“Oh, hell no!” Cole didn’t even have to think on his response. It burst out of him like a cork from a bottle. “My family isn’t going to be poked and tested by the very same people who destroyed humanity.
“I could make you go.” Pete gestured to the helicopter. “We have the firepower.”
“I don’t think you realize this, but I have snipers stationed right now who have your men in their sights. One false move and they’re dead.” It was a stretch calling Sean, Hunter, and Piper snipers, but they were out there— hopefully keeping an eye on the men near the copter.
Pete’s eyes narrowed as he ripped off his mask, his nostrils flaring. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be. If I go, I’ll just be back with a lot more back-up. I figured you were dead, even if you hadn’t died of the virus, you’d have died of something else, like so many others have.”
Cole crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on Pete, who shrugged. “I thought you were a reasonable guy, Cole, and with your background, you’d jump at the chance for a cure or vaccine. I guess I was mistaken.”
“Your mistake was in coming here in military helicopters, armed and threatening. I’ve offered my blood. It’s the best I can do right now.”
“But we may need to test your family too. They’ve all survived, which is pretty much unheard of.”
Grief at Trent’s death tinted Cole’s next words, “We haven’t been left unscathed. Now, I’m not going to ask you again to leave. I will simply give the signal to my snipers.”
Pete’s mouth twisted into a snarl. ”If you kill us then there will never be a cure!”
“So be it. We’ve survived this long.” In the back of his mind, he wondered if he, Elly, and Jenna would be able to create a treatment once they reached the Hoover Dam, if power was still up and running. There were universities there, computers with files and books. They wouldn’t be starting from scratch. It wasn’t crazy to think they might be able to pull it off. Especially Elly. Her background had more lab work than Cole’s own.
As the idea flitted through his mind, Pete strode up to him until they were nearly nose to mask. “Do you really want to be the last man on Earth?”
Refusing to back down, Cole leaned close, cocking his head. “It won’t come to that, but if it does, I’ll be sure to turn the lights off before I die.”
11
“I think we should stay put.” Sean crossed his arms, his bottom lip jutting out as he leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Holland won’t be back, Cole. It was an empty threat. And so what if he does come back? We’ll be even better prepared this time.”
Cole rested his elbows on the table, sliding his hands up through his hair, tempted to pull it out. No matter what he suggested, Sean always took the opposing view. All he wanted was an open mind from everyone. Was that too much to ask? He sighed. It would take an act of Congress to change his brother’s mind and, since Congress didn’t exist anymore as far as Cole knew, he would get no help from that quarter. “Look, I welcome your opinion. That’s why I called this meeting. Everyone gets a chance to speak their mind.”
He’d striven to keep his voice calm and neutral but Elly’s light tap on his thigh beneath the table warned him that he was close to crossing the line. He reached under the table and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Sean…listen…I’m sorry if I made it sound like this was a done deal. It is still very much just an idea I had. I wanted to leave even before Holland showed up, but his threat to return with back-up does have me concerned. Even if we had a whole arsenal at our disposal, I don’t want to risk anyone in our group. We might win the battle but at what cost? I think we’d be better off leaving before they can return and try to force us to go to D.C. I’m no dictator—everyone can contribute valuable input before we vote on a decision.”
He’d wanted to discuss leaving even before Pete Holland arrived and now wished he had spoken up. The evening Hunter had fallen through the ice had been his initial attempt, but first his son then Mike, had dozed off. Everyone was tired, so they had tabled the discussion. Then the next few days had been taken up by moving the animals and horses back to the mainland. And then Holland had shown up. At least they had some preparations done already. That way, if they decided to leave, they could do so fairly quickly.
Today, they had made several trips back and forth scavenging as many supplies as they could find. The air was warming and open areas farther out in the bay harkened the coming spring. Tomorrow, they’d make their last trip over via car from the north side of the island, where the ice was still thick enough. A narrow channel had opened on the south end, and if tomorrow was warm, he expected it to widen enough to get the boats through.
No matter what their decision, Steve and Mike had agreed to wait until Cole could return by boat to give them an answer as they were taking care of the horses. With the assistance of their plow, Cole had even been able to get to a few farms on the outskirts of town to find some feed and hay for the horses. He’d brought some back for chickens and goats as well.
Cole caught Elly’s eye, hoping she recognized that he’d made a conciliatory statement to his brother. She gave a brief nod before she swept the room with her gaze.
Everyone was gathered in the kitchen, either sitting at the table or leaning against a counter.
Elly cleared her throat. “I won’t lie—I would love to go somewhere warmer than Wisconsin.” She put on an exaggerated Southern accent as she said, “I’m a Georgia gal and I didn’t like snow before the virus and I really don’t like it now.” She smiled as everyone chuckled. “But, it’s not just a matter of not liking snow, I agree with Cole that if we head south I think we’ll have a greater chance of surviving next winter. The growing season is longer, the winters aren’t as harsh, and if we get solar panels, going south means more sunshine and less need for energy to heat our homes. If we decide to try for Vegas with the hope that the Hoover Dam is still supplying power out there, then we can either get things running, or help out whomever else is already there.”
It was Cole’s turn to give her thigh a light touch, but only to convey his appreciation for her words of support. As someone who had grown up in the southern part of the country, she had first-hand experience with what it could be like. “You’ve made excellent points.”
“I could work in the hospital and have real equipment again.” Jenna didn’t look at Sean as she spoke, and Cole wondered if she was purposefully avoiding her husband’s eyes, or if she was just unaware that he’d stiffened as she voiced a differing opinion.
She continued, “Supplies might be hard to come by, but we could adapt; make our own bandages and such. Just having a real hospital would be a huge first step in re-establishing healthcare. If we had power, there’s no reason all of the equipment in a hospital wouldn’t work. Medical gases might be in short supply, but we could use oxygen concentrators picked up from home care companies.”
Cole knew she was losing the others when she started talking details so he cut in, “I agree, Jenna. What happens when someone here gets seriously sick or injured?” He hoped the question would refocus the group on how it might affect them all personally. “We have Sophie due in about two months, right?” He looked to Sophie, raising his eyebrows. Her hand went to her abdomen and she gave a shy smile and a brief nod. She wasn’t very big, but Jenna said with it being the young woman’s first child, that was normal.
“So we move everyone across the country just because one girl is pregnant?” Sean rolled his eyes. “It’s a wonder people managed before electricity. Somehow the human race made it just fine without modern medicine.”
Elly squared her shoulders and leveled a look at Sean. “Actually, it shouldn’t matter if it’s one woman or fifty. And people—especially pregnant women—didn’t manage just fine before modern medicine. Maternal death rates were about one percent per birth. Let that sink in. So a woman who gave birth five times, which wasn’t unusual, had a lifetime risk of between five and ten percent.”
Jenna
nodded as Elly spoke and added, “Sean, one of the most important things we have to do is protect any new babies and their mothers. What’s the point of any surviving if there’s nobody left after we die?”
Sean’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about? The point is that we keep on living. We have to focus on the here and now, not some distant future.”
Glaring, Jenna shook her head and waved a hand dismissively before crossing her arms.
Cole glanced around, noting the squirming and uneasy looks the younger set sent each other. Clearly, they were uncomfortable being in the midst of the couples’ disagreement.
He didn’t want to add fuel to Jenna’s fire, but he had to agree with her. “She’s exactly right, Sean.” Cole stood and moved to the far end of the kitchen so he could have everyone in his view at the same time. “Elly and I have guessed, based on what we’ve seen as far as survival rates and extrapolating that to the whole region, the country, and probably the world, that roughly ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of the human population has been wiped out by the virus or secondary effects such as dying in accidents or lack of care. I’m talking about the elderly and children left parentless.”
Everyone looked at Zoë and Luke who played in the living room. Over the months they had been here, he and Elly had become surrogate parents to the siblings, but everyone doted on them. They were lucky to have been found and yet, Cole counted himself the lucky one.
He waved vaguely towards the mainland and the highways. “The roads are chock full of accidents and cars full of dead occupants—presumably from the virus. Hunter saw the same on his way here, and Elly and Jake gave us their account of what was left of Chicago. It’s not encouraging. Pete Holland confirmed what we’d already feared. He had no reason to lie.”
“Yeah, I get that. Millions—I guess billions—have died, but there’s nothing we can do about that. We have to worry about what happens today and tomorrow, not ten years or fifty years from now.” Sean had a point and Cole hoped to defuse the situation by acknowledging it.
“That’s true. We do have to worry, first, about our immediate survival and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that so far. Staying here next year, we won’t have the same supplies sitting in unoccupied houses. We, or others, will have used them up or they won’t be good anymore. Just getting the feed for the animals took most of the day—what with the snow and all of the detouring around blocked roads.”
Sean shrugged and looked at his hands. Cole shifted his gaze to encompass everyone. “But, Jenna’s correct in that we can’t only worry about today, or even next month. We have to give careful thought to what we do in the next few years to assure the best chances of survival— not only ours— but those who come after us.” Cole swept the group, his gaze lingering on Hunter and Sophie. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children and grandchildren to live short, harsh, lives, having to scrape every day just to get by and have enough to eat.”
“But we’re doing fine here.” Sean didn’t sound as certain as he had only moments before. Then he lifted his chin and shot Cole a look. “And if you’re so worried about survival, why didn’t you go back to D.C. with Holland by yourself, get the cure going, and then return? Or did you think we couldn’t get by without you?”
Sean’s pointed question stung. Cole had been second guessing himself since the helicopter took off. “I offered to give a blood sample—which is really all he needed. I don’t trust him. I know I’m not indispensable. I think we all make valuable contributions and we can’t afford to lose anyone—not just me.”
Cole held Sean’s gaze until his brother shifted and took a sip from his steaming mug. Clearing his throat, more to clear his mind than his vocal cords, Cole resumed speaking. “And moving on, I fear that usable supplies left in homes and stores in this area are going to be exhausted soon. As few people as there are, we know we aren’t the only survivors. Between them, the rodents and other scavengers, we’re going to be hurting in, at most, a year or so.”
Joe hadn’t said anything, but he raised his chin in agreement when their eyes met. Cole was glad to have the older man’s backing. He was almost certain Joe could have left the group and survived just fine on his own. He was resourceful and competent. The only thing he gained by sticking with Cole’s group was companionship and Cole worried that too much strife in the group would drive him away.
“Right now, we can get a few generators running and find gasoline at gas stations. We just need the generators to get the pump running. It was easier before to just siphon what we needed, but fuel left in car tanks is degrading—if we’re going to use cars to travel, we need to do it soon. We’ll have to tap into what’s stored underground at gas stations.”
Sean nodded at that, and Cole was relieved that at least his brother agreed on that point. “Right now, we have a brief opportunity—a golden hour, so to speak—to scavenge enough on our way to wherever we decide to go. We need to collect as much food and other supplies to last us several years. It’s going to take at least that long to get some semblance of what we had before. We need to go to where the most people lived to find the most supplies. It’s also the most dangerous way to go, but we really don’t have much choice. Not if we want to do more than just survive. If we want to rebuild society, we’ll have to make hard choices and take chances.”
There. He was done with the lecture. Cole moved to the stove and poured a cup of hot water from the kettle, grabbing one of the remaining tea bags from an empty coffee can. The bag was already heavily used, but he dropped it in the cup anyway. It would give at little flavor to the hot water. Keeping his back to the group, he sprinkled in some dried wild mint leaves Jenna had found in the fall. She had planted some in small pots that were scattered throughout the house. He thought about plucking a few fresh leaves to add but didn’t want to leave the kitchen. The dried leaves gave the tea a good flavor and an even better aroma. He returned to the table and took a sip of the steaming brew as they digested what he’d said.
Hunter caught Cole’s eye and looked as if he had something to say. Cole gestured to him as if giving him the floor.
“When I traveled back here, I saw a lot of death even though I did my best to avoid roads and highways. My dad is right. Within days of the virus, stores and gas stations along the highways were trashed. People had been desperate and had cleaned the places out of most of the food. When we went to the supercenter in the fall, most of the food from there was gone too. You all saw what we brought back. That was it. We might find some of it in homes, but we might not ever find where people hid their stash before it spoils. So, I just think the sooner we start scavenging, and I mean, seriously scavenging, the better off we’ll be. We need time to get tractors running—time to learn how to operate them at all. Has anyone here ever driven a tractor?”
Nobody replied, and Sean looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. Cole felt a spark of pride for Hunter. He was spotting problems and trying to find solutions. “He’s right. That’s just one thing we’ll need to learn. So far we’ve lived off what we’ve scavenged, fished, and hunted. We’ve done okay but we’ve never had a big reserve and we all learned how devastating one disaster can be. If the fire that destroyed the food shed hadn’t been discovered soon enough for us to get at least some of the food out, we would be hurting a lot more right now.”
There were nods and murmurs of agreement.
Piper cleared her throat, sending a quick glance at her dad before looking away as she said, “We need more flour and I’m not sure where we’ll get it. We need to learn how to grind wheat, I guess. And soon. I’m worried that what we find this year will be spoiled by bugs. I’ve already had to throw some of it away. I can’t imagine flour still sitting on shelves in pantries or stores is going to be bug free.”
“Right, so we’re going to have to learn not just how to grow wheat, but how to get it from the field and transformed into loaves of bread.” Cole gave Piper a brief nod and smile for her contribution. “Mo
st of the advancements in the last century have come with a price—knowledge that was commonly known has been lost. We have had to re-learn basic survival skills, but it would be better if we didn’t have to go all the way back to the middle-ages, and instead, could skip ahead a few hundred years.”
“Okay, fine—I get that we’ll need to start creating stuff from scratch, but why can’t we do it right here? I got the windmill going, and I bet we could devise some kind of grindstone using power generated from it.”
“That’s a good idea, Sean. But one of the things we need to fix as soon as we can is our knowledge deficit.”
“What? Are we too stupid?” Sean’s reasonable tone had given way to belligerence again.
Cole tried to diffuse it with laughter. “No—everyone here is very intelligent. We have that going for us. I’m talking about knowledge about how to rebuild a civilization. What I hope is that we’ll be able to recreate some semblance of what we’ve lost—not just scratch out a living, barely subsisting on what we can grow on our own. One of my reasons for wanting to travel south is that I think it’s where others will go too, and more people means more knowledge and experience we can draw upon. That’s what I meant by knowledge deficit. We’re all smart, but none of us possess all the knowledge needed to re-create our old world.” He hated to say it, but someone had to put the mark of finality on what life had been like before the virus versus what it was going to be afterward. “We will never get back to what we had—not in our lifetimes—but if we start right now, it’s possible our grandchildren or great-grandchildren might have it even better.”
Sean grunted, then after a long pause, nodded and said, “Yeah. I guess you can count us in.”
Jenna threw him a look. “Thanks, but I was already counted in.”
His eyes wide, Sean looked at Jenna. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Sympatico Syndrome Trilogy Box Set Page 63