“Love and Family During the Great Death”
Chapter 20: Honor, or Desperation?
After they settled the girls in their new home in the trailer, David took Maggie to her husband’s pharmacy so she could get what she needed of his. He’d planned to take Ellen but she’d begged off, saying she wanted to be there to watch over the girls and make sure they didn’t get so overwrought over what had happened to Erica, Julie and Sara that they’d expose themselves. When she said that, Linda spoke up, saying that she’d like to go. Although both Alice and Amy wanted to go, preparing to take their new M4s in case they encountered any trouble again, David pointed out they only had room for one, so he chose Alice, since she’d likely need to say her own goodbyes to Reggie’s memory. However he promised to take Amy on their next trip.
Although they had plenty of masks, they only had so many of the stronger filters, so David and Maggie took one, leaving one for Ellen in case she might be needed in the trailer for some reason. Everyone else got the much thinner surgical masks.
Before leaving, they’d gotten a radio call from Sheriff Benjamin Adams asking them to stop by. He told them that he hadn’t been feeling well and suspected he’d been infected. He was planning on quitting after they got there to return home and try to weather out whatever came, however he wanted to give David a ‘few things’ to take care of for him. David gladly accepted, knowing how hard this was for Ben, and also knowing it likely meant this would be the last time he’d see his friend.
Ben explained that there was a single policeman who’d be working after he left, and that their duties would be severely cut back as a result. There was a receptionist who’d remained, having come back after her family died, who would handle the radio, allowing the single policeman to travel without fear of being out of contact. David didn’t bother to update them on their circumstances, figuring Ben really didn’t need even more bad news on top of his impending death sentence.
The foursome set out, finding the streets nearly empty. The few people they saw on the streets looked to be taking a few essentials as they abandoned their homes, and those they’d left dead inside, to join other nearby family members so they’d be able to watch out for each other. It was a sobering ride, and drove home just how serious the situation was.
Arriving at the pharmacy they found it sealed, just as Ben had said, with police tape warning everyone off and a handwritten notice telling anyone curious that the pharmacy was closed indefinitely, and to contact the sheriff if they needed any medical supplies.
Maggie let herself in with her key and David accompanied her inside. Linda and Alice remained outside due to David’s fear of exposure from the infected interior since they didn’t have strong enough masks.
Inside, Maggie got busy and worked steadily, even though she silently cried much of the time since there was so much to remind her of Reggie there. She handed David several boxes of items to carry out while she got the rest of the stuff organized, so David spent most of the time marching boxes from the pharmacy to the entrance, where Alice would carry them to the SUV. Linda seemed to have wandered off, probably considering where she stood in life now that everything in that life had changed so much. David knew he’d have to talk to her about it, but that probably that night would be the best time for that.
The final items to be carried out were a couple of boxes of personal mementos and the promissory notes that Reggie had collected over the past couple of weeks. David had no idea whether it would be useful or not, since he was sure most of the signatories were probably already dead, but he didn’t try to dissuade Maggie, knowing how difficult this was for her. If it was important enough for her to bring along, he’d take them without questioning it.
Linda rejoined them as they were packing everything away and they got underway again, no one being in the mood to discuss what they’d been through. After a few miles, though, Maggie felt compelled to say something.
“Thanks for that, David. It was important to protect that stuff, and I’m sure it’ll come in handy. What’s more, it really was helpful for me. It was like a final goodbye, reminding me that Reggie really is gone and isn’t likely to be returning home. I don’t think I’m quite ready to visit our house yet, so if we survive this, I’ll go there later to pick up a few private things like photo albums and such, but I now consider your house to be my home, and everything I need is there now.”
David didn’t bother responding, simply taking her hand in his and squeezing it to show her how much she meant to him. Linda didn’t offer anything, but Alice felt driven to say something of her own.
“That’s understandable, as you and the rest of the girls are now part of our extended family. I don’t think any of us will ever return to our old lives, and I’m sure everyone will form new family relationships, with everyone treasuring who’s remaining that much more. I’m glad you’re going to be staying with us, and I want you to know that I’d do anything for you, just as I would for everyone in the house.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. It really means a lot to belong to others who care for you at this point,” Maggie told her.
They’d only gone a little ways when Alice saw something that grabbed her attention, causing her to almost twist out of her seat.
“What is it?” Maggie asked, noticing her sudden awkward motion. Her mother was staring out the window in the other direction, and hadn’t noticed.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Dad, you remember that crazy guy we saw in the city?”
“You mean that old crazy coot? The one you thought looked like God?” he asked with a laugh as he remembered the encounter, and just how crazy he’d been at the time himself.
“Yeah, that guy. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I just saw him again.”
“That’s not likely,” David replied. “First of all, there’d be no reason for him to be here, secondly, there’d be almost no way he could make it here, and finally, even if he did, the odds of us seeing him again are almost astronomical.”
“Still, I’m almost sure it was him,” she responded.
“Well, what was he doing?” Maggie asked, not wanting to diminish Alice’s feelings on the subject, even as Linda finally turned, regarding the odd conversation.
“He was… well, he was looking into the trees overhead, and then he pointed at me, as if he wanted me to know something.”
“Ha, that just shows, crazy ain’t just grown in the city,” David responded with a final laugh. Nothing more was said about the subject. After all, sometimes Alice still retained some of her childhood innocence and naïveté, even as she tried to be all grown up.
Nearing the police station, they were shocked to hear gunfire. Fearing the worst, David stopped a short distance away. Without a word they each got out—except for Linda—grabbed their guns, and David pointed where he wanted everyone to go. They spread out, seeking shelter until they could figure out just what was happening. Before he left, David handed Linda a spare pistol, just in case the gunfight shifted in her direction, but he didn’t expect she’d either know how or have any desire to use it.
A group was firing on the police station from between a couple of parked cars. It looked like they’d pulled up behind the cars that had been abandoned on the other side of the street for some time, and was now using their car and the others as a protected firing position. It looked like the Sheriff, or whoever was still inside, was trying to fire back, but the attackers took turns firing, so those inside really didn’t have much hope of getting a clear shot because as soon as they’d pop up someone would take a shot.
Since David could tell where the shots were coming from, he’d parked in a sheltered spot, so he wasn’t worried about Linda being struck accidentally. He and Maggie tried to surround the shooters, while Alice had been instructed to take up a supportive position which would allow her to block their escape.
After several shots rang out over the course of several long moments, they were ready to act. David fired a shot over the attacker’s car and called out.
“All right, lay down your arms, you’re surrounded. You’ve got nowhere to go, and you can’t hope to hold out for long.”
“Fuck you!” someone shouted as they took a pot shot at him. The attackers then started looking around to see who they were up against.
They appeared to be three or four separate individuals, spread across a couple of vehicles, so it would be difficult to fire at them without the others returning fire.
David, Maggie and Alice were each protected behind a car, and while the shooters knew where David was from his gunshot, they had no idea where Maggie and Alice were, which was David’s intent.
“You don’t fool us, there’s no one else. There’s only one of you,” someone called out. “It’s you who’d better leave. We’re just here for the guns. We don’t want to kill anyone, but we need to protect ourselves.”
“George, is that you?” David called out.
“Who wants to know? Stick your head up, and we can ‘discuss’ it,” the man answered.
“This is David, I’ve been authorized as a police officer. What the hell are you doing? You’re a god damn plumber, why the fuck are you attacking the police?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, the world has changed. When this is over, everyone is going to be fighting for what’s left. We want enough guns to defend ourselves with.”
“You seem to have plenty of guns as it is, and you’re trying to kill officers of the law counters your claims to be defending yoursel—”
Just then another shot was fired which struck the car that David was hiding behind, and another shot struck the ground beside him, having been fired under the car trying to strike his legs. These people, while not having any combat experience, were playing for keeps.
Maggie fired off a single shot, meant to distract those shooting at David, but not give them enough time to identify where the shot originated from. Everyone was silent for a moment as they tried to figure out what their next move was.
“You really don’t want to be doing this, George. Right now, the only people you’re being threatened by are those you’re trying to kill. Just go home and let us take care of any crimes.”
“Fuck, you’ll be dead by the end of the week. Anyone that survives will have to—” George never finished, as another shot rang out.
George’s ‘gang’ had been scanning the cars surround them, trying to identify who else may be surrounding them. When Alice raised her head to locate where everyone was, and whether she could help out, one of them took a shot, shooting out the window above her as she dove down behind the car once again. Neither David nor Maggie knew what had happened, simply hearing the gun and the shattered glass, however Linda, who’d been watching from nearby where she’d hidden so she could also observe what was going on, didn’t react as calmly.
Taking the gun David had given her, she ran out, rushing the people who’d fired at her daughter. After clearing the cars she’d been hiding behind, she started screaming like a banshee as she ran, wildly firing one shot after another at the people she was chasing. She made it almost all the way there before they responded, and when they did she was only about ten feet away. Two different people stood up to fire at her, but David and Maggie were ready. They had drawn and sighted on them, and were about to pull their triggers when two shots rang out simultaneously as the two women fired at Linda, their bodies jerking slightly from their rifle's recoil. David wanted to swear, despite his best intent he hadn't acted fast enough, but he couldn't worry about Linda quite yet. David and Maggie fired almost instantly after they shot, each having picked a separate target. Both crumpled immediately, David’s shot had struck the furthest person’s side just under their arm. He figured the bullet had likely traveled through both lungs, possibly hitting the heart on its way through their body. He didn’t think they’d be getting up again, and he was sure that Maggie’s shot had been just as efficient.
“SHIT! Stop shooting already,” George Winters called out. “You killed both my wives. I surrender.”
“Thrown your guns out, and if you try to take a shot at us you’ll be next,” David called back. He and Maggie both continued to stand, watching for any signs of movement. All David wanted was to run to Linda’s side, but he had to secure the area first. A rifle clattered to the ground in front of them, and the man stood up with his hands up.
“Mom!” Alice screamed, now that their immediate danger was apparently over.
“ALICE, Don’t!” David shouted, warning her off. He didn’t want to deal with whatever Alice may find when she encountered her mother. “Come support me while Maggie checks on her.”
Alice looked hesitantly between her father and where she’d last seen her mother, even though she couldn’t see her, then jogged to her father, holding her gun ready for whatever she ran into.
Once Alice was in a position to cover him, David moved forward, potentially exposing himself. However, his assumptions were correct. George was standing still, with both hands up, while both women lay crumbled and bleeding behind him. Once he was in position he motioned Alice up.
“Keep him covered, I’ll check on his companions,” he told her.
“Just hurry, I’m worried about Mom.”
“If she needs help, Maggie’s better equipped to help her than we are,” he told her as he moved forward and rolled the bodies over, checking to see whether they were still alive.
“Shit, Debbie Peters too?” David asked rhetorically.
“Who’s she?” Alice asked, wondering how her father knew these people.
“She’s my dental hygienist. I saw her whenever I went to my dentist. What the hell made you people into violent killers?”
“We were just preparing for the violence that’s coming,” George insisted.
“Well, if you’re trying to protect against people like yourself, then you might have a point. But seeing as one of the most dangerous people I’ve encountered is you, excuse me if I don’t take your argument seriously. Now get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head.”
Grumbling, George did as he instructed.
“Alice, keep your eyes on him. If he makes any moves shoot him, and shoot to kill,” David instructed.
She did as he asked, but was surprised when a shot rang out. George’s head jerked around, and Alice almost shot him as a result. Glancing quickly at her father, she saw he’d shot the women in the forehead, even though she was already dead. She was shocked by that, but jumped when she realized she’d let her attention wander, refocusing her attention on their prisoner.
“What the fuck are you doing?” George demanded.
“I’m leaving a message. I want to ensure that everyone near here knows what happens when people decide to shoot at the law.”
There was another gunshot, and Alice jerked, but never took her eyes off of her target this time.
“Is everything OK, David?” Maggie called.
“Yeah, we’re OK here,” David called back. “How’s Linda?”
“Not good, but don’t come over, and don’t allow Alice to, either.”
Alice almost took her eyes off of George as she really wanted to rush to see what shape her mother was in.
“Keep your eyes on him,” her father warned her before he took off to see how she was, despite Maggie’s warning.
When he got there, he found Maggie leaning over his ex-wife trying to staunch the flow of blood. He started to head off for their emergency supplies, but Maggie called him back.
“Don’t bother. I’ve stopped the bleeding, but I’m not sure she’s going to last much longer. If you want to say goodbye, you’d best do it now.”
“I’d better—”
“Don’t you dare call Alice over,” Maggie warned him in an insistent whisper. “If you do, she won’t be able to resist touching her. We don’t need anyone else infected.”
With that David moved forward and looked more closely at the two women. Linda had a chest and stomach wounds, which while still bleeding, were at least crudely wrapped. However, when he looked more closely, he saw that Maggie had stripped off Linda’s top and used her undershirt to bind her wounds. That revealed the marks on her body that he hadn’t noticed before. She had a number of open sores on her torso, revealing she’d been concealing the fact she’d not only been exposed to the plague, but that she was already suffering from it.
“How are you?” he asked his ex.
“Not good, obviously,” she responded, struggling to speak as a thin trickle of blood seeped out of her mouth.
“What the heck was that about? An attempted suicide?”
“Or she was trying to defend her daughter, take your pick,” Maggie suggested.
“Please, I don’t have much time,” Linda gasped out. “Take care of Alice. You’re all she has now. And David,” she said, pausing to get her breath as she began to shake, going into shock, “take care of yourself. I really really love you, and I want you to know that coming back here and reconnecting with you… was the best thing I ever….” The rest of her sentiment was hidden by her gurgling, as blood began flowing more freely from her mouth.
“Mom?” Alice called worriedly.
“Stay there,” David called. “She’s in trouble, but we can’t afford for you to see her now.”
David had to do everything he could to not move closer and cradle her against him. He wanted to reach out to her, to tell her how much he loved her, and how much she’d meant to him all their years together, and how he’d come to love her all over again once Ellen had gotten them back together again. But he also wanted to ask so many more questions. Like what she’d been thinking, both when she ran into the assailants’ gunfire, and when she hid her illness. But it was clear she was never going to answer his unasked questions. She struggled, trying to breathe with the blood pouring from her mouth, then David could see her stop struggling, and he could almost swear he saw her life pass before his eyes.
“I’m sorry, she’s gone,” Maggie assured him.
“Yeah, I gathered that,” he answered shortly. “Did you know she was ill?”
“No, none of us had any clue. I was wondering where she was last night.”
“She was probably afraid of scaring Alice and the other girls, and knowing how quickly gossip travels in the house, figured the only way to protect her was to hide it from us.”
“I really don’t think she was committing suicide, David. I really think she was just trying to protect Alice.”
“Or she figured she didn’t have much longer, and the best way to protect all of us was to draw their fire,” David suggested before he turned and regarded Maggie, who was covered in her blood.
“You’ve been exposed,” he observed stupidly.
“Duh! I wasn’t about to stop to put on gloves while she was bleeding to death,” she answered. “But yeah, I’m infected. So it looks like you’re down to two girlfriends now.”
“Look, leave her there and wash yourself off. Maybe if you scrub yourself down with some antibiotic wipes you can—”
“David, with this much bodily fluids covering me, there’s no way I could have escaped being exposed. Julie and Sara may have missed it, but I haven’t. I’ll move out to the trailer when we get back. I likely only have a few more days.”
“Still, clean yourself up in the hopes you can minimize it. There’s no sense giving in to pessimism. We’re assuming some of us can fight this disease, so it’s important we resist as much as we can.”
David got up but resisted the impulse to help Maggie to her feet. He left Maggie to find a hose, hurrying back to Alice.
When he got there, he found someone he didn’t know.
“I’m Nancy Evens,” she told him. “I’m helping here since they’re so short staffed. I’ve seen you before, but we never talked. I brought restraints to hold George, but your daughter wasn’t going to leave him on his own.”
“That’s good,” he said, pointing his own weapon at the man still on his knees. “Alice, I’m sorry to have to tell you, but your mother died. There was nothing we could do. You can go say goodbye, but DON’T touch her. She’s been infected, and touching either her or coming in contact with her blood will kill you as well, so be careful.”
Alice simply stood there looking like a bomb had just dropped in her lap, so David turned on her. “Go. Now! You need to deal with this.”
As Alice took off at a run David turned to Nancy. “You probably don’t want to be here for this,” he warned her.
“I’ll head back inside. Ben was hit, and while I’ve bandaged him he’s hurt fairly badly.”
“I’ll send Maggie in to look at him after she’s managed to clean up,” David told her. She looked back as she headed back in, then turned and walked steadily back to the police station.
“What are you planning?” George asked.
“We’re in a difficult position,” David explained. “You’ve shown that you have no compunction about killing anyone who gets in your way, which makes you a public menace. However I can’t very well toss you in jail, since I can’t guarantee we won’t all get ill leaving you unguarded and uncared for. You could either starve, or your friends might decide to break you out, killing someone else in the process. Thus I’m going to do the only thing that’s guaranteed to protect everyone you might otherwise encounter.”
“You, you can’t do that. There are laws. You’re a lawman now, you can’t—”
“Right now, there’s no judges handy, no courts, and I probably couldn’t find enough people to sit on a jury, and even if I could, they probably wouldn’t all survive to the end of it.”
“But killing me would be murder,” he stated in disbelief. “Cold blooded murder.”
“Which is just what you were trying to do to both Ben and Nancy, so don’t try to play off of any sense of righteous indignation.”
“But you’re not a murderer,” George said, searching for any argument he could think of.
“And neither were you until today, at least that I know of. If things stabilize and the law gets reestablished, then I’ll submit to any investigations or punishments they chose to apply to me, but until then I’m in charge of preserving the rule of law and order. If I let you live, I might as well declare open season on anyone and everyone you or anyone else happens to stumble across.”
With that David raised his rifle, quickly aiming, and pulled the trigger, burying a bullet directly in the man’s forehead, hitting him slightly off center and causing blood to splatter, covering his face as his body was slammed backwards into the ground. It was fairly gruesome so he was glad he sent Alice away, but as he knew, there wasn’t enough blood to risk any further infection on the off chance he may have been infected himself.
Leaving George behind he went to check on Alice. Rounding the corner he saw Maggie washing the blood off herself with a bucket outside the police department, and Alice kneeling beside her mother, fighting conflicting emotions demanding she comfort her dead mother, while simultaneously keeping her distance.
“Come on, Alice. The longer you remain here the harder it will be.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” she asked, still staring at her mother.
“You know why,” he answered, grasping her shoulder.
“But still, I could have said something before—”
“No, there wasn’t that much time, and she wanted me to look out for you. Allowing you to expose yourself trying to help her would have been the last thing she’d want. I did what we both knew I had to, just as she did what she thought was necessary.”
“But she didn’t need to,” she argued. “We had them surrounded. We’d have taken them down without her exposing herself.”
“It’s complicated, she knew she didn’t have much longer, and when she balanced that against the chance either you or I might be killed by a lucky shot, she made a quick decision. She sacrificed herself for us. Honor that, and don’t risk throwing it away. Fight like hell to survive, just like each of us needs to do if we’re going to survive this.”
She allowed her father to help her up then, but she remained there, studying her mother for another few moments. David stepped up behind her, enveloping her in his arms, holding her as they both viewed her body.
“Maggie didn’t know better, so she exposed herself,” David said, explaining the rest of the information that she needed to know. “Given the amount of blood she was covered with, we’re pretty sure she’s infected.”
“Shit,” Alice gasped, finally turning away from her mother and focusing on her father, trying to gauge his reactions. “What are you going to do?”
“The same thing I’ll do with everyone else. I’ll try to care for her, but not at the expense of anyone else. I’ve got too many people depending on me to allow myself to fall apart. I’ve got to concentrate on who’s left, and you’re my most important concern right now. But just remember to keep your distance in the car.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” she assured him, as she hugged him back, burying her face in his chest.
“Good, then let’s see if we can help her, and check Ben as well. They need us more than your mother does at the moment. We’ll mourn her later, when we have the time to do it properly.”
By now David was directing his daughter back to the station, wanting to check in with Ben and see how badly he was hurt, however Alice wasn’t done yet, as she turned to another topic.
“Were you serious about that?”
“Serious about what?” he asked, not thinking she was referring to what he’d said about either Linda or Maggie.
“About turning yourself in when this is over.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t hear that, but technically I never said that I’d turn myself in,” he responded with a sly smile. “If we get back on our feet and someone decides to bring charges against me for what we did when there was no civil society, I’d take whatever they decide to hand down because I did do wrong. You can’t decide to do whatever you want, but on the other hand, I decided to do what needed to be done. So I can live with what I chose to do, just as I can live with the consequences of my actions. However, that doesn’t mean that I’ll volunteer the information on my own. After all, my mamma didn’t raise no fool.”
By then they’d reached the station, so after knocking to announce himself—not wanting to get shot by entering unexpectedly—they entered.
“Maggie will be in to help you soon, she’s trying to clean up as she’s afraid of cross contamination,” David said by way of greeting, trying to give them the impression that she may have been exposed to the other people’s virus rather than Linda’s. “So how are you doing? How badly hurt are you?”
“I’m not doing real well. Not only am I gut shot, but I’m pretty sure I have the plague. I don’t have the symptoms that everyone else has, I don’t have any marks on me, but I feel like shit. That’s why I called you in today. I think I’m going to have to return home, take it easy, and prepare to die,” Ben told him.
“OK, I understand that, but let’s deal with your injury first. What’s the nature of your wound?”
“I don’t think there are any serious complications, but there’s a fair amount of blood and it hurts like hell. Nancy managed to get it covered, but I’d like someone to see if they can do a better job if they can, just as long as they realize I now pose an infection risk.”
“Let me worry about that,” Maggie said, entering during the previous exchange. “I was worried about my own risk to you, since I—”
“I explained to him how you got covered in that guy’s blood, and that you don’t know whether he was infected or not,” David explained, letting her know she didn’t have to explain what had happened with Linda. While they had a right to know their exposure, he didn’t want anyone second guessing Linda’s motivation like he had. That was a private thing for her alone, and now that she was gone, he wanted to preserve her memory and not sully it with unanswerable questions, especially in front of her daughter.
“Ah, yeah, it doesn’t appear to have hit the intestines or anything, but I don’t see an exit wound. That means the bullet is still in there. Normally that would mean an operation to get it out, but if you’re as sick as you suggest, I suspect trying to operate would impact your ability to recover. I’m going to risk leaving it in, especially since I’ve never performed surgery before and would likely cause worse problems if I tried to open you up.”
“What about the injury, though?” he asked. “Can you stitch me up so I’m not bleeding quite as badly?”
“Sure, I can do that much, though I think the worst of the bleeding is already over,” Maggie responded, preparing the medical supplies she’d brought with her. She gave Ben a small painkiller before continuing. “Stitching it up now will make getting the bullet out more difficult, but if you survive long enough for us to reexamine it, we’ll deal with it then.”
“That’s good enough for me,” he answered. “After all, I’m really not expecting to be living for much longer.”
“So what was it you wanted to see me about, other than just warning me that you were ill?” David asked.
“Oh, he thought we presented the same risks the armory did,” Nancy explained, trying to prevent her boss from wearing himself out answering for himself, “that knowing we had weapons here, others would try to take them from us. Obviously he was right, as that’s just what they did. He was hoping that he could give you the available weaponry and that you could do a better job of protecting it and keeping it out of other’s hands.”
“But you’ll still need them yourself, won’t you?” David asked, clearly confused. “I mean, I can see Ben’s being concerned, but surely the other cop and Nancy would need something.”
“They have their own weapons,” Ben answered, even as he was struggling, trying to avoid gasping from the pain as Maggie proceeded to wash out and then stitch his wound. “The other guy will be in his car for most of the day, so there’s no need to burden Nancy with trying to defend something she doesn’t really need, though she has both a pistol and a rifle of her own.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” David said, reflecting on the wisdom of his thoughts.
“The idea is that you have more people to defend them than we do at the moment, you’ve proven you know how to both use and defend them, and very few people even know where to find you,” Nancy explained.
“Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” David answered. “How many are we talking about?”
“Not that many,” Nancy answered, taking a key and walking over to a wall mounted gun safe than covered a good portion of one wall. The protective cover rolled back, revealing a row of rifles, shotguns, bean-bag guns and Tasers. “There are also full sets of body armors for all the officers that had been working for us, so hopefully you’ll find some to fit many of your people.”
David laughed, “I don’t suppose you have those in young miss sizes, do you?”
“I meant the adults,” Ben answered with a laugh of his own.
“Well, unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of adults anymore. Bob and the boys are all sick, Linda’s just been killed, and I’m not sure whether Flora can shoot or not.”
“Yeah, I know it’s a dwindling amount of people who can use them, but again, I don’t want to leave them for whoever happens to want them,” Ben noted. “They’d be dangerous if the wrong people got a hold of them. Can you imagine if George and his pals had full body armor just now?”
David started pulling equipment from the racks, not bothering to respond as he handed them to Alice. When she had as much as she could manage, she headed out, and David began grabbing as much as he could carry as well.
“Were you planning on doing something with the bodies outside?” Nancy asked. “It seems to me it wasn’t really necessary to shoot two already dead people in the face.”
“Yeah, I figure I’ll post a warning to anyone else with similar thoughts. If people don’t respect the law anymore, maybe they’ll respect the threat of retaliation,” David said as he headed outside.
“So what do you think is up with people?” Alice asked, trying to fill the uneasy silence in the car. “I mean, why would a plumber and a dental assistant be trying to kill people?”
“I think everyone has been watching too many post-apocalyptic movies. They all have these visions of what’s going to happen after everyone dies, and instead of focusing on surviving, they’re more concerned with surviving the aftermath, and they’re trying to kill everyone else based on that one unrealistic fear.”
“It may not be that unrealistic,” Maggie pointed out.
“Yeah, but if you end up dying before everyone else, then it’s pretty pointless,” David replied. “What’s more, they’re making a bigger risk of themselves than the plague.”
“But still, why can’t people just try to help like we are?” Alice asked, clearly confused. “If these people are healthy and have access to a running car, then why can’t they try to improve things?”
“I think it’s because they don’t see things quite the way we do,” Maggie suggested. “We’ve been sheltered. We haven’t lost as much as everyone else has. While we have power, music, entertainment, transportation and our health, everyone else has lost virtually everything, and they no longer see the chance of society recovering. Since we aren’t that far removed from the life we had before, we’re simply slower to react.”
“That’s a pretty bleak view,” David observed. “And I think it takes more than mere desperation to throw our humanity away. After all, no one was threatening them, and they had nothing to gain by acting proactively. If they were worried about what would happen after the plague, wouldn’t it make sense to see who survived it before deciding they needed to prepare to kill as many survivors as they could? That kind of thinking is criminal enough in itself. I don’t think they can claim a ‘the plague made me do it’ defense.”
“I don’t think they were considering a potential defense. They were thinking survival, and they were willing to do whatever they could to survive, even killing innocent people. What’s more, they were doing just what we’ve been doing, instead of focusing on what’s actually happening they decided to delude themselves with other preoccupations. While we’ve been concentrating on teasing each other, they became focused with potential fallouts. While widespread anarchy is one fantasy, the idea that we’d become sexually involved with the girls is just another type of fantasy.”
“Maybe so,” David countered, “but the girls’ fantasy, and our distraction, doesn’t result in us killing anyone. The fact they decided to do that means that they’re as bad or worse than what they claim they’re trying to defend themselves from.”
“Look, as interesting as these ideas may be, they’re not much more reassuring than talking about Mom, or discussing how soon we’re all likely to die,” Alice complained. “Personally, I think I prefer silence to discussing how disturbed the people that killed my mother are, and whether there are going to be more like them from now on.”
Both David and Maggie took her suggestion and remained quiet after that. She had a point. They each needed to process these events before they could really hope to make sense of it. Adding a bunch of suppositions on top of their hurt wasn’t going to help anything. They needed time to handle their pain before they attempted to make sense of things.
They drove a little further, and Alice reflected on what they’d done. She was having trouble dealing with it. Her father, a peaceful loving caring man, shot someone in cold blood, and then suggested he’d turn himself over to the police if they asked him to. And after they’d left Ben and Nancy, they’d then spent a couple hours stringing the bodies of the dead up. Her father had first tried to attach them to the police station, as a warning, he’d said, but decided against it on the chance that it would attract animals.
Instead they’d ended up borrowing some rope and suspending them from trees, the wounds to their faces clearly visible. Due to a shortage of trees they strung the last, George’s body, from the town court house. David had had to borrow some keys from Ben before he left, and it had taken a lot of finagling, but they’d done it, as gruesome as it was. But now Alice wasn’t only questioning who her father was, but herself as well. But whenever she’d doubted what she was doing, she considered what they’d done to her mother, only the anger that generated in her caused her to doubt herself even more.
“Dad?” she asked, interrupting the silence she’d instigated. “If you say you’d allow yourself to be arrested and charged for what you did, does that mean that if Ben had wanted to, I’d have lost both of my parents today?”
David took a moment before responding, considering the question seriously.
“Yes, it would have. And it would have been right, because I wasn’t obeying the law. I was taking the law into my own hands, and I was partly motivated by my own anger. However, you’ll notice that neither Ben nor Nancy questioned me about it? Just as my asking you to leave didn’t prevent you from hearing what I told George, I don’t have any doubt that they heard my gunshots after the shootout was over. Even though what I did was against the law, it was necessary, and they both recognized it. If I hadn’t done it, they would likely have had to. But that just shows what a slippery slope we’re on. If we feel justified taking the law into our own hands, then how far are we from George and Debbie? I’m afraid that’s a question we’ll be asking ourselves more and more in the days and weeks ahead.”
Somehow that didn’t make Alice feel any better, especially as it reinforced the idea that this wasn’t likely to be the last violence they’d encounter.
When they arrived at home they found several people outside. Although none of the people in the car were anxious to discuss what had happened, they also knew it was unavoidable, especially if Maggie was going to move out of the house. Still, they’d hoped they could help her move her stuff out quietly before anyone started asking questions, in order to give her some privacy to deal with this herself instead of having to do it publicly. However there didn’t seem to be any way to avoid the people standing around in front of the house.
“What’s happening?” David asked as he approached everyone, hoping to give Maggie and Alice a chance to slip by.
“It’s Bobby,” Ellen told him, looking a little disconcerted. “Billy and Adrian are still bad, but they’re hanging on, and … hey, wait, is that blood, Maggie?”
The other girls turned at her outburst and looked at the trio.
“Where’s Linda?” Flora asked. When no one responded, each simply hanging their heads, they had their answer, but that wasn’t enough of one for any of them.
“What happened, David? Is Linda…?” Ellen asked, unable to ask what was already obvious.
“She’s gone,” David answered simply. “We got into a fight with some locals turned survivalists. They wanted the guns the police had, and were willing to kill for it.”
That, of course, brought everyone together, their concerns about Bobby completely forgotten.
“Oh, that’s horrible,” Julie said, rushing to Alice to envelope her in a hug.
“Hey, no touching anyone until we change,” she protested, backing away with her hands held up. “We don’t know what we’ve been exposed to,” she said, partly telling the truth, but also trying to preserve Maggie’s privacy and pride.
Julie held back, but looked like she’d been slapped by Alice’s response.
“Don’t worry, I’ll need plenty of hugs, but we can’t take chances right now,” Alice insisted.
“How are you feeling?” Ellen asked David.
“Frankly, not so hot, but I can’t take the time to worry about it at the moment. What’s the crisis here?” he asked, still trying to refocus everyone’s attention. Except this time it seemed to work. As upset as everyone was over Alice’s depressing news, they were also concerned about the others relegated to the trailer.
“As I was saying, the boys are suffering, but they’ve managed to hold on. The girls have been trying to help Bobby, who’s getting sicker himself, but he’s been refusing to let them help for fear of exposing them if they aren’t actually infected yet. We’ve been trying to argue with him about it, but he just won’t listen to us.”
“Just how sick is he?” David asked, concern evident in his voice, but a concern for more than just Bobby alone.
“He’s got a fever, and he’s dragging, but he also won’t let us examine him. He insists he’s fine, and that he’s the best one to do this. He says that the girls can’t do anything until it’s clear they’re sick as well.”
Without thinking, David donned his mask and strode into the trailer.
“Bobby, I don’t know what the fuck you’re trying to do, but back off and let the girls help. They know how to keep themselves safe, which is more than I can say for you. You can’t sacrifice yourself for everyone else. Let the others take up the slack.”
“Yeah, good evening to you to,” Bobby said, leaning back and wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “As you can see, this is a messy business, and I’m not sure gloves alone will help much.”
“Well, I’m glad that you’re concerned, but they know what they’re getting into. Let them determine the risks for themselves,” David insisted.
During this discussion, Alice and Maggie had quietly slipped into the house, and after stripping out of their filthy clothing and putting them into a plastic bag for disposal, they set out to gather the few things that Maggie would be needing.
“David, the girls and I have been working while you’ve been gone, and we’ve managed to cobble together another structure to hold the girls so it won’t be as crowded in the trailer. We could use your and Maggie’s assistance to finish it, but it should help ease things in here a bit,” Ellen told him as she followed him into the trailer where he was confronting Bobby.
“That’s good. See Bobby, you don’t have to worry about them as much, but you also can’t protect them from every possible risk. Face it, we’re all likely to get this sooner or later, and trying to protect us for a few more hours is pretty meaningless at this point.”
“Maybe,” he grunted in response, “but right now, getting this is a virtual death sentence. If I can keep the rest of you alive, then it gives my own short life that much more meaning.”
“OK, how about a compromise. Allow the girls to assist you, and you do the dirty work? How’s that?” David suggested.
“That sounds better,” Bobby relented. “I am getting exhausted.”
“Good, I’m glad the two of you settled that. Now how about you tell us what the hell happened to you today?” Ellen insisted.
So David exited the trailer and sat on the grass and told everyone what happened. The girls formed two distinct groups, the non-infected and the infected, as they listened to his tale. Before he got to their role in it, Alice and Maggie exited the house carrying her supplies, so the others pretty well knew what was coming. Even Bobby listened from inside as he continued looking after Billy and Adrian. It was a pretty disillusioned group by the time he’d finished. For as much as they’d avoided what everyone else had suffered from, they were rapidly catching up. Now it was only a matter of time until they lost even more members, and there was no telling who else may have been infected and simply didn’t recognize it yet.
Join Crumbly Writer’s Discussion Group to ask questions, make suggestions or offer critiques.