholesale market. The sprawling complex was a maze of corrugated metal roofs, massive loading docks, and roaring forklift engines.

Operating with intense focus, she pulled out her phone and accessed her recent online orders. Having huge piles of instant noodles delivered to her apartment building would invite unwanted questions from neighbors. She redirected all of her incoming online orders to the Weston warehouse to avoid suspicion before transferring them into her interdimensional storage space.

She navigated the bustling aisles, stepping into a grain supplier's depot. She grabbed a clipboard from the counter and began placing massive bulk orders. She ordered 100,000 pounds of premium, long-lasting rice. It was all high-quality stock, and the total cost came to over 400,000 dollars.

She moved down the list, requesting 40,000 pounds of millet, dropping another 160,000 dollars. She added 2,000 pounds of versatile soybeans to the tally, costing 19,000 dollars. Soybeans were crucial; they were nutritious, easy to grow, and could be transformed into soy milk, plant-based chicken, soy ice cream, and soy yogurt.

She marched over to the liquid goods distributor. She requested 2,000 large bottles of cooking oil, totaling about 120,000 dollars. She added 1,500 pounds of life-saving salt, which cost a little over 1,800 dollars. In an apocalyptic wasteland, salt was essential. A lack of it in extreme environments could cause severe health problems.

She then visited the spice merchant, spending over 200,000 dollars on every seasoning imaginable. She ordered 1,500 pounds of white sugar, 1,500 pounds of MSG, and 600 pounds of mushroom sauce. She requested 3,000 jars of chili sauce, 5,000 bottles of soy sauce, 5,000 bottles of dark soy sauce, and 500 bottles of hot sauce. She threw in 1,000 large bottles each of vinegar and salad dressing. She finished the order with bulk containers of ground ginger, garlic powder, parsley, chili flakes, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, paprika, onion powder, oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, turmeric, and nutmeg.

She approached the merchant counters one by one, paying the hefty initial deposits with quick swipes of her card. She arranged for the final settlements to be paid upon physical delivery to the Weston warehouse. Elora stepped back out into the bustling market plaza, pulling a pen from her pocket to cross off the non-perishable section. She finalized her grocery list, her eyes setting firmly on the next critical survival category on her apocalyptic list. She needed massive varieties of meat.