Pandemic Reboot: Survivors

by Krause, J. F.

  “People, this is Robert Caldwell, our…do we call you…what do we call you?” Dr. Truitt asked.

  Momentarily I forgot, too. But then it came to me. “Speaker”, I said.

  “But please just refer to me as Robert or even Bobby if you like.”

  “Well Robert, what would you like to know about our group? And please call me Mary.” Dr. Truitt actually looked like she meant it.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask questions and you can give me answers in as much detail as you like.” As I saw Dr. Truitt nod, along with several other people in the room, I went on. “Can you give me a brief run down on who you are and what kind of work you do?”

  “Yes, absolutely. We have six medical doctors, and I understand we have one more arriving today. We also have physicians’ assistants or PAs, dentists, dental hygienists, an optometrist, chiropractors, emergency medical technicians or EMTs, registered nurses or RNs, licensed vocational nurses or LVNs, several medical technicians, a couple of physical therapists, laboratory technologists and technicians, a radiologist, and pharmacists. Did I leave any of our specialties out?” Head shakes all around.

  “Wow, that’s quite a bit.” I was blown away. “Have you selected a facility to move to yet?”

  “We looked at all of them, I think, but we wanted to wait until we know where the community will go from here. However, rumor has it that we are most likely to end up in the Belleview section of town next to the university, so if that is true, we are planning on St. Francis. When we leave the fairgrounds we don’t want to be on the other side of town from the community, but if the rumors are true, we will be there and also at the student clinic just across the street.”

  “I was going to suggest that you might want to pay special attention to medical facilities near Cal Poly. I suspect the rumors are true, and that will be the area where we finally settle in, but of course the defense group will have to look at it first. I understand they have been looking around the area already.” Right then I wished I could give them more concrete information but a lot also depended on what the electricity team decided.

  Over the next few minutes we talked about our group health issues, and our community had a lot of them. They had a steady stream of patients to deal with and a number of pre-existing conditions. High blood pressure was a big one right now. As expected they were also treating a number of people for anxiety and depression. It was too early yet since they didn’t want to simply push pills at people. They’d also already set a broken arm and they appreciated my comments on being careful.

  The team had some equipment installed, but they had put off making any big moves of equipment because we were only working from a temporary building. As the group came to realize that I wasn’t giving directions they loosened up considerably and we became more and more conversational.

  “I have two more questions I need to ask you before I go to my next meeting. Have you started making plans on how to educate the next generation of medical professionals? And do you have a theory on what will happen to children born to our community? Am I asking these questions too soon? I suppose that’s three, isn’t it?”

  “Technically, I think that was four, but we won’t complain. Yes, we are formulating plans for an education program. We need to work with other communities to do the best job for not only ourselves, but for everyone. Can we be put in touch with medical teams from other communities? Is that possible yet?” Mary’s mildly teasing response was given with a small smile, and I couldn’t help but like her even more.

  “Yes, I’ve asked the communications team to get the connections set up. It shouldn’t be long. Have you met Jane Spencer yet? Keep her informed and she’ll keep me informed. And of course, all of you can talk to me anytime you can catch me.”

  “We know Jane, or at least some of her runners. We’re switching to these communication devices today. A couple of soldiers brought them over just before you came by. They’ll be back shortly to give us instructions on their use.

  About your question regarding children born to survivors. That’s a bit more complicated. As far as we know, all the women in our community and the others who were pregnant on the day of the sickness miscarried. We believe the fetus was not immune and died in the womb. Presumably any immune fetus died when the non-immune mother died. We have no knowledge of any currently pregnant women in our group. We will know more, we believe, when we talk with the other groups. Right now, based on the number of sibling survivors it appears that immunity was genetically based, and if we all share the same type of immunity, something we don’t know yet, then we may pass it on to our offspring. It was certainly recessive. At the moment we are hopeful.”

  With that, I was off to what I always thought of as the farm group. They were expecting me at 11. I wished I had Jane with me so I used my cell phone to give her a call to see if she could meet me and arrange for a golf cart to take us to the agriculture building which was the farthest away of any of our groups. Jane never tells me no, so, by the time I arrived at our rendezvous point, there she stood with Enrique next to one of our growing supply of golf carts. And she had umbrellas.

  “Enrique, nice to see you. I hope I’m not pulling you away from a group this morning.”

  “No sir. We have plenty of personnel for training. I was very happy for the break, sir.” I wasn’t going to get anything juicy out of Enrique so I gave up before I even began. I had lots of questions but Marco and I were meeting over dinner and that was soon enough.

  “I just talked with the medical group. They would like to be able to communicate with their medical colleagues in the other groups. Can Todd set that up?”

  “I’m sure he can. He just relayed a request from the other California groups that you meet with them, preferably as a group if we can arrange that? Maybe that will be a chance to bring it up with them.” Jane always has good answers.

  “Sure, would you make arrangements for that? What about some of the other groups, we may need to pool our resources when it comes to opening a medical school or an engineering school. What do you know about them?”

  “Of course. Lydia has been talking with different leaders almost from the beginning. She will know more than I do. I just get my information from her and Todd. Anna has been helping me compile all the information from our group. Did you know that we have 223 people arriving after lunch? We’ve had several people arrive already this morning from small communities all around here. Some interesting people.”

  “Oh yeah? How interesting?”

  “Well, one is a cheese maker. Another was an actual fisherman. He’s from Los Osos, just down the sand bar from Morro Bay. One was a teacher, another a housewife. Just interesting people. Nice people.”

  “Good. I like cheese. And fish. And teachers and homemakers for that matter. Jane, would you ask Lydia and Anna to join Marco and me for dinner? You’ll be there too, I hope?”

  “Yes. I’ll be delighted, and I’m sure they would be there anyway. Shall I tell them you have questions for them.”

  “Oh, of course, yes. I want to thank you, Jane. You’ve been a godsend to all of us. I truly appreciate your help.”

  “Why thank you. We all appreciate everything you have done for the group, too. As you said, we’re all volunteers now.”

  “Yes we are, aren’t we?” I would have carried on our conversation had we not arrived at our destination.

  LaWanda Sharp was waiting at the exhibition hall entrance when our golf cart arrived.

  “LaWanda, what a nice surprise! I didn’t know you were one of our farmers!”

  “That would be because I’m not! I’m a dietician. You’ll see me here, and with the food crew, and at the school, and with the medical group. I’m needed more here for the moment, but I’m a part-timer for all four of these groups.” LaWanda told us this as she walked us to the room where the meeting was taking place. When we reached the door, the chairperson stopped the meeting and met us to invite us inside. He introduced himself as James Takash
i. James was tall and had bright blue eyes and the beginnings of a full beard. I was later to learn that he was a quarter Japanese. He was an affable man who joked that his grandfather and father both married tall blonde women. I could believe it since James was easily 6’3”.

  “What would you like to know about our little farming collective Mr. Caldwell?” Another chairperson not given to beating about the bush.

  “Since I don’t believe in pretending to know things that I don’t, I came prepared to be honest. And blunt. If we don’t reinvent farming, our way, we’re going to be eating a lot of canned food that will eventually become as unappetizing as it is non-nutritious. Fortunately, we have time to learn everything we have to learn about growing things. But growing things isn’t the only thing we have to think about.

  I want to ask you a series of rhetorical questions. Please think about them and I’ll leave it up to you to come up with answers. I apologize if you’ve already begun discussing them. Do you believe we can farm the same way we did in the past and get the results we need and want? Do you believe a small community such as ours can feed itself an interesting and balanced diet in isolation? Do you believe we’ll be able to trade for some of the agricultural produce we can’t easily produce in the quantities we need? How do we do this successfully in a world where everything is free? Which plants and animals need immediate support from us? How do we save and maintain a diversity of agricultural production for future generations? What do you need from the local community? What do we need from across the state and the country?

  As you can guess, I’m not a farmer myself. I don’t even have a green thumb. But, I know that in the coming months and years, if we don’t want to disintegrate as a society, we have to offer a good life, a peaceful and rewarding life to all of our community members. You’re a major part of that goal. As a matter of fact, all the questions I just asked you to consider are going to have to be answered by this group. No one in the rest of the community, myself included, has the expertise to begin to tell you how best to provide a wide variety of fresh, healthy, and nutritious food for not only our local community, but also across the region, and maybe the country.

  I also want to let you know that I personally don’t believe in trying to tell you what or how to do your jobs. For that matter, I don’t pretend to have any ideas for how our community should govern itself. About the only things I do want are to be part of a group of people who are committed to being kind to one another and to preserving the best of our old society. I want us to be safe and to be free from tyrants. We’ve all lived through a nightmare, and we are still hurting. Frankly, I’m amazed we’ve so much already. We all benefit from each other’s work and willingness to keep going. That’s why I wanted to personally thank you.

  Now, if you have any questions or requests for me, please ask them.”

  For the next few minutes there were questions, very few of a technical variety while most were more about the direction of our community.

  A middle aged man at the back of the room raised his hand first. “What was that talk on the speaker system about Communism?”

  I assumed he was referring to George accusing me of being a Communist on Saturday. “I don’t know where that came from. I’m only 23 and Communism was already just about dead before I was even born. And if you’re wondering how a 23 year old who doesn’t know much about anything is the Speaker for our community, I can only tell you that the representatives seem to think that if I don’t know much, I can’t be too bossy or become a dictator or something. Like I said, I’m just going to be honest.”

  LaWanda joined in then. “Bobby’s right on the mark. Part of the reason we like him as our leader is because he doesn’t think he knows enough to tell us what to do and how to do it. And even though he’s young, he’s not a know-it-all. He’s also very organized and asks good questions. He’s the reason we got started as fast as we did. I think that without him getting the group in Orange County going the very first day, a lot of us would still be home wondering what to do next. As it is, we have a whole school starting tomorrow with a whole bunch of kids that might not be here at all if it weren’t for his quick thinking.”

  I smiled at LaWanda and heard applause from the group at the same time. I blushed of course.

  The older man was still standing when the applause died down. “So are you saying you don’t believe in Communism or Socialism?” His name was Hal Richter, and I came to understand he was blunt but not negative.

  “What I’m saying is that I want this group to make the decisions about farming and feeding our community. Communism and Socialism are meaningless to us. Let me give you an example. If I were to offer to pay you $1,000 to plant me a little orchard, would that be enough money?” I could already see the reactions in the group ranging from smiles and soft laughter to resolute nods of understanding. Harold actually smiled, too.

  “Well, since everything’s free anyway, I don’t guess $1,000 would get me to do much. And I get your point.”

  I smiled at the group. “It’s hard to keep that in our heads, isn’t it? Jane keeps all sorts of records for our group, and I still don’t know how much we’re paying her.” This brought out some laughter again. Jane laughed right along with everyone else.

  “We’re on our own. It is truly up to us. In the beginning, I was worried about everything, but then I began meeting people who have shown that money is not the answer. We are.”

  The questions kept on for about twenty minutes or so. I invited everyone to come round to my office to talk if they wanted, but if they saw me with my two boys, I was on parent duty and they should catch me later.

  As we were traveling back to the main hall, I decided to ask Jane a question.

  “There was a young woman in the group who looked just like…”

  Jane cut into my question before I could finish it. “Yep. That’s her.”

  “But she’s an actor.”

  “She’s a good one, too. She also has a doctor’s degree in biology. She’ll probably work in this group and in the college group when it get’s going. As a matter of fact, we have scores of people who have master’s degrees or better in something or other. Her parents were still in London when this happened. We contacted London for her, and they aren’t on their list. She took it hard, but she’s English and they seem to be pretty strong. As a matter of fact, we have several people who listed something related to the entertainment industry. It looks like Hollywood survived. She might even be part of that one day.”

  That made me think of something else. “Have many people found family members through the lists the different communities have been keeping?”

  As always, Jane had at least some of the information off the top of her head.

  “A few. We have a little bus system forming up here in California. We have a couple of college kids who asked if a surviving parent could join them here. We had a couple of adult siblings ask about it too. We’re also starting an airline system between some of the cities countrywide to reunite some of them.

  “That’s great. Who put that together?”

  Jane’s mind was like a steel trap with useful information. “Todd and Zach. I think they’ve got it so we will be making short hops between Vancouver/Victoria and San Diego stopping at all the communities in between. They’re using small family planes, but that’s all we need right now. They figure if we can fly tail banners we can fly passengers.”

  By now we were back at the lunchroom. I thanked Enrique who trotted off to the militia hall and asked Jane to join me for lunch. I don’t know if she was happy to or not, but she said she was.

  As we sat to eat, Kevin joined us. “How’d I do with the medical team?”

  “You were a hit! Of course, they know better than to say anything else to me.” He blushed when he said that, and then he went on. “But they liked what you said. The conversation was a lot more proactive after you left. Where’d you go after you left us?”

  “We went to the agriculture group.
They were pretty nice to talk to. One guy was concerned about communism, but he seemed ok by the time we left. Jane, what did you think?”

  “I thought it went well. The guy you mentioned was one of the biggest growers in the area. His family’s been in the area for generations. One of his sons survived up in Davis. I think he was a senior in college up there.” Jane suddenly stood to go. “I’ll meet you over at the armory. Right now I need a few minutes to get dry and comfortable.”

  Our trio split up and Kevin walked with me the short distance to the militia hall also known as the armory. I only had a few minutes with the full-time soldiers before the next group of reservists arrived for their training. Today was the first day of training for any of the volunteers who made up our reservists, and this particular group included the medical volunteers as well as the volunteers from the food group and the motor/fuel team, AKA the mechanics.

  Kevin stayed with me as I spoke with the full-timers. I needed to get everything done in thirty minutes in order not to disrupt the training schedule for the day. I was expecting only about 11 soldiers, and I was surprised to see thirty-nine. In addition to the eleven from Camp Pendleton, there were several National Guards members and fairly recent retirees from all branches of service. More of them had been regular army with a few sailors and airmen thrown in. Also, there was a sprinkling of police officers and firemen in the group.

  Marco started the group by calling attention and introducing me as Speaker Caldwell. I then proceeded to tell them that I wasn’t very informed about their skills and training, but that I felt honored to have them willing to protect the community. Then I started asking questions of Marco in front of the group.

  “Sergeant Coletti, do you mind if I address you as Marco?” Seeing his smile, I continued. “Marco, how does this group make decisions? I’m thinking of things like how you are going about training the reserve. For that matter, how did you decide we needed to have a reserve as well as a militia?”