by Newman, AJ
“Your name is Jon?”
“Yes, sir, I’m Jon Stone, and Jill saved my life. She kept bounty hunters from taking me to the rogue scientists wanting to take all of my blood.”
Walt’s head bobbed in disbelief. “Your blood? Why did they want your blood?”
“Mr. Scott, they said they needed it to help make a vaccine. They wanted all of my blood. It’s a long story, and if you can wait, we’ll fill you all in at the same time. Just a second, I need to move my truck. Samantha, go to the barn and ask Barbara where she needs you to park.”
“Yes, master. Please don’t beat these tired old bones.”
Jon chuckled, “Cut the crap and get your ass back to the barn.”
The truck said, “Jon, I don’t have an ass, but if I did, it would be very sexy. You’d like my ass.”
“And I’d love your mud flaps. Go! Now!”
Samantha drove away, and Walt was speechless. Jon continued talking. “Mr. Scott, as I said, it’s a long story, and we’ll fill you and Mrs. Scott in after supper if it’s okay with you?”
“You’re talking to your truck.”
“Yes, the technology has been around for years.”
“But, your truck sassed you before moving.”
“Samantha’s like that. I believe it’s called the Adaptive Personality Package on the Ford sales web page. It allows the AI to learn your likes and dislikes and adapt to your style. I like redheaded, sassy and bossy women and trucks.”
“Who’s the leader of this ragtag group?”
Jon smiled, “I guess I was. Now that we’re here, you should be in charge, as long as we’re at your place.”
Betty and Pat helped Meg prepare supper while Barbara and Jill set the table and then made drinks for the others. Barbara brought Jon three fingers of whiskey. Jon saw her bring the booze and whispered, “Darling, I gave up getting drunk when I made an ass of myself, back when I thought I was going to die of the plague.”
“Babe, I know you like whiskey, and I’ll kick your ass if you get drunk. Enjoy.”
Jon took a sip and smiled. Walt looked at Barbara, and the glass of tea his daughter had brought him. He set the tea down and said, “Can I have what he’s drinking, pretty please?”
Barbara poured Walt three fingers and herself a shot of the bourbon. They sat together with Jill out on the deck. Walt said, “I like your taste in whiskey.”
Jon laughed. “I went wild when I found myself alone in this apocalypse, found several bottles of Pappy Van Winkle and Blanton’s Single Barrel, and proceeded to get snockered. I wrecked a new Corvette and almost killed myself.”
“I’d give my left nut for a shot of twenty-three-year-old Pappy Van Winkle.”
Jill was shocked, “Dad, you don’t drink enough to know what whiskey is what. Besides, cutting off a body part for a drink of whiskey?”
Walt said, “I always kept the drinking to myself. Besides, I don’t have much need for my left …”
“Dad!” Jill exclaimed.
“…nut at my age. Ain’t that right, Jack?”
Jack laughed, and Cindy sat down on his lap. “My new girlfriend would argue with that.”
“Do what? I thought she was your daughter.”
Jack said, “I look younger than my age.”
Charlie said, “Isn’t Jon, your son?”
Jon said, “Wait until you hear the rest of that story.”
Jon set up a guard duty schedule and took the first tour of duty to take a look at the area. He saw some giant jackrabbits and several different kinds of birds, but no other life as far as his binoculars could reach. There wasn’t much to see other than flat land. Jon could only see one house for miles, and it was about a mile north of Walt’s place. Utility poles were the tallest manmade objects, and he didn’t see even a small hill, except for where a bulldozer had been pushing dirt to put in a pond. Walt called them tanks. Jon didn’t ask why. He now understood why the virus hadn’t spread very well in West Texas.
Bob walked up to Jon with a brisket sandwich in one hand and a glass of sweet tea in the other. “The girls made some sandwiches and enough sweet tea to float a battleship.”
“Good, I’m hungry. There’s not much to see out here, but we do need to watch out for showing any lights. Here, take my binoculars. This land is flatter than a flitter, and you can see for miles. A lit cigarette will stand out like the North Star.”
“Jon, I spent three years in the Marines and learned a bit about security. I’d be glad to teach others.”
Jon stuck his hand out. “Bob, we need everyone to pitch in and help improve our ability to survive. I’m a bit worried that Walt is a bit too laid back. I’ll probe Jill for info on him.”
“Good idea. I got the same vibes. Walt’s a good guy, but they’ve not seen the rioting and killing like the rest of us. I wonder if he’s ever seen the infected with the bloody eyes. That scared the shit out of me the first time,” said Bob.
Jon cringed when he remembered the woman with the bloody face who’d crashed into him out in Oregon. “I had a bad experience where an infected woman crashed into me as she ran down a hillside out in Oregon. My immunity saved my ass, which reminds me we have to begin passing on the immunity as soon as possible. Who knows what shit’ll hit the fan next?”
Jon left Bob and caught Jill alone. “Hey, your father doesn’t seem to be concerned about security or the plague. Should we be worried?”
Jill said, “I don’t think so. Dad’s always been laid back, but a man of action when needed. Dad’s only fifty-seven, but he was an Army drill sergeant when I was a kid. He’s tough as nails and good with a gun.”
“Good to know, because Bob and I were a bit concerned.”
The rest of the group ate supper after unloading the supplies and weapons. Jon joined them just as they’d all sat down to eat. Barbara handed him a glass of tea and told him to sit down while she fixed him a sandwich. Jon stayed silent while he watched the interaction between the various families that had been brought together by this apocalypse. His first thought was how much they were disrupting Jill’s family. His second thought was where the heck was everyone going to sleep. His third was how he and his new bride were going to get any privacy.
Granny Jane began probing to determine how safe the area was. “Walt, West Texas appears to live up to what I thought I knew about it. It’s flat and miles between neighbors.”
“That it is. We kinda like isolation. Oh, Meg and I belong to a bowling team, and both have other social groups we meet with once a week. There aren’t many people for twenty miles around us, but the ones who are aren’t infected. My shooting club gets together every Saturday at around one pm.”
Jon said, “Aren’t you afraid of getting the virus?”
“Not until you showed up. We need to have a blunt conversation about how you’ve potentially infected the whole damned area,” Walt said tersely.
Betty said, “Kids, go outside so we can have a meeting.”
The kids left, and Jon said, “Walt, we also have some concerns about your lack of concern for security around here. We also need to know if we’re welcome in the area. Most places have plenty of empty homes and food, thanks to the virus killing off so many so quickly. Life here seems to be unaffected by the virus. I’ll also tell you that none of us are infected, and as a matter of fact, five of us are immune to the virus.”
Walt’s face was now flushed. “No one invited all of you to come …”
“Dad, stop. I invited them to come and join us here because they’re all great people and can help us survive. Why are you so …”
“Jill, I’m happy you’re at home. Your mom and I were scared to death that something happened to you. However, bringing these people might’ve endangered our community.”
“Dad, get it through your thick skull that none of these people have the virus. I’m also immune from the virus, and Barbara was a CDC immunologist who knows a hell of a lot more than the rest of us do about the virus.”
&n
bsp; Now, everyone was talking, and no one was listening. Barbara tried to get their attention unsuccessfully, but then Granny Jane drew her old .45 and banged it on the table. “Would all of y’all stop yapping and listen to my granddaughter?”
“I’m Barbara Stone, and I worked at the CDC in Atlanta until several weeks ago. I’m a doctor of immunology. I was working on a cure for the virus until a rogue group took over. They wanted the cure for themselves to be used to save their people. They forced us to keep working for a cure while they gave immunity to a few of their leaders by taking all of the blood from immune people to give their leaders transfusions. These transfusions passed on immunity. Jill and Jon helped me escape when Jon was being transported to the lab to have his blood drained. Since then, we’ve been using their blood to pass on immunity by slowly giving their donated blood to others. Jon and Jill have passed on their immunity to Jack, Cindy, and me. We want to pass the immunity on to all of you and anyone else we can trust with the secret.”
There was silence.
Jon knew the wheels were spinning in Walt’s head. “Walt, we’re here to help. However, honestly, if we’re not wanted, we’ll gas up our aircraft and head to a place where we’ll be welcomed.”
Walt reached into a side pocket on his recliner and produced a walkie-talkie. “This is Walt. ‘Stand down.’ I repeat ‘stand-down.’ Everything’s good here. Bill and Jerry, please come on out to my home.”
“We’ll be there in a short while. We have half a dozen bleeders to dispose of.”
A few seconds later, there was the distant sound of gunfire. Jon’s brow wrinkled when he asked, “Are ‘bleeders’ the infected people?”
“Yep,” was all Walt said.
Jon followed up on his question. “Did your men kill all of them?”
“Yes, and before you ask, they pushed them in a hole and covered them with lime before burying them with the bulldozer.”
“Good. Where did the infected come from?” Barbara asked.
“Oh, Dallas, small cities around Texas, and Mexico. We think there’re bands of Mexicans trying to escape the violence in their country but bringing the virus back to us. We clamped down the minute we knew the crap hit the fan on the coasts and didn’t allow people to come into the area. It worked for a while, but the mayor of Lubbock sent the police after us, and it got ugly. We pulled our group out of Lubbock and watched the city die from a distance. I got to shoot the mayor when he brought his bloody eyes down Highway 87. We buried him and about a thousand others over three months before they finally stopped coming from Lubbock. Our scout team says most of Lubbock is dead now. A biker gang has already moved into the north end of town. We control the south end of town and have teams to scavenge now and then.”
Barbara said, “We can’t let them know about the immunity until we’re ready to spread it beyond the people in this home.”
Walt nodded. “Yes, I can see the importance of keeping it quiet for now.”
Jon asked, “Do you have any questions for Barb or any of the rest of us?”
“No, I believe you on the virus. We’ll have to get creative on accommodations, but you’re all welcome to stay.”
Meg said, “It’s about time you came to your senses. Jill would never put us in danger.”
“Now, woman, you know we have to be cautious.”
Granny Jane asked, “Do you have the authority to make that decision?”
“Yes, I do.”
Chapter 10
Southeast of Lubbock, Texas – October 2038
There was a beeping noise coming from Walt’s direction. He pulled a device that looked like an old iPhone from his pocket and said, “Bill and Jerry are at the end of the driveway.”
Walt touched the screen on the device and then spoke into the walkie-talkie. “It’s safe to come on up to the house. The claymores and IEDs are unarmed for one minute.”
Bill and Jerry knocked on the door a few minutes later, and Walt greeted them. They wore vinyl gloves and N-95 masks. Bill said, “I know you think they’re safe, but we’re not taking any chances.”
Walt replied, “Suit yourself. This is Jon and Barbara Stone. They’ll be doing most of the talking for their group. ”
Jon said, “Glad to meet you.”
Walt listened and then said, “I’ve known these guys over fifteen years. These people made Meg and I feel at home when we first moved here.”
Jon noticed Jill didn’t greet the men but didn’t want to ask her about it. They moved on to the kitchen where Barbara, Jon, and Granny Jane answered their questions. They steered away from any issues concerning immunity or the rogue scientists and Army unit. The meeting went much better than Jon had expected, and one of the men even offered to bring his camper trailer over to help with housing. He also mentioned there was an RV dealer south of town, and the dealer and his family were all dead.
Jon said, “We’ll run up there and bring a couple more back here.”
Bill said, “If you don’t mind, we’ll do it for you. We’d like you to stay put here for the next fourteen days until we can be sure you’re free of the virus.”
Barbara said, “No offense taken, and we don’t blame you for being cautious. We all need to rest from a rather difficult journey, and you’ll make life better for us by taking care of the trailers and a couple of other errands.”
That evening Barbara lay with Jon in a hammock under the stars. “Jon, we can sterilize the transfusion gear as often as needed. However, we can only use the faster recovery method on about a dozen more people before we run out of synthetic blood. We’ll need to bring some of the outsiders into the loop to scavenge the medical offices and hospitals for the synthetic blood.”
“I think we should do Walt and Charlie first, and then Meg and Bob.”
Barbara agreed, “That’ll handle the politics and make Walt happy.”
Jon said, “A dozen people will take longer than the fourteen days we’ll be in quarantine. We have thirteen people in the home right now. Eight need immunity. My guess is it’ll take nine to twelve weeks to have all of us immune. And that means we mainly rest, and the odd person gives one half extra pint per three weeks.”
Barbara said, “And that extrapolates to around two hundred people in thirty-three to thirty-six weeks. I think we should give all of the transfusions to a person in a much shorter time. so they can be ready to pass on the immunity quicker.”
“I love it when you talk dirty scientific words.”
“Hey, stop. Someone might be … Oh, oh, no, don’t stop.”
The next morning after breakfast, Barbara put a schedule together to spread the immunity. She allowed Granny Jane to prioritize her family’s placement and told Walt to do the same. The first two chosen were Bob and Walt. Barbara and Jill trained Cindy, Meg, and Pat on how to sterilize the equipment first and then how to perform the transfusions. Meg was a bit shaky at first, but recovered and did a great job. Since there were only five donors, Jill gave a half pint to each of the two recipients.
Jon sat on the hammock, eating some peanut butter cookies and drinking an ice-cold glass of milk while covertly watching everything around him. It was still early morning, and he felt great, even after giving blood. Barbara’s orders were to rest, so he rested with his binoculars glued to his eyes. His first thought was that for a man who’d retired early to raise a few cows, Walt was quite the rancher. A hundred cattle roamed around the pastures close to the house, and thousands were roaming all around the area.
Bob joined him in an Adirondack chair and said, “How’s it hanging?”
“Great, I feel great this morning. Hey, Bob, aren’t you a rancher and farmer?”
Bob chuckled, “I’ll bet you’re wondering how those five or six cows multiplied into several hundred.”
“Yep, I’m not saying there's anything shady going on, but it bears looking at, doesn’t it?”
“Bud, I like the way you think. Barbara did good finding you. I hope she keeps you. She can be a bit intense.”
Jon nodded then chuckled, “I thought she was a pompous asshole when I met her, but I couldn’t help falling in love with her. She’s passionate about everything she believes in, and that’s very sexy to me.”
Bob’s eyes darted around, and then he looked down. Jon heard a sweet voice behind him. “I may be a pompous asshole, but I’m your pompous asshole. Hey, how many calves can five or six cows have in ten to fifteen years? There’s been a lot of cows fu …err …scre …you know what I mean. Having sex around here.”
Bob said, “Jon, my hat’s off to you if you can get her to clean up her language. She used to hang out with the field hands and learned every curse word in the book. She dropped the F-bomb during her valedictorian speech in high school. Mom had a cow.”
Barbara sat down in Jon’s lap. Jon wrapped his arms around her and said, “I think Walt and friends gathered a bunch of cattle while they were clearing out the infected people. I’m sure ranches abandoned the cows, but it just seems a bit dirty.”
Barbara asked, “Is that any different than us gathering supplies from abandoned stores or trucks from dealers?”
“Nope, you’re right. I just keep thinking we should be eating steak.”
Jon heard a noise coming from behind them. Walt rode up on a four-wheeler. “Hello, I’ve been out on the range and found the fences have been cut. Are any of you up to helping me chase down some cows and bandits? The rustlers will be armed, but generally, I can reach out and tap them with my .338 Lapua from over a thousand yards and keep us safe.”
Bob and Jon volunteered and went to get their M4s.
Walt opened the door to the machinery shed, and there was a half dozen side by sides and four-wheeled ATVs. Walt said, “Take your pick. I salvaged them from around town from the abandoned homes and businesses.”