Viral Survival

by Pete Thorsen

  Chapter 7

  It was three weeks after Bea had last worked a shift when she said she was not feeling good. She had a headache and she felt tired. At first she told me to stay away from her but we both knew that it was way too late for that. If she did have the virus then at this point I also had it so now we were in it together, just like we had always faced everything else in our lives. Together.

  By this time we both knew a lot about the disease. We knew the symptoms and we knew the progression. We also knew the approximate death rate of somewhere between fifty-five and seventy-five percent. She did not even have a fifty-fifty chance. Of course, neither did I, but I only thought of her.

  Bea stayed in good spirits and I tried to wait on her hand and foot. Sometimes she would tell me to just leave her alone but she was always smiling whenever she said that to me. Of course, each of us knew we both might die but we were still happy we had each other and we never wanted to part.

  Bea was sick for a week. Then on the sixth—or maybe it was seventh day—she said she felt a little better. The day after that she felt much better and the next day she would not stay in bed anymore. She had gotten the disease and was one of those lucky ones who was able to fight it off and survive.

  Then she just looked at me. We both knew I was exposed to the disease as much as a person could possibly be. And I was still feeling fine. No, I was better than that because knowing that Bea was now safe from the disease I was feeling incredibly fantastic. But she was not because she now worried that I would leave her alone. She had been able to accept her own fate but was having a hard time knowing that my fate was still up in the air and the odds were not good of both of us being in the lucky few who survived.

  Many times she would just hold me and say, “Please don’t ever leave me.”

  Obviously I sure didn’t want to. By two weeks after she had gotten better we were both surprised that I still had not developed any worse symptoms. At three weeks we were both feeling much better about my chances. After the fourth week it was hard to find a time that both of us were not smiling. I think we were smiling even when we were asleep.

  By six weeks we were both very sure that we were two very lucky people. That both of us were still alive was a sign that we had beaten very long odds. Even one of us surviving would be better than average by a good amount.

  Our nation was not so lucky. The TV stations had all quit by this time. Then the radio stations started to dwindle in number until there was but one that we could still receive. By that time there was really no news on it. The station’s sole announcer (and he was likely running the whole place it sounded like) just reported on whatever he saw outside the studio and what he saw on his walks back and forth to his apartment.

  He said there were bodies lying in the street and he could only guess that about every house and apartment contained more dead bodies. Businesses had all (or at least most all) been broken into and looted. He admitted that he had gone into the closest grocery store through the broken open door and found some food just to get him by.

  He was very thankful that the electric power was still on and wondered just how long that would be the case. He guessed that the nuclear power plant in nearby Monticello could maybe operate on its own with no workers for at least a certain length of time.

  He then openly wondered if it would start leaking radiation or even suffer a meltdown at some point if it did shut down. He reminded us that the nuke plant there was quite a small one with only one reactor so maybe the risk was pretty small unless you lived very close to the plant. He also admitted that he knew very little on the subject and wished he still had the internet to look up things like that.

  With no internet and the phones having all quit working (both the cellphones and the landlines) there was little in way of contacting anyone. He said he would stay and transmit as long as he could. He said he had nothing else to do anyway and this way he felt he was at least connecting with other people, even if it was just a one-sided conversation over the radio.

  The radio announcer would talk for awhile and then play songs for awhile every day. He would shut down at different times each afternoon. Sometimes he would say he wanted to stop and get some more groceries on the way home or some other things he wanted to do or something he wanted to check on.

  He did say that he had seen a wild looking dog pack on one of his walks back home. He said they looked very aggressive and had started running towards him as soon as they spotted him. Luckily he was able to duck inside a building and shut the door before they could get him. He waited some time and when they did not leave he was able to exit the back of the building instead of the front and get safely back to his place. It sounded like it scared him pretty bad though.

  Bea and I listened to him every day. We thought it likely that everyone in the area listened too. It wasn’t much but it was our only contact with anyone else. He said his name was Bill. We were very surprised when one day he said he had a guest in the studio. It was a woman and we could tell that she was very hesitant about speaking on the radio.

  Her name was Sadie. Over the next several days she became a regular speaker on the station as she got over her stage fright. She explained that she and Bill were not related or anything but had just bumped into each other and he had talked her into coming onto the show.

  It was interesting for us to listen to them talking to each other and now with the two of them they played less music and had more dialogue. It seemed like they were part of our family with us listening to them just talking every day. They did not take weekends off.

  Then one day they never signed on and we never heard from them again.

  The first couple days we had hope, but after three days we knew they were gone. We did not know what had happened to them. Maybe something broke down at the station or maybe the power went off there. It was apparent that we likely would never find out.

  Chapter 8

  All of this had unfolded over the spring and summer months. Now it was well into fall and both Bea and I expected the electric power would fail at any time. Not real handy being without electric power ever, but especially not during the winter in Minnesota. But that was in the future and right now we still had the power.

  Around the time Bea called in to stop going to work she had also called in and had our big propane tank filled. As things got worse and worse over summer we had used our gas kitchen range less and less. Instead we used an electric hotplate and her electric frypan for as much as we could to save on our propane usage. We did have a propane water heater and she had me turn the temp way down to conserve as much fuel as possible. In the summer we did not need real hot water for showers anyway so it worked out fine.

  As the outside temperatures got cooler and cooler now in the fall we started using a couple of electric heaters in the house. One we kept in the main bathroom and the other was usually in the kitchen/living room area. They would not be enough to heat those areas in the dead of winter but for now they worked fine to add a little heat in those rooms.

  Over summer I had walked the mile and a half to the small nearby lake and did some fishing fairly often. I fished there every summer and this was no exception with the only difference being that I walked instead of driving there. The fresh fish was a nice addition to our diets and extended our food supplies. And I liked to fish.

  With the coming of fall both Bea and I spent some time walking around and picking wild berries as they got ripe. Again, this was something we usually did just because they tasted way better than most of the stuff you could ever buy in the stores. This year it was also because we were sure there were none in any store.

  With both of us now free of worry about getting the Fever and dying we debated whether we should drive into town and see about getting some additional supplies. From listening to the radio we both knew we would not be able to buy anything but would be looting instead.

  We talked it over and decided that for groceries any canned goods or most anything in a container
that had water in it would freeze solid and burst this winter making it worthless, and that would be a waste.

  “We will not have to be concerned about any food going to waste.”

  “Why not? You agreed that many different things will get wrecked by freezing.”

  “The food I’m quite sure is already all gone.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Just Forest Lake had a population of about ten thousand people. Food deliveries stopped quite some time ago. Do the math, there is no food left.”

  “Many or even most people have died from the Fever.”

  “That is true that a very high number of people died from the Fever. And many likely committed suicide and some died from lack of their normal medications and some young ones likely died after their folks died and no one was there to take care of them anymore. Then many likely died and very likely are still dying from violence.”

  “So with all of those deaths you still think there will be no food left?”

  “Let’s just say that ninety percent died at this point, from all causes, so there are only about a thousand people left alive around here. It has been a very long time since any food has been delivered to the stores and all this time people have been eating. At first it was ten thousand people who were eating and gradually it was less and less until now. We’ll say there are still a thousand people that are still eating that limited amount of the non-replaceable food supply.

  “And those still left would not be totally stupid and would have hauled whatever food they could back to where they are staying so they would have it handy and not lose it to someone else. So I do believe that there would be no food left.”

  “So there is no sense in going into town then?”

  “No, we should go. There is a lot of stuff that would make it easier for us to survive through the winter besides just food.”

  “And the violence you mentioned?”

  “We will have to be very well armed. There are likely some very nice people left alive but unfortunately there are likely some very bad people alive also. And which do you think will have the upper hand?”

  “So we have to be armed because there are hardly any people left alive in the world and you think we should kill some of those few that are left?”

  “In a single word, yes.”

  “And you’re serious?”

  “Just think about it. There is no law. There is no government. There is no Army or National Guard or police of any kind. Anyone still alive no longer has any kind of restrictions on their behavior at all. Everyone can do absolutely anything they want.”

  “We have nothing for anyone to want to take from us. Money is worthless and I’m sure jewelry is free for the taking at any jewelry store. Money has no value at this point. You could go to a coin shop and take all the now worthless gold and silver coins if you wanted. No one is rich or poor anymore.”

  “That is all true. But there is one thing that we have that many, many men would want more than any food or even wealth. Something that men have fought over for centuries. And that is you!”

  Bea’s expression slowly changed on her face. Before it was her normal happy face because we were just having a mild discussion telling each other things we thought might be true or not about the nation’s situation. We had simply been enjoying a debate.

  With my last statement she realized that things were now way different and she really was in danger. Danger in the form that all women fear from the time they are teenagers.

  An age-old fear that women have always been faced with throughout the centuries, in every country of the world. Something that while not completely erased in our modern society was certainly greatly reduced to where most women could forget that this basic fear even existed. At least until now.

  Now Bea realized she was indeed in danger but not just if we drove through town today but all the time for the foreseeable future.

  Neither of us said anything for awhile. We both knew that what I had just said was indeed true. Bea was now in danger and if I was with her like I obviously would be at all times then I was in danger also. I would be looked at by some to just be a minor obstacle in way of their getting what they wanted.

  Then Bea made up her mind. And she explained everything she had just thought about in one very short sentence.

  “Let’s go in, but we should check out the gun shops as our first stops.”

  Chapter 9

  So we took a couple refilled water bottles with us and, with both of us carrying our matching nine millimeter pistols (and Bea also packing the little hideout pistol), we climbed in my truck and drove slowly towards town. Bea was wearing one of my old hats with her hair all wrapped up in a bun and hidden under the hat. With a bulky light jacket on it would be hard to tell from a distance that she was a woman, until you saw her lovely face.

  I drove backroads as much as I could on our way to our first and possibly only stop. We saw no one along the way but Bea said she thought she saw a flash of movement once that she thought was a person. We did see a few dogs running down one street. Then we pulled into the big Gander Mountain parking lot. I drove close to the place’s busted out front doors.

  When I stopped and shut the pickup off we both just waited inside the truck looking and listening. Though it was quite cool we had put the windows down shortly after we left home. If there was a chance of gun fire it was best to have the windows down. That way it would reduce the chance of us being cut by the flying glass and allow us to shoot back instantly if that was necessary. Now it also allowed us to listen. There were a few cars in the lot but that meant nothing. They could have been there a week or several months or gotten here five minutes ago for all we could tell.

  Seeing and hearing nothing we exited the pickup. We shut the doors but saw no sense in locking them. And there was little need for stealth because though my truck was fairly quiet everything else in the area was deathly still, making my truck seem very loud. Anyone close by would have certainly heard us pull up and shut the truck off.

  We had each brought a good flashlight with but as we stepped on the broken glass and through the doorway we could see about half the lights were on in the big store and they were lighting it up plenty well enough for us to shop. We each grabbed a cart and walked slowly towards the gun area in the back of the store having no idea what we would find there.

  I expected many guns and a lot of the ammunition would still be here. Just for the simple reason that both were heavy to move and the long guns were difficult to carry. Though now, looking at my cart, I realized that many rifles could just be stuck in a cart and wheeled out to a waiting vehicle. But with everything free and basically void of any real monetary value, why would anyone take all the guns? I would think everybody would want one or two, just for protection or to shoot game to eat though. That just made sense.

  Going through the store we could see that it had been looted. Stuff was lying on the floor everywhere. It made me wonder why people had to be such pigs when no one would have been trying to stop them from taking stuff anyway. As we went along the aisles both of us would take an item or two here and there and add it to our carts. But not too much yet, not until we saw if we could get what we really came after.

  We were in no hurry and stopped off and on just to listen. After each stop we continued towards the gun section. It was not far but we were very cautious and slow moving. There was no hurry and our safety was paramount.

  I could now see that indeed there were many long guns at least still in the racks. Whether there was anything we wanted was yet to be determined. I was just about to look the guns over when Bea and I both heard a noise in the store. After a quick look around I glanced at her with my finger up to my mouth so she knew I wanted her to be quiet and let me talk.

  “We are peaceful. There is no need to fear us.”

  It was again very quiet in the big store. With junk lying just about everywhere on the floors it was hard to walk without a little noise and it was just a m
oment until we again heard something.

  “We are peaceful but I urge you not to try and sneak up on us. I am armed and I will assume someone sneaking has evil intent. Leave peacefully if you want or stay and shop if you want, but do not try to be sneaky.”

  Again there was dead silence for a couple moments. Then a woman’s voice.

  “I too am armed and I do know how to use this gun, though I only seek to be left alone.”

  Even though I did not want Bea to speak, she of course did as she pleased anyway. She was a headstrong woman.

  “Do not be afraid of my husband. He is well trained to do as I say. Come on over here and meet us.”

  I really did not care for Bea’s choice of words or the fact that she even spoke so anyone in here knew she was a woman. But as usual she had read the situation correctly (and better than me) and we soon heard someone approaching us.

  At this point my pistol was in my hand and I was primed depending on what appeared when the footsteps got closer. I wasn’t quite aiming at the spot where I thought the person who was coming our way would show, but close enough so I would only have to shift my aim slightly and squeeze the trigger.

  A young woman came around the corner. She too had a revolver in her hand pointed vaguely in my direction and when she saw me she started to raise it up.

  Bea yelled. “Stop! Both of you. I don’t want any accidents.”

  The shock of the loud voice stopped both me and the woman. She looked to the side and saw Bea and then looked back at me. I took a chance and lowered my gun before I spoke.

  “Sorry, I’m a little jumpy. I’m Jim.”

  The woman then also lowered the revolver she was carrying in her hand.

  “I fully understand. My name is Mary.”

  I decided if she was about to shoot me she probably would not tell me her name first so I holstered my pistol. Bea stepped forward towards the woman.

  “I’m Bea. Or that is what he always calls me anyway. Thank you for coming to talk to us. I’ve only had him to talk to for a very long time.”