You are correct; it’s worth grabbing the phone. I can’t see caring about the ebook reader or (assuming it’s a video game) the DS.
I would hope that while we grabbed the cat and dog that an explanation of one sentence or so could be provided, but I am a man and I would definitely do as ordered if my wife ever came home and said this. I mean, what’s the harm other than an unnecessary adrenaline rush and a little wasted gas if it turns out to be nothing?
I wouldn’t surprise me if this happened to some other member of my wife’s family as one is a stockbroker (lost a lot of money for a then-unknown mafia client?) and her father sells safety and medical equipment in Mexico (accidentally ran afoul of a major drug cartel member?). Our own jobs are mundane enough that I can’t imagine how such a situation could ever occur, which is all the more reason to take it seriously if my wife came in under the circumstances described
Yeah - the Nintendo game thing. I know where they all are. They’re on my desk and/or on my chair - which is almost certainly where I already am, anyway. So I don’t have to go looking for them. Although, now that I think about it, I need to add recharging cables to the list. I should put together a fanny pack with cables for emergency supplies.
I’m mentally ill and gaming is my self-medication of choice. I would no more leave my gaming devices at home than I would my Paxil. Although on reflection, I’d probably be fine with just the Kindle. I can live without computer games, but not without reading material.
“Jumping” and “running” are just not in my core competencies.
Get in the car and go right that instant to a large pay public parking garage. Stop and inspect the car for tracking devices, find any and all, take them off and have them in hand in a bag, leave the parking garage, drive in a direction until I find a moving pickup truck going in the same direction. Toss the tracking device(s) into the back of the pickup at a red light when the pickup driver isn’t looking, and then drive in a different direction and never come back.
Why do you ask?
My family actually has a code word for just this sort of situation. It was an idea I came up with as a single parent, when I say that word you do just exactly what I say immediately with no questions. So if any of them said the go word I would go, no questions, because that’s the agreement we’ve made.
I’d go, but if no sensible explanation is offered within a few minutes after leaving once we’re on the road we’re coming to a dead stop. My tolerance for panicked craziness has grown short over the years.
I’d jump to packing stuff immediately, but I’d be pestering for an explanation the whole time. Also I’d be demanding he tell me where we are going so I knew where to meet him - we can’t fit both kids in car seats AND the dog AND the two cats in just one of our cars (I guess the chickens would be SOL), so we’d have to travel separately.
Mostly I’d trust he had a good reason, but I realised during our recent earthquake that he spooks more easily than I.
The OP specifically says there’s no time to pack anything, which (speaking as poster, not as OP, so feel free to disagree) I take to mean that you can grab stuff you can carry without containers (duffles, boxes, etc) but nothing those would require.
If it came down to it – say in an incontrovertible and obvious emergency that could be summed up in five words or so, and only one car were available – would you be willing to leave all or any of the pets behind?
If the cats can’t come with, then we are all staying put. I have enough firepower to deal with anything short of an Abrams, and even then I’ll be going down hard.
It is a beautiful day for someone else to die!
I trust my partner at least as much as I trust myself. And he’s the most laid-back person I’ve ever known; I have NEVER seen him express any kind of agitation or fear. So in this situation I’d have total trust in him, and follow without question. Well, one question: what do we do with the dogs and cats?
In the time it would take to stuff the cats into their carriers, I’m sure he could explain at least a little. But I trust him and I would know if he was definitely serious - if he says we need to run, NOW, then we go.
I’d go but in the time it would take her to catch the kids & strap 'em into their seats, I could toss a few rifles + ammo, food & water & my bug-out bag/bush survival kit into the car. In any kind of ‘run now’ scenario I’d rather have that stuff than not.
Our cats are awesome but can take care of themselves (and could be anywhere in a 500m radius of the house, so we’re not waiting).
Man.
My working presumption would be that my wife has had some sort of psychotic break. Going with her would make the most sense in the moment: never directly challenge a delusion.
BTW I don’t think I trust my wife any less than any of the rest of you trust your spouses, nor does she have a history of psychosis, but psychosis still seems much more likely that anything that we’d need to abandon all and run from.
I would be demanding an explanation.
But. Whilst the Fella was explaining, I would be rounding up the boys, grabbing meds, the purse and leashes. TBH, if he came home and said something like that, I would likely be shocked.
Now that I think about it we almost had a scenario sorta like this a few months ago.
Bad weather was in the area and I was home at the time. The sky looked like something from the Poltergeist movie. A tornado had been spotted in the county and there were warnings for possibly more.
So, I am standing outside watching the show (I love bad weather!). And of course thinking about what to actually do should I see a funnel cloud moving our way. Right across the street is a nice drainage pipe. The safest place to be should a tornado strike. Then I though about running in the house telling the SO to “run, its a fracking tornado…dive in here” and how that would actually play out. I decided that the most likely result of any impending tornado would be me diving in a drainage pipe and the SO still playing Farmville and asking stupid questions shortly before she ends up going on a vacation with a bunch of damn dirty munchkins.
If my wife ever said such a thing, she wouldn’t be joking. Grab the Firebug, get in the car, listen to her explanation as we head down the road.
The obvious emergency is bushfire. I can’t -not- think about this as though we’re fleeing a bushfire, try as I might. If I could picture us trying to outrun assassins or alien invasion or angry mob I may have answered differently, but all I can think of is the disaster we’re most likely to encounter.
Packing stuff = getting the kids into the car. I’d grab my laptop if there was time but I think I’ve got all my photos in cloud storage anyway, so I could walk away without it. Only one car? It wouldn’t be a comfortable journey, but we could probably cram all the furred pets in if it were a survival situation. On our way out the gate I’d open the hen house and give them the chance to save themselves (it would probably be open anyway. It usually is).
That’s just the kind of thinking that gets people eaten by zombies.
The only reason I would go without demanding an explanation is that I would assume he was joking. My guy absolutely would joke about something like that, it’s part of the package with him. I’d make him box up the cat and drive, but I’d leave fast. Probably assuming we were just off for a drive to the convenience store or to get ice cream or whatever and he was having fun with it. Once I find out he’s not joking there will be explanations required indeed. Realistically though, if it were a real danger he would have texted the whole story to me on his way to the house 
My ex-husband? From him I’d have demanded an explanation. “Tsunami” or “Fire” would suffice, as would something slightly more involved, but he’s not the world’s best thinker in a crisis, and often jumped straight to the “run away” solution to things that were actually not that dire. Really I don’t think a quick bit of context during the grabbing of phones and purses and cat and such is too much to ask and I’d provide it for sure if I was the one raising the alarm.
All this is colored by the fact that anywhere I’ve lived the only generally occurring natural disasters are tornadoes and blizzards, neither of which necessitate bugging out - rather the opposite. Hunker down in the basement and ride it out is my default, so having to leave in a hurry just doesn’t seem “real” to me.
I ain’t going nowhere without knowing why.