Chapter 1

Ed James:
Day 14 - June 4

I don't know if anyone will ever read this or not. I hope so. I hope everything isn't lost. Surely I can't be the only person left alive.

I'm Ed James. I'm a virologist, or at least I was before IT happened. Now, I guess you could say I'm a survivalist. I've managed to piece together quite a bit of what happened. Most of us suspected something bad was going to happen, but we had no idea what it would be.

Everyone thought that when the Soviet Union went belly up in the tank that the world was now a safe place to live. Wrong! There were problems with Iraq, then Iran. Most of the other Arab states were in a cold war state with Israel.

China seemed to hate everyone, and was the country that brought about the end of the world, at least the end of civilization.

Relations with China had been slowly deteriorating for quite some time, and I remember the day before IT happened, watching on the news about the latest negotiations, which were at a standstill. China was threatening nuclear war and our military was on alert.

China didn't launch its nukes though. China released a virus. If things had gone the way they planned, every man, woman and child in the world, outside of China, would have died, and probably a great many inside China as well. The ones who had planned this would have been able to walk in to any and all countries and take over without a fight.

Instead, President Bush launched our nukes. All of the nukes that had previously been targeted on the Soviet Union were sent to China instead. The world's most populous country was little more than a molten lake when the last missile impacted. China had done her damage though and the rest of the world was dying a quieter death.

We suffered a far more silent ending.

How did I survive? As I said, I was a virologist. The group I was working with was trying to find, of all things, a vaccination for the common cold. I really wanted to be working on something more important at this point in my career, but I was stuck with the common cold for the foreseeable future, so I volunteered to be the test subject. I knew that would at least give me a little bit of a vacation.

They had locked me in a lab that was set up as an apartment and was totally isolated from the outside world. All of the food that was in the apartment had been bombarded with gamma rays to sterilize it. Air coming into the apartment was filtered to the point that no virus could enter. I had a television and DVD player and a whole stack of movies I had picked out. I was to stay in isolation for a week, and then they would give me a vaccination. After another three days, they'd expose me to the cold virus.

It was the second day I was in there that everything went nuts. The television switched to an all news format. I was hearing reports of missiles entering our air space, and missiles exploding in the atmosphere. Then President Bush came on and announced that he had unleashed our nuclear arsenal on China.

Reports kept coming in about missiles, but all were atmospheric explosions of a non-nuclear variety. Our government held off telling anyone the missiles might be dispersing chemical or biological agents. Even if they had informed the public it would have been too late to do anything about it.

People started getting sick within an hour of the first missile. If they had died quickly, the virus would have run itself out of carriers quickly. The Chinese knew what they were doing though. The first deaths started showing up five days after onset of the symptoms. By then, most of the hospitals in the United States and elsewhere in the world were full of patients. Things happened so fast that researchers weren't even able to identify the vector that was carrying the virus, let alone find a cure for it.

It has been two weeks now since the attack, and I'm out of food. Actually I've been out for two days, and rations were thin for three days before that. I know I have to go out, but I'm scared. There hasn't been a television or radio broadcast for the last week. People stopped showing up here at work ten days ago. I don't think the Chinese would have wanted the virus to survive long after it no longer had any hosts, but I won't know until after I leave the building.

Wish me luck.

Well, I've been outside for four hours now. I don't have any of the symptoms that were described by the TV announcers when people started getting sick, except the nausea. I think the nausea is from the stench though.

There are bodies everywhere. The majority of the people had gone to hospitals or treatment centers (a euphemism for a concentration camp) before they died, but the hospitals and centers soon filled up, and by then everyone knew that if they had it, they were dead anyway.

I managed to eat a couple of cans of ravioli even with the stench, but I know it isn't healthy for me here, so I plan to get out of here. Where is here? I'm in Orange County California. Home of oranges and grapefruits, and assorted fruits and nuts of the human variety until recently.

After thinking things over for a while, I decided the safest place for me would be right where I'd been. I loaded up a cart with groceries and pushed it back to the lab. The electricity was still working in the area, since most of it came from hydroelectric sources. It might work for months if there wasn't an overload, or a flash flood that knocked out the dam.

I decided I'd like to see if I could find anyone else that was alive, so I went to a Radio Shack and picked up a police scanner, and the best CB and CB antenna I could find.

I hooked everything up and fired up the CB. I went through every channel, but heard nothing but static. I went back through all the channels again broadcasting and asking for someone to answer. Still nothing.

Day 20 - June 10

It was on my sixth day of broadcasting that I finally heard something. It wasn't on the CB though. I was taking a break when I heard a voice coming faintly from the scanner. "Can anyone hear me?" said the voice of a young woman or girl. "Help me please. I'm calling from Santa Ana, California. I'm locked in the police station. Dogs attacked me and I just made it in here. Please! If you can hear me, I need help." I could hear the panic in the girl's voice and a couple of sobs she had tried to hold back.

I was running before I heard anything else. The police station was only about three blocks from the lab and I ran every step of the way. The door was unlocked of course and it didn't take me long to find the communications room. I quickly dialed in the frequency the woman had been calling on and fired up the transmitter.

"This is Ed James calling the lady in Santa Ana. Can you hear me?" I asked, still panting from my run.

"Thank God! Yes I can hear you Mr. James."

"I'm in Orange, California. I'm not too far from you, but if there are dogs attacking I'll have to pick up a few things first." I hated to make her wait, but I couldn't just go running over there without some way of fighting off the dogs.

"Please hurry Mr. James. I don't think they can get in here, but I'm scared. There are some really big dogs trying to get to me." The panic was back in her voice as she begged me to hurry.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, I got away from them."

"I'll be there in half an hour to an hour. If you think they're going to get in, lock yourself in a cell. I'll get you out."

"Thank you Mr. James. Please hurry."

"I'm going to find a gun to scare off the dogs. Stay by the radio if you can, but find where the cells are so you can run there if you need to. I'm going now."

It took me a while to find the arms locker, and longer still to figure out how to open it. Once I had it open, I took a riot gun and a fully automatic M-16. I loaded both weapons and took a couple of extra boxes of ammunition for each, then went looking for car keys.

I found the rack where the keys were kept and took a set that had a vehicle number on the tag. I went out into the parking lot and found that vehicle. It was a cruiser, a Crown Victoria with a big engine and all the power in the world. The engine started right up and I set the radio to the frequency the woman was using.

"This is Ed James calling the lady in Santa Ana," I said as I pulled out of the lot.

"Hello, Mr. James," the girl said, sounding a little bit relieved.

"Please call me Ed, and tell me your name. I hate to keep calling you the lady in Santa Ana."

"I'm sorry, Ed. My name is Tina Baronkowski. Please call me Tina."

"Okay Tina. I'm in a police cruiser and on my way. I should be there in less than half an hour."

"I haven't heard the dogs in a few minutes, Ed. I think they may have gone away." Her voice might be saying she thought the dogs had gone away, but I could tell she didn't really believe it.

"They may have, but I wouldn't bet on it Tina. These are probably people's pets that have been going hungry since everyone died. You don't want to be lunch to a Great Dane."

"I know Ed. I'll stay put."

"Tina, I may have to shoot some of them. I hope that doesn't bother you."

"Before all this happened it would have. Now, I just hope you shoot straight."

"Okay Tina, I just saw a sign that said Santa Ana 10 miles. I'm going to concentrate on driving now. I'll talk to you when I get there."

"Be careful Ed. You're the first person I've heard from since IT happened."

The city of Santa Ana looked far worse than Orange. For one thing there had been a lot more looting. Most of the stores had broken windows, and unwanted items had been strewn on the sidewalks. Many of the bodies lying around had been mutilated, presumably by the dogs that had tried to attack Tina.

I found the police station without too much trouble and looked around carefully. I didn't see any dogs, but I was going to be careful anyway. I slung the M-16 over my left shoulder and got out of the car carefully, holding the riot gun at the ready.

As I approached the door of the building, I saw movement off to my right. I turned toward the movement and saw the biggest Great Dane I had ever seen. I didn't hesitate, but fired a load of buckshot at him at point blank range. I half expected him to keep coming, but he fell like a sack of rocks.

Tina threw the door open in front of me and I quickly stepped inside. I lowered the riot gun as I stepped through the door and I was immediately hit in the chest by a five foot two inch, hundred and ten pound, honey blond tornado. I put my arms around her and held her until she quit sobbing.

Tina looked up at me with the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen and said, "Thank you. I was scared to death."

Although she had quit sobbing, her body was still trembling. My heart went out to her. "It's okay Tina. You're safe now," I said as I stroked her back.

"But what am I going to do now Ed? My family all died. I have no place to go," she said as she started sobbing again.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself Tina. The place I'm at now is a lot better than here though. Why don't you come back to Orange with me? I'm not coming on to you. I just think that with as few of us as there are left, we should work together to survive."

Tina laid her head back against my chest and shuddered. "I'd like that Ed. I thought I was all alone and I was scared to death."

I held her for a few minutes then suggested we get back to Orange before dark. "I haven't seen any dogs or other animals there for that matter, but you never know when they're going to show up. I'd rather be inside before dark."

Tina agreed, so we prepared to leave. I went over to the door and looked out. I could see a Doberman about half a block away, watching the building, but that was the only dog I could see. "Have you ever fired a gun Tina?" I asked.

"No. My father didn't believe in guns."

"Well, you're going to have to learn. We don't have civilization to protect us now, so we're going to have to do it ourselves."

Tina looked like she wasn't at all sure about this, but I handed her the riot gun and showed her how to load and fire it. "Just point it at whatever you want to shoot and pull the trigger," I told her. "I'm going to go out and open the door of the car on the passenger side. Then I'm going around to the driver's side and open that door. I want you to stand in the doorway and watch that Doberman down the street. If he starts toward me, point the gun at it and shoot."

"I'll try Ed. Just be careful."

I took the M-16 off my shoulder and made sure it was set on full automatic. I stepped outside the door and looked both ways. I just stood there looking around for over a minute, then started slowly walking toward the car. I was just reaching for the door handle when I heard the shotgun go off, followed by Tina's scream.

The Doberman was flopping in the street, but a pack of six dogs of various breeds was coming toward me at a full run. I swung the M-16 toward them and let loose into the middle of the pack. It was like they had run into a wall. Three of the dogs dropped immediately, and I heard the shotgun again. A fourth dropped from the shotgun blast, and I made short work of the other two with the M-16.

I looked around and didn't see anything else, so I quickly changed the clip in the 16 and opened the car door. I was trying to look in every direction at once as I rounded the car and opened the other door.

I didn't see anything else so I said, "Run for the car Tina."

I continued scanning the area until I heard her door slam, then I quickly got into the car. Tina was shaking, but she had a smile that would have lit up Los Angeles. "I got two of them," she said proudly.

"You sure did Honey. Nice shooting for a girl who never fired a gun before."

"It scared me to death to shoot it, then when I did I thought it was going to tear my shoulder off."

I had to laugh. "That is a 12 gauge shotgun, Tina. It kicks harder than almost any other weapon there is. We'll find you something a little more suited to your size later."

"I'd shoot it again to protect one of us, Ed," she said with a look of determination.

The drive back to Orange was the most pleasant thing I'd experienced in the last three weeks, even though the conversation was anything but pleasant at times. I found out that Tina was sixteen years old. She'd watched her whole family die. The father went first, followed two days later by her mother. Her little sister had held on for almost a week longer, but eventually she went too.

"Do you have any idea why you didn't get sick?" I asked.

"No Ed. I expected every minute I'd come down with it. After my sister got sick, I wished I would. By that time, the radio and TV had quit, and I couldn't see anyone else on the streets. I thought when my sister died I was the last person alive. Do you know why you didn't get it?"

I explained to her about being in the isolation apartment and what I had been working on. "Are you a doctor then?" she asked.

"I have a doctorate, but I'm not a medical doctor. I could probably do most things a medical doctor could do, but I never went through the clinical training to become a doctor."

"You don't look old enough to have a Ph.D., how old are you, Ed?"

"I'm 26. I graduated from high school early, and actually had my Bachelor's Degree when I was nineteen. I was married for a couple of years, but my wife left me three months ago. She said I was boring and she had found someone to put some excitement in her life."

Tina giggled. "She's probably not too excited right now." She looked embarrassed then said, "I'm sorry Ed. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's okay Tina," I laughed. "I wasn't in love with her any more anyway. I knew she had been running around on me for a while, and the love just kind of died. It was almost a relief when she left."

We were quiet for a couple of minutes then Tina asked, "So where do we go from here Ed?" Her tone was serious and when I glanced over at her I could see she was apprehensive.

"I'm not sure. I wanted to give it another week before I got out much. I'm sure you've noticed the stench, and it's not healthy being around decaying bodies. In another week, the danger from that should just about be over. I've been trying to contact anyone by CB radio, but haven't had any luck. I've also had a police scanner going, which is where I heard you first."

"God! I'm glad you were listening. I don't know if I could have ever gotten out of that place alive if it hadn't been for you."

"I'm glad I was listening too, Tina. I was about to go nuts, not having anyone to talk with." I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. She gave me a little smile, then dropped her eyes.

"That's been a bad part for me too. I was so lonely. Do you have any plans for what to do after another week?" Again, she was looking apprehensive as she asked her question.

"I was thinking of taking a trip. Just kind of cruising from town to town to see if I could find anyone else alive."

"That's still a good idea Ed. Two people are not enough to survive, let alone start a new civilization."

"You're thinking ahead Tina. I like that. No, even if you and I decided to hook up, we need other people."

We were silent for a while, thinking about the ramifications of what had just been said. In fact, we didn't say much more until I had pulled up in front of the lab.

I took Tina in and showed her around. "There's only one bedroom in this apartment," I told her. "There is another apartment though. You can either sleep on the couch here, or we can open up the other apartment for you."

"I've been by myself far too long. There's no way I'm going into the other apartment," Tina told me.

"Okay, I'll get you some sheets so we can make up the couch. We'll go out in the morning and get you some clothes and anything else you're going to need."

"Thanks Ed. There are some things I'm going to need from a drug store. A toothbrush for one."

I laughed. "Yeah. They didn't supply me with any extras. At least I had enough food to last me until it was safe to go out."

We fixed a simple dinner and talked for a long while. I found Tina to be very bright and an interesting conversationalist. If I had not known her age, I'd have thought she was a lot older. Finally, both of us started to get sleepy.

We said our goodnights, and I went off to bed. I didn't fall asleep immediately. I was lying there, smiling into the darkness, thinking about how I was no longer alone, when the bedroom door opened.