Pandemic Reboot: Survivors

by Krause, J. F.

  The area where, in the past, antique cars had been on display, or horse shows had taken place was now the training grounds. A lot of our self-defense work was done at my behest. Like I said, I’m naïve but not stupid. I’m also a big fan of better safe than sorry, idle hands are the devil’s tools, and an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, all courtesy of a long series of Sunday school teachers. There will not only be wild dogs and a resurgence in cougars and bears to contend with, but also crazy loners who may already be living on the edge of our communities.

  I’ve been talking to Marco and Lydia about training all our young people in self-defense. No one should be a defenseless victim if we can get them trained. Of course, we can only do so much, but it will help. It wasn’t just good guys who survived.

  I spent the rest of the day moving into my office and then reviewing groups reports. Tomorrow, I would start visiting each of them. As I was getting ready to pick up the boys and head to dinner, Jane dropped in with several items of good news. We were making progress with the electricity problem; we had a hospital selected; we had a fire department rapidly forming; our water department was having success; and all the communities were finding more and more survivors.

  As usual, we had dinner with Kevin’s family, Lydia’s family, and Jane’s family. We put the children at an adjacent table for breakfast and did that again for dinner. Our table was large enough to easily hold eight so, since we were too big for all of us, including the kids, to sit together, it made sense to have a kid’s table even though there were only four adults and Dinah. Just as we were getting ready to sit, Anna and Chanelle came up and asked to join us. Of course Chanelle sat with the other children and Anne with us. Seconds later, Irma approached us holding her dinner tray with Cynthia trailing behind with a group of young people including Todd. I recognized several of the young people from the communications group. We invited Irma over while the teenagers found a table on the other side of the children. I was glad to see the teenagers were finding a group of friends. We have a pretty good batch of teenagers compared with some of the other age groups. Because of our extraordinary efforts to find children, we were able to find quite a few kids down to the age of four or so, but fewer in the younger ages. We had a fair number all the way down to a handful of infants but fewer than we would have liked. The group that was the most numerous were teenagers. My own theory with them was that they were far more willing to leave their houses and look for others on their own. That, and there were now several small communities forming that had anywhere from forty to over a hundred people, and so far, a lot of their teenagers had moved on to the larger communities like SLO.

  Our survivor groups were very visible after the initial night, and, since we had a good amount of internet effort going on, most of the little communities scattered around the country reported they were finding quite a few survivors and more people were showing up at each community every day. The planes had been very successful, too. In the beginning we were finding mostly teens and twenty-thirty somethings, but now, we were getting a mix of children and older survivors. The planes had been particularly helpful in spotting smoke and other signs of survivors so we were able to send out rescue teams.

  The wealth of practical experience we were getting from the older people was very encouraging. Tomorrow I would be asking the education group to set up a series of adult classes taught by the older survivors since we needed their skills for everyday living. Supermarkets were going to be a lost convenience, not to mention many of the processed foods we depended on. Even with our equipment and technology, we didn’t have enough people to make thirty varieties of packaged cookies, crackers, and chips. We could ship many types of cheeses all over the country once the trains got going, and, of course, wine, beer, and other spirits, but we would have to rely on farmer’s market type distribution points for foods that would go bad quickly if not used. I imagined we would get some products, peanut butter for example, from one part of the country, and oranges from another. I figured that once we got the farmers from across the country talking to each other, something that was already starting to happen with some of the groups, we would get it figured out. But we still needed for more of us to know how to can, sew, and garden.

  Conversations all over the food court were surprisingly upbeat. I could hear laughter coming from several directions as we talked. My problems with George were forgotten for the time being, and I felt unambiguously glad to be alive. I didn’t remember having any feelings that even came close to this since the sickness. It was about to get even better. Zach came up carrying a tray. I was so surprised to see him that I almost missed the look of delight that came over Anna’s face. Clearly, in addition to being surprised to see Zach, she was excited at the same time. She quickly made room for him to sit next to her. Zach Lin had been flying over Orange County for the last two days, and it was quite unexpected to see him here.”

  “Zach, what a nice surprise! What’s happening that you’re here? I didn’t expect to see you for a few days.”

  “We were more successful than we expected. Not only did we start finding a few survivors from some of the more out of the way places, but we found some more pilots. As soon as they saw what I was doing, we had about a dozen show up to fly from our own groups. There are ten up in the bay area that flew today, and a few in San Diego and Fresno. There’ll be even more tomorrow. We’ll have pilots all over the country tomorrow. So a couple of us flew in to SLO to start hitting the coastal valleys tomorrow. I’m going to go south toward Santa Barbara, and Tom Rivera will go north. There are a couple of guys flying north and south in the Central Valley tomorrow, too. I’m telling you, we’re getting scores of new arrivals at all the intake centers.” Zach was really jazzed and his contagion had spread to all of us at the table.

  Before I could get out more than “That’s great!” Todd was over at our table wanting to shake hands with Zach. I realized that as teenagers in Orange County, they all had become close over the last few days. Looking at Todd standing next to Zach, I realized that he looked less like a kid now than when I met him a few days ago. Our children were literally being dragged from their childhood. It wasn’t that he had aged so much physically, as that he was standing taller and more confidently. I wondered if that was happening to me.

  And just as I was wondering if I was finally crossing over the line from thinking of myself as boy to thinking of myself as a man, I saw Carl step onto what was now a sort of platform in the round in the center of the hall. I knew what was coming.

  Carl gave a quick rundown of the day’s events and then looked over at me and called me up to the platform. I should have known this was going to happen. I should have talked to Carl ahead of time, but at least this time I had something to say.

  “I’m happy to be able to share some good news with you tonight. After two days of caravanning, we now have 2,143 known residents in San Luis Obispo. I say ‘known’ because today we found another original resident of SLO. Ray Landau arrived in time for lunch with our community. He’s already volunteered to join our agriculture group. And we are still growing!

  We also want to welcome all the people who drove up today. We are still expecting one more group before the day is over. We originally thought yesterday would be the day when more people arrived, but as it turns out, today, Sunday, was the bigger day. We also understand that there will be a couple hundred or more coming in tomorrow.

  Some of you may recall that yesterday we put up a couple of planes with tail signs. I just spoke with Zach Lin, one of our pilots. He tells me that all over the west coast we have flights going up tomorrow and that they are finding survivors. We’re finding them in small towns that we couldn’t begin to cover just a few days ago. Our searchlight teams are still getting results; we are still finding children with our ice cream trucks, and we’re starting radio stations all over the country.

  Another piece of good news is that our electricity work group assures us that the electricity situation is stabilized.
It won’t be fixed for a while, but for now it’s a case of maintenance. We may be able to start populating neighborhoods and farms before too long. Of course, if our electricity is steady, so will our water supply, at least for the near term. And just to make sure we all know they are working on our behalf, they will need to turn the power off for about two hours in the morning, probably around 10 AM. But don’t worry, we’ll switch over to our generators. There will be some noise, but that is a small inconvenience for what these people have managed to pull off. Of course, all that is weather permitting. We actually have weather forecasters and they tell us there is a fair likelihood of rain tomorrow. We’ll see.

  One more piece of good news is that on Tuesday, our elementary school will be starting. There are some differences, though. We are all working every day so the school will receive kids at 7 AM with classes starting at 8 AM and concluding at 4 PM every day. Kids will be cared for from 7 AM until 7 PM for those whose jobs keep them busy that long. I want to thank all of you who stepped forward to be guardians for our kids. We know you are volunteers.

  Finally: This world is not as friendly as it may appear. It’s easy to have an accident, especially when so much may be on your mind. New jobs cause accidents, and we all have new jobs. Changing residences is a major cause of accidents. Grief is a really big factor when it comes to accidents. Please be careful, even at the cost of being slow. Every one of you is important to all of us. You all have experiences and skills that simply can’t be replaced. Please be kind to each other. Be patient; we’ve been through a lot together. Thanks.”

  They applauded. I wasn’t expecting that, but why not, there isn’t much in the way of live entertainment lately. I found myself saying that a lot lately.

  I understood I was broadcast by radio all over the country. With California being three hours behind the east coast, somewhere someone went to sleep with my voice ringing in their ears.

  Irma and Cynthia walked to our motor homes with us after dinner. At least that is what I was thinking, but it turns out they live on the other side of our motor home. I needed to get to know my neighbors. Before the sickness, a lot of people knew just a few of their neighbors and sometimes none of them, but I wanted to get to know as many of them as soon as possible.

  When we reached our motor home neighborhood, the four of us got together in my motor home while the three boys put together a puzzle. Irma held Dinah, and I made tea for the four adults. I thought of Cynthia as one of the adults now, just as I thought of all the teenagers as adults. Most of them had adult responsibilities so it was a natural step to think of them that way.

  “Did you know George lives three spots past our place?” Irma asked.

  “I didn’t know you two lived next door,” I responded.

  “Well, he knows you’re here. He told me to watch my back. He’s pretty sure someone is calling the shots and that you are in someone’s pocket. I think he thinks it’s Carl.”

  “Calling what shots? Why can’t he see there’s no grand plan going on here. Heck, there’s barely even a little plan. We’re just trying to survive with as much civilization as possible. By the way, does he have a plan? I’d love to hear it if he does?”

  “He’s not happy about you being so young. He came out of the council meeting this afternoon and came right over to Todd and yelled at him. Todd just smiled at him and said ‘no secrets’. That made him even madder. Then he said, ‘You and your big brother’, I think he was talking about you, ‘better watch your backs if you want to play with the big boys’.” Cynthia was still upset even after a couple hours.

  “How’d Todd take it?”, asked Kevin?

  “Well, after he smiled at him he went right back to work. We’re trying to get the radio station up and running here in SLO so he’s pretty busy right now. We all are. Todd’s been talking to the guys at USC and one of them came up today. Kathy Kreske, you know the radio tech in Spearfish? Well, she’s been helping us, too. We think we can have it up and running by tomorrow afternoon. It’ll just be a booster station for the USC station, at least at first. Anyway, I know George is unhappy with both of you.”

  “So Irma, any idea what he wants instead? And what’s with this watch ‘watch your back’ nonsense”, I asked.

  “There may be more to it, but I think it comes down to just that he wants to be in charge. He says you’re too young, you’re too immature, you’re too left wing, oh lots of things are wrong about you. And of course you’re not a leader. He thinks we need someone to take command. Yes, that’s one of the words he uses a lot. Command.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll be at odds, because I’m not interested in being that kind of leader. I may not know what to do, but I do know that no one has to stick around and be ordered around, by anyone. And where does this ‘left wing’ nonsense come from. We’re like the passengers on the Titanic. The ship just sank with the captain on board. Now we’re all in the same lifeboat, and we can either pull together, or we can drift. There’s a difference between those survivors and us, though. They had someone to come to their rescue.”

  “Oh, my God! You’re right!” Cynthia said to her mother. “He just says this stuff off the top of his head!”

  All I could think for a moment was, “What did I say?” So that’s what I said.

  “I’m sorry. That’s not a bad thing. Mom said you didn’t prepare any of those speeches you gave yesterday. You just said it.”

  Kevin chuckled and said “He’s not just a pretty face! That’s what he did the first time I met him. You gotta love that in a man!”

  The group of us got silent, and then as if on cue, all three of them burst out laughing. Again Cynthia lurched out with another candid comment, “You’re face just turned beet red. You’re a blusher!” This was directed at me, not Kevin, who is also a blusher. And no sooner had she said to me than me than Kevin turned just as red.

  “Well, just to be safe, let’s not repeat this last bit of conversation anywhere. I kind of like that lifeboat bit and I might want to trot it out again if Carl keeps having these little dinner time chats in the evenings.” And I might use it if I have to. So far, I’d been lucky, and words just sort of showed up.

  Not knowing what to say doesn’t mean I don’t understand our situation. I’ve gone from expecting to die from the sickness to fearing that I’ll spend the rest of my life in a world that is slipping into chaos. We have a lot of knowledge collectively, but do we have the desire to use it wisely?

  Soon, our little group said its goodbyes. Kevin carried Dinah out my right side door, and Irma and Cynthia stepped out through the left door. Charlie and Jerry got ready for bed while I read a report Jane gave me at dinner. After his shower, Charlie gave me a hug and went to his bunk bed. Jerry stood there a little awkwardly, so I pulled him in for a hug too. I realized we really don’t have a choice. We have to get this right.

  Monday

  California gets almost all of its rain during the fall and winter and very early spring. It’s been that way since the last ice age ended so I suppose the whole state is prepared for those conditions. I didn’t know whether to believe the weather reports lately, but I wasn’t surprised to wake up to rain. We had rain the week before the sickness, and we were lucky not to have it last week. It allowed us some time to get better organized. The planes aren’t going up after all and the electrical maintenance will be a little delayed. But there will be at least one pretty good-sized caravan arriving today. We should see over a hundred new arrivals sometime around 1 PM. I understand there may be another caravan tomorrow. Everyone is welcome and all the new people just add to my feeling of safety. I really buy into the notion of safety in numbers. I’m also happy with all the new people because I know that some of them will have skills we need.

  After breakfast, which was just Kevin, me, and the kids, I dropped all the kids off at kid central. Kevin went to the medical hall and reminded them I wanted to visit with their group around 9:30 AM. After dropping off the boys and Dinah, I spent a while in my
office reading reports from other groups and communities across the state. I’d just gotten started reading when I remembered that I needed to get moving or I’d be late to visit the medical hall.

  The center of the entire fairgrounds is where my office, the work room, the main lobby, and the conference rooms are. The main exposition arena is in this building, also, and had been filled with a lot of equipment and storage until now. This morning, there was a large area cleared of equipment and supplies. About two hundred people, some familiar and some not, were all dressed out for their physical workout. Marco was directly in front of one grouping. Enrique and a several other trainers were working with other groups. One group was sitting on the ground listing to instruction on guns, or more specifically one type of rifle. I immediately understood that this was the first training session for the reservists. I’d have to come back later to see how this was organized as I didn’t want to be late for my first work group visit. I planned to hit four of them today starting with the medical work group. I skirted the work out area hoping no one saw me.

  The fairgrounds medical center, which served as a temporary clinic was close by. I stepped into the building about three minutes early and was met by Dr. Mary Truitt, who I decided was the group selected medical leader. Dr. Truitt appeared to be about forty and had been a GP in Paso Robles. She was friendly and we made small talk after we introduced ourselves. She led me into what appeared to be a classroom that was filled with people. I spotted Kevin in the middle of the large group right next to Tomás. The two of them were engaged in conversation with several others seated nearby. It appeared that people had been having conversations in clusters around the room as they waited for me. The room went quiet immediately upon our entrance.