by J N Wood
I was getting very foggy flashbacks of us drinking margaritas. I could still taste the salt when I licked my dry lips.
We had taken a taxi ride back to the flat, and I was sure I could remember ambulances, or maybe police cars driving past. There were lots of sirens and flashing blue lights, I definitely remembered that.
I checked my watch. Shite, half ten. We had talked about being in the Rockies by ten at the latest. No wonder I felt okay, I’d slept through most of my hangover. I thought I’d set an alarm but it wasn’t there, must have dreamt that.
My phone wasn’t showing any messages or calls since the time I’d spoken to Joanne the previous day, which was strange to be honest. I’d have thought she would have at least texted me. I went to the favourites in my contacts and pressed on the photo of Joanne’s face. All I got in response was one long dialling tone. I couldn’t remember what that meant.
Is that just an American tone?
Shite. Texting wasn’t working either, very strange. I’d spoken to her from the flat yesterday, so it can’t have been because I was underground.
I shouted through to the living room. ‘Jackie boy, are you awake? The Wi-Fi is fucked!’
A few moments later my door opened, and Jack’s head appeared in the gap. His ginger hair was bedhead messy. He looked like he hadn’t slept well. The skin around his eyes was red and puffy looking.
‘Yes I know, but keep it down. We’re in someone else’s house.’ He turned to walk away but hesitated, ‘And get out of bed, we’ve overslept,’ before retreating back into the living room and closing the door behind him.
I’d just try calling Joanne the next time I found some Wi-Fi, hopefully it will have sorted itself out by then. During the drive to Manchester Airport we had talked about me being in places with no phone reception, so there was a chance we might not be able to talk every day.
On the way to the bathroom I staggered through the living room. Jack had converted his bed back into the sofa and was sat on it, not looking happy at all.
‘There better be two fucking beds in the next place we stay, if there isn’t you’re getting the sofa bed. I hardly slept last night,’ he moaned.
‘Yeah don’t worry. We’re in that hotel in Deadwood. Two king sized beds.’
‘Good. Do you want to set off for the Rockies and just find somewhere on the way for breakfast?’ he asked.
I made a grunting noise in reply.
No I did not want to do that Jack. I was fucking starving.
‘What?’ Jack asked.
‘Erm…yeah whatever.’
Why hadn’t we thought about it and bought some food yesterday? Too much alcohol probably.
I had a quick shower and then dressed in my walking gear. After packing up our stuff for the day, we headed upstairs. There was no sign of Marcus, so I quickly opened the front door to bright sunshine and loud noises from next door. The neighbours were on their drive, cramming bags into an already overloaded car.
‘Morning,’ I said, and gave them a little wave.
A stressed looking man and an equally stressed looking woman stopped what they were doing, looking at me with wide eyes. The man very briskly nodded my way, then turned back to his house and shouted, ‘Ethan! Olivia! Five minutes!’
Jack and I exchanged bemused looks. We both shrugged our shoulders and carried on walking.
We had parked the Toyota in the only space we could find on the main road, about fifty feet from our flat. As we walked down MacArthur Drive, there was another car being hurriedly loaded up with its owner’s belongings. This time it was a younger guy, maybe in his twenties. He looked frantic, and his eyes were darting all over the place. His car was also packed to the brim. Tents, sleeping bags and big backpacks, were stuffed in to every available space.
‘Long weekends away?’ I asked Jack.
‘What?’
‘The weird crazy people. Do you think they’re just going on holiday?’
‘Yep probably, it is a very outdoorsy kind of place, saying that, they do look a bit on edge.’
I agreed with him.
We reached our car and Jack unlocked it. We threw our stuff on the back seats so it would be within reach. Jack was in the driving seat today.
‘Let’s get going before those psychos catch us up and run us off the road,’ I said, gesturing behind me.
Jack started playing around on his phone.
‘Are you sat navving it?’ I asked.
‘Nah, it’s a really simple drive, should only be an hour and it’s well signposted if we get lost. Remember I’ve been to the Rockies before? Came here with work one year. My phone’s sat nav won’t work because I’m playing some podcasts. You’ll like them, they’re about nineties football.’
The podcast was soon playing through the car’s speakers and we were on our way. The traffic was a bit chaotic getting out of Boulder, but once we were on the US-36 heading north it settled down. There seemed to be more emergency vehicles on the road than normal.
‘Do you remember all the police and shit when we got the taxi back last night?’ I asked. ‘They were everywhere.’
‘Did we get a taxi? I thought we walked back.’
Laughing I said, ‘Okay, so you don’t remember then. Anyway, there’s still a lot of them about.’ I pointed at another ambulance as it drove past us.
‘There’s a big college basketball thing going on at the moment, called March Madness, it’ll probably just be trouble from that,’ Jack said.
That sounded like a reasonable explanation, so I put it to the back of my mind.
The views of the mountains from Boulder were already stunning, but as we got closer they became increasingly more spectacular. Unfortunately, the digits on the dashboard’s temperature gauge were decreasing the higher we climbed.
We stopped in Estes Park to pick up something for breakfast and for lunch. The other road heading out of Estes was very busy, but our route into the town centre was relatively clear. We parked in an almost empty car park in the middle of town. Much to my annoyance, Jack parked right next to the only other car. We were so close I struggled to get out.
‘Thanks Jack,’ I said, squeezing myself out of the car. He just laughed and watched me.
The snow had just begun to fall as we entered the town, and it was now starting to get heavier. It had felt quite warm in Boulder so we both quickly threw on an extra layer, and ran over to Starbucks to grab some food.
The coffee shop was empty, apart from one employee standing behind the till. The name Terri was printed on a tag pinned to her t-shirt. She looked like she was in her late teens.
‘Hi, where are you guys headed?’ Terri asked.
Jack had done the research into the National Parks, so he told her we were going up to Deer Mountain to have a walk around there.
With a bemused look, Terri asked, ‘Oh, so…you’re just going hiking then?’
I couldn’t hold back a little chuckle. ‘Yep, that’s the plan,’ I said.
‘Okay.’ Terri shrugged. ‘What can I get you?’
The display cabinet to Terri’s left was almost empty, but we still managed to grab something for breakfast and lunch. She was very confused with my pronunciation of the word almond, trying to give me everything but an almond croissant. She finally understood what I wanted after Jack asked for it in his best attempt at an American accent.
It was well worth the struggle. I ate it so quickly I almost inhaled it. Although I wished I’d bought two of them because I was still hungry.
‘What was wrong with Terri?’ I asked, as we walked back to the car.
‘Who?’
‘Terri, the weird Starbucks girl,’ I responded. ‘We literally just met her, said Terri on her t-shirt.’
‘We hardly met her, and I didn’t notice she was called Terri. But yeah, why was she so surprised we were going for a walk? Surely they get people passing through here on the way to the Rockies?’
We reached the car and Jack pulled out the keys.
Apart from all the cars leaving town, we’d hardly seen any people walking around, two or three people at the most. Not including weird Terri.
‘Yeah, no idea, they must be at work,’ I suggested. ‘Out of season though aren’t we?’
We had both been to places that were quiet. On previous trips to the States, we’d been through some towns in the middle of nowhere, and not seen a single person. Even though it wasn’t that small, I just assumed Estes Park was like one of those places.
We drove out of the eerily quiet town, soon reaching the entrance to the Rockies. There weren’t any Park Rangers on duty, but we had experienced the same thing the previous year when we visited Olympic National Park in Washington State.
As we got nearer to the start of the Deer Mountain trail, the weather definitely took a turn for the worse. The clouds drew in and the snow got heavier and heavier. We had both packed plenty of warm clothes and waterproofs, so it wasn’t a massive issue. We were just annoyed the views would be spoilt. Jack told me the last time he’d been here it was really foggy, so the views were none existent.
On a positive note, about twenty cars were parked in front of the Beaver Meadows Visitor Centre. Plenty of people were hurrying around, carrying tents and other camping equipment.
‘Well, that’s a good sign. At least there are some people alive around here,’ Jack said.
We needn’t have worried about the weather, after ten minutes of hiking the snow stopped falling, and we were left with clear blue skies. The views were beautiful, easily one of the best National Parks I’d visited.
The hike up to the top of the mountain was everything we had hoped for, spectacular views and a good walk, but not so hard that it was a struggle.
It was freezing up at the top, especially in the wind, but we found a secluded spot behind some rocks so we could eat our lunch. We were just starting to pack up, when the most ear-splitting and thunderous sound sent us almost diving behind the rocks. A shape that resembled a fighter jet was hurtling away, almost at the same elevation as us. The snow on the trees had all been shaken loose, so it felt like we were inside an overturned snow globe.
We both stood up laughing, but were immediately sent ducking down again by another jet zooming past. Then another flew over, followed by more and more at much closer intervals. The noise was tremendous. I lost count of the jets that shot past us.
‘Jesus fucking Christ!’ I shouted, as the last one flew behind a snow covered mountain in the distance. The sound had literally been deafening.
‘That was really fucking loud!’ Jack shouted.
‘Yep! What was all that about?’
My hearing was slowly coming back.
Jack shrugged. ‘Don’t know. Probably just World War Three kicking off. Come on, it’s freezing up here, let’s get off this mountain.’
The trail back down only took half the time that it took to walk up, so we were soon back at the car. It was almost six o’clock, so we agreed to call it a day and head back to Boulder. We still had the following day to explore some different parts of the mountains. We agreed to discuss the following day’s plans over some more beers in the pub.
Our return journey was to take us back through Estes Park. As we drew closer to the town, we saw three yellow school buses parked sideways across the road. They blocked the whole road.
‘What the fuck?’ I asked.
Jack stopped the car about twenty feet from the road block. The middle bus was parked behind the other two. An engine roared to life and the bus slowly started to move forwards, stopping when just a thin strip of sunlight shone through the gap.
‘What am I supposed to do now?’ Jack asked.
‘Fuck knows,’ I replied, just as two figures appeared in the space the bus had made.
The sun was rapidly going down at this point so it was difficult to see them in the shadows. They were wearing dark blue or black police uniforms. They were also both carrying shotguns, not quite being aimed at us, but still pointing in our direction.
‘Shit, turn around, let’s go back,’ I quickly spluttered out.
‘What?’ Jack replied. ‘We can’t just drive off, it’s the police, and they’ve got guns.’
‘Yeah but they’re hiding behind fucking school buses, that’s not normal is it?’
I had to admit I was panicking at the sight of the large guns.
Jack was silent for a few moments before he said, ‘Let’s just wait and see what they want. It’ll be fine.’
The two cops slowly made their way over to us, stopping about five feet from the car.
Ducking down as much as possible, I whispered, ‘If we die, I’m blaming you Jack.’
The older and much fatter of the two cops took a tentative step towards us. ‘Hey fellas, where you headed?’ he asked.
There was an unexpected, but very welcome, relaxed and kind tone to his voice.
Jack and I looked at each other. I gestured with my eyes for him to speak, and he did the same to me, neither of us wanting to do the talking.
It was probably only three or four seconds of silence, but I was starting to feel awkward with the four of us just staring at each other. I pressed the button to wind my window down, and stuck my head out.
Trying to hide the nervousness in my voice, I said, ‘We’re going back to Boulder, we’ve just been out walking. Do you want us to drive around the town?’
The older cop’s brow creased into a frown, and he looked back towards his colleague, who just shrugged.
The old cop turned back to us. ‘How long have you been walking?’ he asked.
Jack rolled down his window and leaned out. ‘Only today, we drove through Estes Park this morning,' he said. ‘We just need to get back to Boulder.’
The cops exchanged glances again. This time the younger one spoke. ‘Have you not been watching the news? People are being advised to stay at home. It’s not safe to be driving around at night.’
‘Why isn’t it safe? Seriously, we have no idea what’s going on,’ I said, not trying to hide the impatience in my voice.
The two cops looked at each other for a few seconds, both nodded, before turning and walking up to Jack’s open window. They must have realised the two English tourists didn’t pose a serious threat. Their shotguns were now thankfully pointing at the floor.
Again it was the older cop that spoke. ‘Have you not been following any of the news over the last two days?’
I wanted to shout at them to tell us what the fuck they were talking about.
Luckily, Jack replied in a much calmer tone than I could have managed. ‘We only flew into Denver yesterday, and we were out drinking last night. We’re on vacation so we’ve not been paying much attention to anything on the news. What’s going on?’
The older cop placed his elbow on the driver’s door. The whole car seemed to move as he rested the full weight of his considerable frame against it.
He took a deep breath and said, ‘Okay, this is all happening real quick, so we don’t know for sure. All we do know at the moment, is people have been getting sick. It’s some kind of virus and they’re dying real fast, they say twenty four hours fast. There have also been reports of rioting in parts of the country. It’s not in Estes Park, don’t think it’s even in Colorado yet, but it could be on its way.’
‘We heard about the bird flu thing in Florida, do you mean that?’ I asked.
‘Yeah that’s it,’ the older cop replied. ‘Although it’s not bird flu any more, they’re calling it the Florida Virus. I don’t think they really know what it is, but they say it’s travelling north.’
‘Travelling north?’ I asked, dumbfounded. ‘Travelling in what?’
‘What about California, the San Francisco area, is it there?’ Jack quickly asked. ‘That’s where my wife is.’ He suddenly looked very concerned. His voice had lost its previous calm tone.
The younger cop opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by his colleague. ‘It’s moving real fast,’ he said. ‘I think it’s in Los Angeles, but I don’t know if it’s in San Francisco, might be far enough north that it ain’t reached there.’
The cop’s attempts to reassure him hadn’t made the slightest difference to the concerned look on Jack’s face.
‘Fuck,’ I whispered, slowly drawing out the word.
The older cop crouched down so he could look at both of us. ‘I think the government is hiding a whole lot of stuff from everyone. The internet and the phones have been down all day. They certainly ain’t telling the Estes Park Police anything. Before everything went quiet, we were being advised to tell everyone not to panic, stock up with supplies, and just stay in their homes.’
‘So is that why they’re rioting then, for food?’ I asked.
‘No, they’re saying that’s something else, crazy people or something,’ the younger cop responded, receiving an angry glare from his older colleague.
’There’s a lot of speculation at the moment. No need to worry people more than they already are,’ the older cop said.
‘Is it happening in the rest of the world, in England?’ I asked.
The younger cop answered, ‘As far as we’re aware, it’s just us. I honestly can’t see how it’s not in Mexico if it’s right across the southern States. Heading north is the best option at the moment.’
‘Greg!’ The older cop barked. He was giving him that angry glare again. ‘Did you not just hear me tell them to stay at home?’
‘Can we go then?’ Jack asked. ‘We can drive around Estes Park if you want.’
He must have heard enough.
‘No need to drive around,’ Greg the younger cop said, after quickly recovering from his telling off. ‘We’ll move the bus over and you can drive through, just need to call our guys so they let you out the other side. Which route you taking, the 36 or the 7?’ he asked.
After a brief pause, Jack said, ‘We drove in on the 36 so we’ll go back the same way,’ before looking at me.
I just shrugged my shoulders and nodded in agreement.
The older cop patted the top of our car. ’Okay fellas, you drive safe, we’ll radio our guys.’