As their group expanded, which he expected it to do—hoped it would, as long as newcomers were healthy—they could always add more panels. But what about when the panels ran out? Could they manufacture more? He was pretty certain most of the materials were sourced from various locations hundreds if not thousands of miles apart. Hell, some probably shipped from overseas. Back before the virus, sourcing material was just a matter of calling up a company, searching on Google, and placing an order. It then arrived at a loading dock as if by magic.
Manufacturing needed more than a handful of workers too. What if they got there, the electricity still worked, but all they had were lights and air conditioning? Both were important, but how important?
Freezers and refrigeration would be huge for keeping food from spoiling. Jenna would be able to use some of the equipment at the hospital. Computers would work even if the Internet wasn’t around. Cole itched to send an email to someone. Instant communication was something he missed almost more than all of the other aspects of modern living.
They had been able to deal with food and shelter, for the most part, but he’d never realized how dependent he’d been on being able to send off an email, text, or call someone at any time. He doubted many of his friends and former colleagues had survived the pandemic so there was nobody to communicate with, but he’d love to be able to establish communication with other survivors. They needed to prioritize getting hand held radios. There should be plenty of them around, but it wasn’t something he’d thought of when they’d left in such a hurry.
Cole flipped the page on his notebook and wrote: TRADE across the top. He wanted to revisit the problem after he’d decided how to handle the current problem.
Flipping back to the original page, he wrote everyone’s name down and their skill set. Jenna knew how to can fruits and vegetables, was their main medical resource with he and Elly the backup. Both Sean’s and Joe’s knowledge of building went beyond electrical components as they both were naturally good at working with their hands. Elly had some prepping skills. Joe also knew a lot about the local flora and fauna. He knew where the black walnut, hickory trees, and oak trees groves were in their area and whenever they had gone out to hunt and forage in the fall, they had brought home bags of the nuts. Some had been destroyed in the fire, but they had gathered a bit more before the heavy snows had set in. Joe had shown Piper how to leach the bitterness from the acorns and make flour. Cole was actually starting to prefer the rich, nutty flavor of the bread Piper had made with the acorn flour.
Cole glanced across the room to the bookshelf stuffed with a combination of what they had brought with them, books already at the house when they arrived, and some taken from homes they had entered. They still needed to visit a local library and gather as many books as they could about everything. They may have been plunged into the dark ages, but they weren’t destined to remain there if they preserved the knowledge already accumulated.
He finished his list of skills for everyone and noted his own skills were lacking. Only Zoë and Luke had fewer. With a shake of his head, he set the paper aside. The table would be needed soon for cooking preparation.
Thinking of cooking, he wondered if the venison roast would be well-received. He’d seasoned it, doused it with a little olive oil and had let it marinate all morning. With some luck, they’d find some more olive oil but eventually, it would all be gone. Cole sighed. Hacking the roast off the frozen carcass hadn’t been easy, and lately they had been using meat more as a side dish, but tonight, he wanted to celebrate.
He had a feeling that survivors would start to emerge from wherever they had hidden once a year had gone by. The virus should have run its course. Once the vectors were gone, the virus would have nowhere else to go. It didn’t seem to affect other species—not like the avian flu or the swine flu. That was a plus because it meant there was no reservoir for the virus to hide. If everyone who contracted it had died, and there were no new cases, chances were, the virus would die. If only he could be certain. Cole thought of his years in epidemiology and the reliance he’d had on studies. He didn’t have the luxury of others gathering data from across the globe and sending it to him. He could only speculate based on what he knew and observed personally.
There was a brief knock before Elly entered. “What are you doing?”
“Just working out a map to Las Vegas.” He sat back, tossing the pencil onto the desk.
Elly crossed the room and stood behind him, leaning over to peer at the map. He tilted his head back to watch her reaction as she studied it.
“Hmmm…that would normally be a two-day drive or so, depending on if you stopped at a motel for the night. How long do you think it would take now?”
Cole rubbed the back of his neck as he calculated. “A week? But that’s just a ballpark guess based on what I’ve seen on the roads around here and what Hunter saw on his trip to the island last summer. He said most main highways were choked with vehicles when the drivers and occupants died.”
“But that was months ago, Cole. Do you think the roads are still that bad?”
“You saw Chicago, and Hunter and I have seen some of the main highways around here. They were bad then, and there hasn’t been anyone around to clear things.”
He felt the slight movement of her abdomen against his back as she sighed. “Do you think it’s possible that a lot of people are just hiding out like us? And that we’ll be able to return to some semblance of what we used to have?”
“Not here. What we need is electricity to power things and we just don’t have the capacity to do that here.”
“What about solar panels? Couldn’t we install some? And then there’s the windmill…” Her hands rested on his shoulders, lightly kneading and he closed his eyes as he answered, “Solar is great and no doubt we could use it small scale here. That’s actually an alternative plan I was formulating.”
Cole was loathe to sit forward and break contact with Elly’s warm fingers and risk interrupting the massage, but her hands followed when he shifted. He rifled through some papers until he found the ones he wanted, tilting them to make it easier for Elly to see the diagrams he’d drawn of the house and the cabins on the island. “If we get some panels and install them on the cabin roofs this summer, along with a separate bank, we could probably get enough power to run the lights, the water pumps, the refrigerator, and especially, the freezers. We’re lucky my uncle planned the resort on the southwest end of the island because even in the winter, we get a lot of sun here.”
He set the papers down and tapped the rough diagram of solar panels with his finger. “If we could get those working, we would be able to store a lot more food for the winter.” They were learning the skills for preserving food and he wanted to keep doing that, but salting and drying were work-intensive and time-consuming.
“Are you sure we need to leave? Why not just move to the mainland in the spring? We should be able to find a good farm to work.” Elly moved from behind him, facing him as she leaned back against the right side of the desk.
It was a good question. He looked at his papers as he formulated a reply and finally, drew a deep breath. “Winter, for one. This one was pretty average for this area.” Her eyebrows raised and he knew that being from the South, she had considered the weather they’d been enduring as especially harsh. It wasn’t. It was a typical Wisconsin winter. “But the big reason is I’d like to find other people.”
“But—”
“I know—there’s danger from the virus.” Cole cut in. “But I think it’s worth the risk.”
“What makes it worth it? Things here aren’t so bad, and if we add the panels like you have right there,” she waved to his plans, “then why the need to leave?” Elly crossed her arms as her lips set in a thin line.
He reached for the hand that was tucked beneath her arms, grasping her fingers as she lowered her arms. “I’m sorry I cut you off. I’ve been meaning to discuss that with you and ask you your opinion on when you think the virus h
as run its course—but eventually we have to venture off this island. Solar panels only work as long as the sun is shining, and in the winter, days are short and half the time, it’s overcast. We would need to install some batteries for storage, and I don’t think they’re available just anywhere—not that I won’t look.”
Elly pursed her lips, apparently not quite convinced. He didn’t blame her. In some ways, it was less scary to face dangers you knew, even if they were difficult, than something that might be easier, but unknown. “The longer we wait to find out what is still left out there, the harder it’ll be to get stuff back up and running. ”
“I think we’d be just as well off staying here.”
Cole drew a deep breath. He didn’t want to argue; not with Elly and not about this. It was true they could continue to exist here, but thrive? No. Not in this environment. “I don’t agree.”
They locked eyes and Elly was the first to break contact, waving a hand nearly in his face. “It’s my turn for laundry. Is yours ready to go?”
6
Hunter gripped the top of the hand auger with one hand and turned the blade using the other hand to grip. It took only a few moments to drill through the ice. It wasn’t quite as thick as it had been but at four inches or so, still should be thick enough to fish on. Thinning ice meant spring really was on the way and he couldn’t wait. While they had all been busy all winter, they had still all been cooped up mostly in the main house. Joe’s cabin was okay too, and he and Sophie had returned to it once Sophie had recovered from her bad flu, but to save fuel, they usually went back to the main house to work on any projects.
He had two tip-up poles to set across the two other holes he’d drilled already, and one jigging rod. If he had just been fishing for fun, he’d have stuck with one or maybe two poles, but fishing to feed people meant he used three at a time. With no other competition, the fishing was usually pretty good. Mostly he’d caught walleye and perch but occasionally he got a nice lake trout. On a good day, he might catch more than a dozen fish. It wasn’t much compared to what Elly and Jake brought in when they’d used the boat and nets, but it was enough to keep the group from going hungry some days.
He lifted the auger from the neat hole he’d created and handed it over to Mike. The other man had his own fishing gear from their vehicle, but all he had was one jigging rod.
“When I went on the fishing trip last spring, ice fishing was the furthest thing from my mind,” Mike said, as he created his hole. “I only had this in the back from a trip I took last February. It was a fun trip and we caught a few fish, but mostly we sat around in my buddy’s ice hut listening to music.”
Hunter had made a hut early in the winter and was pretty proud of it, but it was relatively warm today so he'd decided to try some different spots to fish.
He baited a few lines and dropped them in the two holes he’d made. It wasn’t long before they each sat on large coolers that did triple duty as fish storage and transport across the ice, and seating. Hunter had retrieved them from the ice hut after he’d drilled the fishing holes.
“So, have you guys been here since the beginning of the epidemic?” Mike sat facing Hunter and with one hand out of commission, Hunter marveled that he’d managed to drill the hole and bait the hook.
“Well, my dad, Sean, Jenna, and my cousins, Piper and Trent came out here first. I was in Colorado at school so I didn’t get here for a while.”
“Oh wow. Really? How’d you get from Colorado? Fly?”
“Maybe I should have…just worn a mask, but no, it was still very early and things were almost normal. My dad thought I could drive with no problem.”
“And…did you?”
One of Hunter’s poles twitched and he reached for it, but whatever it was didn’t hit the bait again and he relaxed. “Yeah, but things all went to shit pretty quickly. I ended up out of gas in the middle of nowhere and had to camp out near a farm. That’s where I found Buddy and the horses. The poor dog was still hanging out by his home but the people who’d lived there were already dead.”
Mike shook his head. “That’s rough. He’s a good dog—at least from what I’ve seen.”
Hunter nodded. “And then I met Sophie.” He opened his mouth to tell the story of Sophie’s run in with the men who had taken her, but instead, he just shrugged. “We made our way back here. By then, I think most people had died, but I kept my mask on any time I wasn’t out in an open field or something. I had Sophie do the same, so that’s how we made it without getting sick.”
“That’s a helluva story. A lot more exciting than mine, for sure. I survived out of pure, dumb, luck. The other guys were planning on spending a week or so up at Steve’s cabin to fish, but I was only going for the weekend. I had a job to start Tuesday morning, so I was going to drive home that Monday, only I was so hung-over from the night before, I decided to wait until my headache went away.”
“And it never did?” Hunter chuckled. Saved by a hangover.
Mike may have grinned, but he wore the mask Jenna had given him so Hunter couldn’t know for sure, but his eyes crinkled. “No, it went away about lunch time, but I wanted to send a message to my boss just in case I was late getting back. The only problem was we barely got cellphone service up there, but surprisingly, the best spot was in the middle of the lake. Since I was out there, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to fish just one more time.”
If Mike had been smiling, it must have faded because his voice dropped low and Hunter had to strain to hear him as he said, “The response I got back was from his wife. My boss had passed away that Sunday evening. While I’d been getting shit-faced drunk, he’d died.”
Hunter opened his mouth to offer condolences, but Mike went on, “She told me that things were going crazy and I should stay where I was.” He drew a deep breath. “So I stayed and told the others. A couple of guys left anyway, but the rest of us stayed on. Steve had a good amount of supplies because he’d bought staples for most of the summer and I’m grateful that he shared it with us. I wouldn’t have survived without him. None of us in our group would have. Late summer, a couple of the guys ventured into town and cleaned out what was left of the store, gas station, and all of the homes nearby. I wasn’t with them. I stayed back to protect the cabin. Steve worried someone might come by and try to steal what little we had, but nobody ever did.”
There was another tug on Hunter’s line but whatever it was had just toyed with the bait. He relaxed and thought about waiting for thieves who never showed because they were all dead. “That’s both good news and incredibly depressing at the same time.”
“I know, right?” Mike’s pole tipped and for a few minutes the only talk related to landing the fish. Hunter had to open the hole a bit wider to accommodate the good-sized walleye. “Mmm…these are good eating.”
Hunter agreed.
After the fish was safely tucked away in the cooler Mike sat on, they resumed their conversation. “I was in the Army and did a couple of tours in Iraq. I’m pretty comfortable handling a weapon.”
Mike didn’t say anything else about either Iraq or guarding the cabin but seemed lost in thought so Hunter concentrated on his fishing. He caught a small perch that in normal times he’d have tossed back, but these days, every fish counted so he tossed it in the cooler.
“How did you cut your hand?”
“Stupid mistake on my part. I—”
One of Hunter’s fishing poles jerked and he leapt for it. “Whoa!” The pole bent—the line taut as the fish fought to escape. Hunter played out the line, worried the pole or line would snap. Whatever he’d caught, it was big. Would he even be able to haul it through the six-inch hole he’d made? As the pole jerked again, he put that out of his mind—first he had to get the fish to the hole—then worry about landing it.
“Oh man! You probably got a big salmon on there!” Mike set his pole down and stepped over.
There was no warning crack. Just one second Hunter stood over the hole he’d created fig
hting to land the fish, and the next, the ice gave way and he plunged into the frigid lake.
7
Elly lifted dirty clothes from the hot soapy water, gripping material in each hand and rubbed the fabric together. As she vented her anger and frustration on the denim and flannel clenched in her fists, she considered the risk of infection from the virus. In the past, pandemics flared up for a few years, then went dormant. This had been much faster moving than any pandemic ever recorded, though, and without a doubt, the most deadly. Would that have any bearing on whether it would continue to circulate? Were there enough people left for the virus to replicate and spread effectively?
She hated doing laundry, had always hated it, and now the hate had reached a new level. What she wouldn’t give for a washer and dryer right now. With a toss of her head, she blew a few strands of hair from her eyes.
The only good thing about doing laundry by hand was it allowed her to vent. With a wry chuckle, she tossed the clothes back into the basket of clothing awaiting a return to the huge vat of nearly boiling water simmering outside over a bonfire. They would soak for a bit, then they’d be wrung out via a couple of large mop buckets Cole had found in the kitchen of a restaurant he’d scavenged for food.
After a rinse and a second time in the wringer, they would be hung to dry in the living room. Hooks had been screwed into the walls and a clothesline with loops at each end to fit over the hooks was stretched across the room. There were three sets of hooks, and with so many people, every inch was filled, even though all of them wore clothing more than one day. She thought of all of the times she had worn a shirt for a few hours and then tossed it in the hamper without a thought. Now, she thought nothing of wearing the same jeans all week long. They had plenty of clothing, but washing it was a ton of work, so they got used to clothes that didn’t smell daisy fresh.
Sympatico Syndrome Trilogy Box Set Page 59