Chapter 8: A Miracle of Science or Nature?

"Dad?" Alice asked the next morning, knocking on the door of the trailer before entering, adjusting her gloves as she did.

"Yeah, I'm still awake. Each time I start to slip off, Mattie grips my hand, waking me again."

"It's a good sign she's lasted so long. I mean, towards the end everyone else died before two full days, and in her case she's fighting not only one disease but several, that's pretty positive," Alice said, as if trying to convince herself as well as her father.

"I'd like to think so, and I keep encouraging her, but I'm afraid to get my hopes up," David admitted. "Don't forget how long we suffered, and she's at risk the entire time."

"Well, come on inside. We've got breakfast ready and everyone wants to talk."

"Yeah, I can imagine. Honestly, I was ready for an emotional ordeal here, but Mattie's lasted a lot longer than I'd thought, and while I'm pleased, it's leaving me exhausted."

"Well go get something to eat. I've already grabbed something so I'll be good for a while. Take your time, grab some sleep and then you can relieve me when you wake up."

"I'm not so sure I'll be able to sleep," he admitted, giving Mattie's hand one last squeeze before abandoning his spot beside her to Alice, moving to the sink to scrub up. If he and Alice were now carriers, rather than merely immune, they'd have to be much more aware of how they conducted themselves, especially with so many people around them again. He glanced at his clothing, considering what it had been exposed to.

"I brought a spare change of clothing, it's there on the counter," Alice informed him, guessing exactly what he was worried about. "And don't worry about stripping down, I've seen it all so I won't be shocked," she said, even though she didn't turn around. David quickly changed and headed in, not even taking notice of their collected plants and animals.

Entering the house, everyone quickly moved aside to make room for him, making David wonder what motivated such behavior; a sense of respect or fear of exposure?

"How's the girl?" Monique asked, sounding concerned.

"Not well. Mattie's been suffering for a long time. It's hard to imagine just how painful this is if you haven't experienced it, and when you compound it several times by adding the number of plagues, it's very hard to conceive of. But she's still around, so we're hoping for the best, but she could realistically go at any moment."

"It's got to be difficult watching that," she observed, looking at David with a newfound respect. "I've sat with many a sick child before, and it's always agonizing watching them suffer, especially if there's nothing you can do for them."

"Well, when you add in the fact that I'm the reason she's suffering, it makes it harder. Plus, having gone through it myself, I realize that she's aware of what's going on. That's why I'm there for her so much. And it's not like there's nothing we can do. We can't give her anything to ease the pain, since we don't know what will help and what will hurt, but I'm there for her, and I know she realizes that."

"Well, our thoughts are with you both," Monique added as Betty brought him some breakfast. "Despite treating so many people with the Great Death at the hospital, we never spent as much time with a single patient as you are."

"Again, it's because I've been through it, and I realize just how aware they are and how much they suffer. Now, tell me about yourselves. How are all of you? Where the heck did you all sleep last night?"

"Alice said she wanted to disinfect the other bedrooms again before anyone used them, so we camped out in the living room," Melissa replied.

"You slept on the floor? Couldn't we find you anyplace better to sleep?" David asked, sounding outraged he'd slipped up so badly in welcoming his guests.

"Actually, Alice finished off the one bedroom and that's where Monique and I slept," Debbie answered. "The others said they've been sleeping out on the open ground for the last couple of weeks, so it wasn't a big deal to them."

"You'd better believe it, a nice stable place with running water and electricity certainly beats staying up all night guarding against marauders or risking infection," Greg answered.

"Speaking of infection, are you all—" David tried to ask.

"Hey, you taught us how to take care of ourselves," Greg argued. "Everyone else was busy hiding away, but since we know how to protect ourselves we're not as concerned about it. Besides, Tom says that he doesn't think you're actually that contagious. He says both he and Mattie were here without getting infected even though you all shared the same space, used the same utensils and handled the same stuff. He thinks you have a severely weakened case of it, and that as long as we keep a little distance we should be fine."

"So you don't think it's transmitted through the air?" David asked Tom, who perked up when someone asked him about his research.

"No, I don't, at least not in your case. I think it's primarily spread via direct contact, and especially via liquid transference. When passed through the air, I suspect it is transferred via moisture rather than in the air itself. However, in your case that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I'm not sure if your cases have mutated, or whether they're in retreat after being attacked by your immune systems, but it doesn't seem to be as aggressive."

"Try telling that to Mattie," David groused.

"Yeah, I'm not saying the risks aren't still tremendous, just that the transmission seems to have been contained," Tom elaborated.

"So what's in the cards for each of you? What do you have planned?"

"We came here looking for you," Melissa explained, "so you tell us. What do you need us to do?"

"Well, I think the first thing is to find yourselves your own living space. Staying here is still taking an unnecessary risk, and I'm sure you'd be more comfortable on your own."

"Don't count on it," Betty answered. "Although we depended on each other while traveling, we also kept our distance to prevent any potential troubles. Whenever Greg would get in the mood he'd walk off into the woods, so we're not ready to set up house anytime soon. And we're rather partial to the services that you have here."

"Actually, I don't know if Alice mentioned it, but I think I generate enough electricity to run power to the other houses farther out on the road. I don't have the traditional domestic turbine, instead I got one of the industrial ones they use on wind farms. I actually got paid by the electric company more often then they'd ever charge me, and they'd only charge me very small amounts."

"She mentioned that. She also said that you'd already cleaned the houses out," Melissa said.

"Yeah, we did, though I'll have to see what it'll take to run the electric lines. When I built the place, I buried the electric cables under the road when it was first laid, so it was protected from the storm. I never really looked at the lines out on the street, but I don't recall seeing any broken poles or downed lines, so I don't think it'll take much to set it up again. We only need to cut the houses from the rest of the power grid."

"Actually, I may be able to help with that," Greg volunteered. "I'm certainly no electrician, but I'm used to dealing with electricity, so I might be able to help out."

"What is it you did?" David asked him.

"I worked for Comcast, the cable company, as an installer and repair guy. As such I worked with a lot of electrical systems. Never on the high powered lines, but I've got a good basic understanding of what's involved. But that's not all. I was considering your radio broadcasts. You already have a good transmission, but I think we can easily boost it. Radio stations were always limited as to the amount of power they could apply to their transmissions because it would bleed over to the other stations, especially at night when the signals transfer farther. But those restrictions don't apply in your case, and there aren't any regulators to complain about it anyway."

"Hey, that sounds great. I believe we already get pretty good range because we're high up, and the ground drops down away from us giving us a clear area to broadcast. The mountains behind us block the signal from reaching very far to the west, but we've got a good reach to the east. As far as I know, there isn't anyone else offering advice like we are, so if we can help more people it could potentially help a lot of people."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Greg replied with a smile.

"You know, the other thing to consider is farming," David offered. "Are any of you into farming?"

"Here, or somewhere else?" Betty asked skeptically.

"No, I'm thinking of a local farm near here. You'd grow your own food, you'd be independent even though we'd support you, and best of all you'd be able to trade for anything else you might need with any other survivors in the area."

"Yeah, but you've been warning that crop production might be limited by heavy snowfalls this year and reduced sunlight beyond that," Melissa observed. "It seems to me it's risky, plus we'd be isolated and without electricity, and farming is a lonely occupation even in the best of times. Now that there isn't anyone else nearby, it would be tremendously hard."

"Well, think about it at least. We've been trying to save all the seed we can find as well as any surviving animals. So far we've got a fair number of chickens and sheep, though everything thing else seems fairly iffy."

"What about weaving?" Melissa asked. "I don't really know much about it, but that's what our ancestors did. After all, I'm part Irish," she added, flashing her big grin.

"If you could do that it would be great, but I'd wait on it. We'll only need to worry about it when it's time to shear the sheep, and then only if we have enough to do anything with. With the few we have, I suspect it'll be a while before you can actually produce much, plus we already have plenty of clothing. I think that's a lower priority item to keep in reserve for later when things get worse. Likewise, pottery and glassblowing will eventually become important, but right now there's nothing we'd need, so if we get snowed in over the winter they'd be good things to study up on."

"You certainly have your hands in a lot of pies," Monique observed with an odd look to her eyes. "You seem to know something about a whole variety of topics."

"Well, we need to do everything that's always been done for us, so we'll need to start taking on more tasks than we ever had to before," David explained, getting impatient since he interpreted her look to mean she thought he was just showing off.

"So what do you need us to do right away?" Betty asked, looking like she was ready to start work immediately.

"Let's get the nearby houses fixed up first, but after that, as much as I hate to suggest it, I think cleanup is the most pressing thing. Each of the houses around here likely has one or more dead bodies in them. For a while people were dumping their bodies out on the street, but that only works if there are still people capable of doing it. If we can't get the dead bodies out, pretty soon the houses won't be worth a damn. Actually, with as many empty houses as we have now, most will simply rot away, but we should prioritize them and try to clean out as many as we can.

"Start with the downtown region. Get the shops and nearby houses cleaned up. That way anyone passing will notice it's a functioning community, and if anyone wants to move in they can. Hopefully that will draw more people to us. What's more, we're worried about the surviving animal population. I'm guessing a lot of people left animals behind, and if they haven't already died, they're probably getting quite hungry by now."

"Yeah, that'll take a while to work through. Plus I'm guessing you want to do the nearby communities as well?" Melissa guessed.

"Yeah, we've been trying to do it wherever we go," David explained. "I'm sure you noticed how clean the downtown and the street leading to us is of dead animals. We've been picking up some each day. We figure it'll alert anyone passing by that there's a healthy community living here."

"Are you sure that's such a good thing to advertise?" Greg asked, sounding skeptical.

"Right now, we've got to try to pull people together. We had a lot of trouble with people behaving like animals before the big die off, but I'm betting that people are too shell shocked by death to want to spread more of it right now. That said, I want each of you armed and getting target practice. We've got plenty of firearms, both pistols, rifles and automatics, plus a little body armor and supplies. Alice has already been in several gunfights, so she can get you started. So far no one has tried to attack us, although we have been shot at several times, but I had the impression those were only to keep us at a distance. But it won't hurt you to be prepared."

"Aye-aye, sir. Sounds like a plan," Betty responded, saluting sharply, even if a bit improperly.

"When you're checking the houses, also check for anything of value," David added, trying to avoid looking at Monique, since he didn't think she'd be interested and he didn't want to deal with her disapproval at the moment. "Stored food would be good, any equipment we don't have, or anything we could potentially trade at some point."

"Yeah, yeah, we get the idea," Greg replied. "Don't keep selling when we've already bought into the plan."

"OK, that should keep the three of you busy, what about the rest of you? Tom, I'm assuming you're going to focus on research. What about you, Monique and Debbie?"

"Well, as you know, I was all for taking off," Monique replied, speaking for the two of them. "But once we left, we realized we didn't have anywhere else to go. Then Debbie started in. Seems she likes it here, and she likes the idea of there being another girl her age here as well."

"Yeah, I'll do whatever I need to say here," Debbie assured him.

"You just focus on getting healthy for now. When you're ready, there should be plenty for you to do," David replied. "What about you Monique? You don't sound convinced yet."

"No, I'm pretty sold. You've got a very nice set up here. It's got all the modern conveniences; it's protected from the coming cold and also from any attacks. What I don't like is everyone taking the risk of infection so lightly. But everyone seems to know the risk, and they're willing to accept it, so who am I to argue with them?"

"So does that mean you want to stay, or merely settle nearby?" David asked, trying to figure out how she was thinking.

"I'm a nurse. It makes sense for me to be where the people are. And if anyone is going to get sick, it's going to be you people. While David and Alice are probably better at doctoring plague victims, I'm here for everything else. I'm willing to stay here, but I'll keep my distance if it's all the same to you."

"Hey, it's no skin off my back," David assured her. "If you're willing to help out and offer your expertise, I'm glad to have you; however you want to play it."

"So what about you? What are your plans?" Debbie asked, sounding concerned for him.

"Yeah, the last thing we need is for you to be making yourself sick," Melissa reminded him.