The China Pandemic

by A. R. Shaw

  Graham rolled down his window to listen as they slowly rolled up to a home on the outskirts of town. They drove along the graveled drive and parked behind a maroon Chevy truck. “If we can find the keys, it might be a useful truck to take back,” Graham said to Tala.

  “Yeah, the open bed could come in handy to haul more. We have limited space in this thing,” she said.

  Graham looked around for predators, which was becoming a much stronger habit now. The house, set back at the end of a long graveled driveway, was more secluded than most. The lime green exterior with white trim harkened back a couple of decades or more, as did the split-level design. It appeared large and well kept. The green front lawns and numerous trees, including a monkey tree located as a hallmark in the center of the front lawn, showed someone had really enjoyed yard maintenance. He could see part of a swing set in the backyard nicely maintained with pea gravel bedding and railroad ties bordering the play area.

  “Great. Kids,” he said under his breath, and caught Tala’s look of sympathy and understanding.

  “All right, guys, this is what we’re going to do. Tala, you cover me. I’ll go up to the door and try to peek in to see if everything looks okay, and then I’ll motion for you to come in,” Graham said. “Make sure you bring your weapons with you.” He thought for a second how ironic it was that in such a short time he’d begun telling children to use guns.

  “Tala will walk you guys in. Bring the bags and boxes with you. If you see any people, hide and let me handle things. If you see any animals, yell. Understood?”

  They all said that they did and Graham looked around once more and wondered if this was such a good idea, after all. Maybe they would just make do with what they had because this wasn’t worth losing one of their lives. He decided this would be the only house they checked out today because his suspicion that there were more people here continued to gnaw on his nerves.

  So far, this morning carried a blanket of mist, which the lazy sun was just beginning to burn off. There was a faint odor of what might be spoiled food inside the home and he guessed it would be stronger once the door was opened. He walked past the truck and tried the handle just in case it was open. It wasn’t.

  He moved slowly up the stairs and knocked, feeling foolish, but just in case someone was home, he didn’t want to get shot at. Of course, no one answered so he tried the handle and found it was locked too. He peered into the side window by the door and could see through the sheer drapes into the living area. From what he could see, it looked tidy enough. Across the room he spotted a sliding glass door through the dining area, he descended the steps and went around back, up a long wooden staircase, and onto the back porch. He looked inside the tidy and well-kept home and saw no living thing apparent. He tried the slider and it moved open a few inches, so he listened for any reaction and heard none as he continued to open it.

  He walked onto the rug of the dining room and saw that not only was the kitchen sparkling clean, without a dish in the sink, a dining table before him was laid out with dishes on placemats and cloth napkins artistically looped through rings. He closed the door and wiped his feet on the doormat and then thought himself foolish and stepped on the vinyl flooring.

  With his rifle ready, he quietly looked around the wall that led to the living area, and then followed the hallway that led to the laundry and bathroom combo, where he found the keys to the truck and house neatly displayed on wooden pegs. Then he went out to the two-car garage. A man hung there, dangling from a rope tied to a rafter. There was a pool of liquid that had spread under the overturned stepladder the poor soul had kicked aside. He saw a note pinned to the fellow’s shirt. Holding his breath, he approached closer, pulled the note off the body and took it back out with him into the light of the bathroom to read.

  To whoever finds me,

  “My wife Camille, my son Jacob and daughter Emily died of the China Pandemic. I find I cannot live without them. Whoever finds me, please bury me with my family in the back. I already dug the hole, so just drop me in there. In exchange, please take whatever you need and may God be with you.

  It was signed, Marvin Chandler.

  Graham wondered how many other people had done the same. He had wanted to but his dad made him promise and now he thought that might have been too much to ask of a man. He could see this fellow thought the same.

  He walked over to the front door and left it open, letting the others know everything checked out. He motioned for them to come in and they did after looking around, and closed the doors of the truck silently.

  Graham said, “I have to do something in the garage first, but you guys go ahead and start packing. Don’t come out there, though. It’ll probably take me about twenty minutes and then we need to get out of here.”

  Tala didn’t question him and closed the door behind the kids. He headed out back to the garage and saw a big orange wheelbarrow loaded with a shovel, hacksaw and gray tarp situated by the door leading to the backyard, all at the ready.

  “Made it as easy as he could,” he muttered underneath his breath. Graham felt an obligation to honor the man’s wishes. At least now, it didn’t feel like he was stealing the man’s belongings.

  He wheeled the collection over to the body and righted the ladder. He opened the tarp under the body and grabbed the hacksaw. As best he could, he positioned the wheelbarrow beneath the hanging man and cut the rope, and the corpse fell into the sturdy wheelbarrow in a heap. The stench of rotting flesh became overpowering and Graham rushed to the back door to let in some fresh air. He vomited again and tried to take some of the unspoiled damp air into his lungs. He bent over, heard a meowing, and saw a thin and dirty white cat with blue eyes staring at him.

  Graham decided it must have belonged to the family. He scratched it behind the ears, but it continued to meow at him, clearly hungry. He left the garage door open to air out and walked over to the stairs leading to the back porch to open the slider. The cat followed him and ran inside the house.

  “Awww…” Marcy said and stopped taking cans out of the pantry to come over to the cat.

  “We can’t keep it, so don’t even ask,” Graham said.

  “Sheriff would eat it,” said Bang.

  “Maybe not,” Marcy interjected.

  “Look, see if there’s any cat food around. It must have been the owner’s. Feed it and let it back out. It’s a miracle it’s survived this long anyhow,” he said, then whispered to Tala. “I have to bury someone out back. Keep the kids from looking if you can.”

  “Sure, no problem. Can we start loading up the truck while you’re busy?” she asked.

  “No, just start putting it by the front door. I want to make sure the coast is clear,” he said.

  Before he could go back to the garage to finish his task, Macy spoke up and said, “Check it out, Graham, I found a calendar.” She displayed it with a wave like Vanna White’s on Wheel of Fortune. He smiled and returned to his grim business.

  He had his gun slung around his back as usual and as he wheeled the corpse out to where the open grave waited, he looked into the hole. Other than rainwater and a few fallen leaves, it was clear. He really didn’t have time to make it a more noble procedure, but didn’t think the guy expected it anyway. It wasn’t difficult. He tipped the corpse, tarp and all, into the grave and began shoveling the mound of dirt over the man.

  Afterward, he was sweaty, so he rubbed his shirtsleeve across his face. Somehow, the smell still lingered. He wondered when this would come to an end, this staring at graves.

  He put the shovel back into the wheelbarrow and walked it back into the garage. He went inside, washed his grave-covered hands, and saw the water turn gray and then clear again.

  As Graham went back into the garage, he noticed a small white Kenmore deep freezer next to the door to the kitchen and was surprised he’d missed it since he’d walked right by it when he first came in.

  Bang, with big eyes, came out to the garage and wrinkled his nose at the smell, but al
l he said was, “There’re lots of guns on the bed upstairs, with bullets too.”

  Graham smiled at him and nodded. “That’s great. Good find, buddy.” He shoved his exhaustion back. “I’ll take a look at them, but there’s a freezer here I need to get loaded into the new truck. Tell Macy to come give me a hand,” he said.

  Tala came out to the garage to help Graham instead. The smell caught her off guard and her eyes started to water even though Graham left the backdoor open.

  They pulled the spoiled meat from inside the freezer. Even though, the power was currently on, it must have gone off for a time because the once frozen food looked like it had thawed and refrozen. Ice cream spilled onto the bottom and mixed with crystallized blood. They began dumping the cargo into one of the empty trashcans in the garage. Once the freezer was empty, Graham pulled the loaded trashcan outside and farther away from the house into the trees. They cleaned out the bottom with shop rags and then Tala used bleach and hot water from the laundry room sink to fill a bucket. She wiped the inside down to sanitize it.

  “This will be great for the cougar we have in the fridge,” she said and Graham began to laugh.

  “Did you ever think you’d use that phrase?” he said and they both laughed again.

  They opened the garage door manually and manhandled the freezer, pushing and pulling it into the truck bed of the Chevy, then went back to shut and lock the garage doors.

  Apparently, the now dead homeowners had been avid shoppers of Costco, as were many who lived this far from a major metropolis. There were several cases of canned green beans and corn along with peaches, pears and canned chili. They also found unopened twenty-five pound bags of flour, sugar and cornmeal to keep them baking through the winter months, at least.

  Upstairs, it seemed the homeowner had thought ahead. He’d neatly laid out his two pistols and three hunting rifles onto the beige striped bedspread, along with boxes of ammunition. Besides the guns, the walk in closet held winter wear for both Tala and Graham. They left the pretty dresses and high heels, but took all that Tala and the girls could use, as well as all the men’s clothing and winter boots. In all, it was a great find, but it cast a sour glow on their mission. They spoke openly downstairs but upstairs they could only formulate whispers.

  In one of the children’s rooms, they found little girl’s clothes, though too small for the twins, in a room painted a soft pink hue, but took the hairbrush sitting on the dresser. None of them wanted to disturb the stuffed animals displayed atop the white canopy bed even though the blankets and pillows would have suited their needs.

  In the boy’s blue room, they found several jackets, jeans and shirts as well as snow boots that both the twins and Bang could wear if he rolled up the sleeves. There was a skateboard leaning against the wall, and a baseball bat and glove in the corner, but just as they had with the girl’s room, they left those things as something of a memorial.

  Tala and the girls also gathered all the razors, soap, shampoo and feminine hygiene products they could find. These last items were in great need and Tala realized she would now have to help prepare the girls for a more organic way of dealing with their menses.

  “It’s too bad this place is too close into town or we could just move here,” Tala said.

  “Yeah, but it is just not defendable, being so much in the open. At least with the cabin, we’d have some warning if someone tried to get to us.”

  “We could hear them coming up the long drive,” Macy said. “Our tires crunched on the gravel. I bet footsteps would, too.”

  “That’s good thinking, Macy,” Tala said, looking as impressed by the girl’s statement as Graham felt. “Because really that’s what it’s going to take for us all to survive here now. Thinking ahead and being cautious,” she continued.

  “Let’s hurry up now,” Graham said. “Just take what we have and we’ll come back another time to get more if we need it. It looks like it’s going to rain, so let’s spread a tarp over the truck bed,” he said and went into the smelly garage, which still made him wince from the powerful odor, in search of another sturdy tarp.

  Not only did he find one, he also discovered several tools he knew he’d need someday. He picked up the hacksaw he used earlier, as well as an axe, a sledgehammer and a box of nails. Several bungee cords lay in a tangle on the work bench so he took those too. He bypassed all the electrical tools but noticed a small metal fishing boat hanging on the wall. That’ll have to wait till later, he thought, and hoped the locked doors would protect it until he could come back.

  He loaded the tools and fixed the tarp over the bed of the truck and then went back into the house and let the cat out. He locked all the doors and took the house keys with him, claiming this one from the others he knew must be around.

  By the time, they were finished loading, a slight drizzle grew to a steadier rain. Graham drove the Chevy with Bang as passenger, and Tala drove the Scout with the girls.

  When they pulled up to the cabin, Graham let Tala drive in first so as not to scare Ennis with an unfamiliar vehicle. On their approach, Ennis waited with Sheriff and his rifle beside him sitting on the porch chair.

  Smoke rose from the chimney and Graham thought it looked like a scene from a distant past, with an old man and a dog on the front porch of a cabin in the woods.

  30 New Plans

  Ennis said as Graham stepped out, “Got a new truck, I see.”

  “Yep, everything okay here?” Graham asked him.

  “Mostly,” Ennis said real slowly, which caused Graham to raise his eyebrows.

  “It can wait till later,” Ennis said.

  Graham knew this wasn’t good news or Ennis would have spilled it right there.

  They unloaded both vehicles and Graham set up the freezer in the bunkroom, by the only other outlet in the cabin besides the one in the kitchen. He ran an extension cord under Tala’s bunk to plug it in.

  His grandfather had run power to the cabin back in the fifties when Graham’s dad was a boy, so the kitchen had power outlets for the refrigerator. In the past few years, his father had retrofitted the cabin with solar panels to augment the electricity and top up a large bank of storage batteries kept in a shed out back. Graham hoped the load of both appliances wouldn’t drain the reserve batteries too quickly. He still planned to drag the larger freezer outside during freezing weather.

  Tala said that the inside of the freezer was cooling nicely, so she shut the lid to let it get down to a freezing temperature before they transferred the cougar meat.

  With that settled, they filled every nook and cranny with the bounty they’d brought. The extra clothing was parceled out to those they most suited, and stored under the occupant’s bed. The extra coats went into a small hall closet and the boots were lined up by the front door, largest to smallest.

  These things really didn’t belong to any individual—rather they went by need and that is how things would continue to be from this time forward, with the exception of a few personal mementos.

  Graham could see the family photos he’d taken from the apartment for the twins nailed up between their beds. Bang kept his diary under his pillow. He’d seen the boy open it, looking intently at his mother’s reflection, touching her face with the pad of his small index finger. He wore his mother’s medallion around his neck at all times.

  Graham kept the photos from his father’s house in a tote under his bed. He hadn’t looked at them yet. He just couldn’t bear to, even though he wasn’t sure why.

  Tala had a locket at the end of a leather cord around her neck with a picture of her husband on one end and her father on the other. As far as he knew, Ennis didn’t have any talisman from his past other than the pocketknife, and a handy tool it turned out to be.

  Graham could hear and smell venison strips being skillet fried in the kitchen by Tala. The twins talked and clanked dishes as they set the table while Sheriff and Bang enjoyed a scuffle over a lost sock.

  Anyone who looked in on this scene would believ
e this was a normal family drama played out daily in normal times. These were not normal times, though, and they’d fallen into this routine much too easily. It worried Graham. However, he didn’t know exactly why it nagged at him, why his subconscious warned him of hidden dangers.

  We’re becoming too complacent. It’s a trap we must not fall into because there is nothing normal about our situation.

  “Mr. Graham,” Ennis called him from the front door.

  “Mr. Ennis?” Graham said back.

  “Get out here. I need to talk to you,” Ennis said, getting impatient with the younger man.

  Ennis’s tone was more serious than Graham first anticipated and he knew something grim was about to be discussed.

  He stepped through the doorway and leaned his rifle against the jamb, then stretched his arms reaching for the blue sky above, glad the rain had ceased. Ennis sat in the old rocker he’d found in the house and had dragged outside so he could keep an eye on the world, for what it was worth now.

  “Close the door,” Ennis said.

  Graham complied.

  In addition to the chair, an old bench for taking off dirty boots leaned against the cabin wall. Graham planted his tired carcass upon it and leaned back.

  “Something happened out by the lake while you were gone,” Ennis said.

  “What?” Graham said.

  “There’s trouble across the lake,” Ennis said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Saw two no-gooders earlier,” Ennis said.

  Graham sat straighter, automatically checked the position of his gun. “Where’d you come across them?”

  “At the lake. They went by in a canoe. Saw me, too, and waved like they were sayin’, ‘we know you’re there’,” Ennis said.

  Graham leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Well, did you wave back?”