After The Virus (Book 2): Homesteading

by Archer, Simon

  The sky above was a rosy hue, tinged with blues and oranges as the sun sank lower behind the trees. I looked up, then back to the young woman.

  “Probably a good idea,” she said. “We’ve got vet supplies back at the house, along with my books.”

  “Do you really think that’s a good idea?” I asked. “The dogs hate him, and I don’t think he’d do well in a pen or a crate.”

  “I think you’re right,” Jackie said with a sigh. “Maybe a zoo would have the facilities, or…” her voice trailed off as her eyes lit up. “The University!” she exclaimed suddenly. “The veterinary department has facilities for larger animals.”

  “But doesn’t have any power,” I pointed out.

  “Oh, damn. Right.” Jackie closed her eyes and swiped a sleeve across them. The coywolf rolled his eyes to look up at her, following the motion.

  “However,” I said. “There’s an alternative. There’s a farm vet practice that has pens for larger animals. He did in-house work, surgeries and such, on everything from hamsters to horses, as well as house calls.”

  “How far is it?” She asked.

  “About fifteen minutes from the house. You think Goldeneye here will keep quiet for a ride?”

  “We’ll want to immobilize his leg and strap him to a stretcher or something,” Jackie replied. “There’s enough coyote in there that I don’t really trust him to do anything other than not bite me.”

  “That’s a hell of a lot of trust, I think,” I said wryly. “I’ll call in and let the others know the situation. Hopefully, they won’t give us too much shit.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on it,” she said, shifting around so that the coywolf’s head was in her lap.

  “Yeah,” I said, chuckling. “I wouldn’t take that bet, either.”

  8

  We had the coywolf all bundled up and strapped onto a makeshift stretcher when Angie pulled into the Boutwell’s yard. She stuck her head out of the window of my Silverado and fixed us with a look that said, “Really?”

  Jackie just returned that look with a scowl while I dropped the tailgate. Then the three of us loaded the subdued animal into the truck bed, and the young woman climbed in after.

  “You going to be okay?” I asked her.

  She nodded and smiled.

  “I’ll be fine. We’re going to that vet office?”

  “Home, first,” I replied. “We need a generator and Estelle.”

  “Why Estelle?” Jackie asked.

  “Because she knows at least a little about sedation and setting bones,” I replied. “If we’re going to take care of this furry asshole, we might as well do it right.”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, then. “You’re right.” A smile lit up her beautiful face. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” I asked.

  “For trusting me,” she replied. “I can imagine how hard it was.”

  “Are we leaving or not?” Angie yelled back, interrupting my follow up.

  I shrugged to Jackie, and she smiled and winked, then I walked around to the passenger side and got in.

  “Home, Jeeves,” I said imperiously.

  “Don’t be a dick,” Angie said, grinning. She popped the truck into gear and turned it around, rather skillfully avoiding goats and goat remains. “You have to tell me what happened, though.”

  “Right,” I said. “Can you wait ‘til we get home? I’d rather not tell the story twice, and besides, there’s probably some things Jackie needs to fill in.”

  The former soldier sighed dramatically.

  “Oh, fine,” she said. “I get to go out with you next time, though.”

  “Deal. I think we may need to make a trip to Atlanta or try to talk Bruce into coming here.” I leaned my head back against the headrest. Damn, but these seats were comfortable. “Did you put out any signs?”

  “Not too many, just one at each exit from the border to Auburn and back,” she replied with a shrug. “Six or so. Tommy helped.”

  I grinned. The sickly kid that I’d helped ferry to the CDC was doing a lot better now. Not even the doctors and scientists who’d survived had any more of a clue about how the thing I’d secretly started calling the Reaper Virus worked, but they’d been able to help the young boy’s immune system fight it off. I figured they had samples and whatever they needed, but so far, there’d been no breakthroughs.

  It didn’t really matter, ultimately. The thing had run its course, leaving behind corpses that didn’t decay, aside from like, one. There was always a chance that trucker hadn’t died from the virus, too.

  “What are you doing with that thing back there?” Angie asked as we drew close to the farm.

  “I know a vet practice where we can take care of his leg,” I replied. “But after that, I’m kind of leaving it up to Jackie.”

  “She’ll have it sleeping in our room if you let her,” she said.

  “I don’t think it’ll come to that. She doesn’t want to piss off the cats.”

  “Heh,” Angie said, chuckling. “True.”

  “So,” I asked as we turned down the driveway. “Do you mind watching the kids?”

  “Nope. I’m good on staying home while you guys play Doctor Dolittle.”

  That was almost an apt description of Jackie. I took a look out the back window of the cab. She was huddled over the big coywolf, protecting him from the wind and the jolting of the truck. The creature had been surprisingly docile since she’d done whatever it was she’d done back at the Boutwell’s.

  I still wasn’t sure I knew exactly what happened there. It looked like the young woman had approached the coywolf on his own terms and won a battle of wills and postures, surprising him so that he showed weakness in front of the rest of his pack. The dogs had attacked in an attempt to take down their leader, while the other coyotes fled.

  Now the critter was acting damn near like a pet.

  I really didn’t get it, but I was an engineer and a mechanic, not an animal whisperer like Jackie.

  The house lights were on as we pulled up, and I grinned with self-satisfaction. My first attempt at installing an off-grid solar array was successful, at least for now. After a week, I’d check it again. Then a month later.

  I had a plan which also included starting on a second array.

  We pulled to a stop in front of the house, and I got out, followed by Angie.

  “I’ll wait out here,” Jackie said calmly. “I don’t want to leave Goldeneye by himself.”

  So she had accepted the name I’d called the coywolf. Cool.

  Estelle met us on the porch.

  “Irene’s asleep, and Tommy’s taking a bath,” she reported. “How did it go?”

  “I’ll give you two a quick summary, but Jackie’s waiting in the truck,” I said. “Let’s just say we caught the coywolf, but we need to take him to the Gardner Vet.”

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Real quick,” Angie interrupted. “I’m heading on in, and I’ll wait for the long-form story.”

  “Cool,” I told her, then shrugged to Estelle as the other woman went into the house. “He’s got some bites on his neck and a broken leg, far as we can tell. There might be more.”

  “So you want me to help play animal doctor?” she scowled and put her hands on her hips.

  “Please?” I said.

  A smile teased at the doctor’s full lips, and she shook her head and sighed.

  “Fine. Let me get my bag and book. You probably need to load a generator.”

  “Just cables,” I replied. “The inverter in the truck puts out enough wattage for lights and such. Besides, it’s diesel.”

  “Right, right,” Estelle observed and bustled inside to get her things while I hurried off to one of the sheds to grab all the drop cables I could carry.

  About twenty minutes later, we pulled into the dark, empty parking lot of the Gardner Veterinarian Clinic, formerly run by Drs. Eugene and Katherine Gardner. It was a fairly large, one-story building that looked about as much li
ke a house as anything else. Behind it, a two-acre fenced lot housed the sheds, corrals, and kennels that allowed the practice to handle the larger animals.

  I felt guilty about breaking in. You might have thought that the months since we’d all woke up from the virus would have softened that a bit, but it hadn’t. I had known the Gardners. They helped me out by being part of the first wave of customers at my garage when I was just starting out.

  Once the door was open, I ran cables into the building and got the lights going in one of the operating rooms. It would serve as an exam room and should work for whatever Jackie and Doctor White might have to do.

  Once that was done, the three of us eased the stretcher out of the back of the truck. Goldeneye whimpered a little and squirmed beneath the blanket, but he didn’t struggle much.

  Instead of moving him off the stretcher, we just carefully set it down on top of the metal table in the room.

  “Possible broken leg?” Estelle asked, all business.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jackie told her.

  The doctor nodded, then looked over at me.

  “You think you can go rummage around and find a sedative, Henry?” she asked.

  “What sorts of things am I looking for?” I countered.

  Jackie ran a hand over the coywolf’s big head, stroking his fur while she spoke to him in calm, soothing tones. The tip of his tail twitched beneath the blanket.

  Estelle ignored them and focused on me. “Ketamine,” she said flatly. “That’ll be the easiest thing for you to remember. Make sure it’s unopened and check the shelf life. The stuff keeps for sixty months when stored, but that drops off pretty quickly once it’s opened.”

  “I’ll be right back, then,” I replied, flipped on my headlamp, and hurried off to search.

  “You,” Estelle addressed Jackie. “Find a splinting kit or whatever passes for one in a vet clinic, along with wound cleaner and antibiotics.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Surprisingly, the ketamine was easy to find, although I had to break into a locked refrigerator to get it. I was the first back, although I heard Jackie rummaging around through the other rooms.

  Goldeneye wasn’t beneath the blanket any more, although he was still well-secured with the makeshift padded restraints Jackie and I had cobbled together from rope and shop cloths. Estelle stood a safe distance back from him while he just lay there panting, eyes closed.

  “I’m really surprised that he’s this calm,” the doctor said.

  “Jackie did it,” I told her, holding out the boxed vial of ketamine and a package of syringes. I hoped they were the right kind.

  She took them without comment and started prepping one.

  “It’s amazing,” Estelle said. “I’d expect a wild animal to be struggling and fighting, not this.”

  “Don’t complain,” I said with a smile. “It certainly makes our job easier.”

  “Oh, I am far, far from complaining,” she said. “I hope I can do this. He certainly is a beautiful creature, isn’t he?”

  I was interrupted by Jackie’s sudden appearance through the doorway.

  “Is this what you need?” she asked, holding out a couple of boxes that said something to the effect of “canine leg splint: large” and “canine leg splint: extra-large.”

  Estelle took both and inspected them.

  “Sure,” she said, making a face. “We’ll size him while he’s out. Did you get antibiotics?”

  “I did,” Jackie nodded and fished some items out of her jacket pockets. “Sulfodene ointment, and amoxicillin.”

  “That should work,” Estelle said, taking the items and setting them aside. “I’m going to give him an intramuscular injection of ketamine. It should sedate him after about five or six minutes, then we’ll have about twenty minutes to check his leg, set it if necessary, and splint it. While I’m working on that end, you take some of that cleaner there on the counter and thoroughly irrigate the wounds on his neck, then treat them with ointment.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Jackie answered, putting on gloves while the doctor did.

  Estelle looked pointedly at me.

  “Now don’t go thinking that you get to just stand around,” she said. “Glove up. You’re going to be my extra set of hands.”

  I sighed. Here I thought I could just watch and look pretty through this. It took a while for me to find gloves that fit and squeeze into them. Estelle didn’t wait for me, either. She went ahead and had Jackie distract the coywolf for a moment, long enough to inject the syringe of ketamine into the animal’s thigh. He twitched and whined, then growled softly at the doctor.

  Jackie stroked the coywolf’s head and murmured to him while we waited. Eventually, his eyes closed, and his panting breaths leveled out. Estelle gave a quick listen to the animal’s heart and smiled.

  “He’s good,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.”

  The doctor moved quickly, feeling around the coywolf’s leg from the paw up to his hip. She frowned after a couple of minutes of this.

  “Jackie,” Estelle said. “I don’t think the leg’s broken.”

  The young woman looked up from her work on the back of Goldeneye’s neck. “That’s good, right?”

  “I’m not sure,” the doctor replied. “Ultimately, in a human, I’d want imaging and other tests to see if there’s any damage to the muscles and ligaments. That’s just prep for sending a person to the orthopedist.”

  Estelle sighed and waved a hand vaguely at the coywolf.

  “I think his hip might be dislocated, but I’m not really sure.”

  “I thought I felt a break between the ankle and knee,” Jackie said, brow furrowed.

  “Come here and show me what you felt,” the doctor told her, then looked up at me. “You stand by.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I responded, stepped back, and dropped into parade rest.

  The two women fussed around the coywolf’s back leg for about five minutes, if my inner clock was anywhere near a good judge anymore. That left us maybe ten more minutes to deal with the problem.

  “Well,” Estelle said finally. “I think we’re both right. Fortunately, this just feels like a partial fracture to me. I’m more concerned about the hip.”

  Jackie nodded and looked from me to the doctor and back.

  “Okay, Henry,” Estelle focused on me. “We need to work fast. Give me your hands.”

  I nodded and held them out to her, then let her guide me. She placed one of my hands on top of the animal’s hip, and the other inside his thigh near the knee.

  “Alright,” she said. “I’m going to guide you through this. It’s a quick and dirty fix on a person, and we’ll need to keep this big boy from being too active.”

  “There are crates in storage here,” I said. “I found them while I was looking for the ketamine.”

  “Good,” the doctor said. “Are you ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be,” I replied.

  With my strength and her guidance, I shifted Goldeneye’s messed up hind leg around a bit, twisted it in, then out, then in again and was rewarded with a satisfying, audible pop.

  One of his ears twitched, and I thought I heard him whimper.

  “There we go,” Estelle said tiredly. “Let’s get his leg in the splint and give him some antibiotics, and then he’ll be good to go home.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Jackie rested a hand on the coywolf’s shoulder and smiled at me, then looked at the doctor.

  “Thank you so much, Estelle,” she said. “This really means a lot.”

  The doctor fixed the young woman with a pointed gaze.

  “Next time,” she groused. “Find a damn vet and leave me out of it.”

  9

  We crated Goldeneye up before he was fully out of sedation and loaded him into the back of the truck. Jackie was going to be on coywolf duty for the foreseeable future, too.

  Of course, we really didn’t have much of a plan for where to put him when we got back to the house until Jac
kie suggested, “What about the Roberts’ garage? I could camp out with him, maybe take Tommy with me and make a game out of it.”

  “That might be a good idea,” I mused and looked through the truck’s rear-view mirror at Estelle.

  “You’re on your own,” she said. The doctor sat leaning back in the bucket seat behind me, her eyes closed. “I’m done playing vet for the foreseeable future.”

  “Were any of the people in Atlanta veterinarians?” Jackie asked.

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “None of the folks at the CDC were, but who knows what Bruce might have turned up in his rambles.”

  “True,” Jackie said quietly. She smelled thoroughly of dog and disinfectant, although it might be more accurate to say she smelled of coyote.

  Of course, I probably didn’t smell any better.

  “Bruce never said much about those five he found, did he?” Jackie asked.

  “Not really,” I replied. “I figure we’ll get the full report when he shows up out of the blue.”

  “I wish we knew now,” she said with a frustrated sigh.

  “Well, you know Bruce,” I said. “He doesn’t like to say much of anything over the air without codewords and other tinfoil hat shenanigans, especially since someone might be listening to our long-range talks.”

  “Like the Reverend?”

  “Like someone,” I grumbled. “I miss the days of secure satcom.”

  “Satcom?” Jackie wondered.

  “Satellite Communications,” I answered. “We used it for damn near everything in the military, outside of short-range stuff. Radio is easy to intercept, so in World War II, everyone used codes and ciphers for communication.”

  “Like the Navajo Code Talkers,” She said.

  “Exactly,” I said, nodding. She rode in the cab on the way back since Goldeneye was secure in the crate under a blanket, and the whole thing tied down thoroughly.

  We chatted quietly while Estelle napped, or pretended to nap, in the back. I pulled into the Roberts’ driveway, and we offloaded the still-groggy coywolf and crate in the garage before I took the doctor home, gathered a bag of dog food, a gallon of water, and bowls, then returned to help Jackie get our furry guest situated.