by Ellis, Tara
As Danny and her horse spurred into motion, she heard what might have been barking in the distance. It was the only thing that compelled her to hold on as they attempted to outrun the fire, heading for an uncertain fate.
Chapter 3
PATTY
Mercy City Hall, Montana
Patty was unable to hold back a shuddering sob as she reached up and erased the numbers 652 from the whiteboard with a shaking hand. Picking up the green marker, she gripped it like a knife, and then steadied it with her left hand while writing 640. Six hundred and forty people left alive in Mercy, and that was counting the family of three who had finally made it back home three days ago. A young family who had found themselves stranded in Helena during the flashpoint. A family known to Patty and many others, so there was no hesitation to allow them inside their protected community. It ending up causing the death of more than a dozen other people.
Patty turned to face the city council and committee members. They were all somber, and several of them had been personally impacted by the deaths. Some blamed her. It was particularly hard to meet their piercing stares, but she did. As the mayor, they were right that it had been her responsibility to keep them safe, and she failed.
“We never should have started letting people in,” Gary declared.
Patty squinted at the councilman. While they’d been getting along better lately, she had never stopped being wary of him. “It’s not that straightforward, and you know it.”
“Patty’s right,” Sandy offered. “The Andersons are from Mercy. They belong here. We can’t prevent people from coming home. What about when my son and grandson get back?” she barked at Gary, turning on him. “Because I dare you to try and turn him away!”
If the situation hadn’t been so appalling, Patty might have grinned and taken some pleasure in watching Gary shrink away from Sandy Miller. She certainly wasn’t someone you wanted to challenge.
“Now, Sandy, no one is saying they wouldn’t want to let Tom in,” Ned Allen intervened. The former mayor had a way of calming the roughest waters and he could do it with just the tone of his voice. “I believe Patty and Dr. Olsen have already come up with a reasonable solution.”
Patty nodded thankfully at Ned and wished for about the hundredth time that he would take her up on her request to step into his old role. If not for her sense of duty and fulfilling the job she’d been elected to, Patty would gladly walk away from the overwhelming responsibility, especially after the past two days. “Melissa,” she directed to the doctor, who was seated on a chair at the back of the room. “Can you please fill everyone in on exactly what’s happened over the past seventy-two hours and how it’s being addressed?”
Melissa stood slowly, looking stiff and tired. Her eyes were hollow and her complexion was pale and splotchy. The doctor’s normally shiny brown hair was oily and pulled back into a bun. The fact that she came to the meeting wearing gloves caused everyone to give her a wide berth.
“I’m not sick, or contagious,” Melissa started, trying to dispel any fear. “I’ve set up a rigorous decontamination procedure and the bacteria isn’t airborne.”
“How do you know that?” Sheriff Waters asked, not looking convinced.
The doctor’s expression was grim. “Because if it were, we’d be dealing with an epidemic that would already be running rampant. It would have the potential to kill nearly all of us.”
Patty closed her eyes and groaned inwardly as the buzz of nervous conversation broke out. She knew this was going to be hard, but it could possibly be even worse than she’d thought it would be. “Please, everyone, we all need to listen to Dr. Olsen.”
Melissa smiled weakly at Patty and cleared her throat as the room quieted down. “Mr. and Mrs. Anderson arrived with their five-year-old daughter, Clara, three days ago. At the time they went through the checkpoint and were happily granted access to their home in Mercy, they didn’t report any illness. When I spoke with the two guards on duty that day, they remembered the little girl was being carried by her father and looked lethargic, but they all figured it was from the radiation.”
More murmuring erupted and Melissa clapped her hands, clearly frustrated with the short attention span of the other people in the room. Patty was worried about her friend. Melissa had been through more since the flashpoint than any of them, and had probably been awake for over forty-eight hours.
Once she had the majority of the room looking at her, Melissa began again. “Em woke me up at two a.m. the next morning, after having received all three members of the Anderson family at the school—I mean at the hospital.” The mention of Dr. Olsen’s assistant dispelled any more chatter. Em had been one of the first victims of the illness. “When the family first came in, Em thought it was radiation illness, but quickly realized it was something more virulent, either a virus or bacteria. When the little girl took a dramatic turn for the worse, she ran to get me. Since Em already thought it might be a contagion, we took the proper precautions at that point. Unfortunately, it was too late for some of the other patients in the hospital, and the bacteria was already passed on.”
“I don’t understand how it happened so fast,” Fire Chief Martinez pressed. “And how did it spread to so many other people if it isn’t airborne?”
Melissa raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I’m not going to pretend to have all of the answers. I have no way of knowing what it is we’re actually dealing with, but I feel fairly certain, based on the extremely rapid incubation period of twelve to twenty-four hours, that it must be bacterial. It was likely spread by the other patients there that night using the same bathroom, or even touching the doorknobs. The bacteria is incredibly virulent and I’ve never seen anything like it. It appears to directly attack the intestines and their lining, causing the patient to literally hemorrhage fluids. If it isn’t cholera, then it’s something closely related.”
“May the good Lord have mercy on us,” Paul gasped, crossing himself and looking at his friend, Gary. Patty wasn’t sure how Paul knew anything about cholera, but she figured he’d watched a documentary at some point in his life.
“I thought cholera was eradicated!” Someone from the back of the room shouted the question.
Melissa shook her head. “There hasn’t been a documented case in the States since sometime in the early nineteen hundreds, but worldwide there were more than a million cases just last year. But like I said, it may be something similar. They stopped and camped with another family the day before they got to Mercy, and shared their water. It was supposed to have been boiled, but my guess is that was likely the source.
Either way, if Em and I had known right away what we were dealing with and had the appropriate medication and supplies to treat it, we could have prevented most of the deaths.”
“We’re probably lucky only half of them died,” Caleb offered.
“I don’t know if I would call any of this lucky,” Gary whined. “Can you at least prevent anyone else from dying since you know about it now?”
Melissa shifted uneasily from foot to foot and glanced over at Patty before answering. “If I had the proper supplies, I could, yes.” She crossed her arms over her chest then and let out a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately, we’ve used up all of our IV fluids, all of our anti-nausea meds, and most of our antibiotics. I’ll be lucky if I can treat a mild case of food poisoning, let alone a bacteria that kills in less than a day.”
Dr. Olsen sat down amid yet another round of frantic conversation. She’d said what she came there to say and was clearly drained. Patty wanted to offer more support, but was at a loss for words. There just wasn’t anything to say that would make any of it better.
“We’ve already implemented a quarantine process for anyone wanting to enter Mercy,” Patty shouted, not caring who was or wasn’t listening. She looked to the sheriff to pick up the conversation. As he stood and began handing out their brand-new quarantine protocol around the table, she turned and walked out of the room without another word.
/> Several steps beyond the meeting room doors, Patty stopped in the dark hallway and leaned against the wall. She thought it couldn’t get much worse after the first couple of days following the flashpoint, but the past forty-eight hours had been a nightmare. With everything they tried to plan and prepare for, the illness still took them by surprise.
“It’s not your fault, Patty,” Sandy said from behind her, and rested a hand on her shoulder.
Patty was unable to hold back her tears as she turned and stepped into the embrace of her best friend. She’d missed Sandy, since the two of them barely spoke after their falling-out earlier in the week.
Sandy patted her back and then took her by the shoulders. Holding Patty out at arm’s length, the younger woman stared down sternly at her. “The Patty I know would never question herself like this. Ignore Gary and anyone else who questions you unfairly, including me.”
Patty grinned, accepting what, for Sandy, amounted to an apology. “You haven’t been unfair,” she countered. “You were right before about not turning people away, and in a way, Gary was right that I didn’t take enough precautions.”
Sandy gave Patty a gentle shake and continued to glare at her. “Stop it! You aren’t alone in this and you can’t take responsibility for not thinking of the inconceivable.”
“I’ve missed you, Sandy,” Patty said softly. “I’ve missed our talks.”
“Well, we were being two old fools with too much pride,” Sandy waved a hand and then took a step back. It was hard to make out her features in the dim light, but Patty thought she was smiling. “I heard you needed some help out at your place, what with all the time you’re spending here. I’ll send Chloe over this evening and you can put her to work doing whatever it is you need done. She’s small, but a firecracker and a good, hard worker. Sharp, too, so watch your tongue around her.”
Chuckling, Patty made a tsking sound. “Sounds a lot like us at her age. I’ll send some Honeycrisps back with her. I know how much you love those apples.”
“That would be more than a fair trade,” Sandy agreed. “They’re Ethan’s favorite.”
Patty’s smile wavered at the mention of her friend’s missing grandson. She knew Sandy would never believe they weren’t coming back, and she wasn’t about to try and say anything otherwise. Instead, she was happy to give her a piece of good news. “Your friend, Bishop, got back a couple of hours ago. He’ll be released from quarantine tomorrow afternoon.”
Sandy tried to hide her reaction from Patty, but she already suspected her friend had grown quite fond of the man. “Do you know if he found the guy, Hicks?”
Patty shook her head. After Sandy’s encounter with the missing teen up at her lake, Bishop left that same night for the resort they were supposed to have been holed up at. “He didn’t say much about what he did see at the resort, but apparently, Hicks wasn’t there. Sorry I don’t know more, but I wasn’t able to talk with him much, considering everything else that’s going on.”
“Guess I’ll have to wait and talk with him about it tomorrow,” Sandy said, glancing back at the closed door to the meeting room. Someone was yelling again. “I’d better get back in there. I need to give out my revised food requisitions list and I know there’s going to be some push-back.”
Patty shooed Sandy back inside but remained out in the hall to further regain her composure before facing the group again. They still had some hard topics to cover, including a mass burial and how to handle the memorial services. As difficult as it was, she reminded herself that at least in Mercy, they still recognized their dead and had the luxury of mourning them. Based on the last report they got that morning from the Pony Express rider, things weren’t nearly as civilized elsewhere. She shuddered, recalling his description of bodies rotting on the side of the road, and vowed to never let that happen in Mercy.
Chapter 4
CHLOE
Natural spring site, Mercy, Montana
Chloe curled her toes in the cool grass while studying the drawing she’d made. The notebook was nestled in her lap and she was hunched over it, pencil in hand. Looking up, she squinted at the unimpressive body of water before erasing and redrawing a portion of the sketch.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect, Chlo,” Crissy complained.
Chloe winced slightly at the nickname Crissy continued to use in spite of her complaints, and then twisted around to smile at her. Chloe had learned a lot about patience in the past two weeks, and fortunately for Crissy, she really liked her. “I know, but Bishop is going to need it to be as accurate as possible. It’s important, Crissy. The town needs this water, and we’ve got to figure out the best way to get it to them.”
“If it’s so important, then why are we the only ones out here?” Crissy asked, pouting.
“Not everyone even knows about this spring,” Chloe explained. “And those who do are too busy doing other things to stay alive. That’s why Patty assigned Bishop to it, and why it’s a great chance for all of us to show how useful we are. In fact,” she continued, turning her attention to Trevor, “if you could help me take some measurements, that’d be great.”
Trevor stood from where the three teens were sitting in the grass and spread his arms wide, turning in a circle. “I am here to do your bidding, madame. Just don’t make me smell any flowers and I’ll be golden.”
Chloe’s smile faltered slightly when she thought of how close they might have come to losing Trevor. If he’d been working at the hospital that night, he probably would have been infected. Sandy was at the meeting in town, talking about the deaths from the freaky bacteria. With everything that had happened, Chloe probably wouldn’t be too shocked if the dead started rising…but she preferred aliens.
Closing her eyes, Chloe shook the thought from her head and tried to focus on why they were in the field, a few hundred feet above Mercy. Beyond the clearing, they were surrounded by dense evergreens that all butted up against a cliff. An old mine shaft was cut into the stone a couple hundred feet away, with ancient two-by-fours stuck across it in a lame attempt to keep curious kids out. Sandy had told Chloe that the whole area was originally settled as mining camps and the place was riddled with old shafts.
The natural spring well percolated above the surface not far from the entrance, off to the side of the mine. It formed a shallow, pondlike watering hole, before running in thin streams down the sloped ground behind them. The result was a marshy area of tall grass that Chloe would have never suspected as a clean source of drinking water, until she got closer. The water was, in fact, crystal clear. The town had already had all of the testing done on it, so they knew it was so pure right from the ground that it didn’t need anything more than basic filtering to remove dirt and debris. There had been some speculation about pollution from the mining process, but it came up uncontaminated.
The spot where the water permeated the ground was marked and Bishop seemed to think that if they were to dig out around it, deepening the retention pond, they could increase the flow and then perhaps even move the water towards Mercy with a sort of culvert. It was similar to the plan Chloe had for Sandy Miller’s ranch, except, of course, she didn’t have to worry about keeping it clean, since it was only for the cows.
Bishop should be getting back soon, and she wanted to have the diagram and measurements ready for him. Not only was it important to the town, but she needed to butter the older man up before laying on some heavy questions. He left the same night of their encounter with Jason and his new friends, so she didn’t get a chance to grill him about his ninja moves.
Chloe frowned, thinking about the very intense scene up at the lake. Bishop had tied all three men up, Jason included. He then marched them into town, with the help of Sandy’s rifle, right to the sheriff’s office. She and Sandy had followed on horseback, and then waited around for several hours while the town debated about what to do with the men and teen. In the end, they’d been stripped of everything but the bare essentials and escorted several miles outside of town, with the
threat of imprisonment if they returned. That was after Bishop had taken several minutes alone with Jason, and then he announced he was leaving immediately for the resort where Hicks was supposed to have taken the boys.
Chloe tried to stop Bishop and get more information before he left, but all he would say was that he’d be back in a few days, and to work on the plan for the water system while he was gone.
“Do you have the measuring tape?” Trevor was holding his hand out to her.
Jumping up, Chloe grabbed the backpack she’d brought and pulled out several items. She tossed a ball of yarn to Crissy. “Can you tie this on to these stakes after I place them?” she asked, waving several pieces of thin wood in her hand.
Crissy grumbled about it, but obediently began to unroll the yarn and followed Chloe to the outer edge of the field. Chloe had been doing her best to keep the younger girl occupied and she was relieved when Trevor said he could go to the spring with them. Crissy always lit up more around him and she was slowly coming to terms with what was happening. Well, until a bunch of people died, which had made her afraid to go into town. The only reason she agreed to help with their current mission was because it involved a horseback ride on the hillside with a picnic lunch.
The sun was blinding as Chloe surveyed the downslope and she was a bit surprised to see how low it was in the sky. They’d need to hurry if they were going to make it back to the ranch in time to make dinner. Sandy wouldn’t be home from her meeting and whatever else she was doing in town until later, so the nighttime meal was up to her and Crissy. Funny how only a couple of weeks earlier, that would have been meant throwing something into a microwave for two minutes. Now, they would have to haul fresh water, get a fire started out on the back porch, pick some fresh vegetables from the garden, and use the eggs they’d gathered that morning to create some sort of protein-rich meal. There were a couple of fish in the smoker that they would add to some rice to round it out.