The Emerald Virus

by Patrick Shea

  He continued, “Thanks everyone. I do want to add one more thing though. Those of us who have different colored skins sometimes forget that fact, but we are sometimes acutely aware of it. All of us have lived knowing that anytime we’re away from our homes a bigot can come out of nowhere and publicly embarrass us.”

  Ben, who was seated in the middle of the group called out, “Noah, I can’t picture you allowing that to happen.”

  Some of the group laughed, as Ben had hoped they would, but some stayed serious. Noah said, “Ben, I wish it was that easy. When you’re looking at a half dozen drunken men who might be real mean, whether you have a family with you or if you’re alone, it’s hard to respond. And as a person of color, you never know how much if any help you’re going to get if things go bad.”

  “I say this to let you know that some of us get defensive at times. I’m not particularly prone to that myself, but…” this time Noah had to pause for the laughter and then continued, “but you’ll see this I think, sometimes. I ask for help from the entire group for any individual who finds themselves in that position. You can help lessen a defensive posture just by showing support. Sometimes a simple smile is all that’s needed.”

  “If no one has any questions I’ll give the floor back to Sam.”

  Lily raised her hand and Noah nodded to her. He didn’t know what Lily was going to say, but he liked her a lot and he knew in just a short time she had earned the respect of most of the group. Mostly because of her take charge, no nonsense way of conducting herself.

  Lily said, “Being one of about ten or so African Americans in the state of Wyoming I know exactly what Noah is saying. I’ve talked with others about this problem my entire life and there has never been an easy answer. As a black person it seems each time you start to give the general public the benefit of the doubt, and you let your guard down just a bit, that decision comes back to haunt you.

  “Noah had told me he isn’t a great talker, and in terms of quantity and volume I agree with him. But I just heard him articulate this problem better than I would have thought possible. If you will just work with those of us of color so we all get in the habit of trusting everyone I think we can accomplish what Noah talked about. We can create a society where these kinds of differences really don’t matter. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  Following Lily a number of white people felt obligated to pledge their support to this cause. The last one to speak asked Lily if she could let the group know what her last name was.

  Lily stood up and said, “Well, I want to assure you it’s not White. Having a first name like Lily is bad enough for a black woman.”

  The group laughed and one of the new men said, “Lily, don’t worry too much about such a nice name. My last name is Davidson, and my folks named me Harley. The last time I saw them they were still laughing about that.”

  Sam had to wait for the laughter to stop. In the meantime she was pleased with the tone and tenor of this conversation, mostly because this group didn’t appear to have very many social liberals. But everyone seemed to know exactly what Noah and Lily had asked for, and Sam thought they had a better than even chance of getting it. Especially since Noah and Lily had asked for help in such a straightforward and honest manner.

  Sam looked around the room and for the first time realized that she was looking to see who the minorities were. She had seen some Indians earlier, and she now saw three blacks and two Orientals and a smattering of Hispanics. She thought it was funny that she hadn’t noticed before, and that not a single person in the group had raised the issue of race or color prior to tonight, at least not with her.

  Sam stepped back up to the podium and said, “I want to take a vote on Noah’s proposition. I think it was eloquently stated and explained. This proposition would mean no tracking of residents by color or race, regardless of good or bad intentions. The only exception would be for medical reasons and I want to leave that between our residents and our medical experts. They can decide collectively what’s best for them. We’ll make no reference to race or color in any of our documents.”

  Christian called the vote and again received unanimous support.

  A man at the back of the group spoke up and said, “My name is Chuck Emerson, I got here late this afternoon. I’m glad to hear that you have a medical community. I’m a medical doc and I’d like to join them. I’m pulling a second trailer with a lot of medical equipment that I think might be useful.”

  The group reacted so well to the news, and so many people started to introduce themselves to the doctor that Sam realized this would be a great place to take a break.

  Sam called the group to order and said, “Before we take a break I’d like to ask the doctor what his specialty is.

  Chuck looked up and said, “I’m a proctologist.”

  There was stunned silence in the group, with a couple of folks doing everything they could not to break out laughing.

  Chuck continued, “Only kidding folks, I’m a generalist. I’ve been working in a small city in Minnesota.”

  The group applauded again and Sam said, “Let’s take a 15 minute break. I’m wearing out up here.”

  The plumbers and electricians had gotten the water flowing and electricity working in the Inn yesterday. They had told the group the water would stay on all of the time but to save fuel the generators for electricity would only be run in the morning from four o’clock to eight o’clock so the bakers had full use of the kitchen appliances.

  Everyone in the group knew enough to carry flashlights to the lodge so they could use the bathrooms in each room.

  When everyone returned Sam said, “I’d like to continue just a little bit longer tonight and then adjourn until tomorrow night. As a reminder to everyone, since the bathrooms in the lodge are now working, try to use them instead of the bathrooms in your RVs. We don’t want to empty the RV tanks any more often than we need to. Men get the ground floor bathrooms and the women get all the others. You can use any room you want, but if the bathroom door is closed you must knock. She looked sternly at the group and said, “Ladies, that means if you see a man going up the stairs you can shoot him.” This raised laughter and shouts from the women and hoots from the men.

  Sam smiled and continued, “And men, if you are anywhere around this camp or lodge I expect you to use a bathroom somewhere. If you don’t, come springtime this place will smell like a urinal.” Sam laughed as she was booed by the men.

  “Okay everyone, we’re in the home stretch here so let’s finish for the evening. Looking at section eight I don’t believe we’ll need paragraphs one through eighteen, which by the way is all of them. Take a look at your copies and see if you agree with me.

  After a minute one of the men looked up and said, “I don’t believe we’ll need an army or navy for some time to come, but having a trained militia isn’t a bad idea in a land without laws.”

  Three or four men spoke up in agreement.

  Sam responded, “Okay, let’s talk about what we might need. If we have a militia we’ll need to train them, and logically we would need someone to lead the militia, someone with experience in military strategy and tactics. That’s an area with which I’m not familiar. Does anyone in the group have such military experience?

  A number of men and two women raised their hands. Sam nodded at one of the men who said, “I was a company commander in the first gulf war. I served almost ten years in the Army and I could help if need be.”

  The next man said, “I was a sergeant in the second gulf war, I spent two tours in Iraq and I’d be willing to help also.”

  One of the women said, “I’m a graduate of the Citadel and I served seven years as a Marine Corps officer, I’ll help.”

  Another man and woman also had military service, one in the Air Force and one in the Navy.

  The last man said, “I’m a retired Army Colonel with three wars behind me. I might be able to help.”

  Sam said, “Colonel, would you be willing to sit down with our other v
eterans tomorrow and come up with a plan for the militia. If you decide we don’t yet need one, we’ll put it to the group; if you decide we need a militia please come back with a proposition for all of us to consider.”

  The Colonel, who introduced himself as Ted Green, said he would do that and asked all other veterans to join him in the lobby after the morning meeting.

  Sam wanted the entire group of veterans to meet together. If anyone was trying to snow the group the other vets would know it.

  Sam said, “In looking at my notes there is another area I want to cover. Those of you who were about to ask about it hold on for a section. I skipped paragraphs three and four because they were directed towards the congress. However, I think even a small group like ours needs this protection so I’d like the group to consider agreeing that bills of attainder and ex post fact laws won’t be passed, and that writs of Habeas Corpus are required.”

  “If there are any lawyers in the group who want to explain these to the group you are welcome to do so. Otherwise I’ll do it.”

  Christian looked over at Sam and said, “I wasn’t planning on admitting this but I practiced law when I was younger. I’ll tackle them if no one else wants to.”

  Very sweetly Sam said, “Why Christian, what would make you want to keep that a secret from us?”

  Christians only response was “Harrumph” as the group laughed.

  When no one else spoke up Christian said, “I’m not going to ask how many lawyers there are in the room, but since none of you are speaking up I’ll take the lead on this and the rest of you can help out as we go along.”

  “I’ll start with the Writ of Habeas Corpus since it is so important. And it’s easy to explain. It protects all citizens from being detained by authorities without proper cause. Any person can ask for a writ, which requires the detaining authority to acknowledge and identify a detainee. A government can’t secretly arrest and hide a prisoner. And you must be able to show that the detainee is in prison for cause. You don’t have to prove cause; that comes at the trial, but you have to show why you are holding the person.

  “Ex post facto laws are also simple. They prohibit rule making bodies from changing the rules after the fact in order to make something a crime, make the penalty harsher, or make the procedures more likely to produce a different result. You can only be tried using the rules in effect at the time of the crime.

  “Bills of Attainder are so closely related to Ex post facto laws that I actually don’t think we need both. The British Parliament centuries ago would pass legislation that would declare a person guilty and would sentence the person. No trial was then allowed. I don’t think we need those today.”

  “These are basic protections we all assume are available to us, but in the new world we need to guarantee them since no other governing documents currently exist.”

  Christian stepped back and waited for comments, but none came.

  Sam stepped up and said thank you Christian, please call the vote. Again everyone agreed.

  She thanked everyone in the group for attending, scheduled the next meeting for tomorrow night, and told the group she had two more things before they adjourned.

  “Let’s talk about the rules committee I mentioned earlier. I’d like to nominate Christian to chair the committee. A number of people threw out seconds. Sam asked, “Any other nominations for chairman?”

  Nobody said a word so Sam called the vote and Christian was a unanimous choice.

  He took the podium and said, “Thanks everyone, I’ll do my best for you. I’d like to start by asking Lily to join me on the committee.”

  As the group applauded the choice Lily said, “But I know nothing about the law.”

  Christian responded, “Lily, we need simple common sense more than we need anything. You have that in abundance.”

  Lily agreed to join Christian and the group voted her in.

  Christian then said, “If the group will accommodate me, I’d like to ask you to hold any other nominations until tomorrow night. I’d like a chance to talk to Lily about other members before we go any farther.”

  Sam walked back to the podium and said, “I think that’s an easy request to agree to.

  She continued, “I know some of you have seen these numbers on the web but I’m going to announce them now for those who have missed them.

  “As you probably know, there are 2,621 survivors registered. We suspect there are some out there who aren’t registered since our Mr. Yellowbird came to us out of the blue. We have since taken care of that, but one person in Virginia is shown as deceased so the number doesn’t change.

  “Most people have joined groups like ours and we now have group numbers. The Delaware group has 142 residents; the Phoenix group has 192; the Tennessee River Valley group has 251; there are 274 in the Texas group, 313 in the Florida group, 633 in the Southern California group; 76 in the Alaska group and 102 in our group. That makes the total 1979 of 2,621. Those numbers change each day since people come and go from the various groups, but at least we have a count.

  “I’ve talked to the leaders of most of these groups in the last two days and they would all like to do what we’re doing tonight, but with so many people not only joining their groups each day, but leaving them as well, they don’t think they’re stable enough yet to move to the rule stage.

  “The exception is the Tennessee River Valley group. Jack Sweeney is leading that group and he thinks he will be able to start this process in just a day or two.

  As hands went up Sam said, “Yes, this is the same Jack Sweeney you all know, and no, he isn’t a survivor. He felt he had done all he could to help us, so he left his bunker to go to Baltimore and help a friend, who is a survivor.

  “He plans on leaving the group when he starts showing symptoms, although some of us think if he has the virus he should have become symptomatic by now. Anyway, when Jack leaves the TRV group a lady named Charlotte White will take over the group.

  “It looks like Jack might be the last person in the country to die from the virus, although to tell you the truth I have no idea about the people in the bunkers. Except that Jack told me that in both the congressional and presidential bunkers the seals failed and all the occupants have died by now. We really are alone out here.”

  Noah spoke up with, “Sam, does this mean that women are taking over the new world, or are there any men leading groups?”

  The group laughed, and Sam said, “I think all of the other groups are being led by men, but I’m sure they’ll all wait for us to show them the light and the way.”

  After the boos and laughter Sam adjourned the meeting and headed to her RV.

  Chapter Twenty Seven: The Trapper

  Tuesday: Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful Inn, Wyoming

  Sam conducted the morning meeting as always. There were no unusual events until near the end when the front door to the lodge crashed open and a man in blue jeans and a buckskin jacket seemed to blast into the room.

  He took one look at the full room, where everyone had now turned to see what the noise was, and at Sam standing open mouthed at the front.

  With a grin on his face he said loudly enough for everyone to hear, “Hi, my name is Danny Gardner, I was wondering where everyone was; now I see that I’ve interrupted your service. I’m sorry for that.” As he talked Colleen closed the door behind him and Danny looked at her and said, “Thank you ma’am, it is a bit cool out there.” He then looked at Sam and said, “Ma’am please go on, I’m not used to a woman preacher but I’m sure I can adjust.”

  Sam was flabbergasted, this man hadn’t stopped talking since he walked in and she was afraid if she didn’t say something he’d start again. He was about six feet tall with long blonde hair, a slender build and blue eyes. He had on big snow boots with laces that he wore loose, and a leather hat with fur on the inside, and earflaps he could tie down under his chin if he chose to do so, and he wore a large hunting knife strapped to the outside of his left thigh. He hadn’t sto
pped smiling since he walked in and she had no idea who he was or where he had come from.

  She looked at the group; half were smiling at the newcomer and the other half were looking at him questionably. He started talking again by saying, “I’ve been north of Bozeman and thought I’d come by the park here and see what was going on with all of you.” He said this as though it were perfectly normal for someone to just drop by to check on them.

  Sam said, “Mr. Gardner, this is not a religious service and I’m not a minister. We are the residents of the park and my name is Sam Klein. I’m the leader of our group, and you are welcome to join us. If you will just hold on for a couple of minutes we’ll finish our morning meeting and you can talk with our welcoming committee.”

  “Oh, sure, I’ll be happy to wait. By way, you’ve done a great job; it looks like the electricity is working in here. The generators are certainly loud enough aren’t they? And I saw you have horses here, I’m glad to see that since I’m partial to horses. Please, call me Danny if you will. That goes for everyone. I hope this isn’t a formal group. I’ve never been overly formal.”

  Sam was astounded; she didn’t know what to do to keep him quiet. He said everything in a soft voice but it projected so well everyone heard him. He kept the smile on his face when he talked and his eyes were constantly moving around the room. He looked around randomly, but every few seconds he would look one of the people directly in the eyes and nod at them as if he had known them his entire life. People nodded back and a couple of the young ladies blushed. A few of the people actually half raised their hand to wave.

  Sam had seen social people in her life, but she had never encountered anyone who could make an entire group feel like they knew him inside of three minutes.

  Danny stopped to take a breath and Noah decided to try to stop this avalanche of words. He stepped forward and said, Danny I’m Noah Yellowbird, maybe you and I could step outside for a minute and Sam can finish her meeting and I can brief you on our group.