The Emerald Virus

by Patrick Shea

  Jane settled back in her seat and said, “Okay, that’s good. I wouldn’t want you to be alone at the end. Since you have a friend to go to then I agree with your plan. I hope we find a good group of people because I never have been too good at making new friends.

  “I think I’m going to make us dinner if that’s alright with you. It’s starting to get dark already and I haven’t eaten yet today. In fact I don’t remember the last time I ate anything.”

  “That’s great, I’m hungry also. While you’re doing that I’m going to plug in your laptop and start doing some searching for us. I’ll also call some other survivors. Some people are doing what we asked and are posting notes on our chat page when they start their journeys, and I’ve been trying to call as many as I could. I’ll post a note from you saying you’ve started but you don’t know where you’re going yet.”

  Jack was surprised at how many more people had now posted notes. It seems that most were doing what his team had recommended, which was to start the trip after their last loved one had died. Not many people had a destination in mind other than a compass direction, but most importantly, they had started.

  There were a handful of notes from survivors who said they were now living in their RVs, but had not started driving yet. Jack started by calling these people, hoping he could talk them in to moving on. Only one such person answered the phone and he assured Jack that he was planning on starting tomorrow. Jack promised to check on him again.

  Two or three notes were posted by people who couldn’t write, were too distraught to write, didn’t know English or had been drinking heavily. The notes were incoherent.

  Jack was impressed that few of the notes contained profanities. Some of the notes were by embittered authors, but Jack wasn’t surprised by that. He was more surprised by how few of those there were.

  Jack talked briefly to Andy in New Orleans, who was headed west, to Maria in Wichita who didn’t know where to go but was going to start by going to Oklahoma, to Ralph from Chicago who was going to Florida, and then to Ray, who had joined up with Susan and Jan and all three were in northern Ohio heading south.

  Few of the survivors had firm plans, but most of them had intermediate destinations. It seemed that most were looking for other survivors to spend the winter with.

  Jack posted a note from Jane, saying she was in central Virginia, heading to Tennessee and interested in joining a group or survivors. He then turned on her email hoping someone would respond during the evening. It was now after dark and he hoped most drivers were parked for the evening. After his experience last night he knew how hazardous driving on the Interstates could be.

  Jack now realized that he couldn’t possibly keep up with the volume of notes that had been posted, at least not by telephone. Instead, he started sending group emails from his own address to those who had posted notes. He started sending emails to groups ten at a time, and realized that even that was going to prove to be impossible to keep up with.

  Instead he went back to the chat room, logged on as Jack Sweeney, and sent a note to the entire group telling them that while he would like to talk to each one independently, there were just too many survivors now on the roads. He added words of encouragement, told everyone that they were welcome to email him if they chose to, but he that would prefer they continued to post notes in the survivor chat room.

  Jack was confident by now that if anyone had questions or needed help, someone in the group would be able to provide it.

  He told Jane that he had posted the note from her, had corresponded with as many survivors as he could, and what conclusions he had drawn due to the volume.

  She asked, “How many do you think there will ultimately be?”

  “Well, our last estimate worldwide was between sixty and seventy thousand survivors. I’m guessing that maybe three thousand will live in the U.S., about three hundred in Canada and another one thousand or so from Mexico. Anyone else will be out of range in terms of anything but electronic communication. The residents of Mexico are probably better off where they are due to the weather and the amount of arable land in Mexico suitable for year round farming. Most Canadians are probably going to be better off migrating to the southern U.S.”

  Jack continued, “By the way, I thought the survivor RVs were going to be stocked with weapons. Do you have any on board?”

  “Yes, they showed them to me and I put them in the back closet. I never have liked guns at all.”

  “I understand that, but you live in a new world now, one that isn’t as safe as our old one. I think you need to be ready to use a weapon if the need arises. Once you get settled into a town or village with other survivors it may be safer, but you can’t count on that now.”

  “I know, they told me that when they showed me the weapons, but I just hate the thought of everyone needing to carry guns. It will be like the wild west all over again.” Jane saw the look on Jack’s face and said, “Alright, I’ll get the guns out.”

  Jack followed her and saw that the guns had been put in a back closet and that the ammunition had been stored in boxes on the floor. He handed Jane the 9mm handgun and the shotgun, took two boxes of ammunition for each and went to the living, or middle section of the RV.

  The 9mm came with a nylon shoulder holster and Jack showed Jane how to put it on and adjust it. He asked, “Have you ever fired a weapon?”

  “Yes, Harry took me to a shooting range two or three times to make sure I knew how to shoot. He had a small pistol, a .38 caliber I think, that he put the bullets in one at a time. “

  “That’s called a revolver or more formally a pistol. What you have is formally known as an auto pistol or more commonly, a semi-automatic handgun. That simply means that the gun fires every time you pull the trigger, without having to do anything else. Typically with a revolver you have to pull the hammer back first and then pull the trigger. This 9mm also holds more rounds, or bullets, than does a revolver so you don’t have to reload as often.”

  Jane laughed and said, “Jack, that’s more information than I ever wanted to know about guns, but thank you.”

  Jack looked chagrined and said, “Okay, you’re right. Here let me show you how to operate this one. This button ejects the clip, which holds the bullets. For this model a clip holds ten bullets. When you push it back into the grip, or handle, you have to make sure it goes all the way in. Slam it in hard and you’ll hear the click when it seats properly. Then you pull back the top front of the gun, this is called the slide, when you let it go it takes a bullet from the clip and puts it in the firing chamber. At the same time it cocks the gun so it’s ready to fire. Lastly, make sure the safety switch is in firing position. The switch is here and when it’s set to fire you see the red color on the switch, when it’s on safety you don’t see the red.

  “Now, take a few minutes and load the gun by putting the clip in it. Then move the slide back over and over until it’s empty. I’ll catch the bullets that come out of the side of the gun so don’t worry about them.”

  Jane did so until the slide stayed in the rearward position, and said, “Is something wrong, the slide didn’t go forward?”

  “No, that’s exactly what it is supposed to do. When the last bullet is fired, or in this case ejected, the slide stays back so you can eject the empty clip and put a full one in the gun. After you do so you push this switch down and the slide releases forward and puts another bullet in the firing chamber. Go ahead and take one of the full clips and load the gun again.”

  Jane did so and jumped when the slide slammed forward. “Wow that goes fast.”

  “Yes it does, it’s much easier and much faster to load than a revolver. Now take these bullets from the first clip and put them back in the clip.”

  As Jane put the last bullets in the clip she said, “These last ones are really hard to get in.”

  “I know, that’s a powerful spring in the clip. That’s what feeds the bullets upward when the slide retracts. It has to be powerful to get the bullets up fast
enough. It’s always going to be tough for you to get the last couple of bullets in the clip. If it’s too hard or if you are in a hurry to reload the clip, you can always stop with eight bullets. It just means you will need to reload sooner the next time. I wouldn’t worry about that though. You have three full clips here and I can’t imagine you ever being in a firefight that would take more ammo than that.”

  “What’s a firefight?”

  “That’s the name that’s used to describe a gun battle. Don’t ask”

  “Okay, I don’t care where the name comes from.”

  “In the morning we’ll take the gun out and shoot a little bit. Then I’ll show you how to clean the gun and we’ll practice reloading again. After that it will just be a matter of you getting in the habit of putting on the shoulder holster every time you leave the RV. I’ll also show you how to shoot, load and clean the shotgun. That’s the weapon that may do you the most good in the long run. There is also a hunting rifle in the back, but I think we’ll save that for later. The handgun and the shotgun are primarily self-defense weapons and I want you to be familiar with them.”

  “Okay, if you think I have to do that I will. But I still don’t like these things. They scare me to death.”

  “I know, most people who handle guns have a healthy respect or fear for them. You don’t ever want to lose that. The basic purpose for any gun is to kill something. They are used for other things, like sport shooting, but a gun is a tool originally intended to kill, you can’t ever forget that.”

  “Believe me, I won’t. Do you really think I’ll ever have to shoot one of these?”

  “I have no way of knowing. But I do know that if you ever do have the need, you’re much better off being prepared. The noise and the kick from these things scare most people the first time they shoot. Practicing makes sure that you won’t be surprised.

  “The other part of defending yourself is the mental part. You have to talk to yourself about what you would do if you thought you had to shoot someone. You have to make the decision and pull the trigger. Just like that. I believe that any initial hesitation is harmful. If you need to shoot, pull the trigger. There will be plenty of time to worry about it later.”

  “Jack, how do you know so much about this stuff?”

  “I was recruited out of college by the Government to do field work. Some of this I learned the hard way.”

  “I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough for now. Let’s eat dinner.”

  After dinner the two of them went for a long walk, but stayed on the road to be safe, Jack didn’t want to chance getting lost in the woods this first night. The walk was eerie. There was absolutely no man made noise at all. No traffic noise, no airplane noise, just nothing. He had rarely experienced anything like this, and never while in the U.S. This would take some getting used to.

  On the positive side, he would be able to hear another vehicle from a long distance away.

  While they walked they talked about the future and Jack tried to make Jane optimistic about what she was going to go through, even though he knew intuitively that it was going to be a hard life.

  Jane remained unconvinced but tried for Jack’s sake to think positively. Her biggest concern was in thinking about the kind of people she was going to be with. She was going to be thrown in with a group of strangers. And she knew herself well enough to know that she wouldn’t leave a group of people and set out on her own unless there were extreme circumstances.

  Jack tried to convince her that she was going to meet people like herself. The others would be just as scared and just as concerned with how they were going to get along with the group. The more Jack talked the better Jane felt about it. She was becoming convinced that Jack was probably right, most people were normal people with the same aspirations and desires, and they wouldn’t be much different from her. She just didn’t want anyone who was domineering in the group. She had known too many control freaks in her life and she didn’t want to be pushed around by one as she entered this unknown world.

  Especially since no one was going to know any more than anyone else. They were all going to have to learn as they went along.

  When they returned to the RV Jack insisted that Jane sleep in the bedroom and he would use the fold down sleeper in the living section of the RV. Jane helped him make up the bed and they said good night. It had been one long day and they were both exhausted.

  Sunday morning Jane volunteered to make breakfast while Jack checked email. He found a couple of people along the eastern seaboard who were interested in joining up with Jane. He checked the database to find out where they had come from and when they had started. They both seemed like reasonable people, although he knew at this point that everyone would seem that way in the beginning.

  One was a sixteen year old female named Heather Sharp who was starting her journey this morning. She had answered the email last night and said she was in northern New Jersey and would be driving south on I-95 in the morning. That put her less than a day behind Jack and Jane. He thought that would work okay since he was planning on spending part of today showing Jane how to shoot and part of the day on email and in the chat room.

  Since they were not going to make much progress anyway they could just as easily stay here for the day and Heather could join them this evening.

  Jack called Heather and found that he liked her. She was scared to death, she was upset, she was grieving and she didn’t know where she was going. But even with all of that she was convinced that she could do what she needed to do. She was also very honest about all of her fears. She explained to Jack that she had only recently learned to drive and that driving the RV had really scared her, but she had gone by herself to pick it up and had then driven it back home where she had stayed the last couple of days while her family ended their journey through life.

  She was now on the road and had found that the driving wasn’t really that hard. She was the only vehicle on the move, unlike when she had gone to pick up the RV. She was driving slowly she said, maybe fifty MPH, and found that she had to steer around other cars sometimes, but all in all it wasn’t bad.

  She wasn’t sure how she was going to get gas when she needed it, although the people that gave her the RV had showed her how to do it. She could put the gas in; she just wasn’t sure what to do if the gas stations weren’t open.

  Jack told her she didn’t have to worry about that. If her tanks were full when she left this morning she would be able to drive to him without refueling, and then they could all worry about it together. This by itself seemed to help her immensely.

  Jack told her he would call her around noon, but all she needed to do was drive south on I-95 and look for the signs to I-64 west. She would find I-64 West in Richmond, Virginia, about six hours from where she started. She would then take I-64 West for maybe two hours, to exit 107. Jack promised her he would meet her on I-64 just before the exit so she would only have to worry about changing highways one time during the entire trip. Jack knew this wasn’t the faster route, but it would be the surest route for Heather. He also told her to call him anytime she wasn’t sure of a turn or a ramp, especially in the cities.

  The second person who had answered the email about Jane turned out to be a middle aged man name David Schultz. He was in Dayton, Ohio and was caravanning with two other RVs he had met up with. His email response told Jane he was heading southeast today and that she should call him if she wanted to join him and the other two folks. One was a retired school teacher named Jean, and the other a young mechanic named Scott.

  Jack called and found him to be a pleasant individual who had lost the last of his family five days ago. Consequently he had had more time to grieve than most, and had spent most of the time planning his next steps. He was more than willing to meet up with Jane and Heather, and after talking he and Jack thought they could meet up the day after tomorrow about eight hours west of Jack’s current location. They agreed to stay in touch via telephone.

  Jack told Jan
e about his conversation and she seemed relieved that she was going to be part of a group that Jack would approve of. Jack knew this was a result of the current circumstances. Jane had always been a very confident woman who could be assertive when she needed to be. Jack knew in a short time she would revert to her natural self and would rely less on him. In the meantime he was happy to make the decisions.

  Jack continued to watch the chat room and his email. He noticed that Sam Klein and Ben Mason had teamed up and had started their trip this morning. They were going from north central Montana to Yellowstone. Jack had been to Yellowstone and knew it was in the high Rockies, which seemed to be a strange destination with winter just around the corner, so he called Sam.

  He was surprised that Sam was actually a Samantha. She told Jack that Ben was a sixteen year old whom she had met a week ago and that they had decided on Yellowstone because it was already too late in the year to get through the Mountains to the coast, especially with no snow removal equipment working. They were going to try to enter the park through the west entrance and use the snow removal equipment in West Yellowstone, Montana to clear the road to the hot springs area of the park, where they would winter. Failing that they had a couple back up locations in Montana where they would stay.

  Jack thought the explanation made a lot of sense. He asked, “Sam, have you talked to any other survivors from you region who would also need to winter east of the mountains?’

  “No I haven’t, and I’ve been checking the chat room regularly. But it seems as if the virus took a couple of days longer to get here than to most other areas of the country.”

  “How concerned are you that your group has a female and a kid. You could hook up with the wrong types and be in trouble.”

  Jack heard Sam snort and say, “Obviously you don’t know either of us or you wouldn’t have asked the question. Don’t worry about the two of us, we can pull our own weight, and Ben isn’t a kid any longer. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”

  Jack said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, I’m just trying to make sure all of our survivors are in good hands.”