“This would be a great place to fish.” She added, wishing they’d brought their fishing gear.
“Probably.” Walt said, glassing the shores and ahead of them. Tanith was quiet for a moment.
“Do you think this is what the rest of our lives will be like?” she asked and he brought the binoculars down and sat in the captain’s chair and thought about it for a minute.
“Yeah, I do. I don’t think there’s any real coming back from this one. At least not for a very long time.” He said.
“If what we heard on the news before the EMP was right, I don’t know how.” She sighed, “They virus alone wiped out most of the population in one way or another. Then take into account of people that lived, but can’t get their meds, accidents, shootings for whatever reason and I’ll bet we’ll be down to one percent of the world’s population remaining. That’s 60.5 million remaining, spread out all over the globe.”
“Jesus.” Walt said when he realized what she was saying.
“Exactly. That’s not a lot of people. We’ll probably lose half of that number during the first year. More if we can’t find a way to stop the infected from killing everything in sight.” Tanith said.
“Well, we’ve only got two choices; give up and die, or keep going. Pops obviously thinks we should keep going and you take after him, so I’m not even going to ask.” He smiled and she returned it.
“You’ve got that right.” She said, her mood lightening immediately.
There’s a sizable bend in the Tennessee River, Moccasin Bend, that sits at the foot of Lookout Mountain. The homes on the north side of Lookout Mountain have a great view of “The Bend”, as it’s known locally. Aside from the scenic beauty of the Bend, they also have a great view of Moccasin Bend Mental Health Hospital and its beautifully manicured grounds. That is where it’s beauty ends, however, as some of the most violent mentally ill people from fifty-two counties in the state are housed. Many are prisoners, often for very heinous and gruesome crimes, that aren’t mentally fit for incarceration in a state prison. Unlike some of the private facilities around the country in the past, the state runs it and its list of rules and regulations are followed without exception because of the extremely dangerousness of these patients.
It’s sad to say that some of these patients would fit right in with the infected that now roamed the streets at will. It was three days before the EMP, when the virus was appearing everywhere, when a Patient Care Tech Named John Fitzgerald made his way to work. He’d been feeling like crap all day, but he couldn’t afford to take the day off, so he broke one of the rules; he came to work ill. Within a few hours the entire second shift and most of the patients had been infected. They just didn’t know it yet.
One thing that no one knew about the virus, was that it changed the way the brain operates. In most cases, the hypothalamus, a small portion of the front of the brain, breaks down, causing uncontrolled internal body temperature, resulting in death from overheating, much like a heat stroke. In the case of those that survived, it was without the hypothalamus, which aside from regulating body temp, also controls things like hunger, circadian rhythms for sleep and fear.
What it did for those with mental disorders was unfathomable. It took the issues they were having anyway and multiplied it. In simple words, it erased their humanity to a level not seen since early human ancestors 3 million years ago. The genetic markers were still there, as they were in everyone. Then the virus heightened them, dumping hormones for growth from the pituitary gland into the bloodstream at an enormous rate. In three days these patients suddenly resembled and acted more ape-like than human, and more violent.
As the boat rounded Moccasin Bend, the level of noise from the institution was at the level of a high school football game. The yells, screams, and other sounds, echoed off the base of Lookout Mountain getting everyone in the boat’s attention.
“The hell?” Norm asked, making his way to the flybridge.
“Sounds like the mental hospital.” Tanith said, pointing to the set of building off their port bow.
“Ah, damn. I never even thought about mental hospitals, prisons, and stuff.” Norm said, reaching for the binoculars.
“What kind of mental hospital is it?” Walt asked.
“The kind that carries the very bad ones. The “criminally insane” is how my folks put it.” Tanith answered, suddenly glad that the river separated them. As they drew closer, Norm refocused the binoculars.
“What the hell?!” he muttered, handing the glasses to Walt, who had to refocus them again.
“Are those chimps or something? Is there a zoo around here?” Walt asked, handing the glasses to Tanith.
“A small one downtown, but not near the river, if I remember right.” she studied what she was looking at for a moment, “Those aren’t chimps, unless they dress them in blue pajamas. They don’t look human, so I don’t know what they are.” Tanith said, watching the figures in what looked like a triple fenced exercise yard fight each other before handing the glasses back to Walt, “We need to get the hell away from here. Now. If those things pay any attention to us, we might be in trouble.” Tanith told both men. Norm said nothing as he shoved the throttles a little further forward. Walt watched as one or two of the things turned to see what the sound they heard over the den was, but were promptly drawn back into the ruckus.
Fortunately, the ape-things were so involved in fighting themselves that they ignored the boat as it sped past. Once they were in the clear, Norm throttled the engines back a bit as they neared Chattanooga. The river turned again to the right, bringing the city into full view and Walt didn’t like what he saw. He quickly went below and gathered everyone but Norm into the salon.
“Okay, we’re going to need everyone for this little adventure. The city goes all the way to the shore on both sides. That being said, we’re going to need eyes and guns all the way around the boat. Chattanooga is the fourth largest city in the state. It’s also a transport hub for both rail and roads. That means that whatever the population was that survived has been amplified by those passing through. This makes me a little nervous.” Walt said.
“Want us to take the jet-skis and check out what’s ahead of us?” Tim asked and Walt thought about it for a minute.
“Not a bad idea. Tim, you and Beth, since she knows the jet-skis, take them and go ahead. Both of you take radios and rifles. Tim, remember the aquarium?” he asked and Tim nodded, “When you get there, stop in the middle of the river, if you can, and radio back what’s going on. If anything looks bad, haul ass back here as fast as you can. There are five bridges we have to pass under before we reach the dam. Eyes open and heads on a swivel. The rest of us need to arm up. I want us covered three-sixty. Everybody gets a radio. Everett, I know you hate being left out, but we really need you to take care of Curtis until we get clear of the city. Can you do that? It’s important.” Walt said and Everett said he would. “Okay, let’s do this.” Walt said and went up to the flybridge to fill in Norm.
Norm brought the boat to a standstill long enough for Tim and Beth to board the jet-skis. Both reported nearly full tanks, which was good, considering they had no gasoline onboard to fill them. Once both jet-skis was started, the two riders untied and charged ahead. Walt watched from the flybridge and could swear he saw Tim look back at him and smile.
“Norm, let’s go ahead, but slowly. If things are a little hinky in the downtown area, I want to be back here away from it while we get turned around.” Walt said, continuing to scan the shoreline on both sides. He figured that the virus was responsible for changing the patients back at the mental hospital and he hoped it wasn’t something that was happening to the rest of the infected. That, he decided, would make the apocalypse suck way worse than it sucked now. His radio crackled.
“Dad, we’re here. There’s nobody around. No screaming or anything.” Tim said. That worried Norm.
“There should be somebody there, even if it’s the freakin’ infected.” He said.
&n
bsp; “Tim, you guys head back here as quick as you can. We’re not liking how this is shaping up.” Walt radioed and was rewarded with a two click answer. That made him feel a little better. Norm stopped the boat by the time they rounded the slight bend. As soon as they made it to the main deck, Norm poured the power on to get the big beast moving again. Tim and Beth came straight to the flybridge.
“Dad, you not going to like this, but there were a couple of those crazy people wandering around one of the bridges.” Tim said, out of breath.
“Great, which bridge?” Walt asked.
“The second one. There were only three or four, but we only saw them when we were leaving.” Tim explained.
“There were three.” Beth said and shrugged, “I counted.”
“Nice. Well, where there’s three there may be more. Did they look like normal people, or did they look like those ape-things?” Walt asked.
“Normal people.” Both Tim and Beth replied at the same time.
“Well, that’s a plus. Norm, stay in the middle of the channel, but throttle back a little bit, just in case we need the extra speed.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Norm said.
“There are five bridges alone in downtown Chattanooga which means we have to be very alert.”
The first bridge they came to was the Olgiati Bridge where Highway 27 crossed the river. Walt glassed both sides and the entire bridge. Then he glassed both shores, just to be sure.
“Nobody visible.” Walt reported. After they’d crossed under it he got a look at the Walnut Street Bridge. Built in 1890, it was the first bridge to connect the north side of Chattanooga to the south side. It was a functional bridge until 1978, when it was deemed unsafe for vehicle traffic. The city poured $1.3 million dollars into having the asphalt removed and planking put down to make it a pedestrian bridge in the early ‘90’s. As Walt looked at it through the binoculars, he could see the three people standing on the bridge, not doing anything.
As the boat grew closer, the people became agitated and started running back and forth across the bridge, seemingly unable to locate where the sound was coming from. Finally, one of them, a woman, chanced a look down and saw the boat. She let loose a scream that brought the two men with her to her side. Walt got ready with the rifle when he noticed something about the bridge. When the city had turned it into a pedestrian bridge, it had taken the safety measure of putting up an eight foot barrier to keep anyone from falling or jumping, off. It was made so that it couldn’t be scaled, with no footholds anywhere. This safety measure prevented the infected from jumping down on the boat. It didn’t prevent them from running full force into the barricade repeatedly, which they did as the boat slipped under it.
As they made their way past the last three bridges, Walt breathed a sigh of relief because they were void of people. After passing under the railroad bridge, they came in sight of Chickamauga Dam with its left sided locks. Norm slowed the boat as they approached. Both gates were open on their end and Walt said a silent prayer that their luck would hold.
When Walt and Paul entered the control room, the power was still on. Walt neither knew nor cared why. They quickly cleared the building and he ran to the control console and started closing the gate while Paul watched outside for anyone, crazy or not. The gate finally closed and Walt started the filling cycle.
“Anything?” he asked his father.
“Nope.” Paul replied, so he went back to monitoring the progress. The last lock at the last dam and it couldn’t fill fast enough for Walt. He radioed Tim at the ladder.
“Anything?”
“Nope. Not even a scream.” Tim reported. Instead of relaxing Walt, this made him even more anxious. As soon as the green light lit up indicating that the lock had reached the same level as the lake, Walt punched the button to open it.
“C’mon, Dad! I want out of here!” Walt said as his father headed for the door.
As Walt started making his way to the boat, he heard a distant scream that shattered the silence and knew they weren’t out of the woods yet.
Brad
Cleveland, TN
Brad’s horse was not cooperating. The number of infected that trailed him increased by the minute as he urged the horse to maintain a stable pace so that he wouldn’t lose them for a while, yet they wouldn’t be gaining on him either. That meant constantly looking over his shoulder while trying to keep the horse from a dead run.
Fifteen minutes later he figured that he’d given the others a chance to lose the crazies and he let the horse have the reins. The chestnut took the hint and really applied the speed, putting an immediate distance between it and the crazies. Brad knew the horse was tired, but any chance of reining it in went by the wayside the instant he’d loosened up. He’d just have to hang on until the horse either got enough distance that it felt like slowing or tired itself.
By the time it did, he noticed that somehow, they had wound up on Highway 11 heading north and he had an idea; there was one home for sale that he’d looked at for fun that might just be what he was looking for. There was plenty of room for both himself and the chestnut, and it was surrounded by high rock walls with only one way in and out. It was a place that he’d named ‘The Castle’, and its $4.5 million price tag was way out of his league, but it’s obvious castle like architecture led him to believe that the guy that designed it was a prepper.
He guided the chestnut up the driveway and through the gate, dismounting immediately and using his small Mag-lite, found the manual disengagement lever for the gate, which he closed and then re-engaged the lever to lock the gate in the closed position. He walked the entirety of the enclosed yard to make sure that there were no infected inside and then went about removing the saddle and bit from the horse. He found an empty bucket and decided to try the water.
Surprisingly, it came on full force, and he looked around until he found the pumphouse for the well and the solar panel that charged the battery. Yep, he thought, a prepper designed this place. He finished filling the bucket and let the horse do what it wanted, inside the safety of the castle walls, and went to explore the castle itself.
Brad had to break out one of the small windows in the back door so that he could reach the lock. Once in, he realized that someone had recently bought the place and was in the process of moving in. His hope was that they weren’t on the premises in any condition.
He tossed the saddle and pack on the kitchen floor and brought his rifle to bear, flicking on the flashlight because the NVG’s were starting to give him a headache. He was surprised to find furniture in the house as he cleared the 6000 square-foot behemoth. The marble floors and intense use of rock gave the place a very cold yet solid feeling. That was when he realized that it was indeed cool in the house. It should have been sweltering being all closed up in the summer. He checked and found that the power was indeed out.
Half expecting to find at least one body or a crazy or two, he was surprised to find it empty. He made his way downstairs and checked the kitchen. Nothing, the place looked like it had never been lived in. That was a relief. He sat on a barstool in the breakfast nook from his pack, he fished out a small battery powered lantern and turned it on, shutting the flashlight attached to the rifle off to conserve its batteries.
A sudden clanging sound alerted him to the fact that the crazies that had been following him had finally made it to the gate. Whether they could tell he was here or whether they were just fishing for a response, he couldn’t tell, but he had no intention of stirring them up and more than they already were. He noticed that the gate wasn’t just some lightweight ornamental thing, it was heavy enough to stop a truck. He hoped it was sturdy enough to keep them on the other side of the wall.
He went out and checked on the chestnut only to find him grazing serenely on the back lawn. He thought about putting the horse in the garage, but decided not to, in case the crazies made it in. That way the horse would have a fighting chance. He had no intention of letting the crazies get near the horse, but i
t was a safety measure. Brad patted the chestnut on his withers, thinking that he’s eventually have to come up with a name for the animal.
Brad left the animal and went to dig an MRE out of his pack to fuel his own body. He didn’t understand why he was so hungry until it dawned on him that he hadn’t eaten since the gas station earlier. He fished out one and looked at it. Meatloaf with gravy. That was much better than cheese tortellini, which tended to bind him all up for a few days. He poured a little water in the heating pack and slipped the meatloaf and mashed potato packet in it. Life could be good sometimes.
After a few minutes, he’d deemed dinner was done and set about heating up some water for the coffee that was in the accessory pack. He was exhausted and knew he had to stay awake for a little longer, at least until they settled down outside. After he ate, he tried the small radio and didn’t get an answer, knowing that the same walls that were protecting him were blocking the very waves that he needed to contact the farm and let them know he was okay.
When the things outside quieted, he’d decided that he’d catch a nap. Moving to the upstairs, he went into the master bedroom, taking his time, and gawking at the opulence that some people felt that needed to survive. The fact that he was there and not the owners wasn’t lost on him.
The bed in the master was an Alaska king, a whopping 9 foot by 9 foot bed. He shook his head looking at it. What couple in the world would need that much space? He’d decided that it really didn’t matter, that all he wanted to do was to close his eyes in relative safety for a few. He closed his eyes hoping that the kids in Texas were okay. He knew that Jesse in San Antonio would take his family and link up with Jason outside of Arlington, would get together.
Then he thought about Tanith and Walt. He had no idea how the hell they were going to make it all the way from Missouri, but he also knew that if they’d set their minds out to do it, they would, one way or another. He thought about the rest of the kids, those in and around Gulfport, Mississippi, Jason and Jesse in Texas, Jeremy up in Colorado working at the resort. He smiled when he thought of them all. He knew Jason and Jesse would head for the farm if things got rough, despite it being a long way. Those two were ex-Army and could adapt to the new scenario easily, as long as their families were ok. The kids on the coast, as he and his wife referred to them, would lie low as long as they could before heading up. Jeremy, the gypsy of the family, would be fine as long as he didn’t get sick.
Three Days From Home Page 26