The Emerald Virus

by Patrick Shea

  “I told him he was more than welcome, and that we both had horses with us as well. I could tell by his reaction to the news about the horses that he wasn’t quite as gruff as he sounded. He could be here as early as tomorrow night, or it might be Tuesday sometime. Or, if a big snow comes along he might not make it at all.”

  “Are you sure you’ll be okay with this guy? I’m not trying to offend you, I’m just asking.”

  Sam laughed and said, “I’m as sure as I need to be. Noah’s been a cowboy all his life and he’s always worked with other cowboys. A lot of them move around from season to season or year to year. So even though Noah’s been in the same place for years, through transient cowboys he knew about the Blue Wolf Ranch and he knew my Dad by reputation. That fact made us both feel better about each other. I think we’ll be just fine. I’m sure we’ll take some precautions just to be safe but I’m not worried.”

  “Okay Samantha. I’ll take your word for that. I’ll let you go now since we both have things to do this evening. Send me a note when you get settled in at the lodge please, just so I have one less thing to worry about.”

  As Sam was having the conversation with Jack, Ben had joined her in the RV and listened to the last part of the conversation. She had told him about everything on the CB radio, so the only surprise was that Sam was staring out the windshield and holding back a tear. Ben asked what was wrong.

  Sam looked at him and brushed the tear away and said, “Jack called me Samantha. I haven’t allowed anyone but my father to do that in twenty years. Since I was old enough to kick the offender, and I fought boys and girls both for using that name all the way through grade school. It’s funny, but I didn’t mind Jack calling me Samantha. Probably because he doesn’t know any better.”

  Ben smiled and said, “I’m glad you mentioned that fighting thing. I didn’t know better either but you can now be sure you won’t hear that coming from me.”

  Sam laughed and the two of them went to find a smaller vehicle they could drive in the search for the snow removal equipment.

  Jack looked at Jane and Heather and said, “As you heard, Sam is going to take care of the northwest. Let’s decide how much of the list she should have. I would think everyone in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, maybe Utah, and Washington and Oregon. What do you think, how many would that give her?”

  Jane checked the spreadsheet and said “One hundred and forty five total registered from those states with another 22 in Utah.”

  “Okay, of those let’s take a look at destinations and see how many are planning on staying in the northwest for the winter, versus those who are driving south. Let’s eliminate Utah for now.”

  Jane and Heather started working the spreadsheet and Jack used the time to call Charlotte White, the lady Sam had recommended to him. He knew it was a little late but he didn’t want to waste time this evening. When he looked up the number on his spreadsheet he found the notation that said he had spoken with her briefly. He remembered the call, and that Charlotte hadn’t been willing to talk. From what Sam said, she must be better now.

  He dialed her number and when she answered he said, “Hi Charlotte, this is Jack Sweeney calling you back. When we spoke the last time I was driving to Baltimore. I’m now with two survivors in the middle of Virginia. Do you have a minute to talk or would you prefer I call you tomorrow?”

  “Hi Jack. I have plenty of time now, and I’m doing better than I was two days ago so let’s talk now.”

  “Good. I want to start by letting you know that I am not a survivor. I left the bunker because the seals were going to fail and I wanted to help a friend who is a survivor. I would appreciate it if you would treat me like everyone else since neither of us can control what’ll happen to me. I’m not worried about it and I don’t want you to be. Why don’t you start by catching me up on your whereabouts?”

  “I’d be glad to. I’m in a Tennessee State Park, named Standing Stone State Park, its west of Timothy and south of the Dale Hollow Dam and Reservoir.

  “I’m here because my family and I vacationed in this area so I know it a little bit, and because I’m taking your advice to find a remote area in the Tennessee River Valley because of the electrical power potential. I’m with a small group of others. There were four of us when we left Chattanooga, but as of this evening we now have ten survivors.

  “My husband James and my two boys spent hour after hour going over maps with me and we decided this was the best possible place. It seems I’ve talked quite a few others into thinking the same way.”

  “I talked with Sam Klein earlier this evening and she said that I would enjoy talking with you, and she’s right of course. I asked her a favor and I’d like to ask you the same thing if you don’t mind.”

  “I had a very nice conversation with Sam earlier today. I was surprised she was a Samantha but I enjoyed meeting her. We were able to share some stories, and we compared thoughts on where to go. She was going to try to make it to Yellowstone but she didn’t sound too optimistic. I hope she finds a good place for the winter.”

  “When I last spoke with her she was at the entrance to the park and things looked good for her. I’m sure she’ll make it to the hot springs area. She seems quite capable.”

  “She struck me that way as well. What favor did you call to ask of me?”

  “Charlotte, I’m wondering if you would mind helping me with the survivors. My greatest fear is that someone ends up alone and scared for the winter. I’m trying to contact each survivor but there are too many for me. Would you be willing to share that task with me? It will entail making phone calls to the list I’ll email you, and making suggestions on where each survivor should go. I would hope that you offer to guide them to your group or somewhere reasonably close by.”

  “I would be happy to help you. Believe me it is no burden, I need something to help me stay busy. You said you would email me a list of people?”

  “Yes, I and my two team mates will sort through the database for those in your region, or who have shown your region as a destination, and I’ll send that via email. Are you up on email and comfortable with using it?”

  “Of course, you can’t help run a business without automation skills. Sort the spreadsheet and send it if you want, I did the books for our business for years and I’m familiar with most spreadsheets.”

  “I’ll do that. And I want you to know I appreciate your help. While some might chose to be alone at a time like this, most won’t. These calls should help those who haven’t yet made contact with anyone else. It will take a while to get the spreadsheet sorted so please don’t look for it until morning. My cell number is on it so you can call with any question you have, any time you feel the need. By the way the two people I’m with are Jane Silverton and Heather Sharp. They’re helping me so you can call either of them if my line is tied up.”

  “Okay, thanks Jack. You know, Silverton is a very unusual name why does that sound familiar to me?”

  “I probably mentioned Harry Silverton in one of my earlier messages or press conferences. Harry was the scientist in Edinburgh, Scotland who first raised the Emerald Virus issue. He was on my staff working temporarily in Edinburgh. When he died I promised Harry I’d do my best to look after Jane, his wife. When I realized the seals were going to fail in my bunker it was an easy call to drive to Baltimore to help Jane.

  “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “Jack, I wish there was but I can’t think of anything but my family right now. We were a farming family and my husband James brought a back hoe to the house and dug a family grave in the backyard. My son Jamal was the last to die and he helped me move the family into the grave. I was able to take care of Jamal myself. And of course I’ve always known how to work a back hoe so I could give my family a proper burial.

  “That was the only thing important to me and I haven’t moved beyond that yet.” Charlotte was crying by now and Jack asked her questions about her husband and her children. He found he didn’
t mind helping people with their grief. They needed to talk, and he found it easy to listen.

  When he felt Charlotte was talked out for now he said, “I’ll let you go now, Charlotte. I’m glad we had an opportunity to talk, and I appreciate your offer to help me. You know you can call me anytime.”

  Charlotte said goodbye to Jack and sat back in her chair. Jack may have thought leaving the bunker early was a simple decision, but most people would not have traded additional time to live because of a promise to a dying friend. She was more impressed with Jack now than before. He had the same kind of values that her James’ had passed on to her boys, and she was sad that he wasn’t going to make it.

  Jack told Jane and Heather about the call and they smiled at the thought of putting together another list of people. They asked and Jack told them to start by looking at survivors from north Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, plus anyone who had shown Tennessee as their destination.

  After his next call Jane said, “As close as we can tell that would give Charlotte about two hundred people to deal with.”

  “Okay, that’s too many for one person but I think we should send her the list and ask if in her opinion any others in the group would be capable of contacting others. If so I’ll leave it to her, but I’ll tell her if she can’t recommend anyone I’ll find someone else to help her.”

  “Let’s continue the calls in the morning. Jane if you would email those two lists to Sam and Charlotte I think we’ll call it a night. I really don’t want to call anyone else this late.”

  “Jane, if you’ll cook dinner Heather and I will volunteer to clean up, and do almost anything else you want us to.”

  Jane laughed and said, “Jack, my guess is your cooking skills might be dangerous for us so I’ll be happy to cook. I’ll spend the time thinking about what else I can get out of you in return.”

  The three of them had what amounted to an almost pleasant dinner, and went to bed early.

  In the morning they continued calling people and sorting lists and by noon they thought they had a pretty good handle on who would cover the various regions. Jack had talked to Andy again. He remembered that Andy was a recent engineering graduate and sounded very organized. Andy agreed to take care of the southwest since he was heading west from New Orleans. He was planning on wintering somewhere west of Phoenix.

  He also found a number of people from Texas who were not planning on going far from home, and who would contact the two hundred and fifty or so people either in Texas or heading to Texas.

  All in all he had a created a team of eighteen people who were willing to contact others. So he only had to follow up with these eighteen to make sure all survivors were contacted. He told each of them he would try to call once a day for the next couple of days. He also asked them to keep updating the spreadsheets he had sent them, and to return them with the new annotations every evening. He felt confident this was going to work well.

  Jack called Dave Schultz next. He let him know about the contacts he had made and suggested Dave, Jean and Scott join Charlotte and her group at Standing Stone Lake. Dave immediately agreed, saying they were going to end up in the Tennessee River Valley anyway and Standing Lake sounded good to him. He also said he had now been joined by seven other RVs, and he was sure as they continued to call others they would have more. Jack left Dave with Charlotte’s number, and then called Charlotte.

  Her phone was busy but she called back shortly. Jack told her about Dave and Charlotte said she had been on the phone with him. She was excited he was coming and there was ample room for other RVs. This was a true recreation center and there were RV parks everywhere. They wouldn’t have any trouble finding enough places for whoever wanted to come.

  Lastly she mentioned that Dave was a building contractor who specialized in residential building. While she didn’t think they would be building any houses in the near future, she thought his skills would be invaluable. He was also going to help her with the contacts.

  Chapter Twenty Four: The Blizzard of 14

  Monday: From Pine Ridge to Yellowstone

  Noah had been on the road all day and was starting to worry about the weather. The farther west he drove the more threatening the sky became. He had decided early in the day to take Sam’s advice and use the west entrance to the park, even though it meant adding a couple of hours to the drive. With any snow on the ground the mountain passes he would face by using the east or north entrances would be impossible. He had no interest at all in navigating those narrow roads without being able to see surface pavement.

  By the time he reached Bozeman he left the Interstate and followed highway 191 to 84 to 287 and went south through Ennis, Montana, a town he really liked. He had stayed and fished here with a friend years ago and still had good memories of the town. At Ennis it started snowing and within ten minutes it was snowing heavily.

  He called Sam to tell her about the snow and to check on conditions in the park. She said it had been snowing in the park for about an hour. She promised to keep the road in the park clear by using the snow plow she and Ben had already used once.

  She asked him what route he was taking and he told her he had just left Ennis and would follow 287 north of Hebgen Lake and then south to West Yellowstone. It was a road he had traveled before and he thought it would be the least risky route. Sam agreed with him and told him she would meet him at the park. She also told him she had overestimated the distance form West Yellowstone to the main lodge. She originally thought it would be about twenty five miles but it turned out to be only about fifteen miles or so.

  He told Sam if things went okay he should be in West Yellowstone in maybe an hour or a little more.

  Fifteen minutes later he realized how wrong he was. He stopped and spent thirty minutes fighting with the rear chains. He finally got them on and called Sam to let her know. But, there was no cell service available on this stretch of road so he reminded himself to try every ten minutes or so. It was getting close to dusk now and he was down to about fifteen miles an hour.

  The wipers were working on high and could hardly stay up with the task of keeping the front windshield clear. Noah finally had to stop and get a broom out of one of the closets to sweep the entire windshield, as well as the headlights. He knew he would have to do this over and over but he wanted good vision. He knew if he went off the road he would be in serious trouble.

  He had no idea how long it would snow. It was really weird not having access to weather forecasts. By the looks of it though, it was going to go on for some time. Noah knew that his life depended on staying on the road. He could stop whenever he wanted, and ride out the storm right where he was. He might not be able to move after the storm, depending on how deep the snow was, but he wouldn’t risk driving off the road into a ditch or gully and risk having the RV land on its side. That would probably be the end for both him and his horses.

  Noah tried Sam again and still could not get through. He decided he would continue to drive at ten to fifteen miles an hour as long as he was sure he could see the road. He was directly in the middle of the indentation in the snow that showed where the roadbed was hidden. His biggest concern right now was missing the ‘T’ intersection where he would have to turn right towards West Yellowstone.

  He knew if the sky was clear he would see mountains on either side of the road, and would enjoy the rugged view of Hebgen Lake as he got closer to the park. More importantly he knew he would have no passes to deal with, which was the reason he had decided to come this way. He also knew that running off the road near the lake could be a true disaster. In that water he would freeze to death in a matter of minutes.

  Two hours later he was at the ‘T’ intersection he had been afraid to miss. He felt lucky he had seen the intersection in time, or rather had seen the snow covered stop sign sticking up. He made the right turn being thankful the lake was now behind him, and realized that if he remembered right he only had about five miles to go to West Yellowstone.

  The snow was d
eep enough now that he was worried it would soon reach above the front bumper, which meant he would have to stop.

  He tried to call Sam again, but again, nothing.

  Within a mile the RV slowed down and nothing he did could get it moving again. He got out, confirming his worst fears. The snow was now too deep for him to continue and the front grill was acting as a plow. Well, he had given it his best shot but there was now nothing to do but conserve heat and prepare to sit out the storm. He knew if he thought too much about it he would start to worry about having to sit out the entire winter right here.

  He pulled all of the curtains in the RV, including the cover over the front windshield. Once it stopped snowing it was likely to get cold, really cold, so he wanted to button up the RV as much as possible.

  He then went back to the horses and made sure the on board heater was working and that the horses had enough feed and water available to them. They both seemed relieved to see him and he spent about thirty minutes soothing them and ensuring them that he was not going to leave them alone. He thought he might be able to ride Palouse into West Yellowstone after the storm, although he didn’t know what good that would do. By now Sam and Ben must have given up on him, and if they had any sense at all they would be safely ensconced in the big lodge.

  Noah entered the RV, cooked dinner and ate while he listened to one of his favorite CDs, New Moon Shine, by James Taylor. Noah then settled into the armchair to read for an hour or two before he went to bed.

  About a half hour later something started pounding on, and then jerked the door open. He was coming out of his seat and reaching for the gun on the table when he heard Ben say, “Noah, what in the heck are you doing, as he closed the door behind him.

  Noah said, “Are you Ben?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been trying to reach you for hours. What in the blazes are you doing? Why isn’t your CB radio on?”