The China Pandemic (20 page)

“You’re going to be fine here. We all get along pretty well. You haven’t met Marcy yet. She’s Macy’s twin sister. She’s on watch right now, but she’ll be back here soon,” Tala said.

Graham came in the front door and the boy started to get up on shaky legs. Graham helped him to the bathroom and, smiling, the boy told him that he could handle it from there.

“Well, that’s a darn good thing.” He grinned at Mark.

“He’s been through a lot,” Tala remarked after the door was closed.

“Yeah, haven’t we all,” Graham said, then called Macy. “Yes?” she answered from the bunkroom, zipping her jacket.

“We’re up, darling,” he said.

He gave her one of the radios and they first walked out to Ennis’s spot together to try them out. Macy used long strides to keep pace with Graham, crunching the autumn leaves and dry needles underfoot with her brown suede work boots.

He gave her one of the devices and left one in the kitchen with Tala, who listened to their conversation from there. Ennis walked up to them and talked about police radio codes. Ennis didn’t know, he remembered that 10-12 meant visitors present or that 10-34 meant trouble at this station, but terms came to him readily when Graham asked. He couldn’t remember the code for ‘all clear’ so they decided that the phrase worked in lieu of a code.

~ ~ ~

Marcy greeted her twin happily, admired the radio, quickly learned the codes and then raced back to the house, starving and impatient to return to the cabin for more of Tala’s cooking.

Inside, she warmed up her hands by the fire and removed the pistol from the holster Ennis had made for her and placed them on the table by the door. She then removed her coat and put it on the peg they’d nailed there to hold them and pulled off her boots and lined them up in their spot, biggest to smallest.

She turned around to warm her backside in front of the stove. Tala smiled at her from the kitchen, “Is it getting cold out there?” she asked.

“Yeah, especially when you’re sitting up in a tree for hours freezing your buns off,” Marcy said, then walked into the kitchen to wash her hands. “Do you want me to set the table?” she asked Tala.

“Sure. We’re seven now so add an extra,” Tala said.

“What? Why do we have an extra?” Marcy asked as she pulled the right number of plates out of the cupboard.

“Didn’t Macy tell you?” Tala asked.

“No, who is it?” Marcy asked.

Mark opened the bathroom door spilling the warm mist out. Dressed in gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt, he said, “Hi,” to Marcy, then asked Tala, “Where do I put these?” holding a bundle of dirty clothes in one arm and the doorjamb with the other as he swayed a bit unsteadily.

Marcy put down the dishes and hurried over to help him. He acted kind of embarrassed to have her support, but accepted it. She took the dirty clothes from under his arm, walked him over to a chair at the table, and shot Tala a questioning look.

“Marcy, meet Mark. Mark, this is Macy’s twin.”

He stared at her. “Wow! You and your sister…”

“Yeah. I know,” she said. “I’ll take these and put them with the others,” Marcy said.

“You might want to burn those,” Mark said.

“Dinner’s almost ready, Mark. Are you hungry?” Tala asked.

“Yes, thank you,” he said.

Marcy returned to the stack of plates and began laying them out. Mark reached for one to put on his side of the table, trying to help her. Marcy could smell his shampooed hair still wet from the shower. He looked pale against his bruised cheek with shades of deep purple spreading out to green.

As if her glances made him uncomfortable, he refused to meet Marcy’s eyes. “Tala,” he asked, “is there something I can do to help?”

“No, you need to rest and get better so that you can help us in lots of other ways. There is certainly plenty to do,” she said.

Tonight, they were having pinto beans and rice like Graham’s mom always made. It was a nice break from the unfamiliar meat they’d been eating. Tala managed to make a peach cobbler out of canned peaches, as a surprise after dinner and though they now ate in shifts, there would be plenty for everyone. With two good meals a day, they were gaining back the weight they’d lost during the chaos, but also gaining muscle as their work schedule demanded a lot of physical labor none of them were used to.

Tala called Ennis and Bang to the old table and the five of them got to know one another over dinner. Marcy watched Mark’s eyelids drooping, glad when Tala did, too, and suggested Ennis help him into one of the bunks

“But…” Marcy whispered after peeking in. “Tala, Ennis is putting him in Graham’s bed.”

“Probably because Mark’s too weak to climb the ladder, just like you were at first.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“I’ll check on him before I go to bed,” Tala went on, “and make sure he’s okay. He’ll probably need a couple of extra blankets tonight, at least.”

The next morning, Marcy smiled as she awoke, hearing Mark tell Tala he wasn’t really sure where he was or if he was dreaming and the nightmare might come back.

Marcy could relate to that.

When the carriers—at first just a woman and an old man—showed up and broke into a cabin near the lake, Dalton was about to initiate the original plan of action, which was suit up, go in and take them out. But while they were on their way through the forest, Graham arrived with the kids and a dog, leaving Dalton’s group with a hard decision to make. They aborted the mission and, though it took some planning and stealth, managed to infiltrate Graham’s camp that night and posted several hidden cameras among the trees to keep an eye on them.

Though some thought they should follow the guidelines originally set in place, and argued to take out the whole crew of carriers because they were too close to base camp. All it would take was one encounter to introduce the virus into their secure area, and the Preppers would die, yet the thought of killing anyone in cold blood just seemed wrong and Dalton said so. Rick asked if there was any benefit to keeping carriers so close, and the only thing Dalton could come up with was that they posed no hostile threat and might act as a warning system for intruders to the area.

They’d prepared for this scenario, and in theory the right thing to do was make every attempt to terminate the virus for the good of all, but Dalton couldn’t go through with it. For one thing, he recognized Graham, the guy who’d moved into the cabin. They’d gone to summer camp together when they were kids, even visited each other’s cabins, fishing and doing the things twelve year old boys do. They’d only run into each other a few times as adults when Graham visited in town. They exchanged numbers once and told each other they would get the wives together and visit, but neither one ever did call. Something always came up and now Dalton really regretted it because Graham was a great guy and apparently immune.

It was one thing to kill in the defense of your family, but a managed risk with the carriers, under constant observation, was another thing. They were not a threat to the Prepper camp unless they got near.

They knew Graham had weapons, but essentially, he was one man with one woman taking care of an old man and several children. Dalton had to respect him for taking them in.

Then he and Rick, while checking out the town, spotted a man and a boy. The man had shot at them and Dalton had taken him out before he recognized the boy as Mark, his own aunt’s youngest son, and shoved the barrel of Rick’s rifle aside so he wouldn’t kill the kid.

That night Rick argued, “Dalton, you know this goes against everything we’ve trained for. That kid could kill us all.”

“I know. We just can’t leave him out there on his own. There’s no one left to help him. He’s my cousin, Rick,” Dalton argued back.

Rick said, “All right. It’s your call.”

Dalton sometimes regretted not taking the necessary action, but he also regretted not convincing the rest of his family to join the Prepper group he’d founded just five years ago. Too much had happened in the world, and he’d seen firsthand, with five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, what crazy crap those people were capable of. He’d had his money on trouble coming from terrorist groups, not the Chinese. That’s where it had come from though, and while not exactly a planned attack, it had worked just as well as if it had been and left most of the world dead—even in China.

His family chalked his Prepper activity up to PTSD and kept quiet about it. He practiced every other weekend and prepared for the worst. Now, he, his wife, and their two small sons were holed up in their hideout along with thirty other adults and their children.

Things had gone to plan after he initiated the alert to converge on the hidden location. They’d quarantined everyone who made it in and more than a few didn’t pass. It was too bad, but they’d incinerated the remains of those who died from the virus in quarantine. The name of the game was survival, and if they had to be ruthless and sometimes inhumane, they all knew it was necessary.

It shocked Dalton that the boy had made it. He’d assumed his entire extended family had all perished. Rick reluctantly agreed to risk capturing Mark, taking him back to camp and isolating him, but the kid’s residence there took a toll on Dalton’s conscience because the shelter they had to keep his young cousin in wasn’t sufficient for his survival through the winter. Not only that, the boy continued trying to escape. It was only a matter of time before he did and the possibility that he would expose one of them was just too much to risk.

Finally, Dalton made the decision to take Mark to Graham’s place. When the surveillance team radioed that Graham and just one girl were on the move toward town, he and Rick hauled Mark there, instead of the cabin, where the risk of exposure was greater to them.

Now that the transfer was complete, they burned the shack they’d kept the boy in and sterilized their suits as well as the jeep compartment they’d used to transport him.

All in all, Dalton felt good about the situation but still worried, so they doubled up on their surveillance to keep track of the group’s whereabouts at all times. As far as he knew, the kid didn’t know who had saved his ass, nor had Graham recognized him in the suit.

He thought about revealing himself but then if he did and had to exterminate the man it would be harder, so he thought he’d just keep it to himself for now.

It was a lucky thing they were monitoring them too, because as they watched the old man by the lake, the surveillance team spotted the strange men in the canoe and then they knew there were more across the lake, though they didn’t seem to be associated with one another nor did the old man wave back. That bothered Dalton.

If the canoe guys were hostiles, they would surely go after Graham’s people first and with that warning, they could better prepare.

Only after the men in the canoe had made themselves known had Graham’s little group begun to keep watch on their own camp. They really were vulnerable to anyone who came in, because they lacked a military mindset.

Dalton’s team accepted this, and besides surveillance, they decided as a group they’d only step in to help if there were no risk to themselves in doing so. Now he just hoped Graham and his team, including his own young cousin, would follow the rules and not cause them to regret their mercy.

The next morning, Mark was awakened by a rough tongue licking his face. He shouted when he realized it was a dog. Marcy came running around the corner, thinking Mark was having a bad dream, but then started laughing when she saw him cowering at the head of his bed. “It’s just Sheriff,” she said. “He won’t hurt you. He’s a police dog. He found Macy and me. He hasn’t turned wild like the others. He even brings us food sometimes,” she said and reached for the dog, scratching just under his ears.

Mark reached out his hand, shaking with fear and Sheriff smelled it, then took in his scent and walked out of the room to go about his own business for the day.

Later that day, because he was still too weak, Mark helped where he could and Bang took him outside to practice with the bow and arrow. Ennis worked on one for the young man and each time he practiced, he became better and better at it. Mark was a little embarrassed to have a five-year-old teach him how to shoot straight, but like Graham said, “Might as well learn from the master.” Mark was surprised to learn that the girls had also learned from the little boy.

“That’s funny that your name is Bang and the dog’s name is Sheriff,” Mark said later at the dinner table.

It seemed no one else thought it was funny. Macy said, “Yeah, we know. I guess it doesn’t really mean much anymore.”

The next day, Mark got bored and asked Graham if he could take his turn on look out. "

”I don’t know, son,” Graham said. “You’re still pretty badly bruised and look washed out, but I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you stack that wood over there and split five more blocks with the axe. If you do that for the rest of the week, it will help build up your strength. We can’t have you falling asleep on watch or not being able to react fast enough if there’s a problem.”

So Mark set to work, and the first day he did split five logs and stacked all the wood, but the second day, he split six and continued to ramp it up each day. Every night, his muscles ached from the unaccustomed exercise, but he felt good about contributing and got stronger every day.

By the end of the week, Ennis noticed the boy stretching before he got to work with the axe and said, “You gonna be Paul Bunyan before this is through.”

Confused, Mark said, “Who’s Paul Bunyan?”

Ennis shook his head, walking away, muttering something about the state of the school system, with his fishing pole over his shoulder and Sheriff trotting along beside him.

After dinner that night, while Tala and Graham were on watch, Ennis called all the children into the living area and told them stories about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

When she learned of his ‘lessons’ Tala scoffed and told them there was a lot more they all needed to learn than American folklore, Ennis just scoffed right back. Mark was glad. He liked the old man and his tales.

Later, out of earshot, he explained to a wide-eyed Bang that a folklore meant a made-up story. He didn’t want the little guy scared witless of a giant man with an axe and a blue ox showing up when they were out in the woods working. Bang had already told them all about the Korean folklore, the Dokkaebi, which scared him, so Mark figured he’d also worry about this tall tale.

~ ~ ~

When he thought the boy was strong enough, Graham put Mark on his first nightshift and was damn glad he had. At Sheriff’s sharp bark, in response to the radio in the kitchen coming alive, he tumbled out of bed and asked Tala what was up.

Mark had reported seeing a canoe coming their way at two in the morning. He called in a 10-34 which meant trouble at this station and bypassed the 10-12 which meant visitors present, because this late at night, he figured these guys were up to no good anyway.

Graham thought the boy was maybe just seeing things or pulling a fast one, but he didn’t take Mark for a prankster and couldn’t take chances, either. He hurried and put on his coat and boots, grabbed his rifle and exited the cabin to find Tala running in his direction. Together, they went down the trail quietly until they heard unfamiliar voices.

As Tala had told him to, Mark stayed hidden in the tree stand. Graham’s heart nearly pounded out of his chest as the three men pulled up their canoe and silently moored it in the brush, out of sight but easy to get to. He and Tala crouched down and Mark could see the intruders were heavily armed and headed towards their camp. Graham heard the men coming up the trail so he put his arm around Tala’s waist and pulled her deeper into the woods out of sight. He held up one of his fingers to his mouth to show her to be quiet. He held her closer to his chest and could feel her pulse quicken to match his own. She, too, was suffering an adrenaline rush. He didn’t hear Mark’s voice so thought he hadn’t been discovered. Too risky to use the radios now, Graham didn’t dare make a noise which would expose Mark’s position with the strangers so close.

He aimed his weapon towards the men as they walked past on the trail, letting them think they were undetected. He wanted to stop them before they got too close to the cabin, but far enough from the lakeside in case they had reinforcements. One clumsy step in the brush at this distance would alert the intruders to their presence. After they’d passed them, Tala reached up to whisper in Graham’s ear. “They’re not Preppers.”

With the intruders safely out of earshot, he told her to go find Mark and to stay hidden unless he called her. Then he tightened his arm around her in a quick hug before releasing her, confused by why he felt the need to do that.

She touched his hand. “Stay safe,” she whispered and walked through the woods quietly to find Mark.

Graham picked his way through the trees, keeping an eye through the forest for the two strange men. He stopped at the edge, as the two got closer to the end of the trail.

“This was longer than I thought. Let’s just grab one of the girls and get the hell out of here,” one of the strangers said.

Knowing their intent now made Graham’s heartbeat even faster as the rage increased the adrenaline surge. Just as Graham lined the nearest one up in his sights, he heard Sheriff growl. One of the guys aimed his rifle at the dog and Graham changed his aim quickly and shot the man. He dropped, but the other two now knew his location and began shooting into the woods blindly.

Then Ennis began shooting towards the two remaining men, who made a hasty retreat back towards their canoe with Sheriff hot on their heels as they continued to shoot behind them. Graham ran through the woods, worried that Tala and Mark might be in the crossfire. The two strangers were long gone when they heard another shot coming from Ennis’s location. Graham startled Tala and Mark from behind, making Mark yell out, but no one heard him.

They watched the men paddle away towards the other end of the lake, silhouetted between dark water and a dim light from a sickle of waning moon, Sheriff barked his deep-throated warning from the shore. Graham walked Mark and Tala through the woods back to Ennis’s location where they saw him standing over the twice-shot intruder with Sheriff sniffing the dead body. “You two, go inside. I’ll be there in a minute,” he said so he could have a word with Ennis alone.

At least now, they knew where the enemy was coming from.

“He’s really dead now,” Graham said to Ennis.

“He was still breathin’ but not no more,” Ennis said.

“I heard them talking. They were coming for one of the girls,” Graham said, disgusted.

“That’s not going to happen,” Ennis growled through clenched teeth. He looked as furious as Graham felt. “You shouldn’t have let them get so far in,” he said.

“I had Tala in front of me and they were too close,” Graham defended himself.

“We have to come up with a better plan, Graham. They’ll be back for revenge now that we got one of theirs,” Ennis warned, “I know how dangerous idiots can be.”

“What the hell do we do with the body?” Graham asked, looking over the dead man. He bent to retrieve the dead man’s rifle and saw that he showed no signs of starvation, but smelled pretty bad.

Ennis kicked it. “I say we chop his…”

Graham stopped where this was going, “No, we’re not like them. Help me load it into the truck. I’ll dump it away from camp in the woods later.”

~ ~ ~

Once they put the intruder away, he went into the cabin, but Ennis stood guard while he talked to the others. He and Sheriff went in and Graham saw that, with all the commotion, everyone was awake now. Marcy was softly whimpering, scared to death while Macy tried to reassure her.

“Good job, Mark,” Graham said when he came in. He patted the young man on his shoulder. “That was exactly the right thing to do.”

“I should have shot them when I saw them coming in,” Mark said, his frustration clear in his voice.

“There were three of them and one of you, Mark. They would have killed you and then Tala before we had a chance to get into position. You did exactly the right thing here,” Graham reassured him again.

He knew the remaining intruders would be back, especially since he’d killed one of their own. He was angrier for the fact that they’d been watching them and they had the audacity to try to take, by force, one of them.

“Listen up. We got lucky just now. That was a close call. They’ll be back, though. Let’s get one thing straight right away. I made a mistake once before in not shooting a dangerous man and it cost us,” —he nodded at Marcy— “a lot more headaches later. If you have to shoot someone, shoot to kill. I should have already said that.

“We’ve been too complacent and this proves it. Those men have been watching us. Hopefully now, they realize we aren’t easy to tangle with but they will be back. We have things they want and now they’re angry they didn’t get it and lost one of theirs. We need to keep watching and change our locations so that they can’t detect us. For now, go back to bed and get some sleep, Tala, you too. I’ll handle watch from here tonight. I just want everyone inside, behind locked doors for the night.”

~ ~ ~

Graham, sitting in a chair in the living area, looked out the window and saw the first snowflakes drifting down as the ambient morning light just glided over the horizon, lighting the area in a dusky blue. Other than several deer munching on the frozen greenery which a light dusting of snow quickly covered, nothing more happened for several days, but he was pretty sure those men encamped across the lake hadn’t given up. At this point, Ennis was on watch from the blind by the water, and Marcy in the one near the road. Graham knew he should be sleeping, having just come in from his shift, but rest eluded him. He felt he had to stay here near the door… just in case.

Having the skittish deer there helped ease his fear that the intruders weren’t in the area at the moment. It gave him time to think, not only about the recent events, but also about his reaction to Tala while they were hiding in the dark.

He felt utterly ill-equipped to protect these people he’d somehow became responsible for and his attraction to Tala made things worse. He still loved his departed wife and couldn’t fathom his feelings for Tala. He hung his head from the weight of his thoughts.

He never heard her unless she wanted to be heard. She was talented like that. Now, he smelled her before he felt her hands wrap around his tired shoulders. She began to massage his tight muscles. Then she bent down and whispered, “I’ll take over now. You go to bed.”

He stopped the massage with his one free hand and gripped her, pulling her in front of him. He sat her on his lap and hugged her, burying his head into her thigh. She held him. He just needed to hold on to someone and told himself that it didn’t have to be Tala, that it could be anyone, except for maybe Ennis. At least, that’s what he tried to convince himself of. He missed his wife, who’d only passed a few months prior and he was ashamed of his reaction to Tala. It made him question the love he’d had for Nelly and that scared him, along with everything else these days.

“It’s all right, Graham. You’re just tired,” she said. In the morning light just peeking into the windows through the snow, she stroked his back and drew her hand through his thick hair, from the bottom of his neck up, making him sleepy. He wanted nothing more to than to stay like that for a long time.

He lifted his head and avoided her gaze. “I’m okay,” he said, “Thanks.”

She got up and walked over to retrieve her weapon. He walked past her into the bunkroom to rest while the others started a new day. She smiled at him as they passed and suddenly he knew she shared his feelings. He didn’t know if it made him feel better, or worse.

~ ~ ~

Graham wasn’t sure what the smell from the kitchen was, but it was good and his stomach growled, letting him know he’d neglected it. He rose from his top bunk and climbed down.

He went through his clothes. He needed to switch these out. Unlike the old days, they changed clothing only once or twice a week. Tala had to have a long conversation with the girls on the necessity of conserving their water. Getting them to wear their dirty clothes and shower less was a challenge. They, of course, had the opposite conversation with Bang and Ennis, trying to coerce them into taking a shower once a week because they both became ripe, quite quickly. Graham smelled his underarm and made a face to himself, deciding it was time for him to get cleaned up. He gathered his change of clothes and headed to the bathroom, only to find it occupied.

He wandered into the open dining area where whatever Tala was frying, proved to be the source of the tempting aroma. “What is that you’re cooking?” he asked. “It smells great and woke me out of a deep sleep.”