“Dr. Welby, this man is preventing us from repairing the leaking oxygen pipe you called me about.”
Mark was a little slow on the sham excuse but caught on. “Yes… why, yes. Where have you been? The whole place is at risk of explosion. Quickly, follow me.” Mark speedily took them down the hall, leaving the guard unsure of what had just happened.
As they turned a corner, Mark drove them all into an empty office and locked the door. Clara set the protective hood she used outside on a table and sat down for a breather. She realized that she had been on her feet for almost 30 hours.
“This place has turned into a madhouse. You aren’t safe here,” Mark said.
“I see that. What happened? It was a third-world battle zone just to get here. We haven’t heard much over the last few days–the power has been out,” Cal replied.
“So you aren’t aware that the military has taken over all government functions?” Clara added.
Cal and Rusty were trying to comprehend the situation.
“Pharmastat has private military contractors guarding their labs upstairs for some reason and there has been talk of them evacuating from the hospital. Helicopters have been landing on the roof to pick up crates of company equipment since yesterday,” Mark explained.
“We have been out west at my house with no power and no phone signal. We have no idea what is going on. Actually, the whole group is staying at my house. You and Clara are the only ones not there,” Cal said. “The way things are looking it might be a good idea for you two to think about what’s next,” he continued.
“We can’t leave yet,” Clara said. “If we give up, those people out there will have no hope.” She pointed out the window to the big tents in the parking lot. “We are barely keeping order as it is.”
“Clara is running the triage tents outside and I am trying to keep the chaos down inside. Between Pharmastat throwing their weight around and supplies running out, we are hanging on by a thread. Our staff is down by sixty percent and patients are up seven hundred percent,” Mark added.
“How long can you go on like this?” Rusty asked.
“The Feds say we are due to get reinforcements, but they have been saying that for days and not one doctor or nurse has shown up, just the army troops you saw outside. At this rate, the hospital will fail to operate in about three days,” Mark said, with disappointment in his voice.
“How is your electrical situation?” Cal asked.
“It comes and goes. The County told us they are conducting rolling brownouts due to the lack of people and resources. The generators have about twenty-four run time hours of fuel left and the backup UPS batteries are wearing down because the power does not stay on long enough to get them fully charged,” Mark replied.
“What is a UPS battery?” Rusty asked.
“Uninterruptible Power Supply. It is a room full of deep-cycle batteries on racks that detect a gap between the time the grid power drops and the generator comes online. They switch on in a nanosecond to keep the critical hospital systems online like telemetry, ventilators, and surgical rooms until the main generator takes over in about ninety seconds.
“If the batteries drop below a certain voltage threshold they won’t be able to carry the load. It would be like trying to reboot a hundred computers every time there is a power bump in the grid. And power has been dropping out several times a day lately,” Mark explained.
They all looked at each other quietly for a minute, as if waiting for someone to offer a magic solution to the problems of the world. Cal spoke up.
“We need to start thinking ahead. So far, we have been reacting too much. We brought you a handheld HAM radio.”
Rusty put the case on a table and opened it up. He went on to explain the basics and show Mark and Clara how to change frequencies if needed.
“If you need to reach us, use this.” Rusty pointed to the James Bond-looking commo kit.
They heard a commotion outside in the parking lot. It looked like a fight had broken out and a ragged civilian was chasing a soldier. Another soldier raised his rifle and appeared to be yelling at the man to stop or he would fire. The civilian seemed rabid and turned to the soldier with the rifle. As the man refused to stand down, the soldier fired one shot. The man jerked at being hit but was not deterred; the soldier fired again, twice, and the man crumpled to the ground. People standing in the lines ran for cover, screaming.
“I need to get back out there,” Clara said, as she grabbed her hood from the table and headed back out the door.
“Here, take this,” Rusty said, as he removed a Glock and holster from his belt and handed it to Mark.
“No one is safe anymore,” Rusty added.
Mark hesitantly took the weapon and lightly set it on the radio case. He knew in the back of his mind that things were tracking badly. He was a doctor and had trouble at the thought of causing harm but he was not opposed to self-defense.
“OK, I’ll give it back when I see you.”
“I know you want to save as many as you can and that is honorable Doc, but from what we have seen out there and what you have said about things inside the hospital, you might want to start thinking about the point of diminishing returns. All I am saying is, you do not need to go down with the ship,” Cal said to Mark. “We are there for you, when you are ready. We will be there for you. Come on out to the house and join us.”
“I appreciate that, the writing is on the wall here. In a couple of days we may have no choice but to shut it down,” Mark said, with some resignation.
“We’re going to head back out to the house. Try to keep the radio with you if possible. If anything happens, we’ll let you know and if you need help, just call,” Rusty said to Mark.
Cal and Rusty found their way to the truck and headed back to the house. The ride home was not as adventurous as earlier, but they did see several buildings burning and not a firetruck in sight.
At a stop sign, they saw a family of four standing on the corner. The father was struggling with a loose wheel on a wagon that was carrying his two small children. He had a small backpack and the mother had a small pack as well. The kids looked hungry and crammed under another large bag in the wagon with them. Cal rolled down his window.
“Hey buddy, you ok?”
The tired looking father replied, “The wagon has been giving us fits but we’ll be ok. Have you seen any relief places ahead? We need to find some water and food for the kids.”
“No, nothing the way we just came,” Cal said. “Where are you headed?”
“We have family in South Carolina,” the man replied.
“And you are going to walk the whole way?” Cal asked incredulously.
“No choice, our car broke down yesterday. We found the wagon and gonna have to make due. Turns out we don’t have a schedule to keep so, it is what it is,” the man said.
“Here, take some protein bars and water bottles. It’s all I have with me,” Cal offered as he reached into the truck console.
“Thank you very much, you’re a saint,” the wife said.
They said good luck and went their separate ways. As they drove away Cal was stricken by how unprepared people were.
“You know, a few weeks ago I would have never imagined this would be happening. I thought I was prepared for hurricanes and stuff but I never believed society could come unraveled so quickly. Gunfights, overrun hospitals, hungry people fleeing with children in a wagon. This is insanity.”
“Dude, I was always prepared for something, but this is worse than I thought it would be. The bad news is, I don’t hear any good news,” Rusty replied.
“You are always so prophetic.” Cal took his turn at prodding Rusty this time.
“What did you call me? You need to stop using those big words all the time.”
Cal looked at his fuel gauge and realized that it would be a good idea to top off the tank if he could.
“I’m going to see if that BP station has any gas available,” he said.
&
nbsp; “I’m not holding my breath, the way things are going today, but ok,” Rusty said, as he reached under the seat to retrieve his rifle.
“Let’s hope you don’t need that,” Cal said, as he watched Rusty give the AR a once over. Rusty petted his rifle with a serial killer smile.
“OK, stop that, you are weirding me out,” Cal ordered.
There were some cars parked around the gas station at odd angles, some with doors open and hoods up. Small groups of people were standing around some of the cars looking lost.
The station appeared to be closed and there were plastic bags on the handles of all the gas pumps, indicating they were empty. As Cal pulled through the lot, he saw some people had opened the lids to the underground fuel tanks and were using a battery powered pump connected to a car battery to pull fuel into a Rubbermaid style tub.
“Oh, hell no! That is the stupidest thing I have seen all day!” Rusty said.
Cal had the same reaction and stepped on the gas to get as far away as possible. He was only on the road away from the station for a few moments before it happened.
There were four people crowded around the tub, acting like they just hacked the system to winner status. The pump was beginning to give them fits and one of the men reached over to reset the big alligator clip on the car battery. The resulting spark set off a chain reaction that began with a massive vapor blast that incinerated everyone standing within seventy-five feet.
The chain-reaction explosions of the fumes from the other open storage tanks erupted into a volcano of flame that appeared to reach over two hundred feet in the air. The heat from the fireball passed through the truck’s cab as Cal and Rusty tried to put some distance between them and the gas station. The searing blast caused them to duck low in the truck for the second time that day.
“I need a day where I don’t have to say ‘holy shit.’ Can we make that happen? Because…holy shit that was close,” Rusty said.
“I hear ya, brother. As soon as I saw that soup sandwich happening, I knew it was time to di di mau,” Cal replied.
It was Rusty’s turn to try and figure out what his buddy just said.
The guys rolled into Cal’s driveway to the smell of meat on the grill. Tim was standing in a cloud of smoke, flipping burgers.
“That smells great. All of a sudden, I’m worried about attracting strays,” Cal said half-halfheartedly as he walked up.
The whole group was out under the trees enjoying a burger feast and sharing ideas about how to improve their impromptu compound and catching up on what happened that day. Charlotte knew she had to say something about the horses and figured now was as good a time as any.
“So, you know how we talked about getting some horses?” she began.
“Um, no, I don’t recall that conversation at all, actually,” Cal replied inaccurately.
“It turns out that Mrs. Joyce got sick and died.”
“Oh no, really?” Cal replied sadly. “You sure do cut to the chase on death announcements, don’t you?” he continued.
That’s when he heard a horse whinnying in the backyard.
“Wait, are you telling me you brought her horses here?” he said, pointing his finger at the picnic table.
Charlotte did not need to answer. All she did was sort of look away, like a child who was accused of eating the last cookie.
Cal took that as a yes and sighed. His group was getting bigger every day.
Shane noticed a scruffy, dirty stranger walking up the long driveway. “Hey, anyone know this guy?” he asked before the man could get too close.
Everyone looked up but no one recognized him. The stranger had meth mouth, with missing teeth and sores on his skin. His long, matted hair looked as if it had not seen a brush for some time.
“How y’all doin’?” the stranger asked, as if he was welcomed there.
“Fine. How can we help you?” Shane replied, as he stood up.
“I smelled your cookout down the street and was hoping I could share a bite. I haven’t had any food in days.”
“Sorry buddy, this is a private occasion. You’ll need to move on down the road,” Shane advised him.
The stranger looked around at the group and toward the open workshop where there were pallets of food from Glendora’s store.
“It looks like you have more than enough. You want to share?”
“It’s time for you to leave buddy,” Shane said firmly.
“That’s not fair. If you have extra food and I don’t, you have to share. Why should you get to eat and not me? Are you better than me?” The stranger raised his voice. Rusty and Cal both stood up from the table and everyone else got really uncomfortable.
“Look, friend. We don’t want any trouble. The problem we have is that if we feed you today, you’ll be back tomorrow for more. We have a limited supply of food and I will not be taking food from my children’s mouths to feed a grown adult who did not make arrangements to take care of himself. Now, I need you to head on down the road,” Cal said firmly.
The stranger had nothing to lose and moved toward the table anyway. Shane took a step to stop the stranger when the man whipped out a knife and swiped it at him. Rusty reached for his sidearm, only to pat an empty belt. He remembered that he gave his Glock to Mark at the hospital.
Tim still had the large grill spatula in his hand. It was a long one that had a knife edge on one side to cut meat. He moved to block the stranger while Shane went with the intention to disarm the dirty man.
“Stop!” Charlotte spoke out, loudly. All the men stopped where they were, including the stranger.
“If we give you something to eat, will you promise to not come back?”
The man looked at Shane, Rusty, Cal, and Tim who seemed to mean business. “Yeah,” he said.
“You mean you’ll find something else, somewhere else tomorrow, right?” Charlotte pressed him.
“Yes, I will go somewhere else.”
She put a couple of burgers on a plate and set them on the ground, away from the table. The stranger moved to the plate like a starving dog and began choking the burgers down while walking away. As he got halfway down the driveway they heard him have a coughing fit.
It was at that moment that Shane realized that he had almost gotten into a fight with someone who was probably highly contagious.
“That was close,” Charlotte said to Shane.
“Thank you, Charlotte, I was not thinking straight. That could have been a death sentence for me,” Shane replied.
“I think we need to add smell discipline to our security plan. We can’t have strays come in every time we eat,” Cal said.
“What are we going to do, burn trash in a barrel to mask the smells?” Rusty asked.
“Could work,” Cal replied.
27
Chapter 27
Saturday, January 12th
Loxahatchee, Florida
After yesterday’s close call with the hungry stranger, the group decided to keep tighter security. They began to close and lock all the doors to the house and workshop and with Shane and Rusty’s help, they set up some perimeter warning devices. These were mostly trip wires connected to noisemakers or strobe lights that would blind someone in the dark by ruining his night vision.
They also decided that while it may not yet be important to establish a night watch, someone should at least sleep at the ready in case an alarm were to be activated.
Rusty volunteered to take the first night. He set up his Hennessy Hammock in a location where he could hear any alarm activity. He loved that hammock because it had a split longways down the middle and he could essentially fall out on command in an emergency. He called it his Houdini Hammock–poof and he was gone.
The electricity had been off for a few days, but that morning it all flashed back on. Since the power had gone out several evenings before, all the lights had been switched on. In the pre-dawn hours of the morning, every light flashed on, TVs lit up with loud static, and all the cell phones that had any bat
tery left screamed to life with an emergency alert signal.
Rusty almost fell out of his hammock at the rush of electrical activity. He wasn’t the only one who was surprised awake.
“This is an emergency alert. If you are located in the western Palm Beach County area, from State Road 7 to Belle Glade, and from the Town of Okeechobee to South Bay, you must evacuate.”
The message continued to blare from phones and the weather radio.
“The Hoover Dike on the east side of Lake Okeechobee may fail in the next twenty-four hours. Repeating, the Hoover Dike on Lake Okeechobee is at risk of failure in the next twenty-four hours. The areas affected may receive flash flood conditions. Loxahatchee, the Acreage, and Royal Palm Beach could see water levels as high as eight feet initially if the dike has a catastrophic failure. All citizens are urged to evacuate toward the coast. Please follow all roadway messaging boards for directions to shelters and safe areas.”
The message went on to repeat itself as Rusty ran into the house to wake people up. Most were beginning to mill about, squinting in the bright lights. He found Cal coming down the hallway.
“Yes, I heard,” Cal said before Rusty could share the news.
“I can see it now, this is going to be another ‘holy shit’ day,” Rusty said in the hall.
“They have been warning about that dike failing for years. Do you really think it would happen now, of all times?” Cal asked, as he walked toward the can of coffee beans on the counter.
“That big hole in the ground is holding 735 square miles of water and it is at full pool. If the pumps fail, it could definitely wash the dike out with all the recent rains coming in from the Kissimmee River Basin. The Corps of Engineers have been digging a slurry wall into the dike but they have not finished the section facing us. And there ain’t nothing between here and there but miles of flat sugar cane farm.” Rusty gave Cal the skinny on the lake threat.
“Great, we were just getting settled in. What’s next, zombies?” Cal said, as he filled the coffee maker with water.
The Unraveling: Book 1 of the Bound to Survive Series Page 25
