Chapter 10

[Atlanta, Georgia]

My name is Robert Jackson Mathews, Jr. I go by Jack. On the Day of Destruction, I was twenty-six and in excellent shape physically. I have even competed in a few Iron Man Triathlons though have never won or even placed in the top three. I have hunted and fished all my life growing up on a farm in West Georgia. I went to college at Georgia Institute of Technology and had completed a mechanical engineering degree and almost completed a master's degree before the Day. When everything went down, I was finishing that degree planning to graduate in August. Now, that won't occur.

I had a small apartment in Atlanta close to school. I would go home to my parent's farm on weekends. I had few friends in Atlanta since I didn't spend weekends at the apartment. I preferred being in the woods hunting or on the lake fishing to parties even at home.

It was Thursday, March 17, 2011, and I was chilling after my morning class load. I went to my apartment for lunch, as it was close enough and cheaper than eating at school. I also had the time on Thursdays with the gap between classes and labs. I was looking forward to tomorrow when I would go home after class. I planned to fish all Friday afternoon and late into the evening. I had turned on the news and heard the newscaster give the news of an explosion in central Florida. At that time, there wasn't much known of any real value. I ate lunch and walked back to campus for my afternoon lab. The campus was abuzz about the explosion since it was supposedly nuclear. I listened but didn't comment. I had learned to keep my mouth shut unless I could add something intelligent to the conversation. No one knew anything except that nuclear plants didn't explode. I could figure that out myself. Yet, apparently, this plant had. Who knew what really happened or how. What was known was that there had been a big explosion and middle Florida was a mess.

When the lab ended, I headed back to the apartment. I planned to watch the news, study, and eat supper though not necessarily in that order.

The newscasts were full of news about the explosion in Florida and the resulting chasm that occurred splitting the state into two pieces. Supposedly, that couldn't happen either. I was concerned about the people killed and fallout now that it was confirmed that the explosion had been, in some way, nuclear. The consensus on the 'casts seemed to be that the winds blowing toward the east would keep people safe though the Bahamas would get a scare if anyone was left there. After the blast, it was the division of Florida that was causing casualties. Most of the people in the Bahamas were gone along with a number of ships in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Gulf. South Florida was pretty much gone and millions were dead or missing. I cut off the tube and studied for tomorrow, packed for the weekend (I do my clothes washing at home), and went to bed.

The next morning, the news was still looking bad. There was some possibility of the fallout moving northward according to the 'casts. I went to the day's classes and then got in my old compact car and headed home. When I arrived, I switched to my truck, which had my boat on its trailer already behind it and headed for West Point Lake. My parents knew where I was going so I didn't check in. I fished until close to midnight before pulling the boat out and heading home to sleep.

I didn't have plans for Saturday morning so got up and joined my parents for breakfast. As we had coffee, we talked about what the newscasts had said about the tragedy in Florida. Millions of people were presumed dead from tsunamis that headed east and west from the partition of Florida as well as the blast and fallout. It sounded unreal.

Dad and I talked about what was happening and decided that we could do nothing since the National Guard was being called to keep people out. We had a couple of boats that might be useful as well as our trucks. We would wait to see if there was something we could do. After talking about it further, we decided to go fishing for the remainder of the day. That suited Mom, as she wanted to start her spring cleaning and wanted us both out of way. We left.

When Dad and I returned, we had fresh fish for supper. We all ate and then talked awhile out on the porch before going to bed. We never turned on the TV. Sunday, we got up and I went to church with my parents. Back home, Mom was starting dinner while Dad and I settled in to watch the beginning of the NASCAR race. I put clothes in the washer to get my school clothes clean for the coming week.

The first news bulletins about the sickness began later that afternoon. We ate another one of Mom's great Sunday dinners, watched the race and I enjoyed being home. Late that afternoon, I cleaned the truck and boat. Then I went over to the gas station and gassed them both up. After supper and folding and loading clothes, I headed back to Atlanta for another week of studying and classes. Driving my old car, I pulled into the apartment complex, parked and went in for the night.

Monday morning, I went to class and had lunch at school with a couple of classmates. I didn't have much time between my classes on Monday, so that made eating at school smarter. Also, it gave me a chance to meet with people who I worked with on projects.

I noticed on the newscasts that there was no further news about Florida coming from Florida; it was all coming from Washington now. I didn't really listen but thought that was probably not good. After my afternoon labs, I went to the apartment and lay back for a few minutes and then cracked the books until time for a late supper.

During supper, I did turn on the tube to check the news. The newscasters seemed strangely subdued. There was little information from the ground on the Florida mess though there were some excellent high altitude pictures. That surprised me as there were lots of people down there and I would think that the stations and networks would have rented small planes and helicopters to have a close-up look at the disaster. The division of Florida was hot news and deserved coverage. At least, that was my thought.

Anyway, we rocked along for the week and, toward the end of the week, people started to get sick locally. At school, once it started, it spread rapidly as everyone lived in close proximity. When I checked my email before leaving for home Friday, there was an email questioning whether classes would be held next Monday. I scoffed at that myself. After all, I wasn't sick. I did load my laptop into the car to do a little work if I had time. When I got home, my mind was changed. Mom was sick.

Dad heard me drive up and came outside before I left to fish waving me to come in the house. I came in and he told me that Mom was sick and I should hang around. I went up to their bedroom and talked to her. She insisted she was fine, that it was just a little springtime cough. I talked to Dad later and he told me that the doctor had suggested she stay home because the hospital was swamped and nothing they were doing seemed to have any effect upon the sickness or its flu-like symptoms. Dad and I had never been sick a day of our lives. Mom had rarely been sick. For her to be sick was an event. I stayed around the house all weekend as Mom first got sicker and then started to perk up slowly.

Over the weekend, problems with sickness were starting to be heard from everywhere. We heard that it started in Florida and that was why there had been little news from there. The government admitted that they didn't tell us then to prevent panic. I never did like that idea. Father may know best, but Big Brother doesn't.

I checked my email Sunday night. It told me classes were canceled for the next week. There was nothing for me in Atlanta so I stayed home with my parents. By Monday evening, it was obvious that Mom would be okay. We had missed church for the first time since I could remember. The prayer phone tree had told us that there would be no services with many people in the church sick.

It was then that I realized that, just maybe, this was more serious than I thought.

Tuesday, Dad and I talked. Mom was starting to improve and neither of us had been or was sick other than with worry about her. Dad said he thought this was serious and widespread. He had talked with some of his buddies in town and nothing that he heard made him feel better. Most of them were sick.

We agreed to start watching more newscasts to try to understand what was being broadcast. I would also cover the Internet for viral news and rumors. I added some free subscriptions to news and blogs than I ever had before. I caught the President's speech and called Dad to come and listen. After listening to the speech, Dad said, "He's lying. It's going to be very bad. A three percent survival rate and that includes those like your Mom who get well because there were healthy people to help them and people like you and me who don't get sick at all. Jack, think about what that means."

"Dad, that means the U.S. would be almost without people!"

"That's exactly what it means. We have a bit over three hundred million population and would go to just over nine million. Atlanta would go from about four million to just over a hundred thousand. That won't be the end. What happens to the power grid, natural gas, oil and other fuels? What about food supplies and production? This farm is not designed to be self-sufficient right now. It could but it hasn't been for a number of years. I made better money raising crops for sale."

"You think we should prepare for the worst because that's what will happen?"

"I think we should prepare because it's the thing to do. I'm going to call my brothers and sisters as well as your mother's and talk about what we can do as a group. Families are going to become important as a basis for survival. I hope survival will run in families. Maybe immunity is inherited somehow. The thing is, it won't matter if we don't prepare for the breakdown that's going to follow."

"Dad, if that's true, what should we do now?"

"I'm going to start by calling your uncles and aunts on both sides of the family. We will have to see who all can and will show up for a meeting. While I'm making calls and we are waiting, you can start a list of how we would survive ten, twenty and fifty years out. What kinds of things will be gone, what should we be able to repair, and how many people does it take to create a viable community? That should be good practice for you, Jack."

"I'm not sure I want to know why that will be good practice. Anyway, how am I supposed to figure all that out, Dad?"

"You won't, but you can make a good start and give us something to think about and discuss when the family gets together."

"Okay, I'll get started." I fired up my laptop and started a new document. I started a list of questions that grew as faster than I could type. How long would computers last and how long would the Internet last? How long would cell phones operate? Suddenly, I realized this was going to be a very big project and would get very complicated. Dad made a list of names and started calling.