Black Flag | Book 1 | Surviving The Scourge

by Klapwyk, Dave

  “He says you have the virus,” she told Ben. “He wants to give you something to help ease your suffering, but says you won’t make it through the night.”

  Ben nodded, and the Doctor made an injection into his arm. “Je suis désolé,” he said and left.

  “Camille, why don’t you go find the others and tell them where we are.”

  He sat beside Ben; their hands clasped. Ben looked up at him, “Take care of our little gang, okay?”

  Tears leaked out of his eyes and a large lump formed in the back of his throat. He couldn’t talk and didn’t know what to say. Joe squeezed Ben’s hand tighter.

  “I’m just going to take a little nap,” said Ben and closed his eyes.

  “Good night Benaiah.” Joe sat on the floor with his back up against the bed. The tears flowed down his cheeks and his grief exploded into hitching sobs.

  The others came by, and Kevin said a little prayer. Nurses and doctors checked on Ben once in a while, but he never woke up. He died in his sleep later that afternoon.

  A doctor checked on Camille’s arm, re-wrapped it and gave her some antibiotics.

  Joe walked out of the hospital in a numbed daze. They all got back into the old brown van and drove away. Without Ben, most of the drive was silent.

  Chapter 26

  Monique, Olivia, Ayesha, Zach and Roxie drove towards Commerce City in the police car, but this time Zach didn’t blare the siren or turn on the lights. The attack at the mansion and their hasty escape had taken a toll on all of them. It was late, and their adrenaline levels had subsided. The wind was picking up, and the blowing snow was making it hard to see. This was made worse by the fact that the road wasn’t plowed.

  “Where are we going?” asked Ayesha.

  “We need a warm place to sleep for the night,” answered Monique.

  Zach looked out the window. “It looks like the electricity is out everywhere, I don’t see any lights.”

  The capital city of Commerce was spread over a large area. It had a river on one side but was surrounded on all other sides by forest and farmland.

  They drove through the blowing snow with frozen fields and trees on both sides. The whiteout conditions forced Monique off the road. They could barely see a few metres in front of them when they pulled off to the side.

  “Is that a mailbox?” said Ayesha, pointing in front of them.

  Monique flicked the high beams on and could just make out the outline of a mailbox through the snow. “If there’s a mailbox, there must be a house here somewhere, but I can’t see a driveway.”

  “I think there’s a spotlight outside your window,” said Zach from the back, “and I think the baby’s hungry or something.”

  Olivia was crying. Monique found the handle for the spotlight at the bottom of her window. She was able to point it by turning the handle. They were able to navigate the long straight driveway which led them to a farmhouse on the left. There was a barn further down on the right. She stopped in front of the house and turned off the car. They were left in complete darkness.

  “Whoa!” said Zach, “that’s dark!”

  Monique turned the car back on. “Okay, everybody get your flashlights.”

  She opened the car door, and an icy blast hit her. Monique closed it quickly. “Change of plans,” she said as she started the car back up. “You all stay here, and I will go in a see if they have a fireplace I can get started. Once I know it’s safe, and I have a fire going, I’ll come back to get you.”

  Olivia’s crying got louder.

  “Maybe you should feed the baby,” said Zach. “I can go start a fire.”

  “And what are you going to do if there’s somebody in there?” asked Monique.

  “It doesn’t look like anybody’s home,” he answered.

  “It’s not safe, Zach,” said Ayesha.

  “Give me a gun, then,” said Zach.

  “I’ll go inside to see if anybody’s home and then come back. Then you can go start a fire while I feed Olivia.”

  Monique walked up to the front door and knocked. There was no sound from inside. She tried the door handle and was surprised when it opened.

  Inside was just as cold as outside, but there was less wind and snow.

  “Hello?” she called out softly into the darkness. Then louder, “Anybody home?”

  Nobody answered. She turned her flashlight on and shone it around the small boot room. She opened a second door that led into a large eat-in kitchen and called out again, but nobody answered.

  She ran back to the car to feed Olivia, who was now crying full throttle. Zach, Ayesha and Roxie left the car and went into the house. There was a wood stove in the kitchen with a small pile of kindling and wood. The two of them were able to start a fire, but had to figure out the damper before the house filled with smoke. By the time Monique came back, the stove was warm. They closed the doors to the kitchen to keep the heat in. Monique found some blankets in a hall closet, and they all cuddled by the stove. Monique snuggled close to Olivia, and the dog lay between them and Ayesha and Zach.

  “You know what I could really go for right now?” asked Zach.

  “What?” said Ayesha.

  “Chocolate. A chocolate bar, a box of chocolates, smarties, chocolate ice cream, a chocolate macaroon or even a chocolate bunny.”

  “It’s not Easter,” said Ayesha.

  “I know, and I won’t get chocolate for Christmas either, but I can still dream.”

  “Sometimes it’s good to think of things we love,” said Monique, “when life is sad.”

  They managed to sleep a little before the sun rose and the wood stove ran out of wood.

  “I’m freezing,” complained Ayesha a few hours later.

  “Me too,” said Zach.

  “Okay, let’s get moving then,” said Monique. I’m going to try to find some food in this kitchen and then make sure there is no one else in this house. You two can go out to the barn and see if you can find some firewood.”

  “Can’t we stay inside?” complained Ayesha, “and look for food?”

  Zach was nodding.

  “If you find a dead body upstairs, are you going to drag the decomposing corpse outside and bury it?” asked Monique.

  Zach nudged Ayesha, “I’m going to the barn.”

  “Wait for me!”

  The weather had warmed up considerably, and some of the snow was melting under the morning sun. Ayesha and Zach walked through the slush to the barn. Roxie ran off to investigate all the new farm smells.

  A snowdrift held the barn door shut, and they were unable to open it. Ayesha found a shovel nearby and started hacking at the snow.

  “Here,” said Zach, “let me try.” For most of Zach’s 12 years, he had always been a chubby, nerdy kid who wasn’t into sports or any other strenuous activity. Over the last few months, that had changed. The rationed food forced him to diet, and he was getting a lot more exercise. Whether it was helping to clean the big mansion or running around the yard with Ayesha and the dog, his level of physical activity was raised significantly. However, the shoveling still left him breathless and sore. When enough of the snow had been removed, they opened the barn door and stepped inside. The barn was old and dusty but was intact enough to keep the snow out.

  To the right was a tractor and other large farming machinery. To the left were stalls and some wooden doors. They found a tack room filled with saddles, riding helmets and to the right a row of empty stalls. Many of them opened up to the fenced-in field behind the barn. When they walked to the back of the barn, they looked across a snowy fenced-in field.

  Ayesha pointed to a large gap in the fence. “Looks like the animals escaped.”

  “Or the farmer let them free before they left,” said Zach.

  There was a noise behind them in the barn.

  “What was that?” asked Ayesha.

  They slowly walked back into the barn towards the noise.

  “I don’t think we checked the far stall,” said Zach. They
heard the shuffling sound of hay moving. Just before they got to the stall, a black cat dashed across their path and into a hole in the wall.

  Zach jumped and screamed, “Ahhh!”

  “Are you afraid of a cat?” said Ayesha, laughing. She opened the stall door.

  Zach shook his head. “It just surprised me, that’s all.”

  He looked where the cat disappeared and then backed into the stall. When he turned around, he was hit in the face with a wet spray. He fell backwards, his glasses were covered in wet slime. When he looked up, he saw a furry white llama looking back at him.

  Ayesha was laughing harder now.

  “You could have warned me!”

  “That wouldn’t be much fun.”

  Zach wiped most of the llama spit off his glasses. He looked up and saw that there were two llamas. One was white and the other black. The back door in the stall was open to the field.

  Ayesha was petting the black one. “Why do you think they’re still here?”

  “I don’t know,” said Zach, “maybe they didn’t want to leave.”

  Ayesha closed the stall door, and they finished searching the barn. They didn’t see the cat again and couldn’t find any firewood, so they headed back to the house.

  Back in the kitchen, Monique was loading the stove with wood. “I found firewood in the room off the back,” she said. She closed the door to the stove. “And I found some food.” She pointed to the table at some canned food including brown beans, pears, corn and sardines. “We can all pick one can to open, and we’ll pack the rest.”

  They sat down at the table and started to open their cans.

  “We have a problem,” said Monique, “That is all the food I could find in this house, and there’s not much wood left. We can’t stay here, and the police car is almost out of gas. Did you see any gas cans in the barn?”

  “I think there were a few cans of diesel, but I didn’t see any gas,” said Zach.

  “We need transportation to get to Commerce City,” said Monique as she scooped some brown beans on the floor for Roxie. “I don’t know how to drive a tractor, and I don’t know if we’d all fit. I suppose we could start walking, but I need a way to carry Olivia and some of this food, in case it takes more than a day to reach the city.”

  Zach offered his corn to Ayesha, “Trade?”

  She shrugged and gave him her can of pears.

  “Are you two listening to me?” asked Monique sternly. “We are a team. If you want to survive, you need to learn, you need to adapt, and you need to be smart.” She pointed to her head. “Otherwise, you will die.”

  Ayesha stopped eating the corn and looked down.

  Zach kept eating. “I know how we can do it.”

  “Would you care to enlighten us?” asked Monique.

  He swallowed his pears and searched the sugary juice for the last wedge. “There are two llamas in the barn. I think they can be used as pack animals. We could hook up a sled and put Olivia and the food in it. If we took both of them, we could take the guns and some blankets.” He put the can up to his mouth and drank the peach juice.

  “You’re a genius,” said Monique.

  “I know.”

  Ayesha named the llamas Dora and Boots. There was only one sled which they tied to Dora. Olivia sat in an old baby carrier that they put in the sled. They tied their packs and some bags with their supplies to the back of Boots. The sun had melted more of the snow and it was a couple degrees above freezing. They sloshed through the snow up the driveway and onto the road. Roxie bounced around chasing rabbits, and sniffing trees.

  “What will we do when we get to Commerce?” asked Ayesha.

  “Our main concern is food and shelter. There should be some of both once we get into the city.”

  “I say we find a chocolate factory,” said Zach.

  “Yeah,” Ayesha agreed.

  “I could go for some chocolate,” said Monique.

  Later, as they continued walking down the empty road, Ayesha spoke up. “Do you think Laurel and Blender are in Heaven?”

  “I hope so,” said Monique.

  “Do you believe in God?” asked Ayesha.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Why would God let so many people die?”

  “Some people believe God has a plan. Some think this is a result of sin.”

  “What do you believe?” asked Ayesha.

  “I believe that God has given us the gift of living another day and that He would want us to keep going.”

  Chapter 27

  Joe, Kevin, Tank and Camille left the hospital and made it to the highway on-ramp before they had to stop.

  A large military roadblock stood between them and the highway. Two large military transport vehicles were parked sideways on the road, and there were sandbags in the ditches on the side. Three soldiers with machine guns faced them. Their guns were all pointed in their direction. One of the soldiers walked towards them. Joe got out of the vehicle.

  “Don’t shoot!” he yelled with his hands in the air.

  “Everybody out of the vehicle!” one of the soldiers shouted.

  Kevin, Tank and Camille slowly got out of the vehicle.

  “Everybody put your hands on the vehicle,” the soldier yelled as he got closer. The other soldiers surrounded them. After being thoroughly searched, they all stood as ordered, in a line in front of the vehicle.

  “Do you have any weapons in the vehicle?” one of the soldiers asked.

  Tank spoke up. “We have a compound bow and some knives.”

  The soldier looked past Tank to the van. “Who else is in the vehicle?”

  “Just my dog,” replied Joe.

  “Your welcome to pet it,” Camille added.

  “Are we under arrest?” asked Kevin.

  “Not yet. You do know there is a state of martial law, right?”

  “I didn’t know that, sir.”

  “Why not? Where have you been?”

  “I haven’t listened to the news in a while.”

  “All non-essential travel is prohibited. You need to get back in your vehicle and go back home.”

  “We are trying to get back home. We live in Ingerwood, Ontario.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “It’s west of Commerce on the highway.”

  “The highway has been closed. If you don’t live here, then you will need to go to the nearest C3.”

  “What’s a C3?”

  “It’s a community command centre. They have running water, food, shelter and heat.”

  “What? No!” said Kevin, “My wife is looking after our baby girl, and I need to get back to her.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, that won’t be possible. You need to go to the nearest C3.”

  “I don’t want to go to a C3. I need to get back to my wife and daughter!” Kevin was yelling now.

  “Sir, you need to calm down.”

  “Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down when you’re telling me I can’t be with my family?”

  “Look, you want my advice?” He stepped closer to Kevin and leaned in. “Go to the C3 and send her a message. Most of the cell and internet networks are down, but there is a dedicated emergency network. Officially, it’s operated by what’s left of the military and government officials. Unofficially it’s used to send messages between cities. If your wife is at a C3, you might be able to communicate with her. Then you’ll at least know if she’s okay.”

  “Thank you, sir,” said Joe.

  “Okay, get back in your vehicle and turn around. Do you know where the closest C3 is?”

  “I do,” said Camille.

  They all climbed back in the van. Joe did a U-turn and drove back the way they came. Camille gave directions to the C3.

  “Have you been to one of these C3’s?” asked Kevin as he drove through the light snow.

  “I’ve seen them - they look like homeless shelters.”

  “Where have you been living?” Joe asked her.

  “With a friend from sc
hool. Our families died, so we moved into the nicest empty house on the block.”

  “Where’s your friend now?”

  “She died.”

  “Why were you at the mall?”

  “I was bored and sad, so I decided to do some shopping.” Camille changed the subject. “Does this mean you guys aren’t going to drive me to Commerce?”

  “Was it your brother that was in Commerce?” asked Joe.

  “Yes, Pascal was going to University there. He’s all I have left.”

  “Well, we’re still going,” said Kevin. “I’m not abandoning my family, and Commerce is sort of on the way. However, I would like to at least send Monique a message, so she knows I’m coming back.”

  They drove up to a small community centre, which was in a small suburb near the edge of the city. The parking lot was almost full. There was a large contingent of military vehicles parked near the entrance.

  Joe, Kevin, Camille, and Tank got out of the vehicle. The dog jumped out too but didn’t follow them. They walked up to the entrance, while the dog sat at a safe distance from the entrance and watched them. There was a soldier with a clipboard who met them at the doors and asked for their names.

  “We don’t want to stay here,” said Joe. “We just want to send a message.”

  “Sorry, but no one goes in without registering,” the soldier replied.

  They all gave him their names, which he studiously wrote down on his clipboard.

  “No weapons, no fighting, and no pets.” The soldier pointed to the dog outside.

  “Fine,” said Joe and looked back at the dog. “Sit, dog! Stay! We’ll be right back.”

  “You really should name your dog, Joe,” said Camille.

  The dog looked at them for a moment and trotted off.

  “Looks like you won’t have to, he just ran away,” said Kevin.

  The soldier led them through a door. Inside, the air was warm and stuffy. He handed the top paper on his clipboard to a pretty brunette with short-cropped hair and brown eyes. “This is Corporal Callaghan.”

  Callaghan motioned them forward, pointing to a large table filled with neat little piles, each individually wrapped in clear plastic. “Grab your supplies, people. In your package, you will find your bedroll, pillow, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and other essentials for your stay.”