by A J Newman
One of the farmers said, “I never thought I’d have ice in my drink until midwinter when I wouldn’t want it. If we just had ice cream, I could die a happy man.”
I tried not to think about anyone else who might be starving in this world turned upside down, and it was easier than I thought. We deserved the celebration of our success and hard work. Anyone who had worked hard fought to protect their families and belongings and helped others when they were able could have accomplished what we did. I did feel sorry for any kids caught up in this mess, but you can’t save everyone and have to do the best you can with what you have.
We waited for about an hour after dinner was over and brought out the ice cream.
I saw the farmer who loved ice cream and said, “You can die now. We have ice cream.”
The kids ate ice cream until some were sick and we had to stop serving until we slowed them down. Hell, I ate two bowls full, and I was full before I started. Small things mean a lot when you don’t have much.
Several of the men and women brought their guitars, banjos and one violin and started playing dance music. Ally took my hand, and I had to waddle out to the dance floor.
“Darling, I’m full of ice cream; I might burst open if I move too fast.”
“That’s okay, I like slow dancing.”
We didn’t want to have a fireworks show, even though we had found a train car full of the stuff since we didn’t want to attract attention to our get together. We danced until dark when suddenly I heard The Sound of Music playing behind me. I turned and saw Callie and Paul had a video projector and a DVD player projecting the movie on the side of the barn. I had wondered why this side had a fresh coat of white paint. Now I knew. Everyone stopped what they were doing, set down and watched the movie. Several people were crying, and the kids were asking if we had the latest Star Wars movie.
“Ally, it could be fifty to a hundred years before the movie industry makes another movie.”
“Well, we’ll just have to wear these DVDs out until then.”
Ally and I went over to Callie and Paul and thanked them.
I said, “You two make a great team. This means so much to everyone.”
This made their day. Only Jacob and I knew that tomorrow everyone would get a train ride.
Paul switched to a DVD with cartoons for the little kids, then an older Star Wars film. Everything was going much better than even I expected when one of the deputy’s kids looked like he was sweating profusely and was lying on a blanket by his mom when he suddenly started vomiting and having diarrhea. Joan and Ally rushed over to help and sent Callie to our medical stores to get something to help slow the diarrhea.
“Here have your son drink this flattened soda. It will help with the vomiting. I’ll make up something to help with the loss of electrolytes. You need to keep him from getting dehydrated. Oh my, he is burning up. We need a child’s thermometer.”
Callie came back with the requested medicine and a full medical bag. By that time, one of the deputy’s wives came up, said that she was a nurse and took over.
“This boy is very sick. If I had to guess, he has dysentery. We need to keep him hydrated and try to stop the loss of fluids. We need to get him back to town and get medical help. He needs antibiotics ASAP.”
Ally asked, “Is this contagious?”
“Very contagious. It’s spread through contaminated drinking water and poor hygiene. People used to die from it by the thousands. I just hope we have enough antibiotics.”
The town’s people all left after the deputy rushed his son back to town to see the doctor. The party was great but had ended on a sour note.
I caught the rest of the deputies that lived out in the country before they went home and asked them not to go into town until we knew what was going on with the disease and warned them never drink the water in town. We were using well water and felt safe since we had given training on hygiene to all of our community in anticipation of issues like this. We planned to start treating our water with a few drops of bleach per gallon as an added ounce of prevention in the morning.
While I met with the deputies, Ally found Callie and had a talk with her.
“Callie, are you okay with your dad and me moving in together?”
“Yes, it’s all right with me. I want my dad to be happy, and you make him happy. The timing is great that mom has Chuck and won’t be pestering dad.”
“Thanks, that means a lot to me, and I’m happy for your mom.”
Ally then caught Paul, but Susie had fallen asleep long ago.
“Paul, I’m moving in with Zack. Is that a problem for you? You and Susie will move with me. Zack says you will have your own room.”
“No, I like Zack, and he has taught me a lot and been a good friend. Mom, he’s been like my dad since we joined the community.”
“Son that means you and Callie will be living in the same house. No sneaking into her bedroom at night.”
“Mom, if it’s all right with you, I’ll sleep out in the barn. I don’t want the temptation for either of us and don’t want Zack worrying.”
“I think that is a wise move.”
It was two in the morning, everyone was gone, and our people had gone to their rooms. Ally and I went to our room and sat on the edge of the blow-up bed. We held each other, and I was exhausted.
Ally said, “Darling, I wouldn’t have been such a tease if I had known what was going to happen. If you’re in the mood…………”
“Baby, I appreciated the show this afternoon, but I don’t want our first time to be when we’re bone tired and needing sleep. Let’s go to bed and hold each other.”
We lay in each other’s arms and fell asleep before we got undressed.
***
We were the first ones up for the morning, Ally fixed breakfast while I made coffee and set the table. Eggs, ham, toast and jalapeno blackberry jelly, which was my favorite meal. Mike and Sally joined us and stole some of my coffee and toast.
“Well, how are the newly shacked up people doing this morning. I didn’t expect y’all to be out and about until noon.”
Ally replied, “Mike we’ve been up for two hours, and that’s all you need to know, Mr. Nosey.”
“Zack will fill me in later.”
“No, I won’t, I want to stay alive.”
“Sally, please get Mike under control. I have a couple of ideas that will housebreak him quickly.”
“Sorry Ally, as I told you yesterday, I like the rascal just like he is. Crazy and full of BS, but he treats me like a queen. He only shows off in front of other people. He’s like a puppy dog when we’re alone.”
Ally waved a knife in the air and said, “Even male puppy dogs get neutered to calm them down.”
Mike dropped his hands on his lap and said, “Ouch.”
“Mike I actually like you, and I’d never come between you and Zack. Both of you are special people, and many of us would be dead without your help.”
We were interrupted by the sound of a train’s steam whistle. It was in the distance and got louder as it approached.
I glanced at my watch and said, “The train from Sailsberg is early.”
“They got the train running. Yeah.”
“It’s been running for a couple of weeks. We had to build a depot to fuel and water the train and a dock to load and unload freight.”
The train had two old passenger cars and three flatbed cargo cars loaded to the brim with old steam engines and old industrial shop tools for Jacobs’s new machine shop. We unloaded them while everybody waited impatiently for a ride on the train. The train could only travel forwards and backward since there was no place to turn around. There was a large loop in Owensville and Louisville, but we would make do going back and forth forwards and in reverse. The old train cruises at twenty-five miles per hour and the people were thrilled to be riding up and down the rails.
When the joy rides were done, we loaded tons of books, medical supplies, and fresh vegetables for the people in
Sailsberg. We planned to run the train every Monday and Thursday until we figured out what the schedule needed to be. I planned to meet with the Mayor of Owensville and the other communities along the rails and get them to start trading with each other. Owensville has an abundance of gas, diesel, and coal, while the smaller communities had crops to trade. Jacob, Mike and I planned to start trading steam power plants, trucks, cars and bicycle powered generators to these towns. We would stockpile what food we needed and trade the excess food that couldn’t be stored. Jacob kept reminding everyone that winter was coming and what we harvested was all we could depend on until late spring next year.
***
Bert came to visit me at the farm five days later with very bad news. There was a major outbreak of the disease in the town. Half of his deputies had come down with vomiting and diarrhea.
“Someone needs to check to see where the contamination is coming from. I’d bet on outhouses too close to your wells.”
“Half the town is getting their water straight out of the river. We told them to boil it or treat it with bleach.”
“People are getting complacent.”
“We need help. Half my staff is either sick or at home caring for sick family members. The Mayor is rationing the antibiotics and anti-diarrheal medicine. Everyone thinks they are saving it for her supporters and her family. It doesn’t matter because there wouldn’t be enough anyway. We have had 25 kids, and 10 adults die so far this week. We just can’t keep them hydrated.”
“What can we do to help?”
“Can you provide water for my men in town and take on some more of my team until this is over? The families will stay with some of your people, and the deputies will go on about their jobs by using strict hygiene rules. We won’t bring any sick people out here.”
“I can’t speak for the others, but I’m sure they want to help. I will recommend we put all of your people in some tents and campers here at my farm for a week, and then if they are symptom free, we will spread them out into our community.”
“My next request is a big one.”
“Go ahead.”
“Can you send some teams out into the surrounding counties to find some antibiotics?”
“Of course we will, but you realize we won’t find enough for the whole town.”
“I hate to appear selfish, but I want to take care of my deputies and their families first and then the town. If the deputies can’t do their job, the town will fall into chaos.”
“How many sick do you have right now?”
“Only eleven, six kids and five adults. Moving most of them out into the county has been a major help.”
“Just a minute, I’ll be right back.”
I grabbed Joan, Ally, and Mike and said, “The Sheriff has six kids and two adults that have come down with the disease. There has been over 35 dead in town, so far. Are y’all okay with me giving Bert enough antibiotics and anti-diarrheal medicine to treat his people? We have more here and a large supply at the hideout.”
“Of course, but he can’t know about the rest of the medicine.”
They all felt bad about hoarding medicine but knew it could save their loved ones later.
“Bert, we will help look for medicine, but as soon as you can get all of your people here, Joan is going to give them enough antibiotics to treat the ones that are already sick. We don’t have enough to help the town and giving you medicine to take to town would just start a riot. Let’s load your truck up with some clean water and a couple gallons of bleach so you can treat water in town. Hurry and get the families out here. We’ll get their quarters ready and set up a makeshift hospital large enough for the sick. I know you know this, but we can’t let it leak out we have antibiotics, or we’ll be run over by people from the city, and we don’t have enough for ourselves if there is an outbreak here.”
Bert had tears in his eyes when I told him we had medicine for his people and he could bring the sick ones out here to be treated.
He grabbed my hand, shook it and said, “Thanks, we will forever be in your debt.”
“You may be paying that debt sooner than you think if this disease gets worse. People will try to leave the city and find a safer place, and our community covers everything southeast of the city and the river has the northeast blocked. Can your roadblocks send them west or southwest without causing too much suspicion?”
“I’ll make it happen, and my deputies will be on board since their families will be in your community.”
“I thought that would be the case. Thanks for helping protect us. We do appreciate you and the deputies. Joan really appreciates Chuck.”
“I know; he has a smile a mile wide since they started dating.”
Once upon a time, that would have made me a bit jealous or at least require one of my smart assed comments, but I was just happy for Chuck and my ex.
***
The deputies and their families started rolling in a couple of hours later, and the sick ones were taken to a large tent that we had set up as a makeshift hospital. One of the deputies brought his sister who was a nurse practitioner, and with the other deputy’s wife, we now had two nurses. They administered the antibiotics and anti-diarrheal medicine and busied themselves with organizing the medical supplies. They both ganged up on me that afternoon to find a permanent building to serve as a hospital.
“There are numerous medical buildings and a hospital in Owensville. Why do we need a hospital out here in the sticks?”
“All but two of the Doctors have either died or left town. The hospitals and pharmacies were looted early on when the gangs were looking for drugs. What they didn’t steal, they ruined. You have more medical supplies here than all of Owensville.”
“Why would the bastards take regular medical supplies?”
“To trade and to take care of their own. STDs are running rampant, and the gangs want the antibiotics to treat the infected. HIV is out of control, but there are no drugs for that now. Most of those drugs don’t have much of a shelf life. My understanding is most of our supplies ended up in Anderson and Murray. We’d like to set up shop here and take care of our families and your people."
“So we’re looking at several more rounds of people dying off from STDs and other diseases.”
“Yes, people are dying as we speak in Owensville due to the filthy conditions, contaminated water, and the Mayor not helping educate the people.”
“The doomsday prepper crowd has always said that 90 percent of the world would die off the first year. I’m starting to believe those forecasts. The trick is to keep their problems from becoming ours.”
I just realized that our community had just grown by over 40 people because these folks didn’t want to go back into town. I had to have a community meeting and determine what to do. We needed them, but this would put a severe strain on our food supply.
“We’ll have to have a community meeting to decide on the hospital and if y’all join us permanently.”
“We promise we’ll help out more than just treating the ill. Most of us have other skills and are willing to learn new ones. I was in the Army and served two tours in Afghanistan. I’ve been shot at and had to kill to survive. Cops wives are a hardy bunch. We just have to ditch the city and make a new life. We hope we can join you or other communities.”
Her last comment put a thought into my head. I had a solution that would be a win, win for everyone.
***
As I had forecast, the situation got much worse in the city. People were dying by the hundreds and others were leaving by the droves. Most walked away from the city carrying what they could in shopping carts or wheelbarrows containing their possessions. Bert’s team came through for us and directed the people south and west away from us. They told the people fleeing that the area east of the city was in worse shape than Owensville and gave them fresh water for their journey. The ones that arrived in Anderson were not welcome and sent on their way southwest. This situation would get worse over the next few weeks.<
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Chapter 11 - Win, Win
The Farm
I woke up at dawn, as usual, for the new me. Surprisingly, I felt very rested for having had the midnight to 2:00 am duty in the crow’s nest. Ally and I had made it a practice of keeping each other company when we pulled guard duty. I know it didn’t make sense, but we hated to be apart. When Mike found out, he gave me a rash of shit and called me whipped. I reminded him that he and Sally walked around hand in hand all of the time. Mike’s reply was that perhaps we had finally achieved happiness. I think he’s right.
I lay in our new bed with Ally’s head resting on my left arm and watched her sleep for half an hour before she woke up. Her eyes opened, and she smiled at me.
“Good morning sunshine.”
She looked at me for a minute and said, “I love you, Zack Johnson. How long have you been looking at me? Is my breath bad?”
“For a while and no.”
“Can we just stay in bed all day? I could sleep another couple of hours.”
“We could, but I want to meet with our team and then take some of the team over to Sailsberg.”
I gave her the short version of my plan, and she liked my thoughts and made a couple of suggestions.
“Road trip, I’m in. Do I have time for a shower?”
“That depends. Do I still have the job of back scrubber?”
“Of course. Are you any good at your new job?”
“You tell me after I’m done.”
I received an A+ for back scrubbing.
Our shower took a little longer than Ally planned, but we joined the others for breakfast, and I told them what I planned for the extra deputies and their families that had steamed into our community. I wanted their permission to enact my plan for our newly arrived people from the city.
“So we build a pole barn hospital here at the farm, and we help spread out the deputies and their families from here to Sailsberg to live. These people will be a big help to those cities. Why do you need us to help with a decision?”