The Emerald Virus (17 page)

    
Beth continued “Let’s go get the men to bed. We’re all tired and we can
continue talking in the morning. Show Andy to Brian’s room please. You and
George are in your room. I would guess the small bed won’t bother either of you
too much.” Both she and Maiya were smiling as they walked back to the living
room.

    
The next day was spent quietly. Maiya and George walked around the neighborhood
a couple of times, although Ed insisted that George carry a small pistol in his
waistband whenever they left the house.

    
Andy joined Ed when he walked down the street to his friend’s house and talked
about what weapons they might use for the trip home. His friend supplied them
with two boxes of shells for the shotgun, and two boxes of ammunition for the
.45, plus a couple of extra clips. He also offered additional 9mm ammunition
but Ed said he had plenty for them. The only other thing he thought would help
were four hand grenades he had acquired about a year ago. He wouldn’t say where
they had come from and Ed didn’t press. They thanked him and walked back home.

    
Ed said, “I’ve known him most of my adult life and he has never ceased to amaze
me. If he wasn’t a cop I’d worry about him.

    
Ed asked “Do you have any idea what Maiya and George are thinking?”

    
“No I don’t. Neither of them has said a word to me. I can’t think of a more
difficult choice to have to make. I think you and Beth are great for making the
offer, but I don’t envy the two of them the decision.”

    
“I don’t either. We want Maiya to be happy these last couple of weeks but we
aren’t entirely sure what she wants. We thought offering the choice to the two
of them was the fair thing to do. I can’t tell you how torn I am about this.
Half the time I wish I hadn’t said anything and the other half I’m unsure about
what I wish.”

    
When they walked in the kitchen Beth said, “The kids are in the living room
waiting for us.”

    
Andy said, I think I’ll wait upstairs while the four of you talk.”

    
Beth said, “Andy, come with us. This is a family decision and we’re all family
at this point.”

    
Andy said, “Beth, thank you. I really did want to be there but I wasn’t sure if
I should be. I like being considered part of the family.”

    
They walked into the living room and took the same seats they had last night.
George and Maiya were on the love seat holding hands and looking tense. Andy
took the armchair and Ed and Beth sat on the sofa.

    
Maiya looked at her parents and said, “This is the hardest decision either of
us has had to make. We’ve talked about every angle we can think of and it comes
down to the same thing. No matter what we do it is going to hurt someone we
love. We both hate that part of it.”

    
“Mom and Dad, I’d like to go back home with George. I’m falling in love with
him, and his folks are like you guys. I know they’ll love me for these last
couple of weeks, and of course I know Andy as well. We would like to stay until
Saturday so I can say goodbye to the rest of the family. I love you guys and I
hope you aren’t disappointed in me. I will love you until the moment I die.”

    
Beth said, “Baby, we thought this would be your choice. You only get one first
love and it is controlling. It was the same for your father and I. We know you
love us. The two of you only have a short time together; you should take
advantage of it. We’ll talk everyday as long as the phones are working, and
when they don’t work we have email.

    
“The most important thing is that you get to be happy during these most
difficult times. We know that’s a mixed blessing right now but it’s what the
two of you have and you should make the best of it.”

Saturday:
The High Rockies

    
Jack sat in his office on Saturday and thought about his team’s accomplishments
since their arrival.   

    
He was both surprised and thankful over the number of suggestions they had
received from the public and from businesses. All of the emails had been
filtered in D.C. by the team that Gene had put together last week. The workable
ideas had been sent on to Jack and the bunker team.

    
Consequently, Jack and his team had been busy setting up a variety of data
bases on the Emerald Virus web site. All were intended to help the survivors.

    
A number of states, cities, towns and villages had asked how the survivors
would know where to find the RVs that were being prepared. In response the
bunker team had set up a process that would allow municipalities to register
the locations of the towns, and the addresses where the RVs would be located.
Jack recommended that all towns use either city hall or the main police station
as the location since these offices tended to be on or near the main street of
towns and cities. Any survivor with access to the internet should be able to
find an RV.

    
Jack had issued a bulletin suggesting how cities verify survivors and release
the RVs to them. He asked that the cities then update the data base to show to
whom the RV had been released, and if known, the initial destination of that
survivor. Jack suggested that the RVs remain under lock and key until
verification that the person was an actual survivor. Jack knew that
verification could only be based on a person not showing symptoms, and the
possibility existed that mistakes would be made, but this was an acceptable
risk.  These mistakes would be self-correcting.

    
Jack also issued a bulletin concerning children. This was more difficult since
parents were not likely to give up their children any sooner than they had to.
Jack’s bulletin included suggestions on where to take survivor children.

    
He asked each municipality to set up a site where volunteers would care for the
children initially. He thought the parents themselves would be the volunteers.
He also discussed the need for survivors to volunteer to accept responsibility
for these children. His recommendation was for female survivors who had
children of their own to accept responsibility for the care of children up to
sixteen years of age. Children sixteen or older would have their own RVs and be
considered adults. The web site would be updated showing which children were in
the care of which survivor. 

    
Jack did not think men were incapable of caring for children, but he did worry
about the wrong men being responsible for the children. Women who had had their
own children were not a guarantee of the best match. The odds were simply
better. 

    
Jack’s bulletin also included suggestions to survivors on how to contact each
other, and the merits of congregating as a group during the early days. Jack
hoped that enough men and women would gather in one place that care of the
children would become easier and protection of the children and of the group
would be assured.

    
Jack’s next step was to add a medical data base to the web site. He wanted
everyone who had any knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs to be able to
update the web site with the name, description and benefit of plants, herbs,
shrubs and trees. On Jack’s request Gene took some members of his email review
staff and had them research the internet for medicinal plants and to include
pictures of these plants.

    
His medical and dental bulletins talked about the difficulties survivors would
face in a world with few or no doctors or dentists. He asked medical officials
to complete as much work on survivors as they could, especially things like
removing braces, finishing root canals, removing stitches, completing
outpatient procedures, providing needed drugs, etc.

    
He requested municipalities include CDs with medical and dental knowledge when
stocking the RVs. Some CDs would provide instructions on how to take care of
everyday problems; others would be full texts from medical and dental schools.
Some would be helpful immediately; others would be helpful in the future,
especially when the internet failed.  Jack added a list of everyday medicines to
the items that should be stocked in each RV. Especially things like the most
common antibiotics, along with the Antibiotic Guide published by Johns Hopkins
University.

    
He also issued a bulletin with a comprehensive list of other CDs that should be
included in all the RVs. This list was compiled by a team in D.C. and included
a long list of “how to do or fix” almost anything. The list also included
encyclopedias, as well as most common text books.

    
Jack sent a bulletin to libraries across the country asking them to make all
reference material, printed or electronic, available to survivors in the
future. Jack did not want libraries to put this precious information in vaults
that could prove impossible to enter. Libraries should be sealed from the weather,
but the doors should be left unlocked.

    
This morning Jack had issued bulletin fourteen, asking retail businesses to
leave the doors unlocked when the owners left for the last time. Jack explained
that he did not want survivors to have to break doors and windows in order to
access a retail store for goods. While breaking into a store would not be
difficult, it would leave the business open to the weather and wild animals,
and that would be wasteful.

    
The most difficult bulletin to write was the one about pets, and recommending
that citizens euthanize household pets and other animals that could not survive
on their own in the wild. Jack had a tough time writing about the consequences
of not euthanizing animals, but he felt it necessary to make sure people
understood the difficult death pets would face if left to their own wiles.

    
Jack was satisfied he and the team had done everything they could up to this
point. He also knew there was a lot more to be done. His entire team was
involved and excited about their survivor project so he knew they would
accomplish their goals.

    
He knew that they were about to be alone with their work. More and more of the
team in Washington had become symptomatic and were permanently signing out.

    
Just as he was about to go to dinner Ron Allenway walked into his office and
said “I was eavesdropping on the secure network and listened to a series of
calls to and from the Congressional bunker. It seems that one of the
Congressmen started showing signs of the virus this afternoon. That bunker is
in chaos now. The politicians are demanding transportation back to Washington
DC or to their home districts. Since they are now all exposed to the virus they
don’t want to stay in the bunker. They’re in the middle of the West Virginia
Mountains about eighty miles from nowhere.”

    
Jack said, “Oh hell, this is not what we needed. I received a message this
afternoon saying the President had released the military as of 3:00 o’clock.
Those without family, or those who couldn’t reach their families, were asked to
stay and secure the military facilities. The order excluded anyone involved in
the security of nuclear weapons. I don’t know who would be left to transport
politicians.”

    
“Yeah, the President has already told them that he could not provide
transportation since the military had been released to spend the last two weeks
or so at home. Even if some helicopter pilots volunteered to make the run, the
President ordered the stand down of all military aircraft on Sunday. They will
all be lashed down and in hibernation mode. It would take an entire crew
working together to get anything airborne.”

    
 Jack thought for a second and said, “It sounds like they’ll have to rely on family
members or staff to drive to the bunker to pick them up.”

    
“That is exactly what the President said to them. The acting Speaker of the
House told the President he must be crazy to think that the people the
politicians had just deserted would come to their aid. The President actually
laughed at him and told him he and his colleagues should’ve thought of that
before they left their families behind.”

    
“Wow. That was pretty harsh.”

    
“I thought so too, although to be honest I did think it was deserved. The
President then became presidential and said that he understood that some of the
politicians had gone to the bunker out of patriotism, and he was sorry things
had worked out this way, but there just wasn’t anything he could do about it.”

    
“All of that’s interesting but doesn’t really have much bearing on us, unless
the seals of the Congressional bunker are breached by the virus. It was either
that or someone who had been exposed to the virus went to the bunker.” Are you
going to make an announcement at dinner?”

    
 Ron replied “Yes I am. I have to let everyone know, because some of my folks
were with me when we listened in.”

    
“Ron, you aren’t really just Army communications are you?”

    
“No I’m not. It doesn’t really matter anymore so I’ll tell you. My team and I
are Army, but we have been assigned to the National Security Agency for most of
our careers. All of my folks have got substantial field experience and our goal
is to act as a world-wide listening post and let the President and our military
leaders know what is happening in various countries.

    
“The truth of the matter is that all countries are in chaos, and no one much
cares what is happening outside of their own borders anymore. Not even the
North Koreans seem to be harassing anyone, although they have announced that
this is a U.S. plot gone awry.

    
“Iran is of course saying the same thing but neither of them have delivery
vehicles capable of getting a nuclear warhead to the United States. My initial
fear was that terrorists would use the chaos as a way of getting a dirty bomb
into our country for a last gasp attack. It seems like the terror groups are
also falling apart.

    
“Almost all of Iran’s population is showing symptoms, and the mass deaths have
started. North Korea is showing symptoms throughout the population, but the
deaths haven’t started yet.”

    
“Ron, what about their military and political leaders, are they also in
bunkers?”

    
“Yes they are, but we don’t think the political leaders have the where-with-all
to remotely fire weapons. However, the military will have that ability. If
that’s the case countries like Israel and South Korea should be concerned.

    
“A couple of days ago The President sent back-channel messages to the leaders
of all countries reminding them that we still have, and intend to use, our
nuclear retaliatory capability. If anyone fires on a U.S. ally we will make
sure that country or region is leveled with no chance of survivors.

    
 Ron continued, “Our belief is that the political leaders of those countries
are hoping to survive in their bunkers long enough for a vaccine to be
discovered by somebody. They know if they use this last opportunity for attacks
that they’ll never be able to walk out of those bunkers.”

    
“That creates a problem doesn’t it? If our bunker seals are failing than we can
be sure others are as well. If the presidents of those renegade countries begin
to show symptoms they may not care about nuclear retaliation.”

    
“That is a problem, Jack. My thought, and I’ve told this to the President’s
National Security Advisor, is that those leaders still have a lot to lose, even
if they are going to die. If they attack there is no opportunity that their
ideologies will continue in the future. Anyone who might otherwise want to
carry these demented ideologies forward will be killed in our retaliatory
strikes. We can’t be sure of what will happen but I’m pretty convinced that
some of the people in those bunkers will want to see their way of life or their
religions go forward.”

    
“Ron, I like your thinking, I just hope you’re right.” 

    
“Me too. Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do either for our own
Congressmen, or about any foreign wackos. That being the case, let’s go have
dinner.”
     After dinner Jack returned to his office and became lost in his work. At
about ten o’clock Irene knocked lightly on his door and said, “Are you about
done for the night? It’s late and you need your sleep. I don’t want you to
start getting crabby on me.”

    
Jack smiled at her and said, “I don’t think I’m that far gone yet. Besides, you’re
the last person I want to offend. I can’t afford for you to go on strike.”

    
“You know I wouldn’t do that. While I hate the circumstances, I enjoy doing
something useful, and working with this team is as useful as I can be in
today’s world. “

    
“I know how you feel. A.J. did us a favor by including us on the team. And yes,
I’m ready to call it a night”.

    
“As they walked towards their rooms Irene asked, “What do you think about the
Congressional bunker, did the seals fail?”

    
“Actually, after thinking about the timing, I don’t think they did. There
hasn’t been enough time for them to fail and for symptoms to show. I think many
of the Congressmen and women must have been exposed a week ago. I don’t have
time to check but I’d bet that one or more of them were in the U.K. a week ago
and became exposed. That doesn’t mean the seals won’t fail in the future, but
we have some time before we have to worry about that.