I like a good old fashioned Armageddon like any good malcontent. But the type that really freaks me out? Pharmageddon.

I’ve written about stockpiling drugs in other blog posts. I’ve mused over the feasibility of our government having enough prescription drugs to sustain us in the event of catastrophe. But these projections of social collapse usually mirror previous disasters. The powers in charge are planning for tornadoes, acts of God, biological warfare, viral reckonings, invading forces. There doesn’t seem to be a well-detailed plan for a pharmageddon.

What’s a pharmageddon, you ask? It’s apocalypse via the destruction of our chemical supply chains, resources, and production plans. It’s what happens to Aberdeen Childress and all the souls surrounding her in my debut novel, Chemicals. Pills are a precious commodity, people who aren’t successful at going cold turkey off medications once supplies run out are in serious trouble, and our culture is forced to face our dependence on happiness, stability and health straight outta the laboratory.

While businesses catering to survivalists flourish, selling everything from barrels of wheat to molds for creating homemade bullets, there is less of a focus on mitigating disaster from the disappearance of our drugs. Scared raiders might get you? Marauding cannibals? Well, if you didn’t get your tranquilizer script filled before the zombies hit the streets, you could be having life-threatening seizures within a day of detoxing off that drug. Good luck with that.

I haven’t become a nutter about prescription stockpiling, even after I felt compelled to write Chemicals. But I do find myself refilling my most important medications more regularly. A voice within always says, “Erica, they’d get things up and running again eventually. The stockpiles are large enough to last for the short stint of chaos.” But then I tell that voice it’s naive and overly optimistic. Things might not rally and drugs might not last.

Which leads me to very important questions for you, dear reader. As I round the corner and eye the finish line on my upcoming series, The Blood Zodiac, I turn my thoughts back to Aberdeen, Hurt and Louis. Those plagued and harried souls of Chemicals have more story to tell, and book two is simmering within. I have a strong notion of where the story will go and what will happen, but I need your help with the backdrop. Thus, the questions I pose to you are these: America has gone without the fortification of prescription drugs for about a year. How does America look? How are people surviving? What’s the scariest thing about this landscape?

I really would appreciate your thoughts on this matter. Tell me if people have found new ways to cope, and what that might look like. Have certain jobs changed in response to the crisis? Are people manufacturing their own cures? While I have my own ideas, I value the creative imaginings of others. Who knows? Your suggestion might end up in the next book, when Aberdeen and her ragtag group returns.

Feel free to comment here or email me at contact@ericacrockett.com with your thoughts!

And want to read a nonfiction book about pharmageddon, entitled Pharmageddon? It’s currently on my to-read shelf and looks riveting.

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