by Boris Licina
"I'm glad you're fine", said Morris. "Where are you?"
"Close to Albany, I think we've just passed it."
"You should be closer. What happened?"
"Well, first we had an incident at CDC. Some idiots from Louisiana crashed in looking for the vaccine. We barely managed to escape! Luckily, it was snowing, and they had no winter tires."
"Shit", that was Morris's only commentary.
"It's OK. Those idiots slowed us down, heavy snow as well. We had to change cars because they smashed our back window so it was cold. Lots of trouble. But, that was not what slowed us down."
"And what did?"
"We fell asleep", laughter could be heard from the background."
Morris laughed, too.
"That's fine, as long as you arrive on time! Avoid Jacksonville and you'll be OK."
"What's happening in Jacksonville?"
"I'm not sure, but it's not good. We lost two people and don't know why and who did it.", Morris told their story. "But, now we're OK. We're close to our destination."
"I suppose there would be a quarantine when we arrive?", she knew the procedure.
"Not only on Rene", Morris was a little proud, "but we'll all be isolated also in the Falcon. Our biologist Rose organized everything."
"Great. You know how it goes, just one sick person and it's all over. No mercy in such moments. We managed to take something that could help us, but I wouldn't want to test it up there", Rachel sounded a bit worried.
"I hope we won't have to", Morris agreed.
They said goodbye and Morris had one more call to make.
"Hey, did you land?", he asked her as soon as she picked up.
"We did and are waiting!", Jessica was cheerful. "Just to solve the fuel problem and we're ready. The quarantine is ready for you, the interior cleared for the sails. Perhaps it would be a little crowded, but we'll manage."
"How was the first flight? Food? People?"
"All OK. The teams got three trucks full of food, all sixteen people came on time. They left the quarantine on the Falcon and entered the quarantine on Rene 9 directly. As much as I could see, and I talked to Rose also, everybody's healthy. They are doing some tests with Rose, according to the CDC's instructions for physicians. Everything functions well. We unloaded the food. Cody says we'll have enough for three years. When we expand the farm, it will last even longer. What's the situation on Earth?"
"Not great", Morris started. "We lost detective Diego and professor Archer in Jacksonville. We got separated there, too and Benjamin was wounded."
"Fuck! What happened?"
"Lika, Eli and Ben are currently on the boat. They are taking the Intracoastal Waterway towards Kennedy, but they saw a patrol boat around Jacksonville that we don't know anything about. We continued towards Sandusky, all was fine there. We took the trucks and headed back. I don't know what happened in Jacksonville. We were attacked but that's all I know. Most of the access roads to the city are blocked. There must have been some heavy shit there happening, but we don't know what. We'll try to find out more from Rene 9, intercept their communications somewhere, scan the internet for info."
"The fucking sails, if we hadn't gone for them …"
"… stop right now", Morris interrupted her, "you know those things are impossible to predict. Earth is in chaos. Besides in Jacksonville, we were attacked by robbers on the highway, too. I know this sounds pathetic, but everybody in the team knew what was in store and what potential dangers were."
"I know", Jessica replied, "but it's not easy to lose people. It's not my first time and it doesn't get any fucking easier."
"Let's go back to the problems at hand. Anything else needs solving besides the fuel?"
"No, everything else in in control. We wait until everybody comes, say hello to Earth and take off."
"Very good", Morris was satisfied, so he repeated, "very good. We'll be there in no time!"
He cut off the line, looked at Oliver and said:
"I hope we're in for no more surprises."
49.
The Antares 7 was leaving the Tolomato river behind to enter the Matanzas river. They rushed pass St. Augustine, a town with a long and rich history, but also with the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum. Although it was probably a dead town, it was well-lighted. Since smart software took up managing … well, almost everything, there was not much need for human hands. Hence, the street lights. The question is how long would it take for smart software to realize that the lights were no longer necessary.
After a little nap Eli continued to steer the boat. Benjamin and Lika were sleeping, or at least they tried. The reflector mounted on the cabin was illuminating their way. Soon it would be dawn and they would be able to travel faster. Eli did not want to rush it because of the unknown obstacles in the river. She had seen several logs and trunks earlier floating around, as well as an occasional boat.
The night was slowly dying; there were some meditative values to be on water at dawn. The fishermen on the Matanzas river usually gathered there in the morning. As it was getting brighter, Eli saw Fort Matanzas in the distance, a fortress built in 1742. Unfortunately, they would have to go around it. Their trip would take them too long if they decided to see everything, Eli thought, perhaps more than six months! If they started from the north, she daydreamed, took the Hunter 20 and went epically slow. What a trip!
Lika stood up and entered the cabin.
"Good morning, would you like me to take over?"
"No need. Perhaps this is the last time I'm driving a boat, I want to remember", Eli said.
Lika just nodded and exited the cabin.
At the moment they were passing the town of Palm Coast, the street lights went out. The software knew it was morning. Eli sped up. Not one of the places they passed, showed any sign of life. If someone survived the Snow Flu, they were not advertising that.
Benjamin also left the cabin.
"Good morning", he said holding up his right arm. "How's it going?"
"We're sailing, not for long now. How's the leg?"
"It's fine, holding on", he was cheerful. "I remembered now how we sailed from Miami to Aruba one year. On the Sun Odyssey 44, the beautiful ship. Beautiful! And the sea was kind, only one storm, but right before Aruba."
"Sounds great! I'm sorry I did not sail more, now I can see how fun it is."
"Hey, who knows", he said and winked, "perhaps you'll get your chance!"
She smiled at his optimism. Ben was a kind and happy person. They passed by Halifax on the river, and the Daytona Beach, not popular anymore. People used to come to the NASCAR race or the Spring Break parties. In both cases, testosterone was running high.
Along a series of beautiful forks, they descended to the Ponte de Leon inlet, one of the rare places on their way where the river was open to the sea. Suddenly there they saw the patrol ship for which they thought they had left in Jacksonville!
"Fuck!", Eli shouted and looked at Lika and Ben who were sitting in the back.
Lika came to Eli fast, Ben followed limping. The ship was turning towards them. They all watched.
"Full speed ahead!", Lika said. "Go! Go! Go!"
Eli sped up, but so did the patrol ship, its engines roaring in the sea!
50.
The Cherokee stood at the entrance to Gainesville. Like many other American towns, this was the Capital City of Something. Their product: poultry. A large number of farms brought them that title that was proudly displayed on a large billboard at the entrance to the town. That poultry was the first to witness the spreading of the Snow Flu. A local worker Miles S. Johnson was the first infected on one of the farms. He got it from his cousin in High Spring who brought it from a larger city. Miles, the original flu patient from Gainesville, was sick for two weeks and did not see how the two-day Snow Flu was destroying the world.
"I'm hungry", Amanda said when she took over the wheel from Rachel, "I think we should get into town and find something in a store."
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sp; "I'm not sure", they had been standing there for several minutes, "the town is too big. Open roads seem safer. Perhaps a gas station is somewhere along the way."
"Fine! Let's avoid the town, just move."
The Cherokee turned and Rachel took it on the other road towards Ocala, another town they would have to avoid. Amanda took out her camera, as several times before, and recorded their trip. She wanted to capture as much as possible, mostly the deadness around them. The scenes were unbelievable, roads completely empty. The footage upsetting. But, it was as if Earth had not minded. The sun was hot, the branches slowly swinging under the gusts of wind.
Rachel pointed at a road sign. In front of them, in a few miles, there would be a gas station. It did not even look devastated, thought Rachel when they stopped. There were many stations along the way. Some completely destroyed, as if someone had come, poured out all the fuel and lit it up. Others visibly broken in and robbed. It was obvious robbers did it. The word robbers invoked an aggressive band that breaks in and takes! But, at the time of the Snow Outbreak, everybody became robbers. Families with small children. Rachel and Amanda. That word completely lost its meaning.
Amanda entered the gas station with a camera, shot a few minutes of half-empty shelves and stopped at the chocolate products. She opened one small milk chocolate and ate it. The taste brought her back to her childhood, it was her favorite. She filled up her bag and returned to the car.
"Black chocolate?", she offered one to Rachel.
Rachel declined waving her head.
"White?", Amanda took out another one.
"Hazelnuts?"
"With cookies?", again she produced a chocolate bar.
Rachel laughed out loud.
"You're funny with those chocolates, is that all you took?"
"Yes. We don't need anything else, just chocolate", Amanda replied while she was chewing on her chocolate with cookies.
Indeed, they needed nothing else. Kennedy was just around the corner. As they descended towards Orlando, they decided to go around it from the north. Road 520 would take them to the Martin Andersen Beachline road and soon to the Kennedy Space Center.
"I've never been to Kennedy", Rachel said.
"Me, neither. But, it's funny you haven't … I mean, your friend, the astronaut", Amanda concluded.
"Well, he did invite me, but there was never any time. Work, rubbish … like your road trip."
Amanda turned on the camera again. She was shooting the road ahead when something drew her attention. In the distance, on the other side of the road, separated from them only by the fence, there were two cars driving.
"Cars", she pointed them out to Rachel and turned off the camera.
"Fuck! If only they would just pass us by", Rachel said and lowered herself a bit in her seat, as if that would have helped them not to see them.
Two pick-up trucks were heading in the opposite direction, very similar to those that pursued Rachel and Amanda. Rachel pressed down on the gas pedal and watched the left view mirror as they moved away.
"Of course!", she banged her hands on the wheel.
Amanda looked back. Both pick-ups turned around and rushed after the Cherokee on the parallel road!
51.
The process of loading the solar sail vessel was slow. It was not complicated, but they had to find the hydraulic lift first. Jessica searched through half of the Kennedy complex, even entered some buildings, to find out that the lift was in one of the outside hangars. Which was locked. She could find her way in, but the lift had to come out. She opened the hangar only after she had broken into the office building behind it; one of the offices held the key to open the hangar, from one of the computers. When she had finally found the lift - actually a large, sluggish vehicle - Jessica realized that there was no fuel. First she had to find the canisters, then a gas station with gas. Luckily, Kennedy had its own fuel station so she did not have to go far. It took her several hours to fill up the lift and drive it to the trucks where Josh, Morris and Oliver were patiently waiting. She programmed the lift to unload one vessel first, then the other. The lift was in no hurry, naturally. Jessica wanted to do the job safely and precisely, and not fast. She recorded the situation with her camera, did her calculations and started to work. Still, she was good. It did not bother her that the space would be tight. If there was a millimeter of free space, and she calculated it right, that was enough for her. Other people would probably give up.
The hydraulic lift stopped behind the first truck, extended her long steel tentacles under the vessel and lifted it. It was a test. The steel tentacles were entangled like a net, wider than the vessel itself, so they grabbed the vessel from all sides. The lift started to back up, carrying the vessel with it.
Everything but the passengers was loaded into the Falcon through the back door. Unlike normal planes, due to the high price, the loading should be done much faster. With robot stackers and large back doors to open up the entire Falcon, dollars were not spent so fast. But, nobody cared about dollars anymore. The torn down bulk between the passengers and the storage was also new. Jessica used the available tools on Rene 9, where she also took out all the chairs to make room for the solar vessels. Only a few chairs were left in the quarantine. The vessels would be leaned against the foil closing up that part, there was no more space left!
After Jessica had resolved the lift problem, she programmed it for loading and left for the fuel tanks. She left the tank closer to the runway. Then she went inside and turned on the engine which automatically turned on the radio. The last time she was startled by that, but now she laughed. The song was some country from the nineteen seventies. What a stereotype, she thought, for the truck driver to listen to country! She left the radio on because she liked the sound. The Falcon's pump was not a classic pump. Fuel was held in gigantic terminals, a few miles away from the space center. She calculated that the vessels and the fuel run would finish at the same time. She drove down the Kennedy Pkwy, past the Space Center and the Visitors Center. It used to be crowded with visitors, she thought. But, those days were over.
A dusty road lead to the terminal. With all the investments, the Company did not care to pave that part of the road. Why? Because they wanted to see dust behind the trucks on the pictures. Yes, every photograph and every event was well planned and aimed at the specific audience. Those people that would see adventure in the dust and want to go on one immediately. While Jessica pushed two pipes in the openings on top of the tank, the lift was pushing the first vessel into the Falcon. Pushed - that was fairly accurate. The lift did not enter the Falcon itself - the tentacles would extend, pushing the vessel inside. Once in position, the lift would lower the vessel precisely and extract the tentacles. The Falcon set down a little.
"How's it going?", Jessica asked Morris on the mobile device.
Morris, Oliver and Josh were in the trucks. They had agreed not to exit until the lift finished its task. They they would instruct the trucks to park somewhere around the Kennedy Space Center. The trucks would go there without drivers and wait for the next time. Perhaps in a few years, perhaps never again.
"Solar 1 is loaded", Morris said, "now the other one. You?"
"I'm fine, it's filling up. It won't be long. Half an hour and some more there and we'd be ready to go!"
"Great!", Morris was also delighted. "I did not have the time to ask you, what's new on Rene 9?"
"Well, not much. I left the new passengers in the quarantine and I believe they are all fine.", Jessica was happy about it.
"When we arrive, they will already have left the quarantine. Then you go in! Besides, Cody and the team invented a whole new menu, adjusted to the situation. Ava's working hard on everyone to get their tasks assigned, but that would take time. There's not much work, you know that Rene 9 is a smart station, not much to do. But, I'm sure Ava will think of something!"
"And the farm?"
"Rose showed me some blueprints, it looks promising. I think we'll have to take up only a
part of the zero-gravity chamber. I'm not quite sure of it. Rose was waiting for Louise Adams to leave the quarantine and help her. She was the one who invented the food space program, she would surely have some insights. Besides, people still spend time in the TV room, but there's nothing more to watch. Ava gave them some movies, so they are entertained."
"How's Ava? Panicky or under control?"
"Under control", Jessica laughed, "and I believe more relaxed. Since she's been with Cody …
"… ah, love! Always relaxes", Morris smiled and winked at Oliver who pretended not to listen.
The lift extended the tentacles under their vessel. Josh exited the truck which headed to its parking space. Josh showed Morris and Oliver a thumbs up and started stretching. He was used to long sitting hours, but had trouble with his spine. Morris and Oliver felt the vessel being unloaded from the truck and loaded onto the lift. During that time Morris programmed the route and the end spot for the smart NASA's truck. Oliver took a selfie from the truck, to show Eli. As soon as the lift started towards the Falcon, Oliver jumped out of the truck.
Finally, some walking! The trucker's life was not easy. The truck went over to its parking space, passing by Jessica's tank. Jessica parked beside them and opened her window.
"Team, when you take in some fresh air, go right to the quarantine. Take the first door, when you're all inside, I'm closing the doors. Keep away from me. You'll be OK in two days!", she instructed them and left to fill the Falcon up with fuel. Unlike the NASA's truck, she would have to move the tank herself. The Company did not think self-driving fuel tanks were necessary.
Just a few hours to their new home, Rene 9. Would they ever see Earth again, nobody knew.
52.
The Cherokee wash speeding pass the Pine Hills, west of Orlando. Several hundred thousand people used to live there, there was nobody living in the area any more. Amanda knew that because she reported once that everybody from this town went to Orlando. It was the first great migration due to the flu. Drone images of the crowded highway were spectacular. And played on the news for a long time - they looked dramatic. The media loved them.
