by Greg Krojac
Sitara was glad of the pit stop.
“I’d like to get out of these clothes too. They’re not mine, they’re Suzy’s. There’s an outlet centre next to the gas station – there’s bound to be a clothes shop there.
Jason tapped Enak’s arm a few times until his eyes opened.
“Don’t be startled…”
“Startled?”
“Surprised. We have a guest. Enak, this is Sitara. Sitara, Enak.”
Sitara couldn’t help but notice that Enak’s physiognomy [a20]was, to put it mildly, unusual, but she didn’t say anything.
“Pleased to meet you Enak.”
Jason reached back and took the rifle from underneath the coat on the rear seat.
“We’d better take this. We don’t know what we’re going to find in there. I just hope it’s food.”
Sitara reminded Jason of the other necessity.
“And clothes.”
“Yes. And clothes. But we should stick together though. We don’t know what or who we might find.”
Jason went first, being armed, and Enak and Sitara followed behind him. The fuel stop had obviously had no visitors for a while and Jason half expected to see tumbleweed trundle across his path as they walked towards the building. He looked through the window. The place seemed empty until he noticed a couple of bodies at the back of the shop area. He tried the door - it was locked. Enak nudged him aside and grasped the door handle, giving it both a sharp twist and a push at the same time. A sound of splintering wood accompanied the door falling open and the handle breaking off.
Jason went over to where the two bodies lay. It looked like the woman had been shot by the man, who had then turned the shotgun on himself. Both bore the marks of the disease, and had probably made a suicide pact. Jason covered the bodies with a thin opaque plastic sheet that was tucked under the counter, not so much out of respect but so that Sitara wouldn’t have to see what was left of the man’s shattered and blood-soaked jaw. He bent down and picked up the shotgun, handing it to Enak, who seemed quite bemused by the weapon. Jason found some boxes of shotgun cartridges on a shelf.
“I know it’s probably very primitive to you, seeing as you laughed at the cars, Enak, but it’s effective. I’ll show you how to use it later.”
He went into the storeroom and found it to still be well stocked.
“Come through here. I’m amazed that there’s still food here. Come and help me put some of these boxes in the car. Concentrate on the tinned stuff.”
Sitara felt a bit uncomfortable.
“Isn’t it stealing? Looting actually?”
“Yes, it is. But it’s no good to them, and if we don’t take it, somebody else will. It’s going to get taken - it may as well be us that gets the benefit.”
Sitara knew that Jason was right – soon looting would be the norm - acceptable behaviour. She’d have to get used to it, but until that time arrived, she just wanted someone else to authorize the theft and appease her conscience. A few minutes later the car was loaded with three boxes containing tins of Heinz Alpha-Getti Pasta, and three other boxes containing Heinz British Style Baked Beans (a catch that particularly pleased Jason). It wasn’t particularly nutritious food, but it would do; beggars can’t be choosers. They did allow themselves a few luxury items too, picking up toothbrushes, toothpaste, liquid soap, more toilet paper, several more packets of Oreos and some bars of chocolate. A box of Gatorade was also among the booty. As the men loaded the car, Sitara started walking in the direction of the outlet centre. She hadn’t forgotten that she needed a change of clothes. There was nothing wrong with what she was wearing, but how could she get the scenes of her nurse’s death out of her mind if she was still wearing Suzy’s clothes? Jason followed behind her, leaving Enak to look after the car. He walked alongside her.
“You can’t just go wandering off on your own. It isn’t safe.”
Sitara found a shop that had good quality jeans, T-shirts, shirts, and even footwear. Jason kept a lookout while she popped into the fitting rooms with a large bundle of clothes in her arms. She felt a little wicked as she suddenly realized that she had never been into a shop’s changing room with more than three items before.
She emerged wearing a pair of black denim jeans, and a white cheesecloth blouse over a white T-shirt. The outfit was complemented by a rather chic pair of cowboy boots. She gave a twirl for Jason and laughed. It was the first time for a while that she had felt like laughing.
“All I need now is a cowboy hat.”
Jason helped her stuff extra pairs of jeans and shirts into one of the large customer shopping bags that hadn’t been used since the shop staff had evacuated the premises. They were just about to exit the shop, when Sitara suddenly stopped by a large wire container.
“Mustn’t forget these.”
Once she had stuffed some bras and about a dozen pairs of panties into the bag, she was ready to leave. Both were secretly relieved to see Enak still standing by the car, and were about to join him when Sitara spotted a drugstore in the corner of the lot.
“Hang on, Jason. I need to check this out.”
Jason watched for a few seconds as Sitara ran over to the drugstore and then sprinted after her. He didn’t know what she was after, but he decided that he’d better follow her. Just because the clothes shop had been safe, it didn’t mean the drugstore would be. He arrived at the door just as she was coming out of the store. A new plastic bag was stuffed to the brim with tampons and panty-liners. She grinned at Jason.
“They may not be important to you, but they’ll be a lifesaver to me and Miriam. Maybe Ruth too.”
It wasn’t long before they arrived at Mechanicsville. It looked pretty much how all towns and cities were looking nowadays; a wasteland of looted and vandalised shops, interspersed with dead bodies. It was hard to believe that such chaos had occurred in such a short time. They passed through the city without stopping, heading out until they reached Route 236 and the St. Mary’s County Amish Settlement. It was a long shot but, given the Amish lifestyle and their insular way of life, perhaps the pandemic had bypassed them.
A few Amish homes and farms were dotted along the two-lane highway, with several dead-end side roads branching off. It was as they had just passed one of these side roads that Sitara spotted a grey-roofed buggy heading down the track away from them. Jason turned around and drove slowly down the side road to follow it, so as to frighten neither buggy-driver nor horse. The man halted his vehicle and jumped down from his seat to face them.
The buggy driver was in his very early twenties, dressed in the plain practical and traditional clothing that unmistakably identified him as Amish. He was also clean shaven, signifying that he was, as yet, unmarried. He spread his arms wide, not appearing at all frightened by the trio.
“Good day, travellers. How may I help you?”
Jason got out of the car and shook hands with the young man.
“My name is Jason, and the two in the car are Sitara and Enak. We’ve just come from Bethesda. We were hoping that perhaps we could stay with your community for a few days, until we decide what to do next.”
The young man looked forlorn and then his smile returned.
“There’s not much of a community left now, just myself – I’m Samuel - my father Jacob, my mother Ruth, and my younger sister Miriam. We live on a small farmstead at the end of this lane.
Jason beckoned Sitara and Enak to get out of the car and introduce themselves, and Samuel invited the group to follow him to the farm. He parked the buggy next to a barn, and Jason did likewise with the car. The three waited outside the house while Samuel went inside to talk to his parents. A minute later, the rest of the family came outside, Samuel’s father stepping forward to shake hands with his visitors. Enak was unsure what this gesture signified but it seemed to be tradition and customary, so he just copied Jason and Sitara. Jacob rubbed his hand a little after retrieving it from Enak’s grip.
“We are the Miller family, and you are most welcom
e to our home and our hospitality. Please come in and take supper with us.”
Jason spoke for the group.
“Thank you very much Mr. Miller…”
“Please call me Jacob.”
“Thank you, Jacob. We don’t intend staying too long. Just for a few days until we decide our next move. And I can assure you that we’re not infectious. We’re all immune.”
Jason included Enak in that statement, although, of course, he couldn’t be sure that he was telling the truth. [a21]In reality, he was making a grand assumption but his gut was telling him that Enak was immune, and his gut had saved him from danger in the past. However irrational it may seem, he trusted his gut now too.
Looking through the car windows, Jacob had a final request before admitting the visitors into the house.
“If you wouldn’t mind putting your vehicle in the barn, and leaving the weapons inside it.”
The car and guns safely secreted, the group followed Samuel’s family into the Millers’ home. The house was spacious, as were most Amish homes, a necessity as the Amish often had six or more children. With just the two children, Samuel and Miriam, the Miller family was a little unusual. The interior of the house was painted white and there were no electrical sockets or telephone lines. A wooden perpetual calendar hung on one wall, alongside a banner, upon which were written the Ten Commandments. A beautiful but functional wall clock continued the theme of practical decoration. The living room furniture, rather surprisingly, was upholstered and looked quite comfortable. Sitara was even more surprised to see a refrigerator in the kitchen, believing that the Amish shunned modern conveniences. However, it had been adapted to run on propane gas (which was also the fuel used to light the house at night). A propane gas stove completed the ‘mod-cons’.
The bearded but non-moustached Jacob bade everybody sit down.
Jason had noticed many Amish dwellings nearby, but all appeared to be empty.
“If you don’t mind me asking, where is everybody else?”
Jacob sighed.
“They are with our Father. For some reason the Good Lord saw fit to spare my family and myself. We knew that the Lord must have saved you too, for if he had not, you too would have perished and joined him by now.”
Jacob’s wife, Ruth came in from the kitchen with a tray of coffee and Amish Cinnamon Bread for their guests. Although the bread took about ten days to make, Ruth always liked to have some on hand, and it was a habit that she couldn’t break free from, despite the plague having left no one else alive in the community to share it with. She couldn’t help staring at Enak, while silently chastising herself for doing so.
“Help yourselves, please. There’s plenty more in the kitchen.”
Jason took a bite of the bread.
“Mmmm. This really is delicious. Thank you, Ruth.”
He waited until he had swallowed the last of his slice, before speaking again.
“As you’ve kindly offered to let us stay for a few days, perhaps we should tell you about ourselves.”
Jason had an ulterior motive. The real reason behind Jason’s leading the conversation in this direction was that he wanted to know more about Enak, and hoped that this impromptu ‘show and tell’ would encourage him to open up more about himself.
“As you can probably tell from my accent, I’m from England. I came to the USA a few years ago to work on an engineering project, met a girl, fell in love, and got married. I lost her to the plague. I was with a group of fellow survivors - for some reason the disease appeared to have passed our little community by - but then one day I woke up and everybody else was dead. I couldn’t stay there any longer and decided to take my chances on the open road. I was attacked by some other survivors, but Enak here saved me. We found a car and headed towards your settlement, in the hope that your culture of isolation may have spared you. That’s me in a nutshell.”
Jacob disapproved of ‘found a car’ (knowing that it was a euphemism for ‘stole a car’) but times were unusual, so he gave Jason a free pass on breaking the Lord’s eighth Commandment.
Sitara explained that she was a NASA scientist, working on the Voyager Interstellar Mission, and was a Muslim. She told how she had been called to examine a fallen satellite that had been picked up by a factory trawler in the Bering Sea, and how she had been able to identify it as the Voyager One Space Probe, even though the probe was supposedly over 13 billion miles away from Earth and still in communication with NASA. Tears welled up in Sitara’s eyes.
“It’s my fault. If we [a22]hadn’t returned to shore, if the ship had sunk out there, all these people - Jason’s wife, your community, all the other people in America, the whole world, they’d all still be alive.”
Ruth went over to the distraught young woman, and put her arm around her shoulders.
“Don’t cry my dear. It’s not your fault. You weren’t to know. It’s all part of the Lord’s plan. We cannot know for what reason He allowed us to suffer this tragedy, but He has a good reason. You can be sure of that. And you don’t know that it was anything to do with this spacecraft.”
Samuel and Miriam looked at each other. They had had several conversations about the plague when their parents were not around, and didn’t entirely agree that this was all part of God’s masterplan.
Sitara took a sip of coffee to clear her throat, and dried her eyes on a handkerchief that Miriam passed her.
“But I do. It was traced back to Dutch Harbor in Alaska. The fishing vessel docked at Dutch Harbor. The crew and I, we were all patient zero.”
Jason took hold of her hand.
“But you didn’t spread the disease, Sitara[a23]. The crew? Probably, but you’re immune. It wasn’t your fault. Hang on to that thought.”
Enak knew that they would expect him to tell them all about himself. He wanted to tell them the truth, but could they handle it? He decided to start telling his story and see how it went. They had to know sometime. It may as well be now.
“My name is Enak. You may notice that my features - in fact my body - are different to yours. I am shorter, but markedly stronger. There is a reason for this, but I do not know if you are ready to hear it yet.”
The others were intrigued. Enak certainly did look different. To be honest, he looked a bit like a well-groomed caveman.
“Many years ago - about forty thousand years ago - there were two species of human on this planet, your species and mine. We had been put here as part of an experiment, by a far more advanced and superior race of beings, known as the Jah. We co-existed on this planet for a while, but then we Argons, or what you apparently call Neanderthals, were removed and resettled on a different planet, far from your solar system. We continued to evolve and develop until we became what you see before you.”
The reactions of those in the room were varied. Jason had heard part of the story before. Well, except the experiment and advanced super-being part. Samuel and Miriam had always wondered about life on other planets (although they had kept it to themselves), while their parents were trying to reconcile this information with their religious beliefs. Sitara immediately switched to scientist mode.
“So you’re really an alien?”
“Not really. This planet is my home planet, as it is yours.”
“But you’re from outer space[a24]?”
Sitara couldn’t help but ask questions, it was her nature. It wasn’t every day you met an extra-terrestrial being. Ruth, on the other hand, suspected that Enak was a product of the work of the Devil.
Her husband, however, took it as a sign from God.
“Praise be the Lord, for He is almighty and has shown us His miracle of life.”
Enak found the whole scenario amusing.
“What you call God was actually an alien race, with technology even more advanced than ours.”
Samuel was fascinated by the revelations, even though it went completely against what he had been taught by his family and the community.
“It could explain the miracles in
the Bible, father.”
Ruth was having none of it.
“He’s a demon, or at the very least possessed by the Devil. He’s the Devil incarnate. May the Lord deliver us from this evil spirit.”
The children were expecting their father to join their mother in proclaiming Enak a demon, but were surprised at his response.
“Ruth, please calm down. Our guest is neither demon nor Devil. His explanation makes sense. The Lord has many children and Enak is simply one of his other children. If he were the Devil, do you think we would still be alive now? God made everything and everyone in the Universe, including these Neanderthal fellas. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but his works always have a reason and that reason must be good. Looks to me like he sent Enak here to help us.”
It wasn’t exactly the response that Enak was expecting, but it seemed to be a positive step. He stopped his story there, saying that he needed to sleep, hoping that Jason wouldn’t realise that sleeping was merely a diversionary tactic when talking some more could become awkward. He was certain that they weren’t ready for the rest of his story. Not yet, anyway. He would tell them everything when he was left with no other choice. He was glad that nobody had asked him how he had come to be on planet Earth, as they wouldn’t like the answer. In fact, they would be horrified, quite rightly so, and probably want to kill him.
Ruth calmed down and succumbed to the wise words of her husband. She wasn’t completely sure that he was right, but she trusted his judgement. After an afternoon of more relaxed conversation, with Enak all the time pretending to be asleep, Ruth entered the room with the evening meal – Nachtesse – a product of a busy day of cooking and baking. Before eating, the four Amish lowered their heads and closed their eyes, entering into silent prayer. Sitara took the opportunity to offer her own silent prayer to Allah, apologising in advance for straying from the Ramadan rituals, which she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to keep to. She would try to fit in a prayer when she woke up, but hoped that Allah would understand the unusual circumstances that she found herself in and would forgive her failings. Jason closed his eyes out of respect but, being an atheist, didn’t pray. Instead he used the time to think about the little group’s next move. Enak just looked around him, thinking how primitive it was to ask favours and offer gratitude to the Jah, who had obviously been negligent in the care of their charges.