Challenge #02754-G197: Panem et Moribus

There are always people who do what people in positions of authority say, just because those people are in positions of authority. There are also always people who stop and think before they act, but rarely do anything to try to stop the first kind of people from screwing themselves over. And then there are preppers.

Preppers stockpile. They stockpile food. They stockpile toiletries. They even go so far as to fret over all the different ways that civilization could collapse around them.

They seem pretty crazy, right up until they get proven right. All but the craziest of them are less than pleased about having been correct. -- Escla

Some people just like to be prepared. They see which way the winds of change are going to blow and they ready the sails so they can -at least theoretically- navigate their way through the storm. Some believe in revolution. Some believe in a global pandemic. Some believe in a literal disaster as the stars fall.

Most of them seem to believe they can solve these incoming problems with a combination of bunkers and bullets. There are, however, the rare few who truly think about things and actually prepare to help as many others through the storm as they can. Some of them just drift into this via other occupations, like Extreme Couponing.

When the revolution came in the arms of a plague, Cassandra had been predicting it for years. They had been working on systems to manufacture emergency supplies on the spot since they saw it coming, some decades prior. Old, slow technology that was carefully maintained. Newer technology in the same state. Non-perishables by the crate. Things and methods and instructions that could be of use when the time came. Of course, everyone watching Cassandra from the illusion of safety thought they were overreacting. Until the inevitable, of course, happened.

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