Chapter 16: A Surprise Visitor, and the Repercussions of His Visit
There was a flurry of activity in the household as they prepared to meet the newcomer, someone who hadn’t even bothered to introduce himself. Everyone wanted to go along, especially the kids left behind during the last trip, but David was forced to put his foot down as he did not want to intimidate the person they were meeting by arriving with an army of excited onlookers. He figured the stranger would be skittish enough as it was, and that the meeting would likely progress much more smoothly with a limited number of people attending.
To his surprise, Peter presented a decent counter argument. “But we’ve been practicing how to shoot and defend you the entire time you were gone!” the young man declared proudly. “We won’t shoot anyone, but we need some real world experience in how to deal with these types of encounters, especially when to not overreact. Having us along will get us used to how to respond. After all, if we have trouble in the future, you’ll need to train us how to handle these situations eventually.”
“Well…,” David hedged, considering the idea before making a quick decision.
“He’s got a good point,” Greg said, weighing in from the kitchen. “They say that for every police shooting, trained policemen fire a full seventeen shots for everyone hit they make. Having a bunch of untrained whippersnappers with guns is just plain dangerous.”
“Alight, you’ve convinced me,” David relented. “Practice on a shooting range is no substitute for practical experience in the real world. There are plenty of people trained for combat who freeze up in their first firefight, after all. Okay, some of you can come along,” he told them. However, that simple concession produced pandemonium, as each of the kids proceeded to argue about which of them would be a better choice to accompany the adults.
“We’ll settle this,” he said, giving them each a sharp look as he turned to Betty. “Who’s made the most progress on the firing range while we’ve been gone?”
“Hmm,” she reflected as she peered at the suddenly quiet group of excited young men and women—almost all too young to even be shaving yet, waiting for her decision. “The two boys took to it pretty naturally, both in their shooting skills and in their appreciation and respect for the weapons, although Wendy and Nina did pretty well too. While they didn’t take to it as naturally, they might have better eyes and they’re more controlled when they fire,” she reflected, refusing to make the final decision.
“What about me?” Jenny asked with a scowl, more upset at being excluded than at the prospect of eventually having to actually shoot someone.
“Are you kidding?” her brother countered with a snicker. “Your first shot you squealed and threw your gun away!”
“Yeah, but I’m a decent shot now!” she insisted to Peter before turning to address David. “And being older, I’m not as likely to overreact.”
“That won’t do much good if you never pull the trigger,” Adam argued, glaring at her for taking away his chance to join the adults.
Not wanting this to descend into an all-out fight, David glanced at Betty, who merely shrugged at the mess he’d unintentionally stepped into. “OK, I know this is going to be a mess,” he responded, trying to control the overly enthusiastic kids, “but I think I’ll take Alice, Greg and Monique along as the core group, and we’ll take Peter, Adam and Nina along as trainees,” he said firmly as he pointed out the two boys and lone teenaged girl. “That means you’re only there to watch. The three of you don’t do anything unless you’re told to, okay? As for the rest of you, normally I wouldn’t have a problem including you, but I want to limit who goes so we’ll appear a little less threatening. Although we’re showing up with seven people, at least the three kids will appear less intimidating.”
He paused for a moment as he worked through the rough plan in his head. “Now keep in mind, I don’t want any of waving your military grade weapons around. As always, you should carry pistols, but you need to keep them holstered, and any rifles will be kept in the cars.”
The three kids selected rapidly agreed with that, happy to be included at all, but the others looked partially disappointed at not being included while also relieved. No one really anticipated any trouble, but the girls weren’t looking forward to the prospect of armed conflict in the future and weren’t quite as anxious about preparing for it as Adam and Peter were.
“Don’t worry, Mr. D,” Adam excitedly told him, rapidly walking backwards in search of their gear, “we know what to do.”
“Just remember,” Jenny yelled after them, “you’ve got to learn to walk before you can run. You need to learn how to act during negotiations before you can act as a guard!” but her words of advice were lost as the kids ran off.
“You realize they’re going to be hard to control,” Jenny warned him. “Both tonight and in the future.”
“Yeah, I know,” David agreed with a sigh. “But I also know how Alice and Amy … er, Mattie were initially,” he tried to correct himself, realizing they never knew the young tomboy who’d dreamed of being a superheroine. “They adjusted, but only after they’d had a chance to learn. I don’t mind enthusiasm, just as long as they know how to listen.”
“OK,” Jenny shrugged, resigned that someone else would be responsible for her brother and her other kids, “we’ll stay here and get things ready in case your visitors decide to come back with you.”
“I’ll prepare one of the spare houses, in case they’re afraid to stay here,” Melissa called from the kitchen, where she and Greg were rummaging. The pair had decided to stick around to enjoy the company instead of their heading back to the solitude of their own home. She poked her head around the corner and looked at the two girls, each disappointed for their own reasons. “You two want to give us a hand?” she asked.
“I guess so,” replied Wendy in a frustrated tone.
“We’ll fix sandwiches for you to take along. If they’ve been traveling all day to get here, they’ll probably be hungry,” Mattie suggested.
Just then Adam and Peter returned to the living room laden down with M4s, thigh holsters for knives and breast holsters for pistols, oversized flak jackets, radio gear, and a variety of other gear they felt was necessary, all carried in their hands they were so excited they’d been afraid to don them before for fear they’d miss something. Nina just shook her head at David from behind them, shrugging her shoulders to let him know she’d tried to talk some reason into them.
“No, that’s way too much,” David said with a firm shake of his head. “Just a single pistol each. The other adults have rifles, but I doubt we’ll even need them. This isn’t some stranger but someone that came looking for us, so I don’t want to scare them off looking like some avenging angels. You each need to learn to always carry a handgun, at a minimum, but any more is just too much.”
“Ah, come on, what about body armor?” Adam asked excitedly, trying to carry everything he’d brought in with him. “What about the riot gear we saw in the armory?”
David laughed lightly. “And where are you going to find any that fits you?”
“Actually, we checked it out. I can fit into the smaller girl sizes.”
“I’m sure you can, but the problem is that if it’s not a good fit and it’ll limit your movements too much. Besides, we’re going to welcome a new friend and trading partner. It makes no sense preparing for a firefight if that’s not what we’re dealing with.”
“Ah, you’re no fun,” Peter complained, but smiled as he said it, realizing just how outrageous their requests were.
“I’ll tell you what, we’ll go out in a couple of days and do some mock situations, where we’ll go over how to respond to a number of different scenarios. We’ll outfit everyone with one piece of equipment at a time, so you learn how to use each tool in a real world experience. How’s that?”
“That sounds great,” they chorused, even little Wendy getting excited over it.
“I hope I’m up to this,” Nina said nervously as she carefully struggled into her pistol holster. “As much as I want to help, I’m not sure I’m ready to actually shoot anyone yet.”
“Ah, but that’s exactly the point,” David explained. “We want you to get used to interacting with people, observing what could go wrong so you start thinking defensively. I don’t want any of you shooting at anyone before you’re ready for it. This is simply for you to observe. You’re not going to do anything else.”
“Nina?” Jenny asked the younger girl. “Do me a favor and keep an eye out for Peter for me. I know you’ll be watching out for Adam, and Alice and the adults will be there as well, but still….”
“Hey, I don’t need a babysitter!” Peter yelled, his honor insulted.
“Don’t worry, since I have no desire to shoot anyone, I’ll be busy watching the boys,” Nina replied, glancing at both boys maternally. “If either one is in any danger, I’ll be the first to defend them.”
Shortly thereafter, three vehicles left the isolated house and turned onto the main road. David took Betty with him, as well as Adam and Nina in the back seat. Alice, as usual, drove her dead truck simply so she could keep Lassie with her, while Greg drove with Peter and Monique, the latter insisting on carrying her medical bag. She wanted to be there in case the person may have any medical issues they might have suffered on the road, remembering other cases where minor first aid was required.
They arrived at the town square and saw a man sitting on the front steps of the abandoned police station where he’d called from. He was a slightly older man, possibly in his mid-thirties, with dark hair just beginning to go gray in the temples, and looking vaguely Russian. David figured he probably came from some Eastern Block nation. His hair was shaggy and he bore several days beard growth, probably grown while he’d been on the road looking for them. His apparel was casual, as would be expected if he’d been traveling. His dimples showed that he was normally a happy guy, but his serious expression make David wonder just what he found humorous. At the moment, his expression was fairly solemn.
“We really need to put a public bench there,” David commented to no one in particular.
“We’ll find one,” Betty assured him.
Getting out, they fell into a natural pattern, with David leading the way and both Betty and Monique trailing slightly behind. Greg and Alice, with Lassie, took up positions to either side, establishing flanking positions just out of force of habit, while the kids simply tried to find a position behind everyone else where they could watch what happened.
“Hello there,” David called out as he approached. “What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t say,” the man responded as he stood. David stopped a fair distance away, not wanting to challenge or make him nervous about potential exposure.
“I’m here to deliver a message,” the man said emotionlessly, his expression a bit dour.
David glanced at Alice, since she was the only one in his line of sight, but she looked just as confused as he felt.
“Okay, and what might that be?” David asked, cocking his head to the side, intrigued just what they’d send someone all this way to say. He’d expected that they might send someone to trade or to establish a commitment, but the man didn’t seem to be interested in establishing a friendly banter necessary for negotiations. But if they weren’t interested in something, they wouldn’t have sent someone all this distance, so David figured he’d take a tough guy route and present a list of demands instead.
“We discussed your offer at length,” the man slowly said as he flexed his fingers. “And we finally decided there’s only one response, and that response is….” He left the sentence hanging as his hand went to his hip and he suddenly drew a pistol. Before anyone could react he fired several shot in rapid succession directly at David.
As time seemed to slow to a crawl as he groped for his own weapon, David cursed himself for getting caught completely flat-footed. Although the first two shots missed him completely, the next hit him square in the chest, sending him staggering back, grunting in pain, while the next nicked his arm, spinning him around as he fell to the ground.
Everyone froze, not even recoiling at the shots, unable to fathom just what was going on, as no one had expected this kind of response. But Alice reacted immediately and decisively. Not wasting time screaming out an unnecessary warning, she acted instinctively to protect her father in the only way she could and brought her M4 to bear firing multiple shots directly at the man attacking him. However, unlike the assailant, she didn’t miss, and the man staggered back, collapsing in a heap, his pistol clattering to the side as he fell. Alice hadn’t hesitated, hadn’t questioned what she was doing. If someone threatened someone she knew she’d pull no punches, and if it was her father, she’d let her full vengeance loose.
Luckily, everyone had deferred to David, letting him stand alone, so when the assailant had fired at him no one had been close enough to him to be hit by the wildly inaccurate spray of bullets by a man who, despite his vehemence, was clearly unused to firing a gun.
Things pretty well fell apart after that, as once Alice responded everyone else starting rushing to do something, anything. Greg drew his own rifle, much too late, scanning the surrounding buildings with wild blazing eyes. Lassie barked excitedly but didn’t advance, instead dancing in place beside Alice never leaving her side. Betty and Monique, perhaps more used to trouble and random acts of violence than the others, had dropped back and ducked after their initial delayed response, and as a result they were slow to respond, only getting back up well after the bullets had stopped flying. But the kids were much quicker.
Peter and Nina immediately ran to David, attempting to help him. Adam, moving slower than his friend and sister, simply stood back and watched events unfold. Nina tried to see where David might be wounded, as Peter tried to lift him up, turning him over so they could evaluate what they needed to do. They were surprised when he suddenly sat up with a wheeze, shoving them both forcefully away, knocking them both onto their butts.
“Get the fuck away from me!” he bellowed in a roar that startled everyone. However, once they fell back into the dirt his tone softened somewhat.
“I was hit. There’s blood all over. I don’t want you getting infected.”
“Where are you hit?” Monique asked, as she donned her gloves and knelt beside him, preparing to provide whatever aid was necessary.
“I was lucky,” David coughed as he shakily got to his knees “I was wearing my vest, which stopped the main shot, but I also got hit in the arm. The fucker is really bleeding and hurts like—”
“Watch the language,” she chided him, ignoring his previous curses. “Remember there are children present.”
“Yes, ma’am,” David responded as he hacked again, groaning as he looked towards the Police Station. “Where’s the shooter?” he asked, trying to scan for a continuing unseen danger he was in no condition to protect against.
“I got him,” Alice called back. “He’s down and hurt, but he’s still alive. I suspect if you want to speak to him, you’d best do it soon.”
“Don’t you dare move until I can examine you,” Monique warned.
Ignoring her, David stood, groaning as he did. Holding his loose shirt sleeve over his wound to soak up his blood, he stumbled to where the shooter was, Monique hurrying after him.
“Alright, treat me here while I get to the bottom of this,” he said as he crouched down beside the assailant. Wincing slightly, he rubbed his chest. “Man does my chest hurt,” he complained while rubbing his chest, wincing slightly from the pain. But despite the bruise to his chest—and his ego—he was more concerned about his bleeding arm contaminating anyone than he was in any blood loss to himself.
“OK, what the hell was that about?” David demanded of the man, who had two large wet spots on his shirt, showing that Alice had hit him twice in the torso, and that he was bleeding badly. His guts, mixed in with copious amounts of his blood and his wheezing gasping breath, showed that he didn’t have long. As Monique set to work examining David’s arm—ignoring the man’s wounds—he struggled to answer.
“We … decided you pose a risk. While you survived, you’re still … contagious. Thus you present a threat to each of us who are uninfected. You represent … a new wave. If you survive, then only those who are like you will live, while those like us…, those uninfected, will die. We had to take you out, in order to protect the millions like us around the world,” he explained, even as blood began to seep out of his mouth and his speech kept breaking up as he’d grimace from the pain of his wounds.
“You’re nuts!” Greg commented from the side where he was observing. “He represents our future. He’s the one that will provide a potential cure for the rest of us.”
“Ah…,” the man responded, finding it hard to both breathe and speak at the same time, “it’s not that simple. If he lives, everyone else will eventually be … exposed. Which means that only those … both exposed and immune … will live.”
Despite being wounded, and in unfriendly company, the man seemed driven to explain his actions, hoping to justify his actions. It was strange behavior for an assassin, but David was just as eager to understand what drove these people. “Our hope has been that this … scourge would burn itself out. That it would kill all its hosts, leaving it with … no more carriers. But instead, you went and survived, providing it with a long time … host. That means it won’t die out like we planned, but will thrive, effectively becoming stronger. Thus you present … an … unacceptable risk … to the rest of us.”
“And by killing me, you hoped to eliminate this risk?” David asked. The man merely nodded, still struggling for breath.
“I’ve bandaged your arm; you nicked a vein, that’s why there was so much blood. Should I check this … loser?” Monique asked, not sounding terribly sympathetic as she glared at his trembling form.
“No, check the kids. He’s not going to survive his wounds,” David answered with certainty. Monique got up and left so she wouldn’t be there when David did what he planned, since it would conflict with her professional oath, if not her own sentiments. She felt like David did in this; if they saved this man, he’d only attack someone else for similar reasons. In this new world, one couldn’t allow those likely to kill loose on the world.
“What’s the plan?” Greg asked, moving closer to provide assistance.
“You don’t need to be a part of this,” David answered before he turned and looked pointedly at his daughter. “Alice?”
“Hell no,” she responded vehemently. “You’re not sending me away this time. Each time you decide to send a signal to the world, you send us … me, away, but no longer. If someone tries to kill my father, I take it personally.”
“Very well. But if you could do me a favor, please keep everyone else distracted,” he asked Greg. He waited until the big man took off and then turned back to Alice. “I’ve got a machete in the back of the SUV, could you get it for me?”
“A machete?” she asked. “You were anticipating this?”
“This? Absolutely not, but I’ve taken to carrying it recently, figuring I’d want to do this sooner or later.” With that she nodded and took off to retrieve it.
“What are you … planning?” the man—who they’d never learned the name of—asked.
“I’m leaving a message. I figure your friends would want confirmation that you succeeded. I want them to know what happens when they try something like this.”
“But what…?” he asked again when Alice returned, handing her father his machete. The man looked at it, his eyes growing large, even as he started coughing.
“I was just telling this nice gentleman that his friends are probably nearby, we’d better check our surroundings.”
“Already done,” Alice assured him. When David turned to regard her she continued. “How do you think I knew we were being watched the other day? Lassie alerted me that there were people nearby. She gave me no indication this time. I’m pretty sure there’s no one else here.”
“They must have planned a common rendezvous. No problem, when he doesn’t make it they’ll come here and see my message.”
“Anything I can do?” Alice asked.
“Nope, if you stand too near you’ll get his blood all over you. You’d do better standing back,” he warned her.
“Wait, you … you can’t do this,” the man objected.
David, taking momentary pity on him, leaned over to address him. “Look, think of it this way. This is quick and painless, like putting down a rabid dog. The alternative, the fitting alternative, would be to drop some of my blood into your wound, and let you experience what you so richly deserve. Now if you don’t mind, I was in the middle of something.”
“You … you can’t—” the man tried to object again, before his arguments were forever cut off as the machete made a sickening wet crunching sound as it severed his head, which spun onto the ground below spilling blood in a wide arc.
As they were preparing the body, Greg returned, a grin look on his face—completely unrelated to the grisly scene laid out before him.
“Monique thinks we have a problem,” he revealed quietly. “She said both kids had cuts from working in the woods together. She’s afraid they’ve been infected.”
“Shit. We’ll have to get back and set up a plasma transfer. Alice?” he asked, not explicitly spelling out what he was asking.
“I’ve got it, Dad. I’m assuming overhanging the freeway exit leading into town?” He simply nodded; turning and heading off to see what state Peter and Nina were in. Alice swallowed, preparing herself for what lay ahead. This was the first time she was doing this herself, and while she wanted to do it, it still took a bit to reconcile herself to the act.
“Do you need help?” Greg asked softly. Alice considered the offer, noticing he looked a little green, so she questioned whether he was up for this or not.
“Probably not,” she replied, swallowing as she pushed down her own nervousness. “I think I can do this on my own.”
“Still, it would be easier with someone lifting his dead weight,” he responded.
“That’s true. If you think you’re OK with it?”
“Does it make sense to alert everyone that we’re on to them? Wouldn’t it make more sense to attack them directly?” he asked instead as he helped lift the body.
“If I understand my dad’s thinking, I’m assuming he’s planning on spending the next several days taking care of Peter and Nina, and as you know, it’s going to be rough,” she explained as she folded the corpse’s arms over its chest. “Everyone will be feeling it. As a result, if anyone comes looking for us, they’ll note the body, a clear sign of vengeance, but they’ll see no sign of my father, and they’ll notice everyone else responding in a discouraged manner. They’ll jump to the natural conclusion that he succeeded, and that their task is done. They may still expect a response, but they’ll probably assume that once the leader is taken out that the rest of us will break up, each going our own way, so I’m guessing that while they’ll post guards, they won’t expect a direct action.”
“That makes sense, but it’s based on a lot of assumptions,” Greg pointed out. “You know, if they take this ‘threat’ idea seriously, they’ll realize that he’s not the only threat, in which case they’ll want to take out you, Mattie and Betty, as well as anyone who’s survived any of the diseases, like the two new couples.”
Alice blanched as she realized the implications of his logic. “Basically you’re suggesting they’re starting a war between the survivors and those never infected?”
“Exactly. That’s what this … guy … claimed. As long as any survivors remain, the Great Death will never die out. In order for those not infected to survive, everyone carrying any trace of the disease must die. They’re trying to kill the diseases’ hosts, and that includes you.”
“Shit,” Alice said wearily as she ran her blood coated fingers unconsciously through her hair. “This could get to be a mess.”
“It became a mess when they tried to kill David.”
“That it did,” Alice acknowledged, as her mind imagined what they were about to become embroiled in.
“OK, what the hell happened with you two?” David asked as he stormed into the house after the seemingly endless drive back. Despite his determined demeanor, he was clearly upset by what he’d unintentionally inflicted on another two people.
“Do you mean just now, or earlier?” Peter asked.
“How did you get those cuts?” David asked, trying to piece together what had happened.
“We were picking up the dead animals in the woods,” Wendy explained, showing him her own wounds trying to defend her sister. “It was hot and we had to reach in the bushes to get the animals.”
“Why weren’t you wearing long sleeves?” David asked, still not comprehending.
“As Wendy said, it was hot, but we each did what we were told,” Adam explained as he and his sister hugged each other, happy that he’d avoided what had happened to the other kids, but worried about Nina as well. Peter and Nina were more than ready to let the others speak for them. They were too afraid of what was happening to say anything if they could avoid it. “We protected ourselves, not touching anything except using either the gloves or the plastic sheets. We didn’t know anyone would get covered in your blood.”
“Ah, as much as I hate to admit it, that makes sense. Still, you’ve got to be careful. Any cut can become life threatening now. They should at least be covered.”
“We had too many small cuts,” Jenny explained. “Though we’ve got bandages, we didn’t feel we could just help ourselves, since what we have has to last for the next ten or twenty years.” It appeared clear she was close to tears, as were the other two siblings. Peter and Nina seemed to be the only ones not speaking up.
“OK, you all saw what happened to Betty?” David asked as he finally calmed down enough to speak softly and, he hoped, reassuringly. “You realize just how hard this is going to be. While Mattie and Betty survived the treatment, there’s still a huge risk that you won’t. These are very dangerous diseases. Betty almost died several times, and even Monique was more than willing to let her go.”
“We understand,” Peter answered levelly.
“Uh, David, we have another problem,” Monique interrupted nervously from the corner of the room.
Groaning at the news, David turned to regard her. “What?”
“As I was removing my gloves, I noted I’d torn them. I think I’m exposed as well.”
“Well disinfect your hands then,” David told her, annoyed she was distracting him when he was trying to tell the two kids what they should expect. “As long as you don’t have the cuts the others have, you should be OK.”
“Really?” she asked, looking at him sharply. “Ask Mattie about that. If touching you is dangerous, then being exposed to your blood is much worse. Plus, the hole was from something that ripped the glove. I didn’t find it, but it cut my finger where the hole was.”
“Shit,” David muttered as he sank into his chair, “this is too much.”
“If you’ll remember, I volunteered for this treatment before,” Monique said in a slightly peevish tone. “So you should understand that I’m willing to undergo it.”
“Yeah, but if you remember, Betty said it wasn’t worth undergoing, and that she wouldn’t have done it if she knew what was involved.”
“That’s not strictly true,” Betty corrected him as she sat on the arm of his chair. “I said I wouldn’t choose to do it, but now that I have, I’m glad that I did.”
“Please, Betty, let’s not confuse the issue here,” David pleaded.
“No, I think this is worth discussing. These people attacked you because they’re terrified. But since I got sick, I’ve been freed from a similar fear. I know I can’t get sick now, and what’s more, I’m not afraid of touching anyone.”
“You still can’t touch ‘anyone’,” Alice pointed out. “While you can now touch Dad, before you could have touched the others. So you’ve actually limited who you can touch.”
“That’s true, but touching anyone required an assumed risk, since you never knew if someone had been exposed and just didn’t know it yet. Although I can only touch a few people, now I can do it without fear of any kind.” As if to punctuate her words, she touched the side of David’s face and stared into his eyes. “That’s an amazing gift that I wouldn’t give up for anything.”
“Still, it’s not addressing the point,” David insisted as he tried to keep the topic on the risks, which everyone else continually seemed to underplay. “These kids need to realize what they’re getting into, and that the risk of dying is extremely high.”
“We all knew that, even before we were exposed,” Peter calmly explained. Strangely, the boy seemed more at peace and more focused than anyone else in the room, as if he’d already made peace with what he needed to undergo. “As Betty said, every day is filled with dozens of potential risks. Each time we pass by someone, every time we pick up a glass and drink from it, every time we take a breath we consider whether it will mean our deaths.” He shrugged in a temperament of almost casual acceptance. “This was an accident, pure and simple, and seeing as we did it trying to help you, I’m not sure I’d take it back.”
“I agree,” Nina announced, suddenly sounding surer of herself as she drew confidence from Peter’s strength. “We were worried you were badly wounded. You never told anyone you were wearing body armor, after all, you told the rest of us not to wear any. We thought you’d only have moments left. Thus it was vital we tried to stem any blood loss.”
“I thought it was very brave,” Alice offered with a sympathetic smile, truly appreciate of the sacrifice they’d made, and the motive behind it.
“As did I,” Monique added, “and I’m not going to diminish it. I’ll be glad to join you in what we’ll all suffer through. This is serious, but we can’t attack each other for something that none of us planned. You can worry about us, but don’t question why we did what we chose to do.”
“OK, I concur. I was wrong in my approach, and for that I’m sorry. But the point remains that this is very serious,” David insisted.
“Uh, not to rain on your rant, but if we have three people to treat then I suggest we draw some more blood to ensure we have enough available,” Tom stressed.
David sighed and scowled as he considered what would happen over the next few days. “You’re right, of course,” he replied, slightly flustered that he was the single holdout preventing them from beginning their treatments. As Tom began to lay out Monique’s sterilized instruments for the procedure, David turned his attention to the pair beside him.
“Betty, Mattie, could you clean up the trailer and get it ready for three more?” David asked.
“Wouldn’t it make sense to keep them here?” Jenny asked. The older teen, who had patterned herself the younger kids maternal figure, seemed torn between rushing to hug her brother and keeping her distance, her internal conflict etched clearly on her face. “After all, I’m not going to sit inside while my brother’s life hangs in the balance.”
“NO!” David insisted emphatically. “The threat is too high. While the risk from the rest of us is reduced, that presented by anyone actually sick is much more extreme. Keeping them here could expose the rest of you, and possibly contaminate the house as well. And no,” he added quickly as Jenny opened her mouth to counter his argument, “as much as it pains me to say this, you won’t be allowed to console your brother. I allowed Monique to accompany me before, but that was only so someone could watch the process. She wasn’t allowed to touch or to get close enough to risk infection. I’m sorry,” he continued as his expression softened and his words took on a more sympathetic tone. “You’ll have to remain inside. There are enough of us now that we can relay the news of what’s happening when we rotate in and out.”
“Does that mean that you aren’t going to obsess this time?” Monique asked, pulling on a fresh pair of gloves and preparing to draw another blood sample from David. “As much as the others risked, you’ve continually threatened the entire group by not taking care of yourself. As you’ve said, there are now plenty of people, so it isn’t as necessary for you to stay there every moment. I’d never forgive myself if I survived while you died from exhaustion because you pressed yourself too far. Don’t forget, Superman, while you may be immune to the Great Death there are plenty of other things you could catch in a weakened state.”
David hesitated, but as he looked at everyone else, he saw a united front. Finally relenting, he agreed he’d been overdoing it. “Fine, that makes sense,” he said as he slumped back into his seat. “It’ll be rough, but as long as there are others to watch over you, I’m willing to step aside occasionally.”
“Does this mean I’ll never be able to hug Jenny again?” Peter asked sadly, glancing at his sister longingly.
Monique didn’t want to answer too quickly, but she had to let him know the truth. She simply nodded, and he looked even more miserable.
“I wish I could hug you now,” he told his sister. “It’ll be rough never being able to touch you again.”
“You too,” Jenny replied just as miserably. “All I want to do is hold you until this is all over.” She looked forlorn and alone, hugging herself as she stood by the windows. Then her head picked up and she turned to David.
“So why wouldn’t you let my brother wear a flak jacket when you already were?” Jenny asked, sounding more curious than accusatory. However, Alice—always protective of her father—didn’t see it quite that way.
“Actually, it wasn’t just him,” she answered defensively, hoping to deflect any anger from him back onto herself. “Dad and I always wear them, and Greg usually does as well. Monique was offered the option several times, but feels it’s somehow in conflict with her ideals as a healer.”
“So you were all protected, while poor Peter and Nina were left defenseless in a dangerous situation?” Jenny asked, unable to fathom that scenario with her image of David as their protector.
“Dad didn’t tell them not to wear the flak jackets because he wanted them to get hurt,” Alice strongly insisted. “If you’ll remember, he was worried that they wouldn’t fit them. In a dangerous situation, having an improperly fitting vest can be riskier than not having one at all. You can’t move well enough to avoid danger, and if you do get hurt, it’s unlikely to protect you properly. But what’s more, the idea was that all the kids would stay in the background, out of harm’s way if anything happened. Dad, Greg and I wore them because we were the front line elements. If there was any shooting, we’d have been the ones getting shot at.”
“OK, Alice, that’s enough!” David insisted, not wanting everyone attacking each other. She’d laid out her position, but if Jenny was curious, it made no sense attacking her for it. “Jenny, the long and short of it was that I was hopeful that this would turn out well. I’d thought that this group had thought about what I’d said and realized they’d be safer working with us rather than fighting for survival alone. Thus I was caught by surprise by my own willful ignorance.”
No one responded to that, everyone looking down as that had been what each of them had been thinking. The fact that, after warning everyone about possible attacks for so long, that David would lead them unwittingly into an attack just struck them all as impossibly naïve. Silence descended as they each contemplated it, until Monique, looking visibly upset, decided to get beyond the impasse and tackle yet another topic.
“We’ve got another issue that we need to work out, though it’s not directly applicable to this situation,” Monique warned David. She scowled at the older man, her stern visage clearly upset. “Your response back there has got to stop!” she insisted as she snapped the rubber tube around his upper arm and tied it off, her sharp movements and rough handling of him making her anger clear. “I realize how you like these grand demonstrations of yours, but covering yourself in someone else’s blood and then washing yourself down in antiseptic had got to stop. Not only are we running out of gloves, plastic sheets and face masks, but we’re almost out of antibacterial wipes and our supply of antibacterial hand lotion is running low.” As she thumped his inner arm to bring the vein to the surface, she looked him squarely in the eye and emphasized the seriousness of the situation. “If we run out, we’ll probably have to curtail the interaction between those recovered and those uninfected.”
“I … I didn’t really stop to consider it,” David admitted with a wince as Monique sank the needle into his arm a bit forcefully, though his reaction seemed to be more from her scolding than from the mild pain. “Do we have any alternatives? Maybe we need to hunt for more.”
“While that’s always a good move, the fact is that there’s a limited supply left out there,” she replied a bit more softly as her anger seemed to peter out. She glanced at him a bit more sympathetically as she continued. “Everyone grabbed whatever they could before the massive die-off, and there’s really not much left to recover. If we wanted to restock, we’d need to start taking supplies from those who’ve already died, and those stockpiles might be contaminated by the people who stole them in the first place.”
“What if we make our own?” Greg suggested.
“Do you happen to know the formulation to create antibacterial soap?” Monique snapped, turning her quelled anger back on Greg. “Or even the ingredients? We’ve got no clue how to manufacture it, and we don’t have the facilities.”
Greg simply shrank back, surprised at the vehemence of the nurse’s response and not knowing how to respond.
“Maybe not,” Tom interjected, coming to Greg’s defense, “but we could start up a still and produce straight alcohol. It’s not as effective, but if we’re discussing alternatives, that’s an ageless one.”
“Do you know how to build a still?” Greg asked skeptically, but without Monique’s anger or frustration.
“It something a bunch of us did one time in college, just to prove to ourselves that it could be done. We actually did in it a bathtub in our college dorm, but if we could find an old metal jug it would be even better.”
“I think there were some big industrial metal barrels at the Armory,” Alice suggested.
“The problem is where the grain and sugar to produce it will come from,” Tom noted as his gaze turned inwards as he considered the project. “We can use packaged sugar and cornmeal in the short term, but without corn, potatoes or grain it’ll be rough. And with sugarcane and oils being hard to access now, it’s something that’s going to prove a difficult proposition in the long run.”
“I’m less concerned with the long run than in providing some short term medical requirements,” David snapped, annoyed that everyone seemed to be concentrating on things other than what the two kids and Monique were facing. “And we’re more concerned about immediate medical concerns than with getting anyone drunk.”
“Look, once you’re finished here, make a list of what we’ll need,” Greg told Tom. “We’ll get the barrels and enough plastic hoses to work. If nothing else, it will provide us a more useful trading option. After all, that’s how Americans won the west, by selling moonshine to the Indians.”
“Please, that’s a weak analogy, and it certainly wouldn’t encourage those opposed to us,” David said tiredly. He was already worrying how they’d handle the next several days. Not only did he have a larger number of people sick than he’d had since the massive die-off, but he also faced an ongoing war with another organized group—a group that might not wait for them to recover before attacking.
“We’re sorry for missing several of our recent broadcasts, but we had an unfortunate encounter with another group,” Alice broadcast. “Our leader has been critically wounded and we’ve been trying to assist him, but he’s been unresponsive so far, and we ask you all to pray for him,” she elaborated, purposely avoiding referring to David as her father in their predetermined script.
“The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t help anyone to fight over theoretical standpoints when there are so few of us left, and choosing to pick sides, and making enemies of potential friends, is a foolish choice to make.
“We’ll continue broadcasting advice and warnings during this difficult stage, but we’ll be less likely to react to unfolding events and to uncover new information. But we especially want to warn everyone away from the area immediately to the west of Charlottesville, as there is a very dangerous and destructive group that is attempting to kill anyone they suspect has recovered from any of the plagues. While we clearly disagree with this misguided attitude, we don’t want anyone to stumble into this group without warnings of what might occur.”
Alice hadn’t needed to call upon false tears for effect, as they arose unbidden as she read the text aloud, imagining just how close it had come to being a reality. Although Alice’s broadcast was purposefully misleading and seemingly placating, it was part of a strategy that David and Alice had cooked up to make the group that had attacked think they’d succeeded in eliminating him. It would explain why David’s group had not responded in force against the Charlottesville group, and it strongly suggested that David wouldn’t survive, as well as suggesting that the resulting group wasn’t able, or even willing, to launch a response.
She hated that she had to mislead the other listeners spread across hundreds of miles. It was unfortunate, but it seemed like a reasonable compromise. If they could prevent another attack and give their enemies a false sense of security, this reactionary group would be much easier to deal with in the future. Still, they had no idea how they’d react to the broadcast, or how the many other listeners across the country would respond either.
Within hours Peter and Nina got sick, a development that immediately confirmed their diagnosis, as it would have taken longer for the plasma transfer to take effect. David moved them all, including Monique, to the trailer. Betty and Mattie had stocked the make-shift isolation ward with supplies that included a stereo system they’d hooked up which was currently playing some soft background music. Apparently one of the laptops they’d found on their trip to Charlottesville had some natural white noise recordings, and as David tucked a shivering Nina into her cot, it played the sounds of chirping birds—a sound that no one had heard for weeks.
Unlike his work with Betty, David was at a loss as to what to say this time. He thought that describing his life with long-dead people they’d never met wouldn’t be appropriate, and talking about Alice’s mother would just reinforce the fact that she was now motherless—which would then only remind them that they were orphans as well. However, after a long awkward delay, Monique finally set David straight.
“It doesn’t matter what you say, what matters is how you say it,” she said weakly as she struggled to sit up and hold a somewhat normal conversation, still hoping to contribute to the rescue effort. “Your treatment with Betty and the others revealed your innermost thoughts, showing that you trust them and are dedicated to their recovery. I watched Betty, and after talking to her and Mattie afterwards, they stressed that your stories kept pulling them back, rousing them and focusing their distracted attention, giving them something to concentrate on. They both said that’s what pulled them through. They were so intent on listening to it that they remained connected which helped them to focus their strength. Without your stories they would have lapsed into a coma and wouldn’t have worked as hard to survive. Plus it made them feel closer to you. You’re fairly … ingratiating.” She said this last bit with an endearing smile of her own, a weak, wan smile that was tinged with her own progressing illness. While it hadn’t progressed quite as quickly as Peter and Nina’s, it was coming on much sooner than Mattie’s had, proving that a blood transfer was a much more effective transmission vector than mere touching was.
“OK, I’ll start,” he said. “Although I don’t know how long I’ll be able to continue with all three of you.”
“You’ve got plenty of people now to lend a hand, each of which have heard your stories and can repeat them in their sleep,” Monique informed him. “You don’t have to work as hard this time and you can take frequent breaks to keep yourself fresh. What’s more important is that you focus on them when you are here, as it’s your single-minded focus that calls out to them so strongly.”
“You’re pretty collected for someone who’s about to go through Hell,” David replied with a grim smile. “Too bad you’ll be unable to give me advice for most of this.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep notes and give you a detailed analysis afterwards,” she teased before breaking into a cough, her own illness making itself known. Examining the trio closely, David observed that each one was showing different symptoms, though before it was done they’d each suffer through everything he and the others had suffered through. He knew that it was going to be a difficult several days.
David began singing his traditional recollections, talking about his earlier life, and about the loves and losses of his life. The kids lapsed into feverish incoherence and started to shiver fairly quickly, while Monique tried to respond to what everyone said and struggling to keep her intellect active, despite how much pain she was in.
Despite their ages and their determination to ‘be adults,’ Peter and Nina spent much of their time crying because of the pain they endured, but once again, David’s words—or rather, their desire to decipher his message – helped to settle them. The singing by Alice and the others helped, but David’s voice seemed to console them more than anyone else. Maybe because his deeper voice was more reassuring, but whenever their pain and suffering got too severe, David would step in. It helped them through their sufferings, but it also meant that it was harder for him to get away than they’d hoped.
Because of the number of sick it wasn’t as easy to pay them individual attention, despite his increased number of assistants. They ended up with a two person system, where David would hold one, singing to all three, while the other person would spend time physically caring for the other two.
David tried to sleep whenever he could, taking catnaps in the back of the trailer, but whenever someone would get noticeably worse, he’d get up. The girls rotated in and out in six hour shifts, so they weren’t quite as stressed, and each kept an eye on David as well as the three patients. Whenever David’s voice would weaken, one of the others would take over his song, allowing him to recover, but eventually it would get to be too much for them and he’d be required once again.
However, it didn’t take too much longer before Peter and Nina were rendered voiceless, thrashing, shaking and falling into frequent bouts of unconsciousness. Everyone there knew that they were still aware of what was going on, so they didn’t let up on their encouragement, though his patients’ twilight awareness allowed David slightly longer breaks, even though he felt guilty taking them.
Monique, who’d valiantly tried to assist with the two kids, finally succumbed to the plagues herself. She’d tried suggesting alternatives in a vain attempt to keep her mind active and involved, so when she too lapsed into semi-consciousness the others were sorry to lose her insight. Everyone dealt with their grief, pain and fear differently, and if her response was to try to help, they weren’t about to refuse it.
Things got worse—once again early in the morning—when everyone was trying to catch some shut-eye. With one last wet, rattling gasp, Peter stopped breathing much as Betty had. Alice was ‘on duty’ at the time and tried to administer CPR as the heart monitor he was attached to started screaming while she yelled for her father. He bolted upright, immediately realizing what was happening, and took over from her, since she wasn’t very experienced in CPR, and didn’t have the benefit of his larger size. He worked on Peter for some time, knowing that even if he didn’t respond quickly that recovery was still possible, as Betty had proven. But while he was struggling to revive the boy, the alarms that Tom and Monique had hooked up went off, alerting them that Nina’s heart had also stopped.
Alice tried to help her but knew she was ill equipped for the severity of the crisis. David was torn, unsure whether to stay and help Peter, who’d been ‘down’ longer, and let Nina suffer, or try to help the one who was likelier to recover. It only took a few seconds to make up his mind, and he told Alice to take over Peter’s treatment as he assisted Nina.
Neither one responded right away, but Alice grabbed the radio in transit, requesting help from the house. It took a bit, but Tom responded that he’d put a defibrillator they’d recovered in the trailer after Betty’s illness, but had forgotten to instruct anyone in its use or even warn them that it was there. He talked Alice through finding it and using it—time that she clearly couldn’t continue CPR on Peter—and she proceeded to jolt him a number of times.
Finally growing antsy, David insisted she bring it over to try on Nina instead. They tried it, and she responded almost immediately. David then left her, rushing back to Peter, where they both tried to revive him. By then Tom and Betty appeared, hoping to help. While father and daughter worked on the unresponsive boy, Betty cradled Nina, singing to her to help her recover, wiping her down as well.
Peter never recovered. Whether it was too late initially, that David had stopped too soon, or that Alice had screwed up with the defibrillator they weren’t sure, but David finally had to assume they’d failed. He cried as he gently closed Peter’s lifeless eyes, kissing him gently on the forehead as he finally laid him down.
By the time of his passing Jenny had heard of what was going on, and the semi-hysterical girl had to be physically prevented from rushing to her brother’s side by Tom. It was hardly a happy scene and assuredly not the kind of reassuring, hopeful encouragement that they’d tried to foster. However, once they decided they could no longer help him, they redoubled their efforts on both Nina and Monique, who’d they’d been ignoring all this time.
Tom ended up medicating Jenny, while the other kids gathered around to comfort her. The teenager ended up falling into her own fitful sleep, dreaming of the very tales that David had sung of in the recordings she’d listened to while waiting for her brother to recover. However, now the reassuring voice became the backdrop of a nightmare, rather than the comfort it’d been initially. Feeling helpless, Adam finally crawled in next to her, holding her and hoping to comfort her disturbed sleep. Wendy, seeing this, did the same on the other side, each worrying about their sister as they did. Both also very wary of the risks of transferring anything they may have picked up to each other. It was doubtful, given how careful they were, but it was hardly an unreasonable concern.
Monique’s illness seemed to ease much later in the day, though Nina remained unresponsive. They thought Monique’s age and exposure to the one plague variant might have helped her fight off the others as her illness was considerably shorter than the others had been. Nina’s heart continued to beat throughout the day but it remained weak, while her breathing was wet and unsteady. Everyone involved with her care worried about potential brain damage just as they had with Betty, but all they could really do was wait and see whether she recovered or not.
Despite their best efforts to help her she eventually developed a hard swollen lump in her belly, which Tom grimly diagnosed as internal bleeding, a sign that her internal organs were rupturing, a typical fatality of the GD1, or Lindasis, form of the plagues. The small, waiflike girl died a short time later, a thin trail of blood leaking from her lips as her lungs rasped their last breath.
With a heavy heart David left Monique with Debbie and Alice, while he, Tom and Greg carried the two new bodies to the mass grave, which they hadn’t been forced to use in some time. David tried to find words to say as the thin, sheet-shrouded forms were laid out next to the pit, but found he was unable to say anything, even as the tears streaking down his cheeks spoke volumes. Greg got the tractor working, and dug yet another burial pit, this time only big enough for the two kids. David merely crossed himself, and then hurried back to help with Monique, feeling that his responsibilities remained with the living and not fretting over what he’d failed to do for the departed – a line of thought that had never helped him so far. Still, it was hard to fight off the depression that sought to overwhelm him.
Hurrying back into the trailer, David essentially pushed everyone else aside, cradling Monique and singing to her with a new sense of desperation and determined to not leave her side. Luckily for him she continued to improve, and after letting her sleep—with him cuddled up against her—she awoke the next morning looking weak and frail but conscious. David washed them both in an attempt to disinfect them from their exposures, and then escorted her into the make-shift ‘recovery ward’ outside in the other nearby building so she could recover a little more comfortably until they were sure she was no longer highly contagious. Betty, Mattie and Alice scrubbed down the trailer one more time, trying to clean every exposed surface they could find.
David, of course, took these latest failures personally, feeling as if he’d personally betrayed his two wards who’d depended on him to protect them, and who he’d infected instead. But he didn’t internalize the guilt. Instead he redirected it. He wasn’t to blame for their deaths. Instead it was this Mr. Peterson, the man leading the group that had sent the man who’d tried to kill him. David held him personally responsible, and he planned to stop him from doing that to anyone else, ever again.
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