First Days After

by Jay Vielle

  “Wonderful,” said Billy.

  “Pablo Fuentes,” said Mark. “From Spain. Well that’s reassuring,” he said.

  “Indeed,” said Emery.

  The driver glowered at him in the mirror again.

  CHAPTER 13

  “Hold on, Mo,” I said. “Are you suggesting that those, those things, are going to start eat living people?”

  “She said they already have eaten living people,” Maureen said, pointing to Wendy.

  “It was horrifying,” said Wendy.

  “It’s why I am in such a hurry to get this intel to someone in power,” said the Colonel. “I don’t know how much this has spread, if it’s happening in other cities where bombs hit. If we can get on the lead end of this it might curtail the devastation, save some lives,” he said, looking at Jake.

  “This does put quite a bit more urgency to your mission,” said Jake. “I’m sorry I was the cause of slowing it up.”

  “You went to get your kids,” I said. “Priorities, dude.” Jake nodded.

  “So where to, then? The swing by the Greenbriar was a long shot. You still want to try that, or do you have something else?”

  “There are some installations in Roanoke, but they really didn’t have much to do with military intelligence there,” he said.

  “If there were no bombs, where would you go?” asked Jake.

  “The Pentagon. Without hesitation.”

  “DC is a mess,” I said. “Radioactivity, Marshall law, and who knows, maybe those mutate things too. Colonel, do you think the Pentagon will be open and functioning?”

  “Hard to know for sure, but they would have the highest amount of defensive strategy capabilities as anywhere else in the country. It’s our nation’s capital. The Pentagon isn’t impregnable, but damn hard to hurt. They were up and running in under a week after the 911 bombing, and that hit them square. Yes. I think they’ll be open, and I think they’ll want to hear what I have to say. The only other back-up plan would be Raven Mountain. Site R that I mentioned before. But I think Washington should be the first attempt. Congress goes to the Greenbriar. They aren’t the ones that need to hear what I have to say.”

  “Dad,” said Tommy. “You said Mom was in DC during the bombings. We could look for her while we were there.”

  “Now hold on, Tommy,” said Jake.

  “Yeah, dad. We gotta look for Mom. You promised. And Morgan’s family is there too. I say we head to Washington,” said Vinny. Morgan smiled.

  “Didn’t the news say that those cities were radioactive?” asked Maureen. Wendy turned to Maureen and shook her head. “Yes, but remember, this isn’t the usual radioactivity. It’s Brenerium. It’s run its course by now. It’s not like uranium or plutonium, with a huge half-life. It breaks down quickly.”

  “Tactically, it makes sense,” said the Colonel. “Many of the countries involved in this war aren’t equipped to occupy an enemy land. None of the American or Middle Eastern countries have the means to do it. The Chinese might be able to, but ethnically speaking, Chinese are easier to identify physically than Europeans. It would be less practical for them to try, and they are farther away, so the logistics of moving any Chinese operations here would be monumental. The Russians, on the other hand, are just across the Bering Sea. They have numbers, most of them look like most of us, and they have the wealth to pull it off. If the Russians were looking to occupy us after a defeat, they would want the country intact. That is why they are using the Brenerium bombs with the weaponized Ebola. They want human casualties, but not demolished cities. It’s expensive to rebuild. Remember, also, that the Russians have had to live with Chernobyl. They didn’t want long-lasting problems with nuclear weapons either. The kind of radiation that went with the old A-bombs or H-bombs lasted for generations. Brenerium was used to be combined with viruses. The danger to life is greater and more immediate upon impact, but the blasts do less damage to buildings than A-bombs or H-bombs, and radioactivity shouldn’t be a factor at this point, only in the first 48 to 72 hours or so,” said the Colonel.

  “He’s right. Washington might be a high casualty situation, but it is most likely safe after a brief period. The people we worked with would know that, and we communicated it to the highest levels before the bombing began,” said Wendy. “What they don’t know about yet, I’d wager, are the mutates. The information we’ve accumulated on them is limited but pretty crucial. If they popped up other places,” Wendy paused dramatically.

  Jake turned around and looked at us. The group now included teachers and students from Hunter’s Run, an assistant manager from Wal-Mart, two government military defense specialists, and three college kids. Twelve of us in all, now. Jake looked over the group, cleared his throat, and spoke.

  “Guys, I’ve done what I came to do. I have my sons. I don’t have any other plan, no secondary mission. I can’t make you do anything. We’ve found places that are normal. Lexington. Blacksburg. People are living pretty normally here in Southern Virginia. Even if the radiation is gone, Washington is a war zone. There will be thousands dead, devastation everywhere. And for all we know, those mutates are there as well. I can’t decide this one for you. What do you want to do?” said Jake.

  “Are you serious?” asked Al. “We have people on the front lines of this war with crucial intelligence that maybe no one else in the country has. I’m not playing it safe at this point. I have a chance to be part of something special. I’m in.” Maureen kissed him on the cheek and gave him a hug.

  “If you’re in, I’m in,” she said.

  “In,” said Glen Billings.

  “In,” said Jada Allen.

  “Estoy con ustedes, Jake. I’m in too,” said Estela.

  “That makes it unanimous,” I said. “I’m not staying in Podunk central.”

  “Really Eddie? Lotta cute guys on a college campus,” said Jake, smiling.

  “Podunk guys. I need sophisticated guys. You gotta go to DC for that,” I said.

  “I thought all you gay guys were sophisticated,” he said laughing.

  “Compared to you? Yes. All of us. But there are levels, and I deserve the best. Get this van moving,” I said.

  Jake revved up the engine and moved out full steam ahead onto interstate 81. He decided to top off his diesel tank again in Lexington, which was another hour and a half away, so we all settled into our seats. There was an air of adventure, of lightness, and of positivity in the bus. I looked around and people were smiling. We were headed into a bombed-out nightmare that likely had little to no power, no life, and possibly some kind of cannibalistic orange zombie monsters waiting for us. But we all seemed okay with it, as if we had a renewed sense of purpose. It seemed everyone was smiling. Except for the new girl, Morgan. She was crying. So, I went back and sat with her. Estela had moved closer as well to try and talk to her.

  “Hey honey, what’s wrong?” Estela said.

  “I’m, I’m just really moved by all of this,” she said. “Vinny’s been my friend for a year and a half, and his dad just met me a few minutes ago, and now everyone’s heading back to the area where I live to help me find my parents. No one’s ever done anything like that for me, and here you guys are doing all of that and you don’t even know me,” she said.

  “That’s how we roll,” I said, smiling. She laughed.

  “I know that you’re going for more than just me,” she said. “I’m not stupid. But it’s, it’s just that I contributed to it all, sort of. Like, I’m one of the reasons we’re going, and that’s really cool. People usually aren’t that nice to me.”

  “Jake, Vinny’s dad, is like that. He’s instantly loyal and supportive. If you’re tight with someone he cares about, you are automatically in the inner circle. Are you and Vinny…?” I raised my eyebrows. Morgan laughed again.

  “God no. I mean, he’s a great guy. I, I don’t have a boyfriend. But, um, guys aren’t really my thing, if you catch my meaning. I hope that’s not a problem.”

  “Are you kidding m
e, girl? Most people can tell within the first five minutes that I’m gay.”

  “I don’t like to make assumptions,” said Morgan, but after hearing you talk with Vinny’s dad, I kinda figured.”

  I looked over at Estela for a non-verbal cue that it was okay to out her. We locked eyes. She smiled and nodded back.

  “Well, you and I aren’t the only ones who think alike,” I said, jerking my head towards Estela.

  “Really? Wow. There are like, twenty people on this bus tops, and you’re telling me that three of them are gay? That’s unusually high. It’s also pretty reassuring. I mean, if things are as bad back home as I’ve been hearing, it’s just nice to know that, I don’t know, that there are people like us who survived, you know?” said Morgan.

  “Amen sister,” I said.

  “Verdad,” Estela said, looking at Morgan and smiling. I caught Estela staring at her. She caught my glance for a moment and gave me a quick, stern frown as if to say, shut up, I’ll handle this. I smiled and silently nodded back at her, and then saw Morgan turn, smile back at Estela, and give a little nod.

  “So where are you from, Estela?” Morgan asked. With that, I took my leave and moved back up to the front of the bus.

  Jake’s boys were sitting next to each other, catching up. I went up and sat down behind them, deciding to watch and listen to them for a bit. I had known both of them from a distance from Hunter’s Run. Growing up in the community, and never really leaving, I had kept up with all things having to do with my alma mater. Those two had been very successful athletes while there. Jake was a bit of an icon as a teacher, too, so everybody knew the Fisher family. I had never had Mr. Fisher as a teacher, but he was as well-known as anyone in the building. His kids were too young to have been around me as students, but I remember them coming over to his wrestling practices as middle schoolers. They would wander into the building and go watch their dad and his team in practice and do their homework or work out themselves sometimes. They had grown enormously since then. Both towered over their dad, and he was somewhere between them in weight, but much shorter. They were broad-shouldered and muscular, and both handsome. I had had many brief, superficial chats with them over the years as they moved through high school, came back on breaks, even at occasional competitions that I went to go see when they were close by. Now, however, I was actually getting to know them.

  The eldest, Thomas, or Tommy, as he was called, looked like Jake. If you smoothed out Jake’s wrinkled skin, stretched him out, and got rid of his love handles and slightly protruding belly, they might have been twins. Tommy was an upperclassman at Virginia Military Institute, but he really didn’t seem the military type to me. Yeah, he knew the lifestyle, the lingo, and at least gave lip service to continuing in some service after graduation, but he was not your typical dyed-in-the-wool military type. Like his dad, he was an intellectual and a deep thinker, but much of his energy went into the internet.

  Tommy was a communications major at VMI, and as such, was entitled to much more time on the internet than most of his fellow Keydets. He was constantly looking at memes, videos, and daily feeds from various on-line sources, and was very up-to-date on world happenings. He was addicted to gaming as well, which was very problematic at VMI, where students have the bare minimum in terms of personal items in their barracks. When the students would get liberty on weekends, Tommy would play videogames. Most recently he had made friends with wrestlers at next door Washington & Lee University. He came over on weekends, stayed on their floor, and played videogames all weekend. His first year, he had gone to his sponsors’ house for occasional visits. Sponsors are families in the surrounding area of military academies who offer up their homes to students so that they can have a touch of normal, non-military time. They are in many ways like second families, and can be crucial in the retention of plebes, rats, knobs, or any other first-year academy students across the country. Tommy had discovered that his sponsor also liked videogames, and they hit it off in his first two years. Then the sponsor had to switch jobs and move across the country. He was in the process of being assigned a new one, and in the meantime had crashed in the apartment of his W&L buddies, which was enough to satisfy his videogame cravings for the time being.

  Tommy may have resembled his father physically, but Tommy’s heart gravitated more towards his mother, Laura. Laura smothered him with love and spoiled him to a degree. She never let him become an entitled brat, but she always managed to lavish him with surprises, care packages, and attention. As a result, he was her absolute champion. Rarely did his mom give an opinion that Tommy didn’t back, and if anyone ever vehemently disagreed with Mama Fisher, Tommy didn’t hesitate to loom his massive frame over them in discouragement. That included his dad. Laura and Jake were not always happily married, especially the last decade or so. They argued over little stuff from time to time, as old couples tend to do. Jake said that he rarely started it, but he was quick to escalate. Laura would start it, push his buttons, and Jake would get loud--the kind of loud that only Marines and wrestling coaches can produce. Then, in recent years, Tommy would interject. His size made an already tense situation a whole new kind of tense. That type of awkward family dynamic had begun to rear its head more and more frequently over the past few years in the Fisher household. Jake wanted one thing, Laura wanted another, and Tommy would often shift the balance so that most decisions went Laura’s way.

  Vincent, or Vinny, on the other hand, looked like his mom. In fact, he looked nothing like Jake in any way. Taller and thinner than Tommy, Vinny was darker in coloring, walked completely erect, and had wiry, rippling muscles to contrast with his brother’s beefier build. Whereas Tommy looked more like a night club bouncer, Vinny looked more like a tall, white version of Bruce Lee. Vinny was a bit more difficult to describe. He was fiercely individualistic--usually preferring to be left alone--yet he had a group of friends that he frequently gathered with that were his “crew,” and he was no doubt their leader. Vinny often gravitated towards the underdogs of the world. His crew was usually comprised of socially marginalized individuals. They were usually a little smaller, a little more awkward, and a little more timid--and Vinny, like his brother, never hesitated to loom his impressive frame in their defense. It is supremely ironic that Vinny ended up going to Virginia Tech on a wrestling scholarship, because every time I spoke to him, he said that he hated wrestling. I asked him why he did it, and he always answered that it was a family tradition. I asked him if his dad made him wrestle, and the answer was always no. Tommy also answered that way. Jake never wanted to force his kids into something that he did, but he was always there to coach them when they chose to join him on the mat. Vinny was still doing it, though, much to everyone’s surprise-- and like his older brother, he was pretty good at it.

  Vinny’s thoughts, being more guarded, were harder to read than Tommy’s, and thus he was harder to predict. As a defender of the marginalized, Vinny was constantly on the lookout to “adopt” someone. He would often find someone who fit that awkward, geeky, outsider description, and then become their friend and defender. Now that I had discovered that Morgan was gay, I wondered if she was one of Vinny’s new adoptions, and I decided to press him about it. But first, I listened.

  “Dude, do you believe that crap about the orange things?” asked Vinny.

  “Sounds nuts, I can’t lie. But everybody here said they saw them,” Tommy said. “It’s just so hard for me to believe things are so bad back home, when everything here is practically normal, you know?”

  “Seriously, dude. I mean, we had some internet interruptions, sure, and some brief blackouts, but those are kinda normal. This stuff about what Frederick and Washington look like, it’s hard to imagine. It’s like surreal, you know?” said Vinny. There was a pause, then Vinny looked at his brother solemnly.

  “You think we can find mom?” he asked Tommy. Tommy looked away, and his face seemed to display anger.

  “We’re gonna,” he said. “Because Dad sure as hell didn�
��t.”

  “Dude, what was he gonna do?” Vinny said. “You heard the story right? About the school and everything?”

  “I heard it. What I didn’t hear was why he didn’t drive straight into DC to find his wife.”

  “Dude he killed people in Emmitsburg. Just to survive. Just to make it through the day. First chance he got, he came for us,” said Vinny.

  “You always did defend him,” said Tommy.

  “And you always went against him with mom,” said Vinny.

  “Shut up. Shut the fuck up. We don’t even know what’s happened with mom. Don’t talk about her,” said Tommy.

  The two offered a couple of hard shoves each before I jumped in.

  “Whoa, whoa, boys. I think you need a ref. Take it easy, alright?” I said.

  They looked at me angrily, then down at their feet.

  “Listen guys, it’s been a tense week for us. You need to get ready for this. It’s not what you’ve been used to. We need you at your best. You can’t be at each other. We have to be a team. At the very least, we have to support each other. There were tons of people on your campuses compared to what we have back home, and some of them are about to realize what we already know. There are parts of this country that have been devastated by foreign attacks, and what remains is for us to deal with. The only thing the people of this country have heard is a radio report about what areas to avoid. We don’t know if the president is alive, and if he is, what he’s planning to do next. It’s every man for himself right now, and you know how that goes, right?”

  “Yeah. The strong survive, and the weak get crapped on,” said Vinny.

  “Yes. And those who stick together are stronger still. You two are formidable additions to our group. You’re big, strong, smart, and athletic. We’re going to need you. But we can’t fight among ourselves, even if we’re related.”