Chapter 10

Things just rocked along fine for us now. With just a little planning Jackie and I had been able to bale plenty of hay. Plenty hell. If we could find room for all of it in the barns we would have enough for the next two years and part of the next. We could fit it all in the cow barn of course but we didn't want to risk a fire in that thing. Hay has been know to catch fire and when it does there's no puttin it out.

Jackie decided to ask Grimes to build us a hay barn. Grimes was tickled. It ended up being two hundred by three hundred. Jackie wouldn't let him put a concrete floor in this one either. We did get it built up about four feet above ground level so there wouldn't be any moisture to speak of in the floor. It was perfect for rolls of hay. We even got a section floored with duckboards so we could stack alfalfa hay; this kept the horse hay drier to prevent mould and it also kept it cleaner.

The horse barn was perfect. We had two big round pens for training and a large outdoor arena. We had the indoor arena in the horse barn so we could even ride in bad weather. We had a first class facility for raising and training horses. The cow barn was just gigantic. We already had six truckloads of feed for the cows in it and four for the horses and it still looked empty.

We always seemed to have two or three guest to hold. Now and then Grimes and a couple of others would come out and do a little "questioning". Jackie and I knew this involved medicine similar to what we had used on ole Roy. It didn't make a shit to us. All we had to do was keep the guest fed and let them out one at a time for a little exercise. Never outside though, we just let them have the run of the basement for a couple of hours. It they didn't return to their room after time was up we just signaled the security boss and he sent three guys in through the tunnel and they beat hell out of the guest and then drug them back to their room. We never had one try it twice.

I hadn't ever turned Gloria. Jackie and I just didn't see the need for it. Grimes would notice the difference in loyalty after a while if I did. We didn't want to piss him off while things were going smoothly.

I had just managed to give Shelly, Sarah, and Gloria a good fucking one night and fallen off to sleep at about eleven thirty. At about twelve thirty an alarm buzzer went off. It woke me and I knew what it meant. We'd only heard it once. That was when the guy Grimes had sent to show us how everything worked had sounded it so we would know what it meant if it ever went off. It was a warning that something was wrong with the guest. It just meant that we should check on them.

I got up and told the girls to go back to sleep. The alarm had roused them too. Shelly said she was going to make Jackie and me some coffee first and she got up too. I drug on some jeans, socks and my boots and pulled a T-shirt over my head. Shelly had just pulled on a T-shirt and gone to the kitchen. I followed and I met Jackie in the hall.

"Wonder what the fuck's wrong down there?" Jackie asked.

"Damned if I know. Everything was OK when I checked before I went to bed." I answered.

We went into my study where there was a little control and security set up for the basement. We hardly ever used it except to work the doors to let them in and out. I opened the cabinet door that revealed the main monitor. It had just flashed to the view of the main room. We watched as it cycled to the exercise room and then we stopped the cycling when it came to the first occupied guest room. The guest, an Arab gentleman, was sitting up at his small table. He was calmly sitting and seemed to be just staring at nothing. We let the monitor cycle and stopped it at the next guest. He was another Arab gentleman. He was sitting at his table also and staring at nothing. We couldn't see anything really wrong but it did look a little odd. We let the monitor cycle until it came to our last guest. He was a Mexican gentleman. He was sitting at his table staring at nothing just like the others.

I hit the intercom switch and ask him what the trouble was.

"I just feel bad." He told me calmly.

"Are you in pain? Is you stomach uneasy?" I asked.

"No, I don't have any pain and I don't feel very sick. I just feel bad." He told me.

I did the same for the other two and got similar responses. They all just felt bad. I called Grimes' emergency number and he picked up right away.

"Hello Bill. Are you're guest sick." He asked.

"Yes. How did you know?" I asked.

"They might be dead in a little while. If they die I'll have security deal with them. Go turn on you television and watch CNN. You can get most of the story from them. I'm a little busy right now but I can give you a few more details tomorrow. Sorry to cut you off but I gotta go."

I just turned to look at Jackie.

"Ain't that the shits?" Jackie asked.

"I guess we should go watch TV like he said." I offered.

We went to the Kitchen and Shelly had some coffee made. She hadn't gone to bed and wanted to know what was up. I told her about our guest and about Grimes cryptic conversation. She went back to my study with us after we all got a mug of coffee. I turned the TV to CNN and we sat down to watch.

It was a stunner. Starting at midnight on the east coast all the prisoners in all jails and prisons had gotten sick at the same time. Some had already died. They didn't have any real symptoms. They just felt bad. They didn't have fever or anything. Then some of them started dying. Then more dyed. At midnight for the Central Time zone the same thing started. The prisoners just all got sick. It was about to be midnight in the Mountain Time zone and everyone was just waiting to see what happened.

They really didn't have much else to say. They kept talking though. Every few minutes they would mention that more of the already sick prisoners were dying. They just managed to mention that there was going to be trouble with all the corpses if they all died when a flash broke in.

It wasn't much of a flash. They just shifted to another talking head that said that prisoners in the Mountain Time zone had started getting sick at midnight their time. They remarked that it seemed a little odd that not a single guard or any other type of prison employee had come down with it. They said that most of the prisoners in the Eastern Time zone had died and that autopsies were already beginning on some of the first to die.

We were shocked but we just kept watching. Susan and the twins came in about then. Apparently they had expected Jackie back before this. Sarah and Gloria came in about five minutes later. We told them what we knew so far. That didn't take long. We kept watching.

After midnight for the west coast passed and the now expected sickness appeared there I thought about our guest again. I went to the monitor and I saw the security team zipping the Mexican gentleman into a body bag. I cycled through the other two cells and saw their occupants were all ready bagged. I told Jackie and the girls.

We just kept watching TV until the sickness started in Hawaii. We decided we could find out more in the morning. We all went back to bed.

We slept until about eight the next morning and then got up. I showered and dressed. We went to the kitchen and Susan had breakfast going and coffee made. I turned the kitchen TV on and to CNN. The sickness had marched around the globe with the time zones and was pretty persistent. At midnight the prisoners got sick and they all died within two or three hours. Some went quickly and some lasted nearly three hours. None lasted more than a few minutes longer than three hours.

We ate and were still just sitting around being amazed. Grimes called about ten minutes before ten.

"Bill I guess you know most of it now. I only have a couple of more details than the news. The first sign of the sickness is a distinctive rash around the neck. The victims start feeling bad and also they get really calm as if they had been sedated. Then they just die within three hours at the most. The autopsies have revealed nothing. No cause of death is apparent. They just get sick and then just stop living. There doesn't appear to be any pain or suffering. They just die."

"Where does that leave us now?" I asked.

"No change that I know of. You just don't have any guest. We're trying to pick up one or two that are handy just to put them out there and see if anything happens. It's just a shot in the dark but someone thought of it and wants to try. We'll let you know if one is coming. I'll also let you know if anything else comes up."

Jackie and I talked and decided that we should just try to act normal and go on about our business. I told the girls they should all go swimming and hang around outside most of the day so they would keep looking like the idle rich at home. They said they would.

We had two truckloads of bagged feed and a truckload of alfalfa hay in square bales due in today. Jackie and I didn't have to fool with it. Grimes had special men that dressed like laborers and came to do any lifting. Grimes also had a driver that came out and picked up the fuel trailers and took them to be refilled. He had done one yesterday and he was coming for the other one today. We weren't really short of fuel but the guy got paid whether he hauled them or not and so we let him keep them full.

We didn't really know what to think about things. Nothing like this had ever happened. It seemed so organized. Nobody could have organized this though. Nobody had that kind of power or technology. It was just a mystery. In the back of my mind though I couldn't help wondering if something else was going to happen tonight.

We just muddled through the day. We ate lunch around one pm and then just continued marking time until supper at about eight pm. After that we just all went into my study and sat back in front of the idiot box. The idiots were still talking about the sickness. They started talking about what was going to be done with all the bodies. Even though they died under mysterious circumstances there just wasn't time to do autopsies on all of them. It was feared there wouldn't even be enough time to embalm and bury all of them in separate graves. It looked like some would have to be buried in mass graves.

Conjecture and speculation continued until eleven fifteen our time or twelve fifteen eastern. CNN announced that un-incarcerated and suspected criminals and the like were getting sick. Muggers to Mafiosos were getting sick. Drug dealers, pick pockets, petty thieves and car thieves, even reputed white collar criminals and tax evaders were coming down with it. It didn't take them long to figure that if this kept up burial would become a real problem quickly.

After midnight passed in the Mountain Time zone and the pattern seemed to be repeating, the President made an announcement that all reserve and National Guard personnel were being called up to help bury the dead. The news people later made much talk about how well everyone was taking this.

Well what did most people care about a bunch of dead prisoners and crooks. If this were all that happened most people would be fine with it. I'm sure relatives of the dead would be broken up about it, but how many regular citizens were going to cry about the loss of thieves and drug dealers. Not very damned many would miss 'em.

We just tried to look like things were normal through the next day. We were all off our feed but we tried to maintain. We ate, we swam, and we fucked around with the horses and the cows. If I'd thought about it much I'd have realized we had it good. We had this place at our disposal and it looked like there weren't going to be any more guest for a long time. We had no worries.

We were all parked in front of the TV at ten thirty that night. They were saying now that the increased burial crews were still lagging behind and that if some other round of dying started tonight it would be very serious. Nothing happened. No new round of sickness started. We watched for about an hour and all went to bed. I was feeling better. I slept well.

We all got up around eight the next morning and Shelly helped Susan fix a really big breakfast. I was really hungry and I guessed I was just feeling relief that no more dying had started last night. After we finished we all went to my study to check CNN.

The whole thing was covered with religious nuts. We changed channels after just a few minutes but they were everywhere. It was Oral Roberts to the thousandth power. We couldn't get away form them. They were saying that this was a plague sent by God and that more of the unrighteous would be dying soon. Jackie and my days were sure numbered if they were right. We turned them off and Jackie spent about fifteen minutes running them down. I felt the same way toward 'em. They were just full of shit and I knew it. I wondered how long it would be before they started asking for donations. I could just hear them telling that just a small donation now would surely save you later. It nearly ruined my mood but somehow it didn't. I was just glad no more dying had started last night.

We rode the horses some today and just enjoyed a day acting like what we were supposed to be; rich. Jackie and I even rode over to look at the airstrip Grimes had decided to put in. We didn't even have a plane and none of us knew the first thing about flying anything but a kite. It had been Grimes' Idea. He just knew it would make us look so normal to be rich people with a plane and a private airstrip.

It was like no private airstrip I'd ever heard of though. Hell its runway would have held up a 747. It probably wasn't long enough for one but it was a lot longer than most small airports, and the concrete was sixteen inches thick. It had a complete setup of landing lights. Grimes had even had them put up a small tower that had more radar and had a complete weather station.

"Jackie why in the hell did grimes make this so big. It looks like it's a mile long." I asked.

"It's over a mile. The concrete strip is six thousand feet. You know how much land we bought to get it in. He said it had to be long because we were going to have a Lear Jet. I didn't know they needed this much runway." Jackie said.

"I don't think they really do. It's his money though. I don't really give a shit and we did end up with another thirty eight hundred acres. We've got nearly five thousand now," I said.

"Yeah, it ain't all bad. They still have to put up the hangar. The slab for it is already poured. They did it at the same time they were putting in the runway." Jackie reminded me.

"Why did he put in such big fuel tanks? It would take a small jet a lot of flyin to burn twenty thousand gallons of jet fuel." I asked.

"It's just that government mindset Bill. You know he was first thinking about fifty thousand gallons of storage. I had to talk for days to get that out of his mind. He still wants to add on. He says that he first got it authorized by telling his committee that it would make a good emergency military airstrip. You know we are gonna get a helicopter too don't you."

"You never told me about that. We could at least get some use out of that. Will it use the same type of fuel?" I asked.

"Grimes said it would. He might put two helicopters out here. He is leaning toward one really big one that can haul us all at one time and a small one that can take four at a time. He even wants you and me to take lessons to fly 'em." Jackie complained.

"That might not be so bad Jackie. I might like to learn to fly at least the small one." I said.

"Go right ahead. I don't really even like riding in them that much. You can be the pilot." Jackie laughed at me over this.

"Well it wouldn't hurt to be able to fly one." I said defensively.

"Don't get your bowels in an uproar Bill. I was just fucking with ya. Go ahead and take the lessons. If you learn to fly it I'll ride with you. I know you won't crash it just to scare me."

Jackie and I headed back to the house and I'll be damned if Grimes wasn't up there when we got back. He just came to let us know that our plane would be her in two days and both the helicopters would be out this afternoon. He asked Jackie if we'd decided about the lessons.

"Bill said he'd give it a try. I think I'm gonna pass on the flying lessons though." Jackie told him.

"That's good enough. It will look better if one of you can at least get in a chopper and fly it around every few days. It'll make it seem like you're checking out the ranch. I'm really glad you talked me into getting those cows and the horses. We flew over the place yesterday with a couple of the committee members. They were surprised how normal the place looked." Grimes told us.

"Well that's good. I'm just a little worried about what will happen now with no guest and probably no prospects for a while." Jackie admitted.

"With the shit storm that's been stirred up with this sickness no one will even think of us for months. This is going to be like a vacation. The committee members would have never come out yesterday if the oversight checkup hadn't been scheduled for weeks. They can't just go running down here with no cover story to check up on things. After the cover story was in place they couldn't really duck out of it. Their trip actually started eight days ago. They looked at two other installations before they got here. They did insist on the other fuel tanks though. I think they're thinking that if the deaths start back up they might need to come here and stay for a while. I doubt that'll happen though." Grimes explained.

"Hell we've sure got room to put 'em up. You too Grimes. If you need to come out here and stay for a while we'll be glad to have you or anyone else you want to send." Jackie told him sincerely.

I knew that was all just for Grimes' consumption. Jackie knew that Grimes could come out whether we wanted him to or not, no matter what the deeds and legal shit said. Actually we wouldn't mind though. Grimes was a sneaky bastard no doubt; but he had been as honest and above board with Jackie and me as he could so far.

"When will they start on the extra fuel tanks?" Jackie asked.

"This afternoon. They're going to bring the tanks out before the holes are even ready; mostly to cover bringing out a big tunneling machine. I got my ass slightly chewed for not putting in a tunnel to the airstrip. I tried to tell them that it just wasn't needed. They said there were tunnels everywhere else around here and there was no sense scrimping on the airstrip. They said with a tunnel we could just fly our guest in directly and have them underground and out of sight in a few seconds. Fuck it, if they want to pay for it I'll tunnel to DFW." Grimes complained.

"Well this is a red letter day then. I never thought the time would come when someone threw more money at this place than even you wanted to spend." I said and laughed.

It struck Grimes in the funny bone too. Then Grimes, Jackie and I were all laughing til we nearly cried. The more I thought of the ridiculous things that had been done here the harder I laughed. This "cattle ranch" cost more to build and maintain than some country's capital cities I'm sure. Fuckit, it was only money and it wasn't even mine. Shit they paid me to live here and think of things I could buy for the place. What a fuckin job. The laughter finally died down.

"How long is all this gonna take." Jackie asked.

"And that's another thing. They called some super secret contractor for the additional tanks and the tunnel. He is going to put up the hangar while he's at it. He gets a three million dollar bonus if he gets it finished in four days. They think this sickness will be a good cover and that if it is all over quick enough no one will notice a hundred workers and a couple of hundred trucks coming and going." Grimes told us.

"What are a couple of hundred trucks gonna be bringin?" I asked.

"Tanks, fuel, the hangar material, and mostly eight foot diameter concrete casings for the tunnel. They're going to use precast casings since they will make it go faster than pouring it as they go. After the casing is in place they'll use big vibrating machines to settle the earth around the casings then they'll just fill in the depression and put sod over it. They'll run water and electric lines through the tunnel. Can't have and airstrip control tower without bathrooms and air conditioning you know." Grimes laughed some more over this.

"Well fuck me runnin. I feel rich." I laughed.

"Shit, I'd better call your flying instructor and order a training helicopter." Grimes said.

"Order two, they're small." I popped off and Grimes laughed again.

"I wonder if we can get a submarine for the lake." Grimes said and laughed at his own joke.

Susan had scrapped her planned lunch when Grimes had arrived and she'd asked Shelly and Sarah to help her throw something together. They threw New York strips with big baked potatoes, creamed corn, black-eyed peas and home baked bread together. Grimes could come for lunch more often as far as I was concerned.

The steaks were from right here on the farm. Jackie wanted to learn to butcher meat himself. Grimes had been happy to have a small slaughterhouse erected. It had all the latest equipment, meat saws and grinders and other things I didn't have a clue about. It had a special killing floor and lots of water pressure for cleaning the carcasses and cleaning up the mess. It even had a big steam-cleaning machine to clean up after. Grimes had found someone to show Jackie all the finer points and I was surprised that Gloria wanted to learn to do it also. I don't know about the others but I was pleased with the results. We had just finished eating some of Jackie's practice sessions.

After eating Jackie, Grimes and I went into my study and took a short look at CNN. Grimes was as disgusted with the preachers as we were but he said it did seem to be taking the pressure off for the moment by deflecting criticism off the government and onto the devil. Grimes left after just a few minutes of it.

"Bill, have you got any thoughts at all about what might be causing all these deaths?" Jackie asked me.

"Not a one Jackie. The way they're happening I just know it must be an organized thing. I just don't have any idea who could have the know-how or the power to organize it. I'm stumped."

"That's about what I've been thinkin. Somebody must be doing it. Things just don't happen like this on their own. I just can't even think of who could be doing it though. If Grimes doesn't have a sniff of what's going on I don't think anybody does."

"Maybe he does know and just isn't telling us." I offered.

"I don't think so. If he knows anything that he's keeping from us; he's doing a better job of hiding it than he ever has before. I think I could tell if he was keeping something like this a secret." Jackie said.

"You're probably right Jackie. You almost always are about things like this."

We heard some trucks coming about then. We went out the front door and could see some big rigs using the trail toward the airstrip that had been made to keep them from using our driveway. Grimes had already said it would be re-sodded after everything was finished. We decided to go watch the work for a while.

We went out to the horse barn and saddled our favorite nags again then rode down to the airstrip. A couple of big track hoes and a medium sized dozer and a big rubber tired loader were being unloaded. A walking crane was already off its lowboy and some men were already assembling the boom for it. One worker was directing the trucks with the tanks to park and another was directing the first trucks with the casing to park in another spot and a big cherry picker was off loading the hangar steel. Four heavy haul trucks were parked off together and their drivers were unchaining what must have been the disassembled tunneling machine.

When the biggest track hoe was off its trailer it traveled over near the tower building and started working.

"At least Grimes figured a tunnel might be coming. He had foresight enough to have a large basement put under the tower." Jackie told me.

"I wonder about all that Jackie. I wouldn't be a damned bit surprised to see some men come out and start putting up missile sites for air defense." I said as a joke.

"Don't ask for what you don't want Bill. They already have the placement figured and all the wiring for 'em including slabs to put them up on. The only thing that surprises me is there ain't any tentative plans for a couple of artillery batteries. When you really think about it, all this shit can get a little scary." Jackie said.

"It just doesn't make sense to me. All they're really guarding is high class prison cells." I said.

"That's all we know about Bill. There could easily be something underground that we don't even know about. There could be stuff that Grimes doesn't know about. What we can see just doesn't add up to all this security. Government work doesn't always add up though. We probably won't ever know all about this place or we might know everything already and just don't believe we know it all. It really don't have to make sense for the government to do it."

That was about as philosophical a Jackie got, it was enough for me. I really had just wanted to come here as a kind of early retirement. I decided to just keep that in mind and try not to let all the unexpected shit get me down. I really had other things to think about anyway. I had two women who wanted me to stir them up a baby and another that was making the same kind of noises. Jackie had three with the same thoughts. It seemed like a better idea to me all the time. I wouldn't mind having a few rug rats crawlin around. It might be fun.

We just watched the work for a couple of hours. Like kids at a building site. They sure didn't waste any time. They had the machine assembled and it's starting hole dug and were tunneling within three hours of arrival. The hangar was already taking shape and the holes for the new tanks were well on their way. Three trucks loaded with portable lighting units pulled up about then.

"Looks like they plan to work night and day Jackie."

"You probably would too for a three million dollar bonus. If you weren't already rich." He laughed.

A helicopter came over about then and set down near the house. It was a pretty small one. Then we spotted a couple more coming toward the airstrip.

"Shit Jackie I forgot I had a flying lesson coming. I'd better head up to the house. I'll bet that's the teacher up there with that small one." I said.

"Probably is, I'll go with you and rustle your nag for you. That way you can just climb in and get started. Watchin all these guys work is making me tired anyway."

We rode up to the one that had landed near the house. The pilot was out of it and watching us approach. When we got to her I dismounted and handed Jackie a lead rope so he could take my horse to unsaddle it and put it away.

"Are you Bill?" The big tittied blonde asked me.

I was betting she was one of Grimes full time hands. She was pretty, she was blonde, blue eyed, and she had big titties. They were jiggling like she wasn't wearing a bra also. She was thinner than Gloria but she wasn't skinny. She was about five foot six and probably weighed around one fifteen. She was wearing some type of flight suit coverall but it really fit her. I could tell she had a nice ass and a small waist. I was getting a little lust in my heart already.

"Guilty as charged Mam." I admitted.

"I'm Helen. Mr. Grimes ask me to come out and get you started whirlybirdin." She grinned and offered her hand for me to shake.

I took and gave it a short shake. Her grip was firm but not an overt challenge. Her hand was warm but her palm wasn't sweaty.

"Do we just hop in and start?" I asked.

"Why don't you let me show you some things about it first and then we'll fly a little?" She asked.

"That sounds like a plan to me. I don't know hardly anything about these things except to sit still and buckle up when I ride in one." I told her.

She laughed a little at that and then started the tour. She told me what everything was and what it did. She explained that this was a gasoline-powered model and that it was mostly for training. She said the other two had turbine engines and that they used jet fuel. She explained that I would start on this one and that after I got the hang of it we would move to the small one of the others and then to the larger one later on. She finished her little talk and then we got in, buckled up and away we went.

We flew for about an hour and she had me try it a little. We needed fuel by then and she set it down by the barn where our fuel trailers were. Grimes had already sent someone out to install another hose on the gas pump. It was long enough to reach the helicopter and she fueled it up and explained the process. It was about like fueling a car. I ask if it used plain gasoline like a car. She told me this model used the premium unleaded just like high-powered cars.

After we fueled we went back up. I finally got comfortable flying while we were moving. She said hovering would come later and that it was more complicated. We called it a day about an hour before sunset and we landed close to the house.