Tomorrow's Dawn (Book 2): Fractured Paradise

by Wohlrab, Jeff

  As he drove through the night, tears filled his own eyes. He wrestled with the memory of Rebecca, motionless in a hospital bed as machines struggled to keep her alive. She was strong. She’d lasted the better part of ten days before finally succumbing to the building fluid in her lungs, pushing on her heart and drowning her. During the last few days, she was barely conscious.

  If it hadn’t been for the machines, he wouldn’t have known when she passed. She looked peaceful in death, just as she had in life. He didn’t call for the doctors; there were so few left and they had other patients to look after. He’d just calmly reached over and unplugged the machines with one hand, holding hers in his other.

  It had been another hour before a nurse poked her head in to check on them. She looked at Brent, looked at the dark machines, and simply said, “I’m sorry,” before she backed out and hurried to the next room. He carried her out later that afternoon. Nobody tried to stop him. She felt so light after over a week on IVs as the disease ravaged her body. She’d wanted to lose weight he thought, randomly, as tears entered his eyes.

  He had fought them off until he got home, where he and Jack held a small service as they buried her. He wasn’t going to leave his precious wife to be dumped with other bodies in a mass grave or incinerated. She deserved better than that.

  He’d stayed alive then for Jack. He was the only part of Rebecca that Brent had left other than memories. With Jack gone, Brent wasn’t sure why he was still holding on. He unbuckled his seat belt as he drove down the dark, abandoned road, a dark path that mirrored another one he was traveling. He looked calmly at the massive trees alongside, but he didn’t swerve. He didn’t know if he was going to give in as Aaron had done, or if it simply wasn’t time yet. He drove on in the dark and held the wheel straight as he continued down his chosen path.

  Chapter 18

  Jensen had gotten a couple hours of fitful sleep in the dark cabin when he heard Marcy cry out, “They’re back!” It took him a few moments to leave his dreams and realize where he was, even longer to make out what she had meant. Was it still the same day? Had time passed? Everything felt fuzzy in his brain as he tried to focus. Why were they back so soon?

  He had been so tired when he crawled into bed. He barely registered the coughing coming from the room beside him, where Dylan rested in Abby’s arms. The few hours of sleep he’d gotten hadn’t been enough to clear the cobwebs, but he got up and placed his Ruger in the holster before he stepped outside and watched Aaron drive his little roadster into the clearing followed by the heavy armored vehicle. All of their lights were shining brightly. It didn’t make sense that they were back so soon.

  He noted Brent getting out of the driver’s seat of the roadster. It wasn’t Aaron. He looked toward the passenger seat. It was empty. With the vehicle lights off, the clearing was suddenly dark again. As Jensen’s eyes adjusted, he saw Sheila and Daniel walking toward him from the tub. Jensen called out to Brent, “Where’s Aaron?”

  The older man simply said, “He’s with Sasha.”

  Confused, Jensen asked, “Are they coming?”

  Brent stopped for a moment and looked him in the eyes, “No.” Then he walked into the cabin carrying Aaron’s rifle. Jensen knew what that meant. One way or another, in the few hours that had passed, Aaron had gone home. Forever. Aaron and Sasha would not be leaving Dahlonega.

  He guessed that also meant Sasha did have the flu, and Daniel and Dylan were both in a precarious situation. They had a doctor, but they didn’t have the medical equipment she would need to properly care for them. There was a chance Emmy was at risk as well. A very good chance.

  Daniel and Sheila approached the door. Jensen looked at his large friend, “You okay? You look pale.”

  Daniel grinned weakly and flipped him off. “I’ll never be as pale as you, Casper.”

  Jensen smiled back, “But seriously, how are you doing?”

  The black man paused in the darkness. “Seriously? I think I’ve thrown up or shit out everything I’ve eaten since grade school. I can’t decide if I’m cold or if I’m hot.” He stopped, “I don’t think this is the flu. I’m pretty sure you poisoned me. Where did you find polonium?”

  Jensen held up his hands. “No poison, I promise.”

  Sheila stood beside them, “Sorry Daniel, it’s the flu. We need to get you in bed.”

  He grinned again. “I like you and all, but I hardly know you. And what’s this ‘we’ business?” He hooked his thumb toward Jensen. “I don’t like him at all, so there’s no way in hell he’s getting me in bed.”

  She punched him softly on the arm. “Nice try big guy, but you’re going to bed now. I can’t have you exerting any more energy.”

  Daniel played it up a little more. “Now I like the sound of that.” She punched him again, harder this time. “Not funny. Now get your ass in there and rest.”

  He rubbed his arm a little bit as though the punch had hurt him. “I got it, doc, but I’m going to take a shower first. Then I promise, I’ll go to bed.” They heard Dylan coughing again through the walls of the cabin. Daniel looked concerned. “So, I’m not the only one?”

  Jensen shook his head. “Dylan is down, too. He wasn’t running a fever, so we don’t know if it’s the flu or just allergies.”

  Sheila asked, “Emmy?”

  He replied, “Nothing yet. She’s in the reloading shed. He indicated the small building up the hill. “She seems okay so far.”

  Daniel nodded. “Good. I hope she stays that way.” Then he walked into the cabin leaving Sheila and Jensen standing outside.

  Jensen asked, “Sasha. The flu?”

  In the darkness, Sheila’s nod was barely perceptible. “It was the flu. She died when we were on our way there.”

  Jensen hesitated before asking his next question, but he needed confirmation. “Aaron?”

  Sheila looked off into the darkness. “He shot himself.”

  A knot formed in Jensen’s stomach. He had really been starting to like Aaron. He felt like he’d known him for years, maybe decades. Perhaps it was the shared service, the stories he’d heard about the other man’s heroic exploits, or something else that people sometimes felt on a deeper level that they couldn’t explain. “He was a good man.”

  Sheila asked from out of the darkness, “You knew him?”

  Jensen thought for a moment, “Yeah, I knew him,” he said looking straight ahead. “You guys go get some sleep. I’ll stand watch.” Behind him, he heard the shower start up.

  Daniel was trying to wash the night away with hot water. Jensen had tried that more times than he could count. It never worked. All it did was get your skin clean. It couldn’t do anything about what was under the skin. He didn’t know how to get that clean.

  Sheila sighed, “Okay. I’ll go check on Dylan first. He doesn’t sound good.” From inside, they could hear him coughing again. She stopped for a moment with the door partially open. “Jensen, we don’t have the medicine or equipment here to deal with this.” Sheila looked at him. “If we have any hope of saving them, we need to get it.”

  Jensen nodded, the light shining on his face. “I know. We’ll figure it out in the morning.”

  She started to go in and stopped again. “We need to do it soon.”

  He simply replied, “I know.” She looked at him searchingly and then closed the door softly.

  Jensen couldn’t go back to sleep now, so he sat in the darkness and listened for any sounds which were out of place. It was quiet. They’d failed to get their shipping container. At least two members of their party had contracted the superbug. They needed medical equipment and supplies. They still needed to figure out how to grow crops. Someone from the ambush had gotten away and could return with friends. It wasn’t quite hopeless, but it was a lot.

  On the bright side, they had shelter, food, running water, and electricity. That was a lot more than they’d had only a few days before. There was a lot to be said for indoor plumbing. Hell, they now had a functioning refrigera
tor and freezer. It was unplugged at the moment to conserve power, but they had a way to store food if they got any.

  As all these thoughts ran through his mind, he kept coming back to one. His first priority was to save Daniel. He was concerned about Dylan, but he wasn’t going to lose his best friend. The thought surprised him. He was close to Daniel, but this was the first time he’d couched the relationship in those terms. They were friends. Thinking back, Jensen wasn’t sure he had any other ones left. By default, that made him his best friend. He was going to figure out a way to save him.

  As he made his rounds in the darkness, virtually silently, he heard a quiet cough. It hadn’t come from the cabin. He turned toward the source of the sound. It had come from the shed. It looked like he might have to save Emmy, too.

  Jensen started to think about who to take with him when he went on a supply run when the sun came up. Daniel was out, as were Dylan and Emmy. Abby wasn’t going to leave Dylan’s side. Sheila was needed to care for them all. That only left Brent, Jessica, Dave, and Marcy to defend the cabin or to go on patrol. Dave and Jessica were the best with weapons. He’d have to leave at least one of them on the mountain, maybe both. Perhaps he should take Marcy.

  Then he remembered he’d promised Jessica she could go on the next patrol. That decided it. He’d take Jessica to the hospital they’d seen signs for in town when they were searching for the library. It had to have what they needed. If not, he had another idea.

  Chapter 19

  The sun was already over the mountaintop before Jensen was sure he had a list of all the materials Sheila wanted. Antivirals were at the top of her list, but she wanted heart monitors, blood pressure cuffs, bedpans, a ventilator, and more. It seemed like enough to start her own clinic. He thought for a moment she should go, but Sheila was needed at the cabin.

  Jensen had unfolded the solar panels on both tubs as the sun rose. He had silently taken the second transmitter from Daniel while he slept so he could check the charge status on the multicam tub. It was much lower than his own. It only made sense. Daniel had driven further and used his headlights for hours the previous night. Jensen hadn’t. He clipped the transmitter back on Daniel’s vest and left the panels open. They’d only be taking one tub today. The second one wouldn’t be ready to go until the following day, and they didn’t have that much time.

  It suddenly felt like they didn’t have any time at all. By morning, Daniel, Dylan, and Emmy were all running fevers and coughing. They had no way of knowing how high the fevers were. They didn’t have thermometers. Yet. He’d get some. With little else to do, Jensen had plugged in the refrigerator and placed several partially full water bottles into the freezer section. That might do to help keep their temps down for a little while.

  While they were preparing, Jessica set her shotgun by the front door. “Anyone have an M4 I can take?”

  From the other room, she could hear Daniel call, “You can take my Sig, but if anything happens to it I’ll never forgive you.”

  Jessica wasn’t willing to take that risk. She also didn’t want to learn a new firearm on the way out. She’d fired M4s in the military and as a police officer. She wanted one of those. “Anyone?”

  Emmy was the next to call out. She’d come into the cabin as soon as she realized she was sick. The shed wasn’t comfortable and one of the sleeping bags Dave found smelled like mildew. “Take mine. It’s in the shed.”

  Jessica started out the door and stopped, “Magazines?”

  Emmy called out again. “They’re with the gun.”

  Jess was back within minutes with magazines in her vest and the M4 cradled in her arms. She spent another minute taking the shotgun shells out of her pockets. She wasn’t going to need them.

  Jensen outlined their plan again. They were going to take the cattle trailer from the pickup truck down on the road and hook it to the back of his tub. Then they were going to the hospital to get the monitoring systems Sheila had asked for, as well as anything else they could get their hands on. Most of it should be wheeled anyway, so they’d simply bring it to the ambulance entrance and load it up. He wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, so they’d have to improvise once they arrived.

  It was easy to be optimistic in the morning. Jensen and Jessica were both well-armed, professional, and driving an armored vehicle. All seven members of the group who had previously contracted the virus survived. That was a 100% survival rate. They didn’t dwell on what that meant for the three members who had just gotten sick though. They knew statistically, they might be able to save one. The odds seemed better than that though.

  “We’ll be back in a couple hours,” Jensen told Brent.

  “Good luck” was the reply.

  They shook hands and Jensen and Jessica prepared to mount up.

  “One thing,” she said before she got in. “Promise me that we won’t be taking on three armored vehicles with machine guns like we did last time I rode in this thing with you.”

  Jensen smiled, remembering his foolhardy but successful attack on the National Guard Soldiers who had fired on their convoy. “No promises, but this time we have machine guns … and a grenade launcher.”

  She smiled. “That works.”

  It only took a few minutes for them to reach the pickup truck with the cattle trailer. Jessica raised the trailer tongue off of the back bumper of the pickup by rotating the jack down and spinning the handle. Once it was up, she started the pickup and moved it down the road about 50 feet. She walked back just in time to lower the jack onto the hitch of the tub and wind the jack back up. She spent several moments searching for the wiring harness plug, but shrugged and wrapped it around the hitch instead. It’s not like they were going to get stopped for no trailer lights.

  “How much gas was in the truck?”

  Jess thought for a second. “I think it was about halfway full. I wasn’t paying much attention to it.”

  Jensen thought they might be able to use it for something later. “No worries. It moved away from the trailer; that’s enough for now.” They drove through the morning sunlight straight through Clayton and onto a narrow country road on the western side.

  “Are you sure there’s a hospital out here?”

  Jensen replied, “I know, right? It certainly doesn’t look like it, but the signs said so.” Just then, they saw a sign for a medical center on their right. It was a small building tucked back into the trees. It wasn’t at all what he imagined. “I think we can dispense with the ambulance dock and emergency room. I don’t think this place has one,” he said.

  Jess shook her head. “I don’t think so either. This just looks like a place to get a physical or something.”

  Even so, there were several cars in the parking lot. Jensen wasn’t sure if there were people staying in the clinic or if they were there from when people got sick. He noted there was heavy dust and pine needles on all of them though; they hadn’t been moved in a while. He drove partway into the parking lot and backed up to the entrance. “Let’s go clear it and get our stuff.” Both of them double-checked their weapons and took one last look around before popping the hatch and getting out.

  The door was wide open, and Jensen saw pine needles and leaves in the entryway. There was also something he suspected was raccoon crap, or from some other small animal. There were no footprints in the dust. He indicated as much to Jessica. “I think we’re in the clear, but keep your eyes up. We don’t want any surprises.”

  Jess responded, “You just take care of yourself, Army boy.”

  Jensen smiled. He kept forgetting Jessica was previous Air Force. He’d have to find a reason to make fun of her later.

  It only took the pair a few minutes to clear the small building. There wasn’t a lot there. Certainly no ventilator. They didn’t even see an on-site pharmacy. It looked like a bunch of exam rooms. They took all the equipment they saw and even wheeled out some of the small cabinets which contained medical supplies. Jensen wasn’t sure what it all was, but better to have more than
needed.

  From seeing the sign to getting back into the tub took them less than ten minutes. “Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting,” Jessica said. “How much of what Sheila wanted did we get?”

  Jensen shook his head. “Almost none of it. Let’s get this back and go to plan B.”

  Jessica arched an eyebrow. “You have a plan B?”

  Jensen nodded. “Yeah, I just don’t like it.” Jensen explained what he had in mind, then looked over at Jessica sitting in the scout seat. “You have a better idea?”

  Jessica shook her head. “Nope. We’re going to do it, but I don’t like it either.”

  Jensen paused before moving the vehicle forward. “Should we go now or drop this stuff off first?”

  Jessica smiled, happy to be part of the action. “Let’s drop it off now. There’s a good chance we’re going to get shot and I want to make sure this stuff gets to them without any bullet holes.”

  Jensen smiled back. “So it is.”

  On the way back through Clayton, Jessica grabbed Jensen’s arm. “Hold up. I see two pharmacies down that way.” She pointed south from the intersection. “Maybe we can find some of the drugs Sheila wanted there?”

  Jensen debated. “There are going to be a lot of people trying to get into those pharmacies for the opioids. I’m not sure we want to try it.”

  Jessica shook her head. “They’ve had plenty of time for that. Those things have been cleared out by now. Maybe we’ll find antivirals or diuretics, or something else we can use. I doubt junkies are looking for real pharmaceuticals.”

  Jensen had to agree. “You’ve got a point. It’s been long enough now. I’m sure the junkies have already done their thing. I doubt they were willing to wait for us to come along to get their fix. Let’s do it.”

  He turned right in the intersection and headed south. It wasn’t far. Maybe they’d find something which could help Daniel and the others. The stopped at the one on the east side of the road first. Like he had done before, Jensen waited for several minutes in the cockpit while he used the screens to monitor the area around them as well as the view out of the windshield. After a length of time with no movement, he was ready to go.