by Lee Ragans
After a few days of scavenging the soldiers were reporting that they were finding large caches of food and bottled water. The people near the CDC were prepared. One homeowner was still alive and not at all happy to have people scavenging in the neighborhood.
The report seemed humorous at first, then it troubled Doug.
Hanson reported, “The homeowner came out yelling that he was going to call the police and write his congressman. The man appeared to be in his early 50s. When confronted he said that he was alone and unarmed. Our soldiers asked him why he had not gathered the food and water from his neighbor’s homes. The man replied that was theft and we were looters. We took what we had found and moved on. He yelled at us until some corpses showed up. He ran back into his house, and we moved on without engaging the dead.”
Doug stared a moment and said, “He may be right. What we are doing is unconstitutional.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
“Are you saying we stop?”
“No. I just think we need to be clear on what we are doing and why.”
“We are surviving.”
“Yes. At what expense?”
“We did not break into his house. He has had weeks to gather.”
“Loot.”
“Looting only takes place when there are still laws.”
“When did the laws go away.”
Hanson spat, “When 99% of the people did.”
“You may be right, but our authority over these soldiers is derived from laws. If they are gone then so is that authority.”
“I never thought about that.”
“We have to. I have been thinking about the enlistment period.”
“Oh shit. I have two that are about to muster out.”
“Yep.”
“We have to keep them.”
“We can’t make them.” Doug stood up ending the meeting.
That night the squad gathered in their hallway before the sun went down. Doug stood in front and spoke, “We have an issue that needs to be addressed. We have some enlistments that are about to end. I reviewed the records before we left and we need to address this. Since I can’t pay in cash and that would be less than useless I am using my authority to pay in housing and food for now. That said when enlistments are up I see 3 options: 1: you can reenlist; 2: you can leave your weapons and gear, take all the food you can carry and head out; 3: you can stay here, help and be a civilian. I have no idea what option 3 means, but we will have to work it out.”
There was silence as everyone soaked in the information. Doug knew his squad. They were smart compared to most soldiers. There were no geniuses in the group, but they were not dumb.
“Follow-up with your corporals and make sure we have your enlistment dates right. For now, there is nothing to do. When the time comes, we will work it out.”
They managed to make two days without a crisis. The siblings came up to the 4th floor together and found Doug, “Sergeant, we have a concern.”
“What can I do to help?” Doug wanted to be annoyed, but the medical students were mostly helpful, and they shared their home without concern. He immediately wondered why Buddy had not come up with them.
“The bodies outside need to move and burned.”
“I am not fond of the smells.”
“The smell is the least of the problems. Disease will be our end if we don’t act.”
“Okay, what do you propose?”
“If your soldiers would move them and burn them that would be best.”
Doug smiled, “I am happy to assign some soldiers to assist you in the moving. I can spare two people today. I assume your fellow students will assist.”
“They will be resistant.” The girl said unwaveringly.
“My people will not lift a finger unless everyone is represented. We all work, and we all eat.”
“Understandable. These students are not used to working. They usually have a staff back home. I am certain that some had a staff here enrolled.”
“As I said, we will send 2 per day until it is done. I expect at least that many from your group. I will have them down at 11 hundred.”
“I am sorry, we don’t know the time. Our phoned died.” The brother responded.
“Watches.” Doug touched his watch as walked away. “I highly recommend them.”
As they started down the stairs, Doug called after them, “We also need at least 4 per day for scavenging. Please make your folks aware.”
That day at 11:00 The two assigned soldiers were waiting, and no one arrived. As they were ordered, they went back upstairs. That evening the scavenging team brought all the food found up to the 4th-floor storage room instead of dropping off half on the 2nd floor as usual.
This was repeated for a week until two very surprised soldiers met the siblings, and together they started to move the decaying dead to the middle of the road and when they had a large pile and were all just short of exhaustion, they poured some acquired gasoline on the pile and lit it with a bare match.
Later that day 4 contrite medical students with empty backpacks appeared at the bottom of the steps and joined the 4 soldiers on their scavenging walk. As they returned the food and supplies were split and shared between the two groups. The students took 3 extra cans of fruit, but the specialist in charge of the detail did not object. He smiled and said, “See you next time.”
The following day it was raining heavily. There would be no burning detail, and the scavenging would have been miserable, so the weather meant that it was a day off. Instead of just hunkering down Doug suggested a cookout. After an hour of scrounging from the interior apartments they cleared weeks back, a grill was rolled into the common area, and the soldiers bring canned meat and bags of chips.
The smell of grilling spam brought out the medical students who brought their own canned food and bags of chips. The soldiers mingled with the students and vice versa. Doug found Buddy hiding and sulking off to the side. He did not let him stay alone any longer, “I am going to make you an offer.”
“What would that be?”
“I want you to set the schedule for guard duty, cleanup, and scavenging.”
“You seem to have that under control.”
“We are done. Normally a squad works as part of a platoon. We are far too small to keep up the 24-hour guard. My people are exhausted.”
“Why me?”
“You are an outsider. You are organized. And in another world, you would probably be my platoon leader or company commander. Also, I am sick of watching you mope around. You got your ass handed to you. Get over it.”
Buddy started to protest and then said, “Okay. I will do it. I need names and skills.”
“Gather it while you are here.”
“Also, it will help if you give me the authority to do it.”
“See, you are smart.”
Banging his plastic cup on the picnic table for attention Doug stood up and said, “I have asked buddy here to organize the schedule so our two groups can act as one. Please give him the information he asks for, and it will make all of our lives easier.”
One of the students sneered, “Not mine.”
The soldiers were incensed. Doug knew that this kid was going to get hurt or maybe dead if he did nothing. Doug bounded past everyone and got right in his face, “I am sorry, do you think my soldiers are here to serve you?”
“You are nothing to me.”
“I am glad to hear that. So, that will mean you are nothing to me.”
Doug looked around at all of the faces staring at him, “This man gets nothing from our collective efforts. Not one thing. He will move out of our space immediately and will take nothing with him but the clothes he is wearing. Since I am nothing to him.”
Doug walked away without looking back. The soldiers and students walked back upstairs slowly. When the disrespectful student tried to go back up one of the other students stopped him and said something in Chinese. A soldier stood behind and w
atched without interfering. They pulled the gate tight, and the disrespectful one was left staring in disbelief.
As they walked away from the security gate, the last soldier asked the student, “What did you say to him?”
“I just asked him where his money is. He did not have an answer.”
“Oh.
The exile lasted 3 days. The young man stood hungrily and exhausted at the gate. When Doug came down to meet him, he said, “I was wrong, and my arrogance is unforgivable. I ask that I may earn my place back with your people.”
“How do you propose to do that?”
“May I work every shift possible until you believe I have earned my place back.”
“Talk to Buddy, and he will get you on the shifts. You are on probation.” Doug turned smartly and walked away.
After 3 weeks the probation was ended, and the young man asked for a meeting with Doug. They sat in the open area between buildings at the picnic tables.
“Thank you for giving me a second chance.”
“You asked. But I don’t think that is why you wanted to talk.”
“No, you are correct. I wanted to go to medical school to help people. Our scavenging and gathering only helps us.”
“What do you propose?”
“I want to open a clinic. In the ‘Fresh To Order’ restaurant facing the street.”
“Why that one?”
“It has an interior door that can be used for safety to get back up to our area without going on the street.”
“That is a disadvantage as well. “
“The guard station blocks the entry.”
“True.”
“So what do you need from me to make this happen?”
“I need the scavengers to gather medical supplies and equipment.”
“How will they know what to get?”
“I will go with them.”
“Okay. Talk to Buddy and have him adjust the schedule.”
A month later all of their efforts came to a halt as a horde of dead wandered through heading west toward the city. The cars rolled out to make a temporary wall between the buildings did not hold up to the onslaught of the thousands of corpses. Only a few dozen made it over the blockade, but that was enough to put them on lockdown. The parking deck would have to be searched and cleared again, as well as the surrounding woods.
The passing took more than a week. They had months of food stored, but it felt wrong to eat what could not be replaced easily. The teams went out clearing and burning in small piles where they were gathered.
Doug watched as the clearing team came back carrying one of their own. The rushed steps meant that it was bad. Moving deliberately, he stepped off the stairs and looked down to see Corporal Hanson’s throat opened up and his heart still beating pushing out the last of his blood. It was too late. There was nothing to be done.
The students stared helplessly. Even if they were in a trauma center, Hanson would have died. It was simply a grave wound. Doug knelt down and whispered in his hear, “You lucky fucker. You took the easy way out. Now you are leaving me with these idiots.”
Hanson smiled just as his heart stopped. Doug closed his eyes for him and waited. He knew that it took minutes to die. The last thing he wanted Hanson to hear was turmoil. After 5 minutes Doug drew his knife and pushed it through the side of Hanson’s skull making sure he did not raise a corpse.
Doug looked at Specialist Carter from Hanson’s fire team and said, “Specialist, you are promoted to the rank of corporal. We will have a proper ceremony when time permits. Your first duty is to prepare Hanson’s body for burial and prepare a burial detail for this evening at sunset.”
The specialist stood and saluted the order, “Yes, Sergeant.”
It was ghoulish, but they lacked other gear. Hanson’s uniform was kept and the rank removed from the collar and sewn onto Carter’s own collar. After the burial, they cleanup continued until the sun was completely gone. One more day of patrolling the area and they were ready to start scavenging again.
As winter set in fully, they had what they needed to start making a restaurant into a clinic. The students and some of the soldiers took turns working at night on the clinic after spending their days scavenging and clearing. The booths were broken down and move against the walls. The tables pushed together and linked with screws and metal plates along with some wood glue they found. Finishing touches were to put out hand sanitizer and paper towels.
Doug looked at the clinic and asked, “Have you put any thought into how you will find patients?”
“Signs.” The young doctor wannabe replied.
“Let me get this right, you want to bring strangers in?”
“Of course. I thought that was obvious.”
“It was. I honestly thought you would give up before you were done.”
“Oh.” He looked down ashamed.
“I was wrong. Oh, I was wrong. Do you mind if make some suggestions for the signs?”
“I will leave their content entirely to you.”
“Okay. Also, you don’t keep any drugs here.”
“Why?”
“It will get us killed. If people think there are drugs, antibiotics, painkillers, even aspirin they will come in guns blazing.”
“We don’t have enough to use on patients anyway. I think we have only 5 courses of Cipro, and 6 courses of penicillin. They would be gone in a week.”
“Those stay locked up in the armory. Okay?”
“Okay, Sergeant. I will move them tonight.”
Over the next few days, the scavenger patrols put out signs. They all said some variant of, “Clinic at Emory Point. No drugs. Payment in trade for services. No one turned away. Approach with your guns holstered.”
It was three weeks before they had their first patient. A father and two sons walked up. One of the sons was limping. They had a machete and knives but no obvious guns. The guard on the roof waved them toward the clinic and went back to watching the roads.
Inside the first student said, “Hello, how can we help?”
“My son has a bad infection on his leg. We have some canned food to trade.”
Corporal Carter stepped up and took the offered cans, “Thank you for sharing. Our docs will do what they can.”
The young man dropped his jeans and got on the table. The scratch on his upper thigh was inflamed and oozing puss. It was bright red and about 6 inches in diameter. Taking his temperature, the student said, “Good. No fever.”
The father asked, “What if he had a fever.”
The student doctor said, “We would give you your cans back and say a prayer.”
“Then we are lucky. Yes. Lucky.”
Talking to the side, the student said, “I have seen this on video, but I would prescribe a topical and give antibiotics. But we have neither.”
Corporal Carter stepped in, “My dad was a large animal vet. I helped him at night and on the weekends.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“We have to open the wound with a scalpel, flush it with water and scrub out the gunk.”
“Gunk?”
“I was a kid, and frankly you are the ones with all the book learning.”
“My apologies. You sound like you know what you are doing.”
“I did it with cows, not humans.”
“Better than us. They did not even let us in the room with patients. That was next year.”
Looking at the father, “This is not going to be easy for him, or pretty, but we can open up the infection, clean it and pack it. After a few days, it will start to heal on its own if it will heal.”
“What if we do nothing?”
“It will eventually get into his bloodstream, and he will die quickly.”
“No real option, huh. I can’t lose my son.”
Corporal Carter said, “I am a nurses assistant. I will be doing the work while the doctors direct. We don’t have anything other than a strap for him to bite down on.”
