Pandemic Reboot: Survivors

by Krause, J. F.

  Marco and his Chicago colleagues had just finished their plan when I had sent for Marco so the ink was barely dry. He was gathering his things to come to my office when Enrique showed up requesting that he join me. I asked to see the list of SLO volunteers. Sure enough, there was Kevin’s name in the EMT cluster. Dr. Truitt and Lisa Rodriguez were there as well. And there was Enrique on the trained fighter list. I felt a moment of overwhelming dread, but there was nothing to be done. They had volunteered.

  He left to make the notifications, and I sat alone in my private emotional crypt. My heart ached for the men and women who were victims of this silly, petty, would be dictator. My heart broke for the men and women who had willingly, knowingly volunteered to rescue them even to the point of sacrificing their own lives.

  Finally, there was a knock at my door. It was Cynthia with Nelda. She wanted to know if I wanted to take Nelda with me or if I’d prefer she kept her this evening. I’d forgotten about Nelda, and was very grateful she would be taken care of. I went to meet Jerry and Charlie. Kevin was waiting. He held Dinah in her chest harness, or I might have hugged him. Chad was hanging onto one of his hands, and Jerry was on the other. They knew something, but I didn’t know if they knew what so I would take my cue from Kevin.

  We were alone during dinner. The children sat quietly as Kevin and I talked.

  He had wanted to go but had decided not to volunteer at first because of Chad and Dinah. That was until he heard the threat to me. He couldn’t imagine letting that threat go unanswered. He said he was proud of me for not showing fear at the meeting, and that everyone was glad I’d handled George so well. I told him I wasn’t afraid because I didn’t know about the threat until after the meeting, and that I was not so nice to George since I knew he didn’t know any of the rules for conducting meetings. He asked me to look after Chad and Dinah, and I said I would of course. I told him I was afraid he wouldn’t come back. He told me he would. I almost told him more, but I didn’t.

  Marco gave the after dinner talk to a somber dinner crowd. I heard sobs from around the large room. We felt fear again.

  Second Wednesday

  I barely slept all night so when I saw Kevin’s light go on the next morning, I quickly made him a cup of coffee and knocked on his motor home door. He was already dressed when he answered. We didn’t know what to say so we stood there with our coffee cups looking awkwardly at each other. He tried to make a joke but we didn’t laugh. Finally, I said all I could think of at the time.

  “Please come home safe.” I didn’t finish what I wanted to say.

  “I’m not a hero. I’ll be back. And safe,” he replied.

  We heard movement inside his motor home and stepped apart. Then the lights in my motor home came on and life burst open all around us. Dinah was crying. She almost never cried. Then Chad was crying, and then I heard Charlie crying. Jerry held it together, but just.

  Irma came around the front of my motor home saying she wanted to look after the kids while we went to the bus. She knew Kevin was leaving and that I would be there to see everyone off.

  We smiled at her thankfully. He grabbed his personal and medical supplies, and we left. After only a moment, we were joined by Corporal Hector Corea, my new guard while Enrique was off to Indiana.

  There was no fanfare as the busses loaded up and left for Lancaster. There was nothing but quiet and cold. We could see our breath as we stood there. I walked around shaking hands, thanking people, and asking them to come back safe. The food people had coffee and breakfast boxes ready for everyone leaving. Then suddenly, they all disappeared and drove away. I walked home to get the kids ready for our daily routine.

  Today, I was meeting with the food people briefly. They were second on my list of visits for the day. We had a short time window between cleaning up after the last breakfast and getting ready for the first lunch of the day. I was curious what they would morph into once we had homes with kitchens of our own.

  Right after breakfast was my turn with the electricians. Before today I felt like the school cheerleader. Now I felt like I was the patriarch of a large family. We had begun to bond with each other because the last couple of days had brought the understanding to all of us that , somehow everything was up to us. All of us. This was our family lifeboat and every one of us had to take an oar. We all felt it; we all knew it.

  I met Lydia and Jane outside my office for the four-mile long drive to the power station. The Electrical team was one of our smaller groups, but they were vital to our success as a community. Some of the communities, even in California had gone dark and had had to rely on generators. We hoped to fix all the California communities by the end of the next week, but it would be people like these men and women who made it happen, not only for us in San Luis Obispo, but for all of us.

  We were met by a tall, thin man in a turban. I’d seen him around the fairground, but had never spoken to him. While I unconsciously expected him to be formal and have an accent, neither was true. After introductions, Jeet Singh took us into a medium sized conference room that held our twenty-five members comfortably, but barely.

  Clearly they were pleased I was there to talk to them, and I immediately felt at ease. Jeet introduced us and they all stood and applauded. I will never get used to that, but I’m not awkward about it anymore.

  I thanked them and got right to the point. “You’ve made it possible for our community to live in the twenty-first century. Without you and your expertise and hard work, we could easily have slipped into darkness and chaos. We all owe each of you a debt of gratitude we may never be able to repay. Please understand that we know this. Now, I have some questions for you all. Can we keep this going? Can we expand it as we move onto farms and even industry? Will you be able to help us open up some of the manufacturing areas of Los Angeles and other cities where there are no people living now? Do you have a plan for teaching and training our young people to carry on your knowledge? I realize I gave you a lot of questions, but who else but you can answer them? I certainly know nothing about electricity and the power grid, and you won’t be able to teach me. I’m sorry. You don’t have time to waste on that, and neither do I. You are our experts and if you don’t watchdog your own field we are all doomed to live in the eighteenth century.

  Let’s start with a basic question. Are you prepared to take charge of your area of expertise? If it isn’t you, it won’t be anyone. If you say no, I’ll need to prepare us for a world lit by candlelight.”

  I could see them look at each other as I talked. Their faces went from broad smiles to faces full of questions. Questions I had just put before them. But not to worry. Jeet stepped before the group and spoke. “Fair enough. We’ve been so busy the last week or so that we didn’t really have time to consider much of what you said. But let me assure you that we will tackle these challenges and find your answers. I can answer a couple of them right now if you like though.”

  Seeing my head nod, he continued. “Now that we are finished with the first hurdle, supplying us with safe and reliable electrical power, some of us will begin working with the college and vocational people to train our future electrical engineers and electricians, at least part time since we still need to concentrate on shoring up the electrical grid for our different communities here on the West Coast. We have several electrical engineers, one with a doctoral degree, and a couple with master’s degrees. There are several more across the state and even more across the country holding different degrees. We believe we can, if we all work together, put in place quite a good program for training future engineers. We also have had very preliminary discussions on training a steady supply of future electricians. And yes, I believe we will be able to take the lead in making recommendations for how to make sure we not only hold our own but make progress in the future.”

  I don’t know if Jeet was expecting my questions, but he certainly sounded prepared. “That’s all I can ask for the time being, I think. By the way, Jeet, you seem to have anticipated my questions or
are you just good at making up answers on the spot?”

  The room laughed, and Jeet sheepishly responded, “Carl Markowitz and I have lunch together frequently and he sort of prepared me for the questions you might ask. It’s true we haven’t had much time to discuss most of this, but we have very informally considered some of the things you asked about. I can guarantee that now that we aren’t so busy with our own electrical problems, we can start coming up with plans and recommendations for you to consider.”

  “Good enough. I’ll look forward to it. Now, are there any questions you have for me? And yes we should be able to announce the schedule for all of us to start moving to no later than Friday afternoon. I understand you’ve already given your blessing to it. We’ll be moving to it based on which motor home park you currently live in. I also need to mention that I don’t know for sure what the Council will do until they actually do it.”

  They did have questions, but nothing that hadn’t been asked by other groups. One person did ask when the problems in Indiana would be over. I didn’t know so I couldn’t tell them. I told them that I had close friends who were involved and I hoped it was over very soon. I wondered how many of us had already formed close connections to each other. Hardships such as ours often forged close friendships and more. After the questions, I thanked them, and we left for my meeting with the food suppliers and preparers.

  On the way back to the fairgrounds, I noticed a work crew moving cars, trucks, and semis off the road. I’d not been out of the fairgrounds since I got here and seeing them getting the roads clear was very heartening. We were getting started on recovery.

  As we entered the courtyard leading to our food work group meeting, Anna was sitting at one of the tables talking with Gale, one of our Orange County food team people. Both of them greeted us with smiles as we walked in.

  Anna handed me a folded piece of paper from Todd. “Our people arrived at Edwards without problems and are already in the air headed to Louisville or Chicago, depending on their plane’s destination. We’ll let you now as things develop.”

  Then she added, “Yesterday, a total of 126 new survivors arrived, mostly from the LA Metro area. There were another dozen or so from the valleys here. Zach reports some people waved at him as he flew around yesterday and he saw some smoke from a couple of fires. The new valley people said they came when they saw Zach. One woman had discovered a surviving baby as she searched her neighborhood before she saw the plane. The electricity where she lived went out the day after. If it hadn’t been for the airplane she wouldn’t have known what to do. She’s a hairdresser. Can’t have too many of those. She’d rather not keep the baby, but there’s a waiting list so that’ll work for everyone.

  We’re getting another caravan today around 1 PM. This one doesn’t have motor homes and is arriving in several buses. When they get here, they will be housed in one of the dorms for a few days. It’s not ideal, but there are no available motor home park spaces closer than these dorms. We’re moving out of the motor homes on Saturday anyway so it won’t be long.

  Even with the caravans every day, USC/LA is now up to 247 permanent residents. They have a resident teacher so they will be allowing guardians with kids to stay if they like. They have six kids so far. The Orange County group are up to 122. They have a teacher too, retired. But she’s starting a school for four. The San Pedro Harbor group is up to 57, no teacher. Morro Bay is now at 44, no teacher. A couple of the volunteers for Morro Bay backed out before they were scheduled to leave this morning. All the California communities report some growth. Most of the other communities are sending reports as well. Would you like to see them?”

  “Yes, would you put them on my desk? And please make sure to flag anything from the Guard. Thanks.” This was becoming pretty much like a regular job.

  The food crew was quite a bit larger than I thought it would be, another reason they should make up their own plans for getting the job done. No one’s getting rich off this, so altruism and self-survival seem to be the biggest motivators. Gale introduced me to the preparation group leader, a congenial looking woman named Leona Nichols who could have passed for any job around, but she was immanently qualified for her job as team leader of the food preparers having been a short order cook as a teenager, with a stent in culinary school and a series of cooking jobs before moving on to become the lead cook/chef at one of the Catholic high schools in Los Angeles. We were a piece of cake to her.

  Standing next to Gale was Marjorie who had been our chief scavenger in Orange County. She was there to introduce her team leader, Max Underwood. Max had been a supermarket manager and understood the pre-sickness distribution system thoroughly. Food gathering was done very efficiently.

  We had our meeting right where most of us had our meals every day. Leona had a big coffee urn going and a couple of trays of warm peanut butter cookies. I had a cup of coffee and a cookie as I sat down to wait for my introduction. Both Leona and Max stood to introduce me. When they were finished with their introductions, I was incredibly impressed with whoever it was they were introducing, because it certainly didn’t even sort of resemble who I think I am. But, as I’ve said before, I’m not awkward anymore about these introductions.

  As I stood, they stood, too, and once again, they gave me a standing ovation. I understand why, but it never seems right. However, I’m pragmatic and there’s nothing I can do to change anything now, except try to earn their respect going forward.

  “I want to thank you for your contribution to keeping us civilized. I know you’re probably thinking I’m talking to someone else, and that’s a little of what I feel when I hear people talk about me. I just did what I had to do, and that’s the same thing you’ve done. We would never have been able to come together and get ourselves organized if you hadn’t shown up everyday and made sure that almost three thousand people could go out and do their jobs without having to hunt for and prepare food for themselves three times a day. Your work has kept us from killing each other fighting for food every day. Thanks to you, we didn’t descend into barbarism, and we didn’t become marauding gangs of hungry desperate individuals. Thanks to your hard work every day, friendships are being formed, families are being created, and a whole new society is being built. Now, I want to know if you’ve been thinking about how you are going to function once we move to our new neighborhoods. I know you’ve heard we have a plan to start moving this weekend. Over the course of seven days, beginning on this Saturday, motor home park by motor home park will move, one or two parks per day until we are all living in houses. I can’t tell you which one since the Council has to approve it first, but these are all recommendations from the housing team, and I expect they’ll pass.

  We still need help keeping people fed, and we’ll need to have a farmers market or something for farmers and others to supply us with fresh and prepared food. The people who have to make those recommendations will have to have plans and they will have to rely on you, all of you, to give them your ideas and thoughts so they can bring them to the group and we can put them in place. We may find that the cafeteria system you’ve started here is the best way to feed ourselves for quite some time.

  Now, I’m finished telling you what I want, please let me know what you’ve been thinking about that I can help you with. Questions? Comments? Requests?”

  “Most of our community have been working their asses off for the last few days. What’s being done about the people who don’t work and get treated the same as the ones who do work?” This was from a woman seated right in front of me.

  “Yes, well, I just became aware that we had a group of non-workers here. I’m going to bring it up tomorrow at a meeting with all the work group leaders. I don’t know what to do, but I think together we’ll get a better solution than if I just shoot one out off the top of my head. I hope your group will discuss it and come up with some possible suggestions. That isn’t an answer, but it’s what we’ve got so far.” That must have been okay since she smiled one of those grim non
-smiles and nodded her head slightly.

  From the back of the room LaWanda raised her hand. “Will this group remain joined between the food preparers and the food gatherers after our move?”

  “I can’t say what will happen because I don’t know. It will depend largely on the members of these two groups as to whether they stay together. I truly think that the workers in the group need to make most of the suggestions as to how they can best operate.” It seemed like a good question, but I don’t have answers very often. I don’t think I should have answers for problems like that.

  After that, the questions were all over the place and I stayed long enough to have another cookie before leaving to go back to my office which was nearby. Not sleeping last night was catching up with me, and I wanted to lie down on the couch in my office. Now I knew why it was there.

  I got back to my office and immediately took a thirty-minute nap, Nelda sleeping on my lap the whole time. One of my last thoughts was about how to get doggie day care up and running again.

  I woke to a soft tap on my door from Anna. I’d asked her to be my alarm clock. As it was time for lunch, I went off joined by Anna, Jane, Lydia, and Hector. We prevailed on Hector to join us but he refused. He’d already had a bite while I was napping. Later on, he would be relieved by Private Jovantha Barnes, the marine who had been instrumental in rounding up the people at Camp Pendleton. While Enrique was gone, they would split their duties between the two of them rather than among three.