In truth, they weren't the most impressive fighting force. They were four men and two women, and not a single one had been a serving soldier before the Long Night. It seemed that the airbase colonel had been less generous than they'd at first thought. Still, six adults who knew how to handle an assault rifle put them in a much better defensive position and the safety of the children was Janice's prime concern.
Solly had taken a back seat in the week or so since returning to the farmhouse. It became quickly obvious to him that between them, Janice, Landon and Jaxon had organized life here in a way that he felt completely unqualified to interfere with. Arnold and his elderly lover, Miss Prism, had become figureheads for the children, running the little school and seeing to their day-to-day needs. They'd enlisted his granddaughter and other older children to help, with the result that the place was now abuzz with the chitchat and laughter of gainfully employed children. This would change a little in a month or two when everyone, including children over ten, would be expected to work in the fields to help secure next winter's food.
They sat in companionable silence, enjoying a moment's respite, before Janice spoke.
"I hope Landon's back tomorrow. He's been away too long."
"Well, to be honest, it seems a bit of a crazy scheme to me," Solly said. "I reckon he fancies himself the Pied Piper."
The joke went down like a lead balloon. "He wants to help more people, Sol. Surely you approve of that?"
"Sorry," Solly said, flushing with embarrassment. "Yes, of course he's doing a great thing and I know you'll have assessed the risks of bringing strangers here."
"They're not coming here, Solly," Arnold said. "Landon's going to help them get set up on a neighboring farm. We can work together to protect and feed ourselves, but we'll be separate communities. He just reckons it's best for folk to gather close, especially out in the country. I also think he believes he's not needed here now you've returned."
Solly's heart sank. "It seems to me he's played a big part in this place flourishing; I can't imagine I'd have done any better. Good grief, he even got the turbine working. He's a good man."
"That he is," Arnold said. "And I think a part of him was disappointed when you showed up out of nowhere."
"Really? He had no reason—I'm not here to take over from him."
"Oh, it's not that," Arnold continued, with a sidelong glance at Janice.
"You shut your mouth, Arnold," she responded. "You're jumping to conclusions. Landon's been nothing but a gentleman to me."
"Oh, I see," Solly said. "I really am a maggot in the haystack, aren't I?"
Solly felt a surge of warmth as Janice reached out to grab his hand. They still hadn't consummated their love, but it was undeniable. "No, you're welcome here at the community you founded and by my side. You're right that Landon is a good man, but he's not my man."
Solly kissed her hands and smiled at her.
Landon returned the following day, walking wearily up the lane to the farmhouse. Solly heard the commotion and ran downstairs to see him hugging Jaxon before pushing him away.
"Bro, keep away. I gotta stinking cold. Is Janice here? Solly?"
Landon put his hands up to prevent anyone getting too close. "I got thirteen from Hagerstown—ten adults, three kids. They're makin' themselves comfortable in the Fordham farmhouse, but one of the kids had a cold and we're all gettin' it, so I won't come in. Hey, who's this?" He pointed at Scott and Paulie, who'd come over from the barn.
"They're friends," Solly said. "We've also got some soldiers lent to us by an Air Force base, some extra protection."
Landon's eyes narrowed. "Is that right? And you're alright with this, Janice?"
"Yes, it was my decision to accept their help, Landon dear."
He swayed a little.
"You've gone pale," Janice said. "Are you okay?"
Landon's BonesWare blared red as he fell to the ground.
"Stay away!" Solly roared as Janice and others stepped forward instinctively. When they'd retreated a safe distance from Landon's prone body, Solly got onto his hands and knees and crawled toward where his arm lay, its BonesWare watch face down on the gravel. With his hands outstretched, he turned Landon's arm over and squinted at the flashing display.
"It's flu," Solly said. "You all need to keep back. Except you Jaxon, you and I are going to take him back to the Fordham place and see what we can do to help."
"Why Jaxon?" Janice said. "I want to help."
"Because he's already been exposed. I'm probably okay, but I don't want to take any risks—you've got a house full of kids and babies to care for. We don't want flu to take hold with them."
Landon convulsed, throwing out a wracking cough and the spectators instinctively stepped back. If I didn't have it before, I've probably got it now, Solly thought as he prayed that the flu vaccine he'd been forced to get in November happened to protect him from this strain.
Solly got to his feet and, with Jaxon's help, hauled Landon upright.
"Here!"
To his left, Ross appeared, pushing a wheelbarrow. He left it a few yards away and then retreated.
"Well, it's not the first time we've had to cart him somewhere, is it?" Solly said. Jaxon smiled, remembering their discovery of the farmhouse and Landon's injured leg.
"Landon, can you hear me?" Solly said.
It took all his energy to open his eyes. "Yeah."
"Did you have food at the Fordham place?"
"Yeah."
Solly and Jaxon helped him into the wheelbarrow and each took one handle. "I'll send word when I've worked out what the situation is," he called to Janice and the others. "In the meantime, stay away. It's too risky."
It was worse than he could have imagined. Of the adults, all except two were showing symptoms. The children, so far, appeared to have been spared, but it was a horrific scene that greeted him as they wheeled Landon toward the Fordhams’.
This farm was a little smaller than theirs, but it was a solid brick built structure and the ideal place to be the center of a new community.
They were met by a short woman walking toward them briskly as they approached the front door.
"Are you insane?" she called. "The last thing I need right now is more patients! Who the hell are you anyway?"
"My name is Solly Masters, one of the founders of the community Landon comes from, and this is Jaxon, another founder. Landon collapsed outside our farmhouse and Jaxon had already come into contact with him."
"And what about you? Got a death wish?"
"No, but I did have the vaccine, so I figured I was a better choice to help Jaxon get him back here."
The woman gave a snort. She was dressed in a navy blue paramedic uniform. "Oh, we have a hero on our hands. That's all we need."
"Don't you talk to Solly like that," Jaxon snapped. "He is a hero, 'sfar as I'm concerned."
Solly put his hand on Jaxon's shoulder. "It's okay, she's just blowing off steam."
"Oh, am I? What are you, a psychologist?"
"No, but I recognize the signs well enough. We're here to help. Miss…"
"Miss? Why are you calling me miss? Do I look twelve? The name's Rebecca Epstein, but you can call me Becky, or Mrs. Epstein if you want to be formal. Though what Frank is thinking right now, I have no idea. Better off dead, he is, than living through this nightmare. Now, are you going to help me or not?"
The farmhouse had three large upstairs bedrooms, and a living room and parlor downstairs. Solly helped Landon into an armchair while Jaxon rearranged the cushions on the couch to make up a bed. Once Landon was as comfortable as possible, he followed Epstein upstairs.
She explained that she had been a paramedic. "That night," she said, shaking her head, "at first I was just responding to each call, but every one of them was dead already. Then the calls stopped and I went home to find my Frank had gone too. I went to the hospital the next day, but it was chaos. No one was running the place, so I went back home and barricaded myself in, hoping the
government would come help us. No such luck. Eventually, I found others and we made a little community, but we got raided so often that when young Landon found us, we were all up for coming."
"When did your people start coming down with the flu?"
"On the way here," she answered. "Two days before, a man had wandered into our camp. Turned out he was sick."
"Is he here?"
She shook her head. "No. Died the following day."
"Of the flu?"
"Yeah. He wasn't old, and he didn't have an implant, so I thought it was some disease he'd had for a long time. Cholera maybe, picked up from drinking unpurified water. Turns out I was wrong. BonesWare says it's the flu, and a virulent strain. Maybe the vaccine we had will protect us, maybe not."
Solly leaned against the door frame as he scanned the dark bedroom. Two men shared a double bed; two others were on the floor. All were either asleep or coughing uncontrollably. "What can we do for them?"
"Well, we've got a choice. We can either tend them and hope for the best, or one of us can go out and find some antivirals."
From the room below came the barking of Landon's tortured lungs.
Chapter 2
Solly sighed as he rounded the corner and saw the burned out remains of Speedy Pharmacy, a small green and white building in Hagerstown. He'd driven to the outskirts of the city on his own, leaving Becky Epstein to care for the patients in his absence, because there was no one else well enough to come with him except for those he'd left at the farmhouse, and he didn't want to risk any of them becoming infected.
It had taken the best part of the day to tramp the streets looking for a pharmacy that might, by some miracle, still have some antiviral drugs and he was about ready to give up, as he didn't like the idea of trying to find where he'd left the car in the dark.
"Hey mister."
Solly spun round to see a hooded figure standing behind him. He tugged his handgun from inside his jacket. "Where did you come from?"
The figure, who Solly could now see was a young white man with a straggly black beard, threw his hands out in front of himself. "Hey, put the piece away, man, I ain't no threat."
Solly relaxed a little, but didn't lower the gun. "What do you want?"
"I just came to ask if you wanted any drugs."
Solly had been asked that question a number of times on the streets of New York, usually after leaving a club in the early hours. He'd never said yes before.
"Not the sort of drugs you're selling," he said.
The man manufactured a shocked expression. "Hey man, what d'you know about what I'm sellin'? I ain't talkin' about, you know, recreational drugs. No, I seen you walkin' the streets and shakin' your head every time you see a drug store all burned out. So I thought to myself, you might be in need of something urgently. Am I right?"
"Well, since you ask, I need antivirals. Tamiflu, for one."
Stepping back a little, the man shook his head. "You ain't infected are you?"
"I don't reckon so," Solly said. "I got vaccinated before the Long Night and it seems to be working against this strain."
"Ah, yes, that'd be right. Doctor Harper said as much. Only allows the vaxed to work for him. Says he's too important to be gettin' the flu from one of us."
"Who's this Doctor Harper?"
A smile spread across the man's face. "Oh, so you ain't from around here, then. My name's Aston, by the way, Aston Winters." He held out his hand.
Solly took it and introduced himself. "Tell me more about the doctor."
"Well, he showed up a few days after, you know, that night. Turned out he was stayin' at the Baymont over on Cleveland Avenue. Spent three nights tryin' to save folk when they was dyin' like flies. That's where he found me. Funniest thing. There I was armed for lootin', and there he was with nothin' but his voice and a white coat. Told me to come help him, and so I did. Been with him ever since. Great man. Kept so many alive."
"And do you think he'll have the drugs I need?"
Winters shrugged. "Can't say, but he sent us around all the pharmacies in the city gathering it all together, so if it was in Hagerstown, he's probably got it."
It took half an hour to cross town to the Baymont Hotel which turned out to be a modern red brick building with five floors. Solly had tried to question Winters further while they walked, but he was on his guard, carefully scanning the streets as they crossed from block to block. They'd had time for one whispered conversation as they waited on a street corner for a group to disappear into a derelict shop. This part of Hagerstown, he'd said, was divided along gang lines. The people they'd seen were part of a group occupying buildings that had once housed various firms including lawyers, realtors, and tech companies. The gangs had each raided the surrounding blocks, bringing what they looted back to their home territories and guarding their supplies ferociously.
The first floor of the hotel was hidden behind a barricade formed of cars piled on top of each other. It was like a junkyard castle wall with car hoods forming the crenellations behind which the barrels of guns could be seen.
"Wow, that's impressive!" Solly said. His mind flitted back to the smoking ruins of Arbroath.
"It took us a while to finish it," Winters responded. "We found a crane with a grabber on the end; that's when we added the second layer. Ain't nobody gonna get through that without some serious firepower."
A gate made of heavy iron bars filled the gap between two trucks, and a voice called a challenge.
Winters raised his hand. "Hey, Vince, it's Aston. Come on man, open up. It's gettin' dark out here."
"This here's Solly," Winters continued when they reached the bars. "He needs to speak to the doctor."
Solly raised his hands to shield his eyes from the flashlight beam.
"Have you told him he'll have to be checked over?" the man's voice said.
Winters gave a sheepish grin. "Ah, I mighta not mentioned it just yet." He turned to Solly. "It's not too bad, my friend. Just a shower and a quick exam. All be over in no time."
"Why?"
"Standard procedure," said the voice behind the flashlight. "We can't have carriers—there's a lot of sick people here."
This didn't feel right. The last time he'd encountered a group that had taken over a hotel they turned out to be run by a self-styled cult leader. But he had people back at his own community that depended on him, including Jaxon. "Okay," he said, suddenly grateful that he'd had the sense to leave Alison hidden with Janice at the farmhouse.
The door swung open and the flashlight was withdrawn. As his eyes adjusted, Solly could see fires burning between the barrier and the hotel, flickers of amber glinting from the windows of the big double doors.
"This way." The guard, who Winters had introduced as Vince Caesar, nudged Solly forward. The reception doors swung open and he was steered to the right.
"I see you've got a generator running," he said.
"Yeah, we brought it over from the county hospital—first thing we did," Winters said. "Here you go."
He opened the door of a first floor room that had been adapted for wheelchair use. "We'll wait here for the doc to send over one of the nurses to check you out. I suggest you get in the shower; they won't be long."
Despite his initial reservations, the shower was delightful. He stood under the hot water—another indication that fuel was not in short supply—enjoying the sensation of warmth washing away the dust and sweat. It was as if the outer layers that had accreted since that last shower at Neil Buchanan's community were finally being removed to reveal the pristine, innocent Solly Masters of those early days.
He was jolted out of this brief moment of joy by the door opening and Winters's voice calling, "Come on Solly, don't hog the water! The nurse is here."
With a regretful sigh, Solly stepped out of the shower and dried himself on freshly laundered white towels. He pulled a robe around himself and opened the door.
"You are Mr. Masters?" The nurse was a stocky, round man in his fifties w
earing a white uniform and holding a clipboard. In short, he was not what Solly had imagined.
Winters and the guard left Solly and the nurse alone in the room. The examination was extremely personal but mercifully brief.
"Your temperature is normal; I can find no evidence of any other transmittable diseases and I am satisfied that you were vaccinated against influenza in November. You may proceed."
The nurse gave his clipboard an ostentatious tick and left the room.
"Wow, this is certainly an efficient operation," Solly said as Winters met him at the door and led him through the lobby, boots snapping on a freshly polished floor.
"The doc's a stickler for hygiene," Winters said, pushing open a pair of doors and heading up a stairway. "Though, to be truthful, I reckon some of it's just to keep folk busy. Place like this takes a lot of cleaning. Right, here we are." He pulled open a door and gestured Solly through, waving to the guard as they went.
It was, in most ways, a typical hotel corridor with a row of rooms on each side, but the doors were open. Solly glanced inside the first to see a king size bed that had been split into twins, each occupied by a patient.
"We're pretty short on space. We've only converted this floor so far. There he is!" Winters accelerated, Solly in his wake. "Doc! Doc! I got someone I want you to meet."
A man in a white doctor's coat was emerging. He was short, slim and had long dark hair tied in a pony tail that rested on his shoulders. "Hey, Aston!" he said, before glancing along the corridor. "Who's this?"
Just as with the nurse, this doctor, if he was genuine, looked nothing like Solly's preconception. He'd been imagining a man of late middle age with intelligent, thoughtful features. He certainly hadn't expected to be confronted by a hipster.
But he took the man's proffered hand just the same.
"Good to meet you Solly Masters," the doctor said. "My name's Jason Harper. I've just finished my rounds, so why don't we have a sit down and you can tell me all about yourself?"
Solly followed him down the stairs and they emerged in what had been the hotel restaurant and was now the staff canteen. The doctor took a seat at a table reserved for his use and gestured Solly to sit down. He then waved at someone and ordered coffee for them both.
The Long Night Box Set Page 50
