“Yeah.”
“And?”
Joey shrugged.
Tom grabbed the phone and turned the base. He clicked through the list of numbers that had called into the store. “Three times? Was he the last one that called?”
“Yes, sir.”
Tom handed Baby Doe to Joey, grabbed a rental slip and wrote down the number. “Watch him.” Tom walked toward the door. “Don’t drop him. Be nice. I’ll be back.”
“Okay.”
Tom paused at the door, looked down at the paper. “Wrong number,” he grumbled with a shake of his head and walked out.
* * *
Erie, PA
“I can’t!” Lola cried, shaking her head.
“You have to,” Rose insisted.
“I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Listen to me.” Rose grabbed her wrist. “If you don’t, then you’re going to have to deal with my dead body in here. I have to stop this bleeding and block this lung.”
“It’s going to hurt you.”
“It will, but it will feel better after, I promise.” Rose stared her in the eyes. “Please, Lola.”
“Okay,” Lola said reluctantly.
Rose had taken the draw strings from several canvas sacks. She found a small sack, folded it to make a binding wrap, and had it partially on her abdomen, with two drawstrings wedged within her fingers. After Lola agreed to help, Rose gripped one end of the binding.
The plan was simple. Push, wrap and tie. However, Rose couldn’t do it alone.
“No matter what,” Rose told her, “I’ll try not to scream. When I inhale, you push that bone in place as best as you can. Try to get it back into the injury.”
Lola shuddered.
“Baby, I know this is tough. I need your help, okay?”
Lola sniffled and nodded.
“Ready?” When she got the agreement, Rose inhaled.
She groaned and cried as Lola pushed the rib back into place. She was too gentle and Rose urged her to be forceful.
The pain was tremendous and Rose didn’t need to see when the bone made it back in. When Lola succeeded, she held it in place, then brought the binding over, still keeping her hand hard and with pressure to the fractured area.
“Hold it. Hold it,” Rose instructed and brought the first drawstring over. She tied it. “See if you can make the binding tighter.
Lola did and Rose secured the second drawstring.
She had done the same to her leg, but that wasn’t broken, just badly bruised. Once her ribs were bound, Rose exhaled fully. “That actually feels better.”
Lola wiped her hand under her nose. “You sure?”
“Positive. I can actually …” Rose took small breath, “… inhale without that dagger feeling.” She extended her hand to Lola. “Help me stand.”
“Maybe you should rest.”
“No. I need to stand. Get my blood circulating. I don’t want a blood clot.” She wiggled her fingers.
Lola grabbed her hand and pulled.
It took some struggling but with a grunt, Rose managed to get to her feet. At first she was half bent and then slowly she stood upright, holding on to her side. “Thank you.”
A new noise caught their attention. A slow, loud, clapping.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
Rose looked over her shoulder.
A man stood there. He wore jeans and a sweatshirt. He was impeccably clean, and his gray hair was buzzed so close to the scalp, in the right light he would have looked bald.
“You are impressively resilient,” he said.
“That’s Ace,” Lola whispered.
“Ace?” Rose looked at Lola then to the man. “This is him? He doesn’t look all that tough. I would have run away from him in a heartbeat. How’d you get stuck here?”
Ace laughed. “You’re feisty and she didn’t run away because where would she go?” He lifted his hands. “She has nothing. We feed her. She, unlike you, doesn’t have resources.”
“I don’t have resources,” Rose said.
“Yeah, you do. And obviously, you’re resourceful.” He pointed to her makeshift bandages.
“I don’t have a choice now do I?” Rose asked. “Obviously, you don’t want me dead or you would have done it. And if you keep me around longer, waiting on killing me, I might as well have my strength up. I won’t go down alone.”
“I believe that.” He folded his arms.
“What’s your game here?” Rose asked. “I’m obviously some sort of prisoner.”
“You are. You inured one of my men and killed another.”
“Your men are bastards,” Rose spat. “They threatened me and the other ones out there burning towns, well, if they represent your little group here, then you’re all bastards. So, I’m, a prisoner. Sentence me, kill me or let me go.”
“Can’t do any of that. And I can’t kill you just yet.”
“Why is that?”
“People are commodities.”
Rose coughed and laughed. “That’s a fake compassionate response.”
He smirked. “You think I’m being a humanitarian about people being commodities? No. Right now, people are bargaining chips. For things I need. After I get them, they’ll be useful for work and will need what I have.”
“Get your head out of your ass. Hitler tried it once, you saw how it worked out for him.”
Ace laughed. “Yeah, well, he gained a lot in the process, now didn’t he? He just made mistakes.”
“I have nothing of value and I’m an old lady that no one wants to barter or bargain for.”
“I wager differently,” he said. “Where are you from?”
“Nowhere. Everywhere. I was just roaming the country.”
“I call that bull. You’re in good condition, other than the accident. Not starving, not dirty. Your bike was in good repair and you had limited supplies. You’re local. Cleveland …maybe a pocket of civilization that we missed, or the golden town of hope. Lodi.”
“Lodi?” Rose scoffed. “Last I heard, Lodi went under.”
“Last I heard from the president, Lodi was spared pretty good from the major losses and they stockpiled heavily. I was wondering where everything from the warehouses went. When we got there, maybe a quarter was left.”
“I don’t know about the warehouses. I don’t know about Lodi.”
“We’ll see,” Ace said arrogantly. “I was hoping you’d talk. But I see, you’re not ready. When you are, let me know. I’ll get you some water and fresh bandages so your wounds don’t get infected. Have a good evening ladies.”
Rose held back the waves of pain and fought tooth and nail not to show how hurt she actually was, but when he left, she folded. Lola helped her to sit. It hurt with every step she took, every word she spoke.
She wondered what his purpose was for stopping in. To see if she was dead? Ready to talk? Did he actually think he would get information from her? He probably didn’t realize he gave her more information than she had given him. Or had he done that on purpose? Maybe a way to scare her, make her concerned for her town. If that indeed was his intent, despite what she showed or conveyed, Rose was scared. She was scared to death for Lodi.
* * *
Las Vegas, NV
They were all getting worse, and after getting the diagnosis from Lars regarding their ‘coughing’ patients, Lexi realized why. She wasn’t treating them correctly. And in actuality, there wasn’t an effective treatment for SARS at all. Antiviral medications in studies were somewhat effective, but the defense was time, oxygen and fluids in conjunction with any medication that Lexi could give. But she was limited; there was very little of anything remaining.
Those who were infected wasn’t what worried her, it was the fact they were dealing with something as contagious as their flu. Though not as deadly, it spread just as easily. She was certain more cases would pop up over the course of the next several days, and that didn’t include those who passed through Vegas. How many of those took the virus with them?<
br />
There were no other cases of smallpox, but another illness appeared in the suburbs of Vegas. Matt’s team discovered that not long after.
Things had quickly become a mess in Vegas.
Matt conveyed his gratefulness to her because had Lexi not shown up they would not have known what they were dealing with.
Lexi still didn’t know how it was occurring. How all of a sudden, these severe illnesses were appearing. Had civilization and technology really kept them at bay?
Her visit with Slot Machine Charlie was depressing. He was the worst. He barely moved. The oxygen flowed into him but Lexi was certain he had gone into respiratory failure.
They retried a respirator from the hospital, actually several, but it may have been a little too late.
A rush of nerves caused her not to sleep the night before and she had been going all day long. She was beat and took a break. Bottle of water in hand, heart heavy, Lexi walked outside. It was hot, but it felt good.
“Someone said they saw you come out,” Bill said as he walked up to her where she sat on a bus stop bench. “Can I join you?”
“Please.”
“What’s wrong?”
She sipped her water and didn’t answer him.
“Okay, that was a bad question.”
“Oh, Bill.” She leaned over and rested her head on his arm. “What the hell is going on? Haven’t we seen enough death and suffering? This is going to get bad. People aren’t the only things that spread this.”
“I know. But we’re gonna face this and fight it, just like we did with the flu.”
“What if we get sick?” she asked. “What if everyone gets sick?”
“Lex, this isn’t like you to be talking like this. You’re tough, strong and smart. You’ll figure out what to do.”
She pulled away and hung her head. “I’m just so tired of death.”
“We all are, but this doesn’t mean these people are dying. They’re just sick. Sick with a couple of odd diseases. But still sick.”
“And now the new cases.”
“You heard Matt, they aren’t using the city’s water purification system. Could be that.”
“With our luck it’s cholera or hemorrhagic fever.”
“How the heck are we getting this soup pot of sicknesses?” Bill asked. “Look at all these birds, I’d say they found a general store and are flying the germs in here.”
Lexi’s head sprang up. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
She stood. “When is our telephone call?”
Bill looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes. Why?”
She reached down and grabbed his hand. “Come on.”
“Where we going?”
“To find a map,” she said. “I think I know what this is.”
* * *
Lodi, OH
Henry watched Lars while he was on the phone, as did Kurt and Tom. Lars didn’t say much, he wrote down more than he spoke. He ended the call simply and said, “We have a telephone meeting in a few minutes. Hang tight. I’ll call you back.”
Lars hung up.
Henry said, “I take it the video store boy was wrong and it wasn’t a wrong number.”
“Not at all,” Lars replied “Seems their commander remembered your store number, Tom, and he gave it to Dr. Kiddi.”
“It’s easy,” Tom said. “That’s why I picked it.”
Kurt asked, “So what’s going on? Something is up.”
“On the positive front,” Lars said, “Mick couldn’t get by Erie either. Seems he met up with some men from the UAA.”
“Tell me he is with the boys,” Tom said hopefully.
“He’s with the boys.”
“Hot dog.” Tom smiled.
“But not so fast, that wasn’t the point of the call,” Lars said. “They have three cases of what this doctor believes to be hemorrhagic fever.”
“W-what?” Henry stuttered. “How is that possible? That’s not possible. He has to be wrong.”
Kurt added, “It has to be something else. They just developed symptoms of hemorrhagic fever? Can’t happen.”
Lars shook his head. “No. They arrived with it. Travelers from west to east. It’s a big thing now, you know, going east. Well, at least for those not going through Erie. This is strange.” Lars leaned back. “If there were enough readers left alive, I’d write a book.”
Tom chuckled. “Probably end up one of them gay erotica novels you write.”
“I wrote romance,” Lars corrected. “Romantic comedy. I resent that.”
“Lots of people said it,” Tom replied. “Called that one book gay erotica.”
Lars shook his head. “One scene. One paragraph and I’m scorned with quips from right wing fanatics.”
“Rose called it that,” Tom said. “You think she’s right wing?”
All them, Lars, Henry, and Kurt responded at the same time. “Yes.”
“She ain’t right wing, she swears too much,” Tom argued. “And I’m worried about her. Nelson said he was sending a party out for her and he’d get back. Something is wrong.” He looked down when his phone rang and he lifted it. “Maybe not. There is a bright spot.” He grinned.
“Rose?” Lars asked.
“Yep.” Tom pressed a button and brought the phone to his ear. “Rose, damn it. Where the hell are you? You should have been back in Lodi hours ago. We’re worried.”
Henry watched Tom’s face. The smile dropped instantaneously and suddenly his expression was drawn.
Lars stood, as did Kurt, and they watched Tom.
Tom said nothing. The five second conversation was over and Tom’s arm dropped.
“What’s wrong?” Henry asked. “What is it?”
“We got more problems,” Tom said then pursed his lips. “They have Rose.”
* * *
Erie, PA
The bottle of water dropped on the floor and rolled toward Rose, followed by a bag of bandages. Rose looked at them.
“That’s a start. We’ll see what happens next …” he paused, “Rose.”
Slowly, Rose lifted her eyes to Ace.
“I said I’d bring you water and bandages when you were ready to talk. Because I am a kind and generous man … here they are.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“No, but your belongings did. Actually, your phone. It survived the accident and you had several missed calls.” Ace said. “Actually, I didn’t expect the person that answered to spew out everything I needed to know.”
“No one would give you information,” Rose snapped.
“Oh, but they did. They answered the phone calling for you and saying you should have been home hours ago … in Lodi.”
Rose closed her eyes.
“Yeah, Lodi.” Ace grinned. “I’ll be calling them back.”
“Lodi has nothing you want,” Rose said.
“You’re kidding right?” Ace laughed. “Apparently, you must have been so busy in that town that you missed the news. Oh, yeah, coverage galore about how Lodi was spared. How Lodi’s chief of police put an iron wall of bikes around the town, quarantining it from the world. And how the government, in an attempt to save them, dumped tons of medical supplies in there. Medical supplies that would save the town should they get the flu. Along with weapons.”
“It didn’t work,” Rose said, her voice weakening.
“Yes it did,” Ace argued. “Let’s look at Erie, this town. Population pre-flu was 100,000 people. The mayor, who by the way is a good friend since our securing his town and feeding his people, says maybe ten percent remained. Ten percent? That’s not including how many of the survivors died from starvation, other ailments, chaos. Any city over 100,000 burned itself out and is lucky to have five percent remaining after all was said and done. They’re still dying. Smaller towns fared better, keeping about twenty to thirty percent alive. But Lodi …. how many did you lose? Thirty percent? That’s nothing. Not in the scheme of everything. It was the golden child. Why was Lodi so
special?”
Rose shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“I do and that’s why you are special to me. The best bargaining chip ever.”
“I’m not important enough for Lodi to bargain.”
Ace fluttered his lips. “It’s Lodi, every person there is a bargaining chip. I had to hear about that down in the bunker. I was locked in. Against my will. I couldn’t get out of that government bunker. I had to hear praises about Lodi, stories about it while my family died without me there.”
“That’s not our fault.”
“Really? Because my wife didn’t catch the flu until after supplies were sent to Lodi,” Ace said. “If I remember correctly, without treatment you stood a 99 percent chance of dying if you caught the flu. With the treatment, your odds of dying were a quarter of that. It pissed me off and I resent that.”
“So why bargain? If you hate Lodi and resent it so much, do what you need to do. Try.”
“I will. After I get what I want.”
Rose shook her head. “There’s nothing in Lodi you can’t get elsewhere.”
“I beg to differ. There’s something very special in Lodi.” He turned and walked to the door.
Lola, who had remained silent, hurried to stop him. “Ace, she’s needs more than bandages. She’s got a fever. An infection. She’s in pain. She needs a doctor.”
Ace titled his head with smug look. “I don’t have one … yet.” He opened the door and, after a smile to Rose, he walked out.
* * *
Las Vegas, NV
A map was spread out across the counter and Lexi’s phone, on speaker was in the center of it. Bill stood across from her.
She had a hint of excitement to her, and rightfully so; she believed she had figured out the source of the illnesses and a way to end and anticipate any further outbreaks.
The Flu 2: Healing Page 16
