Earth Keepers
Page 15
“Probably more dead people, why don’t we keep going?”
“It’s after one in the afternoon, I’m hungry, thirsty, tired, I have to go to the bathroom, and we need to stretch our legs. Now, do we do that anywhere on the route, or do we try to see if there’s any usable kind of installation here? Who knows, maybe there are even people here, it’s so isolated.”
Sofía rolled her eyes. Juan Carlos smiled and turned towards the entrance. The gate was open so without slowing down, he went through slowly. The road was long, but tree-lined. The shade was a relief after the bare route.
“Worst case scenario, if there are people and they throw us out, we can rest in the shade here.”
“These lands are huge.”
“That’s why they call it the ‘country,’ daughter,” Juan Carlos observed with irony.
They followed the road until they got to some low buildings. A shed, a barn, another shed, and what looked like a house. They turned, following the road, which ended abruptly, though they saw some other buildings in the background. He braked in the shade of a tree.
“Okay, let’s see if anyone is here,” Juan Carlos honked the horn several times. He turned off the motor and got out of the truck.
He stretched, putting his hands on his lower back, bent back and turned his head sharply to one side and then the other. He looked around, but didn’t see anyone but Sofía, who was also stretching. The air was incredible, the smell of green was delicious, and you could taste the oxygen. Juan Carlos headed slowly towards the ranch house, until he arrived at the entrance. He knocked on the door several times, but nobody answered. Sofía, who had followed him, looked at him inquisitively. He shrugged his shoulders and tried the latch. The door opened.
As soon as he opened it to enter, he was assaulted by the stench of death and decay, feces and urine.
“Shit, shit, damn it!” he exclaimed, covering his mouth and grabbing the door to close it. But it slipped out of his hand and opened wider. He heard a growl and suddenly a German shepherd ran out of the place, barking like crazy. It almost took him with it when it ran out, but luckily it ran away instead of attacking them. The stench that covered everything was unbearable, so again he stretched to close the door. As he did so, he could see the body on the floor, or rather, what was left of the body of a person. At some point, the dog had run out of food, and not being able to get out, had to eat what it could. His eyes watering from the stench, Juan Carlos finally managed to slam the door shut.
“Well, now we know why they didn’t answer,” he managed to say, and unable to stand the heaving any more, he vomited off to one side.
“I told you,” Sofía pointed out when she’d recovered a little.
Juan Carlos sighed.
“Look, there’s a tanker truck there. I’ll bet it’s diesel for the machines to work the fields that are everywhere. They’re not going to take them all on the road to the gas station. I didn’t even see any in the past hundred and twenty-five miles. We used half a tank getting here, so what we have left won’t be enough to get there. But if we can fill up here, we probably won’t need to fill up again.”
“Okay, let’s go see,” said Sofía.
They walked over, since he thought it was a fuel tank truck and, bingo, there was a sign on the side that said ‘Diesel Grade 2’ and on another side ‘Sulfur 500 ppm.’ It was fuel for trucks, but it was also good for trucks like theirs. Perfect, if it had fuel inside.
“Good, we’ll have to bring the truck to try, but first...let’s rest a bit.”
They found an outside sink with a tap, from which clean and hopefully drinkable water came out, and Juan Carlos got his mouth wet with it. Then they used the saucepan, filling it with water which they set to boil with the carafe heater. Then they took some water to use for drinking when it cooled and used the rest to cook noodles that they ate with canned sauce until they were full. Then they washed everything and put it away.
Juan Carlos went over to the fuel truck. He circled around it and the only fuel outlet he saw was a socket about two inches in diameter, but it had an adapter and ended in a nozzle. “Excellent,” he thought. He returned to the truck, started it up and maneuvered it so that the gas tank was next to the fuel truck. He returned to the fuel truck, hesitated for a minute, and then pointing the hose towards the other side, opened the fuel outlet a little. Nothing happened.
He opened it a little more and still nothing. Then he noticed that the nozzle had a trigger, which he pressed carefully. Suddenly some electric device was activated in the tank and a jet of yellow diesel came out. He let go with a start and the jet cut off. He went to open the gas tank of the truck and discovered it was locked. He looked for the key chain, opened it, inserted the nozzle and pressed the trigger again. He felt the fuel going through with pressure. It took a while, until suddenly he felt air coming out of the nozzle and suddenly fuel spewed out. He let go of the hose with disgust and in doing so, he cut off the supply.
Sofía, who had been walking around, came running with a towel.
“I thought you might need this.”
“Excellent,” Juan Carlos said as he dried himself where he had gotten wet, then wiped the side of the truck, putting the cap back carefully. He washed up as well as he could in the sink and dried himself again with the clean part of the towel.
He apprehensively started the truck. It started up fine and the tank showed full.
They were about to get going again, when they heard a spooky howl, followed by another from another direction. And then another a few hundred feet away. And another. Suddenly they were surrounded by the howling of dogs. The hair on Juan Carlos’ arms stood on end.
“Sofía, hurry, get in the truck.”
As soon as she was in, Juan Carlos headed towards the road and resumed the trip. When they headed towards the exit, Juan Carlos saw a pair of black eyes among the bushes that followed them with its eyes. Now the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Without thinking, he stepped on the accelerator and then had to brake when he reached the first curve. He tried to calm down, but the thought that thousands of years of canine domestication had gone to hell in just a few days with no humans nearby, didn’t help to reassure him.
The road continued on a few miles to the south before heading west. They passed through Blanca Bay at low speed, encountering the same scenario they’d left in the city of Buenos Aires. When they reached the Colorado River, Juan Carlos decided to stop. The weather was excellent and it was starting to get dark. He stopped at the side of the road.
“We’ll spend the night here. We’re close, but I’m very tired and the section of road coming up now is deadly boring. An endless straight line with nothing to look at—I’d fall asleep.”
“I’m tired, too.”
“Let me tell you something. The next time we’re in a dangerous situation, if I tell you to do something, you do it. Is that clear?”
Sofía pressed her lips together, but didn’t say anything.
“Is that clear, Sofía?”
“Yes, Dad,” she finally said.
They got out to stretch their legs, did their business a little farther away, and then got the back of the truck ready. They put blankets on the floor, put out the pillows, sleeping bags and a blanket over that. They ate a good cold dinner with what they had left over from what they’d cooked at home, and with the last light of the sun, they went to bed.
The truck didn’t get too cold during the night and in the morning they woke up at sunrise. They went to the ‘bathroom’ behind a tree, put everything away, ate a good breakfast and started out again.
Juan Carlos accelerated enthusiastically on National Route 22, until they got to Choele Choel. It took a couple of hours to do that part, luckily listening to music and chatting. There was practically nothing to see around them and the road was straight.
“Dad, I was thinking. You notice that this virus, from what we’ve seen has killed everyone. Those people where we were going...the vaccine they gave
us...I mean...”
“Yes, Sofía, I thought about that, too, and I don’t know what to think. Evidently, the vaccine was developed for this virus in particular. What I don’t know is what happened. Whether the virus is natural or not, why wasn’t the vaccine distributed massively? Anyway, the truth is we don’t know anything.”
“If the intention was to kill people, why vaccinate us? That’s what I don’t understand.”
“Well, maybe it didn’t have anything to do with what happened.”
“Really? We get a vaccine and a few weeks later, the whole world is dead from the same virus? Dad,” grunted Sofía angrily.
“I don’t know what to tell you, daughter. We can speculate but the truth is ahead of us. And who knows if we’ll know then, but I can assure you I intend to ask.”
“If that was intentional, someone killed my....” Sofía started to say, looked sideways at Juan Carlos, and continued, “...friend, and it wasn’t an act of nature or anything like that. If so, someone has to pay.”
Juan Carlos looked at her and didn’t say anything. After that, they drove in silence.
When they reached General Roca, they turned south and followed the directions on the truck’s maps. The last part of the journey was along narrow dirt roads.
HOSTAGES
MSC Grandiosa, November 26, 2027. 2:05 p.m.
Once out to sea, Leora had the boat turn on a route towards the south again, at a prudent distance from the coast, at a speed of eighteen knots, that is, about twenty miles per hour, an optimal speed to achieve the lowest fuel consumption.
Life on ship continued with a certain normalcy. Many people ignored the issue and continued enjoying the entertainment of the pools, theaters, bars and casinos. The cruise director followed the Captain’s directions pulling all kinds of activities out of the archives to keep people distracted. Even so, some of them spent their time leaning on the railings of the footbridges that overlooked the coast, watching the panorama that passed by slowly. The beaches, when there was one, could be clearly seen—mostly, how empty they were. There were no people on the beach or vehicles on the roads, or boats in the water, or planes in the sky, though every so often, a few bodies could be seen on the coast.
“Captain, we have an urgent situation.”
“What’s going on now, Romano?”
“There’s a passenger in the bar on Deck Seven who is armed and has hostages, and is demanding to see you.”
He hadn’t even finished speaking when Leora started running towards the bar. The second officer barely kept up.
“What are his demands? Who are the hostages?”
“A woman and a little girl, apparently...”
Leora got to the bar running, where the subject was entrenched behind the bar. There was security personnel in the doorway, but no one else inside.
“Where are the security officers?”
“He ordered them to leave or he would start shooting.”
“What kind of weapon does he have?”
“It’s small, but it’s real. He already shot twice, once in the ceiling to get everybody out of the room, the other shot was later when no one was in there. No idea where he got it.”
“Anything else I should know?”
“It’s one of those who was going to leave this morning and then stayed.”
Leora made sure she was out of sight and checked her regulation weapon, which she had been wearing for the last twenty-four hours. She pulled off her utility belt, which also served to carry the weapon, and threw it to the ground, then put the gun behind her back.
“Romano, if anything happens to me, I want you to save the little girl. Use whatever force is necessary, understood?”
“Leora, don’t do anything crazy.”
“Be quiet and do what I tell you. I want at least two armed guards to be ready to go in, here at the sides of the entrance. And have someone find the doctor. Tell him to come immediately and wait outside the door.”
Romano bit his lips. Leora breathed deeply through her mouth a couple of times and slowly entered. She looked carefully and barely saw some movements behind the bar. She raised her hands so he could see they were empty, while saying:
“Here I am.”
A man raised his head and Leora saw that it was the father of the pretty little girl she’d met this morning, Leonora. What was the subject’s name? She thought for a moment and remembered.
“Mr. Claudio, I heard that you wanted to see me and I’m here...you didn’t have to arm yourself and start shooting.”
“Come here.”
Leora approached slowly until she could see behind the bar. In the corner, a woman was on the ground in a pool of blood and she could see a bullet hole in her head. She felt her heart skip some beats. Claudio indolently pointed the gun at the head of the girl, Leonora, who was standing next to her.
“Why don’t you put the gun down and we’ll talk?”
“Why don’t you tell my daughter the truth?”
Leora went blank.
“The truth?”
“Daddy says that Mama is in heaven and soon we’ll be there with her, too. I wanted to be a captain, but Daddy says that’s impossible.”
“Leonora, of course you can be a captain, why not?”
Claudio grunted and pointed the gun at the captain, but then turned it on his daughter again while he kept talking.
“Enough! Don’t you dare lie to my daughter anymore.”
“Why do you think I’m lying to her?”
“Are you joking? The world has ended. What is she going to be captain of, on what ship, with what company?”
Leora realized that he was probably right, but she reacted quickly.
“The world hasn’t ended. A lot of people died, but we’re alive and we have a lot of work ahead of us. And I’m sure we’re going to have to move by ship at some point in the future.”
“The Final Judgment Day has arrived. We’ve been judged for our sins and God has found us guilty. That’s why he’s left us behind, so we can repent,” Claudio preached.
Oh, for crissakes. A religious fanatic. Or a deranged person. Or both, but either way, the situation looked worse and worse.
“The population was decimated by an illness, not by God.”
“The same way God sent a flood when he saw the whole world was bad—this time he did it with a virus. We should have left the ship this morning.”
“And we’re not like Noah and his ark? Maybe your family was destined to keep humanity going.”
“We’re sinners, we’re all sinners. I know I’ve sinned, so I know I don’t deserve to be saved. So we can’t be saved, it’s a mistake. I lied to my wife many times, I’m a sinner, but she was pure and that’s why she went to heaven.”
“Daddy, I want to be with Mommy, why isn’t Mommy moving?”
“You’ll go with Mommy now, daughter.”
“Claudio! Look at me. Why not think this out? There may be people on land and our mission will be to populate the Earth.”
“I’ve thought about it. Look at my daughter. Do you know how many small children there on the ship? Barely a dozen, and the number of pre-adolescents doesn’t even reach a hundred. Most everybody is old.”
“Well, even if there aren’t many of them, they’ll have plenty of company.”
“Plenty? What will happen in thirty years? Or fifty? All of the adults from the ship will be dead and there will only be...how many left? In the best case scenario, a hundred humans. Will my daughter be a baby-making machine, like in olden times? Who will marry her? Will she be forced into it for the good of humanity? I don’t think that’s the destiny God has in mind for her, and if it is, I think the alternative is better. Now she is innocent and will go with her mother to heaven. Me, I’ll be in another place, but I don’t care, because I’ll know that they’ve been saved,” he affirmed, pointing the gun at the little girl again.
“Claudio, please, look at me. Your daughter can grow up and have a happy life.”
Leora was in a cold sweat. She’d have to shoot the guy. Kill the father in front of the daughter? How would she recover from something like that?
“Claudio, don’t do this,” Leora implored, taking the gun from behind her back, but keeping it hidden. “You don’t know what’s on land, what if you’re wrong?”
“If I’m wrong, I’ll still go to hell. And my daughter will be saved in any event. Come on, daughter, say what I told you,” he ordered, raising the gun and pointing it at his daughter’s head.
“I believe in Jesus...”
“No! And what if this is a test from God to test your faith? You must have faith that God knows what he’s doing—if you survived on this boat, it’s for a reason!”
Leora was very close and could see how his finger relaxed on the trigger for a second. Claudio started to slowly shake his head and rock his body back and forth.
“...who is good...”
“Daughter, I love you.”
“...and takes care of my soul. I love you, too, Daddy. When is Mommy going to get up?”
“Right now,” he assured her, and Leora aimed at Claudio’s head in the instant she saw him raise the gun again and start to pull the trigger. She heard a double boom; a stream of blood came out of the other side of Claudio’s head, while a dark spot appeared on Leonora’s chest. While Claudio fell on his wife’s body, Leonora fell backwards, where the spot began to expand rapidly. Leora heard the guards come running into the bar.
“Nooo, shit! Quick, doctor, first aid kit!” Leora shouted at the top of her lungs, while she leaped to hold the girl.
The doctor came running in while she held the little girl’s head on the floor. Leonora looked at her, crying.
“It hurts a lot,” the girl sobbed, barely in a whisper.
The doctor quickly crouched down and tore the girl’s clothes. A stream of blood flowed from her chest with each beat of her heart. The doctor checked her quickly, saw that there was no exit wound and shook his head. Leonora was getting paler and she had trouble breathing.