Chapter 09: Stupid Ideas Justified
“We have some new information on the plagues that constitute The Great Death that everyone listening should be aware of. It may not help you avoid it, but at least it will give everyone a common frame of reference.
There appear to be at least five different component plagues of the Great Death. We’ve decided to name them in reference to specific figures, not because of any specific reason, but just because we needed some terms we could easily use. Normally one uses Latin names, but never having attended Catholic school, no one here is up on their Latin.
The first, GD1, or Lindasis, a favorite of mine since it’s named after my mother, is denoted by little purple pimples with radiating blue veins leading away from it. It seems to impact the blood stream, causing the blood supply to become sluggish, starving the various organs of vital nutrients.
The next, GD2, or Ellenosis, is marked by the open bleeding sores on the flesh. This is a slightly more contagious variant as the exposed blood is more easily passed between victim and caregiver. Victims also tend to bleed internally and spit up blood unexpectedly. This seems to occur when the liver and stomach lining ruptures. This one has been noted in various animal forms as well.
GD3, named Sinclarium, is observed by a slight bluish cast to the skin. Again, this is the result of restricted blood flow, often intermittent.
GD4, called Floraosis, is marked by non-bleeding pimples, similar to those found in Ellenosis, although it doesn’t affect the blood directly.
Finally, GD5 or Amiosis doesn’t have any obvious marks on the face or skin, but it’s fairly clear when someone has it simply because of how sick they become without any clear symptoms. We aren’t exactly sure whether it’s a single disease or a compilation of other non-symptomatic ones, but it’s important to note that not all sufferers or survivors will bear specific distinguishing marks.
It’s important to note that surviving any one of these will make you immune to it, but it won’t provide any protection from the other variants. There seems to currently be an easing in the transmission rates, but we suspect that’s because the number of transmission sources (i.e. living entities that can pass blood, saliva or contaminated exhalations) have died out. It’s been suggested that these diseases were largely spread by insects, mosquito, ticks and even dust mites, but these and other insects that feed on sick individuals have seemingly died off, easing the risk of exposure.
However, that doesn’t mean you’re safe. Always use security precautions such as we’ve described when outside where you may encounter anyone. It doesn’t take much to become contaminated, a stray cough, a light touch, or even touching the same surface. Personally, we live off of collected bottles of antiseptic hand lotions. Since there’s no cure, the only way to survive it is to avoid it in the first place.
Of the five possible disease transmission modes, these plagues use all five. They’re air-borne, they’re transmitted via both direct and indirect contact, they can be transmitted via shared food or utensils, as we said they can be transmitted via insect bites, and although we haven’t documented it, we’re assuming that since these appear to be viral that it’s also transmitted from mother to child. It seems to be transmitted via bodily fluids, anything from sweat, saliva, blood or damp skin cells.
Finally, we learned something particularly useful, though hard to apply. We’ve discovered that dogs have the ability to smell the Great Death contagions. The only problem, as most of you probably already know, is that dogs—given their tendency to lick roll around in and eat dead things—have been hit particularly hard by these plagues. However, if you can find one, or any other animal that can be trained to sniff and alert, you stand a much better chance of avoiding infections, either directly via another person or indirectly by touching something previously touched by an infected person.
Anyway, that’s all for today. We still don’t know if anyone is listening, but if they are, we wish you the best in coping in these hard times, and hope you’re working together to prepare for the difficult times ahead.”
“Dad, just so you’re aware, there are several things you’ve missed over the past couple of days,” Alice informed her father over a belated breakfast while the others prepared to head out. Mattie was currently resting, David had showered, and everyone else had put off doing anything else until they’d gotten the two of them settled. “Greg got everyone to clear the dead fish from off the surface of the pond. It may not be ‘clean’ yet, but at least it doesn’t look quite so horrific.
“But perhaps of more interest, Tobias finally radioed back. He finally made it to Florida yesterday. Not knowing where he was, he headed up the coast looking for an inlet rather than having to beach one of the few functioning boats. That took him even further off course, but he entered the… uh… the Boynton Beach Inlet, where he’s taken refuge until he figures out where to go from there. That puts him just outside Palm Beach, which is a ways north of Miami. He planned to leave his boat in a private marina he found, grab a local car and drive north along the coast, seeing what he can find. He’ll report in if and when he finds anything.”
“He should do more than that,” David reminded her. “There’s no telling what he’s going to find. He should be checking in at specific times so we’ll know if something has happened to him.”
“And what would we do if anything has happened to him?” Greg asked from behind the counter. “We can’t exactly hop on a plane and fly down to help him out, or even call the local cops to look for him. Face it, he’s on his own. He’ll either succeed or fail on his own, with no help from us. If he can provide decent intel, then so much the better. But if he doesn’t, that’s sad, but it doesn’t really change anything.”
“Yeah, I guess, but we’re in contact with so few people, I hate to lose any of them,” David responded.
“That’s understandable, but you can’t take what happens to them personally, as you’ve got no control over their lives. They’re only distant voices, and they’re outside of your control. Try to keep that in mind and don’t claim them as your own as yet,” Greg cautioned. David simply nodded, anxious to be underway.
Finishing, David was ready to get back out and interact with the world again. But when he tried to follow the others as they headed out, Alice reminded him he had some things he’d left undone that the others were depending on; namely establishing power to the other homes. When she broached the subject, Greg told him he’d already disconnected the houses from the larger power grid from the overhead power line on the street, so all he’d have to do it flip the power on when he switched the power on from the house. However they couldn’t wait around while he did that, so they left, telling him where to find them if he wanted to join them later.
Despite feeling mildly frustrated, David could hardly object. He’d been out of it for days, and he’d fallen way behind on a variety of tasks. The others had been very accommodating by picking up his work, but there were certain things that only he could do.
However, he was amazed once again at how weak he felt after being largely immobile for several days, and it hadn’t been that long since he’d been so sick himself. He could only imagine what Mattie felt like at the moment. Although Alice had assisted him, she’d also been helping the others finding things in town and getting them acclimated with their weapons, so she’d been getting out and moving about more than he had.
It didn’t take long to switch the power over to the outside line. Since it had been shut off, Greg had been free to handle all the high power lines without fear of electrocution, but he’d left the power off at each house, so David now had to go to each one, turning it on, testing it and ensuring they didn’t burn anything down in the process.
They still hadn’t worked out who was going to live where. For now everyone seemed happy with remaining with them, although the topic worried David. With three contagious carriers, four unexposed ‘plague virgins’ and one other still vulnerable to other infections, it seemed like an unacceptable risk to him. But if they chose to accept it, then it didn’t make much sense in his second guessing their judgments. As much as he worried about it, he would hate losing Tom or Monique, even if they only moved to the end of the long driveway.
Turning on the power at each house was easy enough, although it was a bit tedious. Basically he had to drive to each house, find the main fuse box in the dark house using a flashlight, check all the connections one last time and flip the power on, then check the various electronics in the house. Once he finished, he turned it off again and went to the next house. He assumed if anyone wanted to move out, they’d select whichever house they wanted, so it made no sense leaving the power on at any one house. Still, getting them set up was a major milestone. It meant that they were now ready to house other residents in the comfort they’d grown accustomed to, even if they hadn’t been able to appreciate it for some weeks now.
He had to use the walkie-talkies to locate the others as they were making such steady progress they’d moved away from their starting point. They’d worked out quite a system. Greg and Melissa would carry the bodies out while Monique carted out any infected sheets, mattresses or other items that looked like they’d been compromised. Alice, having already trained Lassie a bit, was putting him to use inspecting carpets, couches and towels for the scent of disease. Anything he turned his nose up at went out.
It turned out they were storing everything in a trailer they’d found. The plan was to dispose of them later, probably by burning them. They couldn’t do so safely, but Greg assured him he had a plan to take care of it.
Betty and Melissa scoured the street and yards, picking up all the animal carcasses they found, tossing them on the dead truck. After they finished, Alice and Monique carried out the boxes of supplies they’d scavenged to the truck that Greg was using, one of the ones David ‘rescued’ from the armory attack. However, David suggested they leave some staples there, arguing they didn’t have unlimited space, and anyone hoping to use the houses in the future would appreciate them.
Still, they were working as a well-organized unit, and they were making steady progress.
“We found a juicer, a nut grinder and some canning supplies,” Monique told David. “That will allow us to keep vegetables throughout the year, or if things turn bad, for however long it takes before we can grow them again.”
“It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s little things like that which will keep us going when the gas and other supplies run out,” David said, congratulating her.
They moved to the next block and started again, when Melissa called for David. Curious, Alice and Lassie followed. Walking across the street, they entered a modest house, walked through the entranceway to a small back room, where Melissa made a grand sweeping gesture, revealing a pottery room, complete with potter’s wheel, kiln, various glazes and clay working tools.
“Wow, this is big. I’d heard about a local artisan who did pottery, but I never met her and had no idea where she lived.”
“Well, she didn’t survive, but there’s a lot of other stuff. Not only are there a bunch of paintings she did, but apparently she collected and traded other people’s artwork as well, so we can grab anything that grabs your fancy.”
“It’ll take a while to cart all this stuff off. We can’t leave it here, since we’d need electricity to run it and it’s too valuable in the long run to risk losing. So, do any of you have an inclination for pottery? It could become a new career path in our new economy.”
“I don’t know about the pottery, but I wouldn’t mind playing around with the paints,” Betty said, entering from the other room carrying some sample prints. “She also has a small printing press.”
“I’m not sure being a free-lance painter will be as useful as being a potter would be. I suspect there’s too many existing pieces of art hanging abandoned in people’s homes as it is.”
“Yeah, but I did fair amount of painting in school, and I wouldn’t mind doing some more,” she objected.
“That’s fine, but just don’t confuse that with the more essential tasks we have ahead of us. It’ll be better to focus on it when we’re snowed in over the winter.”
“What about the printing press?” Alice asked. “Will that be helpful?”
“Eventually, I guess, but in the short term we still have printers, and I doubt it’s a high volume typographical press. While it’s probably good for doing artwork, it would be pretty useless for printing books. It’s more geared for low-volume high-quality prints rather than the low-quality mass productions we’d be interested in.”
“I guess that means we should try to find a printing press,” Alice suggested.
“That makes sense, although there’s been no large scale printing with presses in a long time. We’d have to try searching antique houses or specialty book makers, which would involve searching a nearby city. We’ll have to keep our eyes open, but it’s not a high priority, as the likelihood of finding any is pretty low.”
“Still, nothing says we can’t look,” she replied, leafing through the artwork. “I like this one,” she said, picking out a picture of an angelic figure flying into the sky. David wondered why she found it attractive, suspecting it may be the imagery and the implications behind it, but he chose not to comment on it.
“Well, this is too much for us to carry. You’ll have to go dump the bodies while I return to get a truck big enough to cart this stuff back. You others can divvy up the other stuff.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Melissa agreed, “though we should leave most of the stuff here, since we’ll start again tomorrow.”
“Sounds good, but it’s getting late and I’m still anxious about leaving Mattie for too long,” David added.
“Dad, I’ve got Tobias on the line again,” Alice called out. She’d gone in to prepare her nightly broadcast after they’d returned home, but had decided to check the ham radio to see if she could reach anyone again.
“Good, it’s about time I talked to him,” David said entering the radio room—what had once been his own private office—but which was now littered with various bits of radio technology. It was made even worse as Tom had taken to dumping his various books here until they could get some better shelving up in what had once been David’s living room.
“Go ahead, Tobias, where are you now and what’s been happening to you?” Alice prompted their faraway friend. Since they were the only ones on the open airwaves, they’d given up following the traditional ham radio protocols.
“Well, first let me say that it wasn’t as noticeable out on the open sea, but the beaches here in Florida are littered with dead animals of all kinds. Fish, dolphin, turtles, whales, birds, mice, crabs, you name it. There aren’t that many human bodies, but it’s apparent as soon as you enter any of the houses that they’ve been rotting in the hot unair-conditioned homes. What’s more, most of these massive seaside homes with the beautiful ocean side windows are now exposed to the unfiltered ocean air and mold is growing rampantly, so most of them are no longer habitable. No one has built a home suited for the oceanfront environment here for at least a good fifty years now.”
“That’s fascinating, but we’re hoping to get more specific information,” David related. He quickly introduced himself before getting to his point. “Is there anyone there that’s still alive? Any sign of an organized community?”
“Well, I drove into South Palm Beach, normally a pretty busy oceanfront tourist area, but most of the homes and businesses here are either boarded up, or were never repaired after the meteor storm, showing that they haven’t been occupied for some time. It looks like the whole town has been abandoned. I thought I saw a couple of people, but I only got fleeting images of them and could never confirm what I’d thought I saw.”
“Yeah, we had the same thing here,” Alice informed him. “People are afraid to interact. They’re still afraid that the plagues are carried on the wind, and that if they get downwind of you, you’ll infect them.”
“I guess I can see that, but it makes it difficult trying to do a tally. I’ve been checking out various houses and businesses, and most of them have already been stripped of food, although there’s plenty of fancy furniture and electronics, so there’s no widespread looting going on.”
“That may have happened before the big die-off,” David suggested. “Chances are everyone on the beach ate all the available food, and then when the heat started making things difficult, they split.”
“That may very well be. I managed to find a locked storeroom in a beach club which had a lot of canned goods in it, so that’ll hold me for a while. There are some big-assed hotels here, and while there are a few dead bodies stinking up the place, most of the rooms are empty. But the big news is that I found someone, a woman, who like me was hiding out in an abandoned hotel. She was desperate to get off the island so she decided to join me.”
“Does she know what happened there?” David asked.
“No, she says she got sick and woke up to find everyone dead. But she was from a ways up the beach. She’d been avoiding people, but when she discovered there wasn’t anyone else, she walked to the hotel here.”
“Is it that hard to get off the island?” Alice asked, confused as she’d thought the barrier islands were fairly well connected to the mainland.
“That’s the other news I had to report. When we tried to exit the island, heading to South Palm Beach proper, we came under fire. It seems that someone, or a group of people, are preventing anyone from crossing the bridges. I’m planning on heading back to my boat and sailing around the area to Palm Beach itself, hoping I’ll find a slightly friendlier reception.”
“It sounds like they forcibly isolated the infected people in the community to the beach, and are still keeping a watch to prevent their return,” David suggested.
“That may be, but I’m guessing any organized effort to isolate people probably ended when most of their members died. I’d guess that this was organized after the big die-off,” Tobias responded.
“Well, at least you know there are survivors,” David said. “What you need is some way to reach out to them, either there or in Palm Beach. Grab what you can while you’re there, but you need to be looking for things like generators, bottled water, used smartphones or iPods you can charge up to trade with. You’ll probably have to leave things with anyone you see to entice them to trust you. If you charge up an old iPod, record a message explaining what you’re trying to do, and leave it with some food, you may be able to win them over.”
“That makes sense, but the people guarding the bridge don’t seem to be very open to negotiations. I’ve tried a couple of different bridges, and each one has been similar, so rather than driving up the coast, trying one bridge after another, I figured sailing around the trouble might be a better option.
“Wait, posting guards on a number of brides and staffing it 24/7 has got to require a significant number of people. It sounds like there’s a LOT of survivors there,” David pointed out.
“Not really. We only tried the two bridges, and the second one wasn’t actually guarded, per se. Instead it was closed with a large notice announcing it had been shut down due to damage from the initial meteor storm. We walked out on it, working our way past the blockade, but Olivia pointed out that someone had hidden spikes in several of the potholes, so we were afraid to venture very far across. The other bridges we tried were either too hard to reach, or were too heavily damaged. I’m not sure there are a lot of people involved, but it seems to be a very concerted effort to restrict access.”
“Damn, that’s something I’m fighting here as well. We can’t have people willy-nilly deciding who’s allowed to access public roads and bridges,” David fumed.
“That may be a solid philosophical stand, but we weren’t about to argue the point sitting on a bridge with someone firing at us. Chances are the bridge isn’t guarded consistently, but we aren’t willing to try it again, figuring they won’t be as forgiving about letting us go the next time.”
“Still, it just irks the hell out of me,” David responded, sounding like he wanted to drive down and set the situation right then and there.
“Anyway, we spent last night in a very exclusive hotel executive suite overlooking the ocean. We’ll do the same tonight and then double back to my boat in the morning. I’m curious, though, is there anything I should look for besides people and food?”
“You should visit any clinics you can find to look for medical supplies. Don’t bother with the hospitals, as they’ll all be horribly contaminated since they were warehousing plague victims. Hopefully the clinics all closed down and wouldn’t be seriously compromised, but make sure you get in and out quickly.
“You won’t be able to use any refrigerated medicines, but if you can stumble across some antibiotic pills it would help. Surgical tools, stethoscopes, things like that would be helpful, even if you can’t use them right away. Wraps, cast materials, things like that will help if anyone breaks a leg.”
“Check the local schools or a library for books on how to do anything you’re not familiar with,” Alice suggested. “If you don’t grab them now, you may not have access to them in the future.”
“OK, the odds are we’ll encounter more people in South Beach, but we’ll see just how receptive they are. If they’re as inhospitable as the one’s here are, we may just pull into a private dock and establish a home for ourselves, only venturing out to explore later. I’d rather one of us was safe if the other one comes under fire.”
David and Alice heard an argument break out over the radio at that point, showing the unidentified woman didn’t agree with that strategy, but Tobias came back online before long.
“Anyway, we’ll let you know what we find later. Right now there are still some places I’d like to check before we leave.”
“Well, good luck. You’ll probably need it. We’re pulling for you,” David said before they signed off.
“That’s certainly not very encouraging,” he said, turning to Alice. “I’m hoping we have better luck than that when we begin exploring more, but it shows the common mindset of people.”
“Well, it’s encouraging to know that people have survived, even if they aren’t receptive to helping each other,” Alice observed.
“David, I want to bring up a fairly delicate topic, so I hope you’ll listen first and then respond only after seriously considering it,” Monique began after they’d finished dinner, while everyone was relaxing before getting up to clean away the dishes.
“Go on, I’m listening,” David responded. “After all, it doesn’t help if we belittle ideas or keep people from suggesting things.”
“OK,” she said, taking a deep breath before beginning, steeling herself for his reaction. “As we’ve observed, there seems to be something you passed to Mattie that allowed her to survive, even though the plasma transfer infected her and made her sick in the first place.”
“And very nearly killed her in the process,” David reminded her.
Monique didn’t respond, merely staring at him, so he decided he was supposed to be quiet like she’d suggested. When he didn’t say anything else she continued.
“Anyway, if this wasn’t a completely random occurrence, it holds enormous potential in terms of a possible cure. We’d have to figure out what the active component in your plasma is, and how we can limit and control it, but it holds such amazing potential that we can’t ignore it.”
She stopped, watching his reaction as if waiting for a response. When he didn’t, she continued again, observing that everyone else was watching the discussion attentively, watching him nervously as she did so.
“So what I’m suggesting is that we need to establish that it wasn’t a random occurrence, and that there’s something in your blood that allows people to survive the multiple plagues. However, instead of applying the plasma therapy in a haphazard method, stopping as soon as the individual becomes ill, we need to apply it to a healthy test subject, and continue the treatment for the course of the illness, and measure whether it affects the course of the disease.”
“Wait, are you suggesting we do animal testing? Because I believe we already ruled that out until they have time to recover. Besides, there aren’t any animals remaining that are that similar to human physiology.”
“I never suggested testing animals,” she answered levelly, staring him straight in the eye.
“Uh, so what are you suggesting?” he asked, afraid of the obvious implications.
“I’m suggesting the oldest method of scientific discovery. When previous generations of scientists were convinced of their new methods of treatment, they were willing to bet their lives on it by testing it on themselves. Scientists like Madame Curie testing radium, Stephen Hoffman testing irradiated mosquitoes, or even Jonas Salk, who tested the polio vaccine on himself.”
Even though David was ready to jump out of his chair in response, he willed himself to stay seated, squeezing his fists to control his emotions. Monique finally signaled that he was allowed to respond, so he leaned forward, getting visible upset.
“You mean you want to infect yourself with the Great Death, which is very likely to not only kill you, but to make you die an incredibly painful excruciating death as well?”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” she replied levelly, meeting his challenging stare without blinking. She knew she had to be convincing if he was ever to buy into this argument, so she couldn’t afford to show any doubt she might have at the idea. “We need to do the test on someone healthy and that understands the importance of the research. Who’s willing to potentially sacrifice themselves in the hopes it can help others survive.”
“But we have no way of knowing whether it will work or not. We only have a single case to judge this from. We have no idea of what kinds of odds you’d be facing, what kind of survival rate the process grants someone.”
“No, and unless we try it, we’ll never know. But the idea of testing it on people who’ve already started showing symptoms is problematic. Not only are their immune systems already compromised, but the timing is incredibly difficult to arrange with any certainty.”
“No, there’s no way I’d agree to that,” David insisted, even while his mind was busy dancing with the very idea.
“Actually, she makes a lot of sense,” Tom suggested. “We need to know if this treatment would be safer or have less drastic effects if applied to someone healthy. You may have given it to Mattie too late for it to have its full effect. We don’t have enough animals to do testing on, but now we at least have enough people, and here we have one who’s actually volunteering for it.”
“Still, we have too few people remaining to intentionally infect one of our own,” David insisted.
“But if we can determine the success of this option, and broadcast the results, we could potentially have dozens of researchers working on it. With a lot of eyes studying it, we should be able to identify what’s in your plasma that aids in someone’s survival,” Tom argued, sounding like he was already convinced. That only made David wonder whether they’d already agreed in advance about this, preparing to hit him with a prearranged one-two punch. “With such a low survival rate, anything we can do to increase the recovery odds would be a tremendous help.”
“Right, we’re going to reach dozens of researchers with fully functioning labs when we’ve only been able to contact a single person so far?” David countered.
“We’ve been broadcasting steadily for a while now. We have no idea who may be listening to us, or what facilities they may have. And even if their labs aren’t fully equipped, they can still do a lot of the legwork,” Tom countered.
“That may be, but there’s no way I’ll allow you, Monique, to do this,” David countered. He knew their arguments were well rehearsed and formidable, so he was hoping to short circuit them, cutting their points out from under them. “You’re our only available medical person. While you may not be able to help with the Great Death cases, you’ll be essential if someone breaks an arm, or needs their appendix removed. No, you’re too valuable to risk. And Tom can’t do it either,” David pressed, hoping to head off his suggesting himself. “He’s the only one who could do any subsequent research, so we can’t afford to lose either of you.”
Both Tom and Monique sat in a confused silence. They hadn’t expected this particular response. While they’d expected a fight, they hadn’t counted on his refusing on quite these grounds. All their prearranged arguments were for naught, and they didn’t know how to respond to this very basic question.
“Then how about me?” Betty asked from the end of the table, where no one was paying her much attention. Everyone instantly stared at her, trying to determine whether she was serious or not. “I don’t have any specialized skills, I’m young, fit and in good physical health, and frankly, I’m tired of living in fear. If I can do this and guarantee I’ll be protected from contracting this horrendous disease for the rest of my life, then I say it’s worth the risk, if only so I don’t have to live in fear for the rest of my life.”
“But surely you can’t believe that?” David asked, not sure he could believe it himself. “You’re willing to risk your life on a risky procedure that may prove nothing at all after everything is said and done?”
“Absolutely,” she answered with conviction. “The rest of you seem to have accepted that you need to avoid everyone else in your lives, but watching you and your daughter, and how attentive you were with Mattie while she was sick, reminds me of what I miss most about the old world, the intimacy of human contact that we’ve lost. We’re all afraid to touch each other, afraid someone might contaminate us.”
“Uh, haven’t you and Greg, uh…?” David asked, not wanting to accuse anyone of something they may not have actually done.
“No, neither Melissa nor I have ever fooled around with Greg the entire time we were traveling together. We knew if we did the tensions between the other person would drive us all apart, and we could never trust that one of us might not actually be infected and simply didn’t know it yet. Instead whenever we got an itch, we took care of it ourselves. Greg would wander off into the bushes, while Melissa and I would scrunch down in our sleeping bags and try to not make any noise.”
“Still, death is a pretty severe price to pay because you miss being touched.”
“It’s not just being touched, it’s being human,” Betty responded, her eyes blazing with conviction as she decided herself she was serious about this. “It’s allowing yourself to be free, to relax and not have to fear what allowing someone to touch you might mean. Or what will happen if a glove tears, or a filter fails, or a bleach cleaning will do to protective clothing and masks. If all we have to look forward to is fear, then we’ve lost most of our humanity already. I’m willing to sacrifice myself for a shot to get my innocence back. I want to have fun again, without fearing letting my hair down might kill someone.”
“But if you do this, you still won’t be able to touch anyone,” David reminded her. “I haven’t been able to even shake any of your hands since you’ve gotten here. I haven’t hugged anyone besides Alice and Mattie, and when I finally gave Mattie the hug she wanted, she got ill.”
“Hmph,” she grunted in disgust. “I haven’t been able to touch anyone anyway. We’re all afraid that someone else might get sick at any moment, so we all keep to ourselves, afraid to get within downwind range of anyone else. Still, I see how close the three of you are. It’s clear that Mattie already thinks the world of you. I want a small piece of that. I want to be able to hug someone again. I want to share a chair, someone’s shirt, or even someone’s lap, without wondering if it’ll kill me.”
“Still…,” David tried to argue, but found no ready objections to dissuade her with.
“She’s got a point, Dad. They all do,” Alice said. She was impressed at everyone’s response. Not only had Monique been willing to do this herself, speaking forcefully to her father in an effort to do it herself, but when she’d been shot down, both Tom and Betty had shown they were willing to do it too. She was also convinced that if her father could convince Betty not to, that the others in the room would each volunteer for this onerous duty. “If we can figure out how to survive this, we may single-handedly save humanity. How long do you think everyone can avoid anyone else? Even sitting here, sharing a common table is a life or death challenge. All it would take is a single cough, or dropping a fork or a pea that rolls to someone else’s plate. We need to do this. If it doesn’t work, then at least we’ll know it isn’t that reliable. But to do nothing when we might have a solution the entire world is waiting for, because we’re afraid of the death everyone is already facing on a daily basis, is just plain silly.”
“Wait a minute, while what she says makes sense, I don’t want anyone else taking my risks for me,” Monique said, acting upset that Betty was stealing her thunder. “While Betty may be willing to undergo this, I’m a better candidate. Not only do I have the objective distance to make a better informed decision, but I’ll know what’s happening so I can relate and record what’s happening to me, and having already suffered from one variant, I should have a better chance at recovery than anyone else would.”
“The hell with that,” David replied with a sour expression. “Once you get sick, you won’t even be able to look anyone in the eyes much less write in your damn notebook. Your education won’t make a bit of difference once you’re lying there sweating and shaking. No, if we do this we need someone as healthy as possible, rather than someone we can’t afford to lose.”
“But…,” Monique tried to argue before David cut her off.
“Just shut up for a moment. This is all coming at me too fast and furious. I need to contemplate it. This is serious shit we’re talking about here, and we’re talking about me purposefully infecting someone with something that could very well kill them. Let me think about it without confusing me. OK?”
Everyone was quiet, waiting with bated breath as David silently contemplated these insane ideas. He lowered his head and closed his eyes, trying to block everyone else’s arguments out of his mind as he evaluated the points already argued. Finally he looked up. He didn’t notice it, but all three potential volunteers seemed to be poised for his decision, anxiously waiting to see if he’d select them.
“OK, I’ll agree to it. God help me, but I’ll do it. Just be aware, if this goes wrong I’ll never forgive myself for agreeing to it. In fact, I can’t imagine putting anyone through what Alice, Mattie and I have gone through, so I think the rest of you simply don’t know what you’re suggesting. But if you’re all convinced it’s necessary and that it’s what you want to do, I’m hardly qualified to convince you you’re wrong,” he told them tiredly, as if he’d suddenly accepted a heavy load on his shoulders which was already weighing him down.
“Which of us should do it then?” Betty asked, not sure since three separate people had volunteered for it.
“As I said, I don’t think expertise means diddly, and we need both Monique and Tom, so it’ll have to be Betty. Sorry, Betty, but I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer with this. I hope you can forgive me once we start.”
“Don’t worry, I think I know what I’m getting into, and even if I don’t, I at least know that there isn’t much of a choice. Someone has to do it, and if I can help change the future of mankind, then I’m willing to sacrifice myself,” she told him with a false conviction intended to convince him as much as herself.
“I’ll get started drawing blood and separating the plasma,” Tom offered, ready to begin working on it immediately he was so excited by it. “If we’re going to do this, we should have plenty of plasma on hand.”
“We also need to set up the cabin better,” Monique suggested. Despite being disappointed at not being selected, she was still excited at what this may or may not reveal. This was major, and could change everything! “We need to set up IVs, which means we’ll have to restrain the patient,” she continued, her eyes positively sparkling. “I know you like to let the patients thrash around like gasping fish, but it’s really not ideal if we’re going to try to treat them at the same time.”
David wasn’t sure he liked how he handled those suffering the agony of the Great Death reduced to such a dismissive summation, but someone else spoke up before he could object.
“We’ll also need to monitor them the entire time,” Tom said. “We’ll need to be much more involved this time. We need to time the various stages of the disease, monitor vitals, document which diseases peak at which times. All this is vital information that would give us important insights, both to the procedure and concerning the diseases as well.”
“This will take a couple days to prepare, so we can all continue working until then,” Greg decided, “just so we don’t lose that much time. After all, once you begin, it’ll involve most of us.”
“You people aren’t going anywhere near there,” David warned them. “During the worst of it, everyone had diarrhea, excessive sweating, and were prone to vomiting. They couldn’t control their bowels or when they’d pee themselves, and there was blood, sweat and shit everywhere. There are just too many sources of contamination. Alice and I can clean up the mess, but if you get in there you’re sure to become infected as well.”
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll sit in the corner and quietly observe,” Monique suggested. “As you said, Tom is too vital to risk. I may not be any less valuable, but I at least know what to measure and what to look for. I’ll hand you the new IVs, and tell you what you need to know, but I’ll also be able to observe the entire process, which will be important if we want to understand how the diseases progresses and how best to treat them in the future.”
“Yeah, even if this is a complete failure, at least we’ll learn more about the diseases,” Tom suggested.
“Why thanks,” Betty replied sarcastically. “I’m glad my death will mean so much to you.”
“Sorry, that clearly wasn’t what I meant,” he said, trying to apologize, even though everyone there knew that was exactly what he’d meant.
Everyone headed out, anxious to get as much accomplished as they could before the big event. Even though only a few people could actually participate, they were all eager to see what happened, but they also knew that while it was occurring, their numbers would be substantially restricted. While the others went about their tasks, Tom and Monique set about getting things ready. They took blood from both David and Alice, not wanting to risk taking Mattie’s yet while she was still recovering, noting they’d also take some in the afternoon and the next couple days as well. Normally no one would take that much blood so quickly, but they felt the situation called for it, and they figured that David would be fine if he was weaker while watching over Betty. After all, he wouldn’t be walking around or operating any heavy machinery.
After they finished drawing their blood, Greg, Alice and the girls headed back to where they’d left off the day before, while David and Betty focused on setting one of the homes they’d connected power to as the new ‘art studio’, installing the kilns, potter’s wheel and other supplies. It took a bit to wrestle everything into place, but between the two of them it wasn’t hard to accomplish.
As they were beginning to leave, David had a burst of inspiration.
“Where are we heading?” Betty asked. “The guys were going to be working in that direction, and that way is home.” David had noticed that Betty had been sticking to his side since they’d decided this new course of action, as if she was afraid to be far from him.
“I’m heading somewhere else. I just thought of something we hadn’t stopped to consider yet, and I’d like to see what we can grab now while we have the chance.”
He drove them to the community college that Billy, Adrian and Frank had come from and where he’d gotten his radio broadcasting equipment from after the college lost their ability to use it due to their loss of electricity. While it was a regional school, it was still several towns away, so the drive took a little while. Betty didn’t bother to ask what they were looking for, although she could think of several different things. Instead she just waited to see where they headed.
They pulled up in front of one of the administration buildings, and David got out and headed in, with Betty hurrying after him.
“I’m looking for where they store the college’s servers. I want to find where they keep any online course material. If we can find them and take them back, we should be able to make copies of the self-study college degree programs that we can use in the future to ensure we don’t lose too much knowledge in the coming years.
“Start checking each of the rooms. If you see computers, note where they were. If you see a room of servers, basically shelves of computer components, yell. If you see any laptops, grab them. Otherwise ignore everything unless something unusual catches your eye.”
It took some time, and a change of buildings before they found what they were looking for. They had to work a while to unplug everything, trace the various cables and note what connected to where, then a lot of effort to lug everything outside, but they managed to find a place for much of it by breaking down the equipment into its component pieces.
“Well, that should give us something to do. It’s too bad you won’t be in any condition to investigate this stuff, since you’ve been to college more recently than the rest of us, but this next bit should help with that. We’ve got several places to check out. I’m going to hit the college bookstore, picking up at least one copy of everything I can find. We won’t find any great treasures here, since this is only a community college and doesn’t cover any of the more advanced subjects, but hopefully they’ll have more specialized training material; like nursing, welding or mechanical repair. You should search the classrooms and professor’s offices, looking for any course material we can find a use for, but also personal items like laptops, thumb drives or anything interesting you can turn up. Don’t worry about bodies, from what I understand most people left after the power went out initially.”
The search took quite a while, partly because Betty began breaking open the school’s lockers, finding a surprising amount of laptops and student drives. They had no idea why they’d leave things like that here, partly because they were afraid they’d be unsafe at home, but it was what David had been hoping for, as the student’s drives would likely contain more esoteric items like music and entertainment they wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
They ended up arriving home late due to the extensive searches with their SUV fully loaded down. However, they also found the keys to the school’s security staff’s truck, so Betty drove that after they’d loaded it with additional supplies. It took longer to drive home, since they didn’t want to risk jostling their cargos on the rough roads. They arrived home fairly late.
When they began carrying the computer equipment into the house, they attracted a lot of attention, and when they explained what they’d found, everyone helped them carry the equipment in. They finally decided they didn’t have the room for it all in the main house and would shift it to one of the other houses, but Tom thought they could set up the server computers by his lab equipment so they could examine what was stored on each of the servers. While Tom was busy with other things, Betty and Melissa were more than happy to examine the contents of the machines, while Alice and Debbie examined each of the laptops they’d recovered, looking for interesting cultural artifacts worth saving.
Unfortunately, they also found a lot of saved internet porn, which they didn’t think was quite as valuable. However, rather than deleting it, they figured they’d just leave it. After all, there was no telling what someone might want to save when left to their own desires. As a result of their searches, they soon had quite an eclectic mix playing on the house’s speakers, filling their home with an interesting collection of new music. It helped lighten everyone’s mood. Something they all needed since they knew what was about to occur.
That evening they threw a party. It was actually a combination party for both Mattie and Betty. While they’d had a small celebration for Mattie before, she’d been too weak to really appreciate it, so Melissa had taken the time to prepare a cake for the occasion. However, everyone knew that this wasn’t so much a celebration party as it was a goodbye party for Betty. As much as everyone insisted she would be fine, they were well aware this might be their final memories of her. Monique drew more blood from David and Alice, while Tom processed it, separating out the plasma and reinjecting the red blood cells to help maintain their immune systems.
Although everyone had a good time, the mood was somber, as everyone contemplated what might happen over the next several days, and how it would impact each and every one of them. David tried on a couple of opportunities to talk Betty out of it, but she was insistent. She wanted to do this, whatever the results. David still didn’t think she appreciated just how painful and difficult the process was, but it was hard for anyone who hadn’t been through it to understand, so he gave up trying to argue about it.
Alice noted with pride that Monique’s attitude towards her father had been progressing over the past several days. It had moved from grudging admiration, to amazement at his dedication, to respect for his decisions and choices. But lately it looked to be progressing even beyond that. Now she looked at him with a new regard, glancing at him surreptitiously whenever he wasn’t looking. She hoped things would progress in the direction she was hoping for, but she wasn’t about to jinx anything by speaking too soon. She knew they both needed to progress at their own pace.
“David, I hate to tell you this, but the school’s servers were a bust,” Melissa revealed to him while everyone was busy talking about everything but the bull in the room. “There wasn’t anything on them except homework assignments, class schedules and the like. I suspect students that needed other classes online signed up with other universities.”
“That’s too bad,” David responded, frowning. “I wasn’t really expecting to find much, but I was hoping we might get lucky.” At that, Betty giggled, causing David to regard her oddly, then he noticed Melissa smiling as well.
“That’s not to say we didn’t find anything, though,” Melissa continued. “We found one student’s laptop who had been taking a couple of online courses. While she didn’t have the actual courses on her computer, we managed to get her notes, the online books she’d downloaded and all the associated course work. With that, we can pretty much put the class together on our own. About all we’re missing are lectures and answer sheets.”
“Well, that’s better, but it’s only two courses. We’ll still need to visit some larger universities and see if we can find more material and hopefully some of the actual online course work. I’m not sure it’ll be any more useful than the course material, but it’s something I’d hate to lose. We’ve lost most of the expertise in a whole host of different fields, and retaining any portion of their knowledge for future generations would be worth a lot.”
“We’ll keep it in mind, but I suspect you’re going to have your hands full for several days,” Melissa replied with a sad smile, glancing at Betty. “Anyway, I’ll continue checking the other computers and thumb drives we found, and let you know if we discover anything new.”
The next day, after more blood extractions, they set off to continue cleaning up the local community. Except this time, while Greg, Alice, Lassie and Melissa continued with their house-to-house cleanup, David drove his own dead truck, and with Debbie and Betty’s help, they struck out for the nearby highway. The same one that David, Alice and their other housemates had cleaned up and repaired. As they worked to clean the dead animals off of it, mostly birds and small rodents, David recollected how Flora had lent her expertise helping Sheriff Ben Adams determine whether the large bridge crossing the river into town was stable. His eyes got a little misty at that recollection, and he wished he still had that knowledge, but more importantly that same youthful excitement and enthusiasm. The two girls with him now, while both young and energetic, seemed much older. Just as the young girls in the house previously had seemed to have matured rapidly, acknowledging the sexual relationships of the adults and openly teasing them about it, these girls seemed to have aged even more, now acting much more like weary people in the 40s or 50s. He knew they’d already seen too much to be quite that carefree ever again, and he regretting that fact too.
They spent a long time at it, cleaning off a large stretch of road in both directions surrounding the exit. David wanted it kept clean since it would alert anyone traveling along the old highway that not only were there survivors here, but that they took care of their community and were working to rebuild it. It might not make a difference, but he hoped it would get any travelers passing this region to stop by and investigate the area.
The road about a half mile in either direction was clean, free of debris, clear of potholes and empty of abandoned cars. It had taken a lot of work, both before and now, but David thought it was noticeable. He also noted the ominous warnings he’d left there earlier, a sign reading “No Highway Robbery” with three decapitated human heads mounted on poles still remained, showing little sign of decay. The eyes were vacant and the skin shriveled, but they hadn’t been picked apart by either birds or insects, so he suspected his warning would remain intact for some time. Something else he was glad would greet anyone entering the community in the future.
Finished, they climbed back in their vehicles and headed back.
“I’ll have to put up another sign, this one welcoming people and telling them to check the police station. That way it won’t alert anyone where we are, but will allow us to find them.”
“Or provide a handy place for them to set up an ambush,” Betty suggested a bit dourly.
“Yeah, there’s always that possibility, but at least we’d have a bit more control over it. As you know, I’ve left a working walkie-talkie there, so if anyone arrives they can radio us. Even if their intentions aren’t the best, they’d call just because they wouldn’t know where we were. That way we’ll know when they arrive and can prepare for any possible confrontations.”
“As the military academies used to always say, ‘you can’t prepare for the unexpected’, and nothing about an ambush is ‘expected’ by its very definition,” Betty commented.
“Still, I think we’ll find more people interested in joining us than we will enemies,” David argued.
“All it takes is one group of bad guys,” Debbie observed. “They can end all the good works of everyone else we meet.”
“That’s true, but I refuse to stand by and let any other survivors pass us by without reaching out to them. I’ve done as much as I can to shield us from anyone malicious. Beyond that, we just have to be both hopeful and cautious.”
They buried the bodies in a different spot this time. Since they’d buried so many bodies near the police station before the massive die-off, they’d had to abandon it for further burials. Now they were using the same tractor to dig further mass graves for human and animal carcasses in the smallish public park a short distance away. The way they were going, David figured it wouldn’t be long before they completely overturned and replanted the entire park.
“I’ll tell you what, the grass around here is getting pretty overgrown,” he told Debbie. “We’ve got goats, while I’m busy the next several days, why don’t you grab an adult and bring them down here and see if they can keep the place looking a little less… deserted.”
“Sure, I can do that, though I should be fine doing it on my own, as well. Although we have more people now, with the rest of you preoccupied, we’ll be stretched pretty thin.”
“No, I want you to always be cautious. We’ve already been shot at several times, and I don’t want anyone going anywhere alone, unarmed or without proper communications. Got it?”
“Yes, sir, I get it,” she answered with a mock salute, even though she looked a bit disappointed that David didn’t seem to trust her on her own. David figured he’d have to have Alice speak to her about her experiences. Maybe it would reach her more than he could.
Joining the others, who had gotten through much of the town and were now working on the outskirts. They each took on their previous roles while David helped Greg carrying the bodies out of the houses and to the truck. While doing so, David asked something that was bothering him.
“Find any animals?”
“Yeah, but as you expected, most were dead.”
“Recently, or did they die of starvation?”
“Frankly, I couldn’t tell. Since there aren’t any bugs to eat them, it’s harder guessing how long something’s been dead. As for how they died, starvation or the plague, they both look similar, and I wasn’t anxious to inspect them by hand. It’s one thing to carry a body for disposal, it’s another to poke and prod it.”
“That’s OK, I was just curious.”
“That accounts for most of them,” Greg concluded. “However, we have found a few that have survived,” he added with a smile.
“Really? Which ones?” David asked, getting excited despite it being a minor issue that he’d have figure out on his own soon enough anyway.
“One parrot, two ferrets and a few fish.”
“Hmm, the parrot is interesting but will be hard to control, the ferrets are great news, since with three we should have enough to produce babies. What kind of fish are they?”
“Tropical fish. We found two different fish tanks. One held goldfish; the other held three carnivorous fish. I think they’re called Oscars.”
“Hmm, that’s even more problematic. I’m not sure we have room to house multiple fish tanks in the house, and we can’t combine them or half would end up as lunch. We also can’t release them into the pond, so we’re stuck with what to do with them.”
“I’ll ask the girls, someone may be interested in keeping them. That would make it easier. Otherwise we could always put a tank divider in to separate them; then we wouldn’t need both tanks.”
“Yeah, but we need to decide how far to take the animal rescue project. I can see rescuing mammals and turtles, even birds if we can, but tropical fish? I’m not sure how much they’ll help the genetic diversity of the American animal population.”
“That’s the problem with assuming tasks. They quickly spiral out of control. You now have a mini-zoo, a couple of farms that need some farmers, a few hundred lots needing trimming, and you’re only getting started.”
“Yeah, I also don’t have the time to address it. I basically figured it would just be nursing a few stray animals until we managed to find some others to pair them up with, then when they recovered and began having babies trading them to other groups or releasing them to spread their genes around.”
“You know what they say about the best laid plans, don’t you?”
“Yeah, they often go astray,” David replied.
“No, they got laid because they’re so anxious to screw you,” Greg answered with a laugh. “I’m glad I’m not in charge. You decide what needs to be done, I’ll support you, but I don’t like the idea of deciding how best to rebuild society.”
Note: I'm going to issue next week's Chapter 10 on Saturday--instead of Wednesday--as an experiment on how many SOL readers I can reach by posting on a different day. I'll let you know the results in my blog, but I'll post on either next Wednesday or Saturday, depending on how it works out.
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