Chapter 5

Boulder, Colorado — Same Morning.

Dr. Lillian Porter was feeding the last baby, the only boy of the four babies, and started thinking back to how the infants had been found; actually how they, Amos, and the O'Shaughnessy clan all had been found.

She remembered she had been hungry that night she had commandeered that food service cart out in the hallway at the hotel in Salt Lake City. Even reheated in the microwave it had been a marvelous steak. The potato wasn't bad, but she had wished there had been more butter.

She spent some time going over the situation of being stuck here, in her mind. Fairly soon she had became really tired and after looking out of the window again, she saw most of the partygoers or drunks had moved elsewhere. The parking lot also had fewer cars in it.

Muttering to herself she said, "It might be best to wait until morning before deciding my exact course of action."

With that in mind, she had laid down on the queen-sized bed. In a matter of minutes she fell asleep on top of the blankets, still fully clothed.

The sun coming through the open curtains woke her. She stretched, inhaling a deep breath, and gave a slight shiver. She had turned the heat down in the room last night. Lillian never could stand sleeping while hot or in a warm room. Her ex had always complained about how cold she kept the house at night. She always had one foot stuck out from under the covers. She claimed her foot was her 'live thermometer', and if it was a little cool, then the temperature must be perfect.

Lillian went into the bathroom, shucking her clothes on the way. After sitting down to pee, she noticed a slight irritation in her vagina, a small burning. Looking down between her legs, she could see that her urine looked like rusty water, with maybe a few flecks of blood.

"Oh, I hope I'm not getting that bug. Maybe my period is starting. No, can't be, that was last week. Please God, don't let 'the bug' start in me. I need to get back home and to the hospital. Wait girl. You don't feel sick, in fact you feel good. Let's get on with living now."

She smiled to herself with those thoughts and wiped herself dry. "Here I am, ready to get into the shower, and I have to wipe myself first. Boy, if that isn't taking sanitation a little far." She caught herself whistling in the shower, something she had not done in years.

Changing into a fresh shirt and corduroy pants, she took the time to look at herself. Tall, 5'8" plus, and about 145 pounds. The weight looked good on her. Her well muscled frame was hidden by sleek, smooth skin. Her hair was a honey blonde with red tinges and red highlights. All of it natural. Pleased, she turned and started packing.

Her presentation for the conference last night was in its own special folder, and went into the briefcase first. The doctors might not have liked it and while many thought it was hooey, she was convinced she was right. If she was not 100% correct, at least she was on the right track. Notes and observations from speakers prior to her, were also put in. Who knows when something might become immediately useful.

Lillian packed the two suitcases, and her one traveling wardrobe bag. Looking around she could not see that she was leaving anything, and was pretty sure she had all her stuff packed. She picked up her .38 and went to the door listening for sounds in the hallway and hearing nothing, she opened the door and looked down the hall. She didn't hear anyone or see anyone.

Going back into her room, she took all the dishes off the serving cart. She placed her suitcases, bag, and briefcase on the cart. Easing back out in the hall, she still didn't hear anything, so she proceeded to the elevators. She tried twice to get one of the elevators to come up, but nothing happened. Looking back at her bags, she decided to walk down the enclosed stairwell to the first floor. As she was on the third floor, it would be no big deal.

Grabbing her briefcase and her traveling bag, she walked down the stairs. When she turned right to head into the main lobby, she saw the problem. Someone's suitcase was stuck in the doorway and the elevator door was repeatedly opening and closing on it. The other elevator just had a sign 'Out Of Order' and nothing else. It was also open.

Lillian removed the bag by kicking it inside the door. She held the door open until she got inside. She punched '3' and the elevator took her right up. She loaded her briefcase and travel bag back on the cart with her suitcases and pushed the cart into the elevator. She pushed the elevator button for the first floor and it worked perfectly. Upon exiting the elevator with the cart, she saw there was no one around to check her out. The entire lobby was littered with glass, cups, beer bottles, wine bottles, and whiskey bottles.

She just shook her head, "Must have been some sort of party last night."

Hearing something on the other side of the counter, she went around and peered over. She couldn't believe her eyes, a dog was trying to stand up and walk and it kept falling over one side or the other and even took a nosedive, when its front forelegs gave way.

"Well, I've seen everything, now! A drunken dog, running a major hotel, in Salt Lake City."

Looking up she saw the rear entrance doors were propped wide open.

'That dog must have wandered in and had its own version of a party, ' she thought.

Lillian gave a little shrug, thinking, "Life goes on."

And with that, she went and got the cart and wheeled it out to where her '89 Jeep Grand Wagoneer was parked. It was her prize, pride and joy. Coffee Brown Metallic exterior and Deep Brown and Fawn Interior were her choice of colors when her dad had the jeep painted and reupholstered for her.

She was so proud because she had done all the bodywork and repairs herself. Her dad had just offered advice and a little muscle from time to time. She didn't think it was a bad price at four hundred dollars not running. She had originally found it in a rear lot of a Cadillac dealership.

Lillian loaded everything up in the rear seat except her briefcase and her gun. That was to lay right beside her. Lillian got into the Jeep Wagoneer, noticing that apparently someone had spilled something on the hood. Being rather anal about her fun wagon, she got out and took a closer look. Yep, someone had spilled pop of some sort on her vehicle. Further, they had left a half eaten burrito on the chromed front bumper. More than a little pissed, she knocked it off the bumper.

"As soon as I can find an automatic car wash, I will take you through, and get you all cleaned up," she said. Then Lillian started giggling at herself, "Just like a male, talk to your 'honey', a car."

Checking the gas gauge, she decided to wait until she was away from Salt Lake City before filling up. She had over a half tank. She pulled up onto I-80 and saw there was some traffic, but it was extremely light. Lillian rolled down the driver's side window about an inch. She liked a little fresh air coming in, even if the heater was going full blast.

No sooner had she rolled it down, she heard the sound of a police siren. Looking up into the rear view mirror, she grimaced.

"Flashing lights, and it's for me. Well, I'm sure as hell not going to run," and with that she pulled over.

She watched in her review mirror as the cop turned off his flashing lights, and got out of the police car to approach her vehicle. He had the proverbial ticket pad in his hand. He tapped on her car window and told her to roll it down, which she promptly did.

"Doctor, I noticed your MD plates and your speed. I presume your heading back to Colorado, from the license plates, correct?"

"Yes, I..."

He interrupted her, saying, "I see you have a revolver on the passenger seat."

"Yes, I..."

He interrupted her again, "Doc, it's a good idea. By the way, I am a State of Utah Highway Patrolman, and you look like you need an escort to the Wyoming border. Correct?"

"Yes, I..." and she stopped waiting for the interruption.

He just grinned. His green and hazel eyes just twinkled and he said, "What's the rest of the sentence?"

They both started laughing.

"I've got nothing better to do than take a nice long drive as there are not many drivers needing my attention around here. Would you care to follow me?"

She just smiled and said, "Yes."

Still grinning at her, he said, "I love short answers," and he turned and went back to the Highway Patrol car.

He got into his vehicle, flipped the flashing lights on the light bar back on and pulled around her. Lillian pulled out and had to really put her foot down on the gas pedal to keep up with him. It wasn't long before they were doing 85 mph. When he reached that speed, he held it. It took them very little time to reach the state line. The Highway Patrolman pulled into the left lane and waved her on. As she pulled up beside him, he looked over and mouthed, 'Tom' As he pointed to himself. She grinned and mouthed back with exaggeration, pointing to herself, 'Lillian'. A few seconds later he braked, and turned left onto the median cross over. Lillian continued on, into Wyoming.

A little while later, she noticed the sign for an exit to Lyman.

"As good a time as any. If I fill up now, I probably won't have to stop again for gas at all."

She pulled off the exit and noticed there was somebody at the gas station directly in front of her.

"Well, maybe I get to talk to some one else, now."

She pulled into the gas station and put the .38 into her coat pocket. She had just gotten out of her Jeep, when this good-looking guy came around the rear of the vehicle. In one second, she knew she didn't like the look in this guy's eyes. Without thinking or blinking an eye, she pulled the gun out of her coat pocket and stepped to the side.

"Freeze, Asshole."

He jerked to a stop, "I... I... I... was just going to give you a hug."

Lillian glared at him.

"Go back to your car, and get the hell out of here. Now."

Without a second glance at her, the guy whirled around and headed back to his car.

Upon reaching it, turned and screamed, "YOU FUCKING HARLOT, YOU WILL GET YOURS, ONE OF THESE DAYS!"

With that, he scrambled into his car, peeled rubber, and sped out of the gas station directly onto the off-ramp across the road. Lillian just watched for a couple of seconds,

"Thanks, Dad, for telling me about the snakes, all those times."

Lillian took a few deep breaths to calm down, and then went about the business of filling her Jeep Wagoneer. She took out her cell phone and hit her speed dial for her ward nurses station at the hospital. No answer. When the nozzle's auto-fill lever flipped off, she put it back into its cradle on the gas pump. She hit the speed dial again. On the fourth ring, a husky male voice with what sounded like a New Jersey accent answered.

"Hospital."

"What the hell is going on, there," she demanded.

The response surprised her even more, "Lady, I ain't got time for your crap. I got babies to take care of."

Then the phone went 'click' as he hung up. To say Lillian was surprised would be an understatement, there were no males working in the OB-GYN Ward. There were a lot of male doctors that used the ward, but no working employees were male. If it had been a male doctor, he would have answered with his title in front of his name and then the ward.

'Well, I had better get my cute little fanny down there, quick, ' she thought.

Thinking about the situation as she got back into the vehicle, she decided not to kill herself speeding trying to get back. It was only about six more hours of driving and someone was there trying to take care of the infants. A Guardian Angel. She put two music CDs in the player and slowly eased out of the gas station. It would be better to arrive in a safe manner and be of immediate use.

Late that afternoon, she pulled into Denver General Hospital, expecting to see cars and other vehicles totally surrounding the hospital. Instead, there were fewer cars than normal. However, what did surprise her was the number of dead people sitting in a number of the cars. Determined to get close in to the hospital, she drove up over the curb and followed the wide sidewalk around. She parked underneath the Emergency Room entrance.

Upon getting out of her vehicle, she was appalled when she did not see one single person around. No Doctors, no nurses, no med assistants... No one.

Looking around, she saw about twenty people. They were dead, rigid, brown, and shrunken up. This was the first time she had seen up close one of the victims of this new plague. Figuring that a few minutes up close examining one of these people wasn't going to really matter to the babies and the 'Guardian Angel' who had answered the phone earlier, she knelt down close to one to make some observations.

Kneeling down, the first thing she noticed starting at the top of the head was that the hair was brittle. It was crinkled and dry looking, almost translucent. She reached up and touched the man's hair, and it just crumbled into powder. She then touched his forehead. It felt more like leather than skin. The eyebrows and eyelashes were basically gone. The eyes were sunken way back into his head... almost an inch or better. The nostrils were pulled back almost to the bony cartilage of the nose. Even the nose was very thin and leathery feeling. The mouth was gaping open and pulled back, the tongue was all the way at the back towards where the tonsils should be. The tongue also looked papery and thin. But upon touching it with her forefinger, she again thought: 'like leather.'

She reached out and picked up one of the man's arms, the joint stiffness caused the whole body to tilt. It was like the rest. It was all withered up, and gave the appearance of someone grossly emancipated. Putting the arm back down, she looked at the rest of his torso covered by clothes. She knew if she pulled out on his belt and trousers there would probably be a four or five inch gap to his stomach.

Her first thought, was that the life had been literally sucked out of him. She saw no evidence on the features that would indicate horrible pain upon beginning to die or upon death. If fact, he looked calm, except for where the mouth was pulled so far back.

Lillian rose to her feet, and proceeded to the elevators. She entered one, and punched the 'Floor 5' button. The elevator promptly ascended, stopped, and opened for her.

"At least everything seems to be working, so far. I hope the incubators are working as well," she thought.

The ding sounded as the door opened, and the elevator speaker came on, 'Fifth Floor, Maternity, OB-GYN'.

She strode out of the elevator and across the visitor's waiting lobby to the Nurses Station.

No one.

She turned back toward the left wing hall and entered the main baby-care area. Her eyes opened wide.

The first thing she saw was this absolutely huge black man, cooing to a little newborn infant. Still holding one of the swinging doors open, she had made no sound entering. Lillian gave a soft cough into her hand. The black giant just looked up at her, smiled, and then raised one finger, indicating she should wait just a second. He gently laid the swaddled baby back down into her crib. She was just amazed at his gentle handling and care.

He stood up and then looking directly at her and asked, "Can I help you?"

Lillian was almost flummoxed. Taking a small breath, she looked him back directly in the eye, "Ahh, the Guardian Angel. Yes, I'm Dr. Lillian Porter, Assistant Director — Obstetrics — and you are in my ward. Who are you?"

"Amos Arthur Lincoln. We have been waiting for you... excuse me, somebody like you... to show up. We needed a real doctor to make sure we are doing things right with the munsters. You'll do just fine," and he smiled. The quite calm nature of his response both surprised and elated Lillian.

"Okay," she said, "and who is we?"

"Dr. Porter, we can discuss who 'we' is, later. I expect you should be checking these littl'uns, to see if everything is proper with them. We did the best we could, and now that you have arrived you might be able to give us more guidance," Amos said, going from calm and gentle to direct and forceful in speech and manner.

Lillian just nodded, saying, "Let's get with it then, Mr. Lincoln."

Lillian walked over towards the four cribs and extended her hand to Amos. Amos's dwarfed hers in size, and he shook her hand with very gentle pressure. Amos looked at her and laughed.