Pandemia

by Nick Lancaster

  Moriarty gave the handset to Cosgrove and she replaced it on the phone. Then Moriarty heard someone begin to clap, then another and another, soon the room was filled with applause and the men and women in uniform stood once more to show their faith in her. Moriarty stayed and allowed herself to enjoy this moment, to savor and absorb it. Slowly she raised her right hand in salute, held it for a few moments and snapped it down before leaving the COC with Cosgrove.

  Chapter Ten

  Mike and Liz had been at the cabin for three weeks. The passage of time was most notable by the gradual changing of the leaves. Fall was coming and in Michigan it seemed to come quickly. Aside from the cooler evenings another noticeable change was the gradual disappearance of radio channels being received on the radio.

  During the first week it had almost felt like a vacation. Liz had done her best to distract herself with chores around the cabin. She had organized and reorganized the canned food supply. She’d made lists of their supplies. She even poured her energy into hefting an ax through the pile of wood that Mike had stored.

  Most evenings Liz and Mike walked the boundary of their property. Mike always took his tactical messenger bag and the Browning Hi-Power with them. He insisted Liz keep her gun either in the holster or in a bag close by. Mike liked being here, despite the circumstances. They were surrounded by nature and the only noises he could hear as they walked on those evenings came from the nightly chorus of Crickets, the sound all around them. A couple of times they heard the bark of a Coyote.

  Mike realized after the first week that he hadn’t heard or seen a plane in several days. Even here in the Michigan backwoods they would see commercial jets flying to Detroit or even the occasional light aircraft, but he’d seen nothing.

  The cabin had a large supply of paperback novels which Mike had collected at thrift stores and other places over the years. He’d already made a big dent in some Stephen King stories and he’d noticed Liz reading, or rather re-reading for the fourth or fifth time the Harry Potter series.

  When it got dark Mike would often go outside and just stand in the cool night air, staring up at the dark sky. As his eyes adjusted to the night he would see the millions of stars that existed out there beyond his tiny blue and green planet. Distant galaxies would slowly come into focus and shooting stars would suddenly streak across the sky.

  It was as he looked at the stars that he realized how truly small his world was. He remembered watching Carl Sagan on TV discussing the relevance of humanity in the cosmos, how little time mankind actually occupied on the galactic calendar. In the big scheme of things, the really big scheme of things, a global pandemic on a tiny planet in a distant corner of an infinitesimal universe was small stuff.

  While Liz was keeping herself busy during the day Mike would sometimes explore beyond the property boundary. He’d started scouting for deer and other game. He’d managed to bag a rabbit with his dad’s rifle, a Ruger 10/22. It was incredibly accurate and he had ample ammunition for it.

  Mike had taken the opportunity of their time to teach Liz how to shoot the other firearms they had with them. Liz had very quickly learned to operate the AR-15 and found the low recoil very easy to manage. The Remington 870 was a little rough on her shoulder but after she figured out a technique to hold it, she was comfortable operating the gun.

  During the third week at the cabin Mike noticed a change in Liz. She started to become withdrawn and much less engaged with keeping herself busy. Liz was staying in bed longer each day too. Mike knew she was in danger of falling into a deep depression.

  For everything Mike had planned for, the contingencies and the forethought, the medical supplies, the food and ammunition, the skills he’d learned, nothing could prepare him to fix the inevitable psychological trauma that would follow this major life changing event.

  Mike tried to keep his wife upbeat. They had a huge bonfire outside the cabin that evening and they stayed up late staring at the hypnotic flames. Fiery sprites crackled and escaped the orange core of intense heat, the wood glowed and radiated like it had done for humans for thousands of years. There was something so simple and almost magical about an open fire, the ability to control and tame a force so destructive in the wild.

  “So what do we do now Mike?” Liz was sitting on a lawn chair on the opposite side of the fire. She had found a pack of cigarettes somewhere and was smoking one now, dragging heavily on the filter tip Marlboro and taking the smoke deep inside. She’d quit smoking years back, but given current events Mike didn’t feel he should say anything.

  Mike inhaled deeply. The air here seemed so different, it tasted fresh and invigorated Mike.

  “I don’t know Liz. We can’t go home, not yet. We need to stay here and keep away from people. They’re locking down everything out there, we might be here for a while.”

  “Where’s the radio? Is there anything on there?”

  Mike stood and walked into the cabin, he soon returned carrying the crank operated radio. “Let’s see.” He turned the handle a few times, then flicked the switch and the radio turned on. He fiddled with the dial and found what he thought was a talk radio channel but as he listened it was soon clear that it was actually the Emergency Alert System.

  “This is the Emergency Alert System. The Federal Government has declared a national state of emergency in response to the ECD virus. If you are infected or if you know someone who is infected dial 911 or report to your nearest FEMA treatment camp. If you are not infected you should follow the directions of your local FEMA office. Follow basic sanitation rules. Cover your mouth when sneezing or coughing and wash your hands thoroughly.”

  Mike tried to find another station but there was nothing, even the local channel was gone, replaced with the same EAS broadcast.

  “What about Nadine?” Liz asked.

  “I don’t know Liz. The phones don’t work, we can’t call her and we don’t know what’s going on in New York, shit we don’t know what’s going on period.”

  “I can’t do nothing. I can’t just wait here not knowing if my sister is sick or if she’s even still alive.”

  “Liz, what do you want me to tell you? I don’t know if Nadine is OK, I just know that if she’s infected and she’s tried to get help then they’ve probably taken her to one of those camps. If she’s not infected then she’ll be fine so long as she stays away from other people.”

  “Stays away from other people? She lives in fucking Manhattan Mike. She can’t drive a few hours to a cabin in the middle of the night. It’s not like their apartment had a secret stockpile for doomsday like you put together.” Liz was angry, not at Mike but at the situation, Mike just happened to be the one feeling it.

  Mike thought for a moment. He couldn’t expect Liz to wait out this thing not knowing if her sister was OK.

  “Ok, but we can’t go now, it’s late and it’s dark. We’ll go in the morning OK? We’ll drive down to Toledo then head directly east. That’s a good fourteen hour drive on a normal day though, I don’t know how long it’s going to take us with the checkpoints, or even if we’ll be able to get past the checkpoints.”

  “We can try at least. If they stop us on one road we’ll take another. I’m not giving up on this Mike.”

  “I know Liz, I know. We’ll get there.”

  The following morning Mike loaded the Jeep with water and food for the trip. Mike also stowed a couple of five gallon gas cans that he’d kept at the cabin. He figured they should plan for a five day road trip, just in case of surprises.

  He was wearing the Browning Hi-Power in the shoulder holster under his shirt, on his belt he was carrying the 8” Bowie knife he’d picked up at the gas station. He stowed the Remington 870 pump shotgun behind the passenger seat and covered it with a blanket. Liz had put on the Crossbreed holster with her .357 Magnum snub revolver.

  Mike had intended to use the portable GPS to plot their route but for the past twenty minutes it had been searching for satellites. He’d suspected the government could switch o
ff civilian use of the GPS network if they wanted and he assumed now this is exactly what had happened, another effort to slow down and prevent information and people being moved. He wasn’t concerned, the route was easy enough to navigate. He climbed into the Jeep and Liz soon joined him.

  “Ready?” Mike looked at Liz

  “Let’s get going.” Liz replied softly as she reached over to touch Mike’s hand.

  Mike started the Jeep and drove out of the forest onto the first road on their journey. He expected they’d find quarantine roadblocks at the same spots as they’d found on the way up to the cabin. After about an hour they came to the first obstacle. Across the highway was a chain of orange construction barrels, they funneled the traffic down to one lane. At the end of the lane was a Humvee, a pile of sandbags next to it.

  He slowed the Jeep and pulled to a stop level with the Humvee, then waited for someone to appear with the now familiar test. After a couple of minutes no one appeared. Mike started to get out of the Jeep to investigate.

  “What are you doing?” Liz asked, a little concerned.

  “I’m going to see where the soldiers are.”

  Mike opened the door and stepped on the asphalt. He walked over to the Humvee and found it empty. A radio was crackling inside, just static. He walked over to the sandbags that had been constructed to form a type of defensive structure. Inside he saw a pile of the ECD tests lying unopened, there was a flashlight and another radio but no soldiers. Mike returned to the Jeep.

  “Well?” Liz asked

  “Nothing, there’s no one there. Looks like they left in a hurry.” He put the Jeep in gear and they continued the drive.

  They passed three more checkpoints in the next few hours, each similarly deserted. One of them had a couple of civilian vehicles lined up and Mike had to navigate around them, but there were no people or soldiers.

  “This is weird.” Liz commented as they drove through another unmanned checkpoint.

  “I know, I guess the soldiers were called back or maybe they just left? Maybe they figured it wasn’t worth staying and they went to their families.”

  As the drive continued Mike realized they hadn’t seen a single occupied vehicle one either side of the expressway.

  “Where is everyone?” Mike asked Liz.

  “I don’t know. Maybe we should pull off the highway and see if we can find out what’s going on. The radio is useless.” Liz had been scanning the radio for the past hour on and off but there was nothing but automated emergency alert messages.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea Liz, we want to stay away from people, not go looking for them.”

  “Ok. You’re right. Let’s keep going.”

  Mike thought for a moment. “No, actually you’re right. We’ve been out of the world for three weeks. Maybe we do need to get some information, if we’re careful we should be ok, but do as I say OK?”

  They pulled off at the next exit, the sign said Dundee. Mike remembered the town, there was a large sporting goods store there. As he reached the end of the ramp he stopped at the light, there was no traffic, no cops, but after years of conditioning Mike felt it would be wrong to jump the light. It flicked to green just as Mike realized how foolish he was being. He turned left and drove into the town.

  Aside from being empty the town looked quite normal. As he looked closer though he started to notice details, a store window smashed open, a car half on the sidewalk, Unsettling details, things out of place, the scene not quite right.

  “What the hell?” Mike said as they turned the corner.

  A police cruiser lay on it’s side, the windshield shattered and with what looked like bullet holes through it. A few feet away Mike saw a man’s body dressed in a police uniform. The policeman was clearly dead, part of his head was missing, a gaping and ragged red hole obliterated half of his face. One of his arms was twisted unnaturally behind the body, the other outstretched as if he’d died while grasping for salvation.

  “Oh god!” Liz opened the door and threw up, coughing as she wretched the last remnants of breakfast onto the road.

  “Shut the door Liz!” Mike leaned over and pulled Liz back, Liz pulling the door closed hard.

  Mike slowed down but kept the Jeep moving. He didn’t see any sign of life in the town but he didn’t want to stay here longer than needed. Ahead he saw a newspaper box and he drove toward it, getting as close as possible to the curb.

  The door to the box opened onto the sidewalk so he had to get out of the truck. He reached behind the passenger seat and grabbed the Remington 870, racking a shell into the chamber before he handed it to Liz.

  “Why?” Liz took the shotgun but held it uneasily.

  “I’m going to get out the truck and grab a newspaper, maybe there’s something there that will tell us what the hell happened. Open your window. If you need to, just point and shoot, just liked we practiced OK?”

  Before Liz could argue Mike reached under his shirt and pulled out the Browning Hi-Power, he hadn’t loaded it before but he did so now. He held the gun in his right hand as he got out of the truck.

  The air smelled bad. They were some distance from the dead police officer so Mike didn’t think that was the source, the stench almost made him throw up but he held it back. He scanned the sidewalk and the store fronts, there was no sign of life but he identified the source of the odor. A dead dog was curled up in one of the store doorways.

  Mike moved to the front of the newspaper box and saw a stack of papers inside. Instinctively he reached into his pocket for change and then realized he didn’t have any.

  “Liz, do you have any quarters?”

  Liz opened the window and looked at him with a ‘what the fuck’ expression and Mike realized how dumb the question was. In a moment of frustration he pointed the Hi-Power at the glass front of the box and fired. The 9mm hollow point made a perfect hole in the glass before exiting the back of the thin metal box and hitting the road, this was followed by a high pitched whizzing noise as the round ricocheted into the air.

  “What the hell are you doing!” Liz yelled out the truck window.

  “Sorry!” And then Mike laughed. On TV the glass would have shattered and he’d have the newspaper. He looked around and saw a loose brick on the sidewalk, with some leverage from the Bowie knife he worked the brick free and then threw it into the newspaper box.

  This time was successful. The glass broke and fell inside the box. He reached inside, being careful not to cut his hand, then grabbed a paper and shook the glass and brick fragments off it. Mike climbed back into the Jeep.

  “Feel better now?” Liz asked.

  Mike looked at her and smiled. “Let’s just see what the newspaper says.”

  He unfolded the paper. The date was a week old and the headline read “JAMESON ANNOUNCES THE END” it was followed by a photo of the President, beneath this the story began.

  “President Jameson announced today that there was no longer any hope of containing the spread of the ECD virus in the United States of America. From an undisclosed secure location the President informed American citizens to prepare for the ‘end of the greatest country, the greatest nation the world had ever seen’. Mr Jameson’s press secretary later said there would be no further briefings from the President and that his prayers were with the people of the United States in her darkest hour”

  “Holy shit Liz, it got really bad.”

  “We have to find Nadine.” Liz looked up from the paper and grabbed Mike’s hands. “Promise me Mike. Promise me that we’ll find her.”

  Mike knew he couldn’t make that promise but he also loved Liz very much and he could tell this was destroying her. “I promise Liz.”

  He drove the Jeep out of the town and pulled over on the onramp to the highway.

  “Why are we stopping here?” Liz asked

  “I just need to get something.” Mike climbed out of the Jeep and went to the back, he opened the door and retrieved something before walking back to the drivers door.


  “I brought this but figured it best to keep it out of sight but after what we just saw I think I need to keep it handy.” Mike wrapped a belt around his waist, the belt was made by 5.11 Tactical and he’d bought it specifically to carry a holster for the 6” King Cobra .357 Magnum. Liz noticed that Mike had kept the belt on his pants, but transitioned the Bowie knife to this new belt.

  “You need two belts?”

  “Well this way I can easily stash the Magnum if we need to be a bit more low profile. This was one of your Dad’s guns Liz, he’d want it used to keep us safe.”