The China Pandemic

by A. R. Shaw

  “I’m headed out for watch now,” Macy said as she passed through, only to find Tala leaning over the sink with her eyes closed, breathing deeply. She backed up in her sock feet. “Are you okay?” Macy asked, a little alarmed.

  Tala quickly put her hand up behind her to warn Macy off, “I’m fine. I fine. I think, I didn’t get enough sleep, is all.”

  “Yeah, I heard you up early this morning. Did you eat something past its prime?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I’ll be fine, go ahead on guard duty.”

  “Okay,” Macy muttered, though concerned still. She had not seen Tala this way before. Coming down with an illness concerned them all. Naturally fearing sickness after the pandemic came easily. For now, Macy decided to let her omission go but she vowed to herself to keep on extra eye on Tala, all the same.

  On her way to gear up for the outdoors, she came to Ennis. He gazed up at her, and when she smiled at him, he reached up and patted her on the arm as if to affirm her existence but no words trailed behind the effort. He returned his attention absently onto the blaze of the woodstove once again. She readjusted the blanket around him and donned her jacket which Sam had lined with wolf fur to keep her warmed through, in the prolonged frigid temperatures. She holstered her pistol and slung her bow and quiver around her back.

  She kissed him on the cheek and bid him a, “Bye, mister.”

  He peered up into her blue eyes again. “Yep. You be careful, girl. Keep your ears open, your eyes steady and trust your instincts. Always trust your instincts out there. They save your life.”

  “I will, Ennis.” She patted him and he held her hand a moment too long. She smiled at him and pulled away.

  ~ ~ ~

  Macy had to blink to let her eyes adjust to the bright morning light, reflecting off the snow. The quick rhythm of Bang digging a trail to the chicken coop with his little shovel greeted her as she slipped on her gloves. Graham tinkered under the hood of the Scout, getting topped off of fluids for the hunting party. “We’re up, Bang,” she shouted, meaning, their time for guard duty.

  “Did you call in?”

  “Yeess, Graham. It’s all good.”

  “Did he ask about the cameras again?”

  “No, I think he’s given up on that one,” she said.

  “Last time I talked to him, he brought the subject up and griped about the injustice. I told him to take it up with Sam. The man’s not often without something to say,” Graham chuckled as he lowered the hood down with a clank.

  “Too bad. I can’t believe they spied on us for so long.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing, considering what happened.”

  “He still insists I use Twin Two,” she said dryly.

  Graham laughed out loud, while Bang ran up to Macy ready to go on duty.

  “Any eggs yet?” she asked Bang.

  “Nope, not yet. I think the weather is still too cold for them,” Bang reported.

  Macy handed him a homemade hand warmer Tala had made with rice sewn into little flannel bags warmed in the oven right alongside breakfast. She kept them by the door in the morning so the ‘watchers’ hands wouldn’t freeze. Macy put one in each of his pockets and helped him to zip up his jacket completely.

  “I get the lake today,” she told him with a smile.

  “I know, see yah,” Bang said, and skipped away towards the drive entrance with Sheriff giving chase behind him. The lakeside provided more entertainment with wildlife than driveway duty.

  Macy waved at Graham and he did the same as she walked down the shoveled trail to the lake entrance. The snow crunched and compressed beneath her snow boots as she walked and blinked her eyes from the overwhelming brightness, as the light reflected off the white snow in the clearing. Down the trail, the temperature decreased even more in the shade. Rick had an outside camera on her somewhere and she waved a greeting blindly towards the likely spot, she thought the device might be hidden. They meant well, but having eyes everywhere still gave her the creeps to always be spied upon.

  Hearing her twin Marcy stirring in the deer blind, she buffered herself for the possible quarrel she came to expect from her these days.

  “You’re late, again,” Marcy accused.

  “I am not. Get off your high horse, Marcy. I just got here.”

  “No arguing, girls, remember,” Graham’s voice came over the handheld radio, warning them both.

  Marcy thrust the radio into her sister’s hand, “you started it.”

  “Stop doing this, Marcy, I don’t want to clean out the waste box again. Do you?” Macy whispered sternly, while holding the radio muffled against her jacket.

  Marcy stomped off up to the trail without another word as her as Macy wondered why she had a need to drive a wedge of discontent between them every chance she got. She huffed and turned her back on the situation and braced her boot toe onto the first step, and climbed up and into the deer stand to her position. She checked the perimeter with the binoculars they kept in the stand to maintain a far visual. Other than a small grey deer, trying to sip from the frozen shoreline to the west of the lake, isolation reigned. She called in her report to Graham, knowing he would be expecting it on time. Afterwards, she sat back and reflected on her troubled relationship with her twin.

  Happy Marcy would be gone for a few days, she couldn’t understand why she always sought conflict with her lately. It seemed to Macy her sister took every opportunity to needle her about something, anything. They were turning sixteen next month and Tala planned to make a real cake for them, IF the chickens laid an egg. She scoffed at herself. Last year at this time she selfishly begged her mom and dad for an iPod and now she looked forward to a chicken laying an egg so a simple cake might commemorate her and her sister’s day of birth, they lived on, despite the fall. So much had changed in so few months.

  An errant tear slide down her cheek anyway. She missed her mom and dad, more than anything. She’d almost trade Marcy for either one of them right then; almost.

  The honking of the approaching geese alerted Macy before they circled around, getting into position to come in for a landing on the frozen lake. “Noisy birds,” she said to herself, they reminded her of SeaTac Airport, near Seattle, as the planes would arc around before lining up, to come in for a landing; seemed like so long ago. As she reminisced in her melancholy mood focused on the geese, a gray shape darted out from the opposite end of the lake, chasing one of the waterfowl and sliding on the ice as he did it. Her heartbeat hastened quickly until she felt the pounding even in her slim wrists. Macy drew the icy air sharply into her lungs, depressed the mic on the radio and repeated in an intentional calm voice three times, the way Rick, drilled her training with the radio. “Wolf on the lake, wolf on the lake, wolf on the lake,” to alert Graham and the others to the potential danger.

  Almost instantly, Graham, Sam and Mark beat a quick path down the trail. Always armed and ready, with practiced vigilance the men were a formidable crew in any contingency. A wolf or bear sighting always meant serious business. Sam educated them on the dangers of having bears and wolves, marking their territory. This action only invited more of the same, making their presence daring at best. At worst, the trespass meant an open invitation to attack. They could not afford to have them prowling around. In the only way the animals would understand they enforced their message by loud gunfire and immediate forced aggression.

  Macy didn’t even try to aim at the creatures with her pistol or bow. The three men rushed past her and got into position. The three wolves were within sight and if the danger had not been so severe, the scene would have been comical watching one of the wolves slip and slide on the ice as the geese easily leaped away.

  Graham aimed and shot the animal, dropping it quickly, while the others aimed for the other two fleeing in the tree line. The geese took flight in a rush as the booming gunfire resounded, disturbing their peaceful seclusion.

  Mark and Graham both took down their marks, but Sam did not and everyone sucked in a brea
th at the rare occurrence as the lone wolf took off. Still, they counted themselves lucky to have lessened the growing pack’s population by two.

  “Good job, Macy girl,” Graham said while the other two men went out to retrieve the kills.

  “It’s a good thing I got the truck ready for the trip this morning. Looks like I’ll be skinning in the greenhouse, the rest of the day,” Graham said.

  Graham had learned to skin animals from his father, but Sam had taught Graham several new tips and tricks in preserving the pelts they came across, so nothing was wasted. Everything would eventually be made into warm coats, blankets or mittens, Graham didn’t enjoy the tedious skinning process. Nor did he enjoy the rift that processing the kills caused Tala and Sam.

  ~ ~ ~

  Thankfully they’d all came to an agreement over their first debate. Sam wisely never wasted anything from various hunts of deer or even bear. Tala, always accommodating, dried and preserved all cuts of game. However, when it came to the wolf, she put her foot down. Tala’s American Indian heritage held her back from eating wolf meat. She refused to even handle the wolf meat or pelts since her traditions forbid consumption of the flesh.

  Her grandparents had taught her the taboo tradition. Though she couldn’t explain why, she said the ritual had something to do with the animal’s soul. Sam agreed, instead of poking fun at her as she expected. Every person held something sacred to them all, this was hers. After all, ‘Tala’ meant wolf.

  The prospect of starvation changed things though, so they made a contingency agreement. They would forgo eating the meat unless starvation became a factor. If or when food became short, all bets were off and Graham said he’d personally make smoked wolf sausage if she didn’t want to handle the kills herself. So for now, they consumed all food, except for wolf meat.

  Graham mused at how, even now, the great wolf debate raged on. Tala, typically easy going and sensible, surprised them when she spoke up about her aversion to the meat, they all took listened and granted her few demands.

  Even Sam said later, he’d never liked the taste of the gamey meat himself. Wolf meat tasted surprisingly too much like chicken and too close to eating your own dog. Since they all loved and admired Sherriff, eating wolf would be a particular turnoff.

  ~ ~ ~

  For now, Graham surveyed the ice as the guys slid the two grey wolves over the ice. When they came to Graham, Mark dropped his and ran up the trail to grab a sled, huffing and puffing his breath out in clouds.

  At the same time, Tala crackled over the radio clipped to Graham’s belt, telling him she called in the disturbance to the Preppers’ camp, so they wouldn’t worry over hearing the commotion coming from their direction. “Thanks, babe.”

  Sherriff came up to inspect Mark’s kill, sniffing the large wolf, and trotted on to sniff the next one, only four feet away.

  “Macy, can you call in to Tala and have her radio Rick? I need a child visitation tonight before dark please. I’ll be gone for a few days so I’d like to lay eyes on Addy before we head out,” Sam asked.

  “Sure, Sam. I should have requested the visit earlier,” Macy said, and relayed the message right away.

  “I’ll help you get these hung, before I head out,” Sam said to Graham.

  “Macy and I can handle it,” Graham said, “She has muscles. You go spend time with Addy, before you go.”

  “I just want to lay eyes on her for a moment or two,” Sam said.

  Soon the sound of Mark and the ground sled dragging behind him became closer. The boy did everything in fast motion these days. Amazed at how well he had fully recovered from his unfortunate experience with the Preppers, even though they had their reasons. When they’d first found him, he was a wreck and now the young man could out-work both Graham and Sam, at most any task.

  “All right, let’s get these stacked,” Graham said.

  “I’ve got to finish packing,” Sam said and walked back to camp, closely followed by Graham and Mark after they piled the two wolves on the sled dragging behind them.

  Macy waved goodbye to them as they trudged back up the trail. Again she lifted her binoculars and checked all corners in her view and after a moment she listened again to the lonely silence, wafting across the lake before her.