by Lee West
“I think I’m up to date on everything. Can’t I—” started Meg.
“Nope. Everyone except recently separated active-duty members get vaccinated with the full array of shots. No exceptions.”
“Don’t worry. They’ll be over before you know it. It’s probably a speed line like we did in the Navy. You walk through a line, getting hit from all sides. It’s not fun, but it’s quick. You’ll be fine,” said Joe.
His comments did not seem to make her feel any better. Meg hated shots more than anyone he knew. Nothing Joe could say would make running the vaccine gauntlet easier on her and he knew it.
“Do you have kids?” asked the woman.
“No,” answered Meg.
The woman typed into the computer while Meg and Joe waited. Finally, she seemed satisfied with her efforts and looked up at them.
“Spit in this, please,” she said as she handed Meg a vial.
The small printer on the table printed labels. Once Meg spit into the vial, the woman put a label on it, identifying it as coming from Meg Birch. Then the woman stood and leaned across the desk to Meg.
“Open wide. I need to get a cheek swab,” said the woman.
“Is all of this necessary?” asked Joe.
“Sure is. Now you. Please come forward.”
She did the same to Joe. When she finished, she issued them each a badge containing their names and a photo ID. Joe noticed the picture came from his driver’s license. It had been one of the worst pictures he ever took. It made him look more than a little insane.
“All set here. Move back to the orange line over there and wait. Someone will be around to gather you.”
“Where are we being taken?” asked Meg.
“You have to stay in lockdown until the lab is finished with your samples. After that, assuming everything works out fine, you’ll be cleared to move to your assigned tent. You’ll also need to come back here to get inked. The back of your ID tag contains your tent number. The camp is laid out on a grid. You’re here and your new home is here. But don’t get excited. It could take a day or so for the lab to clear the two of you. In the meantime, you’ll get shots, clothing and shower time,” said the woman. “If you make it out of lockdown, chow times are seven, twelve, and six. Eat when you can because there are no snacks.”
“Inked?” asked Joe.
“Only those tested and cleared get one of these,” said the woman, rolling up her sleeve. She had the same shiny ink patch on her forearm as Larry had.
She handed them a map of the base and sat back down.
Joe could not believe the treatment they’d received. Confusion caused him to remain in place for a few seconds longer than he probably should have.
Meg grabbed his hand and said, “Come on. Let’s go. Looks like Mike’s already waiting at the orange line.”
“That was easy,” said Mike.
“Too easy. What the hell is going on here?” said Joe.
“I have no idea,” said Mike.
A soldier entered the building carrying a clipboard. He headed straight to the three of them. “Come on. This way to lockdown.”
They followed him out of the intake tent back to the warm day. The stifling heat caused Joe to gasp when he first walked outside. Within minutes he adjusted to the change in environments.
“Are you two a couple?” the soldier asked, turning to Meg and Joe.
“Yes. We’re married,” said Joe defensively.
“Too bad. You’ll have to be separated in lockdown. The dorms are gender specific. Ma’am, this is your dorm,” said the soldier to Meg.
Joe walked over to her and hugged her. He did not want to leave her but knew they had no choice but to separate.
Pulling back, he cupped her face in his hands and said, “The intake lady said this part would only be a day or so at most. Then we’ll be back together. It’ll be fine.”
He kissed her softly then opened the door for her.
Someone from the inside yelled, “Are you Meg Birch?”
Meg walked into the dark interior of the women’s dorm.
“Let’s go, boys! Your dorm is just here,” said the soldier, pointing to the next building.
Even though the buildings sat side by side, they felt miles away to Joe.
— 31 —
The interior of the men’s barracks felt no different than any other military barracks Joe had stayed in over the years. Neat rows of bunk beds dominated the interior. A large sign on one of the walls identified the bathrooms, which included communal showers.
Just inside the doors, two soldiers sat behind a large desk. The desk boasted several large computer monitors. Joe glanced at them as casually as possible, trying not to make his spying obvious.
“Go ahead and look,” said one of the soldiers. “The entire camp is covered with cameras. Nothing happens around here without being seen. You are confined to this building until cleared. Make no mistake, you try to leave and we’ll know it.”
“When the lab results are finished, if they clear you, then you can go to your assigned tents. Got it?” said the other soldier.
“Got it,” said Mike.
“Here are your bunk assignments. Fresh clothes are on the bunks. I suggest you use the shower facilities. You guys are really ripe,” said one of the men.
The other soldier laughed then added, “Shit, man. I thought that smell was from your lunch!”
Mike and Joe walked through the rows of bunk beds until they arrived at the ones assigned to them. Joe’s bed had been neatly tucked in the manner he’d learned in basic training. On top of the pristine bed sat a pile of clothing consisting of a shirt, pants, underwear and flip-flops. The outfit looked like the ones prisoners wear. A fresh white towel hung on the side rail of the bunk.
Joe could not help but notice that the other men in the dorm looked them up and down as though they had been living at the bottom of a swamp for the past month. Glancing down at himself, he realized why. Mud covered the entire front of his body. His hands were filthy from digging under the fence to escape the survivalist camp. He looked like a fugitive who had not showered in weeks, maybe months. Mike didn’t fare much better.
“I think I’m going to listen to their less than kind suggestion and take a shower,” said Joe.
“Me too. I stink and feel completely disgusting,” said Mike.
Joe grabbed his new clothes and headed to the bathroom. The water felt sublime. The camp had great water pressure, unlike the university. Finally, he had a proper shower, with soap and shampoo. He washed, rinsed and rewashed so many times he thought he would scrub off a layer of skin.
After thoroughly showering and shaving for the first time since their ordeal started, Joe returned to his bunk and lay down. He hoped Meg had similar accommodations.
Mike lay in his bunk just above Joe. Within minutes of Mike’s return, Joe heard him snoring. It started quietly enough but then built up over time to the loudest snoring Joe had heard. Eventually, Joe felt able to block out the persistent, disordered breathing, and fell in a deep sleep.
A commotion woke him. Joe wore no watch, so he could not tell how long he had been sleeping. The building’s tall metal walls did not contain windows, leaving him unable to determine the general time of day by the sky.
The noise came from the guard desk. The men were playing some sort of card game that became animated. Joe listened for Mike’s snoring but heard nothing.
“You awake?” he asked.
“I am now. How long was I out for?”
“I have no idea. They woke me up too,” said Joe.
“I’m going back to sleep. I don’t think I’ve ever slept so good.”
“Same here. I’ll wake you if anything happens,” said Joe.
Joe dozed in and out of sleep. Occasionally he got up to relieve himself but then quickly found his cot again. Returning to sleep required no effort at all. His exhausted body seemed to sink into the mattress, effortlessly finding deep sleep.
“BIRCH! J
ENSEN!” yelled someone.
“BIRCH AND JENSEN!”
Joe woke with a start, sitting up immediately after hearing his name called.
“Mike! Get up! They’re calling us!” he said as he shook the bunk.
The two scrambled to the guards’ desk. One of the men looked up from the document he held to them. “Looks like you guys are cleared. Welcome home, ladies. Feel free to grab your things and find your tents.”
“That was fast. They told us it could take a day or two to process our labs, whatever that means,” said Mike.
“It did. You two princesses have been snoring the entire time. Almost blew the roof off with that racket. No one had the heart to wake you. Judging by your appearance and how much you slept, you guys must’ve seen a lot out there.”
“That’s an understatement, to say the least,” said Mike.
“My wife? Do you know where she is?” asked Joe.
“Beats me. If she was cleared, then she’ll be headed to your tent. If not, they’ll transport her off the facility.”
“Off the facility? To where?” asked Joe, slightly panicked.
“Sorry. That knowledge is beyond my pay grade.”
Mike and Joe walked out of the building into the blinding sunlight. Joe thought it should be night, not day. Sleeping for hours at a stretch confused him when he woke. It never seemed like the right time of day.
“I don’t get any of this. I have to admit that I’m totally confused,” he said to Mike.
“Me too. Where’s your tent?” asked Mike.
“J6. Yours?”
“B3. Looks like we’re not even close to one another,” said Joe. He turned the map in his hands, trying to get an idea of the camp’s layout.
“Lunch is in forty-five minutes. I’m going to find my tent and shower beforehand. Meet you at the chow hall?” said Mike.
“Sure. Let’s meet at this one here. It’s sort of in between our two locations. With any luck, Meg will be joining us,” said Joe.
“Sounds like a plan. See you then.”
He left the lockdown building, searching the tent city. Although the camp seemed well organized, for the uninitiated, finding their way around was not as intuitive as the check-in woman had led them to believe. Several wrong turns resulted in him walking down long rows of tents that seemed to have no end. Finally he found his assigned tent.
Opening the flap, he walked into the shade of the tent. The sparse accommodations contained nothing but two cots and two lockable trunks. The keys remained in the locks. He had nothing of value to store inside the trunks. The only thing he held precious was Meg. He’d thrown away the entire outfit he’d worn to the camp. Cheapness usually made him hesitate to throw things away, but the clothes had been beyond salvage.
Sitting on the bed, his thoughts returned to Meg. He contemplated going to the female lockdown dorm to inquire about her whereabouts. Just as he turned to get up, Meg burst into the tent. “Joe!” she exclaimed excitedly.
They moved toward each other quickly, bonding their bodies together as one. He inhaled her as he held her tightly.
“I’ve been so worried about you,” he whispered into her neck.
“Same here,” she said. Breaking their embrace, she moved back from him slightly and added, “Actually, I slept for most of the time we were separated. I guess I didn’t realize how exhausted I was.”
“Same here. Let’s go and find Mike. He’s meeting us for lunch at the chow hall,” said Joe.
They walked hand and hand through the tent maze toward the chow hall.
“I’m starving,” she said.
“Me too. I hope the food is better than what I had when I was in the Navy.”
After walking a little more, Joe said, “This is it. Let’s see if Mike’s inside. Otherwise we should wait out here for him.”
“No need to wait. Here he comes.”
Mike seemed to be headed in their direction but then continued walking down a different tent row, obviously lost. He looked at the map in his hands more than his surroundings, making navigation difficult. If he had only looked up, he would have seen Joe and Meg waiting for him.
“I’ll grab him. Give me just one sec,” said Joe, kissing her cheek.
Joe sprinted off in the direction where he last saw his friend. Mike must have wandered into a different section, because he was no longer walking where Joe thought he should be. Frustrated, Joe decided to turn back toward Meg.
“BIRCH! HEY, BIRCH!” came a call from behind him.
Joe spun around to see Riley McSavage, a guy he went to basic training with.
“Hey, Savage! Last person I would have expected to see here!” said Joe. The old friends shook hands.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to my wife, Meg.”
As they walked toward Meg, Mike emerged from one of the lines of tents, finally finding his way.
“There you are!” Joe said to Mike.
“This place is a maze. I don’t know how anyone finds their way around here!” said Mike, frustrated.
“Riley, meet Mike and Meg. We’re about to have some chow. Are you free to join us?” asked Joe.
“Sure. I’d love to!” Riley said.
— 32 —
A thick cold wall of air-conditioning hit Joe’s sweaty head as he walked into the chow hall. The heat of the day had only taken a few minutes to catch up to him, making him uncomfortable. The cold air felt amazing.
He handed Meg a tray and allowed her to walk in front of him through the food line. The hot food would never qualify as haute cuisine, but Joe’s mouth watered when the food line staff piled unidentifiable globs of hot food onto his tray. He could not recall the last time he’d had a hot meal. At the university they’d subsisted on cold canned food and vending machine snacks. Again he felt his mind and body relax into being at the camp. Suspicion over the government activities gave way to gratitude for the care they received.
“Come on. Let’s sit over here,” said Riley.
Riley navigated the long rows of metal tables to find one in the far corner of the room away from other diners.
“How long have you been at the camp, Riley?” asked Meg.
Joe heard the edge in her voice and knew Meg still viewed the soldiers as the enemy. Her attitude caused him to shake back into the mindset they’d had when they first arrived on dry land. He eyed Riley suspiciously, waiting for an answer.
After swallowing an impossibly large forkful of mashed potatoes, Riley finally answered, “I’ve been here from the beginning. I’m a lab worker on base. Once the shit hit the fan, the first thing they did was to set up the labs. We’ve been super busy. I tested your samples. It’s how I knew you were here. I was on my way to find you when we bumped into one another.”
“I hated allowing them to take my DNA. Last thing I want is to be part of some sort of DNA database,” said Mike.
“You know the government can then use our DNA to thwart our Fourth Amendment rights. Why would you want to be part of any of this?” demanded Meg.
“DNA database? What are you talking about?” asked Riley.
“We know the truth of what happened. The government orchestrated the entire EMP event in order to establish martial law and imprison innocent civilians. They want to use this so-called crisis to create a new normal where we become accustomed to the government being able to enter our home, seize our belongings and arrest innocent civilians!” said Meg, a little out of control.
“Whoa! What are you talking about? None of that’s what’s actually happening here. Why do you even believe any of that nonsense? We’re under attack,” said Riley.
“Sure we are,” retorted Meg.
Joe trusted Riley. The man had always been a straight shooter for as long as Joe knew him. He had no reason to believe Riley would lie to them.
“Who attacked us? What do you mean? What’s happening?” asked Joe. He grabbed Meg’s hand and gave it a squeeze, trying to calm her.
She reciprocated the squeeze, indi
cating she would relax and listen.
“Don’t you know?” asked Riley incredulously.
“Know what?” asked Mike.
“China attacked the U.S. We’ve been defending our homeland from a full-scale invasion. All of this, the troops, the camp—all of it is part of the war effort. How did you miss the news coverage or the emergency broadcasts? The emergency broadcast system blared out its message nearly continually until they hit us with the EMP,” said Riley, shaking his head.
Riley looked at the three of them as though they were the most clueless people he had ever encountered. Joe began to wonder if they had gotten everything wrong since escaping the cruise ship.
“We were on a cruise when the EMP occurred. All we know is that after escaping the ship, we got to land to find all the citizens gone and soldiers actively grabbing people out of their homes,” said Meg.
“My family vanished. I have no idea what happened to them. My house was the first place we went when we got to the mainland. It was like they just walked out. They didn’t even leave a note.”
“Of course they vanished without leaving a note. They were hastily evacuated for their own safety. Wow. I can’t get over how far off you guys are. That’s incredible. This whole time you’ve been thinking our government had a hand in this?”
Joe nodded and said, “Start from the beginning. We need to hear the entire story of what’s been going on.”
Riley put his fork down and looked at them with detached seriousness. “The week before the EMP, China managed to launch a full-scale land attack on the U.S. west coast. They came in hard and fast, landing one battalion of soldiers after another on U.S. soil. We were completely unprepared. No one thought the U.S. would be hit like that, with conventional warfare techniques. Their sheer numbers simply overran our defenses. They even stole U.S. technology used to harden electronics against an EMP. Up until this point, U.S. war planning always involved fighting in a foreign land. Even though we have domestic defenses, we always counted on early warning of any invasion. The powers that be never really planned for a surprise attack of this magnitude. It’s just not something anyone thought would happen. We’ve become complacent with regard to the vulnerability of our shores. Up until this happened, everyone prepared for long-distance fighting.”