Grab kid, grab wallet, grab gun, and ask if I can have 2 minutes to get gold coins from safe, pointing out that credit cards can be traced and gold can be traded for cash anywhere, and that we won’t get far without cash or credit.
That is a really good idea.
We have a code word for our son, and have from an early age, so he knows if someone shows up and says, “Your parents are sick/in danger and sent me to get you,” that person must also know our code word, and if he doesn’t, he’s lying.
A little over a year ago we were getting ready for this. Fortunately Fukushima didn’t go poof, so we didn’t have to run. Now I’d want to know a tiny bit more to help know how best how to flee. With two toddlers, it’s not like we could outrun anyone anyway.
Its also the kind of thinking deal with daily and generally I inform the doctor that patient xyz is having another psychotic break and can I get a Haldol/Ativan IM Stat order before someone gets hurt.
Sorry, I’m a mom first, nurse second, everything else comes after that. Panicked fugue states included.
And ya know, I’m not sure I WANT to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. I would probably have to work a butt load of overtime.
No apparent danger is OK, he obviously knows something I do not. It still would not change the issue that I have to grab my bail out bag, no meds puts me in hospital or dead. I would probably be OK with grabbing the cat, we keep the cat carrier in the trunk actually - we just got it back from a friend and haven’t bothered to move it out yet so grabbing the [furball](Straight Dope Message Board - Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.
) is easy enough.
To be honest, making and maintaining a bail out bag is easy enough that everybody should do it, as one can never tell if you will need to evacuate or not. Housefires happen, how many threads are there on the dope about my neighbors house burned/condo burned/apartment burned and I have to stay in a hotel until I can get back in.
I wouldn’t have any trouble trusting my spouse and leaving instantly on his word, but there’s no way I’d leave the cats behind. Since we have 7 this is problematic, especially since we don’t have all their carriers at home. I think you have just made me decide to go to my storage locker and get the rest of the carriers back. You know, just in case.
I posed this question to my girlfriend last night. Apparently she’ll be asking questions about to die as I’m heading back out. At least it will slow down the zombies a little while they eat her.
I definitely go. My husband isn’t a big traveler, so if he thinks we need to go, he must be serious. I’m also with the folks citing Pascal’s Wager: if he’s wrong or delusional and we go, we get some ice cream and come home (then call a shrink). If he’s right and we stay, we’re screwed.
We grab Ivester and the dogs and head out. (The cat can come if he’s easy to catch, but I’m not wasting much time on his bitey ass.)
Yeah, I’d be like: “natural disaster, murder, Godzilla, or supernatural?” But other than that explain on the way is fine.
If it had been The Idiot Ex, I would have refused to move a hair without an explanation.
If it had been The Bestest Ex: first, he would have been babbling the explanation and the problem would have been trying to make sense of it (I probably would have filed that for “later”), but I would have grabbed my laptop, wallet, cash, documents and car keys before he’d even stopped for breath for the first time. And then I would have had to run back in to go to the bathroom.
It makes sense to me simply from knowing you’re a cop.
I would go but we must pack a small bag first. My husband is diabetic and we would need his insulin and his pump supplies or he will be dead in a few days anyway. We also need to load up the diaper bag for the baby. I know my husband well enough to know that he would never just come home like that though, he would call me and have me pack stuff up while he was on his way home.
They are listening to your phone.
HEll yes, I’d do what she said. It’d be just like old times.
It occurs to me that my parents once actually faced a similar situation. My dad was being carjacked in their own driveway, and he started yelling to my mom simply to “Call 911” before he could get into the house to explain. She called, and she initially told 911 that she didn’t know why she was calling, but her husband was having an emergency.
On the other hand, mine has gone up. Life is too boring otherwise. 
My SO is sane and pretty levelheaded. I’d pocket my wallet, phone and keys, a coat if the weather is cool, head out the door with her, and as soon as traffic allows a conversation ask for an explanation.
BTW I think of collaborating with others in terms akin to the OP’s hypothetical:
If I told someone: “Please turn this crank, counterclockwise, immediately” there would be people who
(a) first ask “Why?”, and after having been told begin turning the crank
(b) begin turning the crank, then ask “Why?”
Getting things done require the second type of person IMO.
I would definitely go with him. I would gauge by his level of panic whether I had time to grab anything on the way out.
Some Kindle models have built-in 3G data connections and crude web browsers; you can use them for email in a pinch. This makes them back-up communication devices.
I’m grabbing the ‘GO’ bag and heading out the door.
My wife doesn’t even have to be home to do this. If I get home and see a certain word on the fridge notepad, I know she’s already gone and where to meet her.
I am adding that to the list of reasons I refuse to get a Kindle.