The Emerald Virus

by Patrick Shea

“Thanks, I’ll take that as good advice and keep my eyes open. By the way, when you have a minute when we can talk quietly I’d like to discuss the park with you. I just left there and I’d like to share some things with you.”

  I was wondering where you’ve been. I’d be pleased to talk with you. Why don’t you finish your beer and put your lady up somewhere and come to my RV. It’s the one right outside the front door.”

  Danny joined Shelly and drank a sip or two of beer. When he saw Bob Turner leave the bar, he and Shelly walked to Danny’s RV.

  Once inside he said, “Shelly, you were perfect. Are you alright? Did you get hurt at all?”

  “I’m fine, I had the easier time of it, and my guy was out of shape and really slow. How about you?”

  “Everything is fine with me. I know I’ve really pissed off Dick, but I did everything I could not to hurt him badly. I didn’t want to do that just to make a point. I noticed Shorty pulled both a gun and a knife. For the record he deserved to have his arm broken, I’d have done the same thing. And that thing at the end with the knife, that surprised me.”

  She smiled and said, “Well I have to admit that there was a little luck involved. I was aiming for the middle of the torso and threw low. I haven’t had much time to practice lately.”

  Danny laughed and said, “That was a nice miss, but I’m not sure I’d call missing a target twenty feet away by four inches a miss.

  “But, back to business, I think you should stay here while I meet with Turner the first time, but after this you’ll be with me all of the time. I’ll be back as quickly as I can. Remember to stay away from the windows and to be safe maybe sit on the floor while I’m gone, just in case someone wants to shoot up the RV.”

  A minute later he knocked on Turner’s door and entered when he yelled. Danny sat on the sofa and looked around. As near as he could tell the two of them were alone.

  Chapter Thirty Five: The Show Me State

  Saturday morning

  Jack, Heather and Tammy had arrived home Tuesday evening and had spent three days resting up, and planning the next trip. Jack was now convinced that Heather would be a help rather than a hindrance.

  She was convinced that she’d rather be on the road with Jack than at their winter camp. She didn’t know why she didn’t mind the thought of being in danger, but she didn’t. She also knew she would be scared to death if she had to go through another gun fight, but she still insisted on accompanying Jack.

  Charlotte and Jane thought they were both crazy, but they understood it was a good crazy. They had been taking care of Tammy since she had joined their group and both ladies knew there might be more women like Tammy in need of help.

  They understood that Jack felt compelled to try to help anyone who might be living in those circumstances. However, they had no understanding of why Heather, a sixteen year old girl, wanted to be involved in something as dangerous as this.

  Jack didn’t either, but he thought he had a little insight into what motivated Heather. He explained to Jane and Charlotte, “I think it started with the fact that her parents insisted that she drive herself to get her RV, I think her parents did her a great service by forcing her to understand that she was on her own now and would have to learn to fend for herself.

  “She gained a little confidence when Karl Schumann tried to run her off the road with his RV. She reacted automatically, but she made the right moves and that might have saved her life.

  “She then listened to Karl Schumann tell her she was going with him and understood what he intended to do with her. While she didn’t do anything but watch as Jane shot him, she learned how important fast and decisive action would be in the new world. And Jane, you showed her that you don’t have to be big, or strong, or a man to take care of yourself.

  “Lastly, since she has been in this group she has focused all of her energy on preparing herself for the day when she would need to show strength of will and physical courage. She mentally prepared herself while she was learning to shoot and lifting weights to improve her physical abilities. All of that resulted in a growing confidence.

  “Everything she accomplished on our trip was a reaction to circumstances. She didn’t have to plan anything out or work up the courage to do anything. She just had to react. She found that her reactions were good and her instincts were better.

  “While she isn’t a soldier by any stretch of the imagination, she is more confident than any sixteen year old I’ve met, and she understands she is capable of maintaining her poise during periods of great danger. That’s a lot to know for a young girl, and now she wants to keep learning.

  “I don’t think this trip is going to amount to anything so I think we’ll be safe, and I’ll still do everything I can to keep her out of harms way. But if push comes to shove, I believe I can trust her to react in our best interest.”

  Jane said, “I can’t tell you I’m overly pleased with you turning that young girl into something she’s not, but I don’t claim to know what skills we’ll need in the future. And, you need help, and Charlotte and I are still tied to the camp.”

  Charlotte added, “Jack, I think you’re making the best decision you can, but I’ve come to like that young lady and I’d like to help her finish growing up. Both Jane and I can take care of helping her in areas in which you can’t. But you have to bring her back safe and sound in order for us to do that.”

  Jack smiled and said, “I know that, and I have every intention of doing just that. I never intended to risk her life, and I’ll do all I can to not do it again.”

  Jane asked, “When are you leaving?”

  “She should be here any minute now, and then as soon as we have breakfast we’ll get on the road.”

  “Do you know where you’re going this time?”

  “I do. You know I’ve been perplexed by that note posted in our chat room that says, ‘God help me’. Well I’ve traced the IP address to a building in Columbia, Missouri. I’m going to go there and find out what’s going on. The note was posted four days ago so I know it’s from a survivor, what I don’t know is what kind of help the person needs.”

  As Jack finished talking, Heather bounced in saying, “Sorry I’m late, the dryer took forever and I wanted to take my favorite jeans with me, and of course I couldn’t do anything with my hair this morning, and it took forever to dry.”

  Jack looked at her long blonde hair and said, “Heather, your hair looks just like it always does. Don’t worry about it.”

  Heather glared at him and said, “Are all men like this or is he just totally inept about women?”

  Charlotte laughed and said, “Honey, the sad part is that he might actually be one of the better ones. All we can do is feel sorry for him.”

  The three of them laughed while Jack sat and wondered why they were laughing at him this time.

  After breakfast Jack looked at Heather and said, “Alright Ace, let’s mount up and get the beast on the road.”

  She looked bright and cheery and said, “Let’s roll boss, I’m driving.”

  Jack moaned and Heather laughed but she got behind the steering wheel and drove out of the camp. She said, “Okay, navigate me out of here. I’m getting better, but navigating is still not my strong suit.

  “I know, it’s a gender thing. Women aren’t as good with navigating as are men”.

  “Don’t be a sexist Jack, I’ll learn to navigate.”

  “Maybe you will, some women do just fine. But studies have shown that men actually have better instincts for navigating than do women.”

  “Really? Did they give any reason for that?”

  “Not that I ever heard. My only thought is that it goes back to the early days of history when men had to leave the home cave to go hunting. If they couldn’t find the way back home it was disaster for both them and the women left behind. They simply had to learn to navigate to survive. On the other hand, women never had either the need or the opportunity. Interesting theory huh?”

  “Makes sense
to me but I guess we’ll never know will we?”

  “We may find out. In the not too distant future we may not have electricity, fuel for vehicles or electronics to help us. I guess the road signs will be there for a long time. That’s a real advantage over ancient times.”

  “Speaking of which, what direction are we going?”

  “We’re going to go to Memphis on I-40 and from there we’ll head North on I-55 to St. Louis and then I-70 west to Columbia, Missouri, the city where the message was posted. If we don’t run into snow we’ll be in Columbia sometime tomorrow, probably in the early afternoon.”

  “What do you really think is going on?”

  “If I had to put money on it I’d say its one person who is having trouble coping. But that’s just speculation and really isn’t worth too much. Hopefully by late tomorrow we’ll know what the bad news is.”

  “Are you sure it’s bad news?”

  “Not 100% sure, but I don’t see any good coming when a survivor is living in a city right now. And remember what I told you yesterday, we aren’t going to like spending time in the city. We’ll park the RV outside of town and find a car to drive to where the note was posted.”

  “How sure are you about where the message came from?”

  “It doesn’t make any sense to me so I don’t know. It wasn’t posted from a survivor laptop; at least not one configured the way we asked. It was sent from a static IP address, which is an address that doesn’t change. I used a tracker installed on my laptop. That gave me the street address of the building where the IP address is located. For all of that to happen, the computer must be hard wired to the internet, not running off of a wireless connection or mobile connection like we use.”

  “All we can do is go and take a look and hope we can figure it out.

  They stopped for the night an hour south of St. Louis. As usual Heather cooked and Jack cleaned up. After dinner they watched: “The Last of the Dogmen”, a movie set in the west Jack thought was the best sleeper of all time. As always, Heather got ready for bed first and Jack followed suit. They went to bed early since they planned on an early start in the morning.

  They were on the road again by seven o’clock the next day. Again Heather started the drive. Jack wanted to be behind the wheel when they reached Columbia.

  South of St. Louis they encountered their first total closure of a highway. Jack had asked a couple of men to help him weld cast iron braces to his frame and across the front of the RV so if he needed to push another car off the highway he could do so with out worrying about damage to his front end.

  However, this blockage looked like it was intentionally created. There were multiple cars and trucks blocking the highway from right to left, and multiple rows. It looked well planned and would take him hours to clear, if he could clear it at all.

  Strangely enough, the frontage road was unblocked, as were the southbound lanes of I-55.

  Heather had stopped about 100 yards from the blockade. Jack told her to back up slowly until they could turn around. While she was cruising slowly in reverse Jack got out the M-16 opened the side door so he could aim in either direction. When they reached the exit Jack asked Heather to drive up the entrance ramp, cross to the southbound lanes and drive north on the wrong side of the Interstate.

  Jack closed the side door and opened the window on the passenger side of the RV. He held the M-16 out of the window and prepared to shoot anything that moved. He told Heather that if gunfire broke out she was to accelerate and weave back and forth. The area all around the blockage was open, and Jack didn’t believe for a second that someone would have a sniper posted off the road just in case a vehicle came along. It had been weeks since anyone was driving around, and he couldn’t think of why someone would be driving north in these circumstances.

  They passed the blockage without incident and Jack and Heather both breathed a sigh of relief as Jack closed the window.

  Heather asked, “Do you think that was set up before the end?”

  “I think it must have been, but I do want you to look in the rearview mirror now and again. I’ll do the same thing on this side. It’s possible a couple of survivors set up that blockage just for the fun of it, but they weren’t watching when we went by. We’ll stay in the southbound lanes for now and drive like always. If we see something moving behind us I’ll tell you what the plan is.”

  “Okay, you have me nervous enough now so I’ll pay attention.”

  Jack wondered if he was getting paranoid, and then reminded himself of Topper, who had come out of nowhere to grab Heather. Jack didn’t want to be surprised like that again.

  The world had become such a strange place.

  Thirty minutes later they reached St. Louis without incident and Jack had Heather used the I-270 bypass to I-70 West. He remembered the shooting when he attempted to drive through downtown the last time he was here.

  While the odds were good that whoever was doing the shooting had died long ago, he wasn’t willing to risk it.

  Once they turned onto I-70 Jack slid behind the wheel and Heather made lunch for them. They were getting closer and he wanted to eat before they arrived in the Columbia.

  He had mop gear for them, and Heather had practiced wearing it over the past two days.

  He drove completely through the city and exited I-70 west of the city on US Highway Forty. Jack drove around until he found a convertible parked in front of a house. He went in and found the keys on a counter just inside the kitchen.

  He then rejoined Heather and the two of them put on their gear. Jack put the top down, and Heather sat in the passenger’s seat looking towards the rear. Jack knew with the limited visibility of these chemical warfare suits that was the safest way to drive.

  He didn’t believe they would see any movement, but again, he wanted to be sure.

  Jack had printed out maps and memorized directions before they had left so he drove directly to Ridgeline, went north the short distance to Blue Ridge Road, and turned right. He drove into Albert Oakland Park, and as he told Heather he would, he simply held down on the horn for the longest time.

  After ten minutes of blowing the horn off and on he drove to what looked like an administrative building and recreation facility combined. He parked in the large lot and sounded the horn over and over. Fifteen minutes later he told Heather they would have to use plan B.

  They both exited the car. Jack took his gear bag from the back seat and they headed into the building. Neither of them were wearing the gloves that went with the mop gear and both had pistols in their hands. They carried flashlights in their other hands and entered the unlocked main doors of the facility into a lobby area.

  Jack wasn’t surprised to see signs of recent activity like open food and drink containers and coats, gloves and scarves scattered on some of the chairs. There were also some books stacked on a table next to a reading lamp that looked out of place in the lobby.

  Heather toggled the light switch by the door and the lights came on. They pocketed their flashlights and looked at each other. Jack knew they were going to have to search the building but he wasn’t sure yet where to start or if they should split up or stay together.

  Jack decided to start with the most obvious place, a door across the lobby that was closed. He walked to it and turned the knob. It was locked. As he stood back to kick it open he heard movement on the other side of the door.

  He pushed Heather hard to his right and moved quickly to his left. Unfortunately, Heather had started to move to her left just as Jack pushed her. She went scampering for a couple of steps and let out a high pitched yelp.

  From the other side of the door came a voice asking, “What’s going on, who are you and what do you want?”

  Jack couldn’t tell if the voice was young or old or male or female. It was raspy and weak sounding. He motioned to Heather to answer. She said, “My name is Heather and I’ve come to help you.”

  “Go away, you can’t help me.”

  “Of course I can
, if you’ll let me. I came a long way because you posted that message. I want to take you to my home. I live with a group of very nice people.”

  “That message wasn’t for you, it was for God, and he ignored it. You should do the same.”

  “He didn’t ignore you, he sent me to help you.”

  Jack looked at Heather who simply shrugged her shoulders at him.

  The voice continued, “How do I know you won’t hurt me?”

  “You sound pretty hurt already, and I came to help you, not hurt you. Why don’t you open the door and we’ll talk about it.”

  “Are you alone?”

  “No, I’m with my grandfather, he’s pretty feeble but he wanted to help.”

  Jack looked at her and whispered, “I hope you’re having fun now, it won’t last long.”

  “What was all that noise outside?”

  “My grandfather is looking for a men’s room; you know how these older folks get.”

  “The person grunted and said, “That I do. I’m going to unlock the door, but move slowly, I’m armed. Send your grandfather to the bathroom; it’s just down the left hallway.”

  Jack folded himself against the wall and nodded to Heather, who said, “Okay, he’s limping down the hallway now, you unlock the door and we can talk more easily. I’ll stay her in the lobby and you can stay in your room.”

  They heard the lock click and Heather waited a few seconds before turning the handle and pushing the door open. She was standing as far to her left as she could, and still see into the room.

  What she saw was a white haired older woman sitting in a wheel chair backed against the far wall and trying to hold a gun in her hand. Her hand was shaking from the weight and the barrel was pointed downward. She must have been seventy or even eighty, she was shriveled and her hair was wispy.

  Heather took off her head covering and walked into the room. The woman looked at her but seemed incapable of even moving. It must have taken all of the strength to roll forward to unlock the door and then move back to the wall.

  Heather smiled at her and while she said hello she simply took the gun from the woman. She said, “I’m Heather, I’m here with a friend and we’re going to try to help you.” She raised her voice and said, “Jack she’s in a wheel chair, stay there while I roll her into the lobby. Please close this door behind us.”