Pandemia

by Nick Lancaster

“I don’t know Liz, maybe they found a cure. Maybe there’s been another outbreak, what time is it anyway?” Liz glanced at the clock in the corner of the TV screen, it read 9:15am.

  “Well, I’m going to make some more calls OK? Talk to me later after he’s been on? I love you sis.” Nadine ended the call.

  “What do you think it’s about?” Liz asked Mike.

  “I don’t know, I’m gonna get up and get some coffee.” Mike rolled out of the bed and pulled on some shorts before heading downstairs.

  He made a cup of coffee and plopped down into the comfy recliner by the TV. He put CNN on and then flicked through some of the other news channels but they were all reporting pretty much the same thing. ECD was so prominent in everyone’s mind that it didn’t occur to the reporters that the President might want to talk about something else, it could only be about the virus.

  Liz came down after showering and they waited for the President to speak.

  “My fellow Americans, this morning I want to talk to you about some important developments in our battle against the ECD virus. Yesterday I met with prominent experts from our medical and scientific community along with leaders of our military. The purpose of that meeting was to assess how we are doing in the fight against the spread of ECD and what more we can be doing.

  It is with regret that I inform the American people that we are no closer to discovering a cure for ECD or a vaccine against ECD. As you know the ECD virus has ravaged Europe and has an established foothold in every continent on the planet.

  The United States of America is not immune to the ECD threat and we are at a crossroads. We can choose to fight or we can choose to lie down. I believe the only course of action, the right course of action is to fight.

  The ECD virus is not contained within Los Angeles. There have been infections across the United States. Every virus report has been dealt with swiftly but we cannot continue to fight this way. To win this war it is essential that we use the weapons we need to prevail. Therefore I am declaring a national state of emergency.

  Effective immediately local law enforcement agencies and members of the National Guard along with our professional military personnel will be given the power to stop and test anyone who could be carrying the ECD virus.

  FEMA camps are being opened across the country to house those who are infected and the very best medical care will be given to those people. Some of you will be fearful of this but I promise you that these steps are being taken for the good of the American people.

  I urge you to continue your daily lives as normal, to work with officials in your community and support our efforts to protect the future of our nation. Thank you and God Bless America.”

  The screen faded out and the CNN anchor was back, he looked stunned. Clearly there had not been a press briefing ahead of time. The anchor began to speak but the words were lost on Mike and Liz, they were trying to process the information.

  Mike spoke first. “Shit. This is real. It’s not just in LA? Damn it, I knew it. I knew it when the virus started spreading across Europe that there was no way we’d been lucky enough to contain this thing. Shit. Liz, we need to think about this, we need to think what to do.”

  Liz began to cry. Mike never knew what to do when Liz cried, this time he did. He hugged his wife.

  Later that evening in his basement office Mike was online, he was reading as much as he could about the new information on ECD. Then he noticed an email from Professor Miller, the University of Michigan expert on ECD. He opened the mail.

  “Mr Landis, you wrote me almost two months ago now and I didn’t reply. I didn’t reply because I was scared that doing so would put my life in peril, perhaps the lives of my family. Today though I realized it didn’t matter, if the President was ready to make the announcement he did, the game is over. We’re all going to die.

  The truth is ECD is wild, it’s out of control, it has been for a while now but the military has been dealing with it and the media has been controlled. I don’t know who has that kind of power except the highest level of the government.

  These new controls that have been announced are nothing more than delaying tactics, more illusions to make the public think the government can save them, can somehow fence in a virus that’s already killed hundreds of millions of people.

  I’ve seen the computer models, there is no happy ending. Some fortunate few may have a natural immunity, but the rest are just waiting to be infected. The only way to be safe is to get away from all the other people, far away. Once the virus has claimed the last victim it’ll be gone, burned out, but until then we’re all at risk.”

  “Holy shit.” Mike said aloud. He went upstairs and found Liz sitting on the sofa, watching more CNN.

  “Liz, we have to leave. We have to get the hell out of here, go to the cabin, just get away.”

  “What? Are you crazy, we’ve both got work on Monday, I’ve got that presentation to prepare for. We can’t just leave!”

  “What? Listen to yourself Liz. This morning the President of the United States told us that the virus isn’t just in LA, it’s everywhere. We aren’t safe if we stay here.”

  “He also said we needed to work with the changes, work with the new procedures. He wouldn’t tell everyone to just carry on as normal if it were that dangerous.”

  “Liz, that's exactly what he’d do if the government wanted to control the collapse. If they did nothing and everyone started getting sick, the country would go crazy, this way, they tell us people will get sick, but if we line up at checkpoints we’ll be OK. It’s bullshit Liz. You know it’s bullshit. You’re in shock or something, this isn’t the way you’d react normally”

  Mike looked over at the coffee table and saw an empty bottle of wine. Liz had taken the news hard he realized.

  “Liz, look, I’m going to get us ready OK? I’m going to load up the Jeep with food and all that other stuff I’ve been putting away, and then we’re going to the cabin. We’ll call Nadine from the road, call my Dad too. Maybe he can meet us there.”

  Liz didn’t reply, she turned away from Mike and continued watching the TV. Mike stood there for a moment, and then headed back downstairs.

  In his preparing and stockpiling Mike had planned ahead. He’d considered that a situation may arise where sheltering in place wasn’t an option. He’d made sure all his supplies were stored in containers than could be easily transported and stacked. Everything was labeled and he had a checklist prepared to make sure nothing was left behind.

  Mike didn’t bother to take the water he’d stored in five six gallon containers in the basement. He’d realized early on that without an adequate clean water supply all other preparations were pointless. The cabin had a well though, the store water wouldn’t be needed.

  Food was the first priority. He had two storage containers filled with dehydrated food. Each container contained sixty servings, meaning he and Liz could eat for almost three weeks on these supplies alone. The food was followed by gas cylinders for their camp stove, along with the stove itself and the camping pots and pans he’d acquired over time.

  There were a variety of other items that he loaded next, each one selected for it’s usefulness and in some cases multifunctional capabilities.

  Mike had already packed clothes for them both, just enough that they’d be comfortable and be able to stay clean once they got to the cabin.

  Finally Mike opened the gun safe. He stowed the AR-15 and the Remington 870 behind the front seats of the Jeep. Except for a few hundred rounds upfront, the bulk of the ammo was stored in the back of the truck and covered by a blanket.

  He decided he’d carry the Browning Hi-Power in his shoulder holster along with a spare magazine; an open shirt covered it well. He put the King Cobra .357 Magnum in its leather holster and tucked it between the driver seat and center console. The Springfield XD was in a Crossbreed inside the waistband holster, just behind his right hip. He took Liz’s small .357 revolver and placed it in its own Crossbreed holster, then
tucked it in the glove box.

  He slung his messenger bag over his shoulder and then grabbed his worn Tigers ball cap. They were ready to leave. He walked back upstairs to Liz and found her asleep on the sofa. Instead of trying to wake her up Mike lifted her and carried her to the Jeep. With the wine she’d consumed Mike doubted she’d be disturbed by being moved.

  Everything was loaded in the Cherokee. He looked over at the house and then started the Jeep and pulled out of the driveway. They had about three hours of driving ahead of them and it was already getting late. Mike opened his window to smell the night; the cool air refreshed him and stole him away from the madness he was now living but only for a moment.

  As Mike drove he listed to the radio. NPR was running an in-depth report on ECD and analysis of the news from earlier that day. There was debate over whether the whole truth had now been revealed or if there was still more that the American public didn’t know. Experts were being interviewed and each had their particular viewpoint. Mike knew that even if the mail from Professor Miller wasn’t accurate, the fact that the government was preparing to stop people and ship them off to FEMA camps meant the situation was incredibly serious.

  He’d been driving for a couple of hours now along I-75, it was dark and he needed to pull over. He needed a bathroom break and the truck needed gas. An exit sign told him a gas station was coming up so Mike took the exit then followed the signs to the gas station.

  The independent gas stations found off the major interstates always interested Mike. They invariably carried a range of unusual products. Mike indulged himself and went to explore the store when he was done pumping gas.

  The store was filled with northern Michigan twee-ness. There were some books on shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, there were ‘genuine’ Indian moccasins, a collection of hats, a ton of fishing gear and camping supplies, then he spied something in the glass counter display that immediately activated the ‘buy me’ part of his brain. A beautiful Bowie knife, with a shining 8” blade, full tang and what appeared to be a bone handle.

  “She’s a beauty ain’t she?” The voice came from the guy behind the counter.

  “Mind if I take a look?” Mike asked

  “Hell no, here, see how she feels.” The man reached under the glass and retrieved the knife and then handed it to Mike. The knife was heavy, not too heavy, but the sort of heavy that came with something of quality. He examined the handle more closely. It was antler, the grain and coloring so beautiful as it ran along the grip and ended at the pommel. The price tag read $169.95. Mike knew he had to have the knife.

  “I’ll take it.” Mike handed the knife back and retrieved his wallet before handing the man his credit card.

  “You want me to wrap it or you wanna wear it now?” The man laughed.

  “You know, I think you better wrap it, I’ll have plenty of time to play with it soon enough.” Mike smiled.

  Mike returned to the Jeep and started the engine. Liz had woken up and was looking a bit disoriented.

  “Where are we?” asked Liz

  “We’re on our way to the cabin honey. We had to get away, it’s too risky to stay home, the virus, it’s wild, it’s out there and this bullshit about going to work and washing hands isn’t going to protect us. We need to be away from others, at least for a while, long enough to figure out what’s really going on.”

  “What are you talking about? What about our jobs? What do I tell my boss?” Liz was angry. She’d fallen asleep in their home and woken in a Jeep at a gas station a hundred or so miles away.

  “Liz, listen to me. That life, that reality, it’s gone. We’re living in a new reality now and I need you to understand that. I need you to understand how serious this is. Two months ago we all thought this virus was cornered in LA. It was terrible, but it didn’t affect us. Today the President told us the virus wasn’t just in LA, it’s everywhere. Liz, this thing cannot be stopped. If it could then France wouldn’t have collapsed and the rest of Europe would still be there. They kept this thing quiet as long as they could, but now they’ve figured out they have to spin us some more BS to keep us in line. No more Liz, we’ve got to think about ourselves.”

  They were back on the expressway now and heading north into the night. It was a beautiful clear night and under other circumstances Mike would be appreciating the natural wonder of the stars that were so much more visible out here away from the city lights.

  Liz was silent. She stared out the passenger window into the night, her face reflected against in glass from the lights on the dashboard.

  This part of the expressway narrowed down to two lanes. Ahead Mike could see red brake lights, further ahead road flares were stretched out, the flares were funneling the traffic into one lane. At the end of the lane were the red and blue strobe lights of a police car.

  As Mike began to slow down he heard the instantly recognizable sound of a helicopter but much louder than he was used to. Suddenly a Blackhawk flew low overhead, following the expressway. Mike pulled up behind the last car, another ten or so vehicles ahead of him.

  The helicopter’s nose lifted slightly as it slowed, then hovered and landed behind the police car. Mike considered the scene. The most likely scenario was the helicopter came from a nearby hospital, perhaps airlifting an injured driver. In the headlights of the cars at the end of the line Mike could see soldiers deploying from the helicopter, he counted ten, some of them wore respirators and all carried an M4.

  The soldiers moved up to the police car, one of them appeared to talk to the cop that was standing there holding a flashlight and slowly waving cars through. The traffic line stopped.

  “Mike what’s going on?” Liz asked

  “I don’t know babe.” Mike strained to see what was happening at the end of the line. Cars were moving again but much more slowly. Some of the soldiers were walking up the line of cars; they appeared to be speaking to the occupants.

  The car immediately in front of Mike and Liz started to pull out of the line and over to the shoulder. It slowly crept along toward the front of the line. Suddenly soldiers ran toward it and then the car accelerated, speeding toward the off ramp that was just beyond the cruiser.

  “Stop the vehicle! Stop! Do it now!” The command was being shouted by several of the soldiers, some of them shouldering their M4s and taking aim at the car. One soldier had positioned himself directly in the path of the speeding car, Mike identified it as a late model Taurus.

  “Stop the vehicle!” The soldier screamed. The car continued. A short burst of fire came from the rifle of the soldier in front of the car. Suddenly the roadway erupted with the crackle of automatic weapons fire, multiple soldiers firing into the vehicle, the muzzle flashes lighting the road in rapid snapshot like images. Liz screamed.

  The Taurus veered off the road, then slowed down as it rolled into the scrub and brush. Soldiers ran over to the vehicle, rifles still at their shoulders. “Put your hands up! Do it now! Show me your hands! Do it now!” There was no movement from the vehicle.

  “Holy shit!” Mike whispered. The whole thing had taken less than a minute. He knew he’d just seen someone die.

  The rest of the soldiers were assuming positions around the line of vehicles. “Drivers, turn off your vehicles and wait for inspection.”

  “Mike what do we do?” Liz sounded terrified.

  Mike looked in the rearview mirror, there was already a car pulling in behind him.

  He turned to Liz. “I guess we do what they say.”

  Mike remembered the rifle and shotgun he’d placed behind their seats.

  “Liz, I need you to find something to cover the guns in the back. Check the back seat, there should be some sleeping bags there.”

  “Guns? What do you mean guns? We’ve got guns in here?” She was staring at Mike.

  “Look we don’t have time to get into this. In a minute one of those soldiers is coming over here and I don’t need them seeing those guns ok? Did you not see what they just did?” Mike looked at Li
z as he spoke, his voice commanding.

  Liz stared at him a moment longer, then released her seatbelt and turned to pull the sleeping bags over the guns. She turned back in her seat and fastened the belt as the nearest soldier turned and began to walk over to the Jeep.

  The soldier motioned at Mike to open his window and he complied.

  Mike could see the face of soldier clearly now, he was young, probably barely into his twenties. The soldier shone a flashlight into Mike’s face.

  “Where are you heading tonight?”

  Mike was shocked at the complete lack of emotion in the soldier’s voice. He couldn’t tell if this was one of the men he’d just seen shooting, but even if he weren’t he was acting like nothing had happened. Mike realized this was military training, months of being drilled and disciplined to react to chaos with calculation and efficiency.

  “We’re on our way to Oscoda. We have a place there. Just getting away for a break.”