by J P Whitney
When Bryce didn’t respond, Sara jumped in, “Did you hear your father? No wandering off.”
“Yes mom, I heard him.”
Sara and Tommy shared a look of surprise. Their fifteen-year-old son was speaking sentences again. Miracles never ceased.
Bryce soon realized the trail was steeper than he thought. He would need to hike uphill a few hundred yards to find an area level enough, and with privacy, to do his business. His older brother would have just gone on the side of the road, but Bryce had always been the modest one, and it took him a while to find a little clearing with a downed tree he could use as a seat instead of squatting. When he finished, he surveyed the surroundings and pulled out the radio.
“Hey guys, I’m almost at the top of the trail. Should I see if I can scout the road ahead to the Coast Guard base?”
“Sure honey, let us know how far away it is and if you can see anyone moving around. But be quick OK? I want to get moving again.”
“I will,” he replied and put the radio back in his hoodie pocket. From his back pocket, he grabbed the slingshot and started shooting trees with pebbles he picked from the trail. His aim was deadly. No tree within 20 yards was safe.
At the crest of the hill, he came to the edge of a steep cliff. If he hadn’t been paying attention he might have walked right off it. Peering over the edge provided a great view of the highway cutting a thin ribbon of asphalt into the coastline far below. And he could see the base approximately a mile farther up the coast. He had just begun to reach for the radio again when a deep, raspy voice growled, “Don't move a muscle!"
Bryce's hair stood up on the back of his neck, and if he hadn't just gone to the bathroom he might have had an accident. His eyes quickly scanned for the source of the voice. Near a large boulder about 10 feet away, mostly hidden in the pine shrubs, was a scruffy and intimidating man in dirty army fatigues. He had an AR15 with a large scope and it was pointed right at him.
"Drop the slingshot and move over here.”
The surgical tubing powered weapon slipped from his grip and fell into the dust. He took a few hesitant steps toward the stranger and jammed his hands into the pocket of his hoodie out of nervous habit. His right hand found the two-way radio. In his current state of panic, all his adrenaline-flooded brain could come up with was to mash his thumb onto the talk button.
The radio on Sara's belt came to life and a strange voice whispered, "what are you doing up here and who are you with? Lie to me and I’ll kill you where you stand."
The group could hear Bryce quite clearly as he stammered, "I had to go to the bathroom. My family is down on the road and will come looking for me if I don't return in a few minutes."
"Are they armed?" the man asked.
Bryce didn't respond but the look on his face must have been a clear signal to the man as he pulled out his own radio, keyed the mic and said, "Base, this is Eagle. Over.”
“I read you loud and clear Eagle. Over.”
“There’s an armed family on the road heading your way. I think they are at the bottom of the overlook trail. I didn’t see them coming through the quarantine camp. Why don't you intercept and let them know I have their son at gunpoint?"
Sara stared in horror at the radio. Tommy stopped her hand that was moving on its own, "Don't touch that button. I know your instinct is to tell Bryce it's going to be alright but that will just tip them off. Get into position in the ditch and shoot anyone that comes around that corner. I’m serious, don’t think about it. Stay hidden and just wait for them to get within 10 yards of this trail and squeeze the trigger. I'll go get Bryce."
Racking a home defense round into the chamber of his 12 gauge, Tommy sprinted up the trail.
It seemed like only ten seconds to Tommy, but in reality, probably closer to five minutes had passed since hearing Bryce's voice on the radio. At the top of the hill, Tommy spotted the sniper near a large boulder. He had Bryce in a loose headlock and must have been watching his group make its way up the road toward the trailhead far below. Tommy said a quick prayer asking God to keep Sara, Tucker, and Eli safe and silently exited the tree line. He moved quickly and made sure to keep the boulder between himself and the man holding his son hostage. He inched his way around the cold chunk of basalt, the barrel of his shotgun leading the way until he could just see the camo pattern on the back of the man’s jacket. Bryce was a full head shorter than his captor. Perfect.
"I'm counting to three and you are going to let my son go or I will blow your head off. ONE ..."
The man’s reflexes were rattlesnake fast as he was able to push Bryce toward the cliff’s edge while simultaneously spinning and raising his weapon in a quick, fluid motion. Tommy pulled the trigger of his 12 gauge and the world exploded into slow motion and he just had time to think about how the sound seemed entirely too loud. An instant later he came to the painful realization it wasn’t just his gun that went off and something incredibly hot punched him in the stomach and sent him flying backward down the hill just as the upper portion of the sniper’s head disappeared. Tommy slammed onto the pine needle strewn ground and everything went dark.
"Dad, speak to me! Are you OK," Bryce called.
Tommy could barely open his eyes. Through slits of light, his vision threatened to fail him completely but he could just make out Bryce's face. It was full of concern and tears spilled from his eyes and ran down his cheeks. Tommy winced in pain as Bryce touched the front of his shirt and then quickly recoiled as he pulled his hand away to find it covered in his father’s blood.
Tommy heard the roar of a handgun in the distance which was followed immediately by rounds of automatic weapon fire. The boom of a shotgun. The sharp crack of a .22 report. Then all was quiet.
Tommy whispered, "Do you still have the radio?" Bryce pulled his hand from the front hoodie pocket and was surprised to find it clutched the radio with his thumb still mashed on the talk button.
"Sara, are you guys OK?" Tommy croaked, touching Bryce's hand to release his grip on the talk button.
Nothing but static returned.
“Again,” he said to Bryce.
“Mom, do you read me? Is everyone alright?”
Still no reply.
Tommy began to feel cold, and his vision filled with black spots. He took the radio from Bryce’s trembling hand and gathered his strength to call out once more, “Come on you guys, please respond.”
Fearing the worst, Tommy dropped the radio and turned his attention to his son.
“Bryce, you need to take my gun …” but had to stop as a wave of pain ripped the rest of the words from his mouth. After a few moments, he gathered enough strength to continue, “hide in the trees. Wait for the soldiers to leave and then make your way back home.” But Bryce just stared at him.
“I love you son. But I’m serious. You need to move now!”
“No, we need to stop the bleeding and get you out of here,” Bryce said bravely but he knew better.
“I’m not going to make it son. And I don’t think anyone else did either.”
Smiling weakly up at Bryce, “Be strong. You’ve had to deal with so much already. It won’t be easy, but you’ll survive this too. You’re smart, you’re prepared.” And proudly added, “Look at how you got us through those barriers. You have to carry on.” Then said something else unintelligible.
Bryce leaned closer, “What dad? Say it again.”
Tommy’s vision swam, then went completely dark, and as he stared into space whispered, “the Ark”.
Even as his last breath rattled from his lungs, he was struck with the sudden horrific realization of how unfair it was that two people Bryce cared for had now died in his arms.
Chapter 20
Truth
11Aug2021 – ED3N Facility
ED3N Status = 53%
Sgt. Terry Kendall returned to ED3N with his squad of eight troops riding in two diesel-electric hybrid Humvees. Not bothering with the vehicle’s radio, he instead spoke into the ATU, “Ruth, thi
s is Terry. Over.”
“Terry, you don’t have to say ‘over’. These things aren’t 2-way radios.”
“Yeah, well old habits die hard for old dogs. Anyway, I have bad news.”
Ruth hung her head, she wasn’t expecting him to come back with good news, but she wasn’t sure she could handle the bad … but she had to know, “Go on.”
“I sent teams in two directions, and though we obviously didn’t have time to go door to door, I went back to several houses I knew we had vaccinated. Ruth, they’re all gone. Everyone. In every family.” Ruth could tell from the tone of his voice that the death of civilians was causing his tough military shell to crack but he continued on, “The other team found one man that was in the process of dying but didn’t stand a chance. We drove out further and found a few homes with people still living in quarantine and healthy. I think it’s as you feared. The vaccinations are causing the infections of Blue.”
Ruth was stunned into silence for a long time. When she finally spoke again all she could manage was, “My God, what have we done?”
Terry was likewise silent but needed orders. ED3N wasn’t automatically sending him a new list of actions to complete after this turn of events which was, in itself, a bit troubling. He asked Ruth, “So what do we do now?”
“There’s nothing we can do now. Not for all those people anyway. All we can do is make sure the perimeter is safe and start preparing for a real way to help survivors we find. Will you coordinate with ED3N to see if we can accelerate the time to bring the whole city online? I want to know the soonest we can start bringing people in.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you. I need to get some answers out of the CDC and Washington. Let me know when you have an estimated time for opening the gates.”
What she originally thought of as a backup plan now looks like it’s going to have to be implemented after all. ED3N is not only going to have to help those currently in quarantine but it might really be the last chance for the human race. Which means they are going to need a means for screening the refugees sooner rather than later.
Typing out a message on her high tech armband, “Mark do you have time to meet today? I think we’re going to need several hours to put an onboarding screening process in place. I have a feeling we’re going to be opening our gates to survivors in the not too distant future.”
Mark replied almost instantly, he must have spoken the words instead of taking the time to type them out, “um this sounds like it takes priority over everything else I’m supposed to do today. But I need about 30 minutes to finish tying together some of the hardware going into our wireless network. If you don’t mind me asking, why do you want me to help with people screening?”
Ruth chose to speak her reply this time for the sake of efficiency, “You have a degree in forensic psychology right? We need to determine how best to filter who gets into the city. I think your background in evaluating candidates for prison release might be very relevant to this situation.” ED3N perfectly translated the speech to text on Mark’s ATU.
“Makes sense. I’ll join you in 30.”
This time, Ruth used her ATU as a phone dialing David’s direct line at the CDC. But it just rang until eventually going to voicemail. Frustrated, she dialed his cell number. Just as she thought this call was going to voicemail as well, he picked up on the 4th ring.
“Hello,” David croaked into the phone.
“Hi David, this is Ruth. Are you OK? You sound horrible.”
“I’m dying, and I don’t mean that in an ‘I feel extremely sick way’. A week ago all of us at the CDC were injected with the second batch of H1N1 vaccines. Everyone fell ill within days, some within hours Ruth. It was horrific. I was terrified and started taking injections of the experimental anti-viral drugs, but it’s a losing battle.” David was hit by a coughing fit that left him spitting blood into his handkerchief. “I doubt I’ll last through the day.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. Everyone at the CDC is dead?”
“I have to assume so. Several collapsed while at work. Once the writing was on the wall we told everyone to go home, and say their goodbye’s while they had a chance.”
“David I hate to ask this but I have to know what the hell is going on here. You’ve been my friend and colleague for years. Did you know the vaccines were tainted?”
David half chuckled and half coughed before replying. “Does it really matter at this point? Sure I had my suspicions but with the pressure from DC and not fully understanding how the disease was spreading at the time, the seasonal flu vaccine seemed like our only hope. You know … you made the recommendation to DC after all. But looking back at it, the variation in individual immune systems is the one thing we hadn’t accounted for. Some people died within days, most within weeks, and a few lasted up to a month after getting the vaccine. The really frightening part is the second batch of 50 million vaccines appears to have an active component to them. The vaccine didn’t just infect the patient. It also made them contagious. While people walked around freely with the vaccination bracelets, they acted like 50 million dirty bombs leaking radiation prior to detonation. While they were still relatively healthy, they inadvertently exhaled seeds of Blue.”
Ruth couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You mean that not only are the original 100 million vaccines tainted but someone intentionally turned the second batch of vaccines into a contagion? Like some kind of terrorist attack?”
“Ruth I don’t know if terrorists are behind it but it’s an intentional act. And a quick-acting virus with 100% mortality rate would be a great way to destroy an entire continent if someone wanted to.”
“Oh, God.”
“Look, I’m delirious, and dying. So I’m bound to be melodramatic and not sure what I’m saying anymore. But one thing I’m sure of … both batches of vaccines should never have made it through FDA screening.”
“And what about the new vaccine-B? Is it real?”
“We’re in emergency crisis mode here so it hasn’t gone through formal clinical trials but from what I’ve seen yes. It is effective in combatting Blue. But think about it. It doesn’t have to be. If the vaccines are the source of the disease, and the virus is self-extinguishing, then all you have to do is stop the vaccinations and wait it out.”
Ruth had considered that possibility, “But you just said the second batch made the virus contagious.”
“Yes, but those that have remained isolated in quarantine aren’t at risk. As long as they take precautions around the bodies they shouldn’t get infected. This disease could actually burn itself out.”
“I’d still like to have vaccine-B on hand to give those we already vaccinated a chance of not dying. And as a preventive measure in case some of those under quarantine come in contact with the infected.”
David couldn’t speak for almost a full minute his cough had gotten so bad. Talking was only making it worse. “The 20,000 doses sent to the base in Oregon may be the only ones in existence. The entire staff at the manufacturing plant was given the original shots. They’ve gone dark. You might have to replicate the vaccine yourself if your facility has the means.”
“The Coast Guard base has gone dark as well.” Then it hit her like a hard slap to the face.
“Oh, dear God David. The city near the guard base has been turned into a quarantine camp. If everyone in that camp was contagious then …”
But she couldn’t continue to verbalize her thoughts. She might have just sent civilians to their deaths. “David, I don’t think we’re going to reach the new B vaccines. Not in time to help anyone already infected anyway.”
“Then you better pray this virus burns itself out. That facility you’re in might be our last stand. Good luck, Ruth. If anyone can pull this off, it’s you.” And then David ended the call.
Ruth couldn’t believe this was really happening. The vaccination bracelets once signified health, protection, and safety. The sign of a medical guardian angel watching over peo
ple like a halo around their wrists. Overnight the bracelet had become the brand of the damned. A modern-day scarlet letter signifying the dying or soon to be dead. There was no in-between. A sharp line had been drawn that separated humans into two camps. The living, which had remained isolated from others and not been vaccinated. And the damned, which had taken the shot. Ruth had ED3N run projections and the numbers were staggering. A minimum 200 million people were about to die in the US. And that was probably conservative because of the now contagious element of the vaccines. She had to keep people isolated for the next few weeks, ensure no one else got the vaccines, and let the virus consume itself … along with most of the population. It pained her to give up in this manner but there were no other options. Then she’d start calling the survivors to ED3N.