"We're having some problems with them at our gate."
"They're really rushing."
"There are a lot out there." He turned the bend. "Nothing you should worry about. We have it under control." He walked a little farther and stopped at a closed door. "This is my office. Come in." He opened the door. "We need to talk."
My heart beat a little faster. Walking in there was like walking into the bosses' office when something was wrong. I had a bad feeling about what he was going to say, and a part of me was afraid.
Even though I didn't trust going in there with him, I owed him my time at least. I stopped inside his office and he closed the door.
THIRTY-THREE - DODGE
The Monks at the Holy Cross Monastery did a nice job for Bud's final send off. Bud would have liked it. Two of the men went into Wayne and gathered a coffin from the local mortuary. Coffins weren't used during the virus. The 'ceremony' of a funeral added a sense of closure and the entire community attended the service then walked with the coffin, drawn by a horse to the cemetery.
It was followed by a late lunch of bread and soup.
Darie ate his soup and George picked. The eldest of the boys was fussy and agitated.
Though sad, Darie took Bud's passing gracefully. He acknowledged the loss, spoke highly of Bud while never letting go of Faye's shirt.
Faye was going to have to launder that tee shirt when all was said and done.
It was pushing four PM by the time everything was finished. We still had a few hours of daylight left for traveling and by my calculations still twelve hours of travel to go until we reached that government camp.
I was ready to pack up and go, but Deacon Jeremiah thought it was best we spend one more evening. His reasoning was we couldn't pull into that camp at night and were still two night's rests away from getting there whether we left immediately or waited until dawn.
"Get rest, rejuvenate the spirit, leave at dawn and push extra in traveling. The little one is better now, he'll handle it."
It made sense, but George was obstinate about leaving immediately. Then because Jeremiah was the one to ask, George reluctantly agreed to stay one more night.
Jeremiah made another suggestion. Leave the RV, go into town and find a smaller and easier means to travel to Florida. I was a mechanic so I could make sure the car was road worthy.
"Leaving Bud's RV here is not in the cards," I told him as we sat outside the RV.
"You are returning."
"Not for long."
"Even then, leaving it is a sensible decision. The RV and your belongings will be safe."
I held up my hand. "I know that. I do."
"The RV is big, it requires a lot more stops to refuel. You want to make the trip quickly; you won't do that with a thirty-two foot recreational vehicle."
"I'll think about it," I replied.
"And I can't convince you to leave the youngest here?" Jeremiah asked. "Until you return?"
"No." I shook my head. "Faye will kill me if I show up down there without Darie."
Jeremiah nodded his head. "I understand that. But he's so little and he's running and playing."
I looked up to see Darie playing with another child. "I see that. But he has to go."
"Can I ask why you are so adamant about not joining the community here?"
Before I could answer, George pulled up a chair and sat with us. He answered for me. "Because Dodge thinks this is a cult."
It wasn't the answer I would have given. Although pretty brazen and blunt about the way he said it, there was a distorted truth in George's words.
Jeremiah quickly looked at me. "We are not a cult."
"I didn't say that," I defended.
"Did too," George said. "Bud told me you called it a cult. Said you told him that all the men were gonna have to grow long beards and be monks and the women ..."
"Stop." I told him. "I said no such thing. Bud was lying."
George gasped. "Why would Bud lie?"
"Because Bud liked to tell tales." I then looked at Jeremiah. "I didn't say it was a cult. I did express reservations about this being a monastery."
"I see. Well, we are not a cult. Yes, this land once was a monastery but it's God's land. These people here are a community. We don't force them to follow our beliefs, the only rules we have is to respect the land and the others. Be good to one another. We're trying to rebuild here, Dodge. A safe environment. Because it's not safe out there. Especially for women."
"Don't we know that," George said. "That's why Faye isn't here. The men wanted her because she was a woman."
"Hundreds of people here," Jeremiah said. "Nine are female. The virus was not kind to women. We need to protect them and keep them safe. Here they are. Out there, it's hiding and running. It will only get worse."
I heard his words and agreed. "Jeremiah, it's not that I don't want Faye safe. I just wanted us to go somewhere new and start again."
"And then what?" Jeremiah asked. "What about the boys? How will that aid them growing up not being around anyone else. We remain, it is up to us to rebuild. All the means are here. God ..."
Sometimes George was too mature for his own good. He didn't even let Jeremiah finish before he spouted out. "There is no God."
I cringed a little in embarrassment.
Without being thrown, Jeremiah calmly asked him. "You don't believe in God?"
"Nope."
"Did you ever?" He asked.
George nodded. "Yep. I did. I believed when I was praying really hard. Praying for God to save my mom and dad. But He didn't. I'm sure everyone was praying. But God didn't answer anyone's prayers. Know why? Because there isn't a God. I figure, if there was one He'd answer prayers."
"God can't answer everyone's prayers. And sometimes prayers are answered differently."
"It's a dead world." George said.
"I beg to differ," Jeremiah said. "Look around. All around is life. I am sorry that God didn't answer your prayer, but He did answer prayers."
"How can you say that?"
"Because I can bet my life your mother and your father were praying that you and Darie would live. While she was ill, she wasn't praying for herself, she was praying for you. I believe God answered that prayer. Dodge prayed for his children. His son lives. I am sure Bud's children prayed for him. He lived."
"What about Faye?" George asked. "Who prayed for her? No one. Her kids died long before the sickness, her husband too. She don't have a mom or dad. Or family. She was out cold, laying in a mound of bodies. Who prayed for her?"
"Just because Faye lived, doesn't mean someone wasn't praying for her. Maybe she was chosen. Maybe ... because the doctors of the world knew this virus was wiping out the female population, maybe there was one doctor out there praying that one woman lived. Maybe Faye was that one woman answered in his prayers." Jeremiah reached out and grabbed George's hand. "We don't know. I can't convince you there is a God. I can convince you without a doubt there is life. This isn't a dead world. Not yet." He stood slowly, running his hand over George's head and then glanced outward. "I think I'll go play kick ball with the others. Would you like to come, George?"
George shook his head. After Jeremiah walked away, George looked at me. "I'm sorry Dodge. Are you mad at me?"
"For what?"
"Saying there's no God."
"Can't be mad at you for saying how you feel." I told him.
"Why'd this have to happen, Dodge?" George's voice cracked as he spoke. "Why? Why'd everyone have to die? Why're we living like this?"
"I don't know, little man. I wish I did."
Then surprising me, George stood, walked over to me and climbed on my lap.
For as mature as he tried to be, for as grown up as he acted, George was just a boy. A scared little boy. I wrapped my arms tight around him and his head fell onto my chest.
"I can't bring back what we had," I told him. "But I promise you I will do everything I can to make this life worth living for you."
"I know you will. I may not believe all that much in God. But I believe in you, Dodge," he said. "I believe in you."
I felt George's arms lock tighter as his words seared into my heart.
There was nothing more I could tell him. All I could do was hold him, because I really believed at that moment, he needed that security most.
THIRTY-FOUR - FAYE
"Do you know what it's like to fail mankind?" Dr. Lewis asked. His first question as he closed the door to his office. He didn't ask it with an edge, nor his typical arrogance. I suppose, or so I thought, it was more of a rhetorical question.
I took a seat and he walked around and leaned against the edge of his desk. "I'm not here to chastise you for making the decision you have made. I am not bringing you here to change your mind or threaten you. I am here to enlighten you."
It was hard to pay attention at first in that office because increasingly gunshots rang out. Then after he began to talk, all noise faded.
"When this virus began it seemed so simple to fix and fight. In my arrogance, I knew I could be the one who cured it. Come up with not only a serum to fight it but an inoculation to never get it. That, of course, was when it hadn't touched our soil yet."
"Weren't you the one who cured it?" I asked.
"I was. But early on, too full of myself I made mistakes and then like a puzzle we over thought the problem and the virus soon became unstoppable. I vowed to work day and night. What do you remember about the virus?"
"Not much. Before I slipped into the coma they were just warning people to be cautious. That many were getting it, and then I woke up three weeks later."
"What is the last date you remember before waking up?"
"April fifteenth."
Dr. Lewis nodded. "Our first patients began dying around the first week of April. And then they just kept dying and dying. I had been working on it while it was overseas. Long before it got here. Long before our first case at the end of March. Do you by any chance know anything about the first victims? You were conscious?"
"No." I shook my head. "I was drowning in my own grief."
"Ah, eventually so was I."
I glanced up to him.
"The first deaths, oddly all came within hours of one another. An elderly couple in their early eighties. A woman in her thirties and two children both ten. First deaths. A family returning from an overseas extended cruise to Spain." He forced a smile and made eye contact. "They were my family. My parents, my wife and kids. Ironically the man who held the knowledge to stop the virus watched helplessly as his family died. Died of a virus I was certain I could beat. But didn't. Do you know what I did after that?"
"I can assume you went to work twice as hard."
"No. I stopped. In fact when I knew everyone that I loved had this highly contagious virus, I took off my mask, all protective equipment and welcomed this virus. It didn't touch me. So I just slipped away and bothered with no one."
I stared down to my hands. "I know that feeling."
"I suppose you do. So ..." he exhaled. "More people died, time moved quickly and after a couple weeks and begging from colleagues who had already taken the research as far as they could." Dr. Lewis chuckled emotionally. "In fact they had implemented this place. After that, fine, I went back to work on the virus." He held up a single finger. "One week. Maybe less. I cured it. It was as simple as I first thought. Had I not taken the time to hide away in anger, I could have saved millions. Millions. I ... failed mankind. Whether I really did or not, no reasoning can convince me otherwise. I failed. So I ask you do you know what it's like to fail mankind? Because if you don't ... you will. I don't say this maliciously, I say this honestly. Maybe not today. But you will. You chose not to carry the gender altered embryos because you are not willing to get attached, have children again, whatever the case. But I assure you, like I was the answer to saving a good portion of this world, you are the answer saving the species."
I shook my head argumentatively. "You can't say that. I firmly believe there are other women."
"Do you know that for a fact? I thought someone else could take my burden as well. Even if there are other women, what's to say the baby will be immune to the virus? What's to say the baby will be a girl? Maybe nature has decided to eliminate us and only male children will be born without the aid of science. And if you are the only woman, what if suddenly there is a power failure and we lose the embryos, or worse, something happens to Dr. Chatham? Believe it or not Faye, you are the answer. There might be others, but we don't know if they exist, if we can do for them what we can right now. And right now is the time to take advantage of the fact that you are an answer. Don't gamble like I did. Don't grow old and leave this world never knowing if you could have made a difference when we were given the chance to begin again. Because of my selfish decision we lost our population. Don't let your selfish decision end the line of what is left."
He delivered to me in that office, a very strong argument for doing the procedure. Words that were hard to ignore. Words that I heard, despite the increasing fighting that erupted outside the walls of the hospital.
<><><><>
By late evening I was locked in my apartment with not just one, but two guards with me. Farmer, one of the first soldiers I met, had returned to my apartment at the request of James.
He told me that civil unrest had erupted and the seventy men from Division Five had enlisted the help from other divisions and were trying to storm the gates of Division One.
Why?
Officially, I was told it was because they felt they were treated sub standardly, that they wanted what Division One had. They claimed they lived in tent cities and were starving. NO electricity.
They were made to work with little reward. That was what they claimed.
Whether or not there was any truth to the way they lived, I didn't know. But Farmer believed the biggest bargaining tool was me.
He believed they were trying to get in to get me. I was a woman, the leaders needed me and wanted me. If they had control of me, they could demand to live with better means.
They would have a say in how they lived.
No one had to leak my presence, like James had feared, someone from Division Five was being treated at the hospital while I freely walked about.
I worried about Tyler but was assured he was fine.
"We just need to keep you safe," Farmer said. "As odd as it sounds, they will try to get you."
"Am I that big of a bargaining chip?"
"You're the last woman."
It sounded like a warzone outside, not just civil unrest. My windows were blackened and I was kept in the center of the apartment.
"Farmer, what happens if they get close?"
"I have a few ideas. Any breach we have to move you to a good spot. Hide you. Hiding you won't be hard but getting you there will." He then lifted the back pack he brought with him. "This is my idea. Faye, you need to consider it. For your safety, to protect you, we have hide you in every way possible. That includes hiding what you are." He unzipped the bag and lifted a pair of hair clippers. "What do you say?"
It wasn't an easy decision, but it was one I had to make quickly. I knew the day would come where I'd have to transform for my safety and that day was here. Farmer pulled the rest of the items from the bag and with his help, I began my transformation.
It was a good thing we did because not a half an hour later, men from Division Five broke the barricade and were on my street.
THIRTY-SIX - MAJOR JAMES REYNOLDS
September 10
Taking a Chinook we flew to Washington DC from an airbase close to Division Two. We landed on the lawn of the White House.
We did see, as we flew overhead survivor camps in the city. I had seen many major cities in my journey to find Faye but never did I see so many survivors in one place. Not that there were hundreds, but we spotted camps with multiple people.
It was a search and retrieve mission for documents and other personal items. An inane trip
in my opinion, but it was the president.
Upon landing, we learned that there was unrest involving Division Five. There were serious problems and demands. I wasn't comfortable being so far away.
I was reminded quite clearly that no matter how much we tried to take control, restore order and civility, the country was possibly too far gone. This was reiterated by the squatters that had taken over the west wing of the White House.
We asked them to leave, and one man reminded us that the White House belonged to the people.
President Turner, an easy going man as it was, was hard put to argue merely stating, "Let's just get what we need and leave at first light."
The squatters didn't bother much with us other than asking if we had extra food.
"There's an entire damn city afoot," I told them. "Go look for it."
"Major," the president scolded. "You will provide these people with items we have and don't need."
That was the problem. Before the world went to shit, we all felt the need to provide, and in a sense, still did. What was it getting us?
When I was ordered to do that it pushed me to the verge of saying the hell with it and just move on from the government camps.
By nightfall, I realized through radio communication, I would not have much of a choice.
Things had gotten worse. Rebels from Division Five stormed Division One, looted and took over Division Two, however Farmer's quick thinking got Faye and a few others to the safe house. A place I had been preparing for days.
"There were deaths, Major," Farmer said in the radio call. "It's not good. The safe house will only work for so long."
He was right, until and if we restored order, Faye wasn't safe. In fact would she ever be?
At first light we pulled out. None of us really had any rest and for the first time the president truly showed anger over the situation.
I listened to him rant and rave on the flight, all the while I just wanted to tell him if he'd
listened to other military people in the first place, none of it would have happened.
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