Daniel nodded, looking at the table, not wanting to show the tears in his eyes. They needed him to be strong. Blinking back the tears, he took a deep breath before raising his head to look at them. “I’m proud of all of you.” Searching for words, he paused momentarily before continuing. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t here.”
Serafina squeezed his arm, getting his attention. “Honey, you’ve said that a few times, and it’s made me think. You were doing what you needed to do, trying to get the things we need as a family. There’s nothing wrong with that. Everything that’s happening is crazy, and we’re going to have to work together as a family to survive. Sometimes working together means splitting up. We’ll do that when we have to, and when we do, we’ll have each other’s backs.”
Daniel nodded in agreement, reminding himself how lucky he was to have such an amazing wife. “You’re right, sweetie, and we’re all going to work on our skills.
“All of us, including me.”
He rose from the chair. “But first, I’ll need two people to help me load up the Jeep. We’re going to put everything we can in there, and do a test load of the cargo carrier.”
Ashley looked at him questioningly. “Test load?”
“Yes. I can’t fit the Jeep in the garage with the cargo carrier on there. I have to put it on outside and load it there. I don’t want to do that at night, and I don’t want to leave the Jeep outside overnight, so we’ll set it out, load it until it’s stuffed, then unload. At that point we’ll know exactly what and how much will go in there, so we can set that aside.”
“Okay, I’ll help you.”
Paul spoke up quickly. “Me, too.” The young man’s eyes once again showed determination, regardless of the bandages wrapped around his head.
Daniel shook his head. “I appreciate it, Paul, but you need to take it easy tonight.” He turned to Ashley. “Actually, it’s your chore to do the dishes. Why don’t you do that and Paul can help you. It’ll be easier than bending over and lifting heavy stuff.” Looking back at Paul, he made it clear to him that he should sit down and rest if he felt tired or lightheaded. Paul reluctantly agreed, a look of frustration on his face.
Over the next two hours, the family worked together to get the Jeep loaded, the cargo carrier loaded and unloaded, and the kitchen and temporary dining area cleaned up. Concerned with unnecessary exposure, Daniel had them go around and close all of the blinds on the windows, then cover them by hanging a blanket over the window, nailing the edges in place with a hammer.
Done with everything that had to be done to prepare for the night and the morning’s departure, the family was collectively tired, but Daniel had one more quick but important bit of training he needed to do. He walked each of them, with the exception of Serafina, through basic firearm safety and handling. He had them get used to the weight and feel of the handguns so that they wouldn’t be surprised by it later. He wanted to teach them to shoot, but there wasn’t time. He also recognized that the family was desperate for sleep. Truth be told, he’d felt that way for the last three hours.
Shortly after one a.m. the family settled into their temporary beds, bone tired. Surprisingly, Ursula decided to share a bed with Paul, which she indicated by simply refusing to move. Paul smiled, cautiously reached out, and petted the cat’s head. Ursula looked at him suspiciously before deciding to allow it, closing her eyes.
Tommy and Colossus found their usual spot next to Serafina, forcing Daniel to the other side of the mattress, but he was too tired to care. Within minutes, the house was quiet, the family asleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, Virginia
Sitting in the officer’s dining area, Andrew, Lisa, and Jonathan were quietly eating their lunch: Doctor Chang with a club sandwich, fries, and diet soda, Bowman, a large salad with, a yogurt, and hot tea, and Reed, two baked chicken breasts, a plain baked potato, and a tall glass of ice water.
Although hungry, Doctor Bowman couldn’t focus on the food in front of her, instead she pushed the pieces of lettuce around on her plate, unwilling to commit to a bite. She felt a pressure building inside her, a need to share her thoughts, and although their self-established protocol dictated that they not talk work during meals, she simply couldn’t help herself.
“So I think I understand the inflammation.”
Doctor Chang took a bite of his club sandwich as he looked over at the woman. Like him, her eyes showed signs of fatigue. Her hair was a mess, its care an afterthought while she tackled the biggest challenge of her life. Her shoulders were slumped, indicative of the exhaustion she felt.
Swallowing his food, Andrew smiled encouragingly. “That’s good to hear. What are you thinking?”
Reaching up to her neck, she rubbed the silver necklace and matching cross she wore as she spoke. “It seems as if whatever is in that cocktail of drugs is agitating the blood cells. That agitation causes a micro level buildup of heat. The heat causes expansion, which restricts the blood flow, resulting in inflammation.”
Doctor Reed put his fork down, sitting back in his chair. Unlike the others, he looked full of life, and Andrew didn’t know how the man did it. Like them, Jonatahan got minimal sleep, putting in long hours of work, and from what Reed had told him, he spent an hour in his room each morning doing pushups, sit-ups, crunches, and pull ups. Somehow, though, instead of leaving the man tired, it seemed to keep the man full of energy.
Reed wiped his mouth, his eyes focused on Doctor Bowman. “Interesting. So the agitated blood cells eventually cause restriction of blood flow.”
Lisa nodded. “Yes.”
Andrew leaned back against the booth, bringing his right hand up to stroke a non-existent beard. “Hmmmm…that seems to make sense. But if so, why doesn’t it cause inflammation in the whole brain?”
Lisa shrugged, pushing the food around on her plate again, disappointment showing on her face. “I haven’t figured that part out yet.”
Andrew reached over and touched the table near her plate to get her attention. “Hey, you’re making progress. Don’t get down on yourself.”
“Thanks, but it feels like we’re getting nowhere fast.”
“I know, but this isn’t an easy task.”
Jonathan sat there, staring at his plate as they talked. After a few minutes, he turned his head slightly, looking towards the wall above their heads. The two of them stopped, looking over at him. “You know,” he began, “there are two primary paths for blood to flow into the brain. The first is the internal carotid artery, which would take the blood straight to the frontal lobe and cerebral cortex. It also passes by the amygdala.”
Chang and Bowman nodded in agreement. Reed was right, and it stood to reason that since the blood got to those places first, it would cause problems there before it did so elsewhere. Based on the relatively short life span of those afflicted, the inflammation probably didn’t have a chance to occur elsewhere in the brain.
Considering this, Doctor Chang picked up his club sandwich and took a bite, enjoying the flavor of the avocado he’d requested. Rumor was that fresh produce would become a rarity within a few weeks.
Chewing quietly, he thought about how the virus was affecting people, and what Bowman and Reed pointed out made perfect sense.
They'd also determined that the virus was spread through transmission of fluids - sneezing, coughing, contact that broke the skin, or worse, the stream of blood and biological matter, which was unnerving.
He was also concerned with the timing related to the spread of the virus. What was the incubation period for the virus? Was it consistent?
Like them, the team at the CDC had been busy, working frantically to gain whatever information they could on the virus. Based on limited data from people that had known the infected but hadn’t been attacked, the first group of individuals had been sick for around a week prior to their respective incidents.
If that were truly the case, there would be a chance to cure people during the in
cubation period. They could find the infected individuals, provide them with a cure (once the team came up with one), and stop the spread of the virus before it decimated the world’s population.
But there was one problem. People that had been infected by those already afflicted with the virus had a much shorter incubation period. Estimates were that it was somewhere between 48 and 72 hours.
That was a very small window to work in, and they still needed to find a cure.
CHAPTER THIRTY
‘Getting old sucks,’ Daniel thought to himself as he slid off the mattress onto the living room floor, his back and knees aching from the previous day’s action. He slowly made his way to his feet before padding silently into the kitchen, where he made coffee, trying his best to be quiet. He moved over to the wall and rested his butt against it with his feet about a foot from the base. B ending at the waist, he let his arms hang down, stretching his back and hamstrings. He held the position for thirty seconds, then moved his feet a bit closer and repeated the stretch. Daniel repeated this three more times, until his heels were flush with the wall and he was able to touch his toes. Rising from the stretch, he did a few light trunk twists to loosen up his back a bit more, then sat on the couch while he waited for the coffee to brew.
As he looked out the window into the backyard, Ursula jumped up onto his lap, meowing. “Shhh.”
In the yard, birds cut through the early morning light as they visited the bird feeder, looking for food. They landed, picked at what remained in the tray, and took off seconds later, disappointed. He and Serafina usually kept it full of seed to encourage their visits, but the last day and a half had caused them to slack off.
Stroking the cat's fur, Daniel made a mental note to fill the feeder and spread whatever seed was left on the roof of the shed before they left.
When the coffee was done, he got up, much to the cat’s displeasure, poured himself a cup and sat back on the couch, his mind running through the route they’d be taking to Big Bear.
Under normal circumstances, the drive was right around two hours, but obviously these weren’t normal circumstances. If - and it was a big ‘If’ - the roads were passable, he still didn’t see them going more than 15-20 miles per hour, and they’d need several breaks to stretch their legs and let the cats do their business. Based on all of that he estimated that it would take them essentially all day to get there - if they were lucky.
He was glad the Jeep was full of gas, including the extra fuel cans he had mounted on the back, but he still made a mental note to grab a piece of tubing from the cabinets in the garage in case they had to siphon gas from an abandoned vehicle. Shaking his head, he looked around the kitchen area until he found a string, then cut it short and tied it around his finger to use as a reminder.
Looking at the clock, he saw it was nearly a quarter ‘til seven. He’d give the family fifteen more minutes of rest before he woke them. Ideally, they’d have been up already, dressed, and be in the process of eating breakfast. However, he knew the family was tired, having been through so much the day before.
Draining the last of the coffee in his cup, he decided to get a refill. He filled the cup nearly to the top, then added a splash of creamer to it before heading upstairs. He wanted to observe the neighborhood for a while before they backed the Jeep out and mounted the cargo carrier. He’d already put the rack on the vehicle the night before, so mounting it would be relatively quick and easy. Serafina had also convinced him to mount a hardtop suitcase on top of the Jeep for extra clothes and supplies. Although he was a little concerned about the Jeep being top-heavy, he figured they’d be going so slow it wouldn’t make a difference.
Daniel stood by the upstairs windows, looking down on the street. His neighbor’s body still laid in the street, as did the coyote’s, but based on the torn state of the old women's clothing, it appeared that her corpse had been picked at by animals overnight. Gazing up and down the length of the street, he was yet again filled with a sense of uneasiness.
It just seemed too strange for a street in San Diego proper to be so quiet. He watched and waited, standing there for nearly ten minutes, until Tommy rubbed against his leg, breaking his fixation.
Satisfied that there were no immediate threats, he reached down and petted the cat’s head and scratched it under the chin before heading back downstairs and into the backyard, where he fed the birds as planned.
Inside, he saw Serafina’s back as she filled her coffee cup. Closing the door and locking it, he walked over to her. “Good morning sweetie.”
Turning to him, she set her cup down and gave him a hug. “Morning. So tired.”
“I know sweetie, but we have a lot to do.”
“I know.”
“Uh, good morning Mister and Missus Alvarado.” Paul was standing at the edge of the kitchen, looking like he’d been awake for a while.
They both greeted him, Daniel reaching for the carafe of coffee. “Want some coffee?”
The young man nodded. “Please.”
“You look like you’ve been awake for awhile.”
“Yeah, I just stayed there because I didn’t want to wake anyone up.”
Serafina looked at him over the brim of her cup as she drank. Lowering it, she smiled, slightly. “Thank you. I was really tired.”
“No problem.”
Daniel placed the creamer, sugar, and sugar substitute on the counter in front of the young man. Paul thanked him before adding a healthy dose of creamer and a big teaspoon of sugar into his cup.
Daniel smiled. He’d enjoyed his coffee with tons of sugar when he was young as well.
Ashley and Brenna entered the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. They certainly hadn’t been up long. “Morning, girls.”
“Morning Dad, morning Auntie, morning Paul.”
Daniel set his cup on the counter, looking at the group. “Okay, we get dressed and we get on the road. I’ve got protein bars and bananas to hold us over for the morning. Girls, once you’re dressed, get the cats into their harnesses, and make sure the leashes are easily accessible in the Jeep for when we stop.” The girls nodded, turned and headed to their room. He looked at Serafina, “Honey, I’ll need you to help me mount and load the cargo carrier on top of the Jeep while Paul keeps a lookout.”
With that, the family got to work, quickly changing their clothes and taking on their assigned tasks. Daniel went from room to room, unplugging every electric or electronic device to prevent electrical shorts in the event of power surges, then went to the garage and turned off the gas and water to the house.
When they’d done everything they needed to do in the house, he had the girls wait with the cats in the living room, keeping them on their leashes, while he prepared to move the Jeep out into the driveway so he could mount and load the cargo carrier. Once the carrier and luggage were on the Jeep, they’d be heading out in a hurry. Daniel didn’t want to leave the Jeep in the driveway fully loaded for more than a few minutes.
After watching the street through the windows on the garage for several minutes, Daniel had Paul raise the garage door so he could drive the Jeep out onto the driveway. Parking it there, he jumped out, looking around. Seeing nothing of concern, only a group of crows around his neighbor’s body on the street, he quickly lifted the cargo carrier onto the top of the Jeep. As he did so, Paul and Serafina brought up the big tote that held all the items to be loaded. It was almost exclusively comprised of lightweight clothes and jackets that they would wear during the colder months. Daniel opened the rear door on the driver’s side and climbed up, placing one foot on the edge of the doorframe and the other on the wheel. Serafina started passing the clothing, which was all neatly wrapped up and secured with string or hair ties, to him as he placed them into the carrier. While the two of them worked, Paul stood at the edge of the driveway, looking left and right to make sure no one snuck up on them.
With the cargo carrier loaded, Daniel jumped down and walked around to the other side of the vehicle. Lifting
the luggage, he set it on top of the Jeep, then hopped up and used ratcheting straps to secure the bag in place.
Loaded and ready, Daniel led the family back to the garage, opened the door to the house, and had the girls come out. “Alright, it’s time. Everyone ready?” He looked at each of the girls, then Paul, and saw nervous energy and determination on their faces.
“Let’s do this, Dad.” Ashley said, holding Colossus.
Brenna, holding Tommy, took a deep breath and nodded. “Ready, Dad.”
Daniel smirked at her. “You sure you wanna wear a hoodie? It’s hot.”
The girl shrugged. “Don’t wanna leave it behind.”
Her father smiled before making eye contact with Paul. “What about you? Ready?”
The young man set his jaw, determination on his face. “I am. Let’s do this.” In his arms, Ursula buried her head, attempting to hide from the outside world.
Daniel turned to Serafina. “Alright, boss, let’s head out.” She shook her head and playfully punched him on the arm before turning and heading for the car.
As the family got into the vehicle, Daniel stepped around to the side of the house and tripped the master breaker for the house, securing the power. He trotted back to the Jeep, jumped in, and hit the button on the remote to lower the garage door. On his immediate right, similar to how he'd stored it in the Prius, was the shotgun, which he’d cleaned and reloaded. Serafina was in the passenger seat, Google maps open on her phone. Ashley sat directly behind him, Paul behind Serafina, and Brenna, being the smallest, was riding in the middle. Starting the vehicle, he pulled out into the street, glad to be in the bigger, more rugged vehicle than the little car he’d driven the day before.
Turning the car and accelerating up the hill, he noticed the houses here were mostly quiet as well. He saw multiple front doors left standing open, and on one lawn a person’s body was lying face down in the wet grass, left there like an unwanted advertising flyer. Shaking his head, he grabbed his sunglasses from the tray on the dash and pressed on the gas. Keeping his eyes on the road, he spoke to the family. “Ashley, there’s a handgun in the pocket on the door. Brenna, there’s one directly under your seat. Paul, yours is in the door on your side as well. Don’t remove it unless I tell you to, and don’t take the safety off unless you intend to shoot it. Don’t shoot unless you intend to kill. Got it?”
Surviving Rage | Book 1 Page 25
