Beginnings (Book 1): Future Apocalypse

by Gilbert, Barbara J.

  “What’s your emergency?”

  “Yes, I’m still stuck in this blasted elevator, and it’s been four hours and no one has come to rescue me yet.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but we’ve been really busy with more urgent calls.”

  “Well, can you tell me when less urgent calls will get taken care of?”

  “Let me check into it, sir. Please wait.” She put him on hold for about thirty seconds before coming back with an answer. “Sir, it appears that it could be a few more hours before anyone can get to you.”

  “Are you kidding me? That’s crazy!”

  “Sir, you should try to calm down.”

  “Calm down? I’m anything but calm. You better get someone over here soon, I’ve not eaten all day. I have a sugar level issue, and stress kicks it off. If I die in here, you guys will be responsible.”

  “Um, sir, why didn’t you mention this earlier? That puts you up higher on the priority list. I’ll get someone to you soon, I promise.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  He hung up while shaking his head at the incompetence of the fire and rescue people. He continued to wait for another two hours before he heard someone hollering.

  “Fire department! Call out, so we can find what floors you’re between.”

  Really, he thought. Why don’t they hit the button and bring it down? Again he heard the yelling as it got a little closer. Fine, he thought, and yelled, “I’m here!”

  “Yell again; I think we’re close by.”

  “I. Am. Right. Here!”

  “Yes, we hear you. Stand by while we work the doors open to see where the elevator is located.”

  “Sure!”

  The firemen pried open the doors and looked up to see that the elevator seemed to be stuck between floors above them. With the electrical system fried, they’d have to rescue him through the hatch.

  “Sir, we see the elevator, but there is a slight problem.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “We can’t bring it down or up to any doors, so we’ll come in from the top. We’ll bring you out the hatch and pull you up to the next floor.”

  “Wonderful!”

  “Just hang on a little longer.”

  “Sure, it’s not like I haven’t been in here all day; what’s a few more minutes, right?”

  The firemen shook their heads at his sarcastic tone but shrugged it off, realizing his frustration from the predicament he’d been in all day. They headed up the stairs until they were two floors above the stuck elevator. From there, they set up their repelling ropes and gear so they could safely get down to the top of the elevator. One rope had a harness that they’d place Greg in so they could pull him back up.

  Once they had everything set up, Curt Young, a youthful and robust fireman, repelled down to the elevator. He arrived with a loud thump as he jumped onto the top. He knocked on the top of the elevator to let Greg know he was there.

  “Hey, my name is Curt Young. I need to run a drill to unscrew the hatch, so you’ll hear a loud noise.”

  “Okay, Curt.”

  Curt ran the drill and took out the four screws holding the hatch closed. Once he had finished, he pulled up; and the hatch opened, revealing a very sweaty and haggled Greg. Curt lowered himself into the elevator and brought the extra line with him. “Hi, Greg. As I said earlier, my name is Curt Young.”

  “Hi, nice to see you in person, Curt.”

  “I need you to gather up your things, and then I’ll place this harness around your legs and waist. Once I’ve got it around you, I’ll tighten it down some and then yank on the rope, which will signal my guys up top to pull you up. Any questions?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Here we go.” Curt worked to get Greg into the harness; and once he had it around him, he tightened it down and yanked on the rope. “I also need you to hold on as tight as you can, especially since you’re holding your brief case and jacket,” Curt instructed.

  “Okay,” Greg replied. He grabbed the rope with his shaky hands as tightly as he could.

  The fireman above Greg slowly began inching him up to the floor they were on. As he drew close enough to the fireman, two of them leaned over and began hauling him out of the elevator shaft. It took about ten minutes, but he was finally out of that heat coffin.

  The Fire Chief, Black Thorn, was young for a fire chief, but he had years of experience, and it could be seen in his calloused hands and the rugged features in his face. His hair was matted and sweaty from being underneath the fire helmet. He turned to Greg, who was sitting on the floor and asked, “Greg, how are you doing?”

  “I’m weak and shaking from not eating all day.”

  “Okay, we’ll get you down to the ambulance, and they can check you over.”

  “Sounds good.”

  The Chief called on his radio for the EMTs to come up with a stretcher to carry Greg down. A few minutes later, he was carted down ten flights of stairs. It was not fun because of all the bouncing up and down as they went. He gritted his teeth and thought to himself, I should have just walked down: but then if I had collapsed on the way, it would have been even worse, so I’ll just bite my tongue and keep quiet.

  They finally reached the bottom floor and took him through the lobby and outside to the waiting ambulance. The EMTs quickly got him set up with oxygen, took his blood pressure, and pricked his finger to measure his sugar level. The EMT then took the blood and measured it with a portable glucose meter. The reading was 43, and the EMT knew that was at a dangerous level. He immediately started a glucose drip and informed Greg that he would need to go to the hospital for care and observation. Greg mumbled something but the tech didn’t understand it. Once they had freed Greg from the elevator, his blood sugar had plummeted even further than before the rescue; and he had become delirious.

  The ambulance rushed him to the emergency room, where he was given another bag of glucose; and eventually he was well enough to eat something. They kept him overnight for additional observation and tests, which he didn’t like. But he was in no position to argue.

  The doctors ran several tests and couldn’t determine what was causing his sugar levels to drop so low. He wasn’t diabetic, and he ate healthy. They decided to do one more test — a special CT scan, which did not reveal good news. It showed that he had small tumors on his pancreas. The doctor informed Greg about his condition and explained he would need surgery. Greg wasn’t interested in the surgery if he could manage it on his own; but the doctor explained that if he didn’t get it taken care of while he was in the hospital, it would eventually get worse and could kill him. Since the last part of that statement wasn’t a pleasant thought to him, he, grudgingly, agreed to the surgery.

  Greg called Susan after the doctor left.

  “Hey, Greg. Did they finally get you out of the elevator?”

  “Yeah, just took them all day, and now I’m in the hospital.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  I’ve had an issue with my sugar level dropping unexpectedly for years and have done pretty well at catching it. The doctors ran tests and said they found some benign tumors on my pancreas, and I’ll have to have surgery.”

  “Wow! Surgery, that’s crazy. Glad you’re out of the elevator and doing better though. Do you want me to come by and see you off to your surgery tomorrow?”

  “Sure, I guess.”

  “Okay, then I’ll see you tomorrow. Do you know what time you’re going in?”

  “They said around 6:00 a.m., and it should take about three hours.”

  “All right, see you sometime before six.”

  “Okay. Hey, Susan, again I’m sorry for what I did, and I hope we can find a solution to this mess.”

  “Me, too, Greg. Me, too.”

  Chapter 21

  Future, Day 3

  The sun shone in Paulette’s face, waking her up from a deep sleep. She stretched and groaned as she got her muscles working again after sleeping on
the hard ground. She sat up and looked around to get her bearings since she was still groggy. Once she was fully awake, she unzipped her sleeping bag and rotated so she could grab her boots and put them on. She quickly rolled up the sleeping bag, cinched it to the bottom of her backpack, and finished cleaning up the area. Then she collected a few branches and started the morning fire to warm her up and make a hot breakfast. She had scrambled eggs and sausage from her supply of freeze-dried camping food. It took a while for the water to boil so she could make a cup of cider and cook her food. She sat on the stump munching her breakfast and thinking about where she’d head today, hoping she’d find a small rabbit or squirrel.

  While sipping her cider, she heard a rustling in the bushes nearby; and a second later, a small rabbit appeared. It froze when it saw her; and she slowly picked up her pistol, aimed, and fired, hoping she had aimed well enough not to obliterate it. The bunny was dead almost as soon as she pulled the trigger. She stood up and walked over to the poor creature that would now become smoked rabbit jerky. Guess this means I’ll be here a little longer. Takes time to smoke rabbit, she was thinking. Holding it by its ears, she headed back to her seat. She carefully laid the rabbit down so she could rummage through her bag and retrieve her knife. Grabbing the knife and the rabbit, she headed into the trees a little way so she could gut and skin it. After finding a good spot away from her campsite, she cut its belly open and carefully removed the inner organs and entrails. Once she finished cleaning the rabbit, she skinned it. She’d tan the hide so she could have it for later in case she needed it. Next, she cut the meat into small, long strips, and small, short strips and laid them on a plastic mat she had. Once she finished, she went back to the fire with the meat and set it down. Sitting on the stump, she leaned over and picked up two long sticks that where Y-shaped and one regular stick that she had collected earlier, then she took out her knife and whittled the bottom of two sticks to a point so she could jab them into the ground on each side of the fire. Each stick branched out into a Y shape. She took the middle stick and using her knife, stripped away the bark and any small stubs. She jabbed the sharpened points of the other two sticks into the ground, one to the right of the fire and the other to the left, then she placed the longer stick across the other two. Inspecting her work and finding it looked good, she sat down and began picking up the strips of meat and hanging them over the middle branch so they could start smoking over the fire. She estimated that it would take at least six hours to smoke the rabbit meat, which would give her jerky for her trip east.

  While the meat was smoking, she inventoried her go bag. She unrolled her sleeping bag to make a safe spot to lay everything down. Then she poured everything onto the sleeping bag and sorted it out. The first thing she sorted was her food supply. She carefully counted each of the packages and saw she still had four breakfast packets, four lunch and five dinner, as well as, several granola bars and some trail mix. She also had several packages of hot chocolate and cider. With the jerky, she could stretch her meals out by one or two more days. Water was getting low, so that would be her next priority. She saw that she still had a box of fifty rounds each for the pistol and rifle, plus the bullets already in the guns. That should keep her going for a while, as long as she used it sparingly and didn’t run into any trouble. She had her compass, knife, fire starter, first aid kit, one set of spare clothing, water purifier pump, water purifying tablets, cook stove and camping kit, para rope, a flashlight with batteries, an 8 by 10 tarp, tent stakes, a small radio, solar charger, emergency blanket, a small hatchet, a small shovel, masking tape and duct tape, sanitary items, and a few other odds and ends she thought she might need during an earthquake. She was glad she packed it in the time pod with her, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to survive. Once she looked everything over, she carefully packed it back in her bag.

  I’m low on water and will need to find a water source soon so I can replenish my supply, she thought. Walking over to the fire, she sat down, poked at the embers, and watched the meat as it was being smoked. As long as it would take to smoke the meat, she decided to stay another night at this location. When the meat was finished smoking, she would explore the nearby area for a creek. With that decided, she remade the pine needle bedding area and placed her sleeping bag on it. She wasn’t sure if it would rain, so she pulled out her tarp and rope and covered her sleeping area. She went about hanging the tarp over the low-lying branch and securing each corner to the ground with the tent stakes, then using broken-down branches, she laid them against her tarp. That would give her a windbreak and additional protection from the rain. Once she finished that, she started a secondary fire so she could heat her lunch and a hot drink. Despite it being springtime there, it was colder than normal. Once the fire was going, she pulled out a package of food to heat and a package of hot chocolate. She poured some of the warm water from the pot into her cup, and then mixed in the hot chocolate. She slowly sipped and savored the hot drink as she waited for the water to boil. When the water finally came to a boil, she placed the package of mac and cheese with wieners into the water. It took about three minutes for the noodles to soften and the food to heat to eating temperature. She carefully scraped it onto her camping plate and ate her lunch. While eating, she pondered again about what had happened and wondered how far the ocean water had come inland. She hoped that she wouldn’t run into any more ocean water, knowing that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to travel any further unless she could find a boat or make a raft. And making a raft would set her back by days, if not weeks. She also wanted to find people, hopefully, trustworthy ones, so she could get some information about what had happened there. She’d also need help with navigation, since nothing was recognizable anymore. She had found things so drastically different than the present time she had come from, so much so, that her compass read everything backwards. The only reason she could think of that would cause such a phenomenon was that the poles had shifted.

  She checked the meat again and saw it was coming along nicely. She decided that the fire for the meat wouldn’t become a hazard, but put the other one out, grabbed her rifle and bag, and headed out on a small reconnaissance hike to see if she could locate water. She took what had become a southerly trek further into the woods. She hiked over and around the downed trees and brush and pushed tall weeds out of the way. Eventually, she came to a small rise, climbed to the top, and looked around. As she was scanning, she could hear the faint sound of gurgling water. She turned around, trying to locate the direction. A few minutes later, she determined that it was just to her left, so she carefully went down the hill, trying not to fall. She reached the bottom and headed to her left. Approximately three hundred yards to her left, she found a small, natural spring that was gurgling up out of the ground. She was so excited that she had finally found water. She pulled her backpack off and rummaged around until she found the water purifying pump. Then she set her water canister, water jug, and bladder bag down so she could process the water from the pump directly into the containers.

  With everything filled up, her bag would be much heavier when she headed back; but she had to have water to survive. Once she ran out of her camp food, she wouldn’t need as much, but until then, she’d have to deal with hefting the extra weight. Two hours passed, and she had finished getting all the water she could handle. She shook the water out from the hose on the purifier, placed it back in its bag, and packed it away in her backpack. She then slid the four-gallon bladder back into the backpack and re-hooked the hose to the shoulder strap. Finally, she attached her canister to her belt. Once everything was ready to go, she hefted her now heavier backpack onto her back, knelt and picked up the five-gallon water jug, and huffed and puffed back up the hill. It was quite a struggle, and she slipped often; but she finally made it back up to the rise. The rest of the trip back to her campsite was relatively easy, compared to the hill she had gone up. Out of breath, she took a few minutes to recover before heading out. She had to walk more carefully than before
to avoid tripping on the downed trees and debris. It took her an extra hour to get back to the campsite.

  The trip to get the water had exhausted her, and all she wanted to do was sit down and rest for a spell. She placed the water jug and her bag down on the ground next to her sleeping bag and then walked over to the fire and sat down on the stump near the smoking meat. She checked it out and found that it looked done. To test it, she carefully picked up a piece and laid it down on her camp plate. Once it was cool enough, she picked it up and took a bite. Sure enough it was tough and chewy and tasted like campfire smoke. She quickly retrieved the rest of the meat and piled it on her plate to cool. She walked over to her backpack and pulled out a few Ziploc bags; when the meat cooled, she placed it in the bags and then packed the meat into her backpack.

  Exhausted from all her activity of the day, she lay down and rested for a while. She always kept her rifle and pistol in reach, just in case she needed them. She crawled into her little shelter, sat down at the entrance, and took her boots off. She then climbed into her sleeping bag and settled in for a short nap.

  Chapter 22

  Present, Day 3 & 4

  As promised, Susan had gone to the hospital to be with Greg before he was taken to the surgery ward. She smiled, squeezed his hand, and told him everything would be okay. A few minutes later he was wheeled into surgery. After he was prepped and ready, the surgeon used a special laser and carefully cut each tumor off his pancreas, cauterizing the small incisions. As they had expected, it took about three hours to complete the surgery, and the doctor was confident he had gotten all the benign tumors. Once the surgery was completed, Greg was taken to the recovery room, where Susan was waiting.