by Pete Thorsen
I commend the local police department for recognizing that these two people are assets to this nation and deserve our protection. I regret the loss of the two policemen last night and the loss of the CDC team members. My condolences to their families and friends.”
That ended the interview and we left very shortly thereafter. We were in the middle car of three police cruisers. We left the TV station and drove somewhat randomly it appeared to me and then entered a large parking ramp. In the center we stopped and were ushered out of the police car and into a normal car that was of course driven by our friendly Detective.
As we were leaving there were four other normal cars and the three police cruisers which were all mixed together when we left the parking garage. Upon exiting the garage the cars all split up and headed in all different directions. We went back to where my car was parked and the Detective gave me an address and told me how to get there. Then he left and Lynn and I left to find the address that I was given.
It turned out to be in a residential area and by the time we got there the detective had the garage door open and waved us in then promptly shut the door. After parking we followed him into the house and he turned to speak to us.
“This is a safe house that we use occasionally. It is fully stocked with food and most everything else you may need. The phone is live and you can use it but be very careful who you call. Your friends and families phones are very likely all tapped by now and if you call the bad guys are likely to find you.
I will not put any cops here to protect you. It would just draw attention to this place and be more people that know where you are. Right now we three are the only ones that know where you are. You are very safe here. But keep that shotgun handy all the time just in case.”
“Thank you for everything you have done. I never once thought I would be running away from assassins ever in my whole lifetime.”
“No need to thank me. You two have saved millions of lives and that very likely includes mine. As far as I’m concerned you two should be treated like royalty for the rest of your lives for what you guys have done.
There is no way the world could thank you enough. It is bizarre that you two have to be hidden and protected when instead you should be stars that jet around the world to events that are put on in your honor.”
“I don’t know about all that but it would be nice to live through this. And get back to our normal lives again.”
“OK you two sit tight here and relax. I think after that that interview goes out things will get straightened out pretty quickly. Now I have work to do. Call if you need anything.”
“Thanks again Detective.”
After he left I got all of our stuff out of my car and brought it in. Then Lynn and I took a tour of the house and we each picked out a bedroom from the three that were here. We snooped through the cupboards and the large freezer that was in the garage. I carried our stuff to our respective bedrooms and we just made some soup for lunch.
We were both uptight with all the events that were happening around us and we were having a hard time relaxing. We tried watching TV and working on our laptops and then reading but nothing could really hold our attention for very long. We were both thankful when it was time for the evening news shows.
The local news came on first and besides our interview there was some good news about the more people being cured and that the existing zombies were being dispatched and would soon be gone totally. They thought in a week things might be back to a more normal existence.
The national news was also good and they were showing clips from many cities where people were back on the streets and life was while not normal at least not terrifying. There were many clips from various hospitals around the country saying how many people had been cured and now they were asking anyone to come and get free zombie testing.
It was towards the end of the national news when they played the clip of our interview in its entirety. The one commentator said it would be awful for our saviors to be gunned down by terrorists after saving so many lives. We both agreed that it would be awful for us to be gunned down. We both hoped now that our interview had aired nationally that the bad guys would be promptly found and jailed.
Chapter Fourteen
The next day things did heat up. Congress announced they would start an investigation into the possibility that the US government had anything to do with this zombie plague. Shortly after the White House announced a similar investigation by the Department of Justice to see who was responsible and they would use all assets of the United States to track down the parties involved no matter where in the world the investigation led.
Even Interpol released a statement they were looking into the whole thing. The news mentioned that several countries stated they were also doing their own investigations. While no one was likely working together Lynn and I thought with so many asking questions it was likely that the offending party would at least lay low and not attack us. Something was almost bound to break soon.
The Detective called and said the Department was under intense pressure to give up our whereabouts to the Federal government. Many threats had been made when simple requests were denied. The Department told the Feds that we were protected witnesses in a police officers’ murder investigation that could very well have been committed by an arm of the US government.
There was no way the Feds were getting these witnesses and if there were any more threats made by the Feds that the Department would go public with them. Requests had also come in from many other places across the globe for interviews with us. All were denied with the statement that the TV interview had contained all pertinent information that was available.
The Detective was very plain that at some point we would have to submit to more interviews but that time was not yet here. The simple fact that the Department did not have a clue where we were helped some also. They could not give out our location if they did not know it.
The next four days were rather tense at the house. The news was getting much better everyday with many areas getting back to something resembling much more normal. The news we were anxiously awaiting about the capture of those responsible for creating the zombies was still lacking.
Then on the fifth day of staying at the safe house the President himself made a special news announcement on live TV.
“A US Special Forces team attempted a raid on a large facility in a remote location ‘in another country’ that was where the Zombie Plague had originated from. The team had orders to only use lethal force if necessary to save their own lives.
The object was to apprehend all those responsible for this plague so they could be interrogated and then brought to justice in front of the world. Unfortunately the criminals were alerted by some undetected sensors and the perpetrators of this atrocity chose to take their own lives and detonated a self-destruct explosion that leveled the whole complex.
None of the Special Forces team were injured but everyone inside the large complex were killed instantly with the explosion. No records or any other evidence survived the explosion and the following intense fire. While those that committed this awful crime have been killed we may now never find out who they were or what their motivation was for committing this heinous crime.”
Lynn and I just looked at each other for several seconds before I spoke.
“Well they sure tied that up in a very neat little package that can never be opened.”
“That liar. There is no way that is true.”
“I suppose it is still possible that another investigating agency might come up with something but I really have my doubts. This is signed, sealed, and delivered. End of story. Move along, nothing to see here. There is one spot of truth in his speech and that’s “we may never find out who they were or what their motivation was for committing this heinous crime’.”
“I know the government was involved that is why they did not want to send my team down here to begin with and then never released any of my reports after we did co
me here.”
“My guess is that you will be offered a promotion and a raise with the understanding that you are to shut up and toe the line from now on. Or you might have a fatal one car accident or fatally slip in the shower or have a fatal heart attack in the very near future.”
“We are probably both so dead. We had better both write our last will and testaments as soon as we can. At this point we might as well come out from hiding.”
“I suppose it is possible that we may live through this if we do not make any more waves. Really, what more can we say? We have no proof. We are somewhat of temporary celebrities right now and we could shout our theories but without proof we would just come off as conspiracy nuts.”
“We may as well drive down to the police station and see what happens to us. We have certainly committed no crimes. But we can go to the police station and if nothing else just thank them for keeping us safe through all of this.”
So we loaded all our gear into my car, locked the house, and drove down to the police station. We had called ahead and the Detective met us and we went to make statements about what we had seen and heard on the night the two policemen were killed. At that point the police were done with us.
By the time we left word had got out and there were some reporters waiting outside for us. We told them it was apparently over and we had no further comment. Back in my car I asked Lynn a question.
“Do you want to go back to your hotel? I have a spare room at my house you are welcome to if you would like to stay with me. I don’t think air travel is up and running yet but it should be in a day or two.”
“I have no work to do here. I should be going back to Atlanta as soon as I can book a flight. Would you swing by the hotel and I’ll pick up my car and follow you to your house if that is OK.”
“That’s fine. Maybe we can find a restaurant that is open and we can have a quiet meal that we don’t have to cook ourselves.”
“That would be wonderful.”
So I drove us to her hotel and she got her rental car and then followed me. We did find a restaurant that was open and spent quite a little time there over our meal and after dinner coffee before continuing on to my house.
The next day Lynn was able to get on a plane that was one of the very first ones out of the just reopened Boston airport.
Chapter Fifteen
Well it’s been a year now and both Lynn and I are still alive and well. I was totally correct and she did get a promotion and raise for her ‘valiant efforts’ to stop the zombie plague. I appeared on a few TV talk shows until I was old news. I have received several offers to write a book about the plague and I think I will start writing one very soon. I will have to decide how much conjecture I will include in the book.
The zombie plague is totally gone from any settled areas. There may be some left in remote areas and maybe some infected monkeys somewhere.
Researchers found out why the zombies did not attack each other; pheromones, we thought they had no sense of smell but they could detect the pheromones that were secreted by all the zombies.
All the investigations performed by the multitude of countries and agencies have produced no results. So most of the world population believes that all the perpetrators died when that compound blew up. Naturally the internet is full of conspiracy theories but they rank right up there with alien abductions and are no threat to the government (or whoever).
Lynn and I remain friends and often speak on the phone and through emails. We never mention the plague because we both assume that everything we say or write is recorded by our government.
The killings of the two policemen that were guarding Lynn are still unsolved with no leads. Basically everything pertaining to the zombies is done and most files are all stamped ‘case closed’. I think there are only a very few of us that think the case is not closed.
The End
Living Through
The
Collapse
BY
Pete Thorsen
Formerly Published
Under the Pen Name
Jack Forester
Originally Released
On Kindle April 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except that brief selections may be quoted or copied for non-profit use without permission, provided that full credit is given. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely accidental.
Chapter One
Here is my first entry in my ‘journal’. My wife Flo has asked me to write it. She said if I write down everything that I gripe about maybe it will take a load off her. Well I figured that is maybe true so I started writing in this thing. This journal may jump around from topic to topic because I will probably just write in it when something pops into my head.
Yes I gripe some and I have good reason to. My country is in shambles and it is not anything resembling the country that I grew up in. But maybe I’ll look back on things some and gradually bring this journal up to the current time and current situation. The country obviously did not change overnight; it as been a long process but it seems that with each negative change the next change would happen sooner and would maybe be worse.
A lot of the nation’s problems are the result of war.
The War on God. I don’t know where they ever came up with the ‘separation of church and state’. That is no where in the Constitution. Actually God played a huge roll in the crafting of the Constitution and the previous Declaration of Independence. Many talk about the ‘Bill of Rights’, well the founding fathers of this country knew and plainly stated that the freedoms in the Bill of Rights did NOT come from the government but came from God. There is no ‘separation of church and state’ because the writers of the Constitution knew that God was and always should be an integral part of the lives of Americans.
They knew it was who we were and God was very likely necessary to keep the nation together. But they started the ‘separation of church and state’ nonsense and they got their wish. They threw God out of the great United States so instead of being based on Christian virtues we are now based on nothing of value and it shows. They made sure to throw God out of the schools so the kids are not taught Christian morals or values. The kids often act poorly because that is what they were taught. The nation is falling apart and God will not help us because we made it very clear we don’t want Him around.
The War on Poverty. This sure seemed like a good idea at the time. After all we were the greatest nation and the richest nation on the earth and we should have no poverty. Well there will always be poverty and after throwing trillions of dollars at the war on poverty there is more poverty now than when the ‘war’ started. But were Americans in poverty? Not like the poverty found in other countries where every day people would die from lack of food, lack of water, or lack of medical care. You don’t die from a lack of a big screen TV.
The War on Drugs. This is exactly the same as the war on poverty, exactly. We threw away trillions of dollars fighting this war and we now have as much of a drug problem as ever before and maybe even more. But we not only lost the drug war while we were fighting it we changed our police forces into something different than they once were. They almost became tax collectors. And I wonder if that was idea all along. Was the government mad at drugs because drugs were evil or mad because those drugs were not taxed?
So if you have a drug charge the government can confiscate your money, your cars, your house, all of your possessions. This is really like war where ‘to the victor go the spoils’. Our prisons are packed full of people that committed drug offences. The courts are tied up prosecuting drug offences. And we still have drugs everywhere and really it has increased.
The War on Terror.
This is maybe the worst of the wars. This changed the lives of most Americans. Yes we were attacked by terrorists. Yes those terrorists killed many Americans. But it started way before nine-eleven. Like-
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis
1983 US Embassy bombed in Beirut
1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103
1993 bombing of World Trade Center
1998 bombing of US Embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania
2000 bombing of USS Cole
And what do all the terrorist attacks have in common you might ask. Well they are all done by Islamic terrorists. Every one by Muslims. And they did not stop with the attack on nine-eleven either. There have been more since and they were again done by Muslims. So if the terrorists are all Muslims why does every American have to be groped and pawed by the wonderful TSA at every airport?
With the war on terror the US Congress passed the Patriot Act which has nothing to do with Patriots but everything to do with throwing out the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution. And if you are going to treat all Americans like they are terrorists you better be prepared so they started the Department of Homeland Security. And the budget for this department was necessarily huge and it had to have its own fully armed ‘police’ forces with full military hardware.
Just like the Patriot Act the Department of Homeland Security is an oxymoron. If you are going to secure the homeland your first step would obviously be to secure your borders but the DHS which is in charge of the Border Patrol does just the opposite. In the years since the creation of DHS the borders are more open than ever before with thousands and thousands of illegals coming across our borders every single day.