“Why I never tried?” he shrugged. “I don’t have family to search for. It was surreal, and I was trying to process everything, you know.”
“I can imagine.” She returned the bottle.
He took a swig. “I spent a lot of time drinking and thinking. I thought, you know, about working on the virus again, but …” he stopped, took a drink and stared out.
“Working on the virus … again?” she asked. “Are you a scientist?”
He shifted his eyes to her. “I am. A doctor, a scientist.”
“Wow,” Eve said. “I think for sure you’ll be useful at a camp. A lot more than some washed up reporter.” She reached for the bottle.
“Washed up reporter?” he chuckled. “Everyone knows you. You’ll be like camp ambassador. You watch.”
“So … did you work on the virus before … well before it beat us?”
“You can say that.”
“You were in the thick of things.”
“More than you know.”
“My God,” she took a drink and handed it back. “No wonder you were processing. Were you working on the virus or patients, or both? I’m sorry if that is too—”
“No, it’s fine. Virus. I focused on the virus.”
“Trying to beat it?” she asked.
“You can say that.”
“See.” She nudged him. “You’re more like Steve Rogers Captain America than you think. You were trying to save the world.”
He chuckled sadly.
“You said you thought about going back,” Eve said. “Going back to work on it?”
“I did think about it, then I thought, why? No one is around.”
“That’s not the case, though, is it? Do you think you’ll ever go back and try to find a cure?”
“You know what?” He looked brightly at her. “Yes. Only, I don’t think I will, I know I will. If it’s the last thing I do, I am going to beat this. I have to.”
“Wow, it almost sounds personal to you,” Eve said.
“In a way it is. It’s very personal,” he said, staring at her and speaking passionately. “I have to do this. If humanity is going to rise from the ashes to rebuild, I have to make sure this virus never, ever … throws us into that fire again.”
◆◆◆
Dubois, PA
Stew’s advice to Luke of, ‘Just make sure you put it out’, seemed solid, but the problem was how to get the campfire started.
Luke’s suggestion for everyone to hang out by the lake maybe do some night fishing was innocent enough. It was something different to do and out of the house.
Matt wanted to just stay in and bask in having Emma, Hervé was too tired, it wasn’t Marcy’s thing and Stew opted to keep an eye on the kids who should be sleeping anyhow.
Luke chalked it up that he would be alone, until Molly showed up.
She did so when Luke was on the ground, a small pile of dried wood, as he gave it all he had trying to build a fire.
It seemed a lot easier than it was. Light a match, light a piece of paper, insert into pile of wood and voila!
The breeze from the lake made it impossible, and all Luke got was a couple of sparks and smoke.
“Okay, this is a big lie,” Luke said.
“What is?” asked Molly.
“This fire thing. In the movies they just have one burning with ease. No way does it happen like that.”
“Movie sets have expert fire guys.”
“I’m sure. That’s not me.”
Just as he was about to give up, Stew appeared. He had been watching from the second story window. He told Luke, ‘step aside’ and continued until he had the fire roaring in minutes.
“Just keep poking it,” Stew instructed. “Don’t let it get too low. I won’t come back out.”
“Thank you,” Luke said.
“I’ll teach you how to do that,” Stew told him. “Then you’ll learn to shoot.”
“A gun?” Luke asked.
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“Hunting.”
“Oh, I won’t shoot a gun.”
“How the hell are you gonna bag a dear?” Stew asked.
“A bow and arrow.”
“Uh ha, I see.” Stew nodded. “Have you ever shot an arrow?”
“No.”
“Didn’t think so. You’ll handle a gun.” Stew winked. “Enjoy the fire.”
Luke waited until Stew walked away, then mumbling he walked over and sat next to Molly. “I am not gonna shoot a gun. I’ll use an arrow. I mean, how hard can it be?”
“Didn’t you say the same thing about the fire?”
“I did. Hey, thanks for coming down. I didn’t feel like staying in the house or on that dark porch.”
“Me either,” Molly said. “And it was a good day, wasn’t it?”
“It was.”
“How did you feel when you saw Matt?”
“Honestly? Scared,” Luke said. “At first, I thought, did I imagine him sick? Maybe he wasn’t and I just kidnapped his kid and my mind made up some sort of story to cover it.”
Molly laughed. “You thought of all that when you saw him?”
“Yeah, pretty much. Then I got a closer look and that rash on his neck is still healing so that told me he just beat the odds. I’m happy though. I’m happy Emma got her dad back.”
“How was he with you?”
His arms wrapped around his bent knees and Luke looked at Molly. “He’s good. I’m still uneasy. I mean, he hated me and rightfully so. It’ll take some getting used to.”
“I’m glad that portion of weight’s been lifted from you.”
“Me, too.”
Molly stared out. “I can’t believe you couldn’t start a fire. Weren’t you a boy scout?”
Luke laughed. “Who me? No. I was the town bad boy forever. Don’t you remember?”
Molly shook her head. “I am nine years older than you. I would remember you differently.”
“I was bad. I did stupid kid things, you know. Nash was always on me. What I put my poor mom through. I think about it now, you know, and I feel really bad. I can’t believe she didn’t give up on me.”
“A mother wants to believe her child will be good and turn around. You mom had no regrets. She loved you more than life itself. And you turned it around long before this virus.”
Luke lowered his head. “I tried and I still put her through so much, with the accident.”
“I can tell you, as a mom, her heart hurt for you,” Molly said. “What this town did to you after that accident, how they treated you … it was horrible. And still … still, you were there for this town. You didn’t think twice. I can say with all certainty, your mom is proud of you.”
“You think?”
“I know.” Surprising Luke, Molly grabbed his hand and slipped her fingers between his. “Your past is your past. You’re a good soul, Luke Bridges and I am glad to have you right now.” She rested her head against his shoulder.
Luke was frozen solid. Stiff as a board, he looked down to their joined hands, waiting for her to pull away. She didn’t.
After a few seconds, he exhaled and enjoyed the moment. Aside from true, honest attention from someone other than his mother, Luke felt something else.
It a dark, silent world, for the first time in a long time, Luke felt at peace.
He didn’t know how long it would last. Things really never stayed good that long for Luke. But that moment and feeling of true peace, whether a minute, an hour or week, Luke was going to enjoy every second.
35 – AT LAST
EIGHT MONTHS LATER - April 12
Carlisle Community Camp, Carlisle PA
Eve chose the mid Pennsylvania camp for several reasons
It was inland, far from the ocean, the direction that everyone traveled, and more so, it was closest to where Eve broke her foot.
That was when those moving forward kept going.
Including Silas. It surprised and hurt Eve. She thought they b
onded, but he needed to move on and find his family on his own. While he promised he’d find her, Eve knew when she said goodbye, that was it.
And with all the time that had passed, she hadn’t.
She wondered if he was safe, if he found his family. She hoped he was alive and with them.
Eve resolved herself to never knowing.
She was grateful that Steve Rogers had joined them. Being a doctor he was able to set her leg, they stayed in a motel in a little town forty miles from Carlisle.
There were four from the cruise and Steve that were going to the new camps.
The gates for volunteers wasn’t opening yet, but the weeks in the small town wasn’t bad, they were able to move about and find supplies. Well, the group was, not Eve. For a week she couldn’t move.
Finally, just before the volunteer acceptance date, Steve put Eve in a walking air cast. As a group they made their way toward Carlisle. They weren’t sure exactly where the camp would be located, and worried they’d have trouble finding it.
It was easy to find. A huge open field with a rolled orange fence. In the field were a couple tents and a large water buffalo tank.
They were five of many who showed up to volunteer.
The enthusiasm for being part of the start waned, especially when the work poured in.
Most of it was brought by four men in a truck who would make drops every other day of boxes and bins, all of which were marked FEMA.
Four men responsible for transferring supplies from the FEMA warehouse.
It was a lot of work.
Tents needed to be set up, they attended training classes by a woman named Elise.
Steve told them he was a doctor, more so a scientist and how he wanted to work on the virus, but Eve believed they dismissed him, telling him, he could do so once the camp was set up. They’d find him a place. It wasn’t a dismissal. Once things were nearly good to go, they brought him in a CDC trailer. However, he had to agree to serve as a doctor in the camp, as well.
Elise was ecstatic to meet Eve and immediately deemed her a camp liaison.
The way things were set up, the enormity of it, made Eve think tens of thousands of survivors would ascend upon the camp.
Elise prepared them for turning people away, for large mobs and chaotic and possibly violent days.
In the end, when the set up was finished, it had a disaster beauty about it. The entire huge field was speckled with perfectly erected white box tents for living. Spaced apart, divided by sections that were powered by generators for heat and light. Water tanks, community dining areas and even a small hospital.
But when the days prior to the community camp opening rolled around and lines weren’t forming, Eve began to wonder if anyone would come at all.
They trickled in that first week. Nowhere near the numbers had they hoped for. The tens of thousands turned to a couple thousand, with people stopping by the camp only for the census. To register their town and survivors as the president requested.
While not all the camps were thin in numbers, most were.
Eve heard from those who came that most didn’t want to be alone and were looking for people.
The truth was, a whole country was out there at their disposal.
By late winter, the directive changed. The surplus of supplies would be distributed to small towns that took in displaced survivors and used at various trading posts.
Eve and many others expected the country to fall apart.
The government tried and would continue to try to pull it together. Sadly, Eve didn’t see that happening and eventually, especially with the trading posts, the country would fraction off.
She travelled a lot to various camps, helping move people out, getting them permanent homes.
On the positive side, she saw the rise of humanity again.
No ‘one’ person was more important than the next. Everyone who lived through the virus was a beacon of hope for the future. There was no longer rich and poor, they were all survivors.
It was as if Elias had been placed in the witness protection program. What felt awkward and weird at first, became normal. No longer was he Elias, but Steve Rogers. He heard it so much, he didn’t think twice.
He even felt as if the lies he told about his past were true.
Although he never lied about not having a family or many friends. He felt that would be a disservice to those who actually lost people. Now in the world, decimated by his own virus, he had more friends than ever and even was in a new relationship. The first one in over a decade.
Eve was a godsend to him and he hated not telling her the truth, but the closer he grew to her the more fearful he was of losing her.
How ironic in a world full of people he never found anyone, but in a world void of life, he believed he found the one.
It was that chance at love that fueled him even more to right his wrongs, perhaps if he did, one day he could come clean to Eve.
He worked effortlessly on the virus. No one really questioned his knowledge of it or where he was getting the things he needed to work on it.
Funny how that worked. He said he was a scientist and they were like, ‘okay’.
While he worked on it outside of the community camp, he lived like everyone else there. In a ten by ten tent with simple furnishings. When in camp he was a doctor and medically helped people.
Now as a scientist he was going to try to make sure the same damage wasn’t repeated, at least with his virus.
It didn’t take long, not at all, to get a lock on the virus and what was needed to create a viable treatment and possible inoculation.
He only wished that Conner would have given him time to work on it instead of arresting him. When he focused on beating it, the time frame for a solution wasn’t all that long.
That was with raw materials and less than stellar labs. If he had had his lab, his research and tools at his disposal, it was possible that Elias could have taken the fate of the world in a different direction. But he would never know.
Bottom line was … the virus had a cure.
He was about to leave with Eve to take on the next phase of the cure and that was to find more people willing to test the vaccine. He had already done some clinical trials with volunteers, but for his one peace of mind, he needed a larger sampling of individuals before releasing it to everyone.
When he told Eve that he had beaten it, it was as if he gave her the ultimate birthday gift or something. She was giddy and wanted to tell everyone. Cheering him on because they didn’t have to worry anymore.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that wasn’t true. Sure, they didn’t have to worry about X, but facing another mega virus, one of extinction level strength, it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’, it was a matter of ‘when’.
Making it worse was the fact that not only did the world lose ninety percent of its population, it lost the technology as well.
So when the next big virus came, they wouldn’t see it coming. News of its danger would probably come at the same time as the first victim in the area.
Elias didn’t mention that. He just forced a smile, just like he forced a smile when she called him Steve.
When Eve found out he cured it, she said, “See, I told you the name Steve Rogers was synonymous with being a hero.”
A hero.
What a joke.
Yes, he was Steve Rogers now. Elias Marcum was a ghost in the past thought of no less than a demon. No matter what Elias did as Steve, heroic of not, it didn’t matter, Elias would go down in history as the man who ended the world.
◆◆◆
Franklin, PA
Matt bit his lip, mumbled and succeeded in not swearing in front of his daughter. It was one of the things he said he would try to never do. Another thing he believed he’d never do again was curse Luke’s name. Yet there he was, walking down the street, Emma leading the way as he wished the young man was nearby so he could kick his ass.
There wasn’t a lot of things Matt was r
ight about in the aftermath of the virus.
He was wrong about there not being anyone in Franklin. While there wasn’t a massive amount, fifty-six people emerged from their homes when Molly ran about town with a bullhorn saying it was safe and to listen to the radio.
Those people apprehensively emerged and helped with the task of cleaning up the town.
He was half wrong when he told Hervé, that after four weeks, maybe it was time to accept Doctor Christoph and his wife weren’t coming back.
The good doctor did. His wife, however didn’t, Hervé’s mother died of the virus.
Matt openly admitted he was probably off base when he believed the government was going to be taking charge.
However, he wasn’t wrong, or at least didn’t believe he was about the cows.
They weren’t killing them for meat, just milking them. Matt didn’t understand, There were thousands of stores all stocked with the powder stuff. That had to be good enough.
But, no, they got the cows and it always seemed to be Matt’s job to wrangle one when it got out of the pasture area.
If anyone ever told Matt that cows were gentle, he would introduce them to Gretchen, one of the town’s four cows. She was nasty, mean and stubborn.
She hated Matt.
Matt didn’t care much for her either.
When Matt commented that he felt like the Amish, the first thing Luke did was go to Lancaster to see if the Amish beat the virus. After all, they were also a great source of trade.
It appeared their contact with the tech world wasn’t as remote as they believed.
They suffered from the virus and it looked as if people had flocked to their towns to escape it. Inadvertently bringing it with them.
As far as Franklin went, they still hadn’t cleaned up Franklin completely. They were almost there. Each day, another home was tackled, belongings sorted, bodies removed.
Bodies were still burned, but grave markers were placed as remembrance.
It was nearly a year since the virus, Matt’s heart was still broken over the loss of Hannah, but he celebrated in great fullness every day for his daughter Emma’s survival.
Franklin had beaten the odds more so than many other places.
Plague Book: One Final Gasp Page 22