The Systemic Series - Box Set

by K. W. Callahan

  He shook his head sadly, “This thing is terrible, John. I don’t know what it is, but it’s killing everyone in its path. It sounds like things are coming apart at the seams, especially in the urban areas. You’re lucky you got out of Chicago when you did. I’ve been hearing terrible things about what’s happening there. It sounds awful. I worry about Claire’s family.”

  “Me too,” I nodded.

  “People are just going crazy,” he shook his head. “It’s like the end of the world.”

  “Maybe it is,” I said.

  Later, as we sat by the fire, chatting with our new arrivals and enjoying our drinks, I thought about what my father had said and then about what would happen if Claire’s family didn’t make it. How would I respond? How would I try to help her deal with the healing process? I knew it would be tough on her. She was so close with them.

  A car horn tore me away from my thoughts.

  “What the hell!” I said. “Shit! In all the excitement, I totally forgot to reset the doorbell.” I looked over to where my pile of pots sat in a heap on the ground from when my parents had arrived.

  “Doorbell?” Susan said, confused.

  “It’s like Grand Central Station here,” little Paul joked, clapping his hands.

  Claire gave my hand a squeeze as I stood.

  “Yeah,” I agreed absently, feeling the hope in her squeeze. I quickly walked over and grabbed my rifle.

  In the process, I moved past my father, slipping him my handgun, “Just in case,” I whispered in his ear. Dad really wasn’t a gun guy, but after what he’d told me about things starting to break down up north, and not being sure of what the situation in the surrounding area was here, I wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Come on, Will,” I said, exhausted from a long day and a little drunk. “Let’s see who’s here.”

  CHAPTER 10

  FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6th

  9 a.m.

  SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

  The day broke sunny, clear and hot.

  After breakfast, Claire, her mother, Sharron, and my mother decided to spend the morning working with the kids, teaching them how to weave thatched panels of sticks, vines, and whatever other material they could lay their hands on. Their creations would act as the roof for the lean-to we’d decided to build against the hill that formed one side of our camp. With the arrival of Claire’s parents – Steve and Emily – and younger brother Brian last night, space in the tents was extremely limited and we needed space to spread out.

  We spent the first hour of the day unloading the rest of the supplies from our parents’ respective vehicles. Dad was right, they had brought quite a bit of food with them, but little else other than clothing. Claire’s parents on the other hand had brought very little of anything, but at least her brother Brian had brought a few usable things along with him from his scouting days.

  After we finished up with these chores, I talked to Will, Dad, and Steve, and we decided that we should take Brian and get in a little target practice. I figured that once Will and I had gotten the other men up to speed and comfortable with the various firearms we’d brought along, we’d take the woman, and maybe even the kids – with the exception of Jason of course – out for a shooting session too. Ammunition was at a premium, and I wasn’t sure how easily replacing it would be down the road, but I still wanted everyone who could hold a gun to at least be comfortable and knowledgeable regarding firearm use and safety. The last thing we needed was an accident with all these guns around, and I wanted as many people with firearm training as possible in the event we encountered any unsavory elements roaming the countryside. The safety and security of our little camp came first and foremost. There would be time for organizing, settling in and relaxing later.

  As we loaded magazines and checked our guns, Paul said excitedly, “Tell us again, Brian. Tell us about the shootout.”

  “Paul,” Sharron frowned, giving him a “you know better” type look.

  “It’s okay,” Brian said, somewhat abashedly. “Well, this guy in the SUV next to us on the highway was going bananas trying to get into our lane; and Dad was like ‘screw that…”

  “That’s really not what I said,” Steve interjected.

  “Yes, what he said can’t be repeated in front of the kids,” Emily glared at him.

  Steve gave her a “Who, me?” look in return.

  “Anyway,” Brian continued, “the guy was just going nuts and started trying to push our vehicle toward this car that was on fire on the side of the road. Well, you see, I was kind of watching them from the back seat and I see the dude in the passenger seat of the other SUV pull a gun. He rolls down his window and starts pointing it at us. But Dad didn’t see it because he was trying to drive. Now up to the point where the other car started pushing us, I really hadn’t cared much. You know, stuff like that…road rage and all…it just happens. It’s usually no big deal. Well, when I saw the gun come out though, I was ready. Mom and Dad didn’t know it, but when shit…” he looked at his parents and then at the rest of the group and the kids. “…sorry, stuff…” he said, embarrassed, “…started going down with this flu thing, I bought a gun from this guy I knew…you know, just in case anything happened.”

  “I still can’t believe you did that,” Emily said, giving him a look.

  “Yeah, well, it came in handy, didn’t it?” he looked at his Mom.

  “No, this way,” Emily said, ignoring her son’s questions and turning her attention back to guiding Sarah’s small hands to intertwine several soft branches they’d cut from a nearby sapling.

  “Anyway, at that point, Dad like lit it up. When they started shooting, he turned into a racecar driver or something. I’d never seen anything like it. I rolled my window down and took some shots at the other car and damn if I didn’t hit the driver.”

  “Probably saved our asses in the process,” Steve said.

  “And Dad…man, I thought we were screwed. I was sure pops here was going to lose it. He was trying to shoot the gap between the burning car and this big drainage ditch beside us. It only looked like there was maybe ten feet between the two, and Dad started to swerve and lose control right as we got close. I thought for sure we were going to plow right into that burning car. Then, the next second, I though we were going to take a nose dive into that ditch. But somehow Dad held it together. He’s the hero. We were so far down the side of that ditch…we were like sideways. I just knew we were going to roll over. But somehow, I guess Dad had enough speed going that he got the tires to grip and managed to pull us out of that ditch, and man, he didn’t stop for anything after that. You should have heard the honking as we used the highway shoulder to tear past all the stopped traffic. But Dad never lifted, he just kept the pedal to the metal…it was awesome!”

  “Not awesome is how I would describe it,” his mother said. “You don’t care at all that you shot someone?”

  “I mean, I do,” Brian shrugged. “But what was I supposed to do? They were shooting at us.”

  “You did the right thing,” Steve said. “You made a split-second life or death decision. We can’t second guess you on that…can we Emily?” he said, looking over at his wife.

  She took a deep breath, “No…I guess not. Thank you…thank both of you. I just wish it had all never happened in the first place.”

  “We’d better get moving before it gets too hot,” I said. “We have a long day ahead of us. Everyone got their packs, guns, ammo?”

  I waited until everyone confirmed that they were ready.

  “When will you be back?” Claire asked.

  “Not sure,” I said. “I want to get some distance between us and the camp before we shoot. I don’t want our gunfire attracting any outsiders to our location here.”

  “Well, we packed you boys plenty of sandwiches and water. There’s some beef jerky that I split up between all your packs too.”

  “Thanks honey,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She was so happy now that her parents were here, but I
could tell she was still worried about her older brother Kevin and his family.

  Other goodbyes were exchanged, and then our target practice party departed.

  Our first stop was the hilltop above camp. We wanted to see if we could get a radio signal to find out what the situation was in the outside world.

  Once there, I pulled up the antennae, gave the radio a few cranks, flipped it on, and was quickly met with a signal.

  A voice said: “This is a broadcast from the Emergency Alert System. Please stand by for a recorded message from the President of the United States.”

  Then there was a pause.

  “That can’t be good,” I looked around at the others, noting signs of concern on their faces. The same pre-recorded message was repeated several times. And just I was beginning to wonder if there actually was a message, the President began to speak.

  “My fellow Americans, this is the President of the United States. I join you in this difficult time and share in many of your individual tragedies. I myself have lost several family members, including my own daughter, to the virus that many are now referring to as the Su flu.

  At this time, it appears that this particular strain of influenza is a subtype of the H9N2 virus, which prior to this outbreak was largely isolated in Asian poultry. Unfortunately, the strain appears to have mutated significantly from its previous form making it extremely deadly. In the process, it has also made our vaccines ineffective. From what scientists now understand, the contagion in its current form has gone airborne and is now transmissible without direct human-to-human contact.

  The White House has been working in conjunction with the CDC as well as state and local agencies in an effort to stem the spread of this disease, but due to the swiftness of its proliferation and high contamination rate, we have been unable to contain the outbreak, which we are now labeling a pandemic. I can assure you though, that local, state and federal emergency services are working together on and are committed to developing an emergency response plan. At this point in time however, I must urge all non-first responders and other non-essential personnel to remain at home. Be aware, there is currently no cure to this virus and going to the hospital at this time will only act to endanger others and possibly yourself as well.

  I ask that everyone remain calm during what is a trying and tragic time in our nation’s history. I have confidence that we will persevere and come out of this challenge a stronger nation. We will broadcast any further updates or instructions on this frequency. Thank you, and may God bless America.”

  After the president had finished, the station went back to repeating the Emergency Alert System message.

  I shut off the radio.

  “Well that was a real pick-me-up,” Will snorted sarcastically. “Pretty much told us to have a great day and go eat some shit. We’re on our own.”

  “Guess there isn’t much they can do now,” I said. “Pretty much just have to let the thing play itself out and then try to recover once it’s done. Doesn’t sound like anyone is safe at this point.”

  Claire’s dad Steve, who was more like me regarding disaster scenarios and emergency planning said, “You know, I was watching a video online before this whole thing got out of control and we lost the internet. I don’t remember the site, but they had this expert on contagious diseases as a guest. He was talking about stuff the news agencies didn’t want to discuss because they didn’t want to panic everyone. He was making predictions about what would happen if this flu got out of control if it was really as bad as some were saying it might be at the time. I remember him saying that the urban areas would likely see a survival rate of somewhere between three and seven percent at best. The cities would incur more deaths due to proximity of people living together, more looting, rioting, and the general breakdown of services…and humanity in general. The rural and more sparsely populated areas would fare better, he said, but not much. He was estimating somewhere between a 10 and 15 percent survival rate, but possibly lower because these types of areas were often tighter-knit communities and residents would be willing to assist one another, thus helping to spread the virus. He said that while big cities and urban areas would still have people living in them after the virus itself was gone, many smaller towns and communities might be wiped out completely because of their more helpful attitudes. And he was talking about how many more of the necessary people like those working in hospitals, power plants, and law enforcement would die because they would find themselves going to work, and in turn, putting themselves at higher risk of exposure to other sick people. Meanwhile the educated people like lawyers, government officials, computer programmers, teachers, professors, and the likes would be virtually wiped out, because while they had book smarts, they wouldn’t know how to survive on the street or without the laws and rules that held together the society they knew and thrived in. He said that it would largely be the criminal element, who were willing to do whatever it took to get ahead and only looked out for themselves, the ‘anti-socials’ who already lived off the grid, and maybe some farmers and ranchers who lived away from bigger cities and towns who would be left. The problem is that most of these people wouldn’t have the skills, knowledge, abilities or desire to bring society and modern civilization back to where we were, either technologically or as an advanced society, for hundreds of years…maybe ever.”

  “Sounds like we’re headed for a utopian society of thugs, criminals, reclusive weirdoes, and farmers, huh?” said Dad.

  “Where do we fit into all that?” Will asked.

  “Guess we’re the weirdoes,” Brian smiled at him.

  “Come on,” I said. “We’d better get moving. Steve, you know this place pretty well, right?”

  “It’s been a while since I’ve been down here,” he shrugged. “But I think I still know my way around.”

  “You know of a good place to shoot, but one that’s not too close to camp? I don’t want any outsiders getting lured here by our gunfire.”

  He nodded. “Sure, I know of a few spots.”

  “Lead on then,” I said, gesturing him on ahead of me.

  Claire’s father Steve was a thick man. I wouldn’t call him heavy set, just solid – maybe 5 foot 10, 210 pounds – with a pelt of thick gray hair upon a large head, and a face with thick lips and patchy stubble. I could tell that in 40 years, Brian would probably look just like him. Claire definitely took after her mother…thank god.

  I had heard that women are attracted to men like their father. It must be our personalities that aligned well for Claire, because it sure wasn’t our body types. Both Will and I were tall and lanky, but we were strong, and our father fit the same build, he just wasn’t quite as tall as his boys.

  Steve led us back down to the access road where we crossed the creek bridge and walked until we met up with the main road. We stopped at where the gated entrance to the land met the short gravel portion that led to the road’s pavement. We waited, listening for any signs of traffic. We stood for almost a minute without hearing any vehicles pass.

  “Sounds safe enough,” Steve said. “Should we try walking the road?”

  I didn’t particularly love the idea.

  “Why don’t we follow the road but hug the tree line for cover just in case?” I offered.

  “Sure, make us old folk work for our supper,” Steve said smugly. “But you’re right. We should probably slow play it until we know for sure what type of situation we’re dealing with out here.”

  “How far we headed?” Will asked.

  Steve considered, “If you’re up for a hike, there’s a town…well, I guess I wouldn’t exactly call it a town…more like a small village. Twenty-five people maybe…just a gas station, diner, and maybe six or seven homes…at least it used to be, it’s been a while. It’s about three miles from here. We could check it out. Place is called Avers as I recall. There’s a good spot for some target practice near there.”

  “I could use the exercise,” Dad said.

  I wasn’t hot on the
idea of heading back into civilization so soon, even if it was just a few houses, but I didn’t think a little scouting to determine the situation in our vicinity was a bad idea either. “Fine,” I said. “Just keep your guard up and be ready for anything.”

  It had cooled off compared to when we had first arrived. While it was still hot, peak temperatures felt more like they were in the mid-80s rather than mid-90s, and it wasn’t so humid. The mid-morning sun faded in and out from behind hazy clouds that sauntered slowly past.

  We walked largely in silence, listening for the sounds of approaching vehicles and ready to duck into the cover of the nearby forest if necessary. I carried my .22 rifle; Will, his assault rifle. He’d given Claire’s dad Steve his shotgun, and Brian and our father Frank both carried handguns. I found myself wishing we all had rifles as they were easier to handle and offered better long-range shooting, but we’d have to play the hand we were dealt. Each of us had a pack with our food, water, and a waterproof container of ammo inside.

  “So what’s the plan here?” Brian asked. “Are we just going to shoot anybody that comes along or what?”

  “No…that’s definitely not the plan,” I said. “Our main objective here is really to avoid other people, not kill them. We don’t know what the contamination status of this area is and whether it’s even safe to come in contact with other people whether they’re well-intentioned or not. Therefore, I’d prefer to observe from a safe distance and remain unnoticed if at all possible. At this point, and until this pandemic plays itself out, I think the longer we can stay away from other people, the better. I have to say though, I’m curious to find out what the situation is in Avers. We just have to be careful.”

  As we walked, I slid my own pack off my back. Unzipping it, I rummaged around for a minute until I found one of the packs of cigarettes I’d bought before we left home. I pulled it out, opened it, and then dug in my pocket for a lighter. I wasn’t a true smoker, but I enjoyed a smoke every now and then as a stress reliever. I thought it’d be a nice way for us to bond as men too.