by Keith Martin
If I can’t find what I need, I will call you first.” She answered as she slid into the driver’s seat. She could smell her father in the cab. She had to fight back tears thinking she would never touch him again. “Thanks for everything. I will be in touch for sure.”
“There a note in the ashtray.” The MP informed her.
In the ashtray sat a folded note. [Figured you would be the first to the truck, I love you Shinny Baby Girl, drive careful. When in doubt, Power Out!] His note made her smile. It was just like him to know she would make it to the truck first.
She started the motor and pulled out slowly heading for the front gate. The guard opened it as she drove through without stopping her. She pointed the truck north and opened up the carburetors. She was doing ninety when the tears started to flow again. “I love you Daddy.” She said out loud to him as she headed home.
* * *
The old Chevy took to the miles like she was new. She checked the radio and found a news station. The news was not good. Food shortages, reports of gangs of armed women stealing supplies from distribution areas, murders, reports on the virus, and on the insects that still flew in massive swarms here and there. She turned it off as it started to repeat the reports.
She spotted an abandoned gas station after a hundred and twenty miles of fast driving. She had to clean the dead bugs covering the windshield. It was so thick it was getting hard to see where she was going and there was no wiper fluid left to help clean the mess away. She knew the water supply was working in this area so she figured it would be the best place to get to some water to clean up and fill the wipers tank.
It stood alone on a long stretch of backcountry road. Fields surrounding it as far as the eye could see starting to grow tall with grasses and weeds. Shianne pulled off half a mile before the place and locked in the front hubs just in case. As she remounted she shifted into four-wheel high range and backed a few feet to make sure the hubs engaged. The solid click of the gears coming to life on the front end told her she was ready to go.
She power shifted into second and dumped the clutch at 3500 RPM’s. All four wheels spit gravel and Old Gray was in her glory working again. Shianne took to the fields bashing through the three-wire fence like it didn’t exist. Its shredded remains spit out the back with the rocks, dirt, grass and dust from under the tires. She made a wide sweep keeping a constant watch on the station for any sign of movement. As she finished her first circumnavigation of the station she closed the circle and kept watching the station as she got closer and closer. The M-16 stationed on her lap out of sight ready for her use.
She took a last turn around the station moving real slow and decided her best plan of attack. There was a hose on the back of the building, but she needed a washer from the pump racks out front to do a good job of it. She wanted to limit her time out of the truck and not moving.
She pulled up at the hose and as soon as Old Gray was at a stop she was on the ground with her weapon in hand moving to the right to start a true search of the station and then off to the pumps for her washer.
Her heart raced as she worked from the offices to the working bays, she even checked the storage areas and restrooms. The place was clear. She spotted a cardboard soda case packer. She knew she could use it on Old Gray to help with the bugs. So she took it with her on the way to the front pumps.
She tied the piece of cardboard over the grill so that the radiator wouldn’t clog with the insects. She had to brush it out before she could go on to remove the mass of insects it had caught so far. She refilled the windshield washing fluid tank and washed the windshield until it was clean and she could see through it again.
She was pleased to notice that the insects were mostly grasshoppers and butterflies. The fly population in the area had recovered to a more natural level. But the untended fields overgrowing with whatever nature planted were starting to show signs of growth and rebounding life.... that was getting all over the front of the truck.
She giggled to herself out of exhaustion thinking. ‘By the time I reach Ma’s I be a mass murder.’ As she wiped a pile of death stuck to and dried out on the front bumper away with a swipe of her hand. “Yuck! Good one Shianne.” She chastised herself and mounted up for the next leg of her trip home.
4 more hours of hard driving found her at Bucks Feed & Seed and just a half hour from home. The place looked deserted at first, she pulled up in front where there was a hose to rewash the windshield and shut off the motor. She was looking out of two portholes shaped like the wipers sweep. She wanted to see where she was driving again.
She decided to look around and see if the place had been stripped like other businesses she had passed along the way. She still had Buck’s trailer hooked up and she knew she should bring it around back to the barn but decided to look the place over once before committing herself to that. As she exited the truck she got the surprise of her life.
“Well may the Saints be damned! Is that really you child?” Ma Buck’s voice cut the silence.
Shianne didn’t bother to answer; she just ran to the old woman and fell into her arms. Ma had spoiled her ever since she could remember, ever since she was just a little tomboy-riding shotgun with her daddy out doing chores. She thought Ma Buck would be dead by now. Just figured with Buck gone she would have died of a broken heart in no time.
“Ma, your still here, your still…” She stopped before saying it.
Ma filled in the blanks. “Alive…. Why sure I’m still alive. I still have to look after you girls don’t I? I knew you two would never leave the planet without first coming to see your old Ma. I knew you all had stayed behind to help save the world. Now you calm down there Little One “Shianne’s tears where flowing again.” If you keep on belleren you’re going to start me a-cryin.” Ma’s tears where flowing freely too. “Why don’t you pull Old Gray into the barn before someone comes by and we have to shoot them for the skunks they be. I’ll open the doors for ya.” She offered as she took off to do as she said. Her eyes were tearing up too and she wanted to be the strong woman Shianne loved her to be.
In the past months she’d had to defend the place a few times from those who would take without asking. The backhoe did a fast job of burying the bodies. She didn’t bother marking the graves and her supply of weapons grew with each attack on the old Feed and Seed. When she first married Buck he took her shooten to make sure she could defend herself. “The winner in most every fight is the one most willing to kill to stay alive. So don’t dally at all. If its shooten time let them have it both barrels at the same time and get to reloaden before they get time to think on it.”
His words stuck to her like glue when that moment arrived. She was facing five women from her front porch. She advised that they state their business when they were 100 feet from her and hold their ground. All of them advanced on her talking nice and slowly spreading out. Two of them, the leaders stood a bit too close and she waited until she was sure her first shot would take them both. She dropped the scattergun and pulled her 357 Mag and went to work. Like knocking down ducks she just took her time, with a quickness in her heart to live, and shot every one of them dead as all get out.
She didn’t feel remorse, they were all armed. Her first rounds flew because she was ready and one of the leaders started to reach for her weapon... a nice Glock 9mm with a shoulder holster. Her friend had a Glock and a 38 special. Both tucked into her belt behind her back. All total she gleaned seven pistols and one machine pistol and over 2000 rounds of ammo. Then she fetched the backhoe and went to work, she didn’t ask the Good Lord to forgive them. They earned their place in hell in her book. She was glad to send them on their way.
With the truck safely under cover Shianne took the M-16 from the cab and walked with Ma to the house. Ma was impressed and glad to see Shianne was being careful with her life.
The sun was setting as they entered the house and Ma demanded that Shianne sit while she made a dinner for them. She chatted away in the kitchen as she heated up
some stew she had on hand. She wondered why Shianne was being so quiet when she brought her a steaming bowl and sliced bread with sweet butter. She found Shianne sleeping on the sofa. She didn’t try to wake her; she just covered her with a quilt and brushed her forehead with a soft kiss. “You just sleep now child, there will be plenty of time for eating in the morning.”
She turned off the lights and settled into a comfortable chair to watch Shianne sleep. Next to her she placed the M-16 Shianne had brought in with the 12 gage side by side she had been keeping close ever since her husband died. It served her well and just as pa had showed her, it was in the willingness to just stop talkin and start shootin that turned the fight in ones favor.
In six engagements with armed thieves she had given them all a chance to be good people… then she just opened up in mid-sentence to catch them by surprise and she had to put more then a few in the ground to get her point across. She now owned more weapons then had ever been in her house. Her collection filled a full sized footlocker to the brim with ammo cans lined up next to it and a few rifles resting in the corner.
Word quickly spread that robbing the Feed and Seed was an unhealthy thing to try and that foolishness stopped.
Shianne slept seventeen hours without moving. She felt safe in Ma’s house. Safe for the first time in weeks, it wasn’t strange here. She knew the smell of this house. She felt at home here.
“You can’t sleep away your whole life Shianne Marie Chisholm.” Ma said handing her a mug of coffee. “I need to get some food in that little body of yours before you blow away in the wind child. You look like you’ve lost at least twenty pounds.”
“Thanks Ma.” She said as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. “This smells great.”
“Take it to the shower with you while I make you some proper food. Meatloaf, spuds, and fresh greens, with country gravy smothering it all and a big glass of milk to wash it down with.” She announced as she walked toward the kitchen. “Now put a move on young lady, we have a busy day ahead of us, and I’ll not feed you when you smell worse than a wet dog.” She wasn’t being harsh, it was her way, and Shianne loved her for it. “I don’t know what you have been up to girl, but the stench of it is still on you. You go get ready for dinner now; I’ve laid out clean clothes for you. Dinner will be ready as soon as you’re finished up.”
Shianne wash the stench from her while she was at the lab. But all the traveling she had done in the past few days had ingrained it into her skin again. She turned on the shower as hot as she could stand it and washed the smell of death from her hair first. The water ran black from the ashes in her hair. She washed it three times before she started to feel clean again.
Looking at the drain feasting on the black water cascading from her hair she wondered how long it would be before the rains washed the last of the ash from the air.
* * *
Ma was true to her word and had dinner on the table when Shianne emerged from the bathroom. “I feel better now Ma, thanks; this smells so good.” She dug into it not realizing just how famished she was. When she was in the shower, she noticed for the first time how much weight she had lost. Meals had been short and spotty for weeks now. Even at the lab, where there was plenty, she just didn’t feel as if she could eat. It was shock and emotional overload. It had caught up with her. But just now, she felt as if she could eat a horse. Hooves and all!
Ma let her eat and was just pleased to see her pack it away. She could see how small Shianne was when she first laid eyes on her. Even the clothes she had laid out for her were one size smaller than Shianne normally wore. And they looked baggy on her. She silently vowed to get some meat on the poor child’s bones.
Shianne finished her second helping of dinner and then sat back thanking her for such great food. Ma scolded her for being silly. “Ma…. I was thinking while I was getting cleaned up. Now I won’t take no for an answer, I won’t argue with you about this. I’ve decided your coming home to live with me on the ranch.”
Ma looked at Shianne from the kitchen with a smile on her face and mischief in her eyes. “I’ll not go without those bags there by the front door young lady. And we will both have to use a hand-truck to take out that trunk of guns I got now. Must be a dozen boxes of ammo too and we aint leaven non of it behind.”
Shianne looked at the front door and there stood three large bags packed and ready to go, with at least half a dozen rifles laid across to top off the load.
“And I’ll not take no for an answer young lady. You need me more then I need you right now.” Ma said wryly.
Shianne went to the kitchen and wrapped her arms around Ma and hugged her tightly.
They were both close to tears; it was good to feel the closeness of family after so much hell had gone on around them. At the lab, she had spent some time with Ashley. But she was so busy with her lab work; she didn’t have time to think of much of anything else.
Ma was helping to bring Shianne back from the edge of a collapse. Shianne was doing the same for Ma. “I’ve always felt like you children and your father were a part of our family here. Now you will have to put up with this old woman full time.”
“Let’s go home then Ma, there’s no point in waiting around.”
“Ok Shinny Baby Girl. Let’s go.” Ma agreed.
While Shianne was hauling Ma’s bags out to the truck, Ma was packing all the food in the house. When Shianne started to scold her and tell her they would have food at the ranch, Ma intervened, and started to give orders. “There is still plenty of feed out in the barn. The trailer is hooked up, so go take it all. There’s no point in leaving it here to rot.”
Shianne knew not to argue. She strapped on her pistol and started for the barn. She used the loader to fill the trailers bed and started to strip anything she could think of out of the shop. Everything in sight could be used at the ranch. She was sure of that. But they would have to return to get it all. She pulled the loaded truck and trailer out and locked the doors to the barn. Hopefully it would keep anyone out who happened by.
She found Ma waiting on the front porch with her boxes of food and some of her little things. Ma looked just like the countrywoman that she was. Very short, even shorter then herself, maybe not even 5 foot tall, a bit over weight, gray hair to the middle of her back, a mole under her chin, with three long hairs growing from it, blue gray eyes sharp as a hawks, and an old cotton dress with cowgirl boots on. She had her old leather hat on with its floppy brim. Shianne loved her from the first time she had seen her back when she was just eight years old and she hadn’t changed a bit. She was perfect just as she was. Only now, she was also holding the side-by-side shotgun wherever she walked and there were other weapons hidden on her just in case.
Shianne got her things loaded up quickly and got Ma belted into the passenger seat. “Ma, where’s Buck? I want to pay my respects.”
“Next time we are out here Dear, let’s just get you home right now. Buck will be waiting for us when we get back this way. The ranch needs you right now. Let’s not pussy foot around, Buck would want you home more then he would want you standing over his old bones.”
With that said, Shianne slipped Old Gray into gear and headed for the ranch. There was no point in arguing with Ma.
* * *
The ranch looked great as they pulled up the driveway. All the livestock was out and roaming around giving the place a living look. There was a pond right next to the house and it didn’t look as if anything had wandered far from water. There had been no rain in weeks so the grass was mostly dried out. But it would recover with just a bit of water. There were rabbits feeding on the green spots of the front lawn and chickens were everywhere. She just let out a long sigh and prayed to the lord. “God, thank you for keeping the ranch safe and bringing me home.”
“I’ll be agree’n with her Lord. You did good this time. She’s a good kid.” Ma added her prayer and took Shianne’s hand in hers as she did. “Mind you give them the things they gonna need to save us now Lord. They can
’t be doin it without yourn help.”
* * *
The first thing Ashley learned about the virus, once she had the meteor, was that it stopped emitting the virus once it had saturated the air it was in. Inside the glass container it was stored in, it infected the air with 5990ppm of the virus. That meant it would reach a critical level in Earth’s atmosphere, then it would stop growing.
The atmosphere in general was infected with approximately 390ppm, and was lethal to all men, at even this low concentration.
The virus had reduced the original staff down to seventy scientists; and all were working non-stop trying to find the cure. There was always someone in the labs working on the virus night and day.
They started with chemicals. They tried every combination possible. They even bombarded it with lethal doses of radiation, nothing worked. It was as if the virus had been designed to wipe out the population by stopping reproduction of humans.
Who would develop such a virus? Why would it be needed?
All they knew of the virus was that it attached itself to oxygen molecules. It was .0005 microns in size; it could kill by inhalation and epidural contact. It killed by robbing the body of all of its oxygen in seconds and leaving behind vast amounts of carbon dioxide. And it only attacked men.
Besides that, it was a complete mystery.
Ashley gave it a name after she had flooded it with pure oxygen and watched it turn deep bright red. With a new field of study growing to find its cure, she called the virus Red Virus 101.
As soon as the insect population started to return to normal levels Free had all the scientists needed transported to the lab by gunship. She was making sure Ashley had all the staff she would need to find the cure. As soon as a worthy woman of knowledge was located she was asked to join the lab crew and transported as soon as she gave her vow to join in the mission.