“They’re telling me they think I may be cured. The fever is killing the virus or most of it anyway. Maybe they’ll let me out soon.” Her voice was still a little hoarse.
“Are you in pain?”
“No, not really. Mostly tired and wishing I could get out of here. Did you remember to bring Greg’s blanket and Miss Alice?”
“Yes, blanket and doll both made it on board. Now they just want to see their Mom.”
“I wish they were here now. This has been so hard for them. We’re never going to be able to give them the life we should-”
Ian spoke into her hair, arms tightening around her. “We’ll give them the best life we can. Teaching them to be smart and resourceful will be our biggest priority, along with keeping them alive.”
She pulled away so she could see his face. “Ian, Daniel needs extra attention, even if it seems like you are paying more attention to him than Anna and Greg. They still have us but Daniel is never going to get his parents back and-”
There was a knock on the door and Dr. Osawy came in. “Time’s up. My patient needs her rest. Maybe the children can come in tomorrow for a little while. I’m sure they’re eager to see you.”
Ian left. The doctor, with a wry look, re-fastened the canvas straps. “I have to do this, you know. Regulations. But maybe we can dispense with it soon. If you’re hungry, I can get you something to eat. What would you like?”
“Brains, please.”
“Good, you can still make jokes. I’ll make a note of that on your chart. Now seriously, what do you want?”
“Do you have soup? Chicken noodle maybe?”
“Done. I’ll have it sent in and someone will help you with it.”
“Thanks, Doctor, for everything you’re doing.”
“No need to thank me, you’re providing me with loads of information. Just keep getting better, okay?”
Virginia nodded and closed her eyes.
Ian was waiting outside the room. “Do you have any idea when she’ll be able to leave?”
Dr. Osawy looked off down the hallway. “We’ll discuss it. Right now there are more tests to run and your wife has requested chicken noodle soup. Another good sign. Give it time, Mr. Dare. By the way, don’t ever undo those straps again or there won’t be any more visits.”
She walked away, striding confidently in those thick-soled combat boots. Ian stood outside the room wondering how much time he needed to give and one other thing. Why had the doctor never once looked him in the eye?
~
Bea spent most of the morning prowling around the shelter. It was vast, with corridors ending in locked doors that presumably led to unused spaces. She hoped to find a supply room and some boots for Brian but had no luck.
Some of the doors had small, thick glass panes placed at eye level but it was still difficult to see down the dark hallways. Once she heard moans and smelled that distinctive rot indicating there were infected inside but she couldn’t see anyone through that particular door. Perhaps they were locked inside the rooms lining the space. She left that area quickly.
Soldiers continued to carry boxes and cases to some unknown destination. Brian tried to surreptitiously follow them but a soldier, the same one who had called them ‘strays’ barked at him to stay out of the restricted areas, whatever those were. Bea couldn’t shake off a sense of impending change and not the good kind. She needed to come up with a plan and a destination for escape. Settling back in the room that David was using for an office she accessed the internet and pulled up population maps of the United States. It was amazing how densely the East and West Coast were populated in comparison to the rest of the country. Once you got to the middle of the country there were considerably fewer people, especially in the West and Mid-West. The Dakotas were sparsely settled as were Montana and Idaho. Someplace out there gave the best chance of getting away from large groups of the dead.
That was no guarantee of survival though. Shelter and food were necessary. This shelter seemed to press down on her and she longed for the sight of the sky, trees, for fresh air. She clicked out of the map and got up to go find Brian when voices drifted in from outside the room.
“The doctor said to ‘give it time’ but how long is that?”
She heard David reply. “She probably doesn’t know either, Ian. How could she? We’re all in uncharted territory on this one.”
“We need to get out of here. I want to go back home and re-take the town. We know the territory well and there must be other survivors hiding out. ”
“It’s a small town, right?”
“Yeah. Up in the mountains and away from any major highways. I love it there. A great place to raise kids and I can’t wait to get back. I know it’s our best bet. Why did they decide to send you to Cali? I know you’re still a reservist but I would think they want the regular military on this one.”
“Regular military they can’t keep in touch with. I volunteered as soon as I heard there was a mission and that, combined with the fact they are obviously scraping the bottom of the barrel made me the ideal candidate.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that as an insult. Have we intercepted any more messages from the Chinese?”
“At this point it’s more what we’re not hearing. We know of three large ships that regularly cruise the Pacific several hundred miles off the coast, of course. They usually communicate with Beijing several times a day. Now we’ve just got silence. They could have been sunk for all we know but probably not. I’d say they’re out there running silent.”
“I thought they would have landed by now.”
“They may still be trying to assess the situation. The last satellite images we downloaded showed large numbers of people in the streets near the docks and harbor. It appeared that an altercation was going on but similar disruptions are everywhere. We just don’t know the status of the coast. The last images we got were two days ago. After that we lost communication completely.”
“No one in Congress would listen when we warned them about allowing the Chinese to manufacture our military communication equipment. Of course it’s full of bugs. Remember how righteous they became about the free market all of a sudden? I still think the nation has been sold out at the highest levels of government.” Ian said.
Both men were silent for a moment and then Bea heard Ian say, “I have the oddest feeling that Dr. Osawy was hiding something from me. I don’t know what it is yet.”
David said, “Don’t read something into it that isn’t there. Just focus on getting your family out of here and to someplace safe.”
High-pitched, childish screams rang out and Bea looked out the door. All three younger children ran down the hallway and latched on to Ian’s legs, Brian following with arms outstretched and moaning dramatically. He saw Bea and dropped his arms, looking sheepish. The little girl, Anna, screamed again delightedly and yelled, “You can’t catch me!”
Bea frowned at Brian and shook her head warningly. Ian noticed.
“Let them play, Bea. Goodness knows they need to.”
Brian raised his arms and staggered forward and the children took off again, the tiled hallway echoing with laughter.
“I’m not sure if that’s gallows humor or just poor taste. The only thing I can say in his defense is that he just turned eleven.” Bea said.
“Then let him be eleven as long as possible. I think Brian is going to have to grow up a lot faster than I did.” David said.
Bea nodded and went back to the computer as the two men continued on down the hallway. She pulled up maps of the whole beltway area, trying to guess which roads might be less-deadlocked than the others. A motorcycle would be their best bet for getting around obstacles but it would be cold and they would have no real barrier between them and the millions of dead doubtless roaming the roads. She had never driven a motorcycle but supposed it couldn’t be that different from a bike.
So many people were still online while hiding out in their homes and hoping for rescue. A woman in Buff
alo claimed that she had seen thousands of the dead emerging from the waters of Lake Erie while a man in Florida said he had seen Jesus walking through the clouds with a flaming sword in his right hand and leading a pale horse. Reports of the Virgin Mary descending to earth and taking children back to heaven abounded. She was always described as dark-haired, wearing blue, flowing garments and supernaturally beautiful.
There were messages on various blogs begging for help in obtaining necessary medicines as well as for water. Surprisingly the less developed nations seemingly were faring better than the more industrialized. She supposed that the less technology you had, the fewer problems you had coping without it.
Many, many people believed the “End of Days” was here and one minister preached that the walking infected were the result of “the minions of Hell rising from the pit to torment the living.” He quoted, “And in those days, men shall seek death and not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
Other voices brought up the Mayan calendar and the planet alignment that would bring about the end of the world. She had to smile at that one. The timing was wrong but people were clutching at any explanation that helped them make sense of the collapse of their world.
She watched a shaky, hand-recorded video showing a group of thirty people or more, all dressed in white and with bare feet walk purposely along a city street into a group of the infected. They held candles in front of them and sang what sounded like hymns, continuing to sing until they were taken down and partially devoured by the surrounding mob. The singers soon rose, white clothing now stained red, and joined frenziedly in eating their former friends. The video quality was poor and had been filmed through a window but it was still clear enough to show what was going on.
Sickened she clicked out and went back to the maps, memorizing street names and trying to get a general sense of the direction she needed to go once out of here.
That night she and Brian ate supper with Ian and the children. They were excited, having just seen their mother and they talked about all the things they were going to do and see once back home. She had already gathered that the older boy, Daniel, was actually a neighbor’s child and that his parents were almost certainly dead. Ian treated him as part of the family as did Anna and Greg.
“So it’s really a cure then? I didn’t want to mention it until I knew your wife was better but I’m going to tell you now. The doctor tried this therapy on a co-worker of mine. He didn’t make it but it was only because he had a heart problem. The combined effects of malaria and the Z-virus were too much of a strain. He was older than your wife, too.”
Ian said. “I knew. The doctor told me about him but we still had to try. It was the best option she had and it seems to have worked. If she’s walking by tomorrow I’m going to find a way to leave. We lost Atlanta and the CDC so I don’t know when we’ll have transport going south again but hopefully something will come up.”
“I need to get out too. I’m thinking I’ll try to get to rural Pennsylvania and see if we can find an isolated house there.”
“Pennsylvania might work. Almost anywhere inland is going to be safer than the coast. I’m not at all certain that the earthquakes are over and before everything went to hell, some scientists were saying that the Caribbean seafloor spread was going to continue and get worse. We’ll probably have more tsunamis, bad ones.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I had no idea the seafloor was spreading.”
Brian said, “It’s like the Great Rift Valley in Africa, except underwater. It ties in with continental drift.”
“Right. We’re not exactly lucky right now, are we? Still, we have to play the hand we’re dealt. When I was a boy I used to spend a week with my grandparents in the summer. My grandfather would read aloud from the Bible every night before we went to bed and I’ve never forgotten one of the verses. ‘There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. Let them that be near Judaea flee into the mountains.’ I remember wondering who Judaea was and thinking I was glad that we were already in the mountains.”
“It sounds like a good place to be.” Bea said.
“I hope it will be. I’m going to say goodnight. See you in the morning.” Ian gathered his family and left, a child over each shoulder and one hanging on to his leg.
Bea turned to Brian. “Ok, boy genius. We should turn in for the night too. How are the shoes holding up? Show me.”
Brian lifted his heel and showed her the worn bottom of the scavenged Converse tennis shoes. She had to find him some better shoes. It wouldn’t hurt to have several pairs in larger sizes and keep them on hand. And clothes. And medicine. Without penicillin any of them could get a paper-cut and die if it became infected. In a matter of a few days they were, for all practical purposes and outside of this facility, back in the dark ages of medicine.
“Bea, we need to leave soon.”
“I know. I’m trying to work it out. I need a place for us to go and transportation to get there.”
“No, I mean we need to leave really soon. There isn’t a whole lot of time.”
“Brian, I know but-”
“The Potomac river is gone.”
“Gone where?” She sat back down.
“Just gone. Disappeared. It happens sometimes just before or after an earthquake. The ground shifts and an entire river or maybe a lake sinks and goes underground.”
“How do you know the river is gone?”
“The soldiers. I heard them talking this morning and they said it disappeared overnight. Someone saw it from a helicopter. Something is happening or is going to happen soon. We should leave.” He looked at her as if he expected her to pack up and leave this minute.
“Okay. I understand. But we can’t leave at night, Brian. It’s going to be bad enough during the day. At night we won’t even have a visual advantage over the dead. How soon do the earthquakes happen after-”
“I don’t know! No one knows for sure but we need to leave. I don’t think the soldiers know why the Potomac went away but they’re getting ready to evacuate anyway.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. I was hoping to hitch a ride out of the city when they do. It’s going to be hell if we have to walk out. Let’s sleep on it. I really can’t think of anything else to do right now.”
Brian stomped angrily down the hall. “I’m tired of sharing a room with you.”
“Not as tired as I am of having to share a room with you. You make chewing sounds in your sleep, Brian, and you snore.”
“You’re weird-looking and you snore too, loud.” He shot back over his shoulder, now walking faster.
She chased him into the office they were using for a bedroom, pushed him down onto the sofa and sat on him.
“Take back what you said.” She said, trying to pin his arms down and tickle him at the same time.
“I won’t! You sound like a rhinoceros.” he shouted, laughing and out of breath.
After they checked all of their supplies again, they settled down for the night, backpacks within easy reach in case they needed their weapons and talked desultorily of where they wanted to go.
“We could live in the desert, in those stone dwellings the Anasazi carved into the cliffs. They climbed up into them and then just pulled the ladders up when enemies came around. It would be perfect.” Brian yawned.
“Maybe. We would have to have a water source and food. We can’t grow crops in a desert.”
“I don’t like vegetables anyway. We’ll hunt. Rats, scorpions but only once we remove the stinger and the venom glands-” He said sleepily.
“Brian, shut up and go to sleep.”
“You shut up. I’m planning our meals. Armadillos, rattlesnakes, maybe some of those aliens from Area 51 if we get really desperate, desert pumas…”
She tuned him out and he finally went to sleep. Once again the night was quiet. Bea lay awake, wondering if an earthquake was really imminent. If one hit, this entire facility could cave in and who kn
ew if they would be able to dig themselves out. And when and if they were able to she knew what would be waiting for them when they emerged.
Dogs barked in the distance and she thought of the tales that animals often knew before people did that an earthquake was coming. Whatever the case, there was nothing to be gained from losing sleep over it. Maybe tomorrow she could find transport out.
She fell asleep and dreamed she was riding a motorcycle along a straight, empty road. Brian was on the seat behind her wearing a dark helmet and holding on to her waist tightly. Too tightly. When she turned to tell him to loosen up, she saw blood dripping down his neck past the helmet onto his shirt. She pulled over and stopped, turning around just in time to see him push the visor up. Bloody strips of skin hung down from his mouth and he kept chewing hungrily, falling off the motorcycle then getting up, coming for her with arms outstretched. She tried to run but could only move in dream slow motion.
Brian woke up briefly and thought he heard someone crying. He listened but heard nothing else and went back to sleep.
~
“Today? No, I don’t think so. Mr. Dare, you mustn’t think that just because your wife is ambulatory that she is ready for discharge. Her health is still very, very fragile. If you took her and she collapsed, what would you do? There are no more physicians or emergency rooms just a phone call away.” Dr. Osawy continued looking over last night’s data from the monitors and the nurse’s notes.
It was still quite early and the doctor leaned against the wall, sipping coffee from a mug with a picture of a Dalmation on it. Ian had a rough night with all three children and felt like he was running on adrenaline this morning. Daniel had had nightmares from which he woke screaming, waking the other two. They all needed to get back to some sort of normalcy, somehow, so they could heal. Especially Daniel.
“Okay, I understand. But when?” Ian’s fists clenched in frustration. The woman would not give a straight answer.
“I told you before, I’m not sure. We have eliminated the Z-virus from her bloodstream however that doesn’t mean it isn’t still in her internal organs.”
The Living Dead Series (Book 2): World Without End Page 17