What Remains (Book 3): Epidemic

by Barrett, Tyler

  What they found inside was a gold mine. The truck was filled with various canned food stacked to the ceiling. Evans, cut open the plastic wrapped around the pallets of cans, grabbing as much as they could fit in the car. It wasn’t long before they were afraid to fit any more of the canned goods without them spilling out of the car, and they shut the truck’s gate, leaving behind the rest of the food for them to grab later.

  With supplies to last them for a month, they decided to only leave when they wanted fresh air. Having so much free time left them trying to find ways to fill it. Meika had the idea to raid the local library, filling the car with various books. With even more to read than just her own books, she had read a thousand times, they both began to expand their knowledge of various skills. They began to dream of building a sustainable home for them to live.

  Testing some of this knowledge, Evans built a system to catch rainwater using a tarp, funneling it into various containers. This had greatly helped their issue with finding water. After a quick boil, the water was drinkable. With both food and water taken care of for the foreseeable future, it left them with little worry.

  Life was good for them and only seemed to improve with each day. They had both decided to take a lazy day and just enjoy each other’s company. Laying down on their sleeping bags, staring at the ceiling, they began to talk.

  “Did you enjoy your job?” Evans asked, “You know teaching and all that?”

  Meika positioned herself using her elbow to support her head up, “I did enjoy it, mind you, some of the kids I taught could be annoying. Overall, I do miss it. I miss having so many people listening, learning, all because of me.”

  After a short silence, “What about you, did you enjoy the military?”

  “I was in the navy, so I got to sail around the pacific. I saw many places, and it was nice to always know what I had to do. It was so regimented, sometimes it felt like I wasn’t thinking for myself, though.”

  “What were your plans after you got out of the military?”

  “Hmm. I don’t know honestly. Maybe try to find a job, get a house. I don’t know I never really thought about it beyond that.”

  Meika laughed, “So ambitious.”

  “Shut up!” Evans laughed too, “What were your plans, huh?”

  “I guess I wanted to find someone to start a family with. I always saw myself with several kids, staying home with them, teaching them as they grew.”

  “See, that doesn’t sound that ambitious to me either!”

  “Well, I don’t see that dream happening anymore anyways…” Meika said, no longer smiling.

  “Hey, don’t do that. Think positive,” Evans said, trying to comfort her.

  “Why? We haven’t seen anyone else alive, only…only those things.”

  Evans thought for a moment, “We could always try to escape, there has to be a way.”

  “How? No one even knows we are here. I doubt they would send more soldiers after what happened to your group.”

  “I’ll find a radio, then maybe we could see there’s anyone out there. See if anyone will come for us.”

  The next day Evans thought of possible places they could find a working radio, thinking up a few places, namely, a police station, fire station, or a radio station. Neither one of them was familiar with the area, though, so they decided to find a map before trying to make the journey to find any of those places.

  Finding a map was put on hold, though, as they both woke to the sound of a raging storm outside. The sound of the wind, thunder, and the rain were deafening. Evans looked outside and couldn’t see more than a few inches outside the window.

  “IT’S A TSUNAMI!” Meika shouted at Evans so they could hear each other.

  Evans backed away from the window, and they both moved into the office of the store, closing the door. It muffled the noise enough, so they didn’t have to shout at each other, but they could still hear the storm raging outside. After several hours they noticed that it had grown quiet outside, deciding to check if the storm was over.

  The inside of the store was safe as they left the office, which was good news. Deciding to check on their car and their water system outside, Evans opened the door. The smell of abundant fresh rain assaulted her, and she could hear the water rushing down the streets, to be carried away into the sewers. Evans’ heart sank as she saw the destruction of the storm.

  “Shit, look at it!” Evans exclaimed, pointing at where they had set up all their tarps to collect water. The winds from the storm had proven stronger than the weights they had placed to help hold the tarps in place. Only one tarp remained, tattered, and shredded. The buckets and other various containers they had set out to collect the rain, the ones that remained, were at least filled.

  “Come on, we need to move all this water inside. It’s all we have until we can find a way to replace the tarps,” Evans said to Meika.

  Together they moved all the containers inside and began to boil all of it, adding it to water coolers that were once part of the store's merchandise. Evans looked at their supply, guessing it would last about two weeks. She would have to think of something to replace their system, or just hope, it kept raining periodically.

  “I just looked at our food stores. It looks like we need to grab some more,” Meika said, coming from around the corner.

  “Alright, let’s check the car, then we’ll go,” Evans replied.

  Leaving their safehouse, inspecting their car, it looked fine. They started on their way to their food cache, the abandoned truck, filled with canned goods. It wasn’t far from their safe house, and they had made sure to keep it locked. The loss of their tarps wasn’t the only thing that would hit them today, as Evans turned around the block to where the truck should have sat. However, the street where it had been, was now empty, and nowhere in sight.

  Evans looked around, inspecting the street for clues, but only found evidence of the storm. Pulling closer to the spot where the truck sat, originally sitting on a bridge that was over a small stream, Evans put the car into park. Opening the door, she looked at the scene. A trail of canned goods started where the truck once was, leading toward the opposite side of the road. Sprinting over to the edge of the bridge, Evans found the remains of the truck.

  The truck was on its side at the bottom of the stream, where the side of the trailer had been torn open. A heavy flow of water still rampaged through the ravine, back toward the bay. Even from where Evans stood, she could see that all the canned food was gone from inside the truck, carried away by the excessive water.

  “Grab what you can here, the rest of the food is gone,” Evans yelled back at Meika.

  Working together, grabbing what they could, enough food to last about five days, they got back into the car. Evans felt like crying but didn’t. There was no changing the outcome of what happened, but it had severely hindered their progress. Now, they would have to find more food and risk their lives to search the surrounding area.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Evans picked at the fruit in her can, not feeling very hungry. She forced the food down, knowing she needed the nutrients to live. Meika hadn’t said much since they had returned either. Looking at their food supply, Evans noted that there wasn’t much left, meaning they would have to scavenge for more like before. She was tired of living like this. Always wondering if they would have enough food and water, where they could find some next.

  “I’ve had enough,” Evans said, setting down her can of fruit.

  “What do you mean?” Meika asked, placing her fork inside her can.

  “We can’t keep going on like this. I’m tired of living from one can of food to another, always searching for another. I think we should move on with my plan to find a radio. We tried setting up a sustainable camp, and it didn’t work.”

  “Ok,” Meika replied simply, “You’re right. We need to go.”

  Chapter 29

  Finding a local radio station, ZIP FM, in the heart of Nagoya a few days after their talk changed their
focus. It was a tall grey building with darkened windows, that luckily was abandoned, without any infected inside when they cleared it. However, they had spent a few days making sure the build was secure, and that infected couldn’t get in by accident. After that, they raided nearby for food and water, which had bought them enough time to last for three weeks. Now, their goal was to figure out how to bring power to the radio, transmit a signal out, and hope that someone from the outside world was listening.

  Inspecting the soundboard and other equipment, it looked fine, but neither one of them understood how to work any of it. Before they could figure any of that out, they needed a way to bring power to it. Evans thought best to check the basement, and luck had been on her side. There was an enormous diesel-fueled generator, and with her best guess, three days of fuel stored in drums next to it.

  On the fifth day, since their arrival, Evans woke up ready to fire it up.

  “I think we should try it today,” Evans said, ecstatically toward Meika, “I’m tired of waiting.”

  “I know, the anticipation is killing me. We’ve spent all this time working toward getting this ready, I want to know it was for something,” Meika said hugging Evans in excitement.

  “I want you up here for when the equipment turns on, you can read the dials. Try anything you can to get it working. I'll come as quickly as I can.”

  “Let’s eat first,” Meika said, grabbing two cans of food.

  Eating quickly, they were excited to enact their plan. Evans threw herself down the stairs, already dreading the journey back up. She almost didn’t mind, though, knowing that surely by the time she returned to Meika, someone would be receiving their calls for help.

  Evans held the LED lantern they used to light the stairwell when they traversed the darkened area. Using its light to help find the fuel drum, she set the lamp beside the tank on the generator. Carefully pouring in half of the drum, before setting the rest down, she began to flip the switches on before pressing the green button to start it. With a rumble, the sound filled the space, and instantly the room was lit up.

  Evans covered her face, momentarily blinded. She had almost forgotten the comforting glow of incandescent bulbs most buildings used to light their interior. Smiling, Evans shut off her lantern, moving back to the stairwell. Feeling great as she took the steps in leaps, ready to help Meika, joy filled her.

  Reaching the third floor, however, Evans could hear Meika shouting down the stairs.

  “SHUT IT OFF! SHUT IT OFF!”

  Without question, Evans sprinted back down to the generator, flipping all the switches off. The smell of the diesel fuel filled the room since she had left.

  What was the problem? Why did the power need to be shut off?

  Desperate to find the answer, Evans took the stairs even faster than just a few moments before. Reaching the floor with the studio, she stopped to catch her breath. Meika opened the door leaving the studio, wearing a face of horror.

  “What? What’s wrong?”

  “The…the soundboard just stopped working… the power came on, I turned it on, and I heard it short out…” Meika said in a state of disbelief.

  “What…” Evans said, pushing past Meika.

  The smell hit her before she saw the smoke, the horrible smell of metal frying, coming from within the console. Evans bent down, yanking open the underneath compartment revealing a multitude of wires and circuit boards. The smell became stronger as she opened the compartment. Coughing, Evans could see several places where there were black scorch marks left behind from the electricity unevenly surging through it.

  “What happened?” Evans asked, turning back toward Meika.

  “The power came on, and shortly after I was looking at all the equipment, making sure it was on, then I heard a loud pop, and smoke started to come out of it. I'm sorry, Michelle.”

  Meika only used Evans’ first name when she was talking to her at a personal level.

  “Sorry about what? This isn’t your fault; how could you know this would happen?” Evans said with a smirk, attempting to make Meika feel better, “Besides, I think there was just too much power being drawn from the generator. We need to make sure everything we aren’t going to use is powered off.”

  “I just…I just know this was our best option for escape, closer than we’ve been before…I mean than I have been before,” Meika said, trying to avoid the topic of Evans being bitten.

  “Meika, I think it was my purpose to stay behind, to find you. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I would probably be dead.”

  Meika chuckled, wiping the beginnings of tears from her eyes, “I would have been dead too.”

  “Besides, we can try to fix it. Can’t be that bad. It could be anything, but maybe it’s a fuse. Then we would just need to find a new one. Do you think we could find some books on any of this, back at the library?” Evans asked.

  “Yeah, I’m sure they have something about repairing circuits and such,” Meika replied.

  Defeated, they spent the day taking the console apart to better inspect the damage. Over the next couple of weeks, they had spent their time hunting down repair manuals, reading them thoroughly, trying to learn as much as they could about the topic. Evans began to feel confident she understood at a basic level what she needed to. However, while they were busy spending their time researching and hunting down books, they had neglected their supplies.

  Evans closed the current book she was reading, deciding that it was close to dinner time now that the sun was almost setting. Leaving the office, she had turned into her reading room; the sunlight made the room peaceful in the afternoon. Entering the room that was once the kitchen for the staff at the station, she moved to where they had stacked their food.

  Shit. I didn’t realize we were this low.

  “Meika!” Evans called, waiting for her.

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you know we are almost out of food?”

  Meika furrowed her brow, “Is that all we have? I thought we had a few days’ worth.”

  Evans shook her head, “I guess tomorrow we will need to dedicate our time to just looting.”

  Meika opened the cabinet where they kept their water supply, “One. We have one bottle left. It looks like we have to share this tonight.”

  Evans sighed, “I should have paid more attention to this, but there isn’t anyone else I would want to share that bottle with.”

  Meika looked around, “Well, that’s good, I don’t see anyone else here.”

  Evans grabbed the two cans of food they had, and the single bottle of water. Meika followed her out of the room. Evans liked to go to the roof and watch the sunset, and they had made it a ritual. She loved the way the sun glimmered off the rooftops and windows of the city around them. For a few minutes each day, it was almost as if everything was semi-normal.

  Upon reaching the roof, Evans made her way up the catwalk that ran the length of the roof, allowing them to see over the edge. They had moved two chairs up last week to make their time spent up top more comfortable. Evans sat down across from Meika, handing her one of the cans and the bottle of water.

  “I want you to have the water, I'll take first dibs on the water when we find it tomorrow,” Evans stated.

  Meika shook her head, “No! That’s for both of us. I can’t have you being dehydrated.”

  Evans smirked, “I’ll be fine, how about we share it then? But you drink first.”

  “That’s the first reasonable thing you’ve said it quite some time.”

  “Shut up!” Evans laughed.

  A silence fell between the two as they both opened their respective can of food. Neither of them spoke as they stomached cold canned fruit while watching the sunset. A gentle breeze kept the air moving and made it chilly, a reminder that the season would be changing soon. This is what kept Evans focused; she wondered how they could survive during the winter without keeping fuel for a fire.

  “It’s too cold, want to head back down?” Meika aske
d after she swallowed her last bite.

  “Sure,” Evans replied.

  Evans took her last bite, then got up with Meika following her. She heard Meika open up the water with the soft click of the seal breaking. Moving down the stairs, Evans’ throat begged for some water to remove the slimy aftertaste from the canned peaches she had eaten.

  “Hey, can you pass me the water?”

  “See? I told you that you would need some water,” Meika said with sass.

  Evans took the water, taking a deep dreg, enjoying the liquid. She removed the bottle with a sucking noise, almost regretting having to give it back to Meika.

  “Thanks,” Evans said, handing it back to Meika, who took another drink herself.

  They reached their floor, reopening the door to the studio.

  “We should probably head to bed, tomorrow will be…” Meika started, before collapsing on the ground.

  Evans turned, trying to catch her, but missed. Meika fell to the floor with a thud and didn’t move. Evans reached down, turning Meika to her side, noticing she wasn’t conscious.

  “Meika! Meika! Wake up!” Evans screamed at her.

  Evans tried to process what happened, one moment she was talking, the next she was lying on the floor unconscious.

  What had caused this? THINK! She just took a drink of water, maybe she choked? No. She was talking, not coughing. A stroke? No, she wasn’t showing any signs. She’s still breathing.

  Evans tried raising her legs to see if it was from loss of blood flow, but nothing changed. Moving into position she began CPR on Meika. Evans doubled her efforts to perform CPR, holding her nose close, while giving her two short breaths. She moved to chest compressions, panicking.

  Warm tears began to blur her vision as she continued the CPR. She stopped, knowing if she continued, there was a possibility of breaking her ribs.

  Why is this happening?! What do I do?! She’s the only friend I have, I can’t lose her!

  “Meika! Meika, I need you to wake up!”

  Answering her call, Meika's eyes opened. Evans laughed, feeling the panic and stress melt away. She wiped her eyes, only to have dread replace her previous feelings.