The End of America

by Pete Thorsen

  Jason had evaded capture for over three months and he was farther south now but travel had been very slow and it was starting to get fairly cold at night. Food was difficult to find and so was anything sealed and safe to drink. He had learned a hard lesson a couple months back when he had drank some unsealed water he had found and had gotten very sick and had lost a fair amount of body weight. But he had lived through it and learned and now when necessary he boiled water before drinking it. He knew he was not eating enough because he had lost weight and he felt weaker. But he knew he would overcome and survive.

  Tonight it was getting cold early but he had found a gas grill on the back deck of the house he was spending the night in and after he checked to see if it worked he brought it inside the house to provide some welcome heat.

  He brought it into the living room and he planned to sleep on the big oversized couch there. He had no food tonight but at least he would be warm. He started the grill and turned it to medium. When it was hot it made him very hungry with the smell of past grilled steaks. Though it made him hungry he went to sleep at least with the smell of food and he was gratefully warm.

  But Jason did not know anything about carbon monoxide and though he knew how to light the grill he really had no idea if it was burning correctly or not. And this one was not.

  The poor burning caused a substantial increase in the carbon monoxide the gas grill produced. While Jason slept peacefully the carbon monoxide built up to toxic and fatal levels. It was a sleep that Jason never woke up from.

  But he had at least a good taste of freedom from the tyranny of the government that now had total control over all the people left in the United States. The people that were once citizens of the greatest country the world had ever known were now just subjects that could only do the bidding of their masters.

  The End

  The

  Zombie

  Plague

  By

  Pete Thorsen

  Formerly Published

  Under the Pen Name

  Jack Forester

  Originally Released

  On Kindle February 2014

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except that brief selections may be quoted or copied for non-profit use without permission, provided that full credit is given. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely accidental.

  Chapter One

  This is what I always dreamed about I tell myself yet again as I am about totally overwhelmed by the clouds of insects. To be out in the field and studying a species in its natural habitat. No not studying mountain lions in the beautiful and peaceful mountains of Colorado but instead studying Alouatta pigra or better known as the Guatemalan Black Howler Monkey in where else but Guatemala.

  Hey I like studying monkeys but I am not interested in studying insects, especially ones that bite. So now I, Dr. William J. Renner am in the countryside of Guatemala trying my best to see the monkeys through the dark, ever present clouds of all these biting insects.

  But I am getting used to it and I have done a considerable amount of watching of the monkeys in the almost three months that I have been down here. Enough time to notice very odd behavior when I see it. And there is definitely some odd behavior going on with some of these monkeys. Like when they chased, attacked, and killed one of their own species.

  The odd part came next when they all tore into the dead monkey and totally devoured it. And one of these monkeys was seriously hurt during the fighting and it acts like nothing is wrong at all. It is very likely going to die but it is acting exactly like all the others in this group.

  And this group is acting strange also besides the attack and cannibalism. They eat. Now that might not seem strange but let me tell you this is strange. Because that is all they do is eat. Absolutely nothing else, only eat. No sleeping (that I have witnessed), no resting, no preening, they make no noise, nothing but eat.

  Well they do occasionally do one other thing and that is sneeze. All of them sneeze; not at the same time or anything like that but every so often they all sneeze. I just started to study this particular group yesterday.

  Just about when my time is up for this study and I find something incredibly interesting. I still have a few days left and I am spending it all on this group and recording as much as I can of their behavior. The hide (hunting blind) I am in is working very well and they have no idea that I am even here.

  This is fine by me because I am rather wary of this group after I saw how viciously they attacked that other monkey. They did not wait to kill it before they started feeding on it either. But they are steadily moving away from my hide as they seek more and more food on which to feed.

  I have seen them kill and eat two snakes that they found also. And they have tried to catch every bird that came anywhere near them. They are not known to be meat eaters at all and are usually a slow moving monkey that eats mostly fruits and nuts. Yes, I think I will let them move plenty far away before I get down and head back to my camp for the night even though this species of monkey is well known for its gentle nature.

  Though it is only early in the afternoon there is no point in remaining in the hide after the monkeys have left the area so I went back to camp and after I ate a late lunch I started writing down everything that I had seen today while watching the strange group. Growing tired of the bugs I thought I would try writing from the comfort of the inside of the truck cab that would hopefully keep out the dreaded bugs.

  It was slightly warmer in the cab of truck but that was a small price to pay for the bug free environment. After a few minutes the bugs had gone elsewhere so I opened the window a couple inches to allow some air to filter in and I was writing furiously when I heard a noise outside and looked up.

  WACK, the monkey slammed into windshield of the truck right in front of my face! The group of monkeys was all around and on top of the truck intent on getting at me! These monkeys were not strange, they were crazed. And they would soon break a window in this truck if I didn’t do something mighty fast.

  One had found the partially open window and was doing its best to shove its head inside to get at me. Then the thing sneezed on me which was surely better than having it take a bite out of me. The key was already in the ignition thankfully and the truck started right up. Once the truck started I wasted no time and peeled out of the campsite with the tires spinning.

  I both heard and felt the impacts as I hit and ran over at least two of the monkeys but that was just too bad for them. I drove down the rough trail way too fast but I was able to calm down enough to slow after a short distance. I knew these monkeys are pretty slow moving and I stopped and looked behind me. I could no longer see my camp and I also could not see any monkeys following me. So I waited a bit and then shut the truck off and waited some more.

  After an hour at least of waiting with no monkeys in sight I very slowly and watchfully backed the truck all the way back to the camp. It was way harder to back the truck rather than drive it forward but even though I could have easily turned around I wanted it facing out for a fast getaway if needed.

  There were the two dead monkeys that I had hit and ran over. This really surprised me because I wondered why they were not eaten by the rest of the group. I shut the truck off and sat and waited and waited before I got up the nerve to finally get out. The first thing I did was grab a pair of gloves and a machete that was nearby.

  I planned on looking at the dead monkeys and wanted the gloves even though they were just leather gloves they would still offer some protection. The reason for the machete was that it was the only thing I had in camp that could be used as a weapon and the rest of the monkeys could return.

  I did a quick, coarse examination
of the two dead monkeys and then I broke camp and threw everything into the back of the truck. One of the dead monkeys I wrapped in a plastic tarp and took it with for later further detailed examination. I drove all the way back to Puerto Barrios without stopping.

  I slept in a hotel over the short night and the next day found a veterinarian that would let me use his facilities for a small fee to do a necropsy of the dead monkey. I filmed the whole thing and wished I had a full lab. The results were interesting and I arranged to have some samples shipped back to Boston to myself for further study.

  I also made arrangements for my own flight back to the states a couple days early. I flew out of the small town to the big airport in Flores, Guatemala and my flight was soon touching down back in Boston where there were no clouds of biting insects.

  Chapter Two

  The morning after I got back home I was back in my small office again. Today I wanted to contact a couple biologists who were more familiar with the New World howler monkeys than I was to double check that the behavior I witnessed was as bizarre as I thought it was.

  I composed an Email with a short video clip attached to the two researchers that I had contact with earlier that had much more expertise on the monkeys than I did. Hopefully soon they would get back to me and in the mean time I could finish my notes while waiting for the blood and tissue samples I had shipped to arrive. I spent the remainder of the day going through my snail mail and Email that had built up while I was gone.

  Back in my office the next morning I had a response from one of the researchers on the monkey behavior. Dr. John Holland made it very plain he had serious doubts about what I claimed to have seen. But he did ask if I had additional video to back up the claims. The video file was way to large to attach to an email so I burned a couple of DVD’s and mailed them off using priority mail so he would have them in two or three days.

  Just before the end of the day the other researcher (Dr. Ray Miller) contacted me by phone. I was grilled with very pointed questions about everything that I had seen then he asked for the exact location where this happened. I had my GPS that I had on the trip in my office and gave him the location of my camp and told him the group was stripping all the food in an area and moved constantly so they would be a distance away by now.

  He happened to have a team in Belize just a short distance away by boat and would send them immediately to try to make contact with the same group I had seen. I gave him a stern warning about how aggressive these monkeys were (without relating my last contact with the monkeys).

  I got the impression that my warning would not be passed on to the team in the field. I knew if I told him about the attack when I was in the truck that I would lose all credibility so I kept quiet about that. The short video clip I had emailed him had shown the savage attack and cannibalism of the other monkey so he knew these monkeys were not normal. He thanked me and promised to keep in touch and then said goodbye.

  Just before I left my office I checked the tracking of the samples I was waiting for but the delivery company site just said ‘in transit’. Well I can put this all on the back burner until Monday. I certainly have plenty to keep me busy at home over the weekend after being gone for three months.

  Chapter Three

  “If you don’t need anything else I’ll be going home Dr. Miller?”

  “Thank you Mary. Have a nice weekend and I’ll see you on Monday.”

  I can’t stop thinking about the video that Dr. Renner had emailed me. That behavior was bizarre and unheard of by howler monkeys. I must have watched that video clip a hundred times. And when I talked to Will he ran through the other things this group was doing that consisted of more highly unlikely actions. It did seem that he had something else he had seen that he did not want to share.

  How could it have been more bizarre than what he did share? Maybe I should pass along his warning about this group to the field team; I guess it won’t hurt anything to tell them to use caution. I wish I would have asked for the complete video when I had Will on the phone. I’ll send him a quick email and ask him for it.

  Time for a totally relaxing weekend. I sent the request to Dr. Renner for the expanded video and then relayed his warning to the field team. Now I’m free for an entire weekend and by Monday the team should be in place and can start the search for Dr. Renner’s odd bunch of monkeys.

  Chapter Four

  This week is flying by, I’m so busy. I got the DVD’s made and sent to Dr. Miller that he wanted. After waiting almost a week the stupid delivery company said they had lost the package I sent from Guatemala with the samples inside. They said it was insured and I could fill out a claim form for the amount but what good would that do? I can not replace the samples, they are just gone forever.

  I’ve gotten my notes all typed into my computer now which of course is the easy part. Now I can start writing a paper up about the behavior patterns of the Guatemalan Black Howler monkey. I think I will focus on the normal behavior that I witnessed and at the end of the paper I’ll go into the bizarre behavior that I witnessed and explain that it was just that ‘bizarre behavior that was witnessed by one group at one location’.

  I’ll use that for the angle on the paper that behavior must be studied for extended periods so normal behavior can be categorized and documented so a one time witnessed event can be noted for what it is, a one time or temporary bizarre event.

  It’s the weekend already again, that week did go fast. I noticed today that I feel better and seem to be feeling better all the time. It must be the better food or something here instead of what I was eating during the field trip. Or maybe I’m just sleeping better in my own bed or something. I feel much stronger and just more alive!

  For the first time since college I went jogging twice this weekend and I did not even get sore afterward. I actually feel like a new man. Whatever it is if I could bottle it I could make a million. Back to work tomorrow and I think I’ll be able to get twice as much done as I normally do.

  Kinda strange I nicked myself shaving this morning and I never even felt it even when I washed my face with the hot water. It sure stopped bleeding fast though and when I went in the bathroom later today I couldn’t even find where I cut myself, it had totally healed up.

  Maybe I’m coming down with something because at noon I went to lunch at the little café I often go to and the food tasted bland. Before I even thought about the bland taste I had eaten everything on my plate without even thinking.

  This afternoon I was got really hungry and went down to the vending machines and got a few candy bars and a soda. Walking back to my office I thought they tasted rather bland also and then I realized I had eaten all four candy bars and had drank the whole can of soda before I even got back to my office!

  I am coming down with something because I’ve been sneezing off and on for several days and the sneezing seems to be getting worse. I’m also having a hard time concentrating on writing my paper. I find my self just sitting there staring at the computer like I don’t know what to do with it.

  And I am losing time! By losing I mean I can look at the clock and glance at it again a couple minutes later and see instead of a couple minutes it might be an hour or two has gone past.

  I actually got lost going home from my office! How is that even possible? I stopped at a fast food place and ordered enough for three people but I ate it all myself. The place was packed with people and there I was sneezing away.

  I hope I feel better tomorrow. I see why I don’t often stop for fast food because I couldn’t taste anything I ate; it was just food and I was hungry so I ate it all. I found my way home from the fast food joint but I really had to concentrate on where I was going and which way I had to turn. When I got home I was hungry again and I made myself a quick but large supper. Man I ate a lot. I’m not really tired but I think I will feel better if I can get a good night’s sleep.

  Chapter Five

  “Hi this is Dr. Miller can I speak to Dr. Renner please?”


  “I’m sorry Doctor but Dr. Renner did not come into work today.”

  “Could you leave a message for him to call Dr. Miller when he comes in please? He has my number.”

  “I certainly will give him that message, Doctor.”

  I hung up the phone and hoped Will would call me back soon. I am still shook up with the report from my field team that was searching for the group of monkeys that Dr. Renner had video taped with the strange behavior. The field team had found the group of monkeys.

  Or the monkeys had found them and attacked and killed one of the team members and had severely bitten the other four members of the team. They had gotten away from the monkeys when the monkeys had all started to feed on the dead man. This went way past bizarre behavior.

  The team or what was left of it had made it to a hospital and all four of them had to be admitted but all of them should be able to recover. I asked the team to call me with all the details in a day or two when they felt up to talking.

  I still can’t hardly believe that those howler monkeys had attacked the group. They do not even eat meat! They are a vegetarian species like a cow. And they are a slow moving monkey. They evolved that way because they did not have to move fast to catch the fruit that was just hanging in the trees for them to eat.

  I really want one of those monkeys for study. Alive if possible but even a dead one could be a big help in trying to understand what was going on down there with the monkeys. But I do not want any more people to get hurt. This had to be the first ever human death caused by a howler monkey. I know it is true but still have a hard time believing it myself. I decided to call John Holland and talk to him about it.