Catalyst

by JK Franks

  Ok, it’s an old mill. There should be a road coming to it, look for that. The “road” turned out to be more of an overgrown walking trail now, but he could see it open up not far away. There, it intersected with what looked to be a major road with numerous houses and businesses. As he neared, he eased into the shadows of the trees again. While the numbers of people they had seen on the interstate had diminished over the last few days, small towns like this could be a different story.

  As he had done when he was on his own, he stuck to backsides of buildings and side streets as he moved toward the hospital. Every move was planned, and he took time to sit, listen and scout before moving across any open space. The area was typically small town: barber shops, auto repair, hardware and pet grooming. The appearance was deceiving; he knew that. Everywhere seemed to hold secret dangers these days. What was hiding in this one?

  His goals were food and medical supplies, but he also wanted a waterways map. He and his companions’ lack of knowledge on the river had almost been fatal . . . still could be, in fact. Here he was, a man who had it made, owned multiple houses and a life most would envy, reduced to sneaking and stealing what he could to survive. The irony was a kick to his ego, but shit, screw his ego. He wanted to survive, and he had to get home.

  He saw small groups of people out. All were armed. Most were checking abandoned cars and buildings, presumably doing the same thing he was. He hid and waited for them to move on before continuing. It took a couple of hours to get near the medical park. The large, gray monolith in the middle was the hospital. Various smaller buildings surrounded the complex. Medical services and doctors’ offices, he assumed. They, too, might have the supplies he wanted.

  As he neared, he saw most of them had been broken into already. Doors hung ajar, windows were broken and trash littered the parking areas and sidewalks. Maybe a lot more people were having medical issues than he realized. His assumption had been the food stores and gas stations would have been the first thing to go. Then maybe liquor stores, but he was now looking at a small dentist’s office that had been ransacked completely. It made no sense to him. He moved along the edge of the small road noticing a road sign announcing it as Medical Parkway West. Somewhat grandiose for the modest establishments, but he was used to exaggeration—he was a car dealer. Now . . . I’m a rat.

  He heard voices and then shouting from the direction of the hospital. Melding back into the thick shrubs along the road, he slowly eased forward to see who was out there.

  Well, shit. In front of the old hospital was a lush green lawn, several acres at least. Possibly land for expansion that now, would never happen. The lawn seemed to be crawling with people. Some were obviously high, dancing, shouting, even having sex. Others appeared to be former patients, some still in tattered hospital gowns. He realized that many of the people lying on the grass didn’t move. His eyes began to pick out more detail including what had to be stacks of bodies on the far side, the unrecognizable mass covered with vultures and crows. Oh shit! . . . the nausea hit him about the time the smell did. He fought to keep it down, then gave up and just tried to be somewhat quiet as he vomited.

  “Why are all these people here?” he said quietly to himself.

  “Drugs,” came a small female voice from even deeper in the overgrowth.

  He jumped back involuntarily. So surprised was he at not being alone, that he all but leaped out of his concealment. “Wh . . . who’s there?” he asked nervously. He scrambled in his pack for the pistol. He should have kept it in his pants pocket . . . stupid, stupid.

  “Calm down,” the voice came again. “I couldn’t hurt you if I wanted to.”

  His heart was racing, and he couldn’t find the gun, so he just gave up. Better to just run away anyway. “I’m not looking for trouble, ma’am.”

  The tired sounding voice came again: “Good to hear, now will you please give me a hand?”

  A slender arm and outstretched hand extended into the dappling of sunlight. He tentatively reached out his own hand and took it. A sudden weight pulled at him, then eased off. He realized the woman had stood up from where she must have been crouched. “Oh damn, thanks. My legs had gone to sleep I had sat there so long. She moved closer, and he could see she was young, probably only in her early twenties and very pregnant. “I’m Janice.”

  “Steve,” he responded, nerves finally beginning to calm. “So, what is going on over there, other than the obvious?”

  “Oh, you mean the screwing, shooting and get’n high?”

  He nodded.

  “They are just celebrating, or mourning . . . not really sure which. Maybe an end of the world party. I heard them yelling the president was dead. Hell, I don’t know.”

  He took a better look at her. She was still in a thin hospital gown. “And why are you here?”

  “I was a high-risk pregnancy on mandatory bed rest. When the power went off I came down here to the hospital. They still had lights on, and they admitted me. That only lasted about a week. The generators ran out of fuel. The nurses and staff stopped showing up, probably because they realized they weren’t going to get paid and had their own families to worry about. Patients started dying. No one brought any food for a few days. It was getting pretty desperate, then all the meth heads and druggies started showing up. I guess their normal supplies began drying up, and this seemed like the best place to get more. Do you have any food? Anything I can eat?”

  “Um, sure, a little.” He rummaged in the pack and came up with a few snack bars and the can of soup he had brought. She popped the top off the soup and drank it down cold.

  “Oh my God, thank you, thank you. I haven’t eaten anything in days, and I am starving.”

  She pointed back out to the mass of people. “They cleaned out the pharmacy in hours. Most got so high they couldn’t handle it. They took whatever meds they found, some of them died immediately, I guess from whatever they took. Others went a little crazy, hallucinating, shouting and stuff. It was scary.” She wiped an errant noodle from the corner of her mouth then licked her lips. “They started gathering up patients in wheelchairs and gurneys. Just dumping them out here or throwing them out windows if they were too high up to get ‘em downstairs. I hid inside but decided to sneak out here a few nights ago. Not sure what they would do if they found me.”

  “So, the entire hospital has been looted, no supplies, no medicines anywhere?”

  She gave a sober chuckle. “I don’t think you would find a dirty aspirin in that place now. They even ripped the meds dispensers out at all the nurses’ stations. Those things are like ATMs for pills. Didn’t slow those bastards down a bit.”

  Well, he assumed he didn’t have to risk going in and checking it out now. “What about these other offices around? I just need to find first-aid supplies. Maybe some antibiotics.”

  “Oh,” she said brightly. “That’s easy. I thought you needed like, cancer drugs or something.”

  “Do I look like I have cancer?” he said concerned.

  She studied him and pushed his face up into a beam of sunlight. “No . . . not really. Just old, I guess.”

  Wow. He loved young people. “Ok, so where would I look for that stuff?”

  “Make you a deal,” she said. “Help me get back home, and I’ll tell you. It’s not that far.”

  He was sure he was being played, or maybe even set up, but he also couldn’t abandon a girl in her condition. “Ok, deal.”

  33

  Steve helped Janice out of her hiding spot, and she leaned on him as they turned away from the hospital. Her feet were clumsy, and she nearly stumbled several times. “I’m sorry, miss, but I don’t think you are in any condition to walk home.”

  “It’s Mrs., and you’re right, Captain Obvious, but it’s better than taking my chances with these fruitcakes.”

  They wound their way back through a maze of paths in the foliage and out the far side. “So, where is your husband?”

  “No idea,” she said as she straddled a small
hedge that separated the small medical office buildings. “He’s a Marine, or was a Marine. Not sure they are even a thing anymore. Not sure what or where he is either. Last contact I had he was on temporary assignment on a Navy ship.”

  Damn, he thought. That would suck. People in the military might be stuck wherever they were deployed and might not get to check in with family even in an emergency like this. Hell, especially in an emergency like this. He offered a weak, “Sorry,” but she just shrugged and kept walking. The girl may be in the late stages of pregnancy and supposed to be on bed rest, but now she was outpacing him. “Don’t you need to . . . I dunno, take it easy? I mean, it’s not a race. We can move a little slower, can’t we?”

  She twisted her head to face him. Her sharp angular features and jawline set in a grimace. “Look, asshole . . . I mean, Steven. I am about to pop, I have to pee every goddamn minute and this freaking monster keeps flooding my body with hormones. Oh yeah, and the world went to shit, and my hospital was burned out. I am about to snatch the head off of the next person that speaks to me, so yeah, we are in a hurry. She stepped away from him and began walking unassisted. “I need you to watch our back and be ready to catch me when the flood of adrenaline is gone, which will likely be in the next few minutes.”

  Nothing he thought of seemed particularly useful to say at that moment, so he simply nodded and fell into lockstep behind her. Her curly brown hair bounced as she basically waddled across the litter-strewn lots. She had spunk. He could only imagine how difficult forced bed rest must have been on her. They cleared the medical park and turned back in the general direction he had come from earlier, but several streets over from the busy main highway.

  With the stress of the hospital scene well behind them, he caught up to her and began helping her along when she struggled. Twice she stopped and put her hands on her hips and leaned back. “God, this hurts!”

  He briefly feared she was going into labor and had no idea what he would do if that were the case. He knew the basics, way back when he had taken the Lamaze classes with his wife and was prepared to go in. Trey decided to come early, though. Emergency C-section in the middle of the night. He had paced in the waiting room just like new fathers had done for many years. “Are you going to be ok?”

  “Dude, relax. I’m not having a baby. It’s called pregnancy. It’s like an alien has invaded my body. It’s not pleasant, and today he doesn’t seem to want me to move, so I think he is pressing on my bladder and my spine. Oh fuck, I gotta pee.”

  She squatted where she stood pulled her panties down and let it flow. The sounds of water on the pavement was matched by a huge sigh. Steve was uncomfortable and tried to look everywhere except at Janice. She looked up and laughed. “Man, what did you do before all this?”

  “Me? Oh…I um. . . ran a car dealership.”

  “Seriously? You ran a car dealership, and you don’t know where to look for first aid supplies?” She scanned the scattering of cars and walked up to a newer model luxury SUV that was blocking most of an intersection. It was unlocked. She opened the door reached down and found the manual release for the trunk lid. He followed her back as she ripped a black first aid kit that was held in place by Velcro to the sides of the cargo compartment. She tossed it to him. “Soccer moms have to be able to treat lil’ Johnny’s boo-boos. I guess you didn’t sell a luxury brand, huh?”

  “Thanks, and no, I mainly sell . . . or sold Fords.”

  “There you go, see, I love the domestic stuff, but you gotta admit these import guys know how to set themselves apart. They get the little things right, man. Shit like this. Useful, ya know?” She lowered the hatch and started walking again.

  This girl was not stupid; she was resourceful and tenacious. If this pregnancy didn’t kill her, she would make it. He felt sure of that. “Excuse me, did I hear you say the president is dead?”

  “Yep.”

  He waited, but she didn’t elaborate. “Just yep? You can’t just give a one-word answer for that.”

  “Sure I can, just did. Besides, not like that is even the most important news anymore.”

  Frustrated, he caught up beside her again. “Ok, well do you know any of the details?”

  “Not really. Some of the dopeheads had a radio. I could hear parts of it from my hiding spot. Said there had been some kind of incident. The president and several members of his cabinet were killed. They were invoking a succession pact or act or whatever. Now some secretary person was being sworn in. The junkies thought it was hilarious, yelling some anarchist bullshit and firing guns in the air and crap. That was when one of the dipshits set the hospital on fire.”

  They walked in silence for several minutes before Steve asked, “Janice, what did you do before all this?”

  “Mostly followed my husband around the country. I was staying here with my mom for the pregnancy. When he gets a permanent assignment, I’ll move there.” She went silent for several steps. “I guess that probably won’t be happening now.” She stopped and bent over, catching her breath again. “Ok, I need you please.” She reached out and wrapped an arm around his waist. He supported her as best he could as they resumed walking. “Before that, I worked at several vet clinics.”

  “Like veteran hospitals?” Steve said.

  “No, not that kind of vet, vet-er-i-na-rian.” She drew the word out like she was talking to a child.

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, I like animals. Wanted to be a vet, and there is almost always a couple of veterinary clinics no matter where I was living. You know it is harder to get in vet school than medical school now? Anyways, that is where we are going to get your antibiotics.”

  “What? Animal medicine?”

  “Sure, Humans are mammals. Not that it really matters, we give fish the same antibiotics. Lots of it works just fine on people. Same stuff, really.” She pointed to a small, neat house on an upcoming corner. “That’s one there. I used to work there when I was in school.”

  Steve was surprised the office hadn’t been looted. In fact, nothing seemed to have been touched. Getting in the old office was painless as the spare key was still in the same hiding spot they used when she had worked there. Fifteen minutes later they were on their way again. He now carried antibiotics as well as several other medicines and some stretch bandages. He was again upset with himself for not thinking of this, not that he would have known about the antibiotics. “Thank you. This really means a lot. My friend’s life might depend on it.”

  She gave him a brief head nod. “Only a few more blocks to my house. I wasn’t going to ask, but I’m pretty sure you aren’t from around here. Where are you and your friend at, and where ya going?”

  He was uncomfortable telling her much, but increasingly he thought he could trust her, and she seemed to have better survival skills than himself. “Heading close to Albany, my friend is back at our camp. We have been on the road heading south since the . . . the thing happened.”

  “So, you were farther north? What, like Atlanta?”

  “Yeah, basically. My friend was, at least. I was a bit farther than that.” He had not mentioned JD to this point and decided to still keep that to himself.

  She turned down a side street. It looked idyllic with a thick canopy of shade trees overlooking rows of identical small, older homes. “But your friend is hurt? How did that happen, were you attacked?”

  “You ask a lot of questions.”

  “Sorry, just curious,” she said with a smile. “No internet or social media anymore. Kinda starved for new information.”

  He got that. “We have been attacked yes, but his injury came from an accident on the river. We decided to use the Chattahoochee to go south but didn’t even make it an hour before running into trouble. We went over an old waterfall.”

  She stopped and looked at him. “You got on a river without knowing the dangers? Are you stupid?”

  He was embarrassed but nodded. “Obviously.”

  “Damn, I mean dam. You only went over one? You were lucky
. I think there are six or seven dams and two large lakes in the next forty miles of river. You went over the first one—the old mill dam. There will be another one just downstream, called Crowhop, nearly as dangerous, possibly another one about five miles farther, although I believe you can stay left and bypass it. Y’all are really taking some chances out there though. This is what they call the fall line, the river drops hundreds of feet before reaching Columbus. Several other dams downstream.”

  “Wow, had no idea there were more ahead of us, thanks for that. We knew it was dangerous, but the roads and towns are worse.” He told her more about some of what they had seen. She had no idea what the Army, or whoever they were, was doing at the big camp a day’s walk back up the interstate.

  “Got no idea on that, nothing really important around here. The closest military is Fort Benning down south. Doesn’t sound good, though. Maybe we are being invaded. I mean if our president is dead, and the rest of our government is probably non-existent, maybe Russia or China decided to take us over?”

  To Steve, it was not an unreasonable assumption. It was one he had considered as well. “If what happened was only to the US, I would accept that possibility, but I think the blackout may have been worldwide, or most of it. Not based on many facts, just a feeling.”

  “Hmm, great, that would mean we probably aren’t being conquered but also means it’s going to be even longer before we get beyond this.” She slowed and pointed at a house with a neat yard and said, “We’re here.”

  A voice called out from behind a screen door, “That’s far enough, mister.” The thick barrel of a shotgun slid through a slit in the screen. “Don’t move a muscle.”