by S G Read
‘Where’s the strip?’ She asked.
‘It was that big green one.’ Brian answered.
‘That was a field. I know a field when I see one!’
‘It is also the strip and time is pressing.’ Jericho answered. ‘Do you want me to put it down?’
‘No way. Get yourselves back into your seats and strap yourselves in.’
She flew in a circle and approached again, now she could see two people outside waving so she waggled her wings to be flash. She took a close look at the field then chose her landing direction by reading her instruments. She approached the field again and slowed, putting down the flaps with Jericho there nervously holding his hands off the joystick in front of him, in case he did something wrong. The wheels touched and the jet bounced, touched again and stayed down and Justine stopped it before the reached the end of the field.
‘No trouble.’ she cried when it had stopped.
Ralphy ran across to where Wilbur was standing. ‘Any sign of your dad?’
‘No but he should be back soon.’
‘We’ll wait but you will probably get sick now that we are here, it is easily passed on. When you are sick Donna will inject you with the serum and after that it is up to you!’
They walked across the field in the sunshine, carrying the food they had brought to help out, in case there was none in the city and settled down to wait for Wilbur’s pa.
When it grew dark they knew there was nothing to do but to wait until morning and hope they saw him then.
The roof on the canteen come dance hall slowly rose off the walls. The walls on the kitchen area reached full height and they put the roof on it. Now they plastered the walls to make them smooth for tiling and the women went out to find enough tiles to do the job. It took three days to find the tiles they liked and they were in another county!
Morning came in Australia with no sign of Jasper, Wilbur’s pa.
‘What do we do?’ Wilbur asked.
‘We’ll go look for him.’ Barry suggested.
‘You will have to be quick, if he has the plague he may not last out the day.’ Donna warned.
‘Do you know where to find him?’ Justine asked Wilbur.
‘Yes.’
‘Then we’ll look from the air, you did say he had a tractor and was going to be towing a tanker behind him as well?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good we should be able to spot that from the air, why are men so pig headed?’
Justine took off as though it was easy and followed Wilbur’s directions to the city, following the route Jasper had used, as it was the same one he would be coming back on. Half way there they saw a tractor and trailer with a tanker fixed on the back but it was stationary.
‘You’ll have to land nearby.’ Donna declared.
Justine flew in a circle until she saw a place but as she flew on, the next place she saw had cars parked there and she chose there to land. She put the jet down on the road and taxied up to the cars.
‘Just make sure no one lives there and will object to you taking the cars.’ Barry warned.
‘They took three cars with fuel in and drove out to where they had seen the mini convoy. Wilbur’s dad was laying in the shade, still breathing but not very well.’
‘You pig headed man.’ Donna scolded as she injected him with the serum. ‘I just hope you have a strong will to live!’
‘You tell him lady!’ Wilbur added. His nose was running and he looked to be going down with the plague.
Penny, Jasper’s wife and Wilbur’s mother had come along; she used cold compresses on her husbands head to cool his fever and try to help him fight the plague.
‘He found some food.’ Jericho declared looking on the trailer.
‘Lot of good it is here though.’ Wilbur declared. ‘If I didn’t have Ralphy for a friend he would have died.’
‘He still might.’ Donna warned.
‘No, ma won’t let him, too much work to be done.’ Wilbur replied.
Donna smiled at his belief in his mother but she was still worried that he might lose his father.
‘What do we do?’ Jericho asked.
‘We’ll take him in the jet can you get this thing to the farm?’ Brian answered.
‘Yeah no sweat; nothing like my Harley though. Anyone want to come for a ride on my tractor?’
‘I’d better come to keep you out of trouble.’ Barry answered. ‘You just fly back carefully Justine and I will see you at the farm house.’
‘I will daddy.’
‘I don’t believe you flew the jet all the way from England to here.’ Wilbur declared.
‘Well you saw me fly it to here and land it on this road.’ Justine replied.
‘Sorry that came out wrong. I should have said it is hard to believe that you flew the jet all the way here from England.’
‘I didn’t. The auto pilot did the most and Jericho did take over when I had a pee.’
Wilbur laughed. They carried Jasper to the cars and took him to the plane with Barry and Jericho helping. Barry was not going anywhere until they were in the air. He watched Justine take off and they took a car back to the trailer. They fixed the car to the back and drove on slowly.
‘Now I can understand why they used to fall asleep on the horse and cart in Victorian days, talk about boring.’ Jericho complained.
Justine landed back in the field and taxied as close as she could to the house, then they carried Jasper into the house. They used ice packs from the fridge to cool him down and help him fight the plague but it was going to be a long night. No one slept as the battle raged, they had the portable generator handy in case the generator they were using ran out of steam, although it was regularly topped up with wood and water to keep it going.
They heard the tractor approaching in the early hours, close to dawn, with Jasper still breathing raggedly. Wilbur was now showing signs of the plague and Donna injected him to help him fight it but his mother showed no sign of it.
‘I think you would have ended up all on your own here.’ Donna declared. ‘When the plague reached here and I think it would have got here one way or the other.’
‘It doesn’t bear thinking about.’ She answered. ‘I don’t know what I would have done.’
‘What we all had to do, go off and find some company!’ Donna replied.
Jericho and Barry staggered into the farmhouse.
‘Well I am glad that is over!’ Jericho declared.
‘Not my favourite job.’ Barry agreed. ‘How is he?’
‘Hanging on.’ Donna answered.
Like the others they did not go to sleep just hung around waiting. The waiting went on well into the next day but there was little change.
‘What do you think?’ Brian asked Donna.
‘It depends when he went down with it. If it was over three days ago things look good, if not it is too early to tell but it is really having a go at him.’ Donna answered.
‘It hasn’t mutated has it?’ Ralphy asked, he had slept where he sat.
‘It might have I will have to take some blood back for Ralph to look at just to make sure.’ Donna answered.
‘Will that be safe?’ Brian asked.
‘We will probably have it on us or it will be carried in or on the plane, so one way or the other we need to know about it. We will have to cool down our box again and take blood back if they survive to make some new serum from.’
‘If it keeps changing we will never be safe.’ Brian declared.
With the sun shining brightly Jasper was still struggling to breath with no sign of a let up Donna came to a decision and injected him with more serum. Over the next hour his breathing seemed to ease and two hours after the second injection he opened his eyes.
‘Hello wife.’ He said weakly.
‘Hello my pig headed husband.’ She replied.
‘I’m the same man you married.’
‘You are that.’
‘Who are you?’ Jasper asked when he saw Donna.
‘With the amount of people who have passed by since it struck you would have starved.’ He answered.
‘Now rest and get your strength back they are unloading the food for you.’
‘You brought a few others then.’
‘You wait until you see the pilot.’ His wife declared. ‘You won’t believe in and I think Wilbur is taken with her.’
‘Him as well!’ Donna declared. ‘Now she will tie up the radio calling Australia.’
‘Well he doesn’t get to meet many girls, not now.’ She replied.
The men stored the food in the barn and in the cold room in the barn, then drove the tanker and parked it near the second generator, which was silent at the moment.
‘We need to go and get some fuel for the plane.’ Justine announced when Barry walked out after washing his hands.
‘Do we need to put some in it to take off?’
‘I think so.’
They put what fuel they had left in the plane to allow it to take off and Justine flew it to the nearest airport where they filled it up with fuel and topped up the spare cans. On the way back someone waved from the ground and Justine circled so that they could see who it was. They saw several men and women with a lot of children below.
‘Mark where this is Brian,’ Barry ordered, ‘and we will drive over to see them.’
‘I hope they are not like the people on the Isle of Wight.’ Jericho declared.
‘We’ll be careful to make sure.’ Barry replied.
When Justine landed, Jericho, Barry and Brian drove off to see the people they had seen from the air. Brian found a map in the car they had towed behind the tanker and they followed Brian’s coordinates to the place. Barry slipped out of the car before they arrived and Brian drove on to where they had seen them. They were greeted by the same group and with open arms. It was a little settlement but they were finding it hard. They had no fuel to drive anywhere and no horses to ride anywhere.
‘Have you lived here all the time?’ Jericho asked in case they had not met the plague yet.
‘No we come from all over, we are the ones not touched by the death.’ A woman answered. ‘We grew food to eat but we have a drought which has killed all our food and we are starving.’
‘We can probably help you then.’ Brian answered. ‘We know where there is food and water. We can take you there and you can grow as much as you like, while eating what we find you in the city.’
‘Where is this water?’ The woman asked.
‘We flew over a river which has lots of water in it and the city still has a lot of tin food in it and that is better than starving!’
‘A river, we can live by a river?’ She asked.
‘Yes there is no one to stop you now; there will be fish in the river as well.’ Jericho added.
‘How many are there?’ Brian asked.
‘Just under fifty.’ The woman answered.
‘We need the tractor and trailer then I reckon.’
Jericho nodded. ‘We will be back later, be ready to leave when we get here.’
They drove out and waited out of sight for Barry to come out to them.
‘Seems all right to me.’ He declared.
They collected the trailer and drove slowly back to the little community with food and water on board. As they drove them to their new home, the thirsty people drank their fill of water and ate tinned food. It took several hours to reach the river but when they did they were not disappointed and there was no one else around. They found houses to live in and now they had enough water for anything they wanted to do. There were cars parked there, a couple of boats and petrol pumps. They could go and collect seeds from the nearest nurseries and plant crops; they could also go and find more food themselves.
They left them there and drove back to the farm, driving through the night.
Meanwhile Donna had given Wilbur another injection of serum as it seemed to help his father and he was breathing more easily now.
The tractor chugged up the drive in bright sunshine and the men on it peeled off and found a cool place to have a sleep.
Ray looked about the settlement as he drove, the canteen was plastered now and they would soon be able to paint the walls. The kitchen had been kitted out with a lot of modern equipment, mostly from showrooms or stockroom and had never been used. Some was useless, just for show and it was dumped but the rest was up and running. For now they were using bottled gas, as it was still available but it was possible that they would eventually move over to electric cooking although the ovens were already run by electricity. With many hands the work was soon finished, when they put their minds to it. Jethro was talking with Ralph when Ray drove up to them and obviously sizing up a spot for his new purpose built hospital.
Ray stopped beside them.
‘Don’t think small.’ He said when they stopped talking and looked at him. ‘I wouldn’t want to have to start adding bits on, that never works.’
‘I agree.’ Jethro replied. ‘We want it big enough that some rooms aren’t used for a year, as long as they are looked after it will be best in the long run.’
‘So I should make this plan twice as big?’ Ralph asked sounding impressed.
‘Think how big you would like it and triple its size.’ Jethro answered. ‘That way it will do for a few years, by then we might be able to take over another hospital, one that is already built!’
‘Not my favourite idea.’ Ralph replied.
‘Just do your best and we’ll see how we get on?’ Ray declared and drove away.
Jericho woke as sweat trickled into his mouth. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and walked over to the farm house.
‘We found a group of people over that way and took them to the river, as all their crops had died because of the drought.’ He said to Penny the farmer’s wife.
‘You found other survivors?’
‘Yes women and children.’
‘You could have brought them here.’ She declared.
‘I know you have roots here but the truth is that without some rain and not just a shower you will die here. By the river water is not an issue; you should go to where they are, either upriver, with them or down river and plant new roots.’
‘Jasper would not want to do that!’ Penny declared.
‘No he wouldn’t,’ Jasper said from the doorway, ‘but then he is pigheaded and to survive we have to change. As soon as the boy is fit we will move to the river and find a house and land.’
‘Are you sure Jasper?’ Penny asked.
‘Hell no but he is right, to stay here is to die. It might rain tomorrow but it is always a fight here and by the river we would be able to grow just what we wanted. The boy would also have someone his own age to talk to by the sounds of it. If you would give me a hand to load the generator on to the trailer we will take it with us, the boy likes to call Ralphy on his radio.’
‘Surely.’ Jericho answered.
As his strength returned Jasper did more around the farm, not planting and preparing but loading his smaller trailer with things they would need when they reached the river. The old steam generator was still running the farm so they were able to load the newer diesel generator onto the bigger trailer ready to go but Wilbur was still fighting the plague. He had lasted five days now and lived but it was not over yet.
‘This disease has a mind of its own!’ Donna complained to Ralph over the radio and described the latest symptoms.
‘We can make serum out of Jasper and Wilbur’s blood, if you can keep it cold enough on the way back, otherwise I will have to come over there and do it where they are, as the serum is easier to transport.’
‘I will have to wait until they are stronger.’
‘Take all the time it needs, they will
produce a good serum and sooner or later they will start having babies which might just need it!’
For two more days Wilbur fought the disease but after that it was obvious that he was losing.
‘We need to get him to a hospital and we need a generator bigger than the portable one.’ Donna declared. ‘Where is the nearest hospital?’
‘There is one in the city.’ Jasper answered. ‘I could never get my generator there in time to help though.’
‘We fly there today and I will need all able bodies there as well.’ Donna ordered. ‘I watched one little girl die of this thing and he is not going to be the first boy!’
Wilbur was carried to the plane by Jasper and laid on a seat. Everyone squeezed in and Justine took off. She followed Jasper’s directions and they saw the hospital right where he said it was and she prepared to land.
‘Is that snow?’ She asked looking down at the white covering on the ground.
Jasper looked down. ‘Looks like sheep to me, they will come in handy. Don’t worry about them getting in your way they will run as soon as you try to land.’
Justine came in low and gratefully watched the sheep scatter, she landed the jet on the grass as near the hospital as she could.
‘Right you men folk find me a generator!’ Donna ordered as Penny carried Wilbur from the plane.
‘Should be one in the hospital.’ Jasper declared and they all went into the hospital, the men with guns ready.
The two women cleared a bed and laid Wilbur on it while the men found the generator. There was no time to go round and turn things off but they did have to find a van with diesel in it to fuel the generator. After what seemed an eternity the lights came on and Donna could use the equipment. Wilbur was getting worse; she left him with Penny while she raided cabinets for antibiotics. She did not care if they were useless, it was something to try but when she returned to the bed, she used the radio. The reply was faint but unmistakable.
The men returned to find her talking on the radio and giving Wilbur injections, then talking on the radio again.
‘We need ice!’ She cried to the men and they ran off to find ice.