by Lorch, Jeff
I tried not to think about where my children might be right now, and how they might be fairing, but it was no use. Capt. Meyers had said that while the infection wasn’t as severe out west on the Prairies as it was here in the more densely-populated regions close to the US border, it was still very serious. But even more serious was turning out to be the total breakdown of infrastructure and supplies of food and medical goods, hence the supply run we would be accompanying. He advised that there had been a breakdown in authority as people abandoned their posts, including police and emergency personnel, and there was a general state of lawlessness that made it dangerous for everyone; looting was prevalent as people were fighting for whatever supplies were left. I hadn’t told Jamie and Alex about that part of it, I figured they didn’t need to worry any more than they already were.
From the darkness to my right I heard men’s voices coming towards me, and I suddenly realized how vulnerable I was at that moment, alone in the mire of darkness and fog. The encounter with the two thugs at the roadblock outside of Barrie suddenly felt very fresh in my mind, and I felt my heart rate spike and my palms start sweating.
I saw two soldiers come into the light, rifles slung over their shoulders. Sitting where I was under the streetlight, I expect they were able to see me before I had been able to see them.
“Evening, Ma’am,” one of the soldiers nodded to me courteously. I let out a nervous breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. “Everything alright?” he asked, maybe sensing my nervousness.
“Yes, thank you,” I replied. “Out on patrol?” I asked lightly.
“Yes Ma’am, quiet night so far.” He looked around the area, and looked back at me, a slightly concerned look on his face. “If you don’t mind me saying, Ma’am, it might not be the best idea for you to be sitting out here like this alone. Would you let us escort you back to your quarters?”
I was about to agree with him and thank him, when off to the south, out over the water, we heard boat motors idling through the fog.
At that same moment, several guard stations nearby must have heard the same sound at the same time, since before the soldiers I was speaking to were able to call in an alert, bright lights slammed on, their beams pointed out into the darkness of the river. The fog made it impossible to see anything out there, just turning the beams of light into solid shafts of fog.
“Ma’am, it would be a good idea for you to return to your quarters if you can find your way there yourself,” the one soldier said to me as they both lifted their rifles from where they were hung over their shoulders and turned to face the sound of the boat engines.
Nodding warily and nearly tripping over myself, I walked quickly away from the waterfront back towards my hotel. All along the riverfront I could hear voices yelling back and forth as soldiers sounded off, and I could see rows of searchlights cutting through the fog and sweeping across the river. As I walked, I tensely expected the sounds of gunfire, but there was none.
The voices eventually fell away behind me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Day 6
I awoke the next morning to the lovely sharp smell of a mug of strong, dark coffee on the table beside the bed, and, breathing in that heavenly smell and blinking myself awake, I smiled sadly. Coffee on the nightstand in the morning had been Kevin’s thing for years. He had always been a morning person, whereas I most certainly was not.
Our inside family joke was that sometimes he woke up grumpy, and sometimes he let her sleep a little longer.
I wondered when it was that the morning coffees had stopped. I couldn’t remember, but somewhere along the line, that special ritual he had for me had simply fallen away, and the saddest part of it was, I hadn’t even noticed.
I could hear the boys in the room next door chatting. We had left the doors open through the night just in case, but the night had been quiet, and I had been asleep the second my head had hit the pillow.
Jamie poked his head into the room to see if I was awake just as I sat up, flexed my right hand painfully, and then leaned back against the headboard, savouring the morning brew.
“Whichever one of you brought me this coffee, you’re my favourite!” I said with my eyes closed as I felt my brain slowly coming to life, the caffeine hitting my system and flipping all my switches to “on”.
“I did it!” said Jamie followed by an immediate “You did not you liar, I did!” as Alex grabbed him from behind, the two wrestling to the floor in the doorway, both laughing and growling at the same time. Maybe twins are different, or when it’s two boys maybe, but Karen and David weren’t like that at all; with them she was the little mother, always protecting him when he was little. Now that he was the same size as her and growing fast, I’m sure he would become her protector.
I choked back tears at the thought, saying a silent prayer that they would protect each other now.
Before their wrestling devolved into an actual fight, I shooed them back into their room so I could have some privacy as I got changed. I had a jug of water provided by the soldier at the front desk last night and used some of it to freshen up as best I could, then the boys and I went down to the cafeteria for a quick breakfast before the morning orientation.
♦♦♦
It was still dark outside, but the fog of last night had disappeared and the sky to the east was starting to lighten when we went into the cafeteria tent for breakfast, following which we were directed to another pavilion tent across the parking lot set up for the briefing. I looked around the room and, including the twins and myself, figured there were almost forty civilians present.
At eight o’clock sharp, Capt. Meyers walked to the front of the tent, and several other soldiers stood behind him off to the side. He cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention and to quiet the room, said good morning to us all, and asked us to be seated and to please hold all our questions until the end of the briefing.
“First of all, for those of you I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting personally yet, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the newly-christened Fort Rapids.” This was met with a round of cheers and clapping, likely from a group of people who were just happy to be alive and well, more than anything else.
“This time tomorrow,” he continued, “All of us here in this room, along with fifty-two of the fine men and women under my command, will be leaving for our journey west. The purpose of this briefing is to inform all of you how this is going to work, and what will be expected of you on our journey.
“This trip is the first of what we plan to be regular supply runs east and west to re-establish communications between regions and to establish a regular supply route. We will be wheels-up at 0800 tomorrow morning. Let me be clear in that there will be no delays, and we will not be waiting for you, so I would recommend that you be packed and ready to go no later than 0745. Like this morning, breakfast will be served starting at 0600 in the cafeteria. We will be leaving as a convoy through Gate Bravo, located at Bruce Street here behind me.
“For those of you who have reliable vehicles that can make the trip, please come and see Staff Sergeant McReary here immediately after this briefing, and she will coordinate ensuring your vehicle is fueled up today so you’re ready for departure tomorrow. She will be providing you with radios so we can maintain communication between all the vehicles in the convoy. These radios are for necessary communication only, not for asking the person in the vehicle behind you if they saw that bear on the side of the road.” He indicated a young woman to his right who stepped forward and nodded to us when he mentioned her name.
“For those of you who don’t have a vehicle, or don’t trust the vehicle you arrived here in, we have commandeered two buses that will accommodate all of you and your gear. You will find those buses at Gate Bravo at 0630 tomorrow, and Staff Sergeant Dagenais here will assist you with getting your gear stowed and finding a seat next to your travelling partners.” He indicated a stocky man with a shaved head to his left, who stepped forward a
nd nodded. “Again, we ask that you be there early to allow for time in getting gear and asses stowed. We need you to be in your seat ready to roll at 0745 at the latest.
“Our trip will take us west along the TransCanada highway,” Capt. Meyers continued. “Our first scheduled full stop is CFB Shilo just outside of Brandon, Manitoba. This first leg of our journey is just under sixteen hundred kilometres in length and under normal circumstances would take approximately seventeen hours before allowing for rest stops. We expect we will find some delays, and so we are anticipating between twenty-four to twenty-eight hours on the road. This puts us ringing the doorbell at Shilo between 0800 and 1200 two days from today. We will bivouac there until 1800, at which time we will begin the second and final leg of our journey heading west to CFB Suffield in Alberta. This second leg of our journey is just under nine hundred kilometres in length and would normally take approximately eight and one-half hours. We are anticipating that this will take us between thirteen to fifteen hours, so that has us wheels down in Suffield sometime between 0700 and 0900 three days from today.
“We will not be stopping to sleep or eat.” At that many of the people in the room began to protest, but Capt. Meyers cut them off and continued. “We will be driving in shifts, and if you will be driving in your own vehicle, we expect you to do the same. We will have scheduled rest stops along the road that will allow for getting out of the vehicle and stretching, using the head, refueling and distribution of rations.” He looked around the room at those that had begun to gripe, making it clear he was speaking to them while at the same time addressing the whole room. “If this is going to be a problem, then there are two options: Option A is to leave the driving to us, and you can ride in one of the busses; Option B is you can make your own way home. There is no Option C.”
When he saw everyone understood, he continued.
“We are expecting that we will encounter civilians in need of aid. We will be prepared to hand out some supplies as needed en route and will be directing them to head here to Fort Rapids, but we will not be stopping for more than that.
“Along the way we fully expect that we will have to engage with infected and, to a less likely extent, possibly other threats. You will let us do our jobs and leave it to us to resolve these encounters. However, in the event of an emergency, it is certainly your right to defend yourselves and your family, and your property.” Many of the same people who had been dissenting about the driving arrangements were now nodding in agreement. I heard a ‘hell yeah we will’ from a table behind me.
“Following this briefing,” Capt. Meyers stated, “I ask that you will remain seated, and the Staff Sergeants behind me will divide you into groups. These groups will be your assigned arrangements for the next few days. They will be your go-to contact for any questions or needs you might have. They will conduct the firearms safety instruction later this morning, and they will give you the finer details of what you’ll need to know before we leave tomorrow.
“Along the way, as you each get to or near your individual destinations, you will want to branch off and continue along your way. We will not have time to stop for heartfelt goodbyes and tear-filled farewells,” he said with a dry smile, repaid with many chuckles around the room. He was more solemn when he continued, “so let me now say that we sincerely wish you all the very best in the difficult days ahead. These brave men and women here in front of you, and the others stationed here and across our great country, the reason they are here today instead of making their own journeys home to be with their families is because they believe in this country. They swore a solemn oath to faithfully resist her enemies and to keep the peace. Absolutely nothing would make any of us happier than to have you all find a happy end to this. And it breaks our hearts to know that this will not be the case. Not for everyone.”
I was moved to see tears in his eyes, even though his composure didn’t change. I was struck again by the sacrifice these people were making. They weren’t here for themselves, there were here for us. Their families too were out there somewhere, maybe sick, maybe dying, unprotected. And yet these people were here providing safety and aid to us.
“To that end, the last piece of business I have to share with you is to inform you that your group leaders will be also providing you with maps of where we currently have bases established, new ones like Fort Rapids here in the Soo, as well as others east and west of here, including radio frequencies and the names of the base commanders. If you are able to find your families, or sadly even if you’re not, as long as those bases stand, they’re open to you if you can make your way to them.”
Clearing his throat, he took a sip of water and opened the floor to a brief round of questions. Some of the questions were trivial in nature, and those he redirected to ask of their group leader once they were split up.
Some of the questions were not trivial.
A woman with two small children seated off to the side stood up. “What’s happening everywhere else? Do we still have a government? We’ve been told about the US, but what about the rest of the world? Is the sickness spreading, and if not, are those countries going to help us at all?”
“Good questions, thank you,” he said. “First off, yes we still have a government. The Prime Minister and from what we’ve been told a majority of the Members of Parliament are still safe and doing their jobs. Individually, we’re told some of the provinces have fared better than others, but as a whole, it sounds like we’re in pretty good shape that way. Right now, they have two main hurdles to restoring public order: we have the threat posed by the infected, and we have a shortage of manpower to provide infrastructure, supply distribution and law enforcement. Helping with hurdle number two is the reason behind our supply trip tomorrow.
“South of the border we’ve been told their government, like ours, is largely intact and is operational. They have the same hurdles to overcome as we do but magnified greatly due to a much larger population and due to, as we understand, them being the direct target in this.
“As to what’s happening elsewhere in the world; to date information has been limited, but it sounds like this crisis has been confined to North America.” You could hear the relief in the room. I’m sure many people in the room had friends and family around the world, and hearing that they weren’t dealing with this sickness was a blessing.
“Without going into too much detail, we have been told to expect that in coming days and weeks there will be support incoming both in terms of goods supply and manpower from around the world. One of the reasons Fort Rapids was established here is our direct access to shipping channels and our position as a border station. We will be one of the primary outposts for distribution of goods throughout the country and down into the US during this crisis.
“Our NATO allies will come to our aid now, as we have for them in the past. We will not suffer through this alone. However, right now there are still too many unknowns about this sickness, and to ensure that this sickness doesn’t spread beyond our borders, the rest of the world is being cautious, and rightly so.”
I heard a chair scrape back behind me as someone stood. “Do they know who did this yet? Was it ISIS, or the Russians, the North Koreans, or what?”
This was clearly a question Capt. Meyers had been expecting.
“To date we haven’t received any information on this beyond what was disseminated to the public during the outbreak via the Presidential address and various media outlets. Presently you know as much as we do on this matter.”
I raised my hand and stood up, and Capt. Meyers nodded to me.
“What was the commotion along the river last night?” I asked.
This was a question I don’t think he had been expecting, and he took a moment to drink from his water bottle before continuing.
“Well Ma’am, the ugly truth of it is that we live in a world where not everyone plays well with others, and not everyone is willing to obey the rules. Despite the fact that we will open our doors to anyone in need of aid a
nd shelter, it appears that there are some people out there who aren’t willing to live by the few simple rules we have here that make life together possible.
“To put it simply, we’ve had a few occurrences of theft from our supplies. We’ve also seen a great deal of looting around the surrounding area.” At that I began to feel guilty, knowing that we too were guilty of exactly that crime, as were most of the people in the room most likely, which Capt. Meyers must have considered. “And I don’t mean foraging for what you need to survive, I mean profiteering,” he said with distaste, “looting and pillaging for profit or benefit at the expense of others.”
He sighed deeply, considering how to continue. “Some of our patrols outside of the compound walls have found wreckage and, well, remains, of people like you who were trying to get here, seeking shelter, who were set upon and killed.”
One of the civilian men in the tent with us raised his hand, and asked, “How do you know that wasn’t just the infected? We’ve seen lots of sites on our way here with people beaten to death by them.”
“Because the infected don’t strip the bodies of their supplies and their food,” Meyers replied simply, not holding anything back, “and they don’t rape their victims.”
The silence in the room was heavy. All of us had made it through the nightmare outside the steel walls of the camp; any of us could have met the same fate the captain was describing.
“I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say there will invariably be people who will thrive in this kind of environment,” he continued. “I’m not talking about citizens who prepared for a collapse, like the survivalists or preppers out there who were ready for something like this. I’m talking about the criminal personality who has always chafed under the rule of law, and who now find themselves unfettered by society’s chains.”