Chapter 3

I was about to head out just after five PM when Jayce and Carolyn came out of the house with a couple of boxes of things to eat.

"You might know he was going to leave without food and it looked almost like he was going to leave without us cooks," Jaycee said.

"Wow, are you two going too?" I asked.

"Of course we are, just as soon as we're invited," Carolyn said.

"Ok, Ok, you're officially invited right now, expecially since you brought food," I said.

"That doesn't even mention we have driver's licenses," Jacy said.

"Besides, we've got to get the first aid kit your Daddy packed up for us. He even took the time to show us how to stitch up a cut if it isn't too deep," Carolyn said.

"That's great. I just hope we don't need to," I said.

"We all hope we don't need to, but wishin and hopin is only good in songs. You didn't know he'd been giving us lessons on camping out did you?" Carolyn asked.

"No, I didn't, but I'm glad he has."

"You'll be even gladder in the morhing since he showed us how to make pancakes over an open fire," Jacky said, and then they both laughed at me.

I didn't give a shit how much they laughed if they could really make pancakes over a campfire.

We're not quite ready to go yet and we have a present for you from your Mom. It's your birthday present and you really should come into the house and open it in front of them. They bought it for you after all," Carolyn said.

I headed back into the house and some spurcing up had been done to the living room while I was outside. Mom and Dad and Kimberly were all waiting inside and they started singing Happy Birthday as soon as I walked in. They even had a big cake and of course I had to blow out the candles.

When I started opening the presents I could tell they had been doing some research. Dad bought me two Ruger SuperBlackhawks in forty-four magnum, and Kimberly had bought me a reloading press, with dies, powder, primers, and bulles. Mom had somehow found out I wanted the Barrett from Bogie's and it was wrapped up along with a set of dies for reloading it along with bullets, powder, and primers for it also. Not to mention two thousand rounds ready to go. As a bonus they also had eight Glocck 21s, two each for Jacky, Carolyn, and Kimberly and me along with dual holsters for them on web belts and two thousand rounds for each pistol. Hell, he even had dies, bullets, and powder for reloading them too.

Dad had something a little more serious for us though. He opened up his "Doctor" bag and gave us all an injection.

"This is the latest things we've come up with and I'm giving it to all of you since the word is the latest bug from Asia has slipped into the United States. I might be jumping the gun but the vaccine is safe and we haven't been able to come up with anything yet to help get over it once it had been caught. You'll all be safe from it just like your mothr and I will be, but if it has made it to the US there will be millions of cases since it hasn't finished the double blind approval yet. We begged to release it ahead of time but the government didn't see the need. Millions of people will die because of their mistake but I couldn't take the chance on my own family and such close friends."

"I'm not trying to spoil your camping trip, but I do want you to listen to the radio while you're camping. There's a good chance things will go to shit while you're away and you'll want to know what you're coming home to. It's one of the reasons I bought you the Glocks and I want you to all learn to shoot them while you're camping. There is a good chance law and order could break down in the whole country if this virus takes off. I'm not trying to scare you, but I want you to be forewarned," he told us.

It was a little bit sobering, especially coming from Dad since he was so level headed. Even more sobering was the giant medical kit he had for us. It came complete with a brand new laptop and instructions in his words for how to use everything in it.

We all tried to get back into the celebration mood afterwards but it didn't really catch on. We went to bed about ten and got up early the next morning and began packing our stuff. I was surprised when Kimberly started packing her things too, but I was more then happy for her to go. We headed out about ten AM and made our way toward a deer lease Dad had paid for in West Texas. We kept the radio playing all the way and we didn't hear a word about any virus until late in the afternoon. When we did hear the announcement it was a shock.

Apparently the ones spreading it had made their way onto a flight to Chicago and it had spread like wildfire from the airport there. It spread mostly from the big hospitals where the people off the flight had been taken. Apparently someone could be a carrier for about two days before they showed much in the way of symptoms. It started out like a case of the common cold with sniffles and sneezing and it was already infectious by that time. We weren't worried for ourselves since we'd had the shots already and besides, we were out in the sticks big time in West Texas.

When we made it to the deer lease we set up camp, cooked a nice supper, and then went to bed. We didn't bother with a tent or sleeping bags we just crawled into the camper shell and settled in for the night. Of course I was in high cotton sleeping with three beautiful girls, especially since they only wore T-shirts and panties to sleep in. Of course I only was wearing boxers and it let me slip off into dreamland with some wonderful thoughts.

We had a little propane heater for the back but it was plenty warn enough when we went to bed. A little cold snap came in during the night though and by the time the sun roused us we were all crowded up together. I didn't mind it a bit what with Jacy on one side of me and Carolyn on the other. Kimberly hqd even crawled over on top of me and I didn't feel one bit ashamed of my boner poking her in the belly when I woke up. She must not have minded it at all either since she was squirming all over it and the thing that woke me was her kissing me soundly. I kept it up since she kissed so nicely.

"Oh, I didn't realize I was kissing you Jake. I was dreaming about Billy Johnson," Kimber;y said.

"You know I'm a lot better looking than Billy Johnson," I said.

"Yeh, but with you it would be incest," she said.

"Not until it gets farther than kissing," Carolyn said.

"And beisdes, you know what they say. Vice is nice but incest is best," Jacy said, and then we all laughed.

"Hey, what's that poking me in the belly," Kimberly asked.

"Now you're getting into the incest area," Carolyn said, and got more laughs.

"Well, before we get our first orgy started we'd better listen to the radio this morning," Jacy said, and reached to the front seat to turn it on.

Wow, things had really taken a turn for the worst. The virus had spread from the Chicago area to almost every place there was a big airport. Dallas/Ft Worth had it raging by now and they even mentioned Shreveport Louisiana which had an airport but a pretty small one. We decided to keep the radio on and listen for any signs of Civil trouble. Meanwhile we all snuggled up closer together to wait for the heater I'd just turned on to warm up the camper shell.