Chapter 15: As If Life Wasn't Depressing Enough

"So, as I was saying, this guy was out hunting, when he discovered the deer he shot, out of season, appeared to have the same symptoms that the hospitals are reported that people are dying from. As a result, they're anxious to get some tissue samples from a 'reliable source' so they can determine whether it's the same pathogen, how it crossed species, and whether it mutated when it crossed the species barrier."

Sheriff Adams just looked at David for several moments before responding, hardly blinking.

"So this random poacher just happened to reveal this to a complete stranger over a drink or something?"

"Actually, I heard it from someone second hand, but they didn't recognize the guy as a local, and hadn't seen him before or since."

"And yet, you got enough of a description to draw me an accurate map of where to find the body?"

"Hey, what can I say," David replied with the beginnings of a smile, "I've just got a wonderful mind."

"Yeah, I bet you do. Well, as you might have guessed, the Forestry Service and Game Wardens have been affected the same as every other organization has, with many of their employees abandoning their jobs either over lack of pay or to be with their families, so they're unlikely to be of any help."

"That's why the hospital suggested you might be a good candidate to collect the samples. After all, you're used to collecting biological samples, and you have the equipment to do it without exposing yourself to the disease it was supposedly suffering from."

"And why didn't they think you wouldn't be a... , never mind, I can guess the answer to that question," Ben said, shaking his head. "They need a reliable impartial source, one who won't be implicated by reporting the incident."

"Exactly. Besides, you know me, I'm a city boy, and wouldn't be any good in the woods at all," David replied with a knowing smile.

"I'm sure. You do know that I'd never have given Officer Riggins authorization to give you that gun if I thought you were as green as you're maintaining."

"What can I say, I'm good at faking it." At this the two girls, Alice and Amy, lost it and broke out in giggles. David stared at them, letting them know they weren't helping, but the effect was lost as he had a hard time resisting laughing himself.

"And just how dangerous is this disease supposed to be?" Benjamin asked.

"No one really knows. There have been a lot of deaths from it, but they don't know how many people have been exposed, so they have no statistics for what the survival rate is. But you shouldn't have to worry, the current thinking is that it's an airborne toxin, and that since the animal is dead, it shouldn't be a threat to you as long as you use gloves and watch what you touch. But just between us, I'd use that face mask of yours the whole time you're in the woods, because if one animal has it, there's no telling how widespread it is."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," the Sheriff answered, grimacing slightly. "Oh, by the way, some kids at the college want to talk to you. It's a bit of a drive, but they've heard that you still have power and that you have access to a high elevation structure. The school has a radio tower and some broadcasting equipment that they can't use any more. They're offering it to you, since you're the only one who's able to use it. They think it would be the best way of getting information out, since even those without access to electricity or gasoline have radios and some spare batteries lying around. It would be a real service to the community if you could arrange it."

"Gee, I don't know. I'd have a hard time mounting a radio tower to the top of my mountain," David answered, looking skeptically at the girls. "After all, about all I have are a bunch of girls to help me mount it."

"I've already talked to them about it. They've probably already dismantled it and gotten it ready. They've also offered to drive it over and help you install it if you can find them enough diesel to drive a semi there and back. Not many people had the foresight to invest in battery powered fuel pumps."

"That might just be doable," David considered, rubbing his jaw in thought. "I've got facilities in place to anchor and lift a heavy load from when we mounted the wind turbine. It would be relatively easy to set the equipment up again. With a couple of strong hands we could probably manage it."

"And with someone as talkative as your daughter, I'm sure you'd have no problem broadcasting, either," Ben answered with a smile.

"Hey, I resemble that remark!" Alice complained, smiling as she said it, already imagining what it would be like being the only radio personality in the region. The other girls would be so jealous.

"I'll tell you what," Ben continued, "I'll claim your deer for you in exchange for your taking on the radio broadcasts. That's going to be the only way to inform people about what's happening. Right now, we can only tell a few select individuals and a few shop owners, so it's hard to get the word out about anything, like avoiding exposure to other sick individuals."

"That's fair. I realize I'm imposing on your good will with this, but I'm not sure the hospital would accept my word for the handling of the samples," Dave said.

The two men said their goodbyes, with Ben wishing David's women good luck, and they went their separate ways.

"What was that about?" Ellen asked when he got back to the truck.

"Seems we have a new task to accomplish today. I hope you brought your gloves, as it looks like we're going to have our hands full."

"Whew, that was one hell of a lot of work," the young man said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Well, thanks for the effort. I really appreciate it," David replied, offering the men his hand in thanks. "And what's more, both the girls and I appreciate that extra little gift of yours," he added with a wink.

"You'd better believe it," a couple of the girls agreed at the same time. "That's going to save our asses, and we mean that literally."

"It's no problem. We've been stuck in the empty remains of the college because we have nowhere else to go, and it's pretty boring with no one there. Besides, the gasoline you connected us with will help us out a lot. We'd managed to exhaust what little we had. We mistakenly used most of it without taking into account how important it would be generate electricity."

"Yeah, it was really helpful having you guys here," Caitlyn told them, "while we're all glad to help, it took some real muscle to maneuver those things around." The young men seemed to have appreciated the girls' help, even though they seemed to be distracted most of the time they were around. Alice and Amy, who'd worked just as hard, didn't bother to say anything, still feeling like the guys had come in and usurped their positions as David's helpers.

"Do you guys want anything before you leave?" Ellen asked. "Some more food, something to drink on the way back?"

"Already taken care of," Linda told her. "I put a little to-go container in their truck. They should be set for the evening."

"Yeah, we'd best be getting back. Although we've got lights, with so many people without power there's no telling what we're likely to encounter once the sun sets."

"Again, thanks for all the help and for offering the equipment in the first place," David said, thanking them again. However the girls went even farther in their thanks. While they were too fearful of the risk of disease to kiss them, they did give them quite a few heartfelt hugs.

"Hey, if anyone can help out the people around here, it'd be you. We don't have the facilities or the people anymore. Now just remember, it's best to establish some definite broadcast times so the people without power only have to turn on their radios for certain select periods. Noon, six and ten are probably the best times, as they correlate to the traditional times for news broadcasts. There's no sense waiting until eleven, since most people without electricity will sleep as soon as the sun sets anyway. Ten o'clock should be fine to catch both them and anyone with power both."

"Thanks for the advice, and if I can help you out in any way in the future, let me know," David reiterated.

"Hey, we think you've paid us in full already. You've taken over the job we couldn't do, you've given us a day's entertainment and socializing, you fed us, and you gave us the means to do something ourselves for the next week or so."

"That may be, but you've given me a whole house full of thankful women," David added as they headed off."

"It's hard to believe we got that thing all the way up there," Sara commented.

"Believe it, honey," Maggie replied. "I've got the blisters to prove it. Though, if you still have doubts, I can lend you a few of mine just so you'll be more convinced."

"No, thanks, I've got enough of my own."

"Hey, anyone want to test out the equipment?" Erica excitedly asked.

"I think we can wait, right now we have plenty inside the house," Alice answered teasingly.

"I meant the radio equipment," Erica insisted.

"We'll have to check with Bobby," David reminded them. "He's handling the equipment setup inside. He's converted my office he's been using for his radio into a broadcast booth. But I'm pretty sure he'll have it set up for us to test tonight at ten."

The girls' enthusiasm was understandable, both about the radio and the other delivery. It seems the guys had found an abandoned truck full of paper products, which mostly consisted of toilet paper, paper towels and feminine hygiene products, which was one of the few things that David had never stopped to consider stocking up on after the emergency had struck. Thus the girls were greatly relieved about the future.

"So who's going to be the first DJ?" Erica asked, walking backwards to converse with everyone heading to the house, now that the young men from the college were driving away. David took the opportunity to wipe his hands with some sanitizer. Both Ellen and Maggie, seeing that, asked for some as well. There was no point taking any chances.

"There's no DJ, we're broadcasting news, not playing records," Alice explained. "I was thinking I might be the best choice, since I know the region around here and my diction is so good."

"Hey, I speak pretty well, too," Caitlyn argued.

"I think the difference between 'diction' and 'speak pretty well' proves my point," Alice pointed out with a grin.

"OK, but how about we alternate, or work out some way we can all take part," Caitlyn suggested.

"Actually, I've been helping Bob with his radio transmissions, so I'll focus on that," Amy said. "It's probably better if each of us specialize on something different, with at least one backup, rather than each of us trying everything."

"David and Bobby have been helping train me on how to keep the cars in good repair," Julie offered.

"Yeah, and Amy and I have experience with the wind generator," Alice said.

"I'm sure there are plenty of things for each of you to do, but how about some of you help me get dinner on the table," Linda suggested to groans from each of the girls. David just rubbed his back, trying to ease the sore muscles he'd managed to gain from all the work wrestling the radio antenna up the side of the mountain and securing it in place. He'd be ready for sleep long before they finished with that night's broadcast, assuming there weren't any unexpected problems with it.

"Why are you so down, Bob?" Ellen asked over the dinner table, after she noticed he was barely responding to the dinner conversation.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize I was spacing out. I'm a little distracted, I guess," he replied. "I haven't heard from Ma all day."

"How often do you normally speak?" Linda asked, trying to gage how upset he was.

"I usually talk to her in the morning, we'll have a quick update at noon, and again before dinner. But so far I haven't heard anything at all today. In fact the hospital hasn't responded either."

"That's unusual, but I wouldn't worry about it too much," David said, hoping to assuage his worries. "Chances are their generator seized up from overuse. It'll probably take them a while to get it either repaired or replaced."

"Yeah, that's probably what happened. I hadn't even considered that possibility," Bob replied.

No one else said anything, afraid of making a bad situation worse, but they each continued to imagine any number of less reassuring possibilities.

"So, any other news?" Caitlyn asked, hoping to distract him.

"Oh, there are a couple of things, but I wasn't really concentrating on it. There are more reports of increasing sickness, whole apartment complexes being closed off in several cities, and the hospital Emergency Rooms being overwhelmed. But there's still a lot of debate about what's causing the sicknesses, as the symptoms seem to vary widely. Some people have one set of symptoms, others have a completely different set, and others have various combinations. So no one is sure whether it's one illness with various symptoms, or whether there is actually more than one disease at play."

"Any word on what happened to the sample I had the Sheriff collect?" David asked.

"Someone from his office contacted me and said one of the officers drove it to the hospital. Since the hospital hasn't responded, I didn't hear anything other than that, and I probably won't hear anything about the officer who drove it there until tomorrow, since it's likely it took him all day to drive down and back. The roads are still pretty poor. Apparently other communities didn't do quite the job all of you did. The person I talked to told me to thank you for the excellent job you guys did on the local roads."

The girls thanked him for the compliment, although they didn't want to play it up and take away from what he was telling them, though they all sat up a little straighter, feeling pride in what they'd been able to accomplish.

"What about reports of the government?"

"That's fairly interesting as well," Bob responded. "People have been fleeing the Washington area due to the heavy handed nature of the government, so they've belatedly closed the roads leading in and out. Not only that, but they've started ordering the military to stop anyone traveling between cities, although that order has been largely ignored, mostly because the ranks of the military have been decimated by people going AWOL to return home. On the other hand, several cities surrounding Washington have been organizing their own militias to defend themselves from an anticipated attack from the army units garrisoned around Washington. The Pentagon seems to be the ones orchestrating most of these actions."

"How could things spin out of control so quickly?" David asked, not really expecting him to have a ready answer.

"Well, it seems President Daniels has appointed a minor General that no one has heard of before to the position of Secretary of Defense, putting him in charge of military affairs for the entire country. It's largely seen as a repayment for his support in propping up the fledgling government, but many people suspect it's more than that. Daniels seems to be terrified, and this General Pendril keeps saying the right things, both encouraging and terrifying him about imagined revolts.

"General Clarence Pendril is only a one-star General stationed at the Pentagon. He apparently has never had any combat experience, and there's virtually no public history on him, as it appears he's from one of these secret agencies in the Pentagon. Thus he's pretty paranoid himself and is distrustful of the public, of Congress, and of any oversight committees like the GSA, and feels he should have freer access for the military to act however he thinks they should."

"Sounds like civil war isn't far off," Maggie suggested.

"That's how it looks, although it's limited to the Pentagon in DC. Everyone else is still trying to respond to what's happened to them. Needless to say, Baltimore and Richmond have been so busy building tank barricades they haven't been able to respond to cleaning up their cities for the past couple of days. Reports from Norfolk are that the Navy there has declared itself independent from the military command in DC, claiming the government's actions are evidence it is no longer in control and no longer speaks for the country."

"It sounds like that would be the first place the Pentagon will try to strike against, in order to keep that mindset from spreading," David suggested.

"Yeah, unfortunately they'll have to barrel through Richmond in order to do that. And if they expect to take Norfolk, they'll have to do so with a large number of tanks and heavy equipment, which is likely to destroy what's left of the roads in that region. But what complicates things is if the other cities think the Pentagon is taking this action against Richmond and Norfolk, they'll likely make a preemptive strike while they're distracted, so the Pentagon will probably be afraid to commit too many troops and leave the city exposed."

"Shit, it sounds like a mess. They should be trying to reestablish the country, helping people survive long enough to recover. This is going to leave everyone exposed to a whole host of troubles."

"Hey, I doubt the military cares. As far as they're concerned, they can live for months off of stored MREs. I suspect they're more concerned with establishing their position and keeping the armies stationed across the country in line."

"If they did attack Norfolk, the Navy could just put out to sea. I know most of the Air Force is probably grounded, but how's the Navy holding up?"

"I've got no idea, and I'm sure they're not going to broadcast that information for the Pentagon to overhear. Chances are, with the size of the ships in the Norfolk harbor, they're likely to have suffered a lot of damage. Damage that would take a lot of time and energy to repair."

"Yeah, but chances are they've got enough firepower to pound any military force heading towards them, firepower that doesn't rely on an existing electric grid to keep them functional. Shit, this sounds like a real mess."

"Not only that, the Navy has nuclear powered submarines, so they'd have plenty of power to both sail and fire on DC, so there's no telling how this may turn out."

There wasn't much else to say after that, so the girls started discussing what was involved with broadcasting that evening. They got Bob to describe everything he'd been doing to get them online, and after dinner was over they walked him back to their new studio to go over how everything was set up. With them gone, the other adults took it easy and just relaxed.

"So, any plans for the evening?" Maggie asked.

"I'm just planning on sleeping. I'm exhausted. It's not easy hauling that equipment around, and while those young men were down on the ground hauling the levers, I was up on top of the cliff manhandling everything into position. I'm not likely to last very long. I just hope the girls can get this radio broadcast set up without needing my help."